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Universiteitsbibliotheek – LibGuides

Scopus (EN): Get going

What is Scopus?

Scopus-logo

Scopus is a search engine containing abstracts of articles and book chapters in all subject areas. It also contains the references from and citations to those articles and book chapters.

Use the UBUlink-klein to get to the article itself.

Where to find Scopus?

You will find Scopus under the list of search engines of the University Library.
The database can be accessed by Utrecht University or UMCU staff and students via SolisID or UMCU login.

What to use Scopus for?

Searching for:

  • scientific/scholarly articles
  • book chapters
  • citations of articles (from 1970)
  • citation score of authors (H-index)
  • citation data of the publications of authors
  • the impact of journals (CiteScore, SJR, SNIP)

Search by subject (documents)

Scopus search box

Type your search words in 'Documents' and use the default option; 'Article title, Abstract, keywords' or choose a field from the drop down menu.
Use English search terms (if other languages are not needed).
If necessary, limit by period ('Date Range').

Searching for literature via an article you already know

First go to the article you already know, for instance by entering the author and some words from the title (select All fields); you may also limit to publication year.
If you click on the article your are given four options to find more literature:

  1. View the references below the abstract, these are the sources which this article refers to (searching back in time)
  2. Via Cited by (right column) you will find more recent articles referring to this article
  3. Via related documents (right column) you will find articles related to your article
  4. Click on the author's name: in this way you can see if he/she has written more about the subject

What do you find in Scopus?

In Scopus you will find sources from all disciplines, especially:

  • health sciences (incl. the complete collection from MEDLINE, nursing, dentistry)
  • physical sciences (incl. chemistry, physics, engineering)
  • social sciences (incl. Arts & Humanities, psychology, economy, business)
  • life sciences (incl. neurosciences, biology, pharmacologie) 

Types of publications:

  • articles from peer reviewed journals (incl. over 5500 open access journals),   
    • oldest record from 1788
    • bulk from 1969 (incl. references)
  • cited references (from 1970) 
  • books and book chapters ( but NO book reviews)
  • book series
  • conference proceedings (only complete papers, NO conference abstracts)
  • articles that are not yet published ( 'in press')
  • patents
  • Find here  the most recent Scopus Content Coverage Guide

Find out more

Facts and figures

  • Coverage period: 19th century to the present; where possible journals are indexed from the first volume; citation information from 1970
  • Size: data on > 77 million documents from >25,000 journals from > 5,000 publishers
  • Default search method: AND (spacing=AND)
  • Default order of results: chronological (newest on top)
  • Truncation with: *
  • Provider: Elsevier
  • ID for UU-users of PapersApp: 21878

UBUlink: availability of digital publications

In your search for scholarly literature you may sometimes find the UBU-link. This link provides information about the availability of digital publications via the University Library.  Sometimes the UBU-link is in the form of a yellow button, but it can also be a text link.

logo of UBU link

written UBU link in Google Scholar: fulltext@UBUlink

Want to know more about all options to access digital publications? Visit our Online Access page.