Last fall with the help of the Arlene K. French Funds for chemistry services and biological sciences, the University of Iowa Libraries were able to answer the call of faculty and graduate students across campus with the acquisition of the Web of Science historical journals. This archive makes approximately 850,000 scientific journal articles published between 1900 and 1944 available on the Web of Science platform. This tool allows researchers to navigate through more than 100 years of journal literature in a variety of disciplines to uncover the information relevant to their research.

The Web of Science is one of the largest and most expensive databases we provide for researchers. It provides current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from approximately 8,700 of the most prestigious research journals. Last year, there were almost 39,000 visits to the database, amounting to over 172,000 searches performed by students, faculty and staff.

“This archive of scientific journal articles allows the faculty I work with to trace the scientific inquiry in their field back to the beginning of the 20th century,” says Dottie Persson, Head of Psychology Library. “Since there aren’t gaps in the information, researchers have a comprehensive picture of scientific development on which to base their own study.”