Content thoughs from… Atilio

Who recalls his first view of Scopus...
And it was love at first sight

Since 1995, Atilio Bustos has been the Director of the Library System of the Pontific Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile, and is Director of the CINCEL Project (National Consortium for Access to Scientific and Technological Information). He has worked in several countries in Latin and South America and has delivered courses at more than 40 universities.

When he is not busy working or studying for his Ph.D. in Scientometrics at the University of Granada – wait a minute – is there any time left in the day for anything else? Well, yes! It appears that Atilio makes time for the Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board.

I remember the first moment I saw Scopus. The way that it displayed search results just fascinated me. On one screen, it showed an overview of sources, authors, dates and document types – giving me an insightful impression of a given subject at a glance. Then, to be able to delve deeper into my search from that point by including or excluding elements... well, that is something I find quite exciting.

Having worked with Scopus for a long time now, I am sincerely impressed with the work being done with the Author Identifier, and other bibliometric capabilities are very promising. These elements, combined with a focus on more comprehensive coverage, are making Scopus the best tool of its kind.

In fact, in terms of Scopus content, one of the strengths is the inclusion of a significant number of high-quality journals published in countries that tend to receive low visibility. By including these sources, Scopus is redefining what “progressive” science means. This is true not only for my own region, Latin and South America, but also for Eastern Europe and other areas that are not necessarily as well represented as, say, Western Europe and the US.

As the only South American representative on the CSAB, I feel a special responsibility to help bring visibility to some of the high-quality science journals published in countries that esearchers can benefit from knowing more about. Particularly in my own region, I have met with members of national scientific organizations to seek their input in proposing journal titles of high relevance, not only for Spanish speakers, but for researchers and scientists around the world.

As a result, much of my work on the CSAB has been to help define the mechanisms behind new journal inclusion. I helped create a set of selection criteria for new titles based on excellence and relevance rather than on the popularity of the subject matter or geographic origin. This focus on excellence gives me a great deal of confidence in the future direction of continued content growth for Scopus.