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Scopus (Elsevier)

Studentai dirba kompiuteriais bibliotekoje

VILNIUS TECH community members can employ a full access to Scopus database.

Important! The full access to the database is available only when connecting from local University’s network. In order to use Scopus from external network, VPN service or personal Scopus user account (more information in “General Information” -> “Scopus User Account”) is required.

Scopus – is an international, globally recognized multidisciplinary bibliographic database (DB), which was launched in 2004, and is owned by Elsevier company, also known as one of the major publishers of scientific literature.

Learn about Scopus DB and the possibilities it provides in a short video guide >>>

Scopus – is the main competitor to the Web of Science (WoS) DB, which up till now is considered as a “golden standard” of bibliometric data. Regarding the type and purpose, these DBs are similar, since they both are bibliographic, selective, multidisciplinary, and commercial. Only literature sources of the highest quality, selected by the strict criteria and periodically revised, are indexed in these databases.

Bibliographic databases are used for science assessment, as well as for other everyday tasks.

The majority of the academic community members (researchers, lecturers, and students) use bibliographic databases mainly for two purposes:

  1. Searching for the most relevant literature for studies, research, and preparation of graduation works or lectures;
  2. Choosing a journal for publishing.

When using a database for literature search purposes, it is worth remembering that Scopus (as well as WoS) is a bibliographic database, which means that it contains only the abstracts and metadata of publications, not the publications themselves. For open access publications (and publications accessible to the user according to the literature resources subscribed by the institution) links to their full texts are provided.

Yet, nowadays bibliographic databases are commonly used because of the journal citation indicators they provide for evaluating indexed sources (usually – journals). These metrics are important when choosing a journal for publication or deciding on subscriptions. However, they are also applied in assessing the quality of publications. In principle, this is not a good practice, as citation indicators describe the average citation rate of a whole source (a journal), and are therefore intended to assess the quality of the journal, not an individual publications published in it.

Databases provide various alternative (altmetric) quality indicators for the assessment of publications. Scopus DB provides PlumX metrics of publication usage.

Detailed information on all indicators of publications, authors, institutions and sources (journals) displayed in Scopus, as well as information about their calculation and application can be found in Research Metrics Guidebook.

Additionally, bibliographic DBs can be useful for assessing the most relevant research topics and the latest trends, also for discovering experts in a particular scientific field or opportunities for potential collaboration.

Scopus Academy courses for researchers and students can help to achieve the aforementioned goals more efficiently by taking advantage of all the possibilities provided by Scopus DB.

  • General Information

    STRUCTURE AND INDEXED CONTENT

    Scopus content includes all disciplines and all kinds of sources and publications, which are equally accessible to the users, i.e. differently than WoS, Scopus is not composed of separate indexes and specialized databases, which may or may not be accessible depending on the subscription terms.

    The content indexed in Scopus covers the period of more than 230 years (the oldest entry is of 1788), and cited references are included for all documents published from 1970.

    Scopus DB indexes content of over 7,000 publishers, published in periodical sources of various types: scientific journals, conference proceedings, book series and even trade journals. In addition to literature published in periodical sources, Scopus provides records of individual books, preprints, datasets, and patents approved by the five major international patent offices, which are available to the users by the same conditions as all other indexed content.

    Scopus is a multidisciplinary database, meaning that the indexed content covers all major disciplines, although not in equal proportions: the most comprehensively covered are Physical Sciences (nature, medical, health, and technology sciences). It should be noted, that Scopus provides exceptionally wide coverage of engineering sciences. Arts and Humanities make up almost a third of the content in Scopus DB.

    More information about Scopus DB content and lists of all Scopus indexed periodical sources (including discontinued titles) and books can be found on Elsevier webpage (links are provided at the bottom of the page) and in Scopus Content Coverage Guide.

    SCOPUS USER ACCOUNT

    By setting up free Scopus accounts, registered users can additionally:

    • Save performed searches and their criteria (up to 200);
    • Set a subscription to the newest results of performed searches (Alerts);
    • Select and compose individual lists of publications (Saved lists), which can be saved (up to 50), extended, and edited;
    • Print and send to e-mail saved document search results or compiled lists;
    • Download lists of Scopus indexed sources (in Excel spreadsheets);
    • Manage account information and review previous activities performed by the user while being signed-in (Requests (Dashboard).

