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Web of Science

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The Web of Science ™ is the world’s most trusted publisher-independent global citation database. Guided by the legacy of Dr Eugene Garfield, inventor of the world’s first citation index, the Web of Science is the most powerful research engine, delivering your library with best-in-class publication and citation data for confident discovery, access and assessment.

Our multidisciplinary platform connects regional, specialty, data and patent indexes to the Web of Science Core Collection™. Our comprehensive platform allows you to track ideas across disciplines and time from almost 1.9 billion cited references from over 171 million records.

Over 9,000 leading academic, corporate and government institutions and millions of researchers trust the Web of Science to produce high-quality research, gain insights and make more-informed decisions that guide the future of their institution and research strategy.

Why Web of Science data?

Web of Science Core Collection content is uniquely selective and our indexing is uniquely consistent. Our independent and thorough editorial process ensures journal quality, while more than 50 years of consistent, accurate and complete indexing has created an unparalleled data structure.

Every article and all cited references from every journal have been indexed, creating the most comprehensive and complete citation network to power both confident discovery and trusted assessment. Only the Web of Science Core Collection indexes every piece of content cover-to-cover, creating a complete and certain view of over 115 years of the highest-quality research.

Web of Science My Research Assistant. For wherever inspiration strikes.

The world's original citation index

Web of Science Core Collection provides cover-to-cover indexing back to 1900 across the world’s highest-quality and most impactful publications.

Publisher-neutral curated quality

A robust evaluation and curation process by a team of expert in-house editors, carefully selecting content for quality and impact.

The definitive resource for trusted open access content

Confidently discover and access millions of gold and green versioned open access articles.

Unmatched data quality and citation linking

We capture, index and link every piece of metadata for all items in the Web of Science Core Collection.

Expansive multidisciplinary discovery

Connecting research across the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities from journals, books and conference proceedings.

Editorial integrity

The robust evaluation and curation of our data make the Web of Science Core Collection the world’s most trusted publisher-independent global citation database.

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Web of Science Core Collection

A trusted, high-quality collection of journals, books and conference proceedings. Learn more

Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)

Search across over 9,200 of the world’s most impactful journals across 178 scientific disciplines. More than 53 million records and 1.18 billion cited references date back from 1900 to present.

Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)

Search across over 3,400 of the world’s most impactful journals across 58 social sciences disciplines. More than 9 million records and 122 million cited references date back from 1900 to present.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI)

Search across over 1,800 of the world’s most impactful journals across 28 arts & humanities disciplines. More than 4.9 million records and 33 million cited references date back from 1975 to present.

Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)

Search across over 7,800 of the world’s highest-quality journals across 254 disciplines. More than 3 million records and 74 million cited references date back from 2005 to present.

Book Citation Index (BKCI)

Discover over 104,500 editorially selected books with 10,000 new books added each year. More than 53 million cited references date back from 2005 to present.

Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI)

This multidisciplinary index is the fastest way to gain access to cutting edge, impactful research derived from over 205,000 conference proceedings. More than 70 million cited references date back from 1990 to present.

Open access

Over 12 million gold and green versioned articles, as well as bronze free-to-read articles, are available from 5,000 fully open access, hybrid and subscription journals curated by our in-house team and trusted partners.

Use the Web of Science platform to better measure and report on the impact of your institution’s or funding agency’s investment in open access.

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Web of Science platform

Access an unrivaled breadth of world-class research literature linked to a rigorously selected core of journals. Uniquely discover new information through meticulously captured metadata and citation connections.

Data Citation Index​

Derwent Innovations Index

BIOSIS Previews

Biological Abstracts

BIOSIS Citation Index​

Current Contents Connect

Zoological Record

CABI: CAB Abstracts

CABI: Global Health

FSTA – the food science resource

Chinese Science Citation Index ​

KCI – Korean Journal Database

SciELO Citation Index

Arabic Citation Index

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / APA Format / How to Cite a Database in APA 

How to Cite a Database in APA 

APA style does not require research database information in its citations. Instead, you would cite the source found within the database. Below we’ll cover the basics of why an entire database should not be cited, when a database name is mentioned, and how to cite a journal article (a commonly cited database source type) found in a database. Click here to automatically cite a Database  source.

