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How to publish your research paper in a journal indexed under SCOPUS database?

Founded in 2004, SCOPUS is one of the largest indexing databases for journals and books in the medical and life sciences field. Over 25,000 journals and 200,000 books are indexed under the SCOPUS database. Publications are the primary metric for success in the research field. Publication in a high-impact and peer-reviewed scholarly journal is the ultimate aim of a researcher to demonstrate his/her credibility. Popular and reputed databases such as SCOPUS indexes the journals by considering several factors; regularity (issue release frequency), type of review process (peer-reviewed or not), and reputation of the journal. Hence, publication in a SCOPUS indexed journal can be challenging. The following section describes a step-by-step process that will help you to publish your research paper in a suitable journal indexed under the SCOPUS database.

Performing search in the SCOPUS database

It is effortless to search for SCOPUS indexed journals under a specific category or with a keyword on the homepage ( https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri ). One can search for a specific journal just by providing simple details such as –

• The specific subject of interest,
• Title or Keyword of the specific journal/publication,
• Name of the publisher, and

However, if one is not sure of these details, he/she can perform a broader search by selecting the specific subject area of the research.

Identifying the target journal

Check for the aim and scope of the journal, examine the nature of the journal, and ensure its peer-review process. Research about the journal performance and understand the review and publication timelines. Confirm whether your target journal is indexed in SCOPUS by performing a search in the database, as mentioned in the above section. Keep ease, quality, reach and impact at the forefront of your mind and look for the appropriate publishing models (Open Access or Subscription-Based).

Preparing the research paper based on journal guidelines

Author guidelines are made available by the author in the author’s information or about the journal section. Follow the guidelines provide while formatting your paper and attach a cover letter (must) and mention the reason if any of the given instruction is not followed. Always limit the number of tables and figures and remove additional information to concise the data. Prepare figures and tables carefully and format exactly as mentioned in the guidelines. The length of the manuscript must be considered while formatting. An ideal length for a manuscript is 25 to 40 pages, double spaced, including essential data only. Write a concise and straight-to-point conclusion. Do not just repeat the abstract; the conclusion should explain the novelty of the research and the future aspects.

Submitting Your Paper

The final step is to submit the final formatted paper to the target journal via the submission portal. A good and complete understanding of the journal’s terms and conditions is required while submitting your paper. One should be aware of where to submit a paper, submission deadlines, submission fee, or open access fee, and any other procedural necessities to follow before submission.

In conclusion, having a research paper published in a Scopus indexed journal is of great importance for researchers. Researchers require carefully preparing and understanding all the requirements for formatting and submission. The requirements for scientific publication in a SCOPUS indexed journal are very high, and every researcher must understand this before submitting their work for review.

ManuscriptEdit helps authors and researchers at every step of their publication journey by offering dynamic and customizable editorial services including Proofreading, Formatting, and Journal Recommendations and Submission.

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The Bibliometric Literature on Scopus and WoS: The Medicine and Environmental Sciences Categories as Case of Study

Mila cascajares.

1 Department of Engineering, University of Almeria, ceiA3, 04120 Almeria, Spain; se.lau@sacalim (M.C.); se.lau@edyaclaa (A.A.); se.lau@onaznamf (F.M.-A.)

Alfredo Alcayde

Esther salmerón-manzano.

2 Faculty of Law, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Av. de la Paz, 137, 26006 Logroño, Spain

Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro

Associated data.

Data retrieved from Scopus, SciVal, WoS, Incites, JCR and SJR databases.

In a broad sense, science can be understood as the knowledge contained in scientific manuscripts published in scientific journals. Scientific databases index only those journals that reach certain quality standards. Therefore, research and dissemination of scientific knowledge are essential activities for the growth of science itself. The aim of this manuscript is to assess the situation of medicine and environmental sciences among the bibliometric literature and to put it in perspective with the overall bibliometric publications in all scientific fields. The main countries publishing bibliometric manuscripts are China, USA and Spain. The latter country is ranked three out of the top five institutions according to the Scopus and WoS databases. In both databases, the average scientific collaboration of the top 20 institutions offers the same result, 41%. According to Scopus, the main subject categories in which this research falls are social sciences (38%), computer science (26%) and medicine (23%), while the environmental sciences category has 8%. In the analysis of the Medicine category alone, it has been observed that 136 countries have contributions in this field. The main countries are the United States, China and the United Kingdom. In the field of medicine, the main areas studied were: Epidemiology, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Cardiology, Neurosurgery, Radiology, Ophthalmology, Oncology, Plastic Surgery and Psychiatry. With respect to environmental sciences, less international dissemination has been found, with only 83 countries having worked in this field. The main ones are China, Spain and the United States. Regarding the top 10 institutions, it can be stated that only Spain and China are relevant. Spain focuses on sustainability and China on the environment. The result of an independent keyword analysis of all published bibliometric manuscripts has shown that the main clusters are: Mapping Science (29%), Research Productivity (23%), Medicine (20%), Environmental Sciences (12%), Psychology (7%), Nursing (6%) and Engineering (4%). In short, medicine and environmental sciences are the most relevant areas in the field of bibliometrics after social sciences and computer sciences.

1. Introduction

Bibliometrics, as a science-related discipline, aims to provide a set of tools for the assessment of scientific production. From its origin at the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, bibliometric studies have focused on different points of view. In 1917 Cole and Eales carried out the first bibliometric study through the statistical analysis of publications on comparative anatomy [ 1 ], thus initiating the use of bibliometrics for the measurement of scientific activity. Following this same approach, in 1926 Lotka focused his work on analyzing the scientific production of researchers with the so-called Lotka’s Law of Productivity, a law that determines that the greatest number of authors publish the least number of publications, while the least number of authors publish the greatest number of publications [ 2 ]. In 1956, Price formulated the Law of Exponential Growth of Scientific Information, stating that it grows at a much faster rate than other social processes. Price also states that the scientific literature loses relevance more rapidly, although not in a uniform manner depending on the different disciplines. Thus, while in the experimental sciences and technology the growth in number of publications is greater and faster, their decline is more rapid, in contrast to the behavior found in the humanities and social sciences. Later, it was in 1963 when Price introduced a new element in the development of bibliometrics by relating the growth of science to scientific communication [ 3 ].

A second aspect of bibliometrics is oriented to the analysis of the publications’ references in the scientific literature. Thus, in 1927 Gross and Gross made the first count of references appearing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society to study the frequency of their appearance and the sources of their origin, applying the study to the selection of the list of subscriptions of interest [ 4 ]. In 1934 Bradford analyzed the distribution of articles in journals by formulating Bradford’s Law of Dispersion, according to which it was evident that a small number of journals accounted for the largest percentage of the bibliography of a specific topic [ 5 ]. If scientific journals are arranged in decreasing order of productivity of articles on a given subject, one can distinguish a core of journals more specialized in that subject and several groups containing approximately the same core but distributed in an increasing number of journals. It can be understood as the background of the classification of journals by scientific categories.

The third point of view focuses on the analysis of the impact and visibility of research through citation activity. As early as 1873 Shepard developed a citation index following the codification applied to federal court judgments in the United States. However, it was not until 1936 that Cason and Lubotky created for the first time a citation network, identifying the links between psychology journals [ 6 ]. However, undoubtedly, the precursor of citation analysis is Garfield, who published in 1955 in the Science journal the proposal for a citation index [ 7 ], based on Sherpad’s concept, which made it possible to relate an article to other articles citing it. In this way it was possible to assess the significance of a research paper and its impact, and for researchers to know how their publications were being used. This is the renowned Science Citation Index (SCI) created by Garfield himself from the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information). In the early 1960s, Garfield and Sher designed the Impact Factor.

The purpose of the Impact Factor was to be the methodological instrument for selecting the journals that belong to the Science Citation Index, since it was unfeasible to include all the existing scientific journals in it. Years later, in addition to the Science Citation Index (focused on Experimental and Technological Sciences), it created the Social Science Citation Index (oriented to the Social Sciences) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) for the Arts and Humanities. These three databases have been a milestone in bibliometrics and have become benchmarks in the evaluation of publications, researchers, and institutions. They are part of the Web of Science database platform, originally known as ISI Web of Knowledge and currently owned by Clarivate Analytics.

Although they have been the main benchmark since the 1960s, based also on the relationship that Garfield established in 1979 between the nature of the research and its potential to be cited, they have nevertheless been the focus of multiple criticisms [ 8 ]. Earlier in 1976 Pinski and Narin warned of the bias in favor of reviews, which tend to have a higher impact factor and in the calculation of the impact factor all citations are weighted equally [ 9 ]. To correct this deviation, they suggest the “influence methodology”, giving each journal a weight regardless of its size. As early as 1986 Tomer thought that “There is no distinction in regard to the nature and merits of the citing journals” [ 10 ]. These disagreements have been ongoing for a long time, and they are still relevant today.

For example, in 2001 Tijssen, Visser and Van Leeuwen questioned citation analysis as a measure of research quality since the influence of citation varies in different disciplines, showing considerable differences [ 11 ]. Today, shortcomings such as asymmetry between numerator and denominator, differences between disciplines, insufficient citation window and asymmetry of underlying citation distributions has also been analyzed by Larivière and Sugimoto in 2019 [ 12 ].

