IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v130y2025i4d10.1007_s11192-025-05293-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reference coverage analysis of OpenAlex compared to Web of Science and Scopus

Author

Listed:
  • Jack H. Culbert

    (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences)

  • Anne Hobert

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Najko Jahn

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Nick Haupka

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Marion Schmidt

    (German Center for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW))

  • Paul Donner

    (German Center for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW))

  • Philipp Mayr

    (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences)

Abstract

OpenAlex is a promising open source of scholarly metadata, and competitor to established proprietary sources, such as the Web of Science and Scopus. As OpenAlex provides its data freely and openly, it permits researchers to perform bibliometric studies that can be reproduced in the community without licensing barriers. However, as OpenAlex is a rapidly evolving source and the data contained within is expanding and also quickly changing, the question naturally arises as to the trustworthiness of its data. In this report, we will study the reference coverage and selected metadata within each database and compare them with each other to help address this open question in bibliometrics. In our large-scale study, we demonstrate that, when restricted to a cleaned dataset of 16.8 million recent publications shared by all three databases, OpenAlex has average source reference numbers and internal coverage rates comparable to both Web of Science and Scopus. We further analyse the metadata in OpenAlex, the Web of Science and Scopus by journal, finding a similarity in the distribution of source reference counts in the Web of Science and Scopus as compared to OpenAlex. We also demonstrate that the comparison of other core metadata covered by OpenAlex shows mixed results when broken down by journal, where OpenAlex captures more ORCID identifiers, fewer abstracts and a similar number of Open Access status indicators per article when compared to both the Web of Science and Scopus.

