• The default is to Document Search, which is similar to Advanced Search in other databases. You can add further search lines.

• The default is to search in Title, Abstract, and Keywords. This is useful, but can be changed.

• The default is to a keyword search so if you want to search for a phrase, enclose it in double quotation marks.

• You can do a Proximity Search: the proximity operator is W/n, where n is the number of words you specify. Eg. pregnan* W/4 imaging.

• In Scopus, there are some limiters that can be used as part of a search, but many more that can be applied to a set of results. 

• Scopus does not contain links to the full-text of articles. For each result, you will need to use the Find it - CSU link to search for the full article in other CSU Library databases.
• If you wish to save searches or set up search alerts, you need to register with Elsevier. Here's how:

1. At the top right of screen, click on Create account.
2. Follow the instructions and prompts to register.

When you get a results list in Scopus, one of the columns that displays is the Cited by. This shows the number of articles (indexed in Scopus) that have cited the article. Clicking on the number will display brief records of those citing articles.

The results list will, by default, be sorted by Date (Newest). You can use the drop-down menu to change the sort order to Cited by (highest) or Cited by (lowest).

You can use this feature of Scopus to:

• follow a research path forwards and find related articles
• find seminal articles on a topic.

In the screen-shot below, the search was for:
pregnan* W/4 imaging

the results have been sorted by Cited by (highest).