The JCR Impact Factor (SCI, SSCI) is not the only metric that measures the impact factor. The SJR (Scimago Journal Rank), shows the visibility of the journals contained in Scopus since 1996. This metric applies not only to journals, but also to book series and conference proceedings. Based on citations, it shows the quality and reputation of the journal in thematic fields, computing the citations received to articles of a journal for a period of three years, giving a greater weight to citations coming from high reputed journals. The SJR index attempts to correct for these deviations by weighting links based on citation proximity, extending the number of years considered in the citation and setting thresholds for self-citation within the journal itself [ 13 ].

By the end of 2016 [ 14 ], Scopus establishes a new metric index, the CiteScore, which extends the range of citation years (4 years), but by including all types of documents; on the one hand, it eliminates the differences between the different types of documents, although on the other hand some critics state that this index benefits Elsevier publications, which tend to publish a lower proportion of articles than other publishers [ 15 ].

Additionally, as a last novelty, there is the transition of the impact factor computation with respect to the date of online publication and not the date of print publication, as until now. In the current system, there are journals that have up to more than a year to publish the article online so that it can obtain citations, and when it is published in print, its number of citations is higher than those of other journals. Therefore, there is a trend towards a model in which the online publication date will be considered for the computation of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) [ 16 ].

This change implies a problem for databases that do not have an online publication date. Web of Science Core Collection has begun to index online-first articles since December 2017 [ 17 ]. For example, in the case of Web of Science, half of the journals indexed lack this data [ 16 ]. If a publication is published online in the same year as in print, there is no mismatch since the JIF is from the same year. This is not the case for journals published online in one year and in print in another. Clarivate is considering the effects of adopting two new counting models: one pre-2020 and one post-2020 [ 18 ].

Thus far, bibliometrics has progressed from its origins to the present day. At present, there is a significant increase in the number of publications on this discipline, closely linked to the exponential growth of science. This trend has been classified into three major approaches [ 19 ]:

• Bibliometric performance studies on authorship and production: they focus on analyzing the profiles of authors according to elements such as their affiliation, country, and the production of articles, examining which are the most cited or relevant;
• Bibliometric studies on topics: they focus on the main topics dealt with, as well as their relationships or evolution in a specific topic;
• Studies on research methodologies: they focus on the research methods and techniques used to develop the research papers published in the journals.

Taking all these approaches into account, how can bibliometrics be defined? From a quantitative point of view Pritchard in 1969 describes it as “studies aimed at quantifying the processes of written communication” [ 20 ]. In 1987, Broadus defined bibliometrics as the “branch of research concerned with the quantification of the physical units of publications, bibliographic citations and their surrogates” [ 21 ]. A broader concept is included here since it establishes relationships between publications and bibliographic links or co-citation. Moed in 1989 defines it as the “discipline that deals with the collection, processing and management of bibliographic data from the scientific literature” [ 22 ]. From this second point of view, bibliometrics has been defined as a tool for analysis and evaluation. In 1989 White and McCain defined it as “the quantitative study of publications as reflected in the literature, in order to provide evolutionary models of science, technology and research” [ 23 ]. Spinak in 1996 refers to bibliometrics as the study of the organization of scientific and technological sectors from bibliographic sources and patents, to identify authors, their relationships and trends [ 24 ]. In the same line, other authors describe bibliometrics as the discipline that tries to measure scientific and social activity and predict its trend by analyzing the literature [ 25 ].

Other concepts related to bibliometrics are scientometric or infometric. Scientometric applies bibliometric techniques to science and examines scientific development and policies. Infometric is more focused on quantitative aspects of measurement and the application of mathematical models.

Bibliometrics and bibliometric indexes form a whole that serve to assess and measure scientific production in all its aspects. To measure, it is necessary to evaluate a set of data that are collected in databases specialized in giving visibility to scientific publications. A bibliometric index is a parameter that measures some aspect of scientific activity and allows for assessing the impact of research in the different fields of science. The two databases that allow this analysis are Web of Science and Scopus, both with a clearly commercial bias. Based on these two databases, both Clarivate and Elsevier have developed applications that allow organizations to assess their research from different perspectives to be able to establish and evaluate strategies based on reliable data.

InCites [ 26 ] uses data from the Web of Science Core Collection since 1980 to facilitate the analysis of organizations: activity, impact, collaborations, allowing to make comparisons. It allows searching by researchers or research groups to analyze their production. The search by areas of knowledge gives an overview of emerging fields. It is also possible to analyze the journals in which they are published and the funding agencies. All these variables (affiliation, researcher, area, source of publication, funding) can be easily combined to perform analyses by applying and combining different metrics (productivity, impact, collaboration, open access) and generate all kinds of reports. As a novelty, since December 2020, InCites allows the analysis of topics, classifying them into macro, meso and micro topics thanks to the collaboration between ISI and Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) and the use of the algorithm developed by CWTS that allows to detect and connect communities [ 27 ].

Based on the analysis of data from Scopus [ 28 ], Scival offers access to more than 50 million publication records (post-1996) from over 22,000 journals from more than 5000 publishers worldwide. It analyzes the scientific output of more than 230 countries and 14,000 institutions allowing to visualize research performance, make comparisons, analyze trends, and evaluate collaborations. It also allows the analysis of topics, classifying them into topic name and topic cluster. As InCites, Scival allows to generate data analysis and visualization reports combining many metrics that assess economic impact, productivity, citation impact, usage, collaborations and communication.

There are a large number of bibliometric metrics that allow the evaluation of scientific activity, but it is important to use these metrics correctly. It is necessary to consider what is to be measured, apply the appropriate metric, detect possible deviations, make an adequate analysis, etc. In this regard the 2015 Leiden Manifesto sets out 10 basic principles that the use of metrics should not be forgotten [ 29 ], and the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment sets out 18 recommendations in the same direction [ 30 ].

The first goal of this research is to analyze the context of all the bibliometric studies carried out from 1996 to 2020 to discover if there is any bias towards any scientific category, if there are countries or institutions that devote a great effort to this issue and finally to analyze what consideration these works have, e.g., are they mostly considered as reviews or articles, and what level of citations they have in comparison according to the categories in which they are indexed. As a second main goal, it is the case study of the categories of medicine and environmental sciences.

2. Materials and Methods

This analysis was based on searches of the Scopus and Web of Science databases. A previous study has pointed out that WoS is a confusing concept, as many institutions may subscribe to only a customized subset of the entire Web of Science Core Collection. It should be made clarified that our study is conducted for the whole of WoS [ 31 ]. Although the historical content of Scopus dates to 1788, the search was limited from 1996 (when the analysis of Scopus data in SciVal began) to 2020. In the case of Web of Science, the origin of the data collected in this database begins in 1960 and the analyses in InCites begin in 1980. In order to carry a correlation in the results presented in this work, it has also been limited from 1996 to 2020.

The search was performed using the same criteria: the term “bibliometric” in the title of the publication and in the keywords assigned by the author. The results of both searches were exported from Scopus to SciVal Benchmarking and from WoS to InCites Analyze.

Data processing, both from Scopus and WoS and from SciVal and InCites, was carried out with different tools. The Scopus API was used for automatic data retrieval [ 32 ], Microsoft Excel, Gephi and ArcGIS for the analysis and representation of the results, see Figure 1 .

Methodology.

Topic classification is done on the document [ 33 ]. A topic in SciVal covers a collection of documents with a common intellectual interest [ 34 ]. Over time, new topics appear and, as topics are dynamic, they evolve. Each document is assigned a topic consisting of three elements, for example: Intellectual Structure, Co-citation Analysis, scientometrics. The topics are based on the citation network grouping of 95% of the Scopus content (all documents published since 1996), taking as a reference the direct analysis of citations using the reference lists of the documents. As new published documents are indexed, they are added to Topics using their reference lists. This makes the Topics dynamic and most increase in size over time. New topics represent research areas that have experienced a significant acceleration of growth in recently published articles and have attracted funding. These new Topics are derived from the existing stem Topics and are formed by the new citation relationships that have occurred in the last year. Once a year, the Topics SciVal algorithm is run to identify the new Topics that have emerged [ 35 ].

Like SciVal Topics, the InCites Topics ranking is also done on the document. It is based on a CWTS algorithm [ 27 ] considering the citations (cited and citing) between documents, based on the “strength” of the citation relationships. In this way, clusters are created: macro, meso and micro topics.

An independent analysis, based on scientific communities or clusters and the relationships between them based on citation and main keywords, has also been considered in this research.

Finally, continuing with the issue of quality, the sources (journals) have been analyzed with the following metrics:

• Number of publications in WoS and Scopus;
• Number of citations in WoS and Scopus;
• Quartile in JCR and SJR;
• Journal Impact Factor JCR. It uses for the citations, articles, reviews, and proceedings papers [ 36 ];
• 5-Year Journal Impact Factor JCR, available from 2007 onward [ 36 ];
• Impact SJR [ 37 ];
• Cite Score [ 35 ].

On the other hand, the analysis of the sources has been completed with two other metric values:

• Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) the SciVal [ 38 ];
• Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) the InCites [ 36 ].

3. Results of Bibliometric Literature on Scopus and WoS

3.1. trend in scientific production.

According to Scopus, with the search criteria used, between 1996 and 2020, 13,161 results were obtained. The temporal evolution is shown in Figure 2 from the year 2000, since before that date there are few papers per year. The trend line has been represented, showing that the annual growth is exponential. It can be observed that in 2020 there will be more than 2500 published documents.