     

    Personal Scopus user account allows registered user to access Scopus from external network, without the need to use VPN service.

    Important! Scopus personal account has to be created from the Local University network, using institutional e-mail address. After registration, user should at least once sign-in to the personal Scopus account from the Local University network before trying to sign-in from external network.

    More information about Scopus user accounts and the benefits they provide >>>

  • Search and Futher Work with the Obtained Results

    In Scopus DB users can perform document (publication) [1], author [2], researcher [3], and institution (Organizations) [4] search. Advanced Search [5] is also available, as well as searching or browsing within all indexed periodical sources (in the Sources section) [6].

    Searches performed during the session are kept in Search History [7] section, where the last 10 searches are displayed. The listed searches changes in a sliding principle with the new searches replacing the older ones, but the preview can be expanded and a full list of performed searches (up to 50) can be reviewed. Performed searches can be saved [8] only by signed up users. Additional links to information on how to conduct searches are also provided (Search Tips) [9].

    • Queries for all search types can be formulated by applying Boolean Operators; the range of included results can be expanded by using wildcards (? – any symbol, * – varying part of the word, w/n – within, etc.); and only results matching an exact phrase can be search by inserting the phrase into brackets {} or quotation marks “”.
    • The results of all search types can be further narrowed/refined by conducting a secondary search (Search within results), and/or applying various filters (Refine search) (the amount and variety of available filters depends on the type of search performed). The criteria applied for filtering/refining results can be exported (Export filter counts).
    • The results of document searches (and analyses), compiled lists, information of individual entries, and cited references lists can be exported in different formats, printed, e-mailed, and saved in PDF format and downloaded.

     

    Useful to know:

    • There is no need to use language specific (accended) characters in Scopus searches, since the search include results with all possible character variations. Also, keywords mentioned in the query are searched both in singular and plural forms, and in all inflections. Meanwhile, all punctuations and stop words, such as “the”, “it”, “of”, etc., are ignored in the searches.
    • Most of the data provided in the search results lists are activated (linked) and redirect to the according information (may be opened in a separate window). The numbers listed alongside filtering options are also activated and open in pop-out windows, from where a full list of results matching the particular criteria can be viewed in the separate window.

    DOCUMENT SEARCH

     

    Document (publication) search can be performed:

    • Within various document entry’s fields: title; abstract; keywords; authors, their affiliations, and identifiers (ORCID); DOI identifiers; information of source, funding, cited references; or within all fields (Search within);
    • Additional search fields can be added (Add search field);
    • The search can be limited by the time period (according to the publishing date, and/or by inclusion into Scopus DB date) (Add date range).

    After the search obtained results list include:

    • List of documents (publications) matching search criteria [1] – direct search results
    • Preprints matching search criteria [2]
    • Secondary documents [3] – publications mentioned in the reference lists of publications appearing in the direct search result list, but are not indexed in Scopus DB
    • Document titles, authors, publishing years, source, and citation information is provided for each document entry listed in the results.

    In the list of direct search results [1] can be additionally:

    • Expanded entries to show their abstracts (or an option that all abstracts were displayed (Show all abstracts) can be selected)
    • Related documents for every entry in the list can be viewed
    • Information of listed publications can be viewed at publisher’s website (if available, the link View at publisher is provided for the majority of entries)
    • The ranking of results can be changed (by default entries are ranked by the newest date of inclusion into Scopus DB. If a different ranking criteria will be chosen, this setting will remain throughout the session, and in case of working while signed in – until this setting will be changed).

