Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science: A Longitudinal and Cross-Disciplinary Comparison
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Scopus has earned an equal place as a comprehensive bibliographic data source and has proven itself reliable and, in some respects, even better than WoS.
“Over the years, Scopus has earned its equal place as a comprehensive bibliographic data source and it has proven itself to be reliable and, in some respects, even better than WoS [10,13].”
From Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World (2021) · cites this paper as [13]
Both WoS and Scopus continuously increase their coverage of all source types, showing stable overall content growth.
“It was demonstrated that both DBs continuously increase their coverage of all source types, showing stable overall content growth [13,53].”
From Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World (2021) · cites this paper as [13]
Differences in citation counts between WoS and Scopus decreased by more than 40% a year after the initiation of the Scopus expansion program.
“the differences in citation counts between WoS and Scopus were observed having been decreased by more than 40% already only a year after the initiation of the expansion program in Scopus [13].”
From Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World (2021) · cites this paper as [13]
Chapters of authored books in WoS were mistakenly indexed as individual publications.
“chapters of authored books in WoS were (mistakenly) indexed as individual publications”
From Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World (2021) · cites this paper as [13]
Cites
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When Knowledge Wins: Transcending the Sense and Nonsense of Academic Rankings
Adler, N. J., & Harzing, A.-W. (2009) · Academy of Management Learning & Education · doi:10.5465/amle.2009.37012181 · Cited by 853 · see citing works
Self-citationKulkarni, A. V. (2009) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2009.1307 · Cited by 821 · see citing works
Three options for citation tracking: Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science
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Self-citationA comparison of Scopus and Web of Science for a typical university
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Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar: A content comprehensiveness comparison
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Citations to the “Introduction to informetrics” indexed by WOS, Scopus and Google Scholar
Bar‐Ilan, J. (2010) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-010-0185-9 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
The expansion of Google Scholar versus Web of Science: a longitudinal study
de Winter, J., ZADPOOR, A. A., & Dodou, D. (2013) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-013-1089-2 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Franceschet, M. (2009) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-009-0021-2 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
Bergman, E. M. L. (2012) · The Journal of Academic Librarianship · doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2012.08.002 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
Harzing, A.-W. K. (2012) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-012-0777-7 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Self-citationMingers, J., & Lipitakis, E. (2010) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-010-0270-0 · Cited by 198 · see citing works
Coverage of Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science: A case study of the h-index in nursing
Groote, S. L. D., & Raszewski, R. (2012) · Nursing Outlook · doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2012.04.007 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar
Jacsó, P. (2010) · Online Information Review · doi:10.1108/14684521011024191 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
A longitudinal study of Google Scholar coverage between 2012 and 2013
Harzing, A.-W. K. (2013) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-013-0975-y · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Self-citationA Comparative Citation Analysis of Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar
Levine‐Clark, M., & Gil, E. L. (2008) · Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship · doi:10.1080/08963560802176348 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
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Jacsó, P. (2008) · Library trends · doi:10.1353/lib.0.0011 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Amara, N., & Landry, R. (2012) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-012-0729-2 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
hIa: an individual annual h-index to accommodate disciplinary and career length differences
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Self-citationA new look at evidence of scholarly citation in citation indexes and from web sources
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Comparing Google Scholar and ISI Web of Science for Earth Sciences
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Proof over promise: towards a more inclusive ranking of Dutch academics in Economics & Business
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Self-citationRoales-Nieto, J. G., & O’Neill, B. (2012) · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
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A review of the literature on citation impact indicators
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Citations, Citation Indicators, and Research Quality: An Overview of Basic Concepts and Theories
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The sharing economy and digital platforms: A review and research agenda
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- Authors
- Harzing, A.-W., & Alakangas, S.
- Affiliations
- Middlesex University London (GB)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Harzing, Anne-Wil
- Venue
- Scientometrics
- Published
- 2015-11-26
- Volume
- 106
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 787-804
- ISSN
- 0138-9130 (ISSN-L)
- 1588-2861
- OpenAlex
- W2178471959
- Cited by
- 1,784
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 173 · 2025: 237 · 2024: 268 · 2023: 233 · 2022: 212 · 2021: 210 · 2020: 146 · 2019: 137 · 2018: 87 · 2017: 55 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 3 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 50.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Scientometrics (publishedVersion)
- Middlesex University Research Repository (Middlesex University Of London) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Web visibility and informetrics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Library Science and Information
- Keywords
- Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, cross-disciplinary comparison, longitudinal comparison, citation coverage, h-index, research metrics, disciplinary differences
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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