Bibliometric publications trend (Source Scopus).

Figure 2 shows that 72% of the documents are mainly classified as articles. To a lesser extent, reviews in 13% of the cases and contributions to conferences in 10%. The number of reviews shows that this type of documents is the result of an analysis of a specific topic. In this case the most cited article [ 39 ] has considerably more citations than the most cited review [ 40 ].

In Web of Science (WoS), with the same search criteria, 11,651 results were obtained between 1996 and 2020, slightly less than in Scopus. The temporal evolution is shown in Figure 3 from the year 2000, since before that date there are few papers per year, as was the case in the other database. The trend line has been plotted, showing that annual growth is exponential. It can be observed that in the year 2020 there will be more than 2000 published documents.

Bibliometric publications trend (Source WoS).

Figure 3 shows that 68% of the works are classified as articles. To a lesser extent, reviews in 14% of the cases and contributions to congresses in 11%. In general, there are no differences between the two databases in the distribution of documents by type. In this case the most cited article and review are the same as in Scopus.

3.1.1. Countries

The countries that have devoted most effort to bibliometric studies are China with 16% of the total number of publications, followed by the USA with 15% and in third place Spain with 12.5%. Further behind with 6% are Brazil, the UK and India. Given that China and the USA are the world leaders in scientific production, these results in the first two positions are not surprising. It should be noted that a recent study has shown that China has overtaken the United States in terms of the number of articles indexed in the SCI in 2018 [ 41 ]. However, what is particularly notable is the great effort made by Spain in this area. Figure 4 shows a worldwide map with the geographical distribution by countries according to their publications related to bibliometrics.

Worldwide distribution by country of scientific production on bibliometrics.

The most cited bibliometric document from China is related to energy [ 42 ]. For the USA, it is the one cited above as the most cited review, and it is about economics [ 40 ], the same subject line as for the most cited from Spain [ 43 ].

3.1.2. Institutions According to Scopus and WoS

Table 1 shows the top 20 institutions that publish the largest number of bibliometric publications, according to Scopus and WoS. A first analysis of the table shows that the difference between the two databases is only in four institutions. The institutions that appear in Scopus in the top 20 and are not in WoS are: An-Najah National University (18), Sichuan University (16), Universidad de Chile (14) and Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (19). On the other hand, the four institutions that appear in WoS and not in Scopus are: Harvard University (16), University System of Georgia (13), University of London (8) and Istituto di Analisi dei Sistemi ed Informatica Antonio Ruberti (IASI-CNR) (17).

Main affiliations according to Scopus and WoS.

N TOT = Total number of publications; N IC = number publications with international collaboration.

These differences are undoubtedly due to the different sources indexed in the two databases. Of the differences in this top 20, there is only one institution in the top 10 of WoS and not in Scopus, the University of London. It can be seen that the first five institutions are the same in both databases, although in different order: Universidad de Granada (Spain), University of Valencia (Spain), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) (Spain), Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) and Leiden University (Netherlands). It is remarkable that three institutions from Spain are in the top five, and this probably contributes, as already mentioned, to the fact that Spain accounts for 12.5% of the total number of publications in this field.

The most cited documents from these institutions were: University of Granada (Spain), related to computers and education [ 44 ]; University of Valencia (Spain), related to economics [ 45 ]; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) (Spain), related to bibliometrics [ 46 ]; Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), related to biodiversity and conservation [ 47 ]; and Leiden University (Netherlands), related to bibliometry, the one already reported as the most cited bibliometric article [ 39 ].

Leiden University is a benchmark in research evaluation and bibliometric studies through the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS). It works closely with Clarivate Analytics, which bases its analyses on Web of Science and is continuously expanding its data system to include other sources, such as Scopus, PubMed, Crossref, PATSTAT, Mendeley and ORCID [ 48 ].

International collaborations (IC) were analyzed for both Scopus publications using SciVal and WoS publications using InCites, see Table 1 . For Scopus data, the minimum international collaboration for the top 20 is 15.8% for the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), while the maximum is 81% for the Universidad de Chile. For WoS data, the minimum of international collaboration in this top 20 is 10% from Istituto di Analisi dei Sistemi ed Informatica Antonio Ruberti (IASI-CNR); while the maximum is 79.5% from Georgia Institute of Technology. However, both databases, for the average scientific collaboration of this top 20 offer the same result, 41.4% according to Scopus and 41% according to WoS. The first five institutions have relatively low international scientific collaboration in this field, between 21 and 38%. However, if we analyze the average of these five institutions, it is 29.8% according to Scopus and 29.9% according to WoS. Therefore, it is possible to establish that the main institutions dedicated to bibliometrics collaborate less than the average of the other 15, which without them have an average of 45% of international collaboration in both databases.

3.2. Scientific Areas of Indexing

3.2.1. scopus, subject area.

Figure 5 shows the indexation by subject area in Scopus. The Social Sciences category leads the published documents with slightly more than 38% of the publications, which was to be expected since this is where bibliometrics is classified. In second place is the Computer Science category with 26.5%, showing that there is an increasingly important volume of data management and that therefore advanced computer techniques must be applied. The third category in order of number of documents is the field of Medicine with more than 23%, this is worth a reflection on the importance of bibliometrics. The next three categories are close to 10% and are: Business, Management and Accounting (12%), Engineering (9%) and Environmental Science (8%).

Subject area in Scopus and its trend from 2000 to 2020.

Figure 5 shows the temporal evolution by years of the first six categories from 2000 to 2020 according to Scopus. Since 2008, bibliometric publications have been led by the Social Sciences category. The Computer Science category has occupied the second place from 2009 to 2019, and already in the last year it is surpassed by the Medicine category, which was in third place since 2009. The next three categories have had a quite similar behavior, exceeding 100 publications per year the Business, Management and Accounting category in 2016, Engineering in 2017 and Environmental Science in 2018, all of them finish with 300 or more papers per year in the last year studied, 2020.

According to SciVal, the average number of citations per document was 12.4. This section starts to discuss the Topic Name extracted from Scival, see Table 2 . It is observed that the main topic name is Hirsch Index, Self-Citation, Journal Impact Factor; followed closely by: Intellectual Structure, Co-citation Analysis, scientometrics. In third place is: Co-Authorship, Scientific Collaboration, scientometrics.

Topic Name (Scival) for bibliometrics publications.

N = Total number of publications; C = total number of citations; C/D = cites per document.

Since the Hirsch Index or H index was proposed in 2005 [ 49 ], many evaluation agencies and even journals make use of it to measure the quality of an individual author’s impact. This has also given rise to the misconduct by some authors of self-citation to artificially raise their own H index [ 50 ]. There are studies that propose eliminating self-citation for the calculation or correction of the H index [ 51 ]. Self-citations do not only occur in individual authors, but some journals have been able to encourage this practice in citing articles from their own journal to raise its Journal Impact Factor [ 52 ], this is named journal self-citation. These facts have inspired many studies that make this Topic Name the most prominent one to date.

In the second topic name, these studies are based on describing the intellectual structure of a particular scientific field from the point of view of frequently occurring keywords and phrases, using Co-citation Analysis, co-word analysis, hierarchical clustering, and link analysis [ 53 ]. The third of the main topic name focuses on the analysis of the structure of scientific collaboration networks [ 54 ]. These scientific collaboration networks are analyzed by scientific fields [ 55 ], countries [ 56 , 57 ] or even institutions [ 58 , 59 , 60 ].

Table 2 lists each topic name according to the average number of citations received per document. According to this index, the leading topic name is Social Science and Humanities, Research Evaluation, Book Publishers with almost 45 citations per document, followed in second place by Technology Roadmapping, Patent Analysis, Technological Competitiveness with almost 23, and in third place by Bibliometric Analysis, Citation Index, Document Type with almost 19.

Table 3 shows the main topic clusters related to bibliometric studies. The main topic cluster is the one focused on: Publications, Periodicals as Topic, Research. This cluster stands out from the rest as it is 11 times larger than the next cluster, which is focused on: Industry, Innovation, Entrepreneurship; and 30 times larger than the third: Library, Librarian, Information. In relation to the citations of each topic cluster name, Decision Making, Fuzzy Sets, Models leads this ranking with 23 citations per document, e.g., the manuscript “Fuzzy decision making: A bibliometric-based review” [ 61 ] has 163 citations according to Scopus. In second place is: Industry, Innovation, Entrepreneurship with 18 citations per document. In third place is Electricity, Energy, Economics with 16 citations per document, e.g., “Power quality: Scientific collaboration networks and research trends” [ 62 ].

Topic Cluster Name (Scival) for bibliometrics publications.

The classification by WoS categories is shown in Table 4 . As is well known, the categories do not match those of Scopus. On the other hand, in both databases the same document can be indexed in more than one category if the journal in which it was published is indexed in more than one category. For the documents analyzed, the great discrepancy between scientific fields between the two databases is observed in the field of Medicine in Scopus, which does not correspond to the first positions ranked by WoS. Although there are comparable categories in WoS such as: Medicine, Research and Experimental or Medicine, General and Internal, there are many other categories specific to the medical field that are independent for indexing. In our case, for example, the categories of: Oncology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Respiratory System, Ophthalmology, Dermatology or Tropical Medicine, but all of them with values below 1%, which does not make it possible to reach the 23.2% that appeared in Scopus. Therefore, the indexing field of medicine is very different between the two databases.

