Scopus allows you to search for publications based on search terms relating to specific parts of a document (e.g., title, author, keywords, ISSN).
To search for a document:
- Go to the Scopus homepage. The default page is the Document search.
- Select the fields to search within from the Search within drop-down.
- Enter your terms in the Search documents field.
- Select 'Search'. For information about how to work with document search results, see document search results.
Note: To add search terms, select 'Add search field' for an additional search term line.
Document search tips:
Operators ~ boolean and proximity operators
Use boolean operators to combine different search queries and proximity operators to find words near/within a specified distance of each other.
Boolean operators - OR, AND, AND NOT
Boolean operator | Example |
|---|---|
OR | At least one term must appear - e.g., liver OR cirrhosis |
AND | Both terms must appear - e.g., Cognitive architecture AND robots |
AND NOT | Exclude one term - e.g., lung AND NOT cancer |
Rules for using Boolean operators:
- Advanced searches with multiple operators are processed using the following order of precedence:
- OR
- AND
- AND NOT
e.g., KEY(mouse AND NOT cat OR dog) is interpreted as KEY((mouse) AND NOT (cat OR dog))
- AND NOT should always be used at the end of the query.
- To search for a specific phrase, enclose the terms in double quotes (" ") or for an exact match use braces ({}).
Proximity operators - W/n, PRE/n
You can choose between two Proximity operators to find words within a certain distance from each other: Pre/n specifies a word order whereas W/n does not.
Proximity operator | Example |
|---|---|
W/n | Indicates distance between words, but not the order — e.g., journal W/2 publishing, where journal can be found within a distance of two words from publishing |
Pre/n | Terms must appear in a specific order between words — e.g., behavioral PRE/3 disturbances, where behavioral precedes disturbances within three words |
Tips for proximity operators:
Values for n |
|---|
To find terms in the same sentence, use 15 |
To find terms in the same paragraph, use 50 |
To find adjacent terms, use 0. For example, heart PRE/0 attack returns the same Scopus results as "heart attack" |
Operators | |
|---|---|
Rule | Example |
You can use the wildcards asterisk (*) and question mark (?) with proximity operators | TITLE-ABS-KEY(ship* PRE/0 channel) |
Proximity operators can only be used with terms or phrases and not with expressions that contain the operators AND or AND NOT. | Tip: Use proximity operators in parentheses to avoid confusion
|
You can use more than one proximity operator in sequence to connect several terms | Note: Do not mix operator types or include different values for "n" within the same expression:
|
You can include multiple, different operators and different values for "n" in the same search, but not within the same expression | TITLE-ABS-KEY((b?y W/6 ship*) AND (ship* PRE/0 channel) AND NOT (channel W/0 isl*)) - valid |
You cannot use loose and exact terms simultaneously when using a proximity operator within a search string |
|
Operator order of precedence | |
|---|---|
Order | Example |
| The search sensor W/15 robot AND water OR orbit OR planet is processed in the following order:
|
Find exact or approximate phrases and words ~ wildcards, braces, quotation marks
There are two ways of searching for phrases, an exact search and a loose/approximate phrase, depending on how exact a match you want to find.
Loose/approximate phrases
Double quotation marks are important when searching for a loose/approximate phrase.
Example:
- Loose phrase: TITLE-ABS-KEY( "heart attack") searches for documents where heart attack appear together in the title, abstract, or keywords.
- Not a loose phrase: TITLE-ABS-KEY( heart attack) searches for documents where heart and attack appear together or separately in the title, abstract, or keywords.
Rules
- Punctuation is ignored except for hyphens and dots: heart attack or heart/attack return the same results (heart and attack):
- Dots and hyphens are treated as intentional. When a dot/hyphen is used, it is ignored and the search terms are treated as a loose phrase
- heart-attack or heart.attack is searched as "heart attack"
- Wildcards work: "criminal* liab*" finds criminally liable and criminal liability.
- Plurals and spelling variants are included: heart attack includes heart attacks, anesthesia includes anaesthesia.
- Double quotation marks can be used to search specifically for stop words and special characters: "crocodiles with alligators" will return results such as: Crocodiles with alligators are among the largest reptiles.
