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Save Search History

A search history is a search query or multiple search queries that you save to our server or to the hard drive of your computer. There is no limit to the number of search histories you can save. To save a search history to our server, you must be a registered user and you must sign in.

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Save on Our Server

1. From the Search History page, click the Save History / Create Alert button that displays in the Search History table to go to the Save Search History overlay dialog.

2. Enter a name (without a file extension) in the Search History Name field. The name can be a single word or a phrase.

3. Enter a description in the Description field. This step is optional.

4. Check the Email Alerts checkbox to optionally save your search history as an alert. Your institution must have a subscription to alerting to select this feature.

   See also Save a Search History as an Alert

5. Click the Save button.

6. Click the Close button when you receive a message that your history / alert has been saved.

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Save on Your Workstation

1. Click the Save button under the Save to a Local Drive label to open a dialog box.

2. Click the Save button on the dialog box. Note that some browsers may have a Save File button.

3. In the next dialog box, navigate to the folder where you want to store the search history file.

4. You will see the default file name (for example, history.wos) in the File Name field. You can rename the file, but do not change the extension (for example, you can rename the file to my_search_history.wos).

5. Click the Save button.

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Save a Search History as an Alert

If your organization subscribes to the alerting service, you can save a search history as an alert. You must have a subscription to Web of Science Core Collection to save a search history as an alert

The alert automatically searches the last update to the database, and then sends all relevant results to you by e-mail. For example, if your search history is on Nanotechnology, the system will send you all new works on this topic.

Note: Alerting is not available for searches that you created from an All Databases. When you go to the Search History page after performing an All Databases search, the button is simply called Save History".

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Creating a Search History Alert

You must create an alert when you save your search history. The product does not automatically save the search history as an alert.

1. From the Search History page, click the Save History / Create Alert button to go to the Save Search History page. Note that you must sign in to reach this page.

2. Select the E-mail Alerts check box.

3. Enter an e-mail address in the Email Address field. Use a semicolon (;) and a space to separate multiple addresses. The default value for this field is your registration / sign-in e-mail address. You can enter up to 255 characters in this field.

4. Select an Alert type (some alert types may not be available for certain products). The default value is generally Author, Title, Source.

5. Select an E-mail format (some formats may not be available for certain products).

6. Select an E-mail Frequency option.

7. Click the Save button to save the alert to our server and to go to the Save Search History dialog. Do not save the history file to your workstation because you will not receive e-mail alerts when new records are added to the product database.

8. Click the Close button when you are done.

Note: If you see an error message that says "The limit for the number of alerts has been reached," then your institution has either not purchased the Alerts feature or you have reached the maximum number of alerts purchased. Contact your System Administrator about your interest in creating alerts.

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Update a Search History Alert

You can change alert settings at any time. That is, you can turn alerting on or off at anytime.

1. Click the Saved Searches and Alerts link that appears on the menu bar at the top of any Web of Science page.

2. Select the Citation Alerts tab.

3. From the Saved Searches and Alerts page, find the alert that you want to update, and then click the Edit link.

4. Select or clear the On check box. Selecting the check box tells the product to turn alerting on. Clearing the check box tells the product to turn alerting off.

5. Click the Renew button to save your changes to our server.

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Alerts and Combine Sets

Only the results of the last search statement in a combination search strategy are included in an e-mail alert. For example, for the alert below, the results of set 3 would be e-mailed to you but the results of sets 1 and 2 would not be included in the alert.

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Alert Types

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E-mail Formats

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E-mail Frequency Options

The Frequency options that you see on the Save Search History page will depend on which product database you have searched. For example, if you are saving a search history from Web of Science Core Collection, you see Daily, Weekly and Monthly options. However, if you are saving a search history from Derwent Innovations Index, you see Each Update and Every 4 Updates options.

Important Notes

Be aware that if you change the Frequency option after the alert has been activated:

• You may receive duplicate alerts if you elect to receive alerts less frequently (for example, change from Weekly to Monthly).

• You may miss alerts if you elect to receive alerts more frequently. For example, if you change from Monthly to Weekly, the first weekly alert you receive may not contain all relevant records since the last monthly alert was sent to you. This gap only occurs once. After you start receiving weekly alerts, you will not miss any relevant records.

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Search History File Extensions

Remember, the default file name is always history (for example, history.wos). You can rename the file, but do not change the extension.

Product and File Extension

• All Databases (.ua)
• Biological Abstracts (.bioabs)
• BIOSIS Citation Index (.bci)
• BIOSIS Previews (.biosis)
• CABI  (.cabi)
• Chinese Science Citatin Index (.cscd)
• Current Contents Connect (.ccc)
• Data Citation Index (.drci)
• Derwent Innovations Index (.diisw)
• Food and Science Technology Abstracts (.fsta)
• Inspec (.inspec)
• Korean Journal Database (.kjd)
• MEDLINE (.medline)
• SciELO Citation Index (.sci)
• Web of Science Core Collection (.wos)
• Zoological Record (.zoorec)

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Caution

You cannot use the following characters in a saved search history name.

Ampersand ( & )
Left angle bracket ( < )
Right angle bracket ( > )
Quotation marks ( " )