IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v130y2025i3d10.1007_s11192-025-05270-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assigning different document types by Scopus for similar contents: an exploratory analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Bakthavachalam Elango

    (Rajagiri College of Social Sciences
    Centre of Excellence in Journalology, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences)

Abstract

This study investigates the categorization of publications in the Scopus database, with a specific focus on items from the Indian multidisciplinary journal Current Science. Scopus classifies documents into 13 types, including articles, notes, editorials, and data papers. The research highlights significant instances of misclassification, particularly in the “In This Issue”, “Current Science Reports” and “Personal News”, those are all non-citable documents. A total of 249 records were analysed, revealing notable discrepancies, with a considerable number (83%) misclassified as citable documents. These findings underscore the need for improved classification standards in Scopus database to ensure the accurate representation of scientific contributions. The study is limited to a single journal, suggesting the need for broader investigations to validate these findings across different journals. This research contributes to the discourse on bibliographic integrity and the enhancement of document classification systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Bakthavachalam Elango, 2025. "Assigning different document types by Scopus for similar contents: an exploratory analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1989-2003, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:130:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-025-05270-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-025-05270-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-025-05270-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-025-05270-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N. Siva & P. Rajendran, 2023. "Retracted publications in BRICS countries: an analytical study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(12), pages 6313-6333, December.
    2. Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo, 2024. "The dynamics of Cuban international scientific collaboration: a scientometric analysis over a century," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(9), pages 5211-5226, September.
    3. Anne-Wil Harzing, 2013. "Document categories in the ISI Web of Knowledge: Misunderstanding the Social Sciences?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(1), pages 23-34, January.
    4. Bakthavachalam Elango & Marcin Kozak & Periyaswamy Rajendran, 2019. "Analysis of retractions in Indian science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(2), pages 1081-1094, May.
    5. Julián Espinosa-Giménez & Vanessa Paredes-Gallardo & María Dolores Gómez-Adrián & Carlos Bellot-Arcís & Verónica García-Sanz, 2023. "Scientific production of an oral implantology journal: a 5-year bibliometric study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(6), pages 3535-3554, June.
    6. Paul Donner, 2017. "Document type assignment accuracy in the journal citation index data of Web of Science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(1), pages 219-236, October.
    7. Ruimin Pei & Langqiu Li & Yiying Yang & Quan Zhou, 2024. "Co-evolution of international scientific mobility and international collaboration: a Scopus-based analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4353-4378, July.
    8. John P. A. Ioannidis & Thomas A. Collins & Jeroen Baas, 2024. "Evolving patterns of extreme publishing behavior across science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(9), pages 5783-5796, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Petr Praus, 2025. "A note on the topic of single-author articles in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(5), pages 3071-3088, May.
    2. D. A. Maisano & L. Mastrogiacomo & L. Ferrara & F. Franceschini, 2025. "A large-scale semi-automated approach for assessing document-type classification errors in bibliometric databases," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1901-1938, March.
    3. Miranda, Ruben & Garcia-Carpintero, Esther, 2018. "Overcitation and overrepresentation of review papers in the most cited papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 1015-1030.
    4. Clemens Blümel & Alexander Schniedermann, 2020. "Studying review articles in scientometrics and beyond: a research agenda," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(1), pages 711-728, July.
    5. Alexander Schniedermann, 2021. "A comparison of systematic reviews and guideline-based systematic reviews in medical studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(12), pages 9829-9846, December.
    6. José Luis Ortega & Lorena Delgado-Quirós, 2024. "The indexation of retracted literature in seven principal scholarly databases: a coverage comparison of dimensions, OpenAlex, PubMed, Scilit, Scopus, The Lens and Web of Science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 3769-3785, July.
    7. Sándor Soós & Zsófia Vida & András Schubert, 2018. "Long-term trends in the multidisciplinarity of some typical natural and social sciences, and its implications on the SSH versus STM distinction," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 795-822, March.
    8. David I Stern, 2014. "High-Ranked Social Science Journal Articles Can Be Identified from Early Citation Information," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-11, November.
    9. Xie, Yundong & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Peng & Li, Xingchen, 2020. "Information Science and Library Science (IS-LS) journal subject categorisation and comparison based on editorship information," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    10. Thed Leeuwen & Rodrigo Costas & Clara Calero-Medina & Martijn Visser, 2013. "The role of editorial material in bibliometric research performance assessments," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(2), pages 817-828, May.
    11. Behzad Gholampour & Sajad Gholampour & Alireza Noruzi & Clément Arsenault & Thomas Haertlé & Ali Akbar Saboury, 2022. "Retracted articles in oncology in the last three decades: frequency, reasons, and themes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1841-1865, April.
    12. Olesia Iefremova & Kamil Wais & Marcin Kozak, 2018. "Biographical articles in scientific literature: analysis of articles indexed in Web of Science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(3), pages 1695-1719, December.
    13. Abdelghani Maddi & Lesya Baudoin, 2022. "The quality of the web of science data: a longitudinal study on the completeness of authors-addresses links," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6279-6292, November.
    14. Metwaly Ali Mohamed Eldakar & Ahmed Maher Khafaga Shehata, 2023. "A bibliometric study of article retractions in technology fields in developing economies countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(11), pages 6047-6083, November.
    15. Romero-Silva, Rodrigo & de Leeuw, Sander, 2021. "Learning from the past to shape the future: A comprehensive text mining analysis of OR/MS reviews," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    16. Sánchez-Gil, Susana & Gorraiz, Juan & Melero-Fuentes, David, 2018. "Reference density trends in the major disciplines," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 42-58.
    17. Andra Sandu & Paul Diaconu & Camelia Delcea & Adrian Domenteanu, 2025. "Emphasizing Grey Systems Contribution to Decision-Making Field Under Uncertainty: A Global Bibliometric Exploration," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-45, April.
    18. Frode Eika Sandnes, 2025. "Are there too many papers by the same authors within the same conference proceedings? Norms and extremities within the field of human–computer interaction," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1659-1699, March.
    19. Shirley Ainsworth & Jane M. Russell, 2018. "Has hosting on science direct improved the visibility of Latin American scholarly journals? A preliminary analysis of data quality," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(3), pages 1463-1484, June.
    20. Houqiang Yu & Xueting Cao & Tingting Xiao & Zhenyi Yang, 2020. "How accurate are policy document mentions? A first look at the role of altmetrics database," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1517-1540, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:130:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-025-05270-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.