The development of the SCOPUS Content Selection Advisory Board, 2003-2009
The development of the SCOPUS Content Selection Advisory Board, 2003-2009
Since the work of Eugene Garfield in the 1960s, the science of bibliometrics has come to dominate behaviours across academic publication worldwide.
Bibliometrics is primarily the preserve of two companies which have invested substantially in their modern digital systems: Clarivate Analytics, which owns the Web of Science, which evolved from Garfield’s Institute for Scientific Information (ISI); and Elsevier BV, which has developed the SCOPUS system since the early 2000s.
Academic journal numbers have surged over two decades, in consequence of the worldwide demand from academia; and of open access and digital publishing, and of the global reach of the Internet.
SCOPUS and Web of Science employ advisory boards to help manage the accreditation of journals by their systems on grounds of the quality and trustworthiness of the content, which now includes the development of defences against global publication malpractice.
I have been privileged to act within this complex system as the Subject Chair for Medicine to the SCOPUS Content Selection Advisory Board (CSAB) since 2009.
In this Working Paper, I describe the creation of the SCOPUS CSAB as the prelude to a series of essays on the insights and global challenges in quality assurance which flow from this unique project
SCOPUS, Content Selection Advisory Board, Bibliometrics: Ulrich’s Periodicals, Web of Science, Subject Field Weighted Citation Metrics, SCIMAGO Journal Rank, SCIVAL
University of Southampton
Rew, David
36dcc3ad-2379-4b61-a468-5c623d796887
15 December 2025
Rew, David
36dcc3ad-2379-4b61-a468-5c623d796887
Rew, David
(2025)
The development of the SCOPUS Content Selection Advisory Board, 2003-2009
(Essays in the Art and Science of Academic Journal Editing and Publishing)
University of Southampton
36pp.
Record type:
Monograph
(Working Paper)
Abstract
Since the work of Eugene Garfield in the 1960s, the science of bibliometrics has come to dominate behaviours across academic publication worldwide.
Bibliometrics is primarily the preserve of two companies which have invested substantially in their modern digital systems: Clarivate Analytics, which owns the Web of Science, which evolved from Garfield’s Institute for Scientific Information (ISI); and Elsevier BV, which has developed the SCOPUS system since the early 2000s.
Academic journal numbers have surged over two decades, in consequence of the worldwide demand from academia; and of open access and digital publishing, and of the global reach of the Internet.
SCOPUS and Web of Science employ advisory boards to help manage the accreditation of journals by their systems on grounds of the quality and trustworthiness of the content, which now includes the development of defences against global publication malpractice.
I have been privileged to act within this complex system as the Subject Chair for Medicine to the SCOPUS Content Selection Advisory Board (CSAB) since 2009.
In this Working Paper, I describe the creation of the SCOPUS CSAB as the prelude to a series of essays on the insights and global challenges in quality assurance which flow from this unique project
Text
David Rew The early years of the SCOPUS Content Selection Advisory Board 2003-2009 15th Dec 2025
- Author's Original
More information
Published date: 15 December 2025
Additional Information:
David Rew, MA MB MChir (Cambridge) FRCS (London)
Honorary Consultant Surgeon to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK And to the Clinical Informatics Research Unit.
Former Editor in Chief of the EJSO, The European Journal of Surgical Oncology, 2003-2009 Subject Chair for Medicine to the SCOPUS Content Selection Advisory Board, Elsevier BV, The Netherlands, 2009 to the Present.
Keywords:
SCOPUS, Content Selection Advisory Board, Bibliometrics: Ulrich’s Periodicals, Web of Science, Subject Field Weighted Citation Metrics, SCIMAGO Journal Rank, SCIVAL
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Local EPrints ID: 507668
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/507668
PURE UUID: b110567b-fae4-4a83-af1d-e6487664aea0
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Date deposited: 16 Dec 2025 18:28
Last modified: 17 Dec 2025 03:00
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