Capturing Citation Activity in Three Health Sciences Departments: A Comparison Study of Scopus and Web of Science

Abstract

Scopus and Web of Science are the two major citation databases that collect and disseminate bibliometric statistics about research articles, journals, institutions, and individual authors. Liaison librarians are now regularly called upon to utilize these databases to assist faculty in finding citation activity on their published works for tenure and promotion, grant applications, and more. But questions about the accuracy, scope, and coverage of these tools deserve closer scrutiny. Discrepancies in citation capture led to a systematic study on how Scopus and Web of Science compared in a real-life situation encountered by liaisons: comparing three different disciplines at a medical school and nursing program. How many articles would each database retrieve for each faculty member using the author-searching tools provided? How many cited references for each faculty member would each tool generate? Results demonstrated troubling differences in publication and citation activity capture between Scopus and Web of Science. Implications for librarians are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Author identifiers
• author name disambiguation
• bibliometrics
• comparison study
• library liaisons
• ORCID
• Scopus
• Web of Science

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Sarkozy

Alexandra Sarkozy, MSI ([email protected]) is Learning and Research Support Librarian, Purdy Kresge Library, Wayne State University, 5265 Cass Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202.

Alison Slyman

Alison Slyman, MLIS ([email protected]) is Learning and Research Support Librarian

Wendy Wu

Wendy Wu, MS, AHIP ([email protected]) is Learning and Research Support Librarian; both at Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University, 320 E. Canfield, Detroit, MI 48201.