Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the traditional and relative overlap between Scopus and Web of Science databases in Endocrine System Diseases.

Methods: This research is a descriptive survey and an applied study. Research population includes all articles retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science databases. 11 Descriptors and 120 sub-heading were searched in endocrine field in 2009. The bibliographic information of all the articles was entered into Endnote software. Then common articles between the two databases and articles unique to each database were determined. Primary data needed for overlap calculation were obtained using Endnote Software and data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel.

Results: The results of this study showed that 7448 of articles on endocrine retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science databases, 4216 of which belonged to Scopus and 3242 to Web of Science. There were 2799 common titles, while there were 1417 titles in Scopus and 443 titles in Web of Science. The traditional overlaps were 60.70%, Relative overlap between Scopus and Web of Science for 11 descriptive were found to be 86.33% vs. 66.38%, respectively.

Conclusion: The results showed that Scopus has an approximately higher relative overlap than Web of Science in all of the subject, and regarding the high percentage of overlaps these two databases can be an appropriate alternative to each other. Understanding of this fact can help physicians, researchers who work in the field of Endocrinology to meet their information needs using only one of the two databases.