The importance of scientific publications within academic society is undeniable: they are used for dissemination of research results and discoveries, as well as for discussing on the relevant issues. However, today they also serve as the main tools in research evaluation: the number and quality of publications often are the most important criteria when deciding on employment, career opportunities, improvement of studies quality, determination of research priorities, and, accordingly, their funding.

Publication and citation data, which are used for these purposes, are accumulated in bibliographic databases. Today there are dozens of such databases. Yet, Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus remain the most influential ones and they can be regarded as the titans of bibliographic information. Unsurprisingly, for the majority of researchers the quality of publications firstly associates with their indexing in these databases. Therefore, this criterion often becomes the most important when choosing a journal for publishing.

Bibliographic databases are extremely important to academic institutions: their data is used in the global university rankings, as well as for internal research assessments. Apart from that, with an increased technological advancement these databases have also expanded the variety of provided services. Therefore, they have become more attractive to individual users, who can benefit from the databases not only in selecting a journal for publishing or finding the most relevant literature, but also in tacking their careers, exploring the opportunities for future collaborations and even for funding.

However, WoS and Scopus both are commercial and expensive databases. Therefore, institutions rarely can afford to subscribe to both of them and has to choose. Even if both databases are accessible to the users, often they are not aware of the major differences and limitations of these databases, which may determine their suitability both for research assessments or bibliographic analyses, and for performing daily tasks.

The literature analyzing or comparing WoS and Scopus databases is vast. However, researchers cannot afford to spare additional time for literature reviews. Owners of the databases also provides a plethora of information. Yet, the information is dispersed within multiple resources and often is not fully coinciding. Therefore, gathering full and accurate information required for an evaluation of database’s suitability is not easy and time-consuming task.

The main purpose of this review is to provide all users of WoS and Scopus with an all-inclusive information, based on the empirical studies and information provided by the databases’ owners. The scope of this article is not limited only to content coverage, but also elaborates on other databases’ features, such as an additional functionalities, occurring mistakes and major limitations. Therefore, this information should be useful not only for those who are responsible for subscription and research evaluation decisions, but also for daily users seeking for accurate and reliable results.

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dr. Raminta Pranckutė
The Head of Scientific Information Department,
VILNIUS TECH Library