The Distinct Author Sets page lists sets of articles likely written by the author identified at the top of the page. All sets are created by the Distinct Author Identification System. We combine factors such as author name and citation data to create clusters of articles likely written by an author.
The system usually generates multiple sets of articles authored by the same person. An author is represented by multiple sets due to many factors, such as:
- The author may have changed locations
- The author may be working on a different subject matter
- The author may be citing a different body of work
For example, the author of an article about neural stem cells published in 2006 may have also published an article about Parkinson's Disease in 1997.
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Clicking the name of the author in the Full Record of the stem cells article would lead to one set of articles.
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Clicking the same name in the Full Record of the Parkinson's Disease article would lead to a different set of articles.
To view the articles in a specific set, click the number link in the # of Records column to go to the Distinct Author Set results page.
To view the articles from multiple sets:
- Select the check box of each set.
- Click the View Records button to go to the Distinct Author Set results page.
If you
select two or more sets that pushes the number of records past 5,000 records,
then the system displays an error message. Deselect some sets and try again.
When you select multiple sets, you may retrieve fewer articles than the number shown on the Distinct Author Sets page. The Distinct Author Identification System uses All Years of Web of Science to create Distinct Author Sets but your subscription may be smaller and not include all years.
For example, one set may contain articles published in 1972, 1978, 1985, and 1990. If your subscription covers 1980-present, you will only see the articles from 1985 and 1990.
See Subscription Data Depth for more information.
Set
The sets are listed in order of size. The set with the largest number of papers (records) is at the top of the list.
Author Names
You may see two author names in this column (sometimes three). These are variations of the same name with one or two initials (for example, Marshall B and Marshall BA). The papers in the set were authored by the same person who published under both names.
The number in this column is the number of articles in a set. It may not represent the total number of articles published by the author.
To view a single set, click the number link to go to the Distinct Author Set results page.
To view two or more sets, select the check box of each set, and then click the View Records button.
If you select two or more sets that pushes the number of records past 5,000 records, then the system displays an error message. Deselect some sets and try again.
Source Titles
This column lists the top five journals in a set. They are sorted by article count. Use the list to help select the set(s) you want to view.
Publication Years
The year span indicates the earliest and latest publication year in the set. It does not necessarily indicate a continuous span. For example, a set whose publication years are 1999-2006 may contain papers from 1999, 2002, and 2006.
Subject Areas
Subject areas are journal subject areas. The top five journal subject areas should help you select the set you want to view. They are sorted by article count. The article count appears in parenthesis.
Please provide feedback about the Distinct Author Identification System. To use this feature, you must be a registered user and you must sign in.
Select one or more sets to enable us to respond to your feedback.
We are especially interested in learning:
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Whether all papers in one set are indeed by the same author
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Whether an article has been omitted from a set
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How an author set may be affected by a name change
Keep in mind that all articles that may be collected in a Distinct Author set must be from journals covered in Web of Science. Items that do not appear in Web of Science will not be factored into a Distinct Author set.
Information About ...
About this Feature
This feature should be used as a tool to narrow your search rather than as a definitive list of a specific author's works. Continual enhancements to this feature by Thomson Reuters will improve the contents of the sets.
Results are based on the depth of your Web of Science subscription - this includes the databases and timespan that you selected when you began your Author search. Items that do not appear on the Results page are not counted.
For example, if your subscription depth is 10 years, then the number of retrieved results is based on this depth even though a particular author may have published articles more than 10 years ago. See your System Administrator for more information about your Web of Science subscription.
Author Search
There is a high probability that all articles in a set are authored by the same person. By contrast, a search by author name may return articles that are authored by different persons who happen to have the same name.
Click the Perform a search for this author name link in the purple box to perform a one-click author search. The system searches the product and returns all the articles associated with the author name that appears at the top of the page. This number may be greater than the total number of records that appear in all sets.
One-Click Author Search
For some authors, there may be some sets of papers that do not meet the criteria to be included in the currently displayed author set. For those authors, a one-click search on the author name from the Full Record page may return these papers.
Did You Know ...
The View Author Biography link takes you to ISI HighlyCited.com. This free resource uses citation data to deliver comprehensive information about the most significant scientists and scholars publishing today.