NEWS

Scopus Works with European Science Foundation to Expand Arts & Humanities Coverage

First citation database to offer access to Arts and Humanities journals
from over a thousand different publishers and content providers

Elsevier announced that its flagship product Scopus®, the world’s largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, has almost doubled its current Arts & Humanities (A&H) titles to 3,500, by adding top global journals using the European Science Foundation’s European Reference Index for Humanities (ERIH). This marks the first time that many of the ERIH titles will be available through a global citation database at no additional cost.

Founded in 2001 by the European Science Foundation, ERIH provides scholars, libraries and other institutions with lists of high quality A&H journals to raise awareness of the titles as a resource for content and an avenue for publishing original research.  Journals are included in the ERIH lists and categorized based on audience, distribution and reach, as well as influence and scope by expert scholarly panels from around the world. Scopus users can now search and access top-level A&H journal titles from all three categories included on the initial ERIH lists.

With the addition of the ERIH’s titles, Scopus can provide researchers with better access to national and international A&H journals. Subjects with the most journals include literature and literary theory (30% of new titles), general arts and humanities (22%), history (17%) and visual/performing arts (16%). More than half (60%) are published from the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, 38% from the Americas and 2% are from Asia-Pacific.

Like the existing titles in Scopus, the new journals contain cited references that make previously unavailable bibliometrics data accessible. This information will now help A&H scholars more efficiently assess and measure research sources and output, as well as illustrate the broader influence of journal articles published. In addition, Scopus allows tracking of citations belonging to scholarly books – via the unique MORE tab.

Several prestigious and highly cited titles are now included in Scopus such as "Mind" (Oxford University Press), "Transactions of the Royal Historical Society" (Cambridge University Press) and "Modern Philology" (University of Chicago Press)

In order to acquire back content of many journals, Scopus partnered with Project MUSE, a not-for-profit platform founded by John Hopkins University Press and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (MSEL) at John Hopkins University.

“We are pleased to help extend the visibility of many significant A&H titles,” said Mary Rose Muccie, Project MUSE Director.

“I very much welcome the expansion of Scopus towards A&H publications,” added Arto Mustajoki, President of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and Member of the ERIH Steering Committee. “As a whole, it is important to have an alternative that reflects the European output in the reference journal and citation index business.”

Niels Weertman, Director Scopus and Scirus added: “To date, there has been a lack of bibliometric data in the Arts and Humanities fields. We are excited to be working with the European Science Foundation as the ERIH journals not only expand the international breadth of Scopus, but also makes it an even more holistic source for scientific research and measurement in Arts and Humanities.”