The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedings, and other documents in various academic disciplines.

In addition, literature that shows the greatest impact in a particular field, or more than one discipline, can be located through a citation index.

Anyone conducting a literature search can find from one to dozens of additional papers on a subject just by knowing one that has been cited.

[6]Web of Science "is a unifying research tool which enables the user to acquire, analyze, and disseminate database information in a timely manner".

Acceptable content for Web of Science is determined by an evaluation and selection process based on the following criteria: impact, influence, timeliness, peer review, and geographic representation.

The influence, impact, history, and methodology of an idea can be followed from its first instance, notice, or referral to the present day.

[9][10] Broad trends indicate significant topics of the day, as well as the history relevant to both the work at hand, and particular areas of study.

[19] In 2018, the Web of Science started embedding partial information about the open access status of works, using Unpaywall data.

[21] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, on March 11, 2022, Clarivate – which owns Web of Science – announced that it would cease all commercial activity in Russia and immediately close an office there.

Clarivate owns and markets numerous other products that provide data and analytics, workflow tools, and professional services to researchers, universities, research institutions, and other organizations, such as:[37] As with other scientific approaches, scientometrics and bibliometrics have their own limitations.