- Wildcards must be used with words because they cannot be standalone. When a hyphen/dot/slash is placed between a wildcard and a word, the wildcard is dropped:
- title-abs-key (*/art) is searched as title-abs-key(art)
- abs(iwv-*) is searched as abs(iwv)
Exact phrase
To find documents that contain an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in braces: {oyster toadfish}.
RESULT: This includes any stop words, spaces, and punctuation which you included in the braces. For example:
- {heart-attack} and {heart attack} will return different results because the dash is included.
- Wildcards are searched as actual characters, e.g., {health care?} returns results such as: Who pays for health care?
Find accented and special characters
You can search for accented characters either with or without the accent. The results contain both variants.
Example:España and Espana are both found whether you entered espana or españa.
This also applies to special characters.
Letters from the Greek alphabet and their spelled-out equivalents – alpha; α
Special characters that have common equivalents like π r⊃2; - pr2
Special characters with no common equivalents, punctuation, and spacing are ignored.
To search specifically for a special character or a punctuation mark, enclose it in braces {π}.
Note:Scopus finds variant spellings and matches Greek characters and their common American/British English variant spellings.
Find plural or possessive forms of a word
Using the singular form of a word in your search retrieves the singular, plural, and possessive forms of most words.
Scopus applies word stemming to fields containing text (not to names, affiliations, dates, or numbers). Word stemming ensures that different occurrences of a word are found.
Example: criterion finds criteria and criterion
Filter your search results
Use these filters to reduce your search results:
Filter | Explanation |
|---|---|
Date range | Use date range options to limit your search to a certain time period:
|
Document type | Use the document type list to limit your search to a specific type of document, such as reviews or conference papers. |
Open Access | Scopus has a number of documents labeled as Open Access (OA). Open Access refers to content in which all peer reviewed, scholarly articles are online and available without any restrictions. For more information about OA and OA filters, see Open Access (OA). You can select to search and filter only Open Access documents available in Scopus. An OA search allows you to filter by OA status on the Document results page:
|
Document types included in the search
Scopus coverage focuses on primary document types from serial publications. Primary means that the author is identical to the researcher in charge of the presented findings. Scopus does not include secondary document types, where the author is not identical to the person behind the presented research, such as obituaries and book reviews.
Document types covered in Scopus
- Article or Review
- Article
- Review
- Book or Book Chapter
- Book
- Book Chapter
- Article or Conference Paper
- Conference Paper
- Conference Review
- Letter
- Editorial
- Note
- Short Survey
- Business Article or Press
- Erratum
- Retracted
- Data Paper
Document types not covered in Scopus
- Book reviews
- Conference meeting
For more in-depth information about document types, see the Scopus Content Coverage Guide.
How to conduct a basic search tutorial
The author search helps you find documents written by a specific person in Scopus, even if the author is listed inconsistently. For example, an author may be cited as Smith, J in one document, but as Smith, John in another. The Scopus Author Identifier allows you to identify between different authors in author search results.
You can also search using an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). For more information, see How do I search for authors using ORCID?
- From the Scopus homepage, select the 'Authors' tab.
- From the 'Search using' dropdown, select 'Author name' to search by name or select 'ORCID'.
- Enter the last name of the author in the 'Enter last name' field. Alternatively, enter the ORCID number.
The last name of the author is required. You can also enter a first name or initials, and an affilation name to further narrow your results.
- Select 'Search'.
Author search tips
Limit your search results
Author Search results include any available author name variations that match your search criteria. For example, searching for Smith, J will also produce Smith, John in the results.
Here is how to limit your search results (e.g., for Smith, J.):
Filter | Explanation |
|---|---|
Show exact matches only | To restrict your search to authors that exactly match the terms entered in the 'Enter last name' field and to authors that start with the terms entered in the 'Enter first name' field. E.g., only Smith, J is searched. |
Add an affiliation | To enter affiliation search criteria for your author, such as organization name and location. |
Use ORCID identification | An ORCID is a 16-digit number and is used by editors, funding agencies, publishers, and institutions to reliably identify individuals in the same way that ISBNs and DOIs identify books and articles. Use this to find a specific author. Note: If you use an ORCID in the search, none of the other values for the last name, first name, or affiliation are used. |
Use Wildcards to replace letters with unknowns
Unsure about spelling the author’s name? Use Wildcards to replace letters with unknowns:
Wildcard | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Replaces zero or more characters - e.g., Jo* finds John, Johnston, Jonathan. | |
| Replaces a single character - e.g., Jo?n finds John, Joan |
The hyphen is treated as punctuation and therefore ignored if it is not in an exact phrase. Wildcards must be used with words because they cannot be standalone. When an hyphen is placed between a wildcard and a word, the wildcard will be dropped.
