Pre-evaluation of Scopus submission

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Readiness

Thank you for your interest in being indexed in Scopus, the expertly curated abstract & citation database.
In order to receive a free pre-evaluation report on your journal, please complete the form and answer the questions below. Please note that journal pre-evaluation is a preliminary check for technical and administrative criteria in order to boost the chances of the journal to be included in Scopus, and also to avoid a submission embargo period out of reasons that could be easily identified. Positive pre-evaluation report doesn’t guarantee positive decision on inclusion title into Scopus. The pre-evaluation shall also not be liable for the final result of the full journal evaluation conducted by the independent Content Selection & Advisory Board (CSAB).
If your title is ready for submission, please, complete this form https://suggestor.step.scopus.com/suggestTitle/step1.cfm

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After filling in and answering survey’s questions, the results with comments will be sent at provided email address

1. The journal has a publication history and sufficient published content needed for evaluation.

Comment

For a journal to be considered for Scopus, it needs to have a publication history. The CSAB uses sample documents of published content to evaluate the quality of a title. We advise the publisher of the title to carefully determine what the right moment is to submit the title for Scopus in terms of how much content has been published so far. Note that an embargo is applied in case of a negative evaluation outcome.

2. Journal has a unique title, not identical to one already indexed in Scopus

Comment

We do not recommend to use the title, and submit journal with title, which is identical to those already indexed in Scopus. It has ethical implications as well since authors could be mislead to believe they are submitting articles to a specific journal but in fact it may be submitting to a different one.

3. The journal publishes peer-reviewed content

- This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s peer review procedures, shall be clearly described on the journal website, including the method of peer review used.

- Journal websites should not guarantee manuscript acceptance or very short peer review

Comment

All journals must have a peer-review system. Peer review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from reviewers expert in the field who are not part of the journal’s editorial staff. You can find additional information on peer-review at: http://www.elsevier.com/reviewer/what-is-peer-review.

4. Abstracts, titles and keywords are in English; authors – in Roman script

Comment

English language title, abstracts, keywords and authors’ affiliations for all articles is a mandatory requirement. As well as authors in Roman script.

5. References are in (translated/transliterated) Roman script (recommended but not mandatory)

Comment

Bibliographic references are important part of a publication. For non-Roman script language journals hoping to be indexed in Scopus and aiming at broader global readership and higher impact, it is highly recommended those journals offer translated (or transliterated) references together with the references in original languages. Kindly note that Scopus citation metrics are currently based on roman script language metadata. Another important advice to those journals is to always put “cite this article as” in each article so that researchers will use one and the same style.

6. Journal is published regularly and per publishing schedule, which available at journal’s website

Comment

Publishing regularity is another key requirement. The journal should have a set date of publication that must be respected. One relatively easy solution is to have the journal publish manuscripts as soon as they are accepted just like at major publishers. For example, if a journal publishes 2 issues per year one issue in May and one in October, with a set number of 15 articles per issue. The first 15 accepted papers will be published in the October issue and if more articles are good enough to be accepted they will appear online with the date of May next year’s issue but each of the articles will be published as soon as they are either accepted and add the final corrections while the article is already online or directly the final version. This option is beneficial for the authors as their work appears sooner online and it can draw readers and citations. It is beneficial for the journal because it helps keep a pre-set publication date. Another option of periodicity is fixed number of issues per year (without strict limitation in number of articles).

7. Ethics and malpractice statement is available in English at journal’s website

7.1 Editor and Editorial Board
- Journals has editorial boards or other governing bodies whose members are recognized experts in the field
- The full names and affiliations of the members, their roles are provided on the journal’s web site

7.2 Publication Ethics: A journal shall also have policies on publishing ethics. These should be clearly visible on its website, and should refer to:
i) Journal policies on authorship and contributorship;
ii) How the journal will handle complaints and appeals;
iii) Journal policies on conflicts of interest / competing interests;
iv) Journal policies on data sharing and reproducibility;
v) Journal’s policy on ethical oversight;
vi) Journal’s policy on intellectual property;
vii) Journal’s options for post-publication discussions and corrections.

