WS2 is an excellent solid lubricant in dry conditions, and can be applied as thin films. The analysis of WS2 and WS2-based films by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) can be challenging, due to contamination and oxidized material on the surface. The investigations have traditionally therefore included sputter etching by ion bombardment, which however leads to changes of the remaining material. In this study, hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HA)(PES) has been used to study W-S films deposited by magnetron sputtering. High-resolution reference measurements for crystalline WS2 and metallic W are also presented. The W-S films were analyzed before and after sputter cleaning by Ai' ion bombardment, using photon energies of 3 and 6 keV. The alpha-deposited films were found to consist mainly of a WS, phase, similar to WS2 but with a broader range of chemical states. It is shown that ion bombardment of the surface not only removes the outermost oxidized material, but also leads to preferential sputtering of sulfur and the formation of metallic tungsten. The results are of strong interest for the analysis of WS2-based materials, as they demonstrate that spectra from sputter-cleaned films include effects of sputter damage, and may not be representative of the original sample. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.