Examples
- Author last name: Smith-*
- Author last name: Jones and Affiliation: *-smithsonian
Expert search for authors
It is also possible to search an Author in Advanced Search with their author ID.
For example: AU-ID(000000000)
Multiple author IDs can be searched as well:
For example: AU-ID(000000000) OR AU-ID(111111111) OR AU-ID(222222222)
Any author search field Codes can be used with OR between them to search multiple authors.
Search for an author and view their profile tutorial
An organization search returns a list of organizations with links to documents and a summary of the organization's research areas, collaborations, and publications.
To search for documents and authors within those organizations:
- From the Scopus homepage, select the 'Organizations' tab.
- Enter the name of an organization in the 'Search organizations' field.
- Select the arrow to search.
Affiliation search tips
Boolean operators ~ using AND, OR, and AND NOT
Boolean operator | Example |
|---|---|
AND | Both terms must appear - e.g., "Cognitive architecture" AND robots |
OR | At least one term must appear - e.g., liver OR cirrhosis |
AND NOT | Exclude one term - e.g., lung AND NOT cancer |
Rules for using Boolean operators:
- Advanced searches with multiple operators are processed using the following order of precedence:
- AND
- OR
- AND NOT
e.g., ‘KEY(mouse AND NOT cat OR dog)’ is interpreted as ‘KEY((mouse) AND NOT (cat OR dog))’
- AND NOT should always be used at the end of the query.
- To search for a specific phrase, enclose the terms in double quotes (" ") or, for an exact match, brackets ({}).
Wildcards ~ find approximate names
Use these characters (wildcards) to find variations of a word:
Wildcard | Explanation |
|---|---|
* | Replaces zero or more characters - e.g., Chem* finds Chemistry, Chemicals, Chemists |
? | Replaces a single character - e.g., Nure?berg finds Nuremberg, Nurenberg |
Note: The hyphen is treated as punctuation and therefore ignored if it is not in an exact phrase. Wildcards must be used with words because they cannot be standalone. When an hyphen is placed between a wildcard and a word, the wildcard will be dropped.
Examples
- Affiliation name: micro-*
Accented characters ~ searching for words with é, ä, ü, ß
For example, you can enter Técnicas or Tecnicas for your search. Searching for Tecnicas returns results for e as well as é.
Affiliation field codes ~ Find affiliation by location, multiple affiliations, or affiliation information
Here are some different field codes you could use:
Field code | Explanation |
|---|---|
Affiliation ID | If you know an affiliation’s ID, type in AF-ID(xxxxxxxx) |
Affiliation | To find documents where your search terms occur in the same affiliation, use: AFFIL(london and hospital) To find documents where both terms appear in a document's affiliation, but not necessarily in the same affiliation, use: AFFIL(london) and AFFIL (hospital) |
Multiple affiliations | To search for documents from multiple affiliations, use a boolean operator to combine a search:
|
Search for an affiliation by name tutorial
You can combine two or more searches with the operators OR, AND, and AND NOT using Combine queries.
- From the Scopus homepage, select the 'Search history' tab.
- Choose two or more searches and select 'Combine queries'.
- From the Combine queries page, select the desired operator from the operator dropdown for each query combination.
Note: Select an operator from the Change all operators dropdown to syncronize all operators. - Select 'Show results' to view the results of the combined query.
Was this answer helpful?
Thank you for your feedback, it will help us serve you better.
If you require assistance, please scroll down and use one of the contact options to get in touch.
Related Articles:
- How can I best use the Advanced search?
- How to conduct a basic search tutorial
- How do I work with document search results?
