View source for Scopus

{{Short description|Scientific search system}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox bibliographic database
| child       =
| title       = Scopus
| image       = Scopus logo.svg
| imagesize   =
| alt         =
| caption     = 
| producer    = Elsevier
| country     = Netherlands
| history     = 2004-present
| languages   = 40{{Citation needed|date=July 2025}}
| providers   = Elsevier
| cost        = Subscription
| disciplines = Life sciences, Social sciences, Physical sciences, Health sciences
| depth       = Index, abstract and citation indexing
| formats     = Articles, articles-in-press, books, chapters, conference papers, data papers, editorials, errata, letters, notes, patents, preprints, retracted articles, reviews, short surveys
| temporal    = 1788-present
| geospatial  = Worldwide
| number      = 100 million
| updates     = Daily
| p_title     = 
| p_dates     = 
| ISSN        = 2588-9885
| website     = {{URL|https://www.scopus.com/}}
| titles      = {{URL| https://www.scopus.com/sources}}
}}

'''Scopus''' is a scientific [[abstract and citation database]], launched by the academic publisher [[Elsevier]] as a competitor to older [[Web of Science]] in 2004.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goodman |first1=David |last2=Deis |first2=Louise |date=January 2005 |title=Web of Science (2004 version) and Scopus |url=https://annurev.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/annurev/tca/2005/00000006/00000003/art00005 |journal=[[The Charleston Advisor]] |volume=6 |number=3 |publisher=[[Annual Reviews (publisher)|Annual Reviews]] |pages=5–21 |eissn=1525-4003 |issn=1525-4011 |access-date=12 August 2023}}</ref>{{Update inline|date=July 2025}} The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is considered to significantly benefit their users in terms of continuous improvement in coverage, search/analysis capabilities, but not in price. Free database [[The Lens]] completes the triad of main universal academic research databases.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Journals in Scopus are reviewed for sufficient quality each year according to four numerical measures: [[h-index|''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 meet the requirement for [[peer review]] quality established by several [[research grant]] agencies for their grant recipients and by [[Academic degree|degree]]-accreditation boards in a number of countries.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Ying |last2=Li |first2=Ruinan |last3=Zhang |first3=Lin |last4=Sivertsen |first4=Gunnar |date=8 April 2021 |editor-last1=Yang |editor-first1=Liying |title=A comprehensive analysis of the journal evaluation system in China |url=https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/2/1/300/97563/A-comprehensive-analysis-of-the-journal-evaluation |journal=[[Quantitative Science Studies]] |volume=2 |issue=1 |publisher=[[The MIT Press]] |pages=300–326 |doi=10.1162/qss_a_00103 |doi-access=free |eissn=2641-3337 |access-date=19 May 2023|hdl=11250/2733769 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Scopus also allows patent searches from a dedicated patent database, [[Lexis-Nexis]], albeit with limited functionality.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kulkarni |first1=A. V. |last2=Aziz |first2=B. |last3=Shams |first3=I. |last4=Busse |first4=J. W. |year=2009 |title=Comparisons of Citations in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar for Articles Published in General Medical Journals |journal=[[JAMA (journal)|JAMA]] |volume=302 |issue=10 |pages=1092–6 |doi=10.1001/jama.2009.1307 |pmid=19738094 |doi-access=free}}</ref> At present, Scopus indexes the following patent databases: United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO); European Patent Office (EPO); Japan Patent Office (JPO): World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); UK Intellectual Property Office.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-14 |title=Scopus Content Coverage Guide |url=https://assets.ctfassets.net/o78em1y1w4i4/EX1iy8VxBeQKf8aN2XzOp/c36f79db25484cb38a5972ad9a5472ec/Scopus_ContentCoverage_Guide_WEB.pdf |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Elsevier}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-14 |title=Patents and Trademarks {{!}} Library databases that contain Patents |url=https://guides.lib.usf.edu/c.php?g=924707&p=6669015 |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=University of South Florida}}</ref>

==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.{{om|If the user is familiar with search devices such as drop-down boxes and check boxes, searching will be a simple task with the intuitive search system.|br=yes}}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."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burnham |first1=Judy F. |date=8 March 2006 |title=Scopus database: a review |journal=Biomedical Digital Libraries |volume=3 |issue=1 |publisher=[[BioMed Central]] |article-number=1 |doi=10.1186/1742-5581-3-1 |doi-access=free |issn=1742-5581 |pmc=1420322 |pmid=16522216 }}</ref> A small number of studies found approximately an 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.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41270-020-00081-9 | doi=10.1057/s41270-020-00081-9 | title=Why and how to merge Scopus and Web of Science during bibliometric analysis: The case of sales force literature from 1912 to 2019 | year=2020 | last1=Echchakoui | first1=Saïd | journal=Journal of Marketing Analytics | volume=8 | issue=3 | pages=165–184 | s2cid=256510471 | access-date=18 May 2023 | archive-date=18 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230518135723/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41270-020-00081-9 | url-status=live | url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Technical inline|date=July 2025}}

Also, when the same article was covered in Scopus and in the [[Web of Science]], its Scopus entry had a keyword ratio 3-5 of than its WoS counterpart, 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 (file format)|RIS]] format) the [[Digital object identifier|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. 