Indexing by category according to WoS.

N = Total number of publications; C/D = cites per document.

In the last column of Table 4 , the average number of citations of these bibliometric documents has been calculated according to WoS data. For the whole documents analyzed the average number of citations per document was 11.7. Only three categories are below five citations per document: Engineering, Electrical and Electronic, Computer Science, Theory and Methods and Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary. In general, these documents are highly cited within their scientific categories, especially in Management and Engineering, Industrial, both with more than 18 citations per document (C/D).

In this section the macro, meso and micro topics in which WoS classifies all bibliometric publications will be discussed. The macro topics are listed in Table 5 . Leading this classification are the social sciences which has 5 times more documents than the following one. Followed by Clinical and Life Sciences, and in third place is Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science, with far fewer documents.

Macro topics (InCites).

In terms of citations per document, social sciences remain the main one with 14. However, now the second place in this other ranking is for Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science with 12 citations per document. With 10 citations per document there are already several categories: Chemistry, and Engineering and Materials Science. The average number of citations per document (C/D) is 8.5.

The 20 main meso topics are listed in Table 6 , highlighting bibliometrics, scientometrics and Research Integrity, with 11 times more publications than the second meso topic, Management. These two meso topics can be included within the main macro topic of Social Science, mentioned above. As can be seen in column 2 of Table 6 , the first number indicates the macro topic. It can be observed that in this top 20 are not present the macro topics of: Chemistry (2), Earth Sciences (8), Engineering and Materials Science (7), Arts and Humanities (10), Physics (5) or Mathematics (9).

Meso topics (InCites).

The two meso topics with the most citations per document are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (19 C/D), Operations Research and Management Science (17 C/D), both from the macro topic 4, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science. The average number of citations per document for this top 20 meso topic is 11.7 C/D.

Finally, the micro topics, as expected, the first one, bibliometrics, belongs to the bibliometrics, scientometrics and Research Integrity meso topic, see Table 7 . Additionally, the second, Knowledge Management, and the fourth, Corporate Social Responsibility, belong to the Management meso topic. The third, Systematic Reviews, is included in the Medical Ethics meso topic. In the first 20 micro topics there is an average of 15 C/D. Fuzzy Sets stands out above all with more than 30 C/D and belongs to the meso topic with the highest average number of citations per document, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Micro topics (InCites).

3.3. Source (Journal)

Table 8 shows the top 20 journals indexed in both WoS and Scopus, and where the bibliometric articles are published. The table shows both the ranking of the journal by total number of publications in the subject studied and by citations received for these articles. In addition, the different impact indicators according to JCR, SJR and Scopus and the relative position of the journal within its category according to JCR and SJR, e.g., the quartile, are also shown.

Main indexes of WoS-JCR and Scopus-SJR bibliometric sources.

N 1 = Number of publications (WoS); Cit 1 = Number of citations (WoS); Q 1 = Quartile JCR (data 2019); IF 2 = Journal Impact Factor JCR (data 2019); IF 5 = 5-year Journal Impact Factor JCR (data 2019); N 2 = Number of publications (Scopus); Cit 2 = Number of citations (Scopus); Q 2 = Quartile SJR (data 2019); IF 3 = Impact SJR (data 2019); CS = Cite Score (data 2019).

The first consideration for journals is that they should have not the same number of articles published in the same period in both databases. What probably happens is that editorial articles or short communications are considered differently in both databases.

It is noted that apart from the journals indexed in the category of Information Science and Library Science, there are many of them in the categories of Environmental Sciences Environmental Studies such as: Sustainability , Journal of Cleaner Production , Environmental Science and Pollution Research . Or even Journals in the field of Medicine such as Medicine or World Neurosurgery .

Considering the quartile of the journals, it can be found that according to JCR: six are Q1, six are Q2, five are Q3, two are Q4 and one does not have a JCR impact factor. That is to say that most are Q1 and Q2. According to Scopus: seven are Q1, nine are Q2, one Q3 and three have no SJR. Of all these journals, the one with the highest impact both IF JCR and SJR is Journal of Informetrics .

A comparative study of the top 10 countries and affiliations publishing in the leading bibliometrics journal, Scientometrics , is shown in Table 9 . If the results obtained in Table 9 are compared with the global results of scientific production by country, it can be seen that the first three countries are the same and in the same ranking order: China, the United States, and Spain. Another four countries that appear in the top 10 of both rankings, although in a different order, are: United Kingdom, Germany, India and Italy. In summary there is an overlap of 7 of the 10 countries in both rankings. Although China and the USA are the two countries with the most publications, the Netherlands dominates in citations per document with 22 followed by Hungary with 19.

Top 10 countries and affiliations publishing in Scientometrics .

N = Number of publications (1978–2021); C = Number of citations (1978–2021); C/D = cites per document.

With regard to affiliations, something similar happens, since of the top 10 that publish the most in Scientometrics , 6 are in the top 20 worldwide. These are: Universidad de Granada, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Leiden University, Wuhan University and KU Leuven. In the case of the affiliations, i.e., the most productive ones are also the most cited in Scientometrics journal: KU Leuven (18 C/D), Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia (21 C/D) and Leiden University (35 C/D).

3.4. CNCI vs. FWCI

Table 10 shows the CNCI and FWCI. Both the CNCI and the FWCI measure the actual citation impact on the expected citation for the articles studied. As long as it is equal to or greater than 1, they have achieved the expected citation. There are only three journals that in both indicators, CNCI and FWCI, are below one: Current Science , Malaysian Journal of Library , and Information Science , and Revista Española de Documentación Científica . Then, there are two that have a CNCI < 1, although the FWCI is above 1: Sustainability , and Environmental Science and Pollution Research . All the other journals, 15 out of 20, are above 1 in both indicators, so in general the bibliometric articles achieve a higher number of citations than expected based on the journal and category.

CNCI (Category Normalized Citation Impact) from InCites and FWCI (Field-Weighted Citation Impact) from SciVal.

Considering the number of citations per document, for Incites the average is 15.5, and for Scival it is 14.8, so that for this select group of journals the average is about 15. The three journals with the most citations per document according to Incites are: Research Policy (62 C/D), Technological Forecasting and Social Change (31.7 C/D) and Journal of Informetrics (28 C/D). The lowest one for Incites is Investigación Bibliotecológica (0.9 C/D). The three journals with the most citations per document according to Scival are: Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (48.4 C/D), Technological Forecasting and Social Change (42.9 C/D) and Journal of Informetrics (37 C/D). The lowest one for Scival is Espacios (0.7 C/D).

Figure 6 shows the journals studied in Table 11 , where the size of the dot is the number of articles studied. Both indicators, FCWI and CNCI, have been plotted, here two trends have been observed. The first one involving the largest number of journals is slightly favored by the FWCI. The second trend, which favors CNCI over FWCI, occurs in the journals: Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology , Research Evaluation , Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology , World Neurosurgery , and Revista Española de Documentación Científica .

CNCI vs. FWCI for the top 20 journals.

Top 10 countries and affiliations publishing in Medicine category.

4. The Medicine and Environmental Sciences Categories as Case of Study

Once all the bibliometric manuscripts have been analyzed, it has been observed that the two main categories are those that could be classified as natural for bibliometrics, the social sciences and computer sciences. After these, the third category has been found to be medicine, and the other emerging category is environmental sciences. These two categories are therefore worth studying as a case study, which is the second objective of this manuscript.

4.1. The Medicine Category

4.1.1. countries and affiliations.

Figure 7 shows a worldwide map with the distribution by country of bibliometric publications in the medicine category. Publications from 136 different countries have been found. It can be seen that it covers geographically all the countries of the world.

Global distribution of bibliometric publications by country in the medicine category.

Table 11 shows the top 10 countries and affiliations publishing on bibliometrics in the category of medicine. They have been analyzed from 2000 to 2020 and based on the Scopus database.

In terms of countries, this ranking is led by the USA with more than twice more publications than the next country, China. It should be noted that the most cited article from the USA in this category is on the history and meaning of the impact factor, even though it is published in a medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) [ 63 ]. Although the second most cited manuscript from this country is on the effectiveness of interventions, whose results are subsequently contradicted [ 64 ].

In third place is the UK where its most cited manuscript is related to a taxonomy of behavior change techniques used in interventions [ 65 ]. For the fourth country, Spain, the most cited manuscript can also be considered a bibliometric research paper related exclusively to medicine, the Spanish version of the Short Form 36 Health Survey [ 66 ].

Among the top 10 affiliations that have published bibliometric manuscripts in the category of medicine, there are three from Spain, University of Valencia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche; and the other three from Canada: University of Toronto, McMaster University and The University of British Columbia. The two most cited manuscripts from the University of Valencia focus on bibliometric aspects of scientific collaborations [ 67 ], or the impact factors of medical journals [ 68 ] and the third most cited manuscript focuses on a purely medical topic with the leishmaniasis [ 69 ]. The most cited manuscript from the University of Toronto is a purely medical one, such as the propensity-score methods that are increasingly being used to reduce the impact of treatment-selection bias in the estimation of treatment effects using observational data [ 70 ].

4.1.2. Keywords

In this section the most frequent keywords in the fields of medicine that appear in the bibliometric publications in this category have been identified, see Table 12 . Among the scientific fields of medicine, Epidemiology and Pediatrics stand out above the rest. The main affiliations in these two fields are Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (Colombia) and University of Valencia (Spain), respectively.