Guide overview

Why can’t i cite an entire database, what should i cite, when is a database mentioned.

• How to cite a source published by a database

How to cite a thesis or dissertation from a database

How to cite a regular journal article from a database.

Solution #1: How to determine if you should include database information or not

Solution #2: Citing work from the ERIC database

In general citation styles like APA, MLA, and others instruct writers to cite the specific source (e.g., article, book, image, etc.) you use from a database and NOT to cite an entire database . The purpose of the citation is to identify the source (book, article, document, webpage, etc.) that was used and not how the source was found. There are a few reasons for this:

• Databases often have restricted access where logins are needed. The reader may not have access to the specific database you used, but they could access the cited source through other means (e.g., another database, physically, etc.) if they have the source’s information.
• Databases often contain numerous (hundreds, thousands) of different sources. So citing the database itself doesn’t make the source you’re discussing easily identifiable for the reader.
• Some databases contain different source formats (e.g., PDF, video, image, etc.). A database citation would not effectively communicate to your reader what format was used.
• Usually, sources in a database are all authored by different authors. So citing a database as an author is misleading.

Cite the individual source you found in the database and use the APA format designed for that source. Usually, the database will label the source and tell you what the source type is. Examples of common APA source types include (but are not limited to):

• Journal article
• Book chapter
• Magazine article
• Newspaper article

Most mainstream academic databases do not need to be mentioned in the citation. However, there are a few instances when the database name is mentioned. Note that you still cite the individual source and note the entire database.

Mention the database in your reference list citation for the following:

• Examples: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, a university archive, a government repository, etc.
• Sources published by a database
• Dissertations and theses from a database

For more guidance, see Section 9.30 in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , 7th edition.

How to cite sources published by a database

This applies to sources that are found only in one database, are in limited circulation, or were published by the database.

Include a retrieval date if the information will likely change over time. Otherwise, it is not needed.

Reference list entry structure & examples:

Author Last name, F. M. (Year Published). Source title. Database Name . Retrieved Month Day, Year, from DOI or URL

Evans, A. M., Rome, K., Carroll, M., & Hawke, F. (2022). Foot orthoses for treating paediatric flat feet. Cochrane Database of Sustemic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006311.pub3

Griffith, D. (2020). Microbiology of nontuberculous mycobacteria. UpToDate. Retrieved January 2, 2022, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/microbiology-of-nontuberculous-mycobacteria

In-text citation structure & examples:

(Author Last Name, Year published)

(Evans et al., 2022)

(Griffith, 2020)

Reference list entry structure & example:

Last name, F. M. (Year Published). Thesis or dissertation title (Publication Number) [Doctoral dissertation, Academic Institution]. Database Name. URL if applicable

Hoffman, M. K. (2022). Cardiac and systemic effects of stress signaling (Dissertation No. 27994368) [Doctoral dissertation, Temple University]. Proquest Dissertations and Theses.

In-text citation structure & example:

(Last Name, Year published)

(Hoffman, 2022)

In most cases, a journal article citation does NOT need to mention the database you found it in. Use the structures below.

Last name, F. M. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Name , Volume (Issue), Page(s). DOI or URL

Ahn, H., & Kim, K. (2008). Using genetic algorithms to optimize nearest neighbors for data mining. Annals of Operations Research , 263 (1), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-0080325-2

(Ahn & Kim, 2008)

Troubleshooting

• Does the source name the database as its publisher? If you’re unsure, look for the publisher data in the record.
• Is the source something that is likely only found on the database?

If you answered YES to either question, the database name should be included as the source publisher.