    Obtained results (document lists) [1] can be (all or only selected ones [5]):

    • Exported to a file (in various formats), or to bibliographic information management tools (Mendeley, EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero). Important: the amount of results (rows) that can be exported in one session is limited: export to Mendeley includes up to 2,000, and all other export options – up to 20,000 results. [5]
    • Full texts of the documents can be downloaded (up to 50) [6]. Important! This option is applicable to Open Access publications and the ones which are accessible to the user according to the resources subscribed by their institution.
    • Citation overviews for selected documents can be viewed [7]
    • Selected entries can be added to list (temporal, or saved in case of working while signed in) [8]
    • Publications citing listed documents can be viewed [9]
    • References cited in the listed documents can be viewed [10]
    • Sent via Email [11]
    • Search results can be refined/narrowed by conducting a secondary search within results [12] and/or applying various filtering criteria [13]
    • Further analyzed (Analyze results) [14]


    More information about document search in Scopus >>>

    AUTHOR SEARCH

     

     Authors can be searched:

    • By surname. First name (or initial) can also be indicated, but is not necessary.
    • By ORCID
    • An institution represented by the searched author may also be indicated additionally (Add affiliation).

    The search concludes with an author or a list of authors (if there are several authors with identical surnames in the database).

     

    The information provided for each author in the list include:

    • The main and alternative variants (if there are such) of author’s surname [1]
    • Number of published documents (indexed in Scopus) [2]
    • Affiliation [3], city [4], and country [5]
    • Ability to view the most recent author’s publication [6]

    Important! Author profiles in Scopus are generated by an automatic algorithm, and therefore may be incomplete and/or incorrect (e.g. publications of one author may be divided into two separate author profiles, and/or individual publications may be missing from/incorrectly assigned to the author profile). Therefore, authors are recommended to view and check the information provided in their author profile, as well as to link their Scopus profile with their ORCID profile.

     

    Useful to know: author surnames, publication counts, and affiliations provided in the results list are interactive and redirect directly to an author profile, his/her publication list, and a profile of represented institution respectively, which may be opened in a separate window.

    The profiles of authors having published only one publication indexed in Scopus are regarded as unverified. These profiles are created for researchers only starting their career, but also may be created when the algorithm cannot accurately relate the publication to an existing author profile due to the significant changes in the data employed for this assignation (surname, affiliation, publishing frequency, and/or contributed topics). Therefore, the surnames of such authors in the search results are not active. However, the profile of the author can still be reached from the publication details page (by clicking on “1” near the author at the Documents section in the results table [2]).

     

    Author search results, when a large number of authors is obtained, may be further:

    • Sorted by any data provided in the results table (surname, document count, h-index value, represented institution, city, and country) [7]
    • Narrowed by selecting an option that only exact matches of the search query would be listed [8]
    • Refined by filtering obtained results by author represented institutions (affiliations), cities and/or countries (the results may be limited to the authors matching the selected filtering criteria, or such authors may be excluded from the results) [9]
    • Publications [10] and their citations [11] of one or several selected authors can be viewed
    • If there are more than one author profile in the results list which belong to the same author, they can be marked and a request for their merging into one profile can be ordered [12]
    • The list of authors (initial, refined, or only selected entries) can be saved (personal Scopus user account is required) [13]

     

    [10-13] functions activate by selecting at least one author (or all of them) in the results list [14].

    RESEARCHER DISCOVERY

    Research discovery can be performed by entering keywords associated with a research area, topic, or interest.

    The search concludes with a list of researchers.

     

    The information provided for each researcher in the list include:

    • Researcher’s name, represented institution and country [1]
    • Number of published documents (indexed in Scopus) matching search criteria [2]
    • Citation count of all published documents (indexed in Scopus) [3]
    • Number of all published documents (indexed in Scopus) [4]
    • h-index value [5]

     

    Researcher discovery results can be:

    • Refined by publication year of matching documents, country and organization [6]
    • Sorted by number of matching documents, number of total citations, number of all documents, and h-index value [7]
    • Exported in CSV format [8]

    INSTITUTION (ORGANIZATION) SEARCH

    When the name of an institution is typed into Organizations search query field, a search system automatically generates a list of possible matches, one of which can be selected as the desired search result:

    • If the institution is selected from the list of suggested matches, the user is directed straight to the profile of the selected institution.
    • If the institution search is performed by the query, the institution (or several institutions) is provided in the form of results list table.