7.3. Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct
- Publishers and editors shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including but not limited to plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others.
- In no case shall a journal or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.
- In the event that a journal’s publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in their journal, the publisher or editor shall follow COPE’s guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing with allegations

7.4. Copyright and licensing information is clearly described on the journal’s website
- The policy for copyright shall be clearly stated in the author guidelines and the copyright holder named on all published articles.
- Licensing information shall be clearly described in guidelines on the website, and licensing terms shall be indicated on all published articles, both HTML and PDFs.
- If authors are allowed to publish under a Creative Commons license then any specific license requirements shall be noted.
- Any policies on posting of final accepted versions or published articles on third party repositories shall be clearly stated.

7.5 Author fees
- Any fees or charges that are required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in the journal shall be clearly stated in a place that is easy for potential authors to find prior to submitting their manuscripts for review or explained to authors before they begin preparing their manuscript for submission.
- If no such fees are charged that should also be clearly stated.

7.6 Access: The way(s) in which the journal and individual articles are available to readers and whether there are associated subscription or pay per view fees shall be stated

7.7 Archiving: A journal’s plan for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content (for example, access to main articles via CLOCKSS or PubMedCentral) in the event a journal is no longer published shall be clearly indicated.

7.8 Information about the ownership and/or management of a journal is clearly indicated on the journal’s website (organizational names that would mislead potential authors and editors about the nature of the journal’s owner are not used in information about the ownership)

7.9 Journals shall provide the full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors on the journal website as well as contact information for the editorial office, including a full address.

7.10 Revenue sources
- Business models or revenue sources (e.g., author fees, subscriptions, advertising, reprints, institutional support, and organizational support) shall be clearly stated or otherwise evident on the journal’s website.
- Publishing fees or waiver status should not influence editorial decision making.

7.11 Advertising
- Journals shall state their advertising policy if relevant, including what types of adverts will be considered, who makes decisions regarding accepting adverts and whether they are linked to content or reader behavior (online only) or are displayed at random.
- Advertisements should not be related in any way to editorial decision making and shall be kept separate from the published content.

7.12 Direct marketing
- Any direct marketing activities, including solicitation of manuscripts that are conducted on behalf of the journal, shall be appropriate, well targeted, and unobtrusive.
- Information provided about the publisher or journal is expected to be truthful and not misleading for readers or authors.

Comment

The Ethics and Malpractice statement is a mandatory requirement and no journal is indexed without it. We take this topic very seriously and we expect our partners to abide by the same high standards. You can find a concise guide on COPE's website at https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing. Please take into consideration that the said guide should not be copied as such but used to make a customized statement which is preferably displayed in a separate tab at the journal website. Such a statement should clearly indicate the scope of responsibilities and rights of editors, reviewers and authors, as well as describe the consequences which may be drawn if misconduct is detected. Further, the Ethics and Malpractice statement is different to the copyright agreement and different from instructions for authors or reviewers.

8. Journal has ISSN and/or e-ISSN/ISSN-L, confirmed by international ISSN Center is clearly displayed.



Comment

A standalone publication is defined by an ISSN. There are specific ISSNs issued depending on the publication support (print, electronic, CD-ROM). When registering for an ISSN please include all the names, abbreviations and translated name of the journal otherwise bibliographic databases, such as Scopus, won’t be able to correctly add all citations received. The ISSN can be obtained from the ISSN center https://www.issn.org/.

9. Journal has dedicated website in English (alone or in addition to website in local language)

Comment

All journals must have a website in English in order to be considered for evaluation. It’s also important for international authors who’ll submit their manuscripts for publication, if the journal is accepted for Scopus coverage. Scopus is an international database and it caters to journals that want to and are open to an international audience, hence all the information regarding how the journals works, Editorial boards, the accepted topics, guide for authors, ethics statement (demonstrate that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards), copyright agreement must be in English. The website must not contain information that might mislead readers or authors, including any attempt to mimic another journal/publisher’s site.

