Getting a journal “indexed in Scopus” means the journal has been reviewed and accepted by Elsevier’s Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) and its content is added to the Scopus database on an ongoing basis. It is not automatic, not something a publisher can purchase, and not the same thing as being assigned a DOI, registering an ISSN, or being listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). This guide covers what CSAB actually evaluates, the process an editor or publisher goes through to apply, how Scopus indexing differs from Web of Science inclusion, and why the distinction matters to researchers and research administrators tracking citation counts and research-assessment outcomes.
What “Scopus-indexed” actually means
Scopus is Elsevier’s abstract-and-citation database, covering peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and book series across science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and the arts and humanities. A journal becomes “Scopus-indexed” when its title has been evaluated and accepted by CSAB, an independent panel of subject-matter experts Elsevier formed in 2009 to make selection decisions on its behalf. Once accepted, new articles from that journal are added to Scopus issue by issue going forward — indexing is not retroactively applied to a publisher’s full back catalog unless Elsevier separately negotiates backfile coverage.
This is a database’s own decision against its own published criteria, not a certification a journal can buy or self-declare. A journal can be legitimate, peer-reviewed, and well-run without being