Biomedical Digital Libraries BioMed Central

Resource review Open Access

Scopus database: a review
Judy F Burnham*

Address: University of South Alabama Biomedical Library, 316 BLB, Mobile, AL 36688, USA
Email: Judy F Burnham* - [email protected]
* Corresponding author

Published: 08 March 2006 Received: 01 December 2004

Accepted: 08 March 2006
Biomedical Digital Libraries2006, 3:1 doi:10.1186/1742-5581-3-1
This article is available from: http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1
© 2006Burnham; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract
The Scopus database provides access to STM journal articles and the references included in those
articles, allowing the searcher to search both forward and backward in time. The database can be
used for collection development as well as for research. This review provides information on the
key points of the database and compares it to Web of Science. Neither database is inclusive, but
complements each other. If a library can only afford one, choice must be based in institutional
needs.

Scopus is an abstract and indexing database with full-text Some features of Scopus include:
links that is produced by the Elsevier Co. The name, Sco-
pus, was inspired by the bird, Hammerkop (Scopus • Links to both citing and cited documents, allowing the
umbretta), which reportedly has excellent navigation user to go both forwards and backwards in time.
skills. The database, in development for two years, was
developed working with 21 research institutions and • Open access titles are included in the index
more than 300 researchers and librarians. The verbal and
behavioral feedback of these librarians and researches was • Indexes web pages and patents, with a claim to over 167
analyzed and used to improve the product. million relevant web pages.

Content of Scopus • OpenURL compliant and works with any link resolver,
Scopus developers claim to index over 14,000 STM and using image-based linking.
social science titles from 4000 publishers, stating that it is
the "largest single abstract and indexing database ever • Runs an entitlement check prior to returning a full-text
built". The database claims 4600 health science titles are image if the article if available to the user.
indexed including 100% MEDLINE coverage, 100% of
EMBASE coverage and 100% of Compendex coverage. The • Can link to the publisher's web site to view the docu-
list of titles indexed is selected based on user demand and ment.
market research. It contains 27 million abstracts with cita-
tions back to 1966. In addition to American journals, it • Developers claim that "citation accuracy is achieved by
includes European and Asia Pacific literature in both Eng- using state-of-the-art technology, with 99% of citing refer-
lish and non-English. Indexing includes CAS registry ences and citing articles matched exactly."
numbers, MeSH terms, EMTREE terms and supplemental
key terms added by indexers.

Page 1 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)
Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006, 3:1 http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1

Table 1: Comparison of Scopus vs Web of Science

Web of Science (SCI) Scopus

Coverage 1992-date 1966-date (abstracts)

1900-date 1996-date (cited references)
# of Journals Indexed 8700 14,000
# of Citations 36.1 million 27 million
Update Schedule Weekly Updated daily
Subjects covered Life sciences, clinical medicine, animal & plant biology, 5900 titles in life and health sciences; chemistry, physics,
biotechnology, agriculture, environmental sciences, math,
physics, engineering, social sciences, psychology, economics,
chemistry, earth sciences, mathematics, engineering, biological, agricultural, environmental, general sciences
technology, computer science
Geographic coverage 80 countries 60% of titles are from countries other than USA
Indexing Author defined keywords and KeyWordsPlus EMTREE, MESH and others