If you answered NO to either question, use the normal APA citation format specified for the source type. See the links at the bottom of this page to find guides on additional source types.

Because ERIC assigns document numbers to their works, you must include this number after the title.

Last name, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case (ERIC number). ERIC. URL

Apolonio, J. A. (2021). Needs analysis, challenges, and teaching strategies in English grammar learning (ED613630). ERIC. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED613630.pdf

Jenkins. K. T. (2008). Teacher education for students planning on teaching abroad  (ED1347898). ERIC. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED1347898.pdf

(Apolonio, 2021)

(Jenkins, 2008)

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Parenthetical Citations
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all APA Examples

Updated November 3, 2020.

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You do not need to cite a database in APA style, but to cite a source within a database, it is important that you know some basic information including the author, publication year, title of the work, name of the database, and URL (uniform resource locator). The templates for an in-text citation and reference list entry of a database, along with examples, are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

Use the author’s surname and the publication year in in-text citations.

Author Surname (Publication Year)

Parenthetical:

(Author Surname, Publication Year)

(Lin, 2019)

Reference list entry template and example:

The title of the work is given in sentence case and italicized. Include the document number in parenthesis after the title. Then, add the name of the database followed by the URL.

Author Surname, F. M. (Publication Year). Title of the work (Document Number). Name of the Database . URL

Lin, C. (2019). Politics in history education in Hong Kong: Towards critical political education (EJ1221601). ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=Do+artifacts+have+politics&ff1=pubInformation+Analyses&id=EJ1221601

You need not include the full URL when citing a subscription database, as the URL will not be accessible to readers who have not subscribed to the database. It is sufficient to include only the homepage URL of the subscription database.

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The top list of academic research databases

Whether you are writing a thesis, dissertation, or research paper it is a key task to survey prior literature and research findings. More likely than not, you will be looking for trusted resources, most likely peer-reviewed research articles. Academic research databases make it easy to locate the literature you are looking for. We have compiled the top list of trusted academic resources to help you get started with your research:

Scopus is one of the two big commercial, bibliographic databases that cover scholarly literature from almost any discipline. Beside searching for research articles, Scopus also provides academic journal rankings, author profiles, and an h-index calculator .

• Coverage: approx. 71 million items
• References: 1.4 billion
• Discipline: Multidisciplinary
• Access options: Limited free preview, full access by institutional subscription only
• Provider: Elsevier

• 2. Web of Science

Web of Science also known as Web of Knowledge is the second big bibliographic database. Usually, academic institutions provide either access to Web of Science or Scopus on their campus network for free.

• Coverage: approx. 100 million items
• Access options: institutional subscription only
• Provider: Clarivate (formerly Thomson Reuters)

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC) .

• Coverage: approx. 30 million items
• References: NA
• Discipline: Medicine, Biological Sciences
• Access options: free
• Provider: NIH

For education sciences, ERIC is the number one destination. ERIC stands for Education Resources Information Center, and is a database that specifically hosts education-related literature.

• Coverage: approx. 1.3 million items
• Discipline: Education science
• Provider: U.S. Department of Education

• 5. IEEE Xplore

IEEE Xplore is the leading academic database in the field of engineering and computer science. It's not only journal articles, but also conference papers, standards and books that can be search for.

• Coverage: approx. 5 million items
• Discipline: Engineering
• Provider: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

• 6. ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect is the gateway to the millions of academic articles published by Elsevier. 2,500 journals and more than 40,000 e-books can be searched via a single interface.

• Coverage: approx. 16 million items

• 7. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The DOAJ is very special academic database since all the articles indexed are open access and can be accessed freely of charge.

• Coverage: approx. 4.3 million items
• Provider: DOAJ

JSTOR is another great resource to find research papers. Any article published before 1924 in the United States is available for free and JSTOR also offers scholarships for independent researchers.

• Coverage: approx. 12 million items
• Provider: ITHAKA

• Frequently Asked Questions about academic research databases

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC)

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