Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, monographs and conference proceedings. Scopus provides a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Scopus features smart tools to track, analyse and visualise research, as well as a variety of article, journal and author metrics.
SciVal is a web-based analytics solution based on Scopus data, which provides access to the research performance of thousands of research institutions and their associated researchers worldwide. It can help you to visualise your research performance, benchmark against peers, develop strategic partnerships, identify emerging research trends and create uniquely tailored reports.
Scopus
How will Scopus aid my research / studies?
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Scopus can help you find trusted research, identify experts and access reliable data, metrics and analytical tools for confident research strategy decisions. Scopus can tell you who is researching what in global literature and where they are doing it.
How can I access Scopus?
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You can access Scopus via Discover . When you use Scopus for the first time you’ll have the option to register for an Elsevier account – this will let you save searches and create alerts for newly published outputs from your chosen publications.
How can I structure a search in Scopus?
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This Scopus user guide outlines how to search for different types of content including documents, authors and affiliations. A range of short online video tutorials are also available alongside accessible text only versions.
How can I save a search?
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Saving searches is useful for revisiting and keeping track of your research on Scopus. You can save a search from any document results list or from within your current search history. By naming your search you can rerun the search at a later date. You can also set up an email search alert to receive updates when new materials are published. More information on saving searches is available from the Scopus help pages .
Note: The option to save a search is only available when you have an Elsevier account and are signed in to Scopus.
How can I manage my author profile?
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A Scopus author profile is a unique record of a researcher's publication activity. The details come from peer-reviewed articles and other publications that are indexed in Scopus (published in journals, books and other sources, that the Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board has selected for inclusion and indexing) where the researcher is specified as an author. The information in a profile includes the author name, affiliation(s), research subject area(s), publications, citations, and co-authors.
Find out more about author profiles including how to review and revise your profile and how to analyse author output.
What metrics are available to me in Scopus?
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Metrics are a method of showing the influence and attention for scholarly output. Scopus has a number of metrics available to users at article, journal and author level.
Article level metrics
Four Scopus-specific metrics can be found on a document’s metrics details page:
Total number of citations Citations per year Citation benchmarking (percentile) – shows how citations received by an output compare with the average for similar outputs Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) – shows how well an output is cited when compared to similar outputs The Scopus article metrics tutorial provides an overview of the article level metrics available. An accessible text only version is also available.
Journal level metrics
Journal level metrics can be accessed through the sources section of Scopus. An online tutorial shows how to access a source (such as a journal) and explains the metrics available for that title.
Metrics available include:
CiteScore – measures the citation impact of serial titles such as journals, and is based on the average citations received per document. It shows the number of citations received by a journal in one year to documents published in the three previous years, divided by the number of documents indexed in Scopus published in those same three years. Find out more about CiteScore . SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) – a prestige metric for journals, book series and conference proceedings that weights the value of a citation based on the subject field, quality and reputation of the source. Find out more about SJR . Source-Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP) measures contextual citation impact by taking differences in disciplinary characters into account – it can be used to compare journals in different fields. Find out more about SNIP . Author level metrics
Author metrics are used to track how often an author's work is cited, and demonstrate the reach and impact of a researcher's work.
Three categories of metric are available:
H-index displays a view of a researcher's performance based on career publications, as measured by the lifetime number of citations that each published output receives; h-indices intend to provide a balance between productivity (scholarly output) and citation influence (citation count). Citation overview tracker is an adjustable date-range table that details the number of times each output has been cited per publication year. Visual analysis tools allow the user to analyse an author’s output with a collection of tools designed to provide a picture of an individual’s publication history and influence. These include outputs by year, type, source and subject, a list of most regular co-authors, and a citation overview which breaks down citations by output and year. An online tutorial outlines the author metrics and visual analysis tools available in Scopus.
Where can I get further help / guidance?
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The Scopus user guide is a good source of further information about Scopus and includes links to online tutorials.
If you need further help or support with getting the most out of Scopus, or if you have specific questions around the use of research metrics, please email libraryresearch@gcu.ac.uk .
Tell us about your experience of using Scopus
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Your feedback helps the library to make decisions about the value of resource to our users. Please tell us your experience of using Scopus by completing this short feedback form .
SciVal
What information does SciVal contain?
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GCU subscribes to four SciVal modules:
The Overview Module provides a high-level overview of your GCU's research performance based on publications, citations and collaborations The Benchmarking Module allows you to evaluate your research performance in comparison to peers, or GCU's research performance compared to other institutions The Trends Module allows you to discover emerging research topics and to identify the top-performing countries, institutions, authors and journals of a specific topic The Reporting Module lets you create tailored reports specific to your requirements.
How can I access SciVal?
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You can access SciVal via Discover . When you use SciVal for the first time you’ll need to create a personal Elsevier account if you don't already have one. This will let you create new entities to analyse, save reports and create alerts.
What guidance and support is available?
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This short video provides a basic introduction to SciVal.
The following guides provide more detailed information about using SciVal:
If you need further help or support with getting the most out of SciVal, or if you have specific questions around the use of research metrics, please email libraryresearch@gcu.ac.uk .