• For statistics on usage, Scopus delivers customer-specific • The list of journals can be browsed by title or by subject
usage reports which will be COUNTER compliant. area for journals published since 1996.
(COUNTER [Counting Online Usage of Networked Elec-
tronic Resources] is an international standard for the • Results from searches can be sorted by date, relevance,
recording and exchange of online usage statistics.) author(s), source, title and by "Cited By". The "Cited By"
sort will list the documents according to the number of
• Offers both on- and off-site training as well as web- citations received. After applying limits or exclusions, the
based training and online tutorials. The database website list can be re-sorted.
offers quick reference guides, tips, etc. (in English and
other languages) and offers online technical support. • Search can be conducted within results. The Search His-
tory allows the user to view searches that have been con-
• Works equally well with Internet Explorer, Netscape and ducted, combine searches or save searches.
Foxfire.
• All or a selection of the citations can be printed. They
Search of Scopus can also be exported into bibliographic management soft-
There are two search modes for Scopus – Basic and ware or e-mailed.
Advanced
• The user can add selected documents to a created list
• The Basic Search uses fill-in and drop-down boxes to which can then be exported, printed, etc.
search various fields.
• Retrieval can be limited to Scopus citations only, web
ⴰ The search can be limited to date, document type, subject citations only, patent citations, or to Scopus and web
area or recent updates. Once the citations are retrieved, combined. If limited to Scopus citations, the retrieval will
results can be excluded according to set criteria. include the abstract, full text (if available), references, and
citations to article being examined. When limited to web
ⴰ A particular author can be searched by name. After citations, the database uses Scirus, a science-only Internet
searching, the user will get a list of possible matches. One search engine for retrieval.
or more names can be selected from this list. The user can
search for variants of a name and for parts of a name (i.e., • Each article will include a link to library entitled full-text
a hyphenated name.) so it can be retrieved from the results list, the abstract or
the references. An icon appears if the user as rights to the
• With the Advanced Search, the user can use Boolean full-text.
operators and nesting using field labels.
• The "Cited By" lists articles that cite the article being
Other features of Scopus include: examined.

Page 2 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)
Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006, 3:1 http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1

Figurethe
shows 1 Basic Search
shows the Basic Search.

• The "Related" journals offer a list of papers that share the Ease of search
same references with the paper being examined. WOS
The opening screen allows the user to do a general search,
• In addition, the product offers an alert service, both for a cited reference search or an advanced search. The general
new articles being added on a particular subject and for search has boxes for the user to fill in (topic, source title,
new articles being added that cite a particular article etc.) and allows limits by language and document type.
The Advance search allows the user to fill in a box using
• "My Profile" allows the user to save searches to run on a Boolean, again allowing the user to limit by language or
future date. document type. The Cited Reference Search allows the
user to search by cited author, cited title or cited year.
Scopus vs Web of Science* Examples are given to guide the user. These search options
Table 1 shows a comparison of coverage between Scopus are available from all screens.
and Web of Science.
Scopus
Basic Search allows the user to enter term into search box
and choose field to be searched from drop down box.
Terms can be combined using Boolean. Limits can be set

Table 2: Comparison of searches between resources

Title of Search # Ref Web of Science* # Ref Scopus*

Arthritis and environment, 1992-date 405 395

Tubercular meningitis, 1992-date 21 76
Barik S*, 1992-date 93 126
American Journal of Cardiology, 1992-date 15,619 21,993

Page 3 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)
Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006, 3:1 http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1

Figurethe
shows 2 Advanced Search format
shows the Advanced Search format.

date range, document type and update frequency. Viewing records

Advanced search allows for open entry of search terms, WOS
with examples given. The Advanced Search box must be Results are presented in citation format and can be sorted
used when combining more than two terms. by date, relevancy, times cited, author or source title.

Author Scopus
WOS Results sorted according to Scopus, Web, Patents and
In the General Search area, a box is available for author Combined tabs, with the default to the Scopus list. Results
searching. Examples are given for correct format. are presented in tabular form by Date, Document,
Author(s), Source Title and Cited By. Any of the columns
Scopus can be sorted, allowing for quick analysis of the results. A
A tab for "Author" allows for easy searching of the author "Refine Results" area allows the user to filter results using
with a separate box for first and last name and examples either a "limit" or "exclude" tool for Source Title, Author,
given. Year, Document Type or Subject Area. The top three in
each category is listed along with a link to "more". This
Cited reference may seem like a lot of information on a screen, but there
WOS is enough white space so that the view is clear and not
Cited Reference Search is one of the options for searching confusing.
from the opening screen. The user can then choose from
Cited Author, Cited Work or Cited Year. Linking to full text
WOS
Scopus Clicking on the "View Full Text" button links to Ebsco-
Cited authors, titles, etc. can be searched from the Host where the user can link to the full-text if the library
Advanced Search interface by using the appropriate codes, subscribes to that resource or the user can link to other
i.e., REFAUTH, REFTITLE, etc. sources, i.e., ScienceDirect for the full-text.

Page 4 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)
Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006, 3:1 http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1

Figurethe
shows 3 Results list
shows the Results list.

