Scopus content: Book Expansion project update

In mid-2013 Scopus launched the Books Expansion Project to increase the Arts and Humanities content in Scopus and the project has been steadily moving along. To date, you can see more than 40,000 books in Scopus!

How is the program going? Books from more than 30 major publishers such as Springer, Wiley-Blackwell, Elsevier, Brill, Walter de Gruyter, Princeton University Press, Palgrave Macmillan and Project Muse have already been selected and are being processed. More than 40,000 books have now been loaded in Scopus and we expect to have at least 65,000 books in Scopus by the end of this year.

Although books from all subject fields are considered for the project, the focus is on Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities and at least 25% of the books currently in Scopus are in these subject fields. Book items in Scopus also get cited, at present – with more than 5,600 citations – the highest cited book in Scopus is Theory of games and economic behaviorby von Neuman and Morgenstern published by Princeton University Press (2007).

And more high quality book content is soon to come in Scopus with the recently signed agreements to cover the book lists of Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis.

For an up-to-date overview of the Books Expansion Project and a list of the books currently indexed in Scopus, see the public books list on the Scopus info site.

How do we select books to index?The selection policy for books content is on a publisher level* (no individual book suggestions considered) and takes into account aspects such as: reputation of publisher, size and subject area of books list, availability and format of book content, publication policy and editorial mission and quality of published books content. Full bibliographic metadata will be indexed as well as abstracts (where available), author and affiliation information and cited references.

What subject areas are covered? Our main focus is on Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities, but also Science, Technology & Medicine (STM).

• Coverage years: back to 2005 (2003 for A&H)

• Number of books: 75,000 by the end of 2015; 10,000 each year thereafter

• Book types: Monographs, edited volumes, major reference works, graduate level text books

• Not in scope: dissertations, undergraduate level text books, atlas, yearbook, biography, popular science books, manuals

*All books from selected publishers deemed “in scope” will be selected for coverage.