Definition · Plain-language
Scopus
Scopus is Elsevier’s large multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, used for searching the literature, tracking citations, building author profiles and generating research metrics.
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What Scopus indexes
Scopus is a curated index of peer-reviewed scholarly literature spanning the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. It records bibliographic metadata and abstracts for journal articles, conference proceedings, book series, trade publications and some books, together with the reference lists that let it map citations between works. Rather than hosting full text itself, Scopus links out to publishers’ versions and to library holdings. Its broad subject and language coverage make it one of the two dominant subscription citation databases used for systematic searching and bibliometric analysis, the other being Web of Science.
Citation tracking, author profiles and metrics
Because Scopus captures cited references, it can show how often a work has been cited and by whom, supporting citation analysis and literature tracing. It automatically groups a researcher’s publications under a Scopus Author ID, creating an author profile that underpins author-level metrics such as the h-index. At the journal level, Scopus data feed CiteScore, the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) and the Source Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP). These complement the Web-of-Science-derived Journal Impact Factor and give institutions and funders an alternative source for research evaluation.
Curation and content selection
Titles are not indexed automatically. An independent Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) — composed of subject experts — reviews titles against transparent criteria covering peer-review policy, editorial quality, regularity of publication and citedness before they are accepted, and re-evaluates titles that underperform. This curation is what distinguishes Scopus and Web of Science from open, automatically harvested indexes such as Google Scholar: coverage is selective and quality-controlled, which supports their use in formal research assessment but also means newer or smaller journals may not yet be included.
Scopus compared with Web of Science
Scopus (Elsevier) and Web of Science (Clarivate) are the two leading curated citation databases, and their coverage overlaps substantially but is not identical. Scopus generally indexes a larger number of journals, especially in the social sciences, humanities and non-English literature, while Web of Science’s longer-established Core Collection is often emphasised for deep historical citation depth and is the source of the Journal Impact Factor. For systematic reviews and bibliometric studies, methodologists frequently recommend searching both, because relying on a single database risks missing relevant records.
Key facts
At a glance
- Definition: Elsevier’s multidisciplinary abstract and citation database
- Owner: Elsevier
- Coverage: peer-reviewed journals, conference papers, books across all disciplines
- Profiles: Scopus Author ID groups an author’s publications automatically
- Metrics: CiteScore, SJR, SNIP, h-index
- Curation: independent Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB)
Common misconceptions
What people often get wrong
Often heard: Scopus is a free, open database like Google Scholar.
Actually: Scopus is a subscription product from Elsevier with a curated, selectively indexed scope. Google Scholar, by contrast, is free and harvests content automatically without the same editorial quality control.
Often heard: Scopus and Web of Science index the same journals, so searching one is enough.
Actually: Their coverage overlaps but differs — Scopus typically indexes more titles, especially outside English-language science. For systematic reviews, searching both is widely recommended to avoid missing records.
Often heard: The impact factor comes from Scopus.
Actually: The Journal Impact Factor is a Clarivate metric derived from Web of Science. The comparable journal metric from Scopus is CiteScore, alongside SJR and SNIP.
Going deeper
