SciVal is a research intelligence tool developed by Elsevier. The tool allows you to explore a wide variety of bibliometric indicators based on data generated by Elsevier's Scopus database. SciVal provides coverage for over 20,000 research institutions from 230 nations worldwide.
Produced by the LIS Bibliometrics community this guide includes recommendations on which SciVal indicators, can be useful or informative, and which ones should be avoided. There is also a discussion of how the indicators are calculated. Throughout, there is a focus on responsible use, emphasising reference to organisation responsible metrics policies or the DORA and Leiden principles.
In order to access SciVal you will need to register for an account with Elsevier. You must use your University of Manchester email address and credentials in order to do this. You can use the same account you use for Scopus if you have one of these already. Once you have registered the tool can be accessed from www.scival.com
Elsevier have produced a handy Get Started guide to SciVal which includes a short video. SciVal contains a number of modules which allow you to access different types of metrics (such as FWCI) or perform different functions (such as compare citation performances across institutions).
You will find guidance on using the different functions below. However, the most important step in successfully using the tool is to first make an initial selection of Entity, researcher, publication set or research area. These are all listed on the left hand side of the SciVal interface. You will need to select one of these options as they will form the basis of any search/ analysis you will run.
SciVal also contains a useful FAQ section. This can be used to help you better understand a specific metric. You will also find detailed explanations of the methodologies used by Elsevier in the calculation of specific metrics such as FWCI or Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles.
This module provides a high-level overview of research performance for individual researchers, groups of researchers, departments or institutions. You can use this module to locate publication outputs, citation performances or identify research trends.
The Benchmarking module facilitates the evaluation of research performance in comparison to others in your region, country and the world.
Comparisons can be run across a broad range of metrics, year ranges and/or subject areas. This enables you to compare researchers or institutions with others, benchmark progress, and analyse developments in a field over time.
Caution should be taken when using the data within this module. For further guidance on this please consult the Responsible Metrics section of this guide.
The Collaboration module allows you to review existing research collaborations between the University of Manchester and other institutions worldwide. Starting with a worldwide overview, you can quickly identify collaborating researchers or institutions and also zoom into data for specific subject areas such as Biochemistry.
One of the most useful features within SciVal is the creation of Topics and Topic Clusters for research publications. A topic or cluster will represent a collection of publications which share a common intellectual interest. The Trends module allows you to perform detailed analysis of specific areas of research. Detailed keyword analyses and heatmaps allow you to identify strong performing or rapidly growing areas of research. You can also use the module to identify top performing researchers or institutions within specific fields. This can be really useful when thinking about potential research collaborations.
The Impact module is built on government and NGO policy data generated via Overton - the world’s largest searchable index of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers. The Impact module allows you to quickly identify any mentions of your publications within policy documents from over 150 countries. Policy mentions are identified and links to the relevant sections within the individual policy documents are provided in most cases. This can be very helpful when creating impact narratives for your research. You can also use the data provided to compare policy mentions between departments and institutions if you wish.
SciVal contains a number of useful pre-curated research areas. These include current hot-topics such as artificial intelligence and net-zero. In addition all 17 of the current UN SDGs have their own dedicated research area. This makes it very simple to benchmark our SDG research against that of others, identify top researchers within a particular SDG, or discover which research topics are most prominent and/or growing within specific SDG areas.
For further help or questions relating to SciVal please contact the Library's Research Services team.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence.