Basic Search

 

In addition to this brief description there is an E-Tutorial: Scopus - Einfache Suche

 

Contents of the brief description

The following brief description explains how to perform a basic search in the database of Scopus.

 

Search for articles on a specific topic

You can use „smart cancer nanomedicine“ as an example for the basic search. Typing the terms gets you documents, which contain the terms in the title, in the abstract or in the keywords.

 

To search for the exact phrase use quotation marks.

 

A truncation can help to simplify the search. An asterisks (*) wildcard character replaces any number of symbol and covers therefore e. g. different endings of a word.

 

Refining the search

An expansion of the search is achieved by opening an additional search field with „Add search field“ and choosing the boolean operator „or“.

 

Search Tips

Further information for structured search queries can be found by following the link „Search tips“ offered by Elsevier.

 

Modification of the search parameters

The default parameters of the search can be modified in various ways, for example by the field to be searched, the boolean operators or date range options.

 

Search results

Search results of the last search query about smart
“cancer nanomed *” combined with
smart “cancer nanobiol *”.
The number of results is shown on the top left and the individual articles are listed in short form.

 

Sorting

To sort in a different order you can use the drop-down menu on the upper right. By default, the results are sorted by date.

 

Refine search results

To refine the results you can choose different facets using the menu on the left. For each of the facets, you can select the corresponding arrow. The button „limit to“ will limit the search results to the chosen attributes, whereas „exclude“ will exclude them from the results, which correlates with an And-Not-Connection.

 

Limitation of the search question to years and an exclusion of certain subject areas

To get a list of 10 subject areas, select the option “View more”.

 

If more than 10 are available, they can be presented in a separate window through “View all”. For further use it is possible to select any number and therefore refine the query.

 

Edit search question

At the top of the page, the search string shows all the modifications made to the search. By using the button "edit" the search string can be changed , e. g. by cancelling previous filtering .