Top 10 medical keywords in bibliometric publications in this category and the main affiliations using them.

4.1.3. Journals

Table 13 shows the top 10 journals publishing articles in bibliometrics in the category of medicine and their main WoS-JCR and Scopus-SJR bibliometric source indices. It can be seen that the top three journals are above 80 manuscripts and stand out from the rest. Of these 10 JCR journals, three are Q1, three Q2, three Q3 and one has no impact factor. However, for SJR, five are Q1, four Q2 and one Q3.

Top 10 journals publishing articles on bibliometrics in the category of medicine and their main bibliometric source indices.

N 1 = Number of publications (Scopus); Q 1 = Quartile JCR (data 2019); IF 2 = Journal Impact Factor JCR (data 2019); IF 5 = 5-year Journal Impact Factor JCR (data 2019); Q 2 = Quartile SJR (data 2019); IF 3 = Impact SJR (data 2019); CS = Cite Score (data 2019).

4.2. The Environmental Sciences Category

4.2.1. countries and affiliations.

Figure 8 shows a world map with the country distribution of bibliometric publications in the environmental sciences category. Publications from 83 different countries have been found. It can be seen that it covers geographically a large part of the world, and that Africa is the continent with the fewest publications in this regard.

Global distribution of bibliometric publications by country in the environmental sciences category.

Table 14 shows the top 10 countries and affiliations publishing on bibliometrics in the category of Environmental Sciences. They have been analyzed from 2000 to 2020 and based on the Scopus database. By country, this ranking is led by China, with more than twice as many publications as the next country, Spain. Notably, the most cited article from China in this category is on sustainable, smart, resilient and low-carbon cities [ 71 ]. The second most cited manuscript from this country is on anaerobic digestion of food waste [ 72 ].

Top 10 countries and affiliations publishing in Environmental Sciences category.

Number two in this category, Spain, has its most cited article on sensitivity analysis in chemical modelling [ 73 ]. The following is on green innovation [ 74 ]. Number 3 in this category, USA, has its most cited article on urban resilience [ 75 ]. The following are on scholarly networks on resilience, vulnerability and adaptation within the human dimensions of global environmental change [ 76 ]. Impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine life [ 77 ].

Among the top 12 affiliations that have published bibliometric manuscripts in the environmental sciences category, there are 10 from China and 2 from Spain. The top two affiliations are the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Almeria. The two most cited manuscripts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are related to global biodiversity [ 47 ] and, the other on ecological engineering and ecosystem restoration [ 78 ]. For the University of Almeria, the most cited manuscripts are related to and nitrate leaching [ 79 ] and energy efficiency in public buildings [ 80 ].

4.2.2. Keywords

In this section the most frequent keywords in the fields of environmental sciences that appear in the bibliometric publications in this category have been identified, Table 15 . Among the scientific fields of environmental sciences, sustainability and sustainable development keywords stand out above the rest. The two main affiliations for these top 10 keywords, are the University of Almeria (Spain) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China). The third main affiliation is the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and the environmental topic is related to public health.

Top 10 environmental sciences keywords in bibliometric publications in this category and the main affiliations using them.

4.2.3. Journals

Table 16 shows the top 10 journals publishing articles in bibliometrics in the category of environmental science and their main WoS-JCR and Scopus-SJR bibliometric source indices. It can be seen that the top journal is Sustainability with a large number of bibliometric manuscripts. The second and third journals are Journal Of Cleaner Production and International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health , respectively. Among these 10 JCR journals, four are Q1, three Q2, one Q3 and two have no impact factor. However, for SJR, five are Q1, three Q2 and two Q3.

Top 10 journals publishing articles on bibliometrics in the category of environmental sciences and their main bibliometric source indices.

5. Independent Cluster Analysis of Bibliometric Publications

In this section, all the papers have been classified by analysis of scientific communities or clusters, and their links between them, by means of the citations they make to each other. Afterwards, the most frequent keywords have been extracted from each of these scientific communities to name them, see Table 17 . Bibliometrics and Bibliometric Analysis are the search terms and excluded.

Main keywords of each cluster.

Figure 9 shows the graph generated with all the articles, where in the outer circle are documents not related to any other, or in other words, documents that do not cite any other bibliometric work, and therefore are in a certain way isolated from the core of the bibliometric publications. On the other hand, the central core are papers related by references, since they cite each other and thus establish a relationship. From this core of publications, seven communities or clusters have been detected, which are represented by colors in Figure 9 . In this figure, a particular paper has also been marked in red, which is the most cited article by all the bibliometric papers (Van Eck and Waltman, 2010).

Scientific communities of bibliometric publications.

The clusters have been outlined in Table 8 , where the 20 main keywords have also been collected. These clusters are: Science Mapping (28.72%), Research Productivity (23.29%), Medical research (19.65%), Environment (11.84%), Psychology (7.02%), Nursing (5.66%) and Engineering (3.82%).

Table 18 shows, for each cluster, the use of WoS or Scopus, being mainly highlighted in the Environment cluster. The only exception to this is in the Nursing cluster, where Scopus is preferred.

Main database used for each cluster.

6. Conclusions

This study has analyzed the bibliometric documents produced between 1996 and 2020. It has been observed how bibliometrics were applied to research in all scientific fields during these years. To evaluate these documents, a methodology has been used that has proven to be valid to relate scientific production in Scopus and WoS and link it to bibliometric indicators through SciVal and InCites.

The first conclusion drawn from this work is that there is an exponential growth in publications between 2000 and 2020 and that most of the documents are indexed as articles (72% in Scopus and 68% in WoS), as opposed to reviews (13% in Scopus and 14% in WoS). Three countries have led the number of documents published: China with 16%, the USA with 15% and in third place Spain with 12.5%. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the role of Spain in third place compared to the two large countries with the highest scientific production in absolute terms.

From the point of view of the institutions, there are differences between the two databases analyzed. However, the top five positions in the ranking are shared by the same institutions: University of Granada, University of Valencia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences and Leiden University. Once again, the predominance of Spanish institutions in this ranking stands out. International collaboration is undoubtedly a parameter that allows us to know the synergies in scientific production. In this case it has been shown that the institutions located in the top five positions of the ranking do not have a parallelism between quantity of production and international collaboration, they have 30% of international collaboration, that is to say, they have collaboration below the average, which without these institutions is 45%.

Regarding the topics where bibliometrics is applied, the publications have been categorized, and despite the differences between Scopus and WoS when classifying the publications, the results show that this type of studies have been classified mainly in the areas most related to bibliometrics. According to Scopus, in order of importance: Social Science and Computer Sciences, Medicine, Business, Management and Accounting, Engineering and Environmental Science. According to WoS: Information Science and Library Science, Computer Science, Environmental Sciences and Management. There is a high degree of interest in the application of bibliometrics to other disciplines as an element of analysis of their own progress.

Completing the review of the topics, the topics for Scopus indexing have been considered as an indicator of where the publications on bibliometrics stand out. In this sense, the trend also shows the predominance of topics related to the discipline addressed in this research. Hirsch Index, Self-Citation and Journal Impact Factor as predominant Topic Name in SciVal. Publications, Periodicals as Topic, Research as predominant Topic Cluster Names. Interestingly, the ones with the most citations per document are for the Topic Name, Social Science and Humanities, Research Evaluation and Book Publishers with 45 citations per document as average; and for the Topic Cluster Name, Decision Making, Fuzzy Sets, Models with 23 Cites per Document.

In InCites they are mostly included in the Macro Topic of Social Sciences with an average of 14 citations per document, in the Meso Topic of bibliometrics, scientometrics and Research Integrity, but with respect to citations per document the meso topic of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning stands out (19 C/D). In the Micro Topic, the main one by number of documents is bibliometrics, but regarding citations per document Fuzzy Sets stands out above all with more than 30 C/D. That is to say that in the citations per document the computer science topics stand out.

The analysis of the sources shows that, despite the different indexing criteria of JCR and SJR, there is variety in the categories in which they have been indexed. The first positions, according to the number of publications, are occupied by journals specialized in bibliometrics, but journals specialized in Medicine or Environment also appear among the first 20 journals. In terms of quartile ranking, a greater number of SJR journals are positioned in Q1 and Q2 compared to JCR, undoubtedly due to the different indexing criteria applied by the two databases. To complete the quartile ranking, impact factors and citation level, two metrics have been used that allow the performance of the sources based on the citations received and those expected to be received. The InCites CNCI shows that 7 of the 20 are below 1 and the SciVal FWCI shows that 9 of the 20 are also below this threshold.

In the analysis of the Medicine category alone, it has been observed that 136 countries have contributions in this field. The main countries are the United States, China and the United Kingdom. In the field of medicine, the main research areas studied were: Epidemiology, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Cardiology, Neurosurgery, Radiology, Ophthalmology, Oncology, Plastic Surgery and Psychiatry.

With respect to Environmental Sciences category, less international dissemination has been found, with only 83 countries having worked in this field. The main ones are China, Spain and the United States. Regarding the top 10 institutions, it can be stated that only Spain and China are relevant. Spain focuses on sustainability and China on the environment. In the field of Environmental Science, the main research areas studied were: Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Ecology, Environmental Impact, Biodiversity, Environmental Protection, Environmental Management, Public Health and Environmental Monitoring.

