How many journals do Web of Science and Scopus really cover?

Wed Feb 23 11:12:09 EST 2011

Dear Loet,

The numbers that you mention are correct. Just for sake of completion and to confirm:

There are 1948 titles classified as A&H in Scopus, of which 1709 are active. This information can be found in the (excel) title list.

There are 870,008 records published in A&H titles in Scopus, of which 43,918 in 2010. This information can be found searching for A&H subject classification codes in Advanced Search ("SUBJTERMS (XXXX)", or if using wildcards it is better to use "SUBJMAIN (XX*)")

In addition, for mutual customers of Scopus and CSA Illumina, the content of seven CSA Illumina databases can be searched. This results in 2,056,185 records of which 45,172 in 2010.

Kind regards,

Wim

From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of Loet Leydesdorff
Sent: 23 February 2011 16:21
To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] How many journals do Web of Science and Scopus really cover?

Dear Wim, 

This clearly answers question 1: there is a Scopus+ version including CSA Illumina. For the A&H this is more than twice the size as Scopus without it.

I downloaded the excel with the list information and then obtain the 1948 journals that I reported before. How come that these journals contained only 43,918 records in 2010. Or is this also including the CSA Illumina? If so, what is the number of Scopus journals in this category and how can one retrieve this number online? 

I hope that you appreciate this questioning. On this list, we are all interested in understanding and if possible improving these databases. 

Best wishes, 

Loet

________________________________

Loet Leydesdorff 

Professor, University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), 
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam. 
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-842239111
loet at leydesdorff.net <mailto:loet at leydesdorff.net> ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/ <http://www.leydesdorff.net/>  

From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [mailto:SIGMETRICS at listserv.utk.edu] On Behalf Of Meester, Wim (ELS-AMS)
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3:06 PM
To: SIGMETRICS at listserv.utk.edu
Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] How many journals do Web of Science and Scopus really cover?

Dear Loet,

The difference between WOS and Scopus can be explained by the different classification schemes that are used. The Scopus classification scheme is based on the ASJC codes and there maybe titles for example in Social Sciences category that may be classified as A&H in other schemes. With the different classification schemes in the two databases, it will be difficult to do a fair comparison on the subject field level.

The explanation for the different numbers we came up with, is the records from the CSA Illumina databases which can be searched on Scopus by mutual Scopus and CSA customers. When CSA records are excluded from the Scopus Advanced Search, indeed 870,007 A&H records are retrieved.

More information about the classification scheme and the coverage of CSA Illumina databases can also be found in the Scopus Content Coverage Guide <http://www.info.sciverse.com/documents/files/scopus-training/resourcelibrary/pdf/sccg0510.pdf> .

My apologies for the confusion and I hope this answers your questions about the coverage in Scopus. 

Kind regards,

Wim

From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of Loet Leydesdorff
Sent: 23 February 2011 10:52
To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] How many journals do Web of Science and Scopus really cover?

Thank you so much, Wim.

Ø  As for the Arts & Humanities content in Scopus, there are just over 1,600 core A&H titles in Scopus. You can search for A&H records in Scopus by using SUBJTERMS(XXXX) in Advances Search, where XXXX are the ASJC subject classification codes 1200 - 1213 (these can be found in the Scopus title list). There are in total over 2 million A&H records in Scopus.

If I follow this instruction, I obtain not 2 million, but 870,007 records using Advanced Search in Scopus. Of these, 43,918 in 2010. This is exactly the number which I reported earlier today. 

Can you, please, clarify further? (1) What causes the difference between > 2 million and < 1 million? (2) Why is the coverage of the A&H larger in the WoS despite the much lower number of active journals?

Best wishes, 

Loet

Elsevier B.V. Registered Office: Radarweg 29, 1043 NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Registration No. 33156677 (The Netherlands)

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