     

    The information provided for each institution in the list include:

    • The main and alternative name variants.
    • Document counts (indexed in Scopus): separately for affiliation only, indicating documents having the affiliation of the institution itself, and for whole institution, indicating all documents affiliated to the institution, including ones affiliated to institutes and other units, belonging to the institution (for institutions not having additional units this number will not be provided).
    • City and country

     

    The list of institutions may be:

    • Refined by city and/or country (Refine results)
    • Sorted by any chosen data provided in the results table (name, document counts, city, country) (Sort on)
    • Documents of one or several selected institutions may be viewed in a single list (Show all documents)

    SOURCE SEARCH

    At the Scopus Sources page all Scopus indexed periodical sources, including conference proceedings, book series, and trade publications, along with their values of the main quality indicators (citation indicators and rankings within subject areas) are provided.

    • The year for which the values of quality indicators are preferred to be displayed in the source table can be selected (View metrics for year) [1].
    • Scopus sources are classified into subject areas based on All Science Journal Classification Codes (ASJC), and only the subject field in which the source occupies the highest ranking is provided in the source table (all subject fields to which the source is assigned can be viewed at the source profile page, or in the Scopus Sources list which can be downloaded in Excel format (Download Scopus Source List [2], log in to personal Scopus user account is required).
    • The sources in the table are listed by their CiteScore (more information about this indicator is provided at the top of the Source page [3]) values (in descending order), but the list may be ranked by any selected data displayed in the table by clicking on in the table heading [4].

    At the Source page the search for a particular source by its title, ISSN number, publisher, or subject area may also be performed [5].

    The list of sources (all sources, or ones obtained after the search) can be filtered by:

    • Selecting that only Open Access sources would be displayed [6]
    • Indicating minimal values for documents and/or citations published/received by individual sources during the preceding 4 years [7]
    • Indicating the preferable CiteScore quartile value the source should occupy [8]
    • Selecting particular type of source (journals, conference proceedings, book series, and/or trade publications) [9]

     

    All source titles listed in the table are activated and redirects to the source‘s profile page.

    ADVANCED SEARCH

    In Scopus an advanced search by 13 entry field groups can also be performed:

    • Every field group can be expanded into lists of subfields with codes (Field codes).
    • The subfield is added to the search query by clicking + near the selected field code. Then the searched value of the subfield should be written within the brackets (the detailed subfield description and examples appears below the query after selecting the field code).
    • The search query can by formulated of multiple field codes connected by various search operators.
    • The search can be narrowed by indicating author and/or institution (Add Author name / Affiliation).

    Advanced search window also contains a link to source comparison tool (Compare sources).

  • Document, Author, Institution, and Source Information

    In Scopus for every publication (document), author, institution, and source unique individual identifiers are generated along with corresponding profile pages, presenting detailed information.

    DOCUMENT DETAILS PAGE

     

    Detailed information about every Scopus indexed document (publication) is provided on a separate document details page, and include (the types and extent of provided information may vary depending on document’s nature, type, and represented discipline):

    • Document title (in English and other languages, if applicable)
    • Information about the source in which the document was published (title, volume, issue, pagination/article number)
    • Source’s ISSN number
    • Publisher
    • Document and source types (open access sources are indicated additionally)
    • Document DOI identifier
    • Document authors
    • Author affiliations
    • Publication abstract (if available)
    • Keywords
    • Information about chemical structures (Reaxys Chemistry database information) (if applicable)
    • Options to access full-text of the document (Full text options). For open access publications a link for direct download of publication‘s PDF is provided (View PDF)
    • List of sources cited in the document (References) (including ones not indexed in Scopus) and a link to view their full list in search result format
    • The count of documents citing the publication (Cited by) and a link to view their full list (Citing documents)
    • Suggested Related documents (based on publication’s references) with a link to view their full list, and the additional links to search for related documents by the publication’s authors or by keywords
    • The values of main publication’s quality and usage indicators (Metrics) with additional links to more detailed data (More metrics/View PlumX details)
    • Funding information (if available)
    • SciVal topics – information about research topics represented by the publication. These topics represent groups of Scopus indexed documents clustered by their citation relations.