The relationships between the citations of the publications have allowed, with an independent analysis, to establish clusters by key words based on the level of citation. These seven clusters were: Science Mapping, Research Productivity, Medicine, Environmental Sciences, Psychology, Nursing and Engineering. In the seven communities in which the 20 main keywords were collected, a predominance of terms related to bibliometrics applied to the different clusters was again observed. The main country keyword data has also been extracted, highlighting the relevance of China as the predominant country in four of the seven clusters analyzed. The independent analysis of the indexing category of the journals highlights that Medicine and Environmental Sciences are the most relevant areas in the field of bibliometrics, after Social Sciences and Computer Science.

In conclusion, there are many parameters that can be used to see the evolution of bibliometric studies in the period under analysis. In this case, bibliometric data and indicators have been used to study the evolution of this discipline over the years and the performance of publications. In any analysis it is important to start from the objectives of the study to be able to apply the appropriate metric values. In this sense, the recommendations established in the Leiden Manifesto and the San Francisco Declaration should not be forgotten to make proper use of the metrics that allow scientific production to be correctly assessed.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank to the CIAIMBITAL (University of Almeria, CeiA3) for its support.

Author Contributions

M.C. and A.A. conceived and performed the research; A.A. and E.S.-M. analyzed the data; M.C., A.A. and F.M.-A. wrote the paper. A.A. and F.M.-A. supervised the research. E.S.-M. and F.M.-A. revised the manuscript. They share the structure and aims of the manuscript, paper drafting, editing and review. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Research Guides

Mat136 - searching for articles.

• Searching for Articles using Scopus and Web of Science
• How to Read Academic Articles
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Introduction to Scopus and Web of Science

Scopus and Web of Science are the two largest interdisciplinary abstract and citation databases of peer-reviewed literature in the sciences.  They both contain 10s of thousands of articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. 

Not everything contained in Scopus or Web of Science is full-text or comes from a scholarly publication. This guide will show you how to find full-text articles and how to identify the scholarly publications.

Scopus and Web of Science overlap a great deal in the publications they cover, but there are differences in their content.  If you are not finding what you want in one of the databases, try your search with the other.

Scopus and Web of Science are very similar in the way they function and how they direct you in your search for articles.  This guide will focus on searching for articles in Scopus, but the same method can be used when searching Web of Science. 

Finding Scopus and Web of Science

To use Scopus and Web of Science, you have to go to the University of Toronto Library's website.  You can access our webpage from www.library.utoronto.ca.

From the library page, go to Advanced Search and selected "Databases".  Links to Scopus and Web of Science can be found at the bottom the "Popular Databases" page.

Start your Search

When you are starting your search, think of the terms you might use to locate articles of interest to you. 

NOTE:  The broader the search term, the more results you will get.  For instance, in the example shown below, if only the search term "economics" was used, over 60,000 articles would have appeared on the "document results" list.

Making your search more specific brings up a more manageable set of search results.  In this instance, using the search terms "economics" and "farming" directed Scopus to narrow down the search to articles dealing only with the economics of farming.

For the purposes of this assignment, it will serve you best to limit your search to the "Title, Abstract, Keyword" option.  This will instruct Scopus to look for your search terms in the title of the article, in the abstract of the article, and the in keywords of the article.  The abstract of the article is a short summary of what the article is about and the keywords are search terms connected to the article that are often supplied by the author.

Further Refining your Search

In this example, using the search terms "economics" and "farming" still resulted in almost 5,000 records. Scopus gives you options to further refine your search and narrow down the results.  For your purposes, you can further refine your search to years the articles were published (you might just want search through the 5 most recent years); subject areas to further focus your search on your area of interest; and/or document type to limit your results to articles only.

After Identifying an Article of Interest

Neither Scopus nor Web of Science will allow you to search for differential equations or integrals within an article, so when you have identified an article of interest you will have to skim the text of the article to see if it includes the math you need for this assignment.  You can only have access to the full-text of articles if you see the "full-text" button under the title of the article.  If the article you are looking at does not contain differential equations or integrals, you can access articles similar to the one you have chosen by clicking on the title of the article or clicking on the "related documents" link. 

References and Citations

When you click on the title of the article, you will be taken to a page that shows you the abstract and keywords of the article.  This page also features links to the articles that the author used for her/his own research (references) and articles published more recently that have used the paper as a reference (cited by).  If the article you have chosen does not have the necessary math within it, you might find what you are looking for by scanning the papers included in the references and cited by links.

Web of Science

Searching for articles in Web of Science is fundamentally the same as searching in Scopus.  Like Scopus, Web of Science allows you to limit your search results, retrieve full-text articles, and have access to "references" and "cited by" links. 

Note: There is difference in some of the terminology used by the two databases.  In Web of Science, " Topic " will perform the same search that " Title/Abstract/Keywords " performs in Scopus.

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Everything to Know About Scopus Indexed Journals

Every author and researcher knows about the value and prestige of Scopus Indexed Journals . Due to their amazing expertise, they are considered a benchmark for measuring conference criteria. Do you wish to publish your research paper or manuscript in the esteemed Scopus journals? Well, there are some things you should know. Today, we will learn everything about Scopus Indexed Journals.

What are Scopus Indexed Journals?

Scopus is one of the most in-depth citation databases accessible to researchers globally. It offers various academic niches, from science and technology to medicine, social sciences, and the arts and humanities. Journals included in the Scopus database, known as Scopus indexed journals, serve as essential benchmarks for assessing publication quality and impact. 

Rigorous Selection Process

Being indexed in Scopus signifies a journal’s designation and authority within its academic community. This motivates researchers to target such journals to elevate the visibility, credibility, and professional growth associated with their work.

Scopus uses a thorough selection process, requiring journals to meet strict criteria for quality, peer review, and editorial integrity. Publishers submit journals for consideration, but only about 33% of the over 3,500 titles proposed annually are accepted. These criteria are necessary to ensure high academic standards and editorial quality in the database.

How do I check my Scopus Indexed journals?

Due to its worldwide popularity and reputation, many journals can lie about being Scopus Indexed Journals. But how can you determine whether they are telling the truth? Luckily, there is a way to call out the liars and find an original Scopus Indexed Journal among imposters. 

While many journals claim Scopus indexing, some may not adhere to its standards. Those failing to meet the criteria are labelled “Discontinued Source” and listed on Scopus’s site, ensuring transparency. This list can help you identify suitable publication venues, highlighting Scopus’s commitment to integrity.

How do I know if a Journal is Scopus Indexed?

If you wish to verify the promises of your journals, you can do the following:

You can verify the authenticity of your journals through the Scopus source page. This user-friendly database confirms the journal’s status through a search. These are based on publishers, title, niche, and ISSN. This makes it the most current resource for verifying Scopus indexing status. You can rely on this data as it is original and helps researchers to make informed decisions.

Source Title List:

Researchers can download the regularly updated Scopus Source Title list for another verification method. While not the most efficient option, it offers an alternative worth exploring. Additionally, this list encompasses both active sources and those marked as discontinued, providing a comprehensive overview of Scopus-indexed titles.

Book Title List:

The Book Title List is a downloadable method that compiles indexed book titles in Scopus. Though the ‘Sources’ link is preferred for reliability, this list serves as an alternative confirmation method.

How do I find a list of Scopus Indexed Journals?

Publishing your research paper in a Scopus-indexed journal can yield many fruitful results and career advancement opportunities. Following these tips makes it easy to find a list of Scopus-indexed journals. 

Visit the Scopus website: 

You can start your search by visiting the Scopus website ( www.scopus.com ) and navigating to the Journals tab.

Search for Journals: 

Once on the Journals page, you can search for specific journals by title, ISSN, or publisher.

Browse by Subject Area: 

Scopus allows you to browse journals by subject area. This can help narrow down your search to journals relevant to your field of interest.

Filtering Options : 

Use Scopus’s filtering options to refine your search results. You can filter by subject area, publisher, country, and more. Just type the keywords of the industry or specific topic you are looking for, and you will be able to find what you are looking for.

Check Inclusion: 

After finding journals of interest, verify their inclusion in the Scopus database. Look for the “Indexed in Scopus” badge or confirmation on the journal’s website or the Scopus database.

Consult Library Resources:

Many academic libraries also provide access to lists of Scopus-indexed journals through their websites or in-person resources. You can ask your industry peers or visit them to seek the information you need.

Which is better, SCI or Scopus?

SCI (Science Citation Index) and Scopus are valuable databases for academic research, but they serve different purposes. Both platforms offer distinct strengths. SCI, part of Web of Science, emphasises high-impact journals and is widely recognized for its rigorous selection process, making it a trusted resource for citation analysis. 

On the other hand, Scopus offers broader coverage across disciplines and includes more international journals, providing a comprehensive view of research output. Choosing between them depends on research needs. SCI is preferred for citation analysis and tracking prestigious journals. However, Scopus offers extensive coverage for interdisciplinary research and global perspectives. Eventually, the “better” option will depend on your specific requirements.

Benefits of Scopus?

Scopus offers many benefits that you can take advantage of. These are as follows:

Comprehensive Research Coverage: 

Scopus provides access to a vast database of scholarly literature across various disciplines. It comprehensively covers research articles, conference papers, books, and patents.

