Key databases for citation tracking include Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar.
Hanken subscribes to Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus (available through Hanna). Google scholar (GS) is freely accessible, but when out of Hanken's network, you need to activate the library’s link in order to reach the full text versions of articles in licensed databases:
In a citation database, you get information not only about who has cited an article, but also about how many times an author has been cited. You can also list all articles citing the same source.
While all sources of citation data are continually trying to extend their coverage, a single database cannot index all the world's scholarly publications. And coverage in different disciplines is different. For example, the coverage of the arts and humanities may be less comprehensive, especially for books.
Generally, Web of Science and Scopus offer good coverage of sciences and social sciences, with less emphasis on humanities. Google Scholar covers all disciplines equally well, and captures "grey literature" such as policy papers and technical reports in addition to journals, but the criteria for inclusion in Google Scholar are not wholly transparent.
The table below represents a comparison of WoS, Scopus, and GS (originally by the University of Oulu, adapted):
Name |
Web of Science |
Scopus |
Google Scholar |
| Feature |
Multidisciplinary abstract and citation database. Includes:
|
Multidisciplinary abstract and citation database | A web search engine for scientific information |
| Owned by | Clarivate Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters | Elsevier | |
|
Availability |
Subscription based |
Subscription based |
Freely accessible |
|
Number of journals |
22 000 peer-reviewed journals. Aims to include the best journals of all fields. |
23 500 peer-reviewed journals. Indexes more journals than Web of Science. Better coverage for Economics and IT. |
Information is not publicly available. In theory, Google Scholar is able to index all sciences in all fields on the Internet. Journal article coverage is not as good as WoS and Scopus in their core fields. |
|
Other contents |
Conference proceedings, books |
Conference proceedings, professional magazines, patents, and book series |
Books, pre-prints, theses and dissertations, and web pages. Better overall coverage in fields where conference publications are important. |
|
Main disciplines |
Natural Sciences, Technology, Social Sciences, Fine Arts and Humanities |
Physics, Technology, Health Sciences, Bio sciences, Fine Arts and Humanities, |
Information is not publicly available. |
|
Time span |
From 1900 (Science), 1956 (Social Sciences) and 1975 (Arts and Humanities), accessible |
Records back to 1788
|
Information is not publicly available. Disadvantage for materials published prior to 1990. |
|
Updates |
Weekly |
Daily |
Information not publicly available, but more or less monthly. |
|
Collection policy |
Public |
Public |
Information not publicly available, contracts with most significant publishing houses |
|
Citation analysis |
Citation Report tool. The Citation Report is easy to generate, but only counts references to articles that are also in the database. |
View citation overview tool. Only indexes citations starting from 1996, and only counts references to publications that are also in the database. |
Search report with a "Cited by" link, giving all publications which cite the publication in question. |
|
Time span of citation information |
From 1900 (Science), from 1956 (Social Sciences) and from 1975 (Arts and Humanities). Hanken has access to citations starting from 1986. |
Cited references dating back to 1970. |
Information is not publicly available. |
| Indicators |
Journal Citation Reports (JCR): |
- H-index |
- H-index |
| Researcher profile | - ResearcherID | - Scopus Author Identifier - Scopus Affiliation Identifier |
- Google Scholar Profile |
| Training | - Web of Science training portal | - Google Scholar content coverage and search tips |
