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Introduction to Scopus

This guide will introduce the basic features of Scopus.

Get Help with Scopus

The Library offers workshops and appointments to introduce members of the Brandeis community to Scopus:

Trends in Search Results

Scopus offers a variety of ways to explore trends, including the following features:

Analyze Search Results: Scopus provides an analysis of your search results and shows you the number of documents in your search results brken down by year, source, author, affiliation, country, document type, subject area, and funding sponsor. Learn more about this feature

Analyze Author Output: You can view an author's output in terms of their publications, h-index, citations, and co-authors. Learn more about this feature

Affiliation Search: For an institution (or affiliation), you can view affiliated authors, collaborating affiliations, the total number of published documents,, and the number of documents by subject area or source.

Research Metrics

Journal Metrics

Scopus includes several metrics journal that are intended to measure the impact of individual journals. Note: Scopus does not include JCR impact factors, but impact factors are often listed on the "about" page of a journal's homepage.

CiteScore: a ratio that reflects the number of articles a journal published within the last three years, compared to the number of citations those articles received in the same period. More information about CiteScore

Note: CiteScore is not field-normalized, so it should not be used to compare journals in different academic disciplines. For multidisciplinary comparisons, see SNIP.

SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper): the ratio of a journal's average citation count and the citation potential of its subject field. This metric is designed to help compare journals across different academic disciplines. More information about SNIP

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank): a metric intended to reflect a journal's prestige, which takes into account both the number of citations the journal receives and the importance of other journals that cite it. More information about SJR

Author Metrics

When you're viewing an author in Scopus, the author metrics appear in a box to the right of the author's name and information. Note: to ensure that your author profile is complete, click on "View potential author matches." 

h-index: a metric based on the number of papers an author has published and the number of citations the papers have received. More information about the h-index and h-graph

Documents by Author: the number of articles and other documents by this author that are indexed in Scopus.

Total Citations: The number of citations an author's works have received by articles that are indexed in Scopus.

Article Metrics

When you're viewing an article (or other document) in Scopus, the article metrics appear in a box to the right of the title and abstract. Click on "View all metrics" to see more detailed metrics. More information about article metrics in Scopus

Citations in Scopus: the number of times an article has been cited by other articles that are indexed in Scopus.

Field-Weighted Citation Impact: a ratio intended to normalize the number of citations articles receive across different academic disciplines (the ratio is the # of citations an article has received / # of citations that would be expected based on the academic discipline's average)

If the field-weighted citation impact for an article is:

  • exactly 1: the number of citations is exactly average for the field
  • more than 1: the number of citations is higher than average for the field
  • less than 1: the number of citations is lower than average for the field

PlumX Metrics: a data visualization intended to show views, clicks, social media mentions/shares, and other alternative metrics