    Document entries (selected data fields) can be exported, downloaded (an installation of internet browser plugin is required), printed, e-mailed, saved in PDF format, added to list, and a bibliographic description of the document can be generated:

    More information >>>

    AUTHOR PROFILES

     

    All authors of Scopus indexed publications are assigned with unique identifiers (Scopus Author IDs) accompanied with profiles (Author profiles).

    The information provided in author profiles include:

    • Author’s surname and name [1]
    • Current institution represented by the author (based on the affiliation information provided in the most recent author’s publication) [2]
    • Author identifiers: Scopus Author ID [3] and ORCID [4] (if the author has associated his Scopus profile with his ORCID account)
    • All other institutions previously represented by the author and corresponding periods (Institution history), along with author’s alternative name variants, profile identifiers and represented Subject areas, can be viewed by expanding author information (Show all information) [5]
    • List of Scopus indexed author’s publications [6]
    • Author’s scholarly output impact metrics (publication quality and collaboration metrics, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [7]
    • Documents (indexed in Scopus) citing author’s publications [8]
    • Non-peer reviewed documents (preprints*) derived from arXiv, bioRxiv, ChemRxiv, medRxiv, SSRN, TechRxiv, and Research Square servers [9].
    • Co-authors (their surnames are active and redirects to corresponding author profiles) [10]
    • Research topics, to which publications are grouped based on direct citation relations (topic titles are active and allows to review topic information and author’s publications representing particular topic (in the second tab) in a pop-out window) [11]
    • Projects (Awarded grants) [12]. This section is new (beta version), and currently most of the included projects are financed by US institutions. Nevertheless, the section is being expanded and it already includes some projects financed by funders from other countries.


    * Scopus tracks preprint information and lists only the most recent versions. The preprint entry will remain in the author profile even after its publishing in peer-reviewed source. The information of individual preprints is also gathered and can be viewed in the details page, similar to ones for other documents, but preprint profiles do not include any metrics, as well as preprints are not included in calculations of metrics for other Scopus indexed documents and sources.

    Document lists (both published by the author and the ones citing them) can be:

    • Viewed in document search results format [13].
    • Sorted by any information provided in the table (first author, date, citation counts, source title) and in selected order (ascending/descending) [14]
    • The aggregated list of documents referenced in all author’s publications (references) can be viewed [15].
    • The alert for author documents can be set, which would inform the author by e-mail about his new publications being added to Scopus [16]. The alert for new citations of author’s publications can also be set. Both alerts can be set only from personal Scopus user account.

    Author profiles also include a summary of the main author productivity and citation indicators (all values are calculated based on author’s publications and documents citing them indexed in Scopus):

    • Publication and citation counts, h-index value and a link to review the graph of its determination [17].
    • Graphically visualized distribution of publication and citation counts by years (the graphic is interactive and individual elements redirect to corresponding data by clicking on them) [18].
    • Author profiles also provide links to additional tools for analyzing author’s publications [20] and their citation data [19].

    Authors can correct their profile information. Scopus provides two tools enabling it:

    Edit profile tool [21] allows authors to:

    • Select the variant of his/her name and surname to be displayed as the main name (possible name variants are collected from author publications and the preferred name can be selected only from these variants presented in the author‘s profile).
    • Change the institution displayed as the main author’s affiliation by selecting one of the institutions represented by the author (based on the affiliation information provided in author’s Scopus indexed publications).
    • Add/remove publications (Search for missing documents on Scopus), non-peer reviewed documents (Search for missing preprints on Scopus), and/or projects (Search for missing Awarded grants on Scopus).

    Potential author matches tool (More → Potential author matches) [22] enables author to check if there are no additional profiles created in Scopus which belong to the author:

    • The tool searches for potentially matching author profiles by the surname and list only profiles of authors with identical surnames. Meanwhile, it does not include profiles with slight differences in the surnames (e.g. caused by spelling errors). Therefore, if the author notice that not all of his/her documents published in Scopus indexed sources are listed in the profile, they should be searched and added by using Edit profile tool.
    • If the tool finds additional profiles which belong to the author, they can be marked in the result list and requested to be added to the main author’s profile (Request to merge with author).

