ITMO Authors

Dimensions: an open service for searching scientific papers

2025-07-24 16:48
Dimensions is an international scientific citation database from Digital Science. The platform brings together information on millions of scientific articles, patents, grants, clinical studies, or other data linked by cross-references. The resource uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate the processes of collecting and classifying information.
For personal non-commercial purposes you can use a number of free functions of the service. In this note, we will discuss them in detail.
Free access to Dimensions provides:
  • searching across all papers and data sets;
  • working with your personal account to save search results and set up alerts;
  • access to millions of papers in the public domain;
  • convenient data export, ex. for networks using VOSviewer or CiteSpace;
  • tracking of citations and indicators;
  • basic analytics.
Some unique features of the resource:
  • altmetrics;
  • ANZSRC 2020 Fields of Research (FoR) classifier applied at publication level rather than journal level;
  • Journal List;
  • summary, TLDR, Chat with PDF and other AI technologies;
  • Dimensions Metrics API for non-commercial use.

How to register on Dimensions?

1.Refer the registration tab on the platform.
2.Fill the registration form.
3.Confirm your account using the email address.

Dimensions Functionality Overview

Dimensions has the interface of a traditional scientific search database:
  • on the top - a searching bar with standard logical operators: AND, OR and NOT;
  • in the center - results are displayed, their sorting is possible;
  • on the right - analytics: by subject categories, years, authors and publication origin (journals, conference publications, or other sources);
  • on the left - filters, referring to the fields of publication metadata and datasets.
See the functionality of the platform on the image below.

Journal lists

Journal lists, formed both by a combined expert and scientometric assessment, act as a framework for measuring publication activity.
Russia has recently accepted a similar approach and approved White List of journals. The Dimensions service does not provide this list, however, there are other noteworthy lists:
  • DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) - one of the most authoritative and reliable lists of open access journals with strict selection criteria;
  • Nature Index Journals, a list of high-quality journals on natural sciences and health published by Springer Nature.

Altmetrics

In addition to traditional citation metrics, Dimensions articles provide altmetrics. This indicator assesses the impact of a research based on its mentions and usage on the Internet and in traditional media. Altmetric.com collects data on all mentions of scientific publications in blogs, social networks, major news aggregators, or official documents.

Subject areas classification

Dimensions' classification systems emulations of standard classification systems, supplemented with machine learning. This ensures that classifications are accurately represented. All the documents are automatically labeled. Dimensions uses two rubricators to simplify the search for publications.

Fields of Research (ANZSRC 2020)

FoR is a hierarchical classification system for scientific fields developed jointly by Australia and New Zealand to systematise research activity. The ANZSRC was originally developed in 2008 and a revised version was released in 2020.
The ANZSRC 2020 Fields of Research (FoR) classification covers major scientific fields, their subfields and emerging research areas, forming a comprehensive system for classifying contemporary scientific activity. The original FoR system has the above three levels, which are reflected in the following numerical designations: 2-, 4- and 6-digit codes. In Dimensions, objects are categorised by 2- and 4-digit codes.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are global targets adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 to be achieved by 2030. They comprise 17 interrelated goals.
The SDGs are implemented as a classification scheme covering research. The scheme uses an automatic distribution of the 17 SDGs and their associated targets and indicators across all relevant publications in Dimensions.
Some additional links for learning:
Databases