Created by Aretha Alencar, last modified on Dec 08, 2010
What is it?

Scopus files are files containing bibliographic information which comes from search queries on the scopus database. Scopus is a competitor of Thompson ISI, providing extensive publication data, including citation information, for publications created after the year 1996.

How do I get files in this format?

First, you or your institution must obtain a license to search Scopus. Once a license in obtain, Scopus files can be obtained in the following manner:

  1. Go to http://www.scopus.com/home.url
  2. Login using your username and password in the upper-right-hand corner
  3. Enter your search query in the provided fields.
  4. Click "Search"
  5. Select the publications you want to download, either by manually clicking their checkboxes, or selecting "all" or "page" at the bottom-middle of the page (on the blue bar).
  6. Click the "Output" icon, on the blue bar.
  7. In the "Step 2" box, from the "Export Format" drop down list, select "Comma separated file".
  8. Select the desired format in "Output", depending on the goals of your final analysis (when in doubt choose "Complete format").
  9. Click "Export"
  10. A download pop-up dialog should appear
  11. Save the file.
  12. Rename the file to have the ".scopus" extension.

From here, the Scopus file can be loaded as normal in NWB, and the algorithms noted below may be run.

How is it used in Network Workbench?

Scopus files contain both author and citation information, so co-authorship and co-citation networks can be extracted using the Extract Co-Occurrence Network from Table algorithm. Burst Detection may also be performed.

What should I know about how NWB handles this format?

The following operations are performed on scopus data as it is read in to NWB:

Convert file into a table
Normalize author names to be "|" separated
Normalize References to be "|" separated
Add a self reference (a column which contains the text of how you would reference that paper)
What should I know about the format itself?

"Scopus files" are comma-separated value files, but in order for Network Workbench to perform special Scopus-specific cleaning, the files must be loaded with the ".scopus" extension.