    Authors also can (and are encouraged) to link their Scopus Author profiles with ORCID accounts (registration to Scopus user account is needed). This helps to ensure more accurate assignation of documents published by the author to his/her profile and avoid creation of additional incorrect author profiles (additional profiles are usually created due to the surname changes (e.g. after marriage), occurrence of spelling mistakes, and significant career changes (e.g. time gaps in active publishing, changes in author’s research interests, employment, and/or location (affiliation information)). Authors may also link their Scopus profiles with Mendeley accounts.

    More information about Scopus author profiles >>>

     

    INSTITUTION (AFFILIATION) PROFILES

     

    An exceptional advantage of Scopus DB is institutional (Affiliation) profiles presenting not only the main information about the institution (name, address) [1], but also:

    • Scopus Affiliation identifier (Affiliation ID) [2]
    • Number of documents published on behalf of the institution [3]
    • The number of authors representing the institution [4]
    • The distribution of institution’s documents [5] by subject areas [9] or by sources they were published in [10]
    • Hierarchical structure of the institution [6]
    • The list of collaborating institutions [7]
    • The distribution of institution’s publications by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [8].

    More information about Scopus institution profiles >>>

     

    At the institutional profiles registered users can set alerts to inform them by e-mail about documents published on behalf of the institution being newly added to Scopus (Set document alert).

     

    Useful to know: publication counts (both general and sorted by sources or subject areas), as well as author counts, names of collaborating institutions and sources listed in the tables are interactive and redirects to the corresponding document/author lists and institutional/source profile pages.

    SOURCE DETAILS (PROFILE) PAGE

    Source details pages (source profiles) present detailed information about Scopus indexed periodical sources:

    • Current [1] (and previous [2], if applicable) source title
    • Open access status (if applicable) [3]
    • Scopus coverage years (indicates the time-frame of source’s content available in Scopus) [4]
    • Publisher [5]
    • ISSN/eISSN number [6]
    • Represented subject areas (according to ASJC classification) [7]
    • Source type [8]

    From the source details (profile) page:

    • The list of all source’s publications indexed in Scopus can be viewed [9]
    • Alerts for new content from the source being added to Scopus can be set (for registered users) [10]
    • The source can be added to the list and saved (for registered users) [11]
    • The source can be compared to other Scopus sources [12]


    The most recent values of the main Scopus source citation indicators are also provided (if available) at the sources profile [13]:

    • The values for indicators may not be provided (N/A) or indicated not for all indicators types in cases of discontinued sources, and/or sources just recently added to Scopus, since the data in Scopus required for calculations of indicators are insufficient (more information about Scopus provided source level impact indicators and their calculation principles is provided here >>>).

    Important! If the CiteScore value of the source is “0.0” that does not mean that the source does not have CiteScore, since with the renewed CiteScore methodology Scopus have decided to display CiteScore values only to one decimal place, which may result in that very small values are rounded as “0.0”.

    • Below the main source data a detailed information about publications and citations used to calculate CiteScore indicator values [15] (the year of indicator can be selected [14]), and anticipated upcoming CiteScore value [16] along with the data accumulated for its calculation are presented. The rank of the source in a particular represented subject area [19] (an exact ranking place [20] and its expression in percentiles [21]) according to the selected indicator year [14] is also indicated.
    • In the second tab CiteScore rank & trend the list of all sources assigned to subject areas represented by the source (year of displayed values [22] and subject area [23] can be selected at the top of the list) along with source’s ranking position and a graphical visualization of the source’s CiteScore values and ranking tendencies over time in selected subject area [24] are displayed.
    • The last tab Scopus content coverage [25] presents amounts of source’s publications covered in Scopus by years (numbers are active and allows to open the list of publications) along with links to their citation overviews.

    More information about the indicators in Scopus source profiles >>>


    Useful to know: source profiles can also be reached from document lists (presented in search results format) and from the individual document details page by clicking on activated source title. If the title is not active, the source is not indexed in Scopus (in case of cited references), or is not serial, and thus does not have Scopus source profile. Meanwhile, the profiles of discontinued sources remain accessible in the database.

