Web of Science: Changes Coming to Default Search

Over the past month, Web of Science (WOS) users may have noticed that Smart Search is now the default search experience for all users as part of a series of enhancements to the WOS interface.

Smart Search represents a major step forward in WOS to make discovery faster, easier, and more intuitive.

What does Smart Search offer?

• Semantic search: Smart Search automatically finds semantically similar terms and incorporates them into the user’s query to locate content beyond the entered keywords.
• Natural language querying: Users can enter queries as they would describe them rather than worrying about Boolean operators and complex search syntax. Note that Boolean searches are also supported.
• Options for results: Smart Search returns combined Boolean and semantic results, with the option to explore each results set individually.
• Query and abstract translation: Users can search in any UI-supported language and browse translated titles and abstracts of results.

While Smart Search is now the default for everyone, users can still opt out and revert to the classic search options by toggling off Smart Search.  However, starting in November 2025, WOS will be removing the option to toggle off Smart Search. Users will land on Smart Search by default in each session. The Advanced Search tab will still be available for users who want to conduct fielded, structure and cited reference searches or use the query builder.

Learn more in WOS’s blog and most recent release notes.