In this part of the course we cover the search results in Scopus - what do you see on the screen and what can you do with it?
The document search results appear as a list of titles: you see the title, authors, source, year and the number of citations within Scopus. You can hit the link Show all abstracts (at the top of the list of results, at the right side of the screen) to make the abstract visible as well. You can also do this for each separate document in the list, by clicking Show abstract.
By default this list is sorted on date, the newest document on top. You can change the order by choosing one of the options behind Sort by at the top of the results: you can sort on date, number of times cited, relevance, author and source.
Next to the Documents tab, there are the tabs Secondary documents and Patents, and a link to datasets in Mendeley Data:
To find the full-text of the article, Scopus offers different options:
When you click a title, the full record opens, with more options:
When you have installed the Lean Library browser extension, there is a DOI in the data Scopus provides ánd the EUR has access to the full-text, you get the 'article available, but somewhere else!' pop-up, with a link to the article.
Please note: The button Download not always gives the pdf of the article – only after downloading you can see whether the full-text was downloaded or the abstract.
When you click on a title, Scopus shows you more information about that particular document: the abstract, information about the author(s), the keywords, the references etc. Your search terms are highlighted. The source title and the author names are also clickable, these links bring you to the Source page or to the Author page in Scopus.
Under the abstract (not visible in the example, you find - if available - the Author keywords (not visible in the example), Indexed keywords - keywords added to the article by databases like EmBase or PubMed, SciVal Topics, Metrics and Funding details.
SciVal Topics are collections of documents with a common intellectual interest. They are created by clustering the citation network of all Scopus publications from 1996 onwards. Direct citations are used, using the document reference lists. They can help you find extra keywords, representative publications and top authors.
Under Metrics you can find article level metrics, including the field-weighted citation impact and the PlumX metrics. The PlumX metrics provide insights into the ways people interact with individual pieces of research output online. If you click View PlumX details, you are brought to the Plum X Metrics page, with more detailed information. More information about PlumX Metrics in Scopus can be found here.
On the right side of the screen you can see the most recent citing documents within Scopus. You can also find related documents based on shared references, authors or keywords.
At the left side of the results list you can refine the results, for example limiting to or excluding Open Access publications, certain years, authors, subject areas, document types, etc. The five most common options are shown. When you click the link Show all you get a list of all subject areas, the top 160 of the authors etc. You have to mark the ones you want to limit to or exclude, then hit the button Limit to or Exclude.
By default the subject areas, author names etc. are sorted by the number of results. This can make it hard to find the subject areas, authors or titles you’re looking for. You can change the order from Number of results to Alphabetical at the top of the pop-up behind Sort by.
On top of the list of results, you can click Analyze results. Here you get a graphical overview of the search results, based on year, source title, author, affiliation, country, document type, subject area or funding sponsor (you have to scroll down the page to see all options). This helps you for example to determine the growth of interest in an area or the journals that publish on a certain topic. In the graphs you can click and Scopus will show you the specific search results.
From the list of results you can mark the documents you find interesting, or mark all documents found (see below how to select all), and create a Citation overview, by clicking the link Citation overview above the search results.
When you have more than 2000 search results, the citation overview is too large to display, but Scopus offers the option to submit a request for an overview of the documents. To get less than 2000 search results you can return to the search results and add filters or select particular results using the numbers. In the example we used a subject area filter and selected Psychology.
When you scroll down the page you get a list of the documents and the number of citations received by year. The number of citations is a link: when you click this link you see the citing documents in Scopus.
The data in the Documents part of the Citation overview can be exported, you will get a csv-file. The Export button can be found above the graph.
If you want to save documents found, you need a Scopus account and be signed in. You can mark the documents, and click the three dots and then Save to list on top of the list of results. Give the list a name, or add the documents to an existing list. You can open the list later, by clicking your initials in the right upper corner, and then opening Saved lists.
If you want to send the titles to RefWorks or another reference manager, use the link Export. First you have to choose the file type (for example csv), reference manager (for example ProQuest RefWorks) or platform (SciVal). Then you have to select the information you want to export, by marking the specific fields or by marking the headers of the columns.
Please note: if you select ProQuest RefWorks and click Export, a pop-up appears in the bottom right corner of your screen, with a link 'View your export in a new tab...'. Click that link to start the export.
During your session Scopus keeps your search history. You find the overview at the bottom of the Document Search page. There you can edit a search, by adding extra search fields. You can also combine searches afterwards, by clicking Combine queries. You can select your queries and add the Boolean operator (OR, AND or AND NOT). You can also combine queries in the Advanced document search, there you can enter the number of the query, preceeded by a #, add Boolean operators and parentheses - for example #1 AND (#2 OR #3).
From the search history, you can save searches, so you can rerun them later. To save a search, click More and then Save this search - the disk icon. When you click Set Alert (the bell icon), you create an alert: you’ll receive an e-mail message with the results of a daily, weekly or monthly rerun of the search. To do this you need a Scopus account.
You can also find the Save search and Set search alert options at the top of the result page).
A link to your list of saved searches and alerts is available when you click your initials in the upper right corner of the screen.
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This link opens in a new windowScopus is a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature (journals and books). The search results also contain links to preprints (2017 onwards) and research data.