Coverage of source types

The source types covered on Scopus are either serial publications that have an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) such as journals, book series and some conference series, or non-serial publications that have an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) such as one-off book publications or one-off conferences. To ensure that coverage, discoverability, profiles and impact measurement for research in all subject fields is accounted for, Scopus covers different source types. As part of this effort, Scopus takes a highly targeted approach of identifying content types that are significant to each discipline and expand coverage accordingly. Examples of this include two major expansion projects which focused on:

Conference material: an important content type for disciplines such as engineering, computer science and some areas of physics

Book titles, a primary source type for disciplines in the social sciences and humanities

2.1 Serial source types

Scopus indexes serial publications ( journals, trade journals, book series and conference materials) that have been assigned an ISSN. The exception is one-off conference papers, which enter Scopus through different methods than do serial publications with ISSNs (see section “Conference Material”) and one-off books (see section 2.2 “Non-serial sources”).

Journals

Journals make up the bulk of the content on Scopus and can have various physical formats (e.g., print, electronic). Titles are selected according to our content coverage policy (for more information see section 4.2). Any serial publication with an ISSN, excluding one-off proceedings, newsletters, secondary sources or patent publications, can be suggested for review and coveredon Scopus.

Trade journals

Trade journals are serial publications co