  • Analysis Tools

    Scopus also provides tools allowing fast and convenient analysis of publications and authors, as well as to compare Scopus indexed sources.

    • All analyses results are represented as tables and in graphical form (except for co-author information).
    • Information provided in analysis results can be sorted by the analyzed criteria or by the corresponding document counts.
    • It should be noted, that the numbers indicating document counts and author surnames in the tables, as well as separate elements of graphics, are interactive and allows to view the corresponding data (publication lists and/or author profiles) in the same or separate window.
    • In case of document analysis, only limited number of results listed in the tables can be visualized in graphics. However, the results to be included in the graphics can be selected by marking them in the tables.

    Results of document and author analyses and source comparisons can be exported (in CSV or ZIP formats), printed, saved in PDF format, or e-mailed.

     

    PUBLICATION DATA ANALYSIS

     

    Publication (document) lists compiled in every way (search results, publications of particular author, source, or institution, or individually selected documents) can be further analyzed by using Analyze results and Citation overview tools, to which links are provided above the document lists:


    Analyze results tool can be opened in the same or in the separate window, and Citation overview is opened at the same window. In any case, the user can return to the document list by following link Back to results provided at the top left corner of the analysis window.

    Analyze search results window presents document distributions by:

    • Years (according to publishing date)
    • Sources
    • Authors
    • Author represented Institutions (Affiliations)
    • Author represented countries/territories
    • Document types
    • Subject areas (according to ASJC classification)
    • Funding sponsors

    The set of analyzed publications can be additionally limited by indicating publishing date time-frame (by years).

    Citation overview tool provides detailed information on publication citations and their changes over time.

    • Citation data analysis can be modulated by changing applied time-frame [1], and/or by excluding author self-citations [2] and/or citations from books [3], and/or by hiding documents without any citations [4].
    • The results are provided in graphical [5] and table [6] formats. Their elements are interactive and redirect to the corresponding information.
    • The number of the analyzed documents, their total citation count and h-index value are also provided [7].

     

    AUTHOR DATA ANALYSIS

    Two tools for analyzing author‘s data are provided in the author profile:

    • Analyze author output – for analyzing publication data;
    • Citation overview – for analyzing citation data.


    Analyze author output provides distributions of Scopus indexed author‘s publications by sources, publication types, years, and subjects. It also includes a citation overview of author‘s publications and a list of co-authors.

    Citation overview tool provides detailed information on author’s publication citations and their changes over time. The information and available actions provided in the tool are analogical to the ones in the case of document citation overview, but the modulation options are slightly different: in the case of author citation overview, in addition to excluding all self-citations and/or book citations, self-citations of only the analyzed author can be excluded from the analysis as well.

    Both tools also include h-index value of the author, but Analyze author output tool additionally provides author’s h-index determination graph.

    More information about Scopus author profiles and their use >>>

    SOURCE COMPARISON

     

    Scopus DB also provides Compare sources tool enabling the comparison of Scopus indexed periodical sources from various perspectives.
    The tool is accessible from the source profiles and from the advanced search window.In order to compare sources, the search of sources to be compared have to be performed in the Compare sources tool:

    • The sources can be searched by their titles, ISSN numbers, and publishers [1]
    • The search can be limited to a selected subject area [2]
    • The sources in the results list can be ranked by preferable criteria: sources’ CiteScore (selected by default), SNIP, and SJR values, or by ISSN numbers [3]
    • The order of listed sources can be changed in ascending/descending manner by the source title [4], or by other selected [3] criteria [4]

    The sources to be compared (up to 10) have to be selected from the source search results list:

    • The main information of every source listed in the results table (publisher, source type, ISSN, period of coverage in Scopus) can be expanded (˅) for review [5].
    • The list of all selected sources is provided at the top and can be edited by removing sources (x) [6]
    • The set of compared sources may also be modulated at any time by selecting/unselecting sources in the source search results list
    • The search can be performed repeatedly by applying different criteria, and the sources from different search results can be included in the same comparison.


