Scopus integrated directly into editors’ and reviewers’ workflow

Elsevier has recently enhanced its annual peer review of 500,000 articles by embedding Scopus, its abstract and citation database of research information and Internet sources, into EES (Elsevier’s Editorial System). Updated daily and containing abstracts and references from over 15,000 titles from 4,000 different publishers, Scopus is the largest database of its kind in the world and a unique and user-friendly tool for editors
As Marie Sheehan, Editorial Marketing Communications Manager, explains, “EES, our online submission and peer-review system, has been available since 2003 and within that period has reduced the amount of time needed for the submission to acceptance process by nearly nine weeks. Scopus was launched over a year ago and has proved to be a very useful tool for editors for a whole range of tasks, including tracking citations, finding related articles, following trends in new subject areas and searching for new reviewers. Integrating Scopus into EES was a logical next step, one which will enable our editors and reviewers to utilize both EES and Scopus’ extensive functionalities in the normal course of their online submission workflow.”

Editors and Scopus
All editors currently using EES have unlimited access to Scopus via a Scopus search bar in the “Invite Reviewer” screen in EES; while reviewers who accept your invitation to review will receive full access for 30 days.

Sheehan continues, “By giving reviewers access to Scopus, we are not only offering a tool to assist them in the reviewing process, we also hope that once they become acquainted with Scopus’ capabilities, they will recognize it as being an incentive to review articles more often.

An additional benefit for you, our editors, is that you can also access Scopus outside of EES via www.scopus.com/editors. You will need to use your EES login details but you can access the site anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Similarly, your reviewers can access Scopus outside of EES by going to www.scopus.com/reviewers and using their EES login details. As well as using Scopus to review the article, reviewers can also use it for their own purposes any time during the 30-day access period.

Accessing Scopus through EES
A Scopus search bar appears on your ‘Invite Reviewer’ screen in EES.
If you do not use the ‘Invite Reviewer’ screen, you can still access Scopus at www.scopus.com/editors using your EES login details.

When you invite reviewers to review your articles, they must first accept the invitation before access instructions are sent to them. Once the invitation has been accepted, reviewers can then activate their access to Scopus through their assignments page in EES. Reviewers also have the choice of using Scopus straight away or postponing until a later date (up to a maximum of six months).

Once activated, a Scopus Search bar will appear in the reviewers’ assignments page.

Future developments
Reviewers have the essential but sometimes laborious task of checking article references. In the next phase of the Scopus into EES integration, references in an article will be hyperlinked. Says Sheehan, “Integrating Scopus into EES is just one example of Elsevier’s commitment to support the research community in making the fundamentally important task of peer review easier and faster than ever.”


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