Scopus indexes scholarly journals, books, and conference papers across science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and the arts and humanities, and tracks citations among them. Researchers use it to search literature, follow citation trails, and find related work. It’s curated: content must meet quality criteria to be included, which gives the database a reputation for reliability.
Institutions rely on Scopus for research evaluation. It provides author profiles with h-index and other metrics, journal rankings such as CiteScore, and tools for analyzing the output of departments and universities. Funders and universities use these numbers in assessments, rankings, and hiring, which makes the database influential, and sometimes controversial because of the weight put on metrics.
Scopus AI adds generative features: summaries of a topic drawn from abstracts with references, suggested follow-up questions, and help locating experts and research gaps. Access is by institutional subscription, so most users reach it through a university library, and individual access is limited. Competitors include Web of Science from Clarivate, Google Scholar, Dimensions, and OpenAlex, which is free and open. Scopus suits researchers at institutions with access who want curated coverage and metrics.