Scopus

Last updated

Scopus
Scopus logo.svg
ProducerElsevier (Netherlands)
History10 November 2004;19 years ago (2004-11-10)
Languages40 languages
Access
Providers Elsevier
CostSubscription
Coverage
DisciplinesLife sciences; social sciences; physical sciences; health sciences
Record depth41,462 indexed titles (2021)
Format coveragecsv, BibText, ASCII, RIS
Temporal coverage1788–present
Geospatial coverageWorldwide
No. of records82.4 million
Update frequencydaily
Links
Website www.scopus.com
Title list(s) www.scopus.com/sources

Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. [1] Scopus covers 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-level subject fields: life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. It covers three types of sources: book series, journals, and trade journals. Scopus also allows patent searches in a dedicated patent database Lexis-Nexis, albeit with a limited functionality. [2]

Contents

All journals covered in the Scopus database are reviewed for sufficiently high quality each year according to four types of numerical quality measure for each title; those are h-Index, CiteScore, SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) and SNIP (source normalized impact per paper). For this reason, the journals listed in Scopus are considered to be meeting the requirement for peer review quality established by several research grant agencies for their grant recipients and by degree accreditation boards in numerous countries. [3]

Overview

Comparing ease of use and coverage of Scopus and the Web of Science (WOS), a 2006 study concluded that "Scopus is easy to navigate, even for the novice user. ... The ability to search both forward and backward from a particular citation would be very helpful to the researcher. The multidisciplinary aspect allows the researcher to easily search outside of his discipline" and "One advantage of WOS over Scopus is the depth of coverage, with the full WOS database going back to 1945 and Scopus going back to 1966. However, Scopus and WOS complement each other as neither resource is all-inclusive." [4] A small number of studies found ca. 80-90% overlap in coverage between WoS and Scopus for the period between 1990 and 2020.

In terms of the structured query language search capabilities Scopus is somewhat more advanced than Web of Science: for example, WoS can perform only NEAR/n queries, Scopus can also do PRE/n queries. [5]

Also, when the same article is covered in Scopus and in the Web of Science (WoS), its Scopus entry has a 3-5 larger number of keywords than its WoS coverage, and the Scopus keywords are more focused on the specific article content, whereas WoS has more keywords related to the broad category of the article's subject. A larger number of narrow-targeted keywords allows Scopus users to find a larger number of relevant publications, while filtering out false positives. On the other hand, WoS exports (e.g. in the ris format) the doi numbers of cited articles, while Scopus exports the titles of cited articles. Also, Scopus allows exporting 20,000 references (e.g. as a ris file) at once, while WoS export is limited to 5,000 references at once. On the other hand, WoS exports the doi's of cited references, while Scopus exports the titles of cited references.

Scopus provides chemical search by CAS number and by chemical name, while WoS does not have these features. On the other hand, WoS has chemical structure search, but only a small number of publications are actually indexed for chemical structure searches. SciFinder is the preferred option for chemical searches is all cases.

Scopus also offers author profiles which cover affiliations, number of publications and their bibliographic data, references, and details on the number of citations each published document has received. It has alerting features that allow registered users to track changes to a profile and a facility to calculate authors' h-index. In 2016, a gratis website, Scopus CiteScore, [6] was introduced. It provides citation data for all 25,000+ active titles such as journals, conference proceedings and books in Scopus and provides an alternative to the impact factor, a journal-level indicator which may correlate negatively with reliability. [7]

Scopus IDs for individual authors can be integrated with the non-proprietary digital identifier ORCID. [8]

In 2018, Scopus started embedding partial information about the open access status of works, using Unpaywall data. [9] However, Scopus' ris export files do not contain the information about Open Access status.