Scopus citation can be viewed for those citations in the WOS data-
Links from the citation are available for abstract, refer- base.
ences and/or full-text. Author names are also linked to
other articles by that author. A link resolver allows the Scopus
user to link to the full-text. Links from the Cited By col- When viewing one of the retrieved records, a click on
umn are to articles that have cited the original article. "related records" will retrieve documents that have refer-
When viewing the References, Cited By statistics and links ences in common with the article being viewed. When this
are available. list is sorted by relevance, those articles that share the
most references will be displayed first.
Related records
WOS Saving, sorting, printing, etc
When viewing one of the retrieved records, by clicking on WOS
"Find Related Records", the results are presented in a rele- Once citations have been marked, they can be printed,
vancy ranking based on the number of shared references. saved, exported, e-mailed or ordered.
The number of cited references and the number of shared
references (with the original article) are listed. From this Scopus
screen, the user can view the shared references for each Searches can be saved in an area called "My Profile" or can
citation. These results are in a table format, but the entire be saved as an alert, to be e-mailed to the user. From the

Page 5 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)
Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006, 3:1 http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1

Figurethe
shows 4 Web Results list
shows the Web Results list.

Results page, the user can print, export, e-mail, or add cita- Help available
tions to a list by first clicking on the box to the left of the WOS
citation and then clicking on the appropriate button. A tutorial is available on the Web of Knowledge and the
Web of Science opening screens. Help buttons from each
Analysis of citations screen are specific to the screen being used, i.e., General
WOS Search, Search Results, etc. Also available is Help accord-
After a list of citations is retrieved, the user can click on the ing to Contents and an A to Z Index.
Analyze Records button to view rankings and histograms
of the authors, journals, etc. for the set of records. Scopu
A "Help" button at the top of each screen leads the user to
Scopus help topics that can be accesses by "Contents" and alpha-
The database currently only provides a cited-by count of betical index or by a search box. All help reviewed pro-
records. However, they are working on a citation analysis vided the answer desired.
tool that should be ready by the end of 2005.
Comparison of searches between resources
Table 2 shows a comparison of searches between Scopus
and Web of Science. In searching for combined subjects,
for rare health conditions for known authors or for known

Page 6 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)
Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006, 3:1 http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1

Figurethe
shows 5 Cited By Results
shows the Cited By Results.

journal titles, results are mixed. However, Scopus gave the Conclusion
best results overall for the sample searches. Scopus is easy to navigate, even for the novice user. If the
user is familiar with search devices such as drop-down
Other uses of Scopus boxes and check boxes, searching will be a simple task
From a collection development point-of-view, Scopus can with the intuitive search system. The ability to search both
be used to determine which journal is cited the most for a forward and backward from a particular citation would be
particular subject area. The company plans future devel- very helpful to the researcher. The multidisciplinary
opment that will include a citation overview tool, with aspect allows the researcher to easily search outside of his
which the user can search a journal by year and get the discipline.
total number of citations for that journal. With the demise
of the Brandon-Hill list and if the library doesn't have One advantage of WOS over Scopus is the depth of cover-
access to the Journal Citation Reports from ISI, the data- age, with the full WOS database going back to 1945 and
base could be used to determine a list of core journals in Scopus going back to 1966. However, Scopus and WOS
a discipline. compliment each others as neither resource is all inclu-
sive. Libraries who can afford to will want to subscribe to
Scopus is sold as an annual subscription and is based on both tools. Those who must choose must do so based on
FTE. They have customized pricing for very small and very the needs of their individual library.
large institutions.

Page 7 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)
Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006, 3:1 http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/3/1/1

Note
* Analysis of Scopus is based on c2005 trial edition. Anal-
ysis of Web of Science is based on Science Citation Index
Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)-1992-present

Competing interests
The author(s) declare that they have no competing inter-
ests.

Publish with Bio Med Central and every

scientist can read your work free of charge
"BioMed Central will be the most significant development for
disseminating the results of biomedical researc h in our lifetime."
Sir Paul Nurse, Cancer Research UK

Your research papers will be:

available free of charge to the entire biomedical community
peer reviewed and published immediately upon acceptance
cited in PubMed and archived on PubMed Central
yours — you keep the copyright

Submit your manuscript here: BioMedcentral

http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/publishing_adv.asp

Page 8 of 8
(page number not for citation purposes)