Web of Science and Scopus are multidisciplinary databases containing scholarly publications such as journal articles and conference papers. Scopus also includes Scopus AI, where you can use natural language to ask questions about different topics.
Web of Science and Scopus – what's the difference?
Both Web of Science and Scopus are large multidisciplinary databases that include articles, conference publications, books, book chapters, and more. Scopus contains more publications than Web of Science and has broader coverage, for example when it comes to conferences and journals in languages other than English. Some material appears in both databases, but each database also contains content unique to that specific database.
More information about Web of Science on Clarivate's website.
More information about Scopus on Elsevier's website.
Scopus AI (AI Discovery)
Scopus AI (AI Discovery) is a feature in Scopus that allows you to ask questions about different topics using natural language. The answers are based on abstracts available in Scopus and are presented as a summary with references, a concept map, and suggestions for further reading. Use Scopus AI to explore topics but think of it as a complement to traditional database searching. Learn more about Scopus AI/AI Disocovery on Elsevier's website.
Can't I just use Google Scholar instead?
In Web of Science and Scopus, you find scholarly publications selected by the databases according to specific criteria. In Google Scholar, it is less clear what material is included. You can find scholarly articles in Google Scholar, but also, for example, student theses and reports.
Citation databases
In both Web of Science and Scopus, you can follow an article forward and backward in time. You can see which publications the article cites and which other articles cite the article you have found. Learn more about chain searching and citation searching (film, 3,5 minutes, on play.his.se).
Specialised indexes in Web of Science
When you search in Web of Science, you automatically search what is called the Core Collection. Web of Science also includes specific indexes such as Derwent Innovations Index and Data Citation Index. Read more about the different Web of Science indexes in Web of Science Help Center.
