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Social SciencesDecision SciencesInformation Systems and Management

The Journal Coverage of Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions: A Comparative Analysis
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Overview
Paper Summary
Conflicts of Interest
Identified Weaknesses
Rating Explanation
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Topic Hierarchy
File Information
Paper Summary
Paperzilla title
Bigger Isn't Always Better: Dimensions Indexes More Journals, But Scopus Still Wins on Citations for Some Countries
Web of Science has the most selective journal coverage, while Dimensions is the most exhaustive. While generally Dimensions has higher research output, Scopus shows higher citation counts for China and India, likely due to subject area coverage differences across the databases.
Possible Conflicts of Interest
None identified
Identified Weaknesses
Conservative Matching Procedure
The study uses a conservative matching procedure for journals, which might lead to some journals being classified as unique when they are essentially the same but spelled differently. This could slightly underestimate the overlap between databases.
Limited Scope (Journals Only)
The analysis focuses solely on journal coverage and does not consider other publication types like books and conference proceedings. This limits the scope of the comparison and might not fully capture the differences in coverage between databases.
Broad Subject Area Mapping
While the study uses article-level subject classification for Dimensions, it maps Scopus and Web of Science subject areas to broad categories, potentially masking finer-grained differences in subject coverage.
Exclusion of ESCI
The Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) is not included in the analysis for Web of Science, potentially underestimating its coverage, especially for newer or less established journals.
Rating Explanation
This is a solid comparative analysis of journal coverage across three major databases. The methodology is sound and the findings are useful for researchers. The limitations, while present, don't significantly detract from the value of the analysis. The comparison offers a valuable update on previous research and provides new insights into the coverage of Dimensions.
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File Information
Original Title:
The Journal Coverage of Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions: A Comparative Analysis
File Name:
2011.00223.pdf
[download]
File Size:
0.67 MB
Uploaded:
July 14, 2025 at 05:11 PM
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