A tale of two databases: The use of Web of Science and Scopus in academic papers

TL;DR

This study compares the usage patterns of Web of Science and Scopus in academic research from 2004 to 2018, highlighting the rising prominence of Scopus and diverse global and disciplinary engagement.

Contribution

It provides an empirical, comparative analysis of Web of Science and Scopus usage across countries, regions, and disciplines over time.

Findings

Scopus is increasingly challenging Web of Science in academic citations.

Researchers from diverse countries and fields are using both databases.

Both databases are heavily used in health sciences and library science.

Abstract

Web of Science and Scopus are two world-leading and competing citation databases. By using the Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, this paper conducts a comparative, dynamic, and empirical study focusing on the use of Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus in academic papers published during 2004 and 2018. This brief communication reveals that although both Web of Science and Scopus are increasingly used in academic papers, Scopus as a new-comer is really challenging the dominating role of WoS. Researchers from more and more countries/regions and knowledge domains are involved in the use of these two databases. Even though the main producers of related papers are developed economies, some developing economies such as China, Brazil and Iran also act important roles but with different patterns in the use of these two databases. Both two databases are widely used in meta-analysis related studies especially for researchers in China. Health/medical science related domains and the traditional Information Science & Library Science field stand out in the use of citation databases.