Pre-evaluation of Scopus submission

Thank you for your interest in being indexed in Scopus, the largest abstract and 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 as pursued by the independent Content Selection & Advisory Board (CSAB).

Fields, marked with * are mandatory

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

1. The Journal has a minimum of 2 year publication history

Comment

For a journal to be considered for Scopus it needs to be at least 2 years old. This time frame has been put in place both because most of the metrics need to analyze the last 2 years in order to be generated, but also because it helps the evaluators to see how the journal has developed and its growth potential. Being a young journal is to some extent an advantage because there is still time to update all the necessary changes

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

Comment

We do not recommend to use the title, and submit journal with title, which is identical to 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 is peer-reviewed

Comment

All journals must have a peer-review system. A journal cannot be considered for evaluation if the content in not reviewed. You can find additional information on peer-review on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/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 presented in Roman script

Comment

All articles need to have bibliography written using the Roman script. It is important to have cross-platform unity especially with bibliography since most of the metrics are citation based and if the bibliography is not machine readable it cannot be included

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 major publishers. As an 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, like we at Elsevier are doing 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 and 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
- Journal has editorial board or other governing bodies whose members are recognized experts in the field and it’s clearly confirmed
- The full names and affiliations of the members, their roles are provided on the journal’s web site
- Journal provides contact information of the editorial office on the journal’s web site

7.2 All following aspects of Authors and their responsibilities are covered at journal’s website:
- Any fees or charges that are required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in the journal are clearly stated in a place before authors begin preparing their manuscript for submission
- All authors have significantly contributed to the research
- All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes, in case of detection
- List of references should be provided by authors
- Information on financial support should be provided by authors
- Forbidden to publish same research in more than one journal

7.3 All following aspects of peer-review process are covered clearly:
- All of a journal’s content should be subjected to peer-review
- The type of review
- Peer-review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from reviewers’ expert in the field.
- Judgments should be objective
- Reviewers should have no conflict of interest
- Reviewed articles should be treated confidentially prior to their publication

7.4. Listed below Publication ethics aspects are presented at journal’s website:
- Publishers and editors shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred
- In no case shall a publisher or 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 the publisher or editor shall deal with allegations appropriately
- The journal should have guidelines for retracting or correcting articles when needed
- Publishers and editors should always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed

7.5 Copyright and licensing information is clearly described on the journal’s web site

7.6 Subscription fees or pay-per-view fees are clearly stated on the journal’s website

7.7 A journal’s plan for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content in the event a journal is no longer published (access to archive) is clearly indicated at journal’s website

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)

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 http://goo.gl/aWy7WX. Please take into consideration that the said guide should not be copied as such but used to make a personalized statement which should have a separate tab on the 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. Also 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



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 http://www.issn.org/the-centre-and-the-network/members-countries/the-issn-network-today/

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

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. Geographical diversity:

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 diversity 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 geographical diversity of authors in other journals, similar to your journal by topic but already indexed in Scopus. Authors' geographical diversity should correspond with claimed aims and scope. It’s applicable for editorial board diversity 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 geographical diversity 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 we already index. 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, so 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, above the search results and then use the filters on the left hand side to limit the results to show only the exact matches of the 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 very important that journal’s editors are experts in journal’s topics. You can check editors’ authority in Scopus (regardless 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 has DOI

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 in the form:

http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/content/content-policy-and-selection
http://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/95118/SC_FAQ-content-selection-process-22092014.pdf
http://files.sciverse.com/documents/pdf/Advice_to_journal_editors_and_publishers_v2.pdf
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