The Web of Science Core Collection is based on the philosophy of content collection, evaluation, development, and management. Content selection is based on a decades-long practice by expert editorial staff within the Clarivate organization. One of the basic tenets of this selection process is Garfield’s Law of Concentration which says a relatively small core of journals (10-20 percent) account for the bulk (80-90 percent) of what is cited by all published literature, and that these core journals are frequently cited across a wide range of disciplines.
Identifying and capturing these core journals creates a strong, multidisciplinary resource that represents the published network of foundational and influential research. Core coverage is supplemented by coverage of regional journals and early coverage of up-and-coming disciplines to provide comprehensive coverage across all fields of scholarly research and geographical regions.
Clarivate Analytics is not a primary publisher, so we fairly evaluate content in an unbiased way. Publications are evaluated in detail for their contribution to research, citation impact, timeliness of publication, and bibliographic standards. Commercial publishers, academic and society publications are all evaluated by the same standards. Published journals are in print, electronic, or hybrid format and may operate with traditional subscription journals or they may be open access journals. Currently, there are more than 1,200 open access journals included in the Web of Science Core Collection.
Selection Policy Essays
For more details on the selection policy for publications, please see our online essays