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 in 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|''h''-index]]. In 2016, a gratis website, Scopus CiteScore,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scopus.com/sources|title=Sources|website=Scopus|access-date=26 June 2018|archive-date=27 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227232242/https://www.scopus.com/sources|url-status=live}}</ref> 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 metrics|journal-level]] indicator which may correlate negatively with reliability.<ref name="Brembs2018">{{cite journal |last1=Brembs|first1=Björn|title=Prestigious Science Journals Struggle to Reach Even Average Reliability |journal=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |volume=12 |article-number=37 |year=2018 |pmid=29515380 |pmc=5826185 |doi=10.3389/fnhum.2018.00037 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Scopus IDs for individual authors can be integrated with the non-proprietary digital identifier [[ORCID]].<ref name="Scopus">{{cite web |url=http://orcid.scopusfeedback.com/ |title=Scopus2Orcid |publisher=Scopus |access-date=7 May 2014 |archive-date=24 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724124524/http://orcid.scopusfeedback.com/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2018, Scopus started embedding partial information about the [[open access]] status of works, using [[Unpaywall]] data.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Holly|last1=Else|title=How Unpaywall is transforming open science|journal=Nature|date=2018-08-15|pages=290–291|volume=560|issue=7718|doi=10.1038/d41586-018-05968-3|pmid=30111793|bibcode=2018Natur.560..290E|doi-access=free}}</ref> However, Scopus' [[RIS (file format)|RIS]] export files do not contain the information about [[Open Access]] status.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

Several studies looked into the comparison of the number of publications indexed in the [[List of academic databases and search engines|academic research databases]]. In a 2024 publication from the [[University of Jordan]] the publications from their university referenced in several databases were compared. The authors found, that the degree of coverage decreases in the order: Scopus, [[Web of Science]], [[The Lens]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tarazi |first1=Alaa |date=1 June 2024 |title=Comparative Analysis of the Bibliographic Data Sources Using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Lens: Comparative Analysis of Bibliographic Data Sources |url=https://hymr.highyieldmed.org/index.php/HYMR/article/view/23 |journal=High Yield Medical Reviews |volume=2 |issue=1 |publisher=High Yield Medicine |pages= |doi=10.59707/hymrUNHW4628 |doi-access=free |issn=2960-1630 |access-date=29 May 2025}}</ref>

A 2024 study from Spain concluded that zero-cost [[The Lens]], which combined the data from Crossref, PubMed, Core and OpenAlex, had the largest coverage, with more than 247 million bibliographic records.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ortega |first1=José Luis |last2=Delgado‑Quirós |first2=Lorena |date=28 June 2024 |title=The indexation of retracted literature in seven principal scholarly databases: a coverage comparison of dimensions, OpenAlex, PubMed, Scilit, Scopus, The Lens and Web of Science |journal=[[Scientometrics (journal)|Scientometrics]] |volume=129 |issue=7 |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |pages=3769–3785 |doi=10.1007/s11192-024-05034-y |doi-access=free |eissn=1588-2861 |issn=0138-9130 }}</ref> No-cost [[Open Alex]] had the second largest coverage of about 240 million publications in total. Free [[MDPI|SciLit]] came in third with 149 million of publications agglomerated from Crossref, PubMed, preprint repositories and publishers. [[Web of Science]] Core Collection came in fourth with 85 million. records. Scopus was the fifth with 78 million records. While no database was comprehensive, the coverage overlap between any two databases was substantial.

A 2025 study from a medical university in [[China]] limited to [[scleral contact lenses]] concluded that Scopus had 3.6% more references than [[Web of Science]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yin |first1=Min |last2=Zhao |first2=Chenpei |last3=You |first3=Jia |last4=Ding |first4=Wenzhi |last5=Jiang |first5=Dongdong |last6=Tian |first6=Yuyin |last7=Shi |first7=Lin |last8=Leng |first8=Lin |date=14 February 2025 |editor-last1=Berry |editor-first1=Simon |title=Bibliometric and Visual Analysis of the Status of Scleral Lens Research Based on the Web of Science Database and Scopus Database (2014-2024) |journal=Clinical Optometry |volume=17 |issue= |publisher=[[Dove Medical Press]] |pages=47–60 |doi=10.2147/OPTO.S495970 |doi-access=free |issn=1179-2752 |pmc=11834708 |pmid=39967862 }}</ref>

== 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/scopus/content-overview#content-policy-and-selection |title=Scopus Content Overview: Content Policy and Selection |work=Scopus Info |publisher=Elsevier |access-date=2013-09-04 |archive-date=24 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424035942/http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/scopus/content-overview#content-policy-and-selection |url-status=live }}</ref> The board consists of scientists and subject librarians. Nevertheless, critique over a perceived conflict of interest has continued.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2018/jun/29/elsevier-are-corrupting-open-science-in-europe|title = Elsevier are corrupting open science in Europe|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 29 June 2018|access-date = 14 August 2021|archive-date = 5 January 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210105085728/https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2018/jun/29/elsevier-are-corrupting-open-science-in-europe|url-status = live}}</ref>

