The following is a simplified example of using Web of Science to identify potential collaborators — researchers who are actively publishing in your area of interest. When performing your own exploration, consider testing multiple search approaches and adjusting filters to confirm patterns.
We'll start with a short video showing the full process from start to finish. Our goal is to identify active researchers publishing in a specific topic, explore their profiles, and refine your search to zero in on the best collaboration candidates.
To learn more about each step of this process, continue reading below.
Set up your search
When looking for collaborators, start by defining the research space you want to investigate. In the Web of Science search bar, run a Topic search for your area of interest.
Run Analyze Results
Once you have a result set, use the Analyze Results to surface researchers active in your topic area.
From the analysis options, select Researcher Profiles. This shifts the focus from raw publication counts to actual researcher profiles, giving you a richer picture of who's working in your space than a simple author list would.
View a researcher's profile
Click View Profile on any researcher to open their full Web of Science profile. Here you'll find:
- Their institutional affiliation
- A summary of their recent publications
- Their most cited publications
This gives you a solid read on whether their research focus, output, and impact align with what you're looking for in a collaborator.
Refine your search
If your results feel too broad or not quite right, you have two quick ways to narrow things down:
- Edit your query
Go back to the search box and adjust your topic keywords. Adding more specific terms (for example, narrowing from "gut microbiome" to "gut microbiome AND inflammation") will bring your result set — and the researcher profiles within it — closer to your exact focus.
- Add filters
Use the filter panel on the left to narrow by publication year, document type, Web of Science category, country/region, and more. Combining keyword edits with filters gives you the most targeted list of potential collaborators.