Suggested Citation

  • Jack H. Culbert & Anne Hobert & Najko Jahn & Nick Haupka & Marion Schmidt & Paul Donner & Philipp Mayr, 2025. "Reference coverage analysis of OpenAlex compared to Web of Science and Scopus," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(4), pages 2475-2492, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:130:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s11192-025-05293-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-025-05293-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-025-05293-3
    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/s11192-025-05293-3?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. Vivek Kumar Singh & Prashasti Singh & Mousumi Karmakar & Jacqueline Leta & Philipp Mayr, 2021. "The journal coverage of Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions: A comparative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 5113-5142, June.
    2. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo, 2015. "Errors in DOI indexing by bibliometric databases," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(3), pages 2181-2186, March.
    3. Janusz A. Hołyst & Philipp Mayr & Michael Thelwall & Ingo Frommholz & Shlomo Havlin & Alon Sela & Yoed N. Kenett & Denis Helic & Aljoša Rehar & Sebastijan R. Maček & Przemysław Kazienko & Tomasz Kajda, 2024. "Protect our environment from information overload," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(3), pages 402-403, March.
    4. Marlies Olensky & Marion Schmidt & Nees Jan Eck, 2016. "Evaluation of the citation matching algorithms of CWTS and iFQ in comparison to the Web of science," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(10), pages 2550-2564, October.
    5. Lucía Céspedes & Diego Kozlowski & Carolina Pradier & Maxime Holmberg Sainte‐Marie & Natsumi Solange Shokida & Pierre Benz & Constance Poitras & Anton Boudreau Ninkov & Saeideh Ebrahimy & Philips Ayen, 2025. "Evaluating the linguistic coverage of OpenAlex: An assessment of metadata accuracy and completeness," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 76(6), pages 884-895, June.
    6. Martín-Martín, Alberto & Orduna-Malea, Enrique & Thelwall, Mike & Delgado López-Cózar, Emilio, 2018. "Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: A systematic comparison of citations in 252 subject categories," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 1160-1177.
    7. Alberto Martín-Martín & Mike Thelwall & Enrique Orduna-Malea & Emilio Delgado López-Cózar, 2021. "Correction to: Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Scopus, Dimensions, Web of Science, and OpenCitations’ COCI: a multidisciplinary comparison of coverage via citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 907-908, January.
    8. Holly Else, 2018. "How Unpaywall is transforming open science," Nature, Nature, vol. 560(7718), pages 290-291, August.
    9. Lin Zhang & Zhe Cao & Yuanyuan Shang & Gunnar Sivertsen & Ying Huang, 2024. "Missing institutions in OpenAlex: possible reasons, implications, and solutions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(10), pages 5869-5891, October.
    10. Gabriel Alves Vieira & Jacqueline Leta, 2024. "biblioverlap: an R package for document matching across bibliographic datasets," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4513-4527, July.
    11. Dušan Nikolić & Dragan Ivanović & Lidija Ivanović, 2024. "An open-source tool for merging data from multiple citation databases," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4573-4595, July.
    12. Alberto Martín-Martín & Mike Thelwall & Enrique Orduna-Malea & Emilio Delgado López-Cózar, 2021. "Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Scopus, Dimensions, Web of Science, and OpenCitations’ COCI: a multidisciplinary comparison of coverage via citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 871-906, January.
    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. Elena Andriollo & Alberto Caimo & Laura Secco & Elena Pisani, 2021. "Collaborations in Environmental Initiatives for an Effective “Adaptive Governance” of Social–Ecological Systems: What Existing Literature Suggests," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-29, July.
    2. Toluwase Asubiaro & Sodiq Onaolapo & David Mills, 2024. "Regional disparities in Web of Science and Scopus journal coverage," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(3), pages 1469-1491, March.
    3. Steve J. Bickley & Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2022. "Artificial intelligence in the field of economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 2055-2084, April.
    4. Weishu Liu & Rong Ni & Guangyuan Hu, 2024. "Web of Science Core Collection’s coverage expansion: the forgotten Arts & Humanities Citation Index?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(2), pages 933-955, February.
    5. Gabriel Alves Vieira & Jacqueline Leta, 2024. "biblioverlap: an R package for document matching across bibliographic datasets," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4513-4527, July.
    6. Michael Gusenbauer, 2022. "Search where you will find most: Comparing the disciplinary coverage of 56 bibliographic databases," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(5), pages 2683-2745, May.
    7. Raminta Pranckutė, 2021. "Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-59, March.
    8. Dušan Nikolić & Dragan Ivanović & Lidija Ivanović, 2024. "An open-source tool for merging data from multiple citation databases," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4573-4595, July.
    9. DIODATO Dario, 2024. "Handbook of Economic Complexity for Policy," JRC Research Reports JRC138666, Joint Research Centre.
    10. Abdelkebir Sahid & Yassine Maleh & Karim Ouazzane, 2025. "Changing landscape of fake news research on social media: a bibliometric analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 901-954, April.
    11. Lia Marchi & Jacopo Gaspari, 2023. "Energy Conservation at Home: A Critical Review on the Role of End-User Behavior," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-22, November.
    12. Adriana Ana Maria Davidescu & Margareta-Stela Florescu & Liviu Cosmin Mosora & Mihaela Hrisanta Mosora & Eduard Mihai Manta, 2022. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Publications of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies in Time of Pandemics: Implications for Teachers’ Professional Publishing Activity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-36, July.
    13. Casey Eaton & Amanda Banks & Kristin Weger & Bryan Mesmer & Robert Moreland, 2023. "Understanding perceived influencers on project outcomes and quantifying disciplinary similarities in academic literature," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 460-487, May.
    14. Rui Liang & Xichuan Zheng & Po-Hsun Wang & Jia Liang & Linhui Hu, 2023. "Research Progress of Carbon-Neutral Design for Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-50, August.
    15. Barbara S. Lancho Barrantes, 2025. "Exploratory factor analysis of bibliometric indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1701-1729, March.
    16. Teddy Lazebnik & Ariel Rosenfeld, 2025. "How lonely or influential is the Lone Wolf? An analysis of individual scholars’ solo-authorship dynamics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(5), pages 3053-3069, May.
    17. Kayvan Kousha & Mike Thelwall, 2024. "Factors associating with or predicting more cited or higher quality journal articles: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 75(3), pages 215-244, March.
    18. David Kongpiwatana Narong & Philip Hallinger, 2024. "Traversing the Evolution of Research on Engineering Education for Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review (1991–2022)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-18, January.
    19. Shir Aviv-Reuven & Ariel Rosenfeld, 2023. "A logical set theory approach to journal subject classification analysis: intra-system irregularities and inter-system discrepancies in Web of Science and Scopus," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(1), pages 157-175, January.
    20. Momoka Nagasue & Haruka Kitagawa & Takashi Asawa & Tetsu Kubota, 2024. "A Systematic Review of Passive Cooling Methods in Hot and Humid Climates Using a Text Mining-Based Bibliometric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-29, February.

    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:4:d:10.1007_s11192-025-05293-3. 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.