You can search in Scopus by documentauthoror organization:

Searching for a document

Scopus allows you to search for publications based on search terms relating to specific parts of a document (e.g.titleauthorkeywordsISSN).

To search for a document:

Note: To add search termsselect 'Add search field' for an additional search term line.

1. Go to the Scopus homepage. The default page is the Document search.
2. Select the fields to search within from the Search within drop-down.
3. Enter your terms in the Search documents field.
4. Select 'Search'. For information about how to work with document search resultssee document search results.

 

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 - ORANDAND 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

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Rules for using Boolean operators:

• Advanced searches with multiple operators are processed using the following order of precedence:
  1. OR
  2. AND
  3. 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 phraseenclose the terms in double quotes (" ") or for an exact match use braces ({}).

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Proximity operators - W/nPRE/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 wordsbut not the order — e.g.journal W/2 publishingwhere 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  disturbanceswhere behavioral precedes disturbances within three words

Tips for proximity operators:

Values for n
To find terms in the same sentenceuse 15
To find terms in the same paragraphuse 50
To find adjacent termsuse 0. For exampleheart 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 TITLE-ABS-KEY(bay PRE/6(ship* AND channel AND fish)) - invalid TITLE-ABS-KEY((bay PRE/6 ship* ) OR channel OR fish) - valid
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: TITLE-ABS-KEY(bay PRE/6 ship* PRE/6 channel) - valid TITLE-ABS-KEY(bay PRE/6 ship* PRE/0 channel) - invalid TITLE-ABS-KEY(bay W/6 ship* PRE/6 channel) - invalid
You can include multipledifferent operators and different values for "n" in the same searchbut 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	TITLE-ABS-KEY(tomato W/5 potato) - valid TITLE-ABS-KEY(tomato W/5 {potato}) - syntax errorinvalid TITLE-ABS-KEY({tomato} W/5 {potato}) - valid

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Operator order of precedence
Order	Example
OR W/nPRE/n AND AND NOT	The search sensor W/15 robot AND water OR orbit OR planet is processed in the following order: OR: FirstScopus processes the OR connector by looking for documents containing waterorbitor planet. W/15: Nextit looks for documents where sensor is within 15 words of robot. AND: Scopus processes the AND operator lastreturning any documents it found in steps 1 and 2 that contain waterorbitor planetand also contain sensor within 15 words of robot.

Find exact or approximate phrases and words ~ wildcardsbracesquotation marks

There are two ways of searching for phrasesan exact search and a loose/approximate phrasedepending 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 titleabstractor keywords.
• Not a loose phrase: TITLE-ABS-KEY( heart attack) searches for documents where heart and attack appear together or separately in the titleabstractor 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 usedit 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 attacksanesthesia 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 wordthe 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 phraseenclose the phrase in braces: {oyster toadfish}.

RESULT: This includes any stop wordsspacesand 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 characterse.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 equivalentspunctuationand spacing are ignored.

To search specifically for a special character or a punctuation markenclose 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 singularpluraland possessive forms of most words.

Scopus applies word stemming to fields containing text (not to namesaffiliationsdatesor 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: Published: Limit your search to articles published within a range of years (inclusive). Added to Scopus in the last no. days: Limit your search to documents that have been added to Scopus in the last 714or 30 days.
Document type	Use the document type list to limit your search to a specific type of documentsuch 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 reviewedscholarly articles are online and available without any restrictions. For more information about OA and OA filterssee 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: Gold: Gold documents are in journals which only publish open access. Hybrid Gold: Hybrid Gold Documents are in journals which provide authors the choice of publishing open access. Bronze: Bronze are published versions of record or manuscripts accepted for publication. The publisher has chosen to provide temporary or permanent free access. Green: Green are published versions or manuscripts accepted for publication and available at repository.

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 typeswhere the author is not identical to the person behind the presented researchsuch 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 typessee the Scopus Content Coverage Guide.

 

How to conduct a basic search tutorial ​

Searching for an author

The author search helps you find documents written by a specific person in Scopuseven if the author is listed inconsistently. For examplean author may be cited as SmithJ in one documentbut as SmithJohn 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 informationsee How do I search for authors using ORCID?

1. From the Scopus homepageselect the 'Authors' tab.
2. From the 'Search using' dropdownselect 'Author name' to search by name or select 'ORCID'.
3. Enter the last name of the author in the 'Enter last name' field. Alternativelyenter the ORCID number.

The last name of the author is required. You can also enter a first name or initialsand an affilation name to further narrow your results.

1. Select 'Search'.

 

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Author search tips

Limit your search results

Author Search results include any available author name variations that match your search criteria. For examplesearching for SmithJ will also produce SmithJohn in the results.

Here is how to limit your search results (e.g.for SmithJ.):

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 SmithJ is searched.
Add an affiliation	To enter affiliation search criteria for your authorsuch as organization name and location. E.g.adding the University of Toronto limits the search of SmithJ to authors associated with this institution.
Use ORCID identification	An ORCID is a 16-digit number and is used by editorsfunding agenciespublishersand 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 searchnone of the other values for the last namefirst nameor 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 JohnJohnstonJonathan.
?	Replaces a single character - e.g.Jo?n finds JohnJoan

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 wordthe 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 ​

Searching for an organization

An organization search returns a list of organizations with links to documents and a summary of the organization's research areascollaborationsand publications.

To search for documents and authors within those organizations:

1. From the Scopus homepageselect the 'Organizations' tab.
2. Enter the name of an organization in the 'Search organizations' field.
3. Select the arrow to search.

Affiliation search tips

Boolean operators ~ using ANDORand 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:
  1. AND
  2. OR
  3. 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 phraseenclose the terms in double quotes (" ") orfor an exact matchbrackets ({}).

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 ChemistryChemicalsChemists
?	Replaces a single character - e.g.Nure?berg finds NurembergNurenberg

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 wordthe wildcard will be dropped.

Examples

• Affiliation name: micro-*

Accented characters ~ searching for words with éäüß

For exampleyou 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 locationmultiple affiliationsor affiliation information

Here are some different field codes you could use:

Field code	Explanation
Affiliation ID	If you know an affiliation’s IDtype in AF-ID(xxxxxxxx)
Affiliation	To find documents where your search terms occur in the same affiliationuse: AFFIL(london and hospital) To find documents where both terms appear in a document's affiliationbut not necessarily in the same affiliationuse: AFFIL(london) and AFFIL (hospital)
Multiple affiliations	To search for documents from multiple affiliationsuse a boolean operator to combine a search: AFFIL(London School of Economics) AND AFFIL(Victoria University) AF-ID(xxxxxxxx) AND AF-ID(xxxxxxxx)

Search for an affiliation by name tutorial ​

Combining searches

You can combine two or more searches with the operators ORANDand AND NOT using Combine queries.

1. From the Scopus homepageselect the 'Search history' tab.
2. Choose two or more searches and select 'Combine queries'.
3. From the Combine queries pageselect 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.
4. Select 'Show results' to view the results of the combined query.