An author publishes an article in a journal, journals are combined into collections by topic, databases provide access to the journal collections. Thus, a database is an information hub with its own infrastructure (search bar, reader's personal bookshelf, usage statistics), which allows users and administrators to effectively manage resources. Access to full texts is usually provided by subscription, many databases also have an Open Access segment when some resources are available free of charge. Databases can be thematic (for chemists, physicists, mathematicians, etc.) or polythematic, where collections from different areas of scientific knowledge are collected.

You can find a list of ITMO subscription databases here.

Most ITMO resources do not require registration. You create an account if you want personalisation (individual bookshelf, search history, etc.) To read full texts be sure you are working from the local ITMO network, use VPN or connected to My Loft.

To refer to a full text, you can use the Neopoisk search engine, which is integrated into the My Loft electronic resource manager. Advanced search will allow you to specify your query. In the “Publication availability” filter, limit the results to an ITMO subscription and open access papers. The search can be performed also in a specific database.

The depth of access to the database depends on the subscription terms. Full texts users can read and download, however, some resources may include only the limited information about the document: the authors' surnames and initials, title, place and city of publication, publisher, sometimes an abstract, and some other data. These data are a bibliographic description.

No, they are not the same thing. You can learn about these services from our article.

You can read about the remaining functionality of the free versions of Scopus and Web of Science, as well as about access to Scopus for reviewers of Elsevier journals, in our notes

A journal quartile (Q) is a category of scientific papers determined by bibliometric indicators (IF, SJR, CiteScore, etc.) that reflects the citation level. Quartiles divide a series of values ​​into four equal parts. The higher the quartile, the more prestigious the journal is considered, from Q1 to Q4. You can read about how to view journal quartile values ​​using the Impact Factor, SJR, CiteScore metrics in our notes.

The Hirsch Index (h-index) is a scientometric indicator that reflects a scientist's productivity based on the number of his articles and the number of citations of these papers. You can read more about this indicator in our note.