In contrast to most other databases, Web of Science offers guided searching (with Boolean drop-downs and multiple fields to choose from) on the Basic Search page.
The search default is set to 'All Fields'. Sometimes an All Fields search is too broad. By selecting Topic from the drop down menu, you can search the title, abstract, author keywords and Keywords Plus. Other search fields that can be chosen from the pull-down menu include Title, Author, Publication Titles (used for journal titles), and Abstract.
Web of Science uses an implicit AND operator when you run a search with two or more adjacent terms. For example, a search on social media is the same as social AND media. Note that Web of Science interprets the AND operator correctly, so you can use it if you prefer to.
Using quotation marks around phrases in your search will yield results with those specific phrases. For example, if you want to find articles with the specific phrase climate change putting quotation marks around this phrase ("climate change") will yield those results.
The date range defaults to search all dates.
Click on 'Add row' to add a new row. Adding a new field also sets the second field to the AND operator. You can change the AND operator to OR or NOT.