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Wednesday 21 June 2017

Database Review by Library PTS (Part Time Student Librarian) - Using Scopus Database: Downloading Articles, Viewing Journal Impact Factor & Author H-Index)

Review by Puvaneswari Marappan
Click the image above to access the database


1. Which feature(s) I like the most about the database?
Articles can be searched directly from the homepage. Advanced search option can be applied in the search engine based on relevancy. Scopus allows for a refined search result by processing the documents into specific categories. Users have option for Full text can be downloaded from ‘Open Access’ articles as shown above by clicking View at Publisher. These open access title are also included in the index.  To view impact factor for the journal, click the journal title. To view author H-Index, click the author’s name.

Articles can be downloaded directly from the database.


Journal metrics value is provided for all journals in Scopus. This unique feature can be utilised by simply clicking on ‘browse search’ and proceeding with the article of interest. CiteScore provides transparency on citation of a particular document.

Impact factor of the journal can easily be detected.


2. Has the database benefit you in your learning process?
Useful for authors in the evaluation of impact factor as well as performance of journals and thus detecting the authenticity of a particular journal prior publication. Metric values allows the user to easily assess the quality of a specific paper, citations, authors and many more. Authors as well as affliations’ work can be searched effortlessly using ORCID(Open Research and Contributor Indentifier) ID. Users are allowed to save their searchs fro future use under ‘My Profile’. Notification will be received from time to time to update the user on newly added / removed articles.

3. Does the database suit you or any other programs and why?
This database serves a huge purpose for the research community. Providing indexes webpages, 99% citation accuracy, links for both cited and citing documents, patents, millions of relevant webpages and the list goes on. Having both basic and advanced level of search engines eliminates the limitations on various range of users.

4. Would you recommend this database to your colleagues and why?
Scopus is produced by Elsevier Co claiming to be the largest abstract and index database with complete coverage of MEDLINE, Compendax and EMBASE. Although it’s a newly developed database, it possesses considerably good navigation and search engines with some good feedbacks from existing users. Moreover, it is available from IMU library.

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