[Paper Review] Accuracy of citation data in Web of Science and Scopus

Nees Jan van Eck, Ludo Waltman|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jun 17, 2019

scientometrics and bibliometrics research6 references43 citations

TL;DR

The paper analyzes the accuracy of citation data in Web of Science and Scopus using citations from Elsevier journals, revealing data quality problems in both databases and notable issues like missing/incorrect references in Web of Science and duplicate publications in Scopus.

ABSTRACT

We present a large-scale analysis of the accuracy of citation data in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The analysis is based on citations given in publications in Elsevier journals. We reveal significant data quality problems for both databases. Missing and incorrect references are important problems in Web of Science. Duplicate publications are a serious problem in Scopus.

Motivation & Objective

• Assess the accuracy of citation data in Web of Science and Scopus.
• Identify data quality problems in both databases.
• Evaluate how citations in Elsevier journals are represented across the databases.

Proposed method

• Large-scale analysis of citations reported in Elsevier journal articles.
• Comparison of citation links against source publications to identify discrepancies.
• Assessment of missing, incorrect references, and duplicate publications in the databases.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How accurate are citation data in Web of Science and Scopus for citations drawn from Elsevier journals?
• RQ2 What kinds of data quality problems (missing/incorrect references, duplicates) are prevalent in each database?
• RQ3 Are there systematic differences in citation accuracy between Web of Science and Scopus?

Key findings

• Web of Science exhibits significant missing and incorrect references.
• Scopus exhibits a serious problem with duplicate publications.
• Both databases show notable data quality issues in the captured citation data.