Multi-query center: ISI import

Publish or Perish tutorial

Anne-Wil Harzing - Sat 6 Feb 2016 16:10 (updated Thu 2 Jun 2022 10:47)

Note: This tutorial was originally written for Publish or Perish version 4 and all screenshots come from this version. Later versions of Publish or Perish show the multi-query center at the top of every screen for easier access. Its basic functions are similar to PoP4, however.

If your university has a subscription to the Web of Science, you can also import data from this database into Publish or Perish, allowing you to calculate a large variety of metrics with data from this database.

Importing saved ISI searches

Unfortunately direct access of this data-source is not technically possible through Publish or Publish even if your university subscribes to it. However, you can run and save searches in the Web of Science and import those into Publish or Perish.

ISI import in five easy steps

1. Conduct a search in the Web of Science. [If you don’t know how to do this, contact your librarian].

2. Once you have the correct set of results, click on the drop-down field Save to Other File For… (see screenshot). Click on Save to Other File Formats.

3. On the resulting pop-up box (see screenshot), you can leave most of the settings to default, unless you have more than one page of results. In that case, specify the number of records you want to export. In addition, ISI seems to have recently changed their record format and citation information is no longer provided in the default Author, Title, Source record. Hence, you now need to select the (rather wasteful) "Full Record" under record content.

4. This provides you with a .txt file that you can import into Publish or Perish, simply by clicking on the New Import icon [see multi-query center] or by clicking File/Import External Data.

5. You will then see the following screenshot. Click on OK and Publish or Perish will import the ISI data into the multi-query center. The results will appear in the folder that you are in when you import the data.

The result: a compact list of publications ready for further analysis

The result is a neat list of publications that can then be sorted in any way you want. Statistics and results can be exported for further analyses just like the results of Google Scholar searches.

Support Publish or Perish

The development of the Publish or Perish software is a volunteering effort that has been ongoing since 2006. Download and use of Publish or Perish is and will remain free (gratis), but your support toward the costs of hosting, bandwidth, and software development are appreciated. Your support helps further development of Publish or Perish for new data sources and additional features.

Feedback

PS: If you are using Publish or Perish on a regular basis, please take 5 minutes to provide me with some feedback.