How are document metrics used in Scopus?
Last updated on October 21, 2026
Document metrics allow you to evaluate both citation impact and levels of community engagement of an article through a combination of Scopus metrics and PlumX Metrics.
To view document metrics, from a Documents details page, select 'Metrics' from the navigation menu or select the Metrics accordion.
The top of the Metric details page shows citation metrics calculated and provided using Scopus data.
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Citation count | The citation count shows how many times this publication has been cited. | ||||
Field-Weighted Citation Impact | Field-Weighted Citation Impact is the ratio of the total citations actually received by the denominator output, and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field. The FWCI values in Scopus are aligned with SciVal. For more information, see What is Field-weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)?. | ||||
Citation benchmarking | Citation benchmarking is based on the SciVal field-weighted version of the Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles metric. This metric shows how citations received by this document compare with the average for documents in the same publication year, normalized by subject area. For example, the 99th percentile is high, and indicates a document in the top 1% globally. The criteria used in the calculation:
Citation benchmarking compares articles within a 36 month window. | ||||
Cited by Graph |
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As people interact with research they leave online footprints. Plum Analytics gathers these footprints and creates and categorizes metrics on individual pieces of research output (articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and more). These metrics are collectively known as PlumX Metrics.
By categorizing the metrics into five categories – Usage, Captures, Mentions, Social Media, and Citations – PlumX helps make sense of a large amount of metrics data and enables analysis by comparing metrics that are compatible.
PlumX Metrics Include:
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Plum Print | A data visualization that dynamically changes to indicate the relative number of metrics in each category.
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Usage (green) | Usage indicates whether anyone is reading the articles or otherwise using the research. After citations, Usage is the top statistic researchers want to know. Example metrics:
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Captures (purple) | Capture metrics indicates that someone wants to come back to the work. Captures can be an early indicator of citations. Example metrics:
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Mentions (yellow) | Mentions are a measurement of activities such as news articles or blog posts about research. They indicate that people are actively engaging with the research. Example metrics:
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Social Media (blue) | Social Media can help measure “buzz” and attention. This category includes tweets, Facebook likes, etc. that reference the research. Example metrics:
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Citations (red) | This is a category for both traditional citation indexes such as Scopus, and a place to capture new citations that help indicate social impact such as Clinical or Policy Citations. Example metrics:
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- From the Document details page, select 'Metrics' from the navigation menu or select the Metrics accordion.
- Select 'More metrics' to open the Metric details page.
- From the Metric details page, select 'Email'.
- Enter the recipient(s) email address and the sender email address. Separate multiple addresses with a comma.
- Select 'Send'. An email is to the recipient email address(es) with link to the Metric details page.
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