Coverage and quality: A comparison of Web of Science and Scopus databases for reporting faculty nursing publication metrics

Background: Web of Science and Scopus are the leading databases of scholarly impact. Recent studies outside the field of nursing report differences in journal coverage and quality. Purpose: A comparative analysis of nursing publications reported impact. Method: Journal coverage by each database for the field of nursing was compared. Additionally, publications by 2014 nursing faculty were collected in both databases and compared for overall coverage and reported quality, as modeled by Scimajo Journal Rank, peer review status, and MEDLINE inclusion. Individual author impact, modeled by the h-index, was calculated by each database for comparison. Discussion: Scopus offered significantly higher journal coverage. For 2014 faculty publications, 100% of journals were found in Scopus, Web of Science offered 82%. No significant difference was found in the quality of reported journals. Author h-index was found to be higher in Scopus. Conclusion: When reporting faculty publications and scholarly impact, academic nursing programs may be better represented by Scopus, without compromising journal quality. Programs with strong interdisciplinary work should examine all areas of strength to ensure appropriate coverage.