Like Web of Science, Scopus records include cited references that allow researchers to move forward in time from known articles to later ones that have cited them and also to see how often a given article has been cited. As its coverage is more extensive, Scopus often reveals more citation links than Web of Science which will make it particularly useful to researchers wishing to gauge the impact of their work. A downside is that generally only Scopus records since 1996 have cited references attached to them.
Links from Scopus to the CSA (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts) set of databases have been set up, which means that when you do a search in Scopus you will also be searching 4,500 titles in:
ARTBibliographies Modern, back to 1974
DAAI: Design and Applied Art Index, back to 1973
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, back to 1962
Sociological Abstracts, back to 1952
Social Services Abstracts, back to 1979
For a record available on CSA, you will see an “Abstract on CSA” button below the title in the Scopus search results.
In a brief trial earlier this year Scopus received high marks from Massey staff and students for its usability. Although there is considerable overlap between the journals covered by Scopus and Web of Science it would not be advisable to opt solely for use of one in favour of the other – however searching both (plus specialist databases) would give a particularly comprehensive result.
Scopus, Web of Science and other databases are available on the Library's Article Databases page.
