Assistance with publication in SCOPUS journals

Scopus is a global scientometric database that indexes more than 29,000 high-quality peer-reviewed scientific publications. The list of Scopus journals is formed on the basis of publishers meeting a clearly defined set of requirements for the quality of scientific content, methods of its selection, scientometric indicators and compliance with publication ethics.

In addition to journals, this scientometric database indexes conference materials, books, editorial notes and much more. Publication in Scopus is necessary for researchers in achieving many scientific goals, which include, in particular:

• Obtaining academic degrees and academic titles
• Participation as a reviewer or editor of a scientific journal
• Obtaining funding, grant support, participation in influential research competitions
• Increasing the authority and ranking of scientific institutions and the personal image of the scientist

The specialists of Elsevier, to which Scopus also belongs, carry out comprehensive work to maintain the organisation’s ranking and raise the overall level of scientific research. The work of the scientometric database is aimed primarily at cooperation with publications; however, checks of scientific journals automatically also mean checks of the scientific content indexed there. Taking this into account, it is necessary to consider several important aspects in working with Scopus scientific journals.

For this, the publisher must go through the following stages:

• Submission of the journal to Scopus. Representatives of the scientific publication (editor-in-chief, member of the editorial board, etc.) initiate the process of including the journal in the database, prepare the necessary package of documents and send the request for consideration to the independent Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB).
• Verification of the publication. Specialists of the Scopus database carry out a check for compliance with the minimum criteria for inclusion.
• Clarification. At this stage, additions are made and corrections are carried out.
• Review and decision. Successful completion of this stage depends on the result of the review by the CSAB commission.
• Communication. The publisher is informed of the decision on the acceptance of the scientific journal into Scopus.

In theory, this process does not look particularly complicated; however, in practice, everything is quite different.

Every year, thousands of new publications apply for inclusion in Scopus, but only 33% of them meet the strict technical criteria. And of these approximately 1,200 publications, only 50% are accepted after consideration by the independent Content Selection and Advisory Board.

Scopus citation is one of the main metrics both at the level of scientific publications and of authors separately. In Scopus, citation to one degree or another influences the calculation of the following scientometric indicators of publications:

• SNIP – the ratio of the number of citations of an article to the average citation показатель in Scopus in the subject area
• SJR – an indicator of the authority of journals and their citations in Scopus
• CireScore – the ratio of the number of citations in Scopus to the number of articles over the last 4 years

Scopus conducts constant monitoring of all indexed journals in order to maintain high quality standards. A key role in this process is played by the automated Radar system – this is a special algorithm developed by Elsevier that analyses dozens of metric indicators.

Usually, the main reasons for exclusion are the following:

• Metrics and benchmarks – non-compliance of the analysis of the level of self-citation, CireScore and the Scopus citation coefficient.
• Publication concerns – improper publication behaviour.
• Radar – a sharp change in the publication behaviour of a journal (based on automatic verification by the service).
• Continuous curation – exclusion of a Scopus journal that had already been “under the control” of specialists.

However, recently Scopus has somewhat changed and generalised the reasons for the exclusion of journals that are indicated in the official lists. Instead of detailed notes such as Publication Concerns, Outlier behaviour or Radar, which were actively used earlier, most new exclusions are now designated as Discontinuation (termination of coverage) and Journal change policy (change in journal policy).

Thanks to such checks and exclusions, Scopus maintains a high level of reliability and quality of scientific journals.

In addition to the above-mentioned profiles of Scopus journals, this database also contains author profiles. Scientometric indicators are also calculated for them.

The main ones are:

• Citation in Scopus – the total number of references to the author’s work by other researchers within the Scopus database.
• h-index in Scopus – the interdependence of the number of works published in Scopus and citations within this database.

Regulatory requirements for the number of scientific publications often compare these databases with each other. They have many similar features; however, there are also significant differences. For example, Web of Science has greater citation depth, whereas Scopus focuses on “younger” publications. These databases also differ in their scientific metrics, structure and ways of implementing their own policy.