Content selection and advisory board

Since Elsevier is the owner of Scopus and is also one of the main international publishers of scientific journals, an independent and international Scopus Content Selection and advisory board (CSAB) was established in 2009 to prevent a potential conflict of interest in the choice of journals to be included in the database and to maintain an open and transparent content coverage policy, regardless of publisher. [10] The board consists of scientists and subject librarians. Nevertheless, critique over a perceived conflict of interest has continued. [11]

CSAB team is responsible for inclusion and exclusion of different titles on Scopus. Since 2004, they have included 41,525 and excluded 688 titles [12] The re-evaluation policy is claimed to be based on four criteria of Publication Concern, Under Performance, Outlier Performance and Continuous curation. Since 2016, the CSAB has re-evaluated 990 titles published by 539 different publishers leading to 536 titles discontinued for indexing. [13] Nevertheless, research continues to show the inclusion of predatory journals. [14] [15]

While marketed as a global point of reference, Scopus and WoS have been characterised as "structurally biased against research produced in non-Western countries, non-English language research, and research from the arts, humanities, and social sciences". [16]

Derived citation metrics

or Science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators

CiteScore

CiteScore (CS) of an academic journal is a measure reflecting the yearly average number of citations to recent articles published in that journal. It is produced by Ebsco, based on the citations recorded in the Scopus database. Absolute rankings and percentile ranks are also reported for each journal in a given subject area. [17]

This journal evaluation metric was launched in December 2016 as an alternative to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) impact factor (IF), calculated by Clarivate. CiteScore is based on the citations collected for articles published in the preceding four years, instead of two or five in the JCR IF. At launch, CiteScore's neutrality was questioned by bibliometrics experts like Carl Bergstrom, who found it appeared to favour Elsevier's titles of Nature's. [18]

SCImago Journal Rank

Portal SCImago Journal & Country Rank screenshot PortalSJR.JPG
Portal SCImago Journal & Country Rank screenshot
The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator is a measure of the prestige of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the prestige of the journals where the citations come from.

See also

Related Research Articles

A citation index is a kind of bibliographic index, an index of citations between publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents. A form of citation index is first found in 12th-century Hebrew religious literature. Legal citation indexes are found in the 18th century and were made popular by citators such as Shepard's Citations (1873). In 1961, Eugene Garfield's Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) introduced the first citation index for papers published in academic journals, first the Science Citation Index (SCI), and later the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). American Chemical Society converted its printed Chemical Abstract Service into internet-accessible SciFinder in 2008. The first automated citation indexing was done by CiteSeer in 1997 and was patented. Other sources for such data include Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Elsevier's Scopus, and the National Institutes of Health's iCite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chemical Abstracts Service</span> Division of the American Chemical Society

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) is a division of the American Chemical Society. It is a source of chemical information and is located in Columbus, Ohio, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Scholar</span> Academic search service by Google

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes peer-reviewed online academic journals and books, conference papers, theses and dissertations, preprints, abstracts, technical reports, and other scholarly literature, including court opinions and patents.

<i>Dalton Transactions</i> Academic journal

Dalton Transactions is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering original (primary) research and review articles on all aspects of the chemistry of inorganic, bioinorganic, and organometallic compounds. It is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the editor-in-chief is Russell Morris. The journal was named after the English chemist, John Dalton, best known for his work on modern atomic theory. The journal was named a "rising star" in 2006.

A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records. This is an organised online collection of references to published written works like journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents and books. In contrast to library catalogue entries, a majority of the records in bibliographic databases describe articles and conference papers rather than complete monographs, and they generally contain very rich subject descriptions in the form of keywords, subject classification terms, or abstracts.

The Science Citation Index Expanded – previously titled Science Citation Index – is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield.

Natural Product Reports is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. It publishes reviews commissioned by the editorial board on all areas of natural products research. The editors-in-chief is Tobias Gulder.

<i>The FEBS Journal</i> Academic journal

The FEBS Journal is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. It covers research on all aspects of biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and the molecular bases of disease. The editor-in-chief is Seamus Martin, who took over from Richard Perham in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web of Science</span> Online subscription index of citations

The Web of Science is a paid-access platform that provides access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedings, and other documents in various academic disciplines. Until 1997, it was originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information. It is currently owned by Clarivate.

The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal that was established in 2004 and is published by MDPI. The editor-in-chief is Paul B. Tchounwou. The journal covers all aspects of environmental health sciences and public health.

