The Scopus database is available on a trial basis from the 4th of November – 3rd December 2013.

Scopus is one of the largest abstract and citation databases of peer-reviewed literature.  Produced by Elsevier, Scopus has over 19,000 titles from over 5,000 publishers worldwide and is a rival database to Web of Science.  Broadly speaking, compared to Web of Science, Scopus has greater international coverage, includes more unique journals of more recent provenance than Web of Science but includes lower impact journals. Scopus also only includes citation data from 1996.

We are interested in your feedback on which is your preferred database based on the current trial or past experience. As Elsevier also provide the software underlying the University’s Research Gateway, Pure, we are interested in exploring the option of subscribing to Scopus as well as or potentially instead of Web of Science.

The Scopus Information site is available on the web at http://info.scopus.com.  It contains a wealth of resources including:

• User guides and tips
• Title lists
• Quick tips and Frequently Asked Questions

Access to Scopus is restricted to the Heriot-Watt IP range.  If you need any assistance using Scopus, please contact your Subject Librarian.

A guided trial presented by representatives from Elsevier will be held on Friday 15th November at 10.30 am (Cameron Smail Library). If you would like to attend, please contact Linda Kerr.  Academic and research staff will be given priority.

For an in-depth comparison between Scopus and Web of Science, please see this recent paper