CSAB team is responsible for inclusion and exclusion of different titles on Scopus. The list of journals and books indexed in Scopus is updated 2 to 3 times per year. Each year Scopus receives around 3,500 submissions for new titles to be included and accepts approximately 25% of them.<ref>Wilches-Visbal JH, Pérez-Anaya O, Castillo-Pedraza MC. Discontinued Reasons of Journals in Scopus: Analysis and Reflections. Bibl, An Investig. 2024;20(1)  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377727326_Discontinued_reasons_of_journals_in_SCOPUS_analysis_and_reflections?enrichId=rgreq-3545ee0db7d9f06d060445d5327f9219-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM3NzcyNzMyNjtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTIyMDIzODc5NkAxNzA2MzI0NjAxNDg1&el=1_x_2&_esc=publicationCoverPdf</ref> The re-evaluation policy is  based on four criteria of Publication Concern, Under Performance, Outlier Performance and Continuous curation. Between 2004 and 2020, Scopus included 46,534<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 December 2024 |title=Scopus Indexed Journals |url=https://www.indexhub.info/database/scopus |access-date=31 December 2024 |website=IndexHub}}</ref> and excluded 688 titles<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/excel_doc/0015/91122/extlistJune2021.xlsx |title=extlistJune2021 |access-date=21 July 2021 |archive-date=21 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721064634/https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/excel_doc/0015/91122/extlistJune2021.xlsx |url-status=dead }}</ref> Between 2016 and 2023, the CSAB has re-evaluated 990 titles published by 539 different publishers, leading to 536 titles discontinued for indexing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/891058/The-importance-of-high-quality-content-curation-and-re-evaluation-in-Scopus.pdf|title=The importance of high-quality content: curation and reevaluation in Scopus|access-date=21 July 2021|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010144425/https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/891058/The-importance-of-high-quality-content-curation-and-re-evaluation-in-Scopus.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> 
In 2024 Scopus covered around 28,000 active journals and nearly 300,000 books. 

Nevertheless, research continues to show the inclusion of [[predatory journals]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://idea-en.cerge-ei.cz/files/IDEA_Study_2_2017_Predatory_journals_in_Scopus/mobile/index.html#p=3|title=IDEA Study 2 2017 Predatory journals in Scopus|website=idea-en.cerge-ei.cz|access-date=14 August 2021|archive-date=27 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727164506/https://idea-en.cerge-ei.cz/files/IDEA_Study_2_2017_Predatory_journals_in_Scopus/mobile/index.html#p=3|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Singh Chawla |first1=Dalmeet |title=Hundreds of 'predatory' journals indexed on leading scholarly database |journal=Nature |date=8 February 2021 |doi=10.1038/d41586-021-00239-0 |pmid=33558751 |s2cid=231871351 }}</ref> 

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".<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Jonathan P.|last1=Tennant|title=Web of Science and Scopus are not global databases of knowledge|url=https://ese.arphahub.com/article/51987/|journal=European Science Editing|date=2020-10-27|issn=2518-3354|article-number=e51987|volume=46|doi=10.3897/ese.2020.e51987|doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Scopus AI ==
Scopus AI, launched by Elsevier in January 2024, is a generative AI tool designed to revolutionize research by leveraging the world's largest database of curated scientific literature. This functionality aims to assist researchers and institutions in obtaining fast, accurate summaries and insights to enhance research collaboration and societal impact.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-16 |title=Launch of Scopus AI to Help Researchers Navigate the World of Research |url=https://www.elsevier.com/about/press-releases/launch-of-scopus-ai-to-help-researchers-navigate-the-world-of-research |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Elsevier}}</ref>

According to Maxim Khan, then the VP of Analytics, Products and Data Platform at Elsevier, Scopus AI provides the following benefits:

* Expanded summaries
* Foundational and Influential paper identification
* Academic Expert Search which is a form of search dedicated to identifying experts in specific fields.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carpenter |first=Todd |date=2024-07-25 |title=A Look Under the Hood of Scopus AI: An Interview with Maxim Khan |url=https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2024/07/25/interview-with-maxim-khan-about-scopus-ai/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=The Scholarly Kitchen}}</ref>

== Derived citation metrics ==
{{See also|Source Normalized Impact per Paper|Field-weighted Citation Impact|Science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators}}

=== CiteScore ===
{{excerpt|CiteScore|templates=-Citation metrics}}

=== SCImago Journal Rank ===
{{excerpt|SCImago Journal Rank|templates=-Citation metrics}}

== See also ==
* [[Journalology]]
* [[List of academic databases and search engines]]
<!-- * [[Open Citations Corpus]] -->

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Wikidata property|P1153|P1154|P1155|P1156}}
* {{Official website|https://www.scopus.com/}}

{{Reed Elsevier}}
{{Academic publishing}}

[[Category:Publications established in 2004]]
[[Category:2004 introductions]]
[[Category:Bibliographic databases and indexes]]
[[Category:Elsevier]]
[[Category:Citation indices]]
[[Category:Library cataloging and classification]]