Genes, Brain and Behavior is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in the fields of behavioral, neural, and psychiatric genetics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society. The journal was established in 2002 as a quarterly and is currently published monthly. G2B is a hybrid open access journal, but two years after publication all content is available for free online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mendeley</span> Reference management software

Mendeley is a reference manager software founded in 2007 by PhD students Paul Foeckler, Victor Henning, Jan Reichelt and acquired by the Dutch academic publishing company Elsevier in 2013. It is used to manage and share research papers and to generate bibliographies for scholarly articles.

<i>Water Research</i> Academic journal

Water Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on the science and technology of water quality and its management. It was established in 1967 and is published by Elsevier on behalf of the International Water Association. The editor-in-chief is Eberhard Morgenroth.

<i>Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology</i>

The Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal. It was established in 1882 as the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry by the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI). In 1950 it changed its title to Journal of Applied Chemistry and volume numbering restarted at 1. In 1971 the journal changed its title to Journal of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology and in 1983 it obtained the current title. It covers chemical and biological technology relevant for economically and environmentally sustainable industrial processes. The journal is published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of SCI.

<i>ACS Catalysis</i> Academic journal

ACS Catalysis is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 2011 by the American Chemical Society. The journal covers research on all aspects of heterogeneous, homogeneous, and biocatalysis. The editor-in-chief is Cathleen Crudden, who assumed the position in early 2021. The journal received the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award for "Best New Journal in Science, Technology & Medicine" in 2013.

<i>BioSystems</i> Academic journal

BioSystems is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering experimental, computational, and theoretical research that links biology, evolution, and the information processing sciences. It was established in 1967 as Currents in Modern Biology by Robert G. Grenell and published by North-Holland Publishing Company out of Amsterdam until North-Holland merged with Elsevier in 1970. Grenell wrote of his purpose in founding the journal,

It has become necessary to develop a new language of biology; a new mathematics, and to strip biological theory and experiment of their classical approaches, assumptions and limitations. It is such considerations which underlie the establishment of this journal.

<i>Organic Geochemistry</i> Academic journal

Organic Geochemistry is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier covering research on all aspects of organic geochemistry. It is an official journal of the European Association of Organic Geochemists. The editors-in-chief are Steven Rowland, John Volkman, and Cliff Walters.

<i>Radiation Measurements</i> Academic journal

Radiation Measurements is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on nuclear science and radiation physics. It was established in 1994 and is published by Elsevier.

<i>Journal of Environmental Management</i> Academic journal

The Journal of Environmental Management is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on environmental science and quality that was established in 1973. It is published by Elsevier and the editors-in-chief are Raf Dewil, Jason Evans, and Lixiao Zhang.

Pure and Applied Geophysics is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research in the field of geophysics. It is published by Birkhäuser and the editors-in-chief are Carla F. Braitenberg, Alexander B. Rabinovich, and Renata Dmowska. The journal was established in 1939 as Geofisica Pura e Applicata before obtaining its current title in 1964.

References

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  2. Kulkarni, A. V.; Aziz, B.; Shams, I.; Busse, J. W. (2009). "Comparisons of Citations in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar for Articles Published in General Medical Journals". JAMA . 302 (10): 1092–6. doi: 10.1001/jama.2009.1307 . PMID   19738094.
  3. Archived 2 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine ; Archived 19 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine
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  5. Echchakoui, Saïd (2020). "Why and how to merge Scopus and Web of Science during bibliometric analysis: The case of sales force literature from 1912 to 2019". Journal of Marketing Analytics. 8 (3): 165–184. doi:10.1057/s41270-020-00081-9. S2CID   256510471. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
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  7. Brembs, Björn (2018). "Prestigious Science Journals Struggle to Reach Even Average Reliability". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 12: 37. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00037 . PMC   5826185 . PMID   29515380.
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  9. Else, Holly (15 August 2018). "How Unpaywall is transforming open science". Nature. 560 (7718): 290–291. Bibcode:2018Natur.560..290E. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-05968-3 . PMID   30111793.
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  11. "Elsevier are corrupting open science in Europe". TheGuardian.com . 29 June 2018. Archived from the original on 5 January 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
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  16. Tennant, Jonathan P. (27 October 2020). "Web of Science and Scopus are not global databases of knowledge". European Science Editing. 46: e51987. doi: 10.3897/ese.2020.e51987 . ISSN   2518-3354.
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