How to Check if a Journal is Indexed
Save yourself from predatory journals
Hi! Welcome to another edition of my newsletter. Today, I’ll show you how to check whether a journal is indexed in the top research databases.
Checking the indexing status of a journal saves you from predatory journals, and publishing in indexed journals increases your credibility and visibility.
Most people search for previous literature/ scholarly work on databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed Central, Web of Science, Scopus, or DOAJ.
You are more likely to get cited if they find your article there during their search.
So in this newsletter, I’ll show you how to check if a journal of your interest is indexed in these databases. Let’s get started:
1. MEDLINE
Type the journal title or ISSN on the search box
The journal details will be shown if it is in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) catalog
Check the “Current indexing status.” Indexed journal shows “Currently indexed for MEDLINE”
2. EMBASE
Go to https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/embase-biomedical-research/coverage-and-content
Click on the hypertext - “Download the full list of journal titles in Embase” -
On the spreadsheet, search the journal title or ISSN
On the corresponding row of the journal, the indexed journal shows “Yes” on the “Indexed at Embase” column
3. PubMed Central (PMC)
Type the journal title on the search box below “Search for journals”
On the search result page, the indexed journal shows “Full” in the “Participation level” column
4. Web of Science
Type the journal title or ISSN on the search box and click on “Search Journals”
On the search result page, indexed journal title shows “Science Citation Index Expanded” against “Web of Science Core Collection”
5. Scopus
1. Go to https://scopus.com/sources
Select “Title” or “ISSN” from the dropdown arrow and type the title or ISSN accordingly and click on the “Find sources” button
From the search result, click on the target journal title
The indexed journal shows the “Scopus coverage years”
6. Directory of Open Access Journals
Go to https://doaj.org
Uncheck the “articles” below the search box
Type the title or International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) of the journal in the search box
The indexed journal will be shown on the search result page.
That’s it. Following these simple steps, you can ensure that your hard work and research are published in reputable journals.
Keep striving for excellence and have a great week!
Regards, Asad
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What about Scimago
This is brilliant