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SciVal LibGuide: Using SciVal

Entities walkthrough

Defining a Research Area

The definition of a Research Area can either be keywords or entities. If this definition is too broad, you can apply filters to narrow it down further. 

Example: Your institution has made research on graphene a strategic focus. You are specifically interested in research on the thermal conductivity of graphene, and want to see how well your institution performs in this area. 

Part 1: Go to a Research Area 

You can define a Research Area from the entity selection panel in Overview, Benchmarking and Trends modules or from My SciVal. 

  1. Go to the Overview, Benchmarking or Trends module. 

  1. Open the 'Research Areas' section of the entity selection panel on the left-hand side of the screen. 

  1. Click on 'Add new' at the bottom of the panel, or click in the Research Area search bar and choose' Define a new Research Area.' 

  1. Click 'Define a new Research Area'. 

Part 2: Define your Research Area 

  1. Go to the tab 'Use search terms'. 

  1. Enter 'thermal conduction graphene' in the input field. 

  1. Select 'Search'. 

Part 3: Apply filters 

Apply filters (if needed) to narrow down the definition of your Research Area. Let’s say that you are interested only in academic publications. To filter out other organization types: 

  1. Click on the tab 'Organization types'. 

  1. Check 'Academic'. 

  1. Select 'Limit to'. 

The filter you have just applied will now be shown on the right side of the screen. Click 'Next Step' in the bottom right corner to proceed to step 3.

Part 4: Name and save your Research Area 

  1. Name your Research Area 'Thermal Conductivity Graphene (Academic)'. 

  1. Optionally, give your Research Area a description and some tags. These can be used to help you remember what the Research Area represents and can give more context to your colleagues if you choose to share it. 

  1. Click 'Save and finish'.

Your Research Area is now computed, and you are returned to your previous place in SciVal. 

Learn more 

Defining a new entity

To define a new entity: 

  1. Click 'My SciVal' in the top right corner of your screen. 

  1. In My SciVal, choose a category (for example 'Researcher and groups') and open the 'Define a new entity'. 

  1. Now click on one of the links in the menu to define a new entity. 

This will take you through a step-by-step process to define, name and save the new entity. 

Note: Some entities with a large number of publications are not available immediately but take up to 6 hours to compute. You will receive an email as soon as the entity is ready to use. 

Learn more 

Share entities with others

You can share entities you've defined in SciVal (such as researchers, groups of researchers and Research Areas) with other SciVal users at your institution. 

Example: You could set up part of your institution's department structure as groups of researchers in SciVal, and then share that with others at your institution. Or you could define a Research Area in SciVal and share that with the other members of your research team. Sharing is possible with any groups or individuals within your institution. 

By default when you share an entity, you remain the owner. Other users can only view the entity. You are the only user who can make changes to that entity, and the only user who can delete it from SciVal. However, you have the option to transfer the ownership of a shared entity. 

A shared entity is the same for all users. When it is changed or updated with new publications, these changes are immediately visible to all users. 

When you create an entity, your preferred subject classifications are also recorded (you can have up to 4 in total). When the entity is shared, the recipient of the entity can also only use the 4 same subject classifications and cannot choose any of the other categories. Only the user who created the entity can choose which subject classifications are available for the entity. 

  1. Go to My SciVal. 

  1. Click on the 'Share' icon for that entity to bring up the sharing settings. 

You can invite SciVal users at your institution by entering their email addresses, separated by commas. You can create and manage your invitation list from the sharing panel. Invited users receive an email - which can be personalized- with a link that gives them access to the entity 

Use the drop-down menu to the right of the filter box in My SciVal to display only entities that have been shared with you ('Entities shared with me'). You can also choose to view only entities that you have shared with others ('Entities shared by me’) 

Learn more 

How can my institution track publication impact?

Use highly cited publications and publications in leading Scopus sources. Two metrics often used to illustrate the excellence of research are Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles and Publications in Top Journal Percentiles. These show how much of your institution’s publication outputs are among the most cited globally and published in the world's leading journals.

  1. Go to the Overview module and select your institution. 

  • Go to the Published tab and find the Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles section. This shows the share of your institution’s publications that are within the top 1% and top 10% of the most cited publications worldwide. 

  1. The Publications in Top Journal Percentiles section shows how many of your institution’s publications were in the top 1% and 10% of the world’s Scopus Sources by Citations. These top sources are selected by measuring all sources by either CiteScore, SNIP or SJR and selecting the top-ranking ones. You can toggle between CiteScore, SNIP and SJR using the dropdown menu. 

  1. Go to the Benchmarking module to see the Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles and Publications in Top Journal Percentiles metrics for your institution over a longer period (1996 to present). You also have additional metric options available here. And you can compare your institution to other institutions, or the national or global average. 

Outputs Top Citations

Publications top journal percentiles

How can you see the contribution of an institution to an SDG?

How can you see the contribution of an institution to an SDG? 

In Overview, you can see the top 10 contributing institutions by Scholarly Output and in Trends you can see the top 100, but also filter by region. If you would like to analyze the contribution of an institution to an SDG, follow these steps to create a Publication Set: 

  1. Put the SDG in Trends. 

  1. Find the institution in which you’re interested. 

  • Use the region filters to help locate the institution. 

  1. Click on the Scholarly Output number to see the underlying publications. 

  1. Create a Publication Set. 

  • Use the 'Save as Publication Set' option. 

  1. You can now look deeper at the institution’s contribution to the SDG in the Overview, Benchmarking and Trends modules, based upon the SDG search query. 

