How do I find articles by a particular author?
Every database and index has some provision for searching for works written by a particular author. Usually it's a fairly straightforward process. The database should either have an input box marked "author", or a generic input box and a way to limit the search to the "author" field.
Most scientific articles today have multiple authors - sometimes a whole lot of them - and all get equal billing in index databases. Accepted practice dictates that the first listed author is the one who did most of the work and gets most of the credit; other authors are listed in declining order of contribution. In academic labs, the last author position is usually reserved for the supervising professor who has the grants and runs the lab.
What's in a Name?
Searching author names can sometimes be tricky. Common surnames (like Smith, Wang, or Lee) are a real problem -- you will probably retrieve results by many different individuals who share the same name and initials. Compound names and Asian names may be treated differently in various databases, so you have to be careful to allow for the name conventions in a specific database. Some databases, such as Web of Science, don't use first/middle names, but only use initials. Others, such as Chemical Abstracts, use first names and middle initials if they're provided in the article. As a general rule, start with initials and don't use a first name unless you have to distinguish among many authors with the same name.
- SciFinder's Explore by Author option makes it easy to choose among similar name entries and combine all likely candidates into your search. Then, if you still get too many, you can use the Refine tool to narrow your results down by publication year, additional author(s), journal, institutional affiliation, or topic keywords.
- The Web of Science Author Finder feature allows you to start with a last name and first initial, then progressively narrow your search by institutional affiliation(s), broad subject area, etc. to help zero in on the person in question.
