WISER Science, Hilary Term 2006
Electronic resources for science: SCOPUS practical exercises
Go to Oxlip, Oxford’s gateway to e-resources, at
From the Title list, select SCOPUS and click on a research service from Elsevier to open the database
1. We are interested in finding articles on how solar power might help with the problem of global warming.
In Basic Search, search for global warmingANDsolar power in Article title, Abstracts, Keyword.
(This should give around 127 results.)
To narrow your results to review articles, tick the box next to Review (listed under Document Type) and Limit to.
(This should reduce the list to around 17.)
Scroll down to an article by Ruddiman in Scientific American. Take a look at the Abstract + Refs. Click on result list to go back to your list. Then click on Tour to see if you can view the full text. (You should be offered a link via EBSCO)
To return to SCOPUS, close the e-journal and Tour windows.
Finally, let’s take a look at the results from the Web search. Click on the blue Web tab to see what the SCIRUS science search engine found.
2. To start a new search, click on the Search button at the top (or bottom) of the screen.
We are looking for articles by Oxford’s own Richard Dawkins.
Click on the blue Author tab, type in Dawkins R, and click on Search.
Of the 17 or so Dawkins listed, tick the box next to Dawkins, R (with 52 Documents) and click on Show documents.
If we want to narrow the list further, we can use Search within results.
In the Search within results box, type religion and click on Go.
(This should reduce the list to around 3. )
The article from Quarterly Review of Biologyhas been cited once. Click on the number given under Cited by to see where and when.
3. SCOPUS has lots of Help pages and several short tutorials on useful features and common tasks, including
I want to run the same search every month, I want to know when my paper is cited.
Click on the Help button at the top (or bottom of the screen).
Click on Show me the interactive tutorial. Choose one that interests you and run it.
4. Over to you! Choose a research topic of your own and run a SCOPUS search on it.
Please complete the feedback form at