Learn more 

Analyze Contribution to an SDG

SciVal Certification Program

The Elsevier SciVal Certification Program is a cutting-edge initiative designed to empower researchers and academic professionals. This comprehensive certification program offers participants the opportunity to explore the intricacies of research performance analysis, data visualization, and benchmarking, enabling them to make informed decisions and gain a competitive edge in their respective fields. Through a dynamic blend of interactive learning modules, hands-on exercises, and real-world case studies, this program equips participants with the expertise to unlock valuable insights from research data, drive impactful collaborations, and strategically advance their institutions' research excellence. Embark on this transformative journey to become a certified SciVal expert, and revolutionize the way you perceive and engage with research metrics and analytics.

 

Learn more about the SciVal Certification Program.

Entities available in SciVal

All entity types within SciVal can be viewed in the Overview and Benchmarking modules. The table below highlights the entities available to analyze across all six modules.

 

The following video provides instructions on how to use the Overview and Benchmarking modules to view Entities. 

To see an overview of all the entities defined by you, in My SciVal, choose a category (for example, 'Researchers and groups') and then select Entities defined by you from the drop-down menu. 

 

What research Topics is your institution most active in?

Inform targeted funding applications and strategic reports with insights about your institution's most active research Topics and the key researchers 

  1. In the Overview module, select your institution from the select entity panel on the left-hand side 

  1. Go to the Topics* & Topic Clusters tab (second tab) 

  1. Choose to analyze Topics or if you require less granularity in your analysis, Topic Clusters 

  1. Limit the view to Topics in the Top 1, 5, 10 or 25% worldwide by Prominence  

  1. Uncover your 100 largest Topics by Scholarly Output on the wheel by clicking the radio button. 

  2. In the Table view, select a Topic to analyze further and identify the key researchers and contributors 

Define Researchers and Groups

  1. Define a new Researcher 

  • Click the 'Add' link at the bottom of the Researchers and Groups section 

  • Search by name to find an existing researcher or group, or 'Define a new Researcher' 

  • Follow the workflow to identify and add the researcher to SciVal 

  1. Import Researchers 

  • Click 'Add' link and then 'Import Researchers' 

  • Use the XLS, CSV or JSON templates, a text file, or paste a list of Scopus author IDs or ORCIDs (up to 1000) 

  • Refine profiles where required 

  • Add profiles to a new Group or existing hierarchy 

  1. Define new Group of Researchers 

  • Drag and drop any of your self-defined Researchers into one or more Groups 

  1. Drag and drop Researchers from the Authors tab within modules across to the entity selection panel to quickly add Researchers for further analyses 

Learn more 

How to import a group of researchers 

You can use SciVal to build your Institutional Hierarchies. To import a group of researchers, follow these instructions: 

  1. Download the import spreadsheet (this can also be found by clicking Import Researchers > Need an example > XLS). 

  1. Complete the spreadsheet. 
    We’ve split the spreadsheet so it’s clear what data is used to identify the researchers and what’s used to put them in a hierarchy. You can import up to 1,000 authors in one go and add tags to them, but we recommend breaking these into smaller chunks if possible, to make it more manageable. Hierarchies of 1,000+ authors can be imported in multiple batches. 

  1. Import the researchers. 

  • Go to My SciVal > Add new > Import Researchers. 

  1. Refine the unmatched authors. 

  • You can drag and drop the suggested matches, or 

  • Export the unmatched profiles so you can work on them later. 

  1. Check the hierarchy structure 

  1. Save and finish your hierarchy.  

How to import a researcher hierarchy

SciVal Rankings Analysis

Gain clarity around the bibliometrics used in University Rankings. Analyze, understand and generate insights based on the bibliometric datasets used in the THE and QS World University Rankings and the THE Impact Rankings.

1.    In the Overview module, go to the Rankings tab
2.    View the Overall ranking positions across the major university rankings
3.    Select THE World University Rankings, THE Impact Rankings or QS World University Rankings to explore and analyze the bibliometric datasets in more detail
4.    View and analyze the trends in the bibliometric drivers to enrich your understanding and inform your rankings strategy and plans
5.    Click view list of publications to explore and analyze the publications considered in the rankings in further detail
6.    In the Benchmarking module, compare your institution to peers across the bibliometric drivers to enrich your understanding and inform plans accordingly
7.    Benchmark at the THE Subject, or QS Faculty area level to inform faculty and department level plans
8.    Produce peer comparison reports across all bibliometric drivers

For more details around the Rankings Analysis feature of SciVal please see the presentation in the section below ('SciVal Rankings Analysis deck').

SciVal Rankings Analysis deck

How to analyse Open Access in SciVal

How can my institution find collaboration partners?

Get an overview of your collaboration landscape. The map view in Current Collaboration gives you a global overview of the collaboration partners of your institution. You can then zoom in to a specific country. For example, to see your collaboration partners in France: 

  1. Select your institution from the entity selection panel on the left-hand side. 

  1. Go to 'Current collaboration' and select the Map view 

  1. To find collaboration partners in France, click on the Europe marker to zoom in and see all the European countries where collaboration with your institution has taken place. 

  1. Click on the round marker shown in France to zoom in and see all collaborating institutions and researchers in France. 

 

Collaboration module

Accessing the SciVal APIs

To access SciVal API endpoints on the new API platform, an API tool/app MUST implement the OpenID.
Connect (OIDC) authentication flow (authorization code). It is used to connect to the Elsevier Research Public IDP (Identity Provider) to retrieve access tokens based on user credentials.
full documentation to access the new SciVal API


Details you will need to access the new API platform
• API Key: As provided to you
• Client-ID: As provided to you
• Client Secret: As provided to you
• SciVal Researcher Group ID: As created by, or shared with, you on scival.com
• YAML file: As provided to you
• SciVal username: The account with which you created the Research Group or it was shared
• SciVal password: The password to the account

In the future, all APIs will be available in the new API platform.