Use Scopus from 2026 onwards
Thanks to the kind support of the Rectorate, the University Library has been able to license access to the two major publication and citation databases, Web of Science and Scopus, since January 2024. However, due to the very high costs, a decision had to be made as to which of the two databases could be licensed on a permanent basis. For this reason, in addition to the costs, the contents of the databases and the functionalities of both offerings were examined.
Scopus covers the bibliographic data of the University of Wuppertal back to 1973, while Web of Science only provides data from 1993 onwards. Even for the period covered by both databases from 1993 onwards, at the time of the review, Scopus contained more BUW publications (almost 19,700) than Web of Science (almost 15,500). For example, Scopus covers significantly more BUW publications in engineering than Web of Science. In addition, Scopus provides a larger proportion of peer-reviewed publications.
Interesting facts about Scopus
Scopus is a source-neutral and quality-assured abstract and citation database for research literature from almost all subject areas, maintained by independent experts. It offers more than just searching for relevant specialist literature: search results can be analysed in a variety of ways. For example, cross-references between ‘References’ and ‘Citations’ in the hits found enable citation analysis (Who cites whom? Who is cited by whom?). Various search tools and filters enable users to observe research trends, track newly published research and locate subject experts, among other things. The CiteScore developed by the publisher Elsevier in the database provides information on how often a journal is cited.
Scopus at a glance:
- Over 90 million bibliographic references and abstracts from more than 28,000 journals (peer-reviewed) and over 292,000 books from more than 7,000 publishers worldwide
- More than 2.6 billion cited references since 1970
- Approximately 25 million open access titles
- 21.9 million author profiles
- Approximately 94,000 affiliation profiles
Interesting facts about SciVal
The SciVal analysis tool is based on the Scopus abstract and literature database and provides access to publication data from more than 24,000 research institutions in 234 countries worldwide. SciVal offers the possibility to visualise the publication output of individual or multiple institutions or to compare them with regard to various parameters.
SciVal is available on the university network and requires additional personal registration.