Advanced Search Capabilities: 

Its advanced search features enable researchers to locate relevant literature and refine search results efficiently. This is beneficial in tracking citation trends and facilitating effective literature reviews and research discovery.

Author and Institutional Insights: 

Scopus offers detailed author and institutional profiles, allowing researchers to identify collaboration opportunities. Scopus can also help you track citation metrics and assess the impact of research.

Global Citation Database: 

As a globally recognized citation database, Scopus enhances the visibility and recognition of researchers and institutions. It helps promote international collaboration and advance interdisciplinary research across various fields and professions.

In conclusion, authors, researchers, and academics can greatly benefit from submitting their research papers and manuscripts to Scopus-indexed journals. Follow the tricks mentioned in this blog to check the authenticity and relevance of your journals. We hope you get a golden opportunity to publish your work in a Scopus journal and gain worldwide recognition.

Related Posts

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How do I add a document to a list?

Scopus has two methods for creating a list depending upon whether or not you are signed in. To save a list you must be signed in to Scopus, otherwise you can create a temporary list which is automatically deleted when you close your session.

You can create and save a list from document search results; from document, author, or affiliation details; or from a source information page.

You can open a saved list from the Scopus Lists page or through your account profile manager at the top right of the Scopus header:

From the Scopus tool bar, select 'Lists' .

• Or select your account profile manager, located at the top right of the Scopus header and select 'Saved lists' .

Once a list is created, you may add a single document or additional documents to the list at any time you are signed into Scopus.

Save documents to a list from search results

• Conduct a document, author, or advanced search. A results list for the Scopus search type opens.
• From the search results page, select the desired results.
• Select 'Save to list' .
• If creating a new list, enter a name for the new list.
• If adding a document to an existing Saved list, use the drop-down menu to select the list to add the document(s).
• Select 'Save list' .

Save documents to a list from a Document details page

• From a document details page, select 'Save to list' .

Save documents to a list from an Author details page

• To add all documents published by the author to a list, select 'Save all to list' . The Save to list box opens.
• To add only individual documents to a list, select 'View all in search results format' .
• Select individual documents and select 'Save to list' .

Save documents to a list from an Affiliation details page

• From an affiliation details page, select the number of documents.
• From the results page, select the individual documents to be added to a list.

Save documents to a list from a Source details page

• From a source information page, locate the Documents available from list. The Documents available from list contains a list of yearly publishing for the source or journal, with the indicated number of documents published for that year.
• From Documents available list, select a number of documents for a publishing year.

Open a saved list

If you are not signed in to Scopus, you can create a temporary list of documents. A temporary list is a single, session-collected list of documents and is not saved to a Scopus account when you exit Scopus. You can work with this temporary list in the same way you work with any results list.

You can add documents throughout your session from document search results; from document, author, or affiliation details; or from a source information page.

• From the search results, select one or more documents.
• Select 'Add to list' .

From a document details page, select 'Add to list' .

From an author details page, you can add specific documents to a temporary list or all documents to a temporary list:

• To add all documents published by the author to a list, select 'Add all to list' .
• To add specific documents to a list, select 'View all in search results format' . Tick the box for each document to add to the list and select 'Add to list' .
• From the Affiliation details page, select the documents number for the desired subject area.
• From the results page, select the individual documents to add to a list.
• From the Source details page, select 'View all documents' .
• Select one or more documents.

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• Publications

Selection of the journal

1. Use the official Source List compiled by Scopus: Visit the Scopus web-site ( https://www.scopus.com/sources ) and use the search tools to select a journal that matches your research subject. Check whether the journal accepts articles free-of-charge or with a low publication fee.

2. Check Open Access Journal Lists: Many open access journals provide free publishing. However, it is worth considering that some of them may charge small fees to cover publishing costs.

Requirements for the article and preparation for submission

1. Carefully read the instructions for the authors: Make sure that your article meets the requirements of the journal in structure, formatting and other parameters.

2. Prepare an abstract and keywords: Make a short and informative abstract that reflects the essence of your research. Choose keywords that will help your article to be noticed and found by search engines.

3. Check the text for plagiarism: The journals indexed in the Scopus database strictly monitor the uniqueness of the articles received. Use specialized programs to check your text for plagiarism to avoid rejection.

4. Use the citation responsibly: Cite only sources that are relevant to your research. Avoid excessive citation.

Article submission and reviewing process

1. Register on the website of the journal and send the article: Follow the instructions of the journal for sending articles and upload all the necessary files.

2. Be patient and ready for revisions: The review process can take from a few weeks to a few months. Be aware of the fact that reviewers may ask you to make changes in the article.

3. Study carefully the comments of reviewers: Take into account the comments and suggestions of reviewers and make appropriate changes in your article.

4. Submit the edited article: After making changes, submit the article for reconsideration.

Successful publication and next steps

1. Tell the public about your article: Having successfully publishing an article in the journal indexed in Scopus, share a link to your research on social networks, scientific forums and with colleagues to draw attention to it.

2. Track your article’s citations: Use Scopus services and other scientific databases to track how your article is cited by other researchers.

3. Continue to develop in the scientific field: Participate in scientific conferences, follow new publications in your field and strive to further develop your scientific achievements.

This can be done with the help of professionals

For many researchers, publication in Scopus can be a complex and time-consuming process. In this case, seeking help from professional companies such as E-SCIENCE SPACE can greatly facilitate and accelerate this process. Especially for this, we created an all-inclusive service “Publication in Scopus” – https://e-science.space/en/services/publishing-in-the-scopus-journals/

Conclusions:

It is possible to publish an article in a journal indexed in Scopus free-of-charge if you select the appropriate journal with open access or low publication fees. It is important to carefully prepare the article, observing the requirements of the journal, and show patience during the reviewing process. Consider all the tips and recommendations presented in this article, and you have every chance to publish your work successfully in Scopus without significant financial costs.

The free publication in Scopus may require additional efforts, but this is an important step to expand the audience for your research papers and uphold your reputation in the academia. In the end, your article will attract more attention, facilitate cooperation with colleagues and possibly open up new opportunities for your scientific career

Guide for how to publish paper in scopus 2023

Eagerly looking to have your research paper published in one of the most well-recognized and renowned Scopus indexed journals 2023 , but are not aware of how to go about doing so? This article is meant just for people like you, in that it offers a step by step process of how you can search, identify, and go about approaching the best Scopus indexed journal or publication in your respective discipline to have your research paper published in.

However if you’re someone who is not even aware of what Scopus indexed publications and journals are then you might first want to start of by getting to know what a Scopus indexed journal is and why getting your research paper published in this journal is the best way for you to gain prominence in your field as a recognized researcher and scientific experimenter who undertakes groundbreaking and pioneering research studies and exploratory pursuits that yield phenomenal results and outcomes.

Scopus is one of the biggest citation databases for peer-reviewed publications, papers, and colloquiums that exists in the globe today. Any body who is of repute within the academic community seeks to have their research work published in Scopus indexed journals and publications because they are trusted and read by millions academics, researchers, scholars and other professionals across the world. One the most well-known and prominent journals get to be indexed in Scopus.

One can rest assured that any journal or publication that is a Scopus indexed journal or publication , is of the highest quality. This is because Scopus has strict policies and criteria as far as allowing journals to be indexed. Any journal or publication that is selected by Scopus to be listed as part of its master list is carefully vetted for its authenticity, validity, quality of content, range of research, up-to-dateness of the information published and many more criteria. Once a journal or publication is listed within the master list of Scopus it becomes recognized as a Scopus indexed journal.

Steps Involved In Publishing Your Paper In A Scopus Indexed Journal/Publication 2023

Discovering scopus indexed journals 202 3.

• Scopus has made it effortless and straightforward for anybody looking for Scopus indexed journals that are pertinent to their topic of interest and subject of study, to do so.
• Because there are hundreds of thousands of Scopus indexed journals across all domains present today, it can be pretty hard for somebody looking for a relevant Scopus indexed journal to find one, just by skimming through the master list of Scopus.
• their preferred subject of interest,
• the title of the specific journal/publication that they’re looking for,
• the name of the publisher, and
• its ISSN code.
• Using any one of the details above accurately will help people in finding the exact journal/publication that is listed in Scopus’ master list.

• Having specific details about the journal that you are looking for, such as its title, the name of the publisher and its ISSN code will make it easier for you to find the particular publication.
• However, if you are unaware of these specific details for the journal that you’re searching for, then you might want to perform a broader search by just entering in the subject area and conducting a broader subject search, which will take more time, but is also effortless because Scopus offers more options to narrow down your search.

Identifying the Best Journal/Publication That Is Scopus Indexed

• The primary goal of everyone seeking to have their research work and papers published in Scopus indexed journals is so that they can gain the recognition of prominent domain experts and peers from their fields.
• However, blindly publishing your research paper in any journal or publication is not the best way to go about spreading the word about your research work.
• One should always first begin by identifying the most relevant and appropriate journal to their current field/subject of interest/study.
• As detailed above Scopus has numerous journals and publications listed as part of its master list that it has deemed to be authentic, reliable and of great quality.
• the number of readers/followers that a journal has,
• the topics that a journal is known for covering,
• the caliber of authors/researchers who have their work published in the journal,
• the opportunities that will be available as a result of getting your work published,
• their reputation and popularity within your specific field/domain, and
• whether the journal is an open-access journal or a close access one.
• When it comes to deciding between whether to choose a close access journal or an open-access journal to publish your work, it is important to remember that an open access journal requires authors as well as co-authors to pay a processing fees in the event that the journal chooses to publish their work.

Compose Your Research Paper As Per The Guidelines Of The Journal

• further your standing in your profession,
• gain recognition as a reputed researcher,
• acquire critical funding to carry on your research work, and
• obtain lucrative collaborative as well as career opportunities,
• you should begin taking steps to ensure that your paper is edited and formatted in the best manner possible.
• In order to do so, start by reading and gaining a concrete understanding of all the terms and conditions of the publication that you have determined to have your work published in.
• Then proceed to check out all the previous issues of the publication and read through the papers that have been published therein and make note of the best papers.
• the format of all the papers published in the journal,
• the preferred style/tone of writing,
• how to accentuate your findings to make it appealing to readers.
• This will help you make your research paper have the most impact those who read it as well as demonstrate to the publishers that you are someone who does your homework and prepare well.
• In turn, by impressing them, you may be approached time and again by them to publish your work in their journal, which can lead to you becoming a regular feature on their publication.

Submitting Your Paper

• Upon preparing your paper completely to suit the format, style and voice of the journal that you have chosen to have your work published in, all that is left is to submit your completed paper.
• where to submit your paper,
• when to submit it (deadlines for submission),
• the required fees to pay before submission (if any), and
• any other procedural necessities to follow before submission.
• Most Scopus indexed journals involve following a simple online submission procedure for authors and co-authors to submit their work.

• email address,
• their topic/subject of study,
• the type of research that they have conducted, 
• the institution/university/company that they belong to,
• their goal/objective for conducting their research, etc.
• Submitting this information most often involves filling in a form, in which case, it is crucial that you make sure that all the information that you are entering is highly accurate and up-to-date.
• This is important because any misinformation or mismatching details can lead to the reviewing committee of the journal (that is responsible for verifying the credibility, relevant and up-to-dateness of every paper that is submitted before it is selected for publication) dismissing or rejecting your submission.
• Having your research paper rejected or dismissed because of some minor misinformation in the details that you might have entered or a small error will mean you will have to go through the entire process all over again leading to a lot of wasted time and resources.

Notification Of Acceptance From The Publisher

• Once your paper has been submitted all you have to do now is wait for the reviewing committee of the journal/publication to do their job, which takes anywhere from around five to thirty days (this period sometimes even takes up sixty days or two months), depending on the complexity of the work that you have published and how many pending submissions they have to verify.
• After the reviewing committee has determined your research paper to meet all their standards and worthy of publication in their journal they will send you a notification stating that the review process is finished and your paper has been chosen for publication in their journal.
• If your paper is rejected, it is important to move on and not be dejected, but instead, focus on where you went wrong and try to improve yourself the next time around.

Transferring Of Copyrights

• The transfer of copyrights is an incredibly essential procedure for getting your research work published in a journal, as different journals/publications involve varying copyright procedures and rules.
• This is another instance where reading and acquiring a concrete understanding of the terms and conditions of the journal comes into play, as doing so will help you realize in advance what the transferring of copyrights to the journal in question entails exactly.

Revealed: the ten research papers that policy documents cite most

• Dalmeet Singh Chawla 0

Dalmeet Singh Chawla is a freelance science journalist based in London.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Policymakers often work behind closed doors — but the documents they produce offer clues about the research that influences them. Credit: Stefan Rousseau/Getty

When David Autor co-wrote a paper on how computerization affects job skill demands more than 20 years ago, a journal took 18 months to consider it — only to reject it after review. He went on to submit it to The Quarterly Journal of Economics , which eventually published the work 1 in November 2003.

Autor’s paper is now the third most cited in policy documents worldwide, according to an analysis of data provided exclusively to Nature . It has accumulated around 1,100 citations in policy documents, show figures from the London-based firm Overton (see ‘The most-cited papers in policy’), which maintains a database of more than 12 million policy documents, think-tank papers, white papers and guidelines.

“I thought it was destined to be quite an obscure paper,” recalls Autor, a public-policy scholar and economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “I’m excited that a lot of people are citing it.”

The most-cited papers in policy

Economics papers dominate the top ten papers that policy documents reference most.

Data from Overton as of 15 April 2024

The top ten most cited papers in policy documents are dominated by economics research; the number one most referenced study has around 1,300 citations. When economics studies are excluded, a 1997 Nature paper 2 about Earth’s ecosystem services and natural capital is second on the list, with more than 900 policy citations. The paper has also garnered more than 32,000 references from other studies, according to Google Scholar. Other highly cited non-economics studies include works on planetary boundaries, sustainable foods and the future of employment (see ‘Most-cited papers — excluding economics research’).

These lists provide insight into the types of research that politicians pay attention to, but policy citations don’t necessarily imply impact or influence, and Overton’s database has a bias towards documents published in English.

Interdisciplinary impact

Overton usually charges a licence fee to access its citation data. But last year, the firm worked with the publisher Sage to release a free web-based tool , based in Thousand Oaks, California, that allows any researcher to find out how many times policy documents have cited their papers or mention their names. Overton and Sage said they created the tool, called Sage Policy Profiles, to help researchers to demonstrate the impact or influence their work might be having on policy. This can be useful for researchers during promotion or tenure interviews and in grant applications.

Autor thinks his study stands out because his paper was different from what other economists were writing at the time. It suggested that ‘middle-skill’ work, typically done in offices or factories by people who haven’t attended university, was going to be largely automated, leaving workers with either highly skilled jobs or manual work. “It has stood the test of time,” he says, “and it got people to focus on what I think is the right problem.” That topic is just as relevant today, Autor says, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence.

Most-cited papers — excluding economics research

When economics studies are excluded, the research papers that policy documents most commonly reference cover topics including climate change and nutrition.

Walter Willett, an epidemiologist and food scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, thinks that interdisciplinary teams are most likely to gain a lot of policy citations. He co-authored a paper on the list of most cited non-economics studies: a 2019 work 3 that was part of a Lancet commission to investigate how to feed the global population a healthy and environmentally sustainable diet by 2050 and has accumulated more than 600 policy citations.

“I think it had an impact because it was clearly a multidisciplinary effort,” says Willett. The work was co-authored by 37 scientists from 17 countries. The team included researchers from disciplines including food science, health metrics, climate change, ecology and evolution and bioethics. “None of us could have done this on our own. It really did require working with people outside our fields.”

Sverker Sörlin, an environmental historian at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, agrees that papers with a diverse set of authors often attract more policy citations. “It’s the combined effect that is often the key to getting more influence,” he says.

Has your research influenced policy? Use this free tool to check

Sörlin co-authored two papers in the list of top ten non-economics papers. One of those is a 2015 Science paper 4 on planetary boundaries — a concept defining the environmental limits in which humanity can develop and thrive — which has attracted more than 750 policy citations. Sörlin thinks one reason it has been popular is that it’s a sequel to a 2009 Nature paper 5 he co-authored on the same topic, which has been cited by policy documents 575 times.

Although policy citations don’t necessarily imply influence, Willett has seen evidence that his paper is prompting changes in policy. He points to Denmark as an example, noting that the nation is reformatting its dietary guidelines in line with the study’s recommendations. “I certainly can’t say that this document is the only thing that’s changing their guidelines,” he says. But “this gave it the support and credibility that allowed them to go forward”.

Broad brush

Peter Gluckman, who was the chief science adviser to the prime minister of New Zealand between 2009 and 2018, is not surprised by the lists. He expects policymakers to refer to broad-brush papers rather than those reporting on incremental advances in a field.

Gluckman, a paediatrician and biomedical scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, notes that it’s important to consider the context in which papers are being cited, because studies reporting controversial findings sometimes attract many citations. He also warns that the list is probably not comprehensive: many policy papers are not easily accessible to tools such as Overton, which uses text mining to compile data, and so will not be included in the database.

The top 100 papers

“The thing that worries me most is the age of the papers that are involved,” Gluckman says. “Does that tell us something about just the way the analysis is done or that relatively few papers get heavily used in policymaking?”

Gluckman says it’s strange that some recent work on climate change, food security, social cohesion and similar areas hasn’t made it to the non-economics list. “Maybe it’s just because they’re not being referred to,” he says, or perhaps that work is cited, in turn, in the broad-scope papers that are most heavily referenced in policy documents.

As for Sage Policy Profiles, Gluckman says it’s always useful to get an idea of which studies are attracting attention from policymakers, but he notes that studies often take years to influence policy. “Yet the average academic is trying to make a claim here and now that their current work is having an impact,” he adds. “So there’s a disconnect there.”

Willett thinks policy citations are probably more important than scholarly citations in other papers. “In the end, we don’t want this to just sit on an academic shelf.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00660-1

Updates & Corrections

Correction 22 April 2024 : The original version of this story credited Sage, rather than Overton, as the source of the policy papers’ citation data. Sage’s location has also been updated.

Autor, D. H., Levy, F. & Murnane, R. J. Q. J. Econ. 118 , 1279–1333 (2003).

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Costanza, R. et al. Nature 387 , 253–260 (1997).

Willett, W. et al. Lancet 393 , 447–492 (2019).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Steffen, W. et al. Science 347 , 1259855 (2015).

Rockström, J. et al. Nature 461 , 472–475 (2009).

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