Database Comparisons: Specialized Subjects

Written by Stephanie Ritchie, Lauren M. Young, and Jessica Sigman. Published in Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, Spring 2018.
Findings: "Overall, the data show that multidisciplinary databases cover agricultural subject content very well and interdisciplinary topics especially well...Notably, CAB is the one database that focuses on agriculture that covers it comprehensively. Other agricultural specific databases such as AGRICOLA or AGRIS do not provide comprehensive coverage of agricultural literature, but do offer content that is outside of the scope of large scholarly databases and of interest to agricultural researchers."

Written by Carmen Cole, Angela R. Davis, Vanessa Eyer, John J. Meier. Published in Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2018, 44(3): 419-425.
This study compares Google Scholar to Compendex and Scopus. Authors used engineering dissertations to create a data set of citations to compare Compendex and Scopus against Google Scholar. It essentially re-runs a study done 10 years ago. It concluded that Google Scholar performs better when searching for a specific resource. No topic searches were done. Simply looking for known items that had been cited in dissertations.

By Rusty Kimball. Published in the Serials Librarian, August 2020.
"There is a 20% journal title overlap with GeoRef (710 of the 2126 GEOBASE serials) and a 33% overlap with Web of Science (417 of the 2126 GEOBASE serials)."

Written by Grindlay DJ, Brennan ML, Dean RS. Published in Journal of Veterinary Medical Education. 2012 winter; 39(4):404-12.
Findings: "The percentage coverage was the highest for Scopus (98.3%) and CAB Abstracts (97.5%)....The maximum coverage of the extensive journal list that could be obtained in a search without including CAB Abstracts was 69.8%."

Written by Joshua Borycz, Alexander J. Carroll and Honora N. Eskridge. Published in the Journal of eScience Librarianship, 2021;10(2): e1192.
Findings: There is substantial overlap between the Web of Science’s Science Citation Index Expanded and the Emerging Sources Citation Index, the largest database with 17,014 titles, and Compendex (63.6%), Inspec (71.0%), Reaxys (67.0%), and SciFinder (75.8%). SciFinder also overlaps heavily with Reaxys (75.9%). Web of Science and Compendex combined contain 77.6% of the titles within Inspec.

By Elizabeth I. Wilder and William H. Walters in 2021.
"Although large citation databases such as Web of Science and Scopus are widely used in bibliometric research, they have several disadvantages, including limited availability, poor coverage of books and conference proceedings, and inadequate mechanisms for distinguishing among authors. We discuss these issues, then examine the comparative advantages and disadvantages of other bibliographic databases, with emphasis on (a) discipline-centered article databases such as EconLit, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and SocINDEX, and (b) book databases such as Amazon.com, Books in Print, Google Books, and OCLC WorldCat."