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The access to the Internet and the evolution of new technologies have made possible to disseminate information worldwide, as well as to access a large part of the scientific literature through the Internet (Asadi, 2017; Ravishankar, 2013). Internet’s outstanding growth has become a phenomenon of huge importance for economic, political and social life in contemporary societies (Curran, Fenton, & Freedman, 2016). Since 1989, Web is the highest data ordnance in existing world and providing main force for large scale of Information Communication Technology & Networking (ICTN) (Gohel, 2014). Within it, scientific and academic research is to be found, facilitating the work of other researchers in allowing the access to databases and repositories with large quantities of articles. It is also an important resource for students, as it allows them to expand their academic experience and access relevant information, at the same time they can communicate with other colleagues within the academic community (Tella, 2007). Accordingly, previous studies have shown that students (especially those in higher education institutions) used the Internet for different purposes, such as academic research, online socializing and entertainment (Ayub, Hamid, & Nawawi, 2014).
Research data accessibility has great potential for scientific progress. It makes easy the replication of research results and allows the application of old data in new contexts (McCullough, 2009). The current researcher has at his disposal numerous electronic resources through which he can obtain scientific literature. Hence the importance of understanding how it operates and how the most relevant information is selected (Navarro-Molina, González-Alcaide, Bolaños-Pizarro, de Dios, & Aleixandre-Benavent, 2011). To strengthen this position, national research associations have come together to promote data exchange in the academic world (Fecher, Friesike, & Hebing, 2015). Over and above, this process leads to a greater competition among researchers [10] and a higher quality standard that increases research productivity demands (Whitley, 2003). Besides, research activities are financed by public or private institutions, which invest a lot of money in providing technical and human resources to achieving higher-level goals (McNutt, 2014).
Scopus, considered by many the largest abstract and citation database of scientific, technical and medical peer-reviewed literature, is available since Elsevier started its operation in 2004. Links to full papers can be accessed and updated daily, in addition to many other resources that make it the preferred database for many academics (Arencibia, 2007). Comparing with other products, Scopus is ideal, since it has the largest global coverage in research, selected, relevant, with smart and simple tools that make easier to track, analyse and visualize research (FECYT, 2019).
The system automatically detects the publications to which an institution is subscribed. If a search is made from a university institution, Scopus identifies the origin and offers as results the link to the summary and citations or the full text of the publication. The working language is English and has the following search modalities (Navarro-Molina et al., 2011):
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Basic Search, offers the possibility of making a query using selection criteria that are usually associated with an advanced search. The temporal scope covers from 1960 to the present and includes citations since 1996. The results can be limited by source, author, type of document and study field;
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Author Search, allows the search of the publications by author. It incorporates a field to search by affiliation, thus helping in the case of authors with common surnames;
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Affiliation Search. This option will show all institutions related to the performed search, screening the institution details as identification number, city or country.