Scientometric research often relies on large-scale bibliometric databases of academic journal articles. Long term and longitudinal research can be affected if the composition of a database varies over time, and text processing research can be affected if the percentage of articles with abstracts changes. This article therefore assesses changes in the magnitude of the coverage of a major citation index, Scopus, over 121 years from 1900. The results show sustained exponential growth from 1900, except for dips during both world wars, and with increased growth after 2004. Over the same period, the percentage of articles with 500+ character abstracts increased from 1% to 95%. The number of different journals in Scopus also increased exponentially, but slowing down from 2010, with the number of articles per journal being approximately constant until 1980, then tripling due to megajournals and online-only publishing.
Figure 3. Number of Scopus narrow fields with specified minimum numbers of articles
The breadth of Scopus, in terms of the number of narrow fields with substantial numbers of articles, simultaneously increased from one field having 1000 articles in 1945 to 308 in 2020. Scopus’s international character also radically changed from 68% of first authors from Germany and the USA in 1900 to just 17% in 2020, with China dominating (25%).
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.
From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...
From a CRS “In Focus”: The recent public release of many GenAI tools, and the race by companies to develop ever-more powerful models, have generated widespread discussion of their capabilities, ...
From the MS Bing Blogs: Microsoft Maps has a dedicated Maps AI (artificial intelligence) team that has been taking advantage of Microsoft’s investments in deep learning, computer vision, and ML ...
Broward County, Florida: “‘I Read Banned Books’ Library Cards Spark Support and Outrage” (via WFTS) Librarians Strike Back Against Comics Bans (via PW) Michigan: Book Bans Discussed on Michigan Public ...
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis-area librarians are confident their children’s sections don’t include — and never have — obscene materials, but they are spending hours examining policies to make ...
From University of Chicago News: In the fall of 2016, Carla D. Hayden had just been confirmed as the 14th librarian of Congress—the first woman and the first African American to hold ...
Fron ALA (Full Text): The American Library Association (ALA) applauds the Biden-Harris Administration’s steps announced today to address the rise in book bans and other attacks on LGBTQIA+ Americans. In ...
Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) ACRL Executive Director Robert “Jay” Malone is Leaving Organization, Will Be Succeeded by Interim Executive Director Allison Payne (via ALA) Databases CiteScore 2022 ...
From IMLS: The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced today the release of a research brief on the public library response to community needs during the first 9 months ...
From CBS News (via YouTube): Poet and author Amanda Gorman joins “CBS Mornings” for her first interview since her poem and book, “The Hill We Climb,” was restricted by a ...
From a Joint Announcement: U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Central Library is working to add more than 47,000 unique items ...
From a Nature Editorial: Why are we disallowing the use of generative AI in visual content? Ultimately, it is a question of integrity. The process of publishing — as far ...
