Searching for documents
Documents are the basic building blocks of the Scopus database. They include journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, articles in press and data papers.
- Get started by entering your keywords and phrases in the Search documents [1] box
- By default, Scopus searches the Article title, Abstract, Keywords fields of a document record. Use the drop down Search within menu to specify a different field to search
- Use the [+] to Add Search Field [2] to build more complex queries or search across multiple fields
- Refine your search by selecting Add date range [3] to find recently published documents or those newly added to the Scopus index
Demo: Basic search in Scopus
In this example, we're searching for documents about climate change published by DePaul-affiliated researchers after 2014.
Scopus search operators
Search operators can help you fine-tune your search to find the most relevant results. For complex searches, building your search query in Advanced Search is recommended.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
| AND | Find documents that contain both terms (even if they are far apart) | pancreatic AND lesion |
| W/n | Find documents containing two terms in close proximity (n). n can be any number 0-255. | soil W/3 lead |
| PRE/n | The same as W/n, except the first word in your query must always come first in the document. | occupational PRE/5 hazard |
| OR | Search for documents that include one or more of your search terms (use for related terms). | coffee OR espresso |
| AND NOT | Exclude a word or phrase from your search results (e.g. to disambiguate terms with multiple meanings). Must appear at the end of your search string. | "generative AI" AND NOT ChatGPT |
| {} | Exact search. Search for a word or phrase, exactly as entered, without variations. Also used to search for special characters. |
{heart attack} {π} |
| " " | Loose phrase search. Will also include plurals, spelling variants, hyphenation, etc. | "heart attack" returns heart attack, heart attacks, heart-attack |
| * | Wildcard used to find different endings of a term. See note below before using. | crimin* liab* will return criminal liability as well as criminally liable |
Unless you use the exact search {}, entering the singular form of a search term will automatically search for the singular, plural, and possessive forms of a word. Scopus will automatically search accented terms with and without the accent and search for common spelling variants (e.g. searching for anesthesia includes results for anaesthesia).
More search options
In addition to searching for documents, you can also use the following search scopes:
- Authors: Find individual author profiles in Scopus by name or ORCID.
- Researcher Discovery: Search by keywords to discover the researchers working in a specific field.
- Organizations: Search for universities, research centers, and other institutions to view their profile and see documents by authors affiliated with that organization.
- Sources: Search for Journals, Book Series, Conference Proceedings, and Publications by name or topic.