Scopus Library Guide

Scopus Tutorial: Use the analyze search results tool to uncover trends & find collaborators

Scopus Tutorial: How to download and export your search results

Scopus allows you to examine several citation metrics for the publications included in the Scopus database.

• Journals: Scopus uses the SJR and SNIP scales along with other measurement scores to allow comparison between journals and other publications.
• Authors: Using Scopus search functions and author evaluation tools, you can determine citation records for your own or other authors' publications.

Scopus allows researchers to analyze the journals contained in its database based on a variety of metrics on the "Analytics" page. Up to 10 journals can also be compared based on these same metrics in either chart or tabular form.

Journal metrics used include:

• SJR (SCImago Journal Rank): a measure of journal "prestige" based on subject field, quality and reputation of the journal
• SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper): a weighted measure of contextual citation impact.
• Citations: the total number of citations a journal receives within a year
• Documents: the total number of documents published by a journal within a year
• Plus: Percent Not Cited (percent of documents published by the journal not cited to date) and Percent Reviews (percent of documents published by the journal eache year that are review articles)

Scopus allows researchers to analyze citation metrics on authors as well as specific articles by an author.

• Author Search: Start by using the "Author Search" tab contained in the "Search" page to locate materials by the author of interest. The more detail you can provide regarding the author, the more precise your search will be, but last name and first initial and/or institutional affiliation are generally the minimum requirements. Scopus uses the "Scopus Author Identifier" to attempt to group documents by the same author, but be aware that a single author may be listed more than once depending on different forms of the name or a change in institutional affiliation. Once you select the correct author then you can use the analytic tools below.
• Citation Overview: After you have completed the "Author Search", tick the box next to the author name(s) to select, and then click on "View citation overview" at the top of the list of names. This will show a table listing the documents by the author(s), and the number of times each article has been cited by year.
• Author Evaluator: After you have completed the "Author Search", click on the author's name to go into the author's details page. Next to the listing for "Documents" click on "View Author Evaluator." From here you can examine various aspects of the author's "Documents" including: sources (where published), document types, years of publication, subject areas and co-authors. Other tabs on this page include "Citations" offering a graph of the total number of citations by year of an author's published works and the "h Index" and h-graph (see below).
• h Index: This measure is based on the number of the author's published works and the number of citations. The accompanying h-graph displays the "h Index" for an author, a group of authors or selected documents.

Scopus allows researchers to determine citation metrics by institution.

Affiliation Search: From the Search page click on the "Affiliation Search" tab. Enter the institution of interest in the search box and click search. If more than one institution returned, click on the result that is most appropriate. Results for each institution provide the percentage of publications in each of the covered subject areas, the total number of documents published by the institution, the total number of authors affiliated with the institution, journals and other sources of the documents, major collaborating affiliations of the institution, etc. You may further sort the documents, authors, web results, patent results, sources and affiliated institutions retrieved by clicking on the appropriate link.

Scopus only analyzes the citations of the journals in its index. Currently (March 2020), this includes:

• Over 24,000 titles, including 5,500 Open Access journals from more than 5,000 international publishers
• 360 trade publications
• Over 59,000 book series individual titles
• 225,000 non-serial books
• Articles in press from over 5,000 journals
• 44+ million patent links
• 79+ million records:
  • 54+ million records back to 1996
  • 25+ million records pre-1996 (going back as far as 1823)
  • 10 million conference papers from proceedings and journals
  • Approximately 3 million new records are added each year via daily updates

For more information about Scopus coverage, see the content coverage guide on the Elsevier website.