Scopus to add cited references for pre-1996 content

If anyone in our Amsterdam office sits near the Scopus team they may have overheard us tossing out numbers such as “1970”, “8 million” and “1996”. What do these numbers have in common exactly? They are all integral to the Scopus Cited References Expansion program which launched earlier this month and will (begin to) become evident with the Scopus interface in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The Scopus team is thrilled to officially announce the launch of the Scopus Cited References Expansion project. After extensive evaluation of feedback from the research community, internal discussion and operational documentation, our content team successfully made the investment case to include cited references in the Scopus database – going back to 1970 for pre-1996 content!

The Cited References Expansion project aims to increase the depth of Scopus’ scholarly content while enhancing the ability to use Scopus for evaluation and trend analysis. Moreover, author profiles and h-index counts of researchers who published articles prior to 1996 will be more complete. And what is the best part of the program? All additional content will be included in the standard Scopus subscription fees.

The project leader, Senior Product Manager for Content, Dr. Wim Meester, says, “We are excited to be able to execute the Cited References Expansion program over the next three years. Since the launch of the product ten years ago, we have not seen such a large project making the archival content in Scopus more complete. And most importantly it will make researchers in Scopus look better and give them more impact.”

Let us know what you think by tweeting @Scopus or sending us an email. Stay tuned to this space for updates as the Cited References Expansion project progresses.