    The results of source comparison are by default provided in graphical form (charts), but can be selected to be displayed in tables [7]

    Firstly, the distribution of compared sources by their CiteScore values and their changes over time is presented [8]. The start point for every source may be different, since it depends on the beginning of the source‘s indexing in Scopus. However, the time-frames presented in CiteScore comparison do not coincide with sources’ indexing periods since sources obtain their CiteScore (and other source citation indicators) values only after several years of continues indexing.

    Below analogic comparisons of selected sources are provided, according to sources’:

    • SJR [9] and SNIP [10] values
    • Citation [11] and publication [12] counts
    • Percentages of published review articles [14] and not cited publications [13].

    More information about source comparison in Scopus >>> (at the bottom of the page)

    SCOPUS AI

     

    Scopus AI – is Elsevier’s intuitive and intelligent search tool, powered by generative artificial intelligence and content indexed in Scopus DB.

    The tool relies only on information from Scopus, including publication abstracts, metadata, citation data, and author profiles. It uses data of the following types of publications:
    •    articles;
    •    books;
    •    book chapters;
    •    conference papers;
    •    reports;
    •    reviews;
    •    short-surveys;
    •    data papers.

    The chronological scope of this information varies depending on the selected function, e.g., when generating a response to a query, information from documents published since 2003 is used, but when providing a list of foundational publications or topic experts, information from older publications is also used, regardless of their publication date.

    A link to Scopus AI is provided on the Scopus homepage.


    On the initial page of this tool, the user can choose whether their conversation with Scopus AI will be stored in the user’s history (Temporary conversation).

    When a user submits a query, Scopus AI generates a concise response in textual form, which includes links to the used sources.


    Next to the generated text, an abbreviated list of references is provided, in which the data (publication title, authors, source title, year of publication) are active and redirect to corresponding data in Scopus database.

    Show all references link at the bottom of the list provides a complete list of the used sources, which additionally includes publication citation counts and publication abstracts (Show abstract). This list can be exported in various formats.


    Additionally, an analogous list of foundational documents of a particular topic, which corresponds to the user’s submitted query, is provided next to the generated text. Show more documents link at the bottom of the list provides complete lists of foundational and other related publications.

    A more detailed answer to a query can be acquired by selecting the Expanded summary feature [1].


    The Concept map feature [2] generates a diagram that visualizes the links between a topic, which corresponds to the user’s submitted query, and various concepts related to it. This diagram is interactive – when a user clicks on one of the concepts, a text is generated that describes the links between the aforementioned topic and the selected concept.

    The Topic experts feature [3] provides information about three experts who are the leading researchers in a field, which corresponds to the user’s submitted query. The information is provided in a list, which includes summaries of each expert’s qualifications in the research field, relevant publication and their citation counts, as well as h-index values. More information about an expert can be acquired by clicking the Preview profile link.

    The feature Emerging themes [4] provides a list of topics related to the user’s query, compiled based on abstracts of publications published in the last 24 months. These topics are divided into 3 types:

    • Consistent themes – research areas with publication rate, which remained stable for the past 2 years.
    • Rising themes – research areas with noticeable increase in academic activity.
    • Novel themes – developing research areas with recent interest.

    For each theme a brief description, a link to theme’s reference list, and a few potential hypotheses (they are active and act like queries submitted by the user in the initial Scopus AI page) are provided in the list.

    Scopus AI also provides suggestions for new queries, which are thematically related to the user’s original query (Go deeper) [5].

    In 2025, Scopus AI was updated with a new Deep Research feature. When this feature is turned on (this can be done in the initial page of Scopus AI), the answer to the user’s query is given in a form of detailed report, consisting of overview of the main findings, suggested research areas and methods, references to relevant publications, and other information. These reports can be downloaded in PDF format.

    More information about Scopus AI tool >>> and its use >>>

    You can learn about the capabilities of Scopus AI and the use of artificial intelligence in scientific research in the following webinars:
    „Unveiling Scopus AI Revolutionizing Academic Research with Artificial Intelligence“
    „Effective Scopus AI Integration: Practical Strategies for University Librarians and Researchers“