10. Author instructions (guide for authors) are available in English at journal’s website

Comment

It is preferable to have a clear set of instructions for authors (in English), on how to format their article, what format should the images be sent, how should they write the bibliography etc. This eases the work of the editorial team because they don’t have to spend extra time formatting the documents a certain way, but it also helps authors understand what is expected of them.

11. Aims and Scope are available in English and presented at journal’s website

Comment

The journal should have a clear and concise Aims & Scope section on the website where it should be explained what are the expectations of the journal, who can publish and what topics are accepted. The journal must not accept articles that are outside its aims and scope.

12. Broad geographic distribution:

12.1 of Editors – is according to claimed journal’s aim and scope

12.2 of Authors – is according to claimed journal’s aim and scope

Comment

The broad geographic distribution of authors' and editors’ countries is considered in the evaluation. It’s important that affiliation and country for journal’s authors should be presented in English. Check the broad geographic distribution of authors in other journals, similar to your journal by topic but already indexed in Scopus. The authors’ broad geographic distribution should correspond with claimed aims and scope. It’s applicable for editors’ broad geographic distribution as well. Lack of affiliations and countries of origin of the editors makes it more difficult for the Scopus team to evaluate the editorial board. Please include this information in the list of editors. Check the broad geographic distribution of editors in other journals, similar to your topic but already indexed in Scopus.

13. Journal’s documents are cited by Scopus sources



Comment

Another important point is the already gained international visibility which in part is measured through citations received from the journals already indexed in Scopus. Low number of papers published by the journal have received citations from journals indexed in Scopus - it can be considered normal for a young journal but as it grows and more issues appear, the number of citations should be higher. You can check this information, if you have access to Scopus, using the advanced search function in Scopus. Choose REFSRCTITLE and add within inverted commas the name variant of the journal. The search query should look like this: REFSRCTITLE(“journal name”). Once the Search results list is visible, click on view secondary documents. Use the filters on the left hand side to limit the results to show only the exact matches of your journal title. Ideas on how to improve the journal’s visibility:

14. Journal’s editors are experts in subject area, covered by the journal

Comment

It is important that journal’s editors are experts in journal’s subject area. You can check editors’ authority in Scopus (regardless validate of the subscription). At www.scopus.com you can use Author search to find Scopus Author Profile for the Editor. Output, citations, subject areas in editor’s profile should proof editor’s research authority in journal’s subject area.

15. Journal publications have DOI (recommended but not mandatory)

Comment

DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is an important element for indexing, as it helps to do journal and it’s articles easily searchable and helps for correct linkage.
You can monitor when and where one of your articles is mentioned online if the journal has a DOI.

16. Content quality

16.1 The journal consistently publishes articles that are scientifically sound and relevant to an international academic or professional audience in this field.

16.2 The content of the articles is consistent with the stated scope and aims of the journal and consistently of high academic quality

16.3 Tables and figures in articles are clear and well configured within article content (are not just copied-pasted from Excel)

16.4 The language and grammar of articles are good. Content of the articles is logically structured, easily readable and understandable

16.5 The abstracts are clear, easily readable and provide an excellent comprehensive summary of the article of sufficient length

Comment

Consistent content, clear and easily readable, with good language and grammar – are key indicators of journal’s quality and reputation of the journal, its editorial board and publisher. The articles’ content determines whether these articles will be read and cited.
The article’s title, abstract and key words are easily indexed by search engines. It is very important to have these sections clear and understandable, in good English and consistent with article’s content and journal’s topic.
Articles content assessment has significant impact on journal’s evaluation for indexing in Scopus.
If your title is ready for submission, please, complete this form https://suggestor.step.scopus.com/suggestTitle/step1.cfm

Additional links

Scopus Content Policy and Selection http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/content/content-policy-and-selection
Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/how-scopus-works/content/scopus-content-selection-and-advisory-board
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