Students and novice researchers often inquire about my strong endorsement of Scopus databases and how Scopus indexing can benefit researchers, aiding them in their efforts to publish in high-impact journals. This support revolves around the concerted drive to enhance the quality and quantity of publications while simultaneously increasing the visibility of researchers and their affiliated institutions.
In a highly competitive higher education sector, academics face the perilous “publish or perish” threat in their careers. In the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education, university academics play a pivotal role in shaping the future of nations and are entrusted with the dual responsibility of imparting knowledge to students and contributing to the ever-expanding realm of academic research. To support academics in delivering effective lessons based on current knowledge and writing cutting-edge research, universities need to be equipped with good databases that can help both academics and students in their work. This is where Scopus plays a significant role.
Scopus, owned by Elsevier and launched in November 2004, is an abstract and citation database that maintains source neutrality and is managed by subject matter specialists who are widely acknowledged as authorities in their respective fields. This platform provides academics, librarians, research managers, and funders with access to robust discovery and analytics tools, enabling them to facilitate the dissemination of ideas, support individuals, and promote institutions.
Scopus is the preferred choice for global researchers and organisations, owing to its capacity to discern emerging trends, elevate visibility, expedite collaborative efforts, facilitate funding pursuits, and empower institutions. Among the well-known publishers indexed in Scopus are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley-Blackwell, Sage, and several others. Scopus brings together superior quality and coverage of data.
Scopus boasts comprehensive scientific data and literature, a rich source of trusted and curated content, as well as advanced analytics and technology in one solution to keep users up to date and ahead of the competition. Scopus’s breadth of coverage is unmatched. Its Advanced Document Search tool allows users to employ Boolean operators and query strings to search for specific keywords that will extract journal articles that exactly match the keywords. This is an extremely useful tool for researchers, as it reduces hours of work into mere minutes. Once the specific journal articles are extracted, researchers can download all the abstracts of the extracted journals in an Excel format, providing students and academics with much information to ease their research and project work. It is an efficient and effective tool to enhance research.
Scopus journal, article, and author metrics such as CiteScore™ metrics, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) metrics, and Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) metrics offer a valuable avenue for spotlighting both individual researchers and their affiliated institutions. The Scopus journal, article, and author metrics provide ways to showcase the researcher and the institution’s research, thereby enhancing the visibility and profile of both researchers and institutions, adding value to the rankings of the institutions concerned. This heightened visibility serves to augment the reputation and rankings of the concerned institutions, thereby adding significant value to their academic standing.
In conclusion, Scopus serves as a crucial defence against predatory publishing, safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly domain. It aids researchers across all categories, including students and academics, in streamlining and optimising their research workflow. Furthermore, it empowers institutions to fortify their performance, ranking, and reputation, while also enabling funders to maximise the impact of their investments.
About the Author:
ASSOC PROF DR RATNESWARY RASIAH
Associate Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Business, SEGi University.
Assoc Prof Dr Ratneswary has vast academic and leadership experience, having held various positions, including the role of Pro-Vice Chancellor of Teaching, Learning and Research, as well as the Associate Dean of Learning and Quality in her previous university. Dr Ratneswary’s strength lies in her ability to capture her students’ imagination as she draws on a wide range of real-world cases and data to enhance and illustrate the various economic theories and concepts. She is known for her enthusiasm, good sense of humour, innovative and engaging teaching and learning methods and her pastoral care, providing students with a conducive learning environment. She is currently supervising doctoral students and has graduated a number of PhD students. AP Dr Ratneswary also actively undertakes research and scholarly activities. Aside from presenting papers at national and international conferences, she has also published many papers in peer-reviewed journals, aside from securing several national and international research grants.