Full database
Licensed
Broad spectrum healthcare
Broad spectrum related/other fields
Health sciences, medicine, nursing science, natural sciences, technology, social sciences, arts, humanities.
Broad spectrum of document types
Books/book chapters
Journal articles
Broad spectrum of research designs
International
English
Multiple interface languages
Four other languages (German is not included).
English
Daily
- The database offers numerous statistics (e.g. publication period, authors, document type) on search results with a click on "Analyze search results" and detailed statistics and individual citation scores (e.g. number of citations, citation benchmarking, field-weighted citation impact) for individual references.
- PlumX Metrics (measures of interactions with research results on the Internet in five categories, e.g. use in the form of clicks or downloads, citations or actions in the social media area).
- Scopus offers the possibility to add the authors of a reference to the so-called "author list" in order to access or analyze them at a later date.
Basic functions
Search functions
A search for specific authors ("Author search") and institutions ("Affiliation search") is also possible.
AND, OR and ANDNOT.
* (any number of characters), ? (exactly one character), both wildcards can be used at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word. Several wildcards possible in one word.
W/n (n is to be replaced with the maximum number of words separating two terms. The order of the words is not specified) and PRE/n (see above, but distance n between words with a specified order).
Distinction between
- loose phrase: Use of quotation marks
""(search terms must be contained together in the title, abstract or index terms) - not a loose phrase: Use of brackets
()(search terms can be contained separately in the title, abstract or index terms) - exact phrase: Use of braces
{}(search for an exact phrase including stop words, spaces and punctuation) Except for the search "exact phrase", a simultaneous use of wildcards and brackets is possible and the plural and different spelling variants of the search term are automatically searched.
The simultaneous search in title and abstract is possible via the search command "Article title, Abstract, Keywords".
Scopus allows searches in keyword fields, but does not have its own keyword system. Further information can be found under index term search.
Filter functions
The publication date can only be narrowed down to the year.
E.g. Article, Review, Book Chapter.
E.g. Open access, Author name, Keywords, Publication level (final article or "Article in Press").
In the left-hand section of the hit list, you can limit or exclude publications with certain properties.
Display of search results
"Date (newest)" or "Date (oldest)".
Alphabetically ascending or descending by first author.
Alphabetically ascending or descending by journal title.
By number of citations: "Cited by (highest)" or "Cited by (lowest)".
The number of hits displayed per page can be set to 20, 50, 100, 200.
Search process and export
Via e-mail and/or RSS feed.
Support functions
Error message for missing brackets, missing quotation marks and incorrect operators or search fields. No correction of typing errors.
Help area and tutorials under "Help" and for selected fields under "?".
Special functions
Important search commands
Search term is searched for in the title.
Search terms are searched for in the title, abstract and index terms.
Search term is searched in the following address fields of the authors: city, country, organization. In the search, you can specify whether all terms must be found in the same affiliation.
Controlled vocabulary
Scopus does not have its own keyword system. The index term search is based on the index terms assigned by the authors or journals or on the basis of other controlled vocabularies. It should be noted that despite the assignment of index terms, no hierarchically structured and controlled search is possible as with a keyword system.
In the "Advanced" search mode, a distinction can be made between "Author Keywords" and "Indexed Keywords". "Author Keywords" are keywords that are assigned by authors or the journals of a document. "Indexed Keywords" are keywords that are derived from controlled vocabulary in other databases (e.g. MeSH, Emtree) and are assigned to the entries by Scopus. "Indexed keywords take into account synonyms, different spellings and plural forms. Further information on this can be found here: Link.
They can be entered using the following search commands.
Only for "Author Keywords".
Only for "Indexed Keywords".
For "Author Keywords" and "Indexed Keywords" together.
Citation searching
Due to its special functions, the database is suitable for forward and backward literature searches. This can be based on one or more references, as described below. The procedure is different for forward and backward searches.
Backward citation searching
If you want to search backwards from a reference, you should navigate to the single view of the intended reference.
Below the bibliographic information of a reference, the cited references are listed, which can be marked ("All") and exported (see Export).
Situations in which a backward search based on several references is indicated can occur, for example, in the context of systematic reviews, if a backward citation searching is to be carried out based on the included hits.
- In order to carry out the forward search from several references as quickly as possible, the DOIs of the intended references (in the case of a literature review, these would be hits that have already been included) must be merged into a search string in Scopus. The principle here is to join the DOIs with the OR operator and enter them in the "Advanced Search".
- Using three randomly selected references, this would be the entry
DOI(10.1080/02673843.2020.1711529) OR DOI(10.1080/16549716.2020.1711618) OR DOI(10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102261)in the "Advanced Search". - You then receive three hits.
- All three must be marked with a tick above the hit list.
- The references cited by the three hits (backwards search) can be obtained by clicking on "..." in the menu above the hits and then clicking on "View references".
- The resulting hits (citing references) can now be exported in a further step (see Export).
Forward citation searching
If you want to perform a forward search starting from a reference, you should navigate to the individual view of the intended reference. Starting from a single reference, the forward search can be carried out using the "Cited by" or "View all citing documents" search mode in the right-hand column next to a reference entry. In the next step, these can be marked ("All") and exported (see Export). In addition to the forward search, a "Citation alert" can be set up for a notification when the selected reference has been cited. Situations in which a forward search based on several references is displayed can occur, for example, in the context of systematic reviews, if a forward citation searching is to be carried out based on the included hits.
- In order to carry out the forward search from several references as quickly as possible, the DOIs of the intended references (in the case of a literature review, these would be hits that have already been included) must be combined to form a search string in Scopus. The principle here is to join the DOIs with the OR operator and enter them in the "Advanced Search".
- Using three randomly selected references, this would be the entry
DOI(10.1080/02673843.2020.1711529) OR DOI(10.1080/16549716.2020.1711618) OR DOI(10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102261)in the "Advanced Search". - You then receive three hits.
- All three must be marked with a tick ("All") above the hit list.
- The "View cited by" function is then available and clicking on it will display all references citing these three hits (forward search).
- The resulting hits (citing references) can now be exported in a further step (see Export).
Export of results
Export of single hits
- Click on the hits to be exported.
- Click on "Export" (above the hits).
- Select export format.
- Select the type of information to be exported.
- Click on "Export".
- All further steps depend on the web browser and reference management software used. Alternatively, hits can be added to a list and then exported. It is also possible to create a reference list in different citation styles for selected documents.
Export of all hits at once
Only a maximum of 20,000 hits can be exported in RIS format with a limited amount of information. If there are a large number of hits, a link will be sent by e-mail for downloading.
- Click on "All" above the hits.
- Click on "Export" (above the hits).
- Select export format.
- Select the type of information to be exported.
- Click on "Export".
- All further steps depend on the web browser and reference management software used. Alternatively, hits can be added to a list and then exported. It is also possible to create a reference list in different citation styles for selected documents.