Dear Colleagues:

I agree totally with Rick and Warren.

Please do not be suspicious of Scopus. Let me try to be a database
handicapper, so to speak, so I would say that "Scopus is a real
contender to WOS".

The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is also a Scopus
development partner and we have had a great partnership with the
database staff. The simplest way to put this with regards the scopus
interface is "this interface is designed for the end-user by the
end-user". Our faculty, students and librarians have provided feedback
about the database features, functionalities, interface and its content
and is continuing to do so.

Of course we could not have afforded WOS too but we were interested in
it. When Scopus came along, we had a trial of both databases for about 8
months. We did our own independent investigation by doing citation
searches in both for a number of faculty. We ended up with a decision in
favor of Scopus. It suited our customer profile at NJIT and almost a
year later we are ever more happy with the decision.

My own views of Scopus are extremely positive. Even past sceptics here
at NJIT are encouraged by the results of their research. I have seen
smiles on faces that I thought would never happen. The product is very
easy to use, it provides a very realistic summary of your search results
in such  away that it can be used as a library management/decisonmaking
tool. All in all it does not only provide results after a search but it
provides you with decisionmaking elements.

As the old proverb goes "the proof of the pudding is in the eating",  so
I'd suggest that "find out" by signing up for a trial. Feel free to ask
me questions.

Cheers!

Haymwantee P. Singh
Technical Reference Librarian
R.W. Van Houten Library
New Jersey Institute of Technology
323 ML King Boulevard
Newark, NJ 07102
Ph: 973-596-8498
Fax 973-643-5601
singhh@adm.njit.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Warren Holder
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:01 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Scopus

Rick Anderson writes;
There's no need to sit idly by and be suspicious -- check out Scopus'
results and see what you think.  Better yet, do a rigorous study and
publish it.  The resulting article would be interesting and useful.

 To this statement I say amen.  I really wish that  there could be a
little more rigor brought to the many accusations being floated about
newer e-resouces such as Scopus and Google Scholar.  There is going to
be another session at the European ICOLC meeting taking place in Poznan,

Poland at the end of September where  speakers will compare and contrast

Google Scholar, Scopus and  Web Of Science. While  I have no problem
with this, I did suggest that I would prefer to hear from a researcher
who  either has or would be prepared to actually use  the e-resouces for
some research and then report on their results. We will see what
happens.