Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database encompassing peer-reviewed literature across various fields, featuring tools to analyze citation impact and track research trends. Users can search for documents using basic or advanced search modes, and access features like citation analysis, author impact assessment, and refinement options for search results. Additionally, Scopus integrates with PlumX metrics for comprehensive insights on documents and authors based on online interactions.

1. Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-
reviewed literature (scientific journals, books and
conference proceedings) covering a broad array of global,
interdisciplinary scientific information.
One of its special features is its ability to track citations,
which allows a user to analyse and visualise research
communities and networks.
Citation impact reports easily generated at topic and author
levels with the ability to custom report focus.
67 million article records, 562 Book serials, 34,000 individual
book volumes and 1.39 million items from 5000 publishers
8 million conference papers from nearly 100,000 worldwide
events
University Library

2. Search OneSearch for the Scopus
Database
Make sure it has the DATABASE icon
Click on the record to reveal the
full-text link to Scopus

3. Beginning your Search in
Scopus
Document search allows you to
enter your terms into a search
box and choose the fields you
want to search from the drop
down box.
BEST to search Scopus in basic search mode
known as “Document Search”
Terms can be combined
using Boolean. Select a
connector from the
AND/OR/AND NOT
drop-down list.
To search additional
terms, add a search box
Note: We recommend against using the Advanced Search in Scopus; it requires
knowledge of constructing search strings using Boolean operators, nesting and field labels.

4. Beginning your Search in
Scopus
Limits can be set for
date range, update
frequency and
document type
We use double quotes to
indicate “Zika Virus" as a phrase
and not as separate words.
You can see the searches
you've run this session in
the Search History table.

5. Viewing your Results in
Scopus
You can sort the documents by
different criteria to meet your
research needs.
In Scopus, sorting by
“Cited by (highest)”
is a core feature.
Use the Refine
results feature to filter
the results list by
categories such as
publication year, author
name, or subject area.

6. Viewing your Results in
Scopus
The Cited by column shows you the number
of documents that cite the listed article.
Click the number in the Cited by column to
see a list of all of the documents that have
cited that particular article..
‘Cited by’ searching is a way of finding additional articles relevant to your topic.
This system of searching allows you to take a key article on your topic and see if
any other researchers have used that article and included it in their bibliography.
Sorting by ‘Cited by’ (highest) allows you to:
• Analyse the impact of key publications.
• Discover whose research has been cited the most on your topic and how it is
being used to support current research.
The ‘Analyze search results’ tool allows you
to analyse your search results to identify
author or affiliation or source relationships.

7. Analysing your Search
Results in Scopus
Use the tabs to see the analysis
based on different parameters
For example, the Author tab shows the total number of documents
per author on this topic.
Hence, who the most prolific authors on this topic are.
This analysis is based on the 2946 search
results for “Zika virus”

8. Document detail analysis
We can also explore the metrics at an
individual article level.
This shows us the
significance of this
papers citation
compared to other
papers in the field.
We can see the link to
PlumX for the social
metric measures.
Click to

9. Searching for an Author
in Scopus
An Author search in Scopus looks
for all the variations of an
author's name that are online
You can limit the search so it only retrieves
authors whose names are an exact match to
the name you entered.
NB: Only use this if you know there is just the one
unique name for your author.
You can also limit the search by the
affiliation associated with the author.

10. Analysing an Author’s
Impact in Scopus
The author details page includes author name variations, links to other documents
written by the author, and links to documents which have cited the author's work.
To view documents which have
cited the author, click Cited by...
The search results include all authors whose last names contain
Payne and first names contain Matthew.
NB: You can select the tick box for all of the name derivatives that appear to relate the
author you are searching.
There are many features on the results page that can
help you find out more about the author.
The search results also show you the subject areas and
the most recent affiliations associated with an author.
You can go to the
author details
page by clicking
on the name.

11. Analysing an Author’s
Impact in Scopus
The author details page includes author name variations, links to other documents
written by the author, and links to documents which have cited the author's work.
To view documents which have
cited the author, click Cited by...
(the highest cited article will be first)
The author details page includes author name variations, a list of documents
written by the author within Scopus, links to documents which have cited
the author's work and research impact analysis and reporting options.
Click on the author’s
highest cited article to view
the Document details.

12. PlumX Metrics in Scopus
To view the full details of the
PlumX metrics, click on the
image. If you want to view a
quick summary of the metrics
then click on the arrow.
PlumX categorises the metrics into five categories – Usage, Captures, Mentions,
Social Media and Citations. It helps make sense of a large amount of metrics
data and enables analysis by comparing metrics that are “like for like.”
As well as tracking citations from scholarly articles, Scopus
also links to PlumX which tracks metrics about an article or
author from interactions on the Internet more broadly.

13. PlumX Metrics in Scopus
To view the full details of the PlumX metrics, click on see details which
you will find further down the Scopus citation metrics report page.
This provides a broader picture of the general readership and interest in this paper.

14. Saved Lists in Scopus
It is also possible to save a selection of results into a “saved list” and
run citation analysis reports on the selected articles only.
Set up a personal log-in to save your list and search results.