How to Convert Web of Science PDFs to EPUB — Read Research on Kindle or Kobo
Web of Science is the oldest and most authoritative citation database in academic research — used for systematic reviews, impact factors, and citation analysis since 1964. When you find papers worth reading in full, converting PDFs to EPUB makes them far more comfortable on any e-reader.
What is Web of Science?
Web of Science (webofscience.com), operated by Clarivate Analytics, covers:
- ~90 million records across science, social sciences, arts, and humanities
- Historical coverage back to 1864 (Science Citation Index Expanded)
- The authoritative source for Journal Impact Factors (published in Journal Citation Reports)
- Author h-index calculation and institutional research analytics
- Cited reference searching — find all papers that cite a given paper
Accessing Web of Science
Access via institutional subscription:
- University library database portal (look for Web of Science or Clarivate)
- Institution VPN → direct access at webofscience.com
- Shibboleth/federated login at some institutions
Limited free access: Clarivate offers a free tier at webofscience.com with restricted search results (30 per search) and no export. For most research needs, institutional access is required.
Finding PDFs via Web of Science
- Search Web of Science for your topic
- Click any result to open the full record
- Click Full Text from Publisher — takes you to the publisher's PDF
- Download the PDF (free with institutional access, or if open access)
- Look for Open Access links if no institutional access — WoS shows PMC and other OA versions
Tip: install Unpaywall in your browser — it automatically shows free legal versions of papers as you browse WoS records, even when your institution doesn't have publisher access.
Converting to EPUB
- Go to pdf2epub.toolkit.bot
- Upload the PDF
- Wait ~30 seconds
- Download the EPUB and transfer to your e-reader
Web of Science vs Scopus at a glance
| Web of Science | Scopus | |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Clarivate Analytics | Elsevier |
| Records | ~90M (Core Collection ~60M) | 90M+ |
| Historical depth | Back to 1864 | Back to 1960s |
| Impact Factors | Authoritative (JCR) | CiteScore (different methodology) |
| Breadth | Strong in natural sciences | Broader non-English coverage |
| PDF hosting | No — links to publishers | No — links to publishers |
Frequently asked questions
What is Web of Science?
Web of Science (WoS) is a subscription citation database operated by Clarivate Analytics. It is considered the gold standard for citation metrics and has the longest continuous coverage of any citation database, with records going back to 1864 for some collections. Web of Science Core Collection covers approximately 22,000 journals in science, social sciences, arts, and humanities. It is widely used for systematic reviews, impact factor calculation, and h-index research.
Does Web of Science let me download PDFs directly?
Like Scopus, Web of Science is a citation database — it shows abstracts and links, not PDFs. From any WoS record, click 'Full Text from Publisher' to go to the publisher's website and download the PDF (if your institution has access). Some records also show links to PubMed Central, arXiv, or other open-access repositories. For systematic literature searches, many researchers use WoS to identify papers, then get PDFs via their institutional library access or open-access links.
How does Web of Science access work?
Web of Science requires an institutional subscription. Access via your university library portal, VPN, or institution's Shibboleth login. Clarivate also offers a free individual access tier (Web of Science free) with limited features and 30 records per search. Some countries have national licenses providing broader access. If you don't have institutional access, most of the same literature is searchable via Google Scholar (free) and Semantic Scholar (free with AI features).
What is the difference between Web of Science and Scopus?
Web of Science has longer historical coverage (back to 1864 for some collections vs Scopus from 1960s) and is considered the authoritative source for journal Impact Factors (published by Clarivate as JCR). Scopus has broader coverage of current literature (90M+ records vs WoS ~60M+) and better coverage of non-English journals. For impact factors and older literature, WoS is preferred. For breadth and current coverage, Scopus is often better. Both are widely subscribed by major research universities.
Can I save Web of Science searches and get alerts for new papers?
Yes — Web of Science supports saved searches and citation alerts. After running a search, click 'Create Alert' to receive email notifications when new papers match your criteria. You can also set up 'Cited Reference Alerts' to be notified when a specific paper is cited. This is useful for tracking evolving research areas. When alert emails arrive with new papers, use the Unpaywall browser extension or open-access links to find PDFs, then convert to EPUB for reading.