Bigger citation counts on Scopus

For many years the only way to do a citation search was to use the Science Citation Index (now commonly known as Web of Science, or WoS). Then along came the more downmarket (but free) Google Scholar and not long after, the rather snazzy Scopus service from Elsevier.

Evidence is mounting that Scopus is at least as good as WoS and in many cases better. It is certainly faster and easier to use than WoS and this is why MRC Head Office have agreed to fund a subscription to Scopus for all MRC Units. Google Scholar is useful for a quick and very approximate search , but it has many rough edges and gaps in its coverage.

A small study earlier this year showed:

Scopus finds 9% more citations than Web of Science when limited to articles from 1996 onward.
Scopus finds 20% more citations than Google Scholar when limited to articles from 1996 onward.
Web of Science finds 10% more citations than Google Scholar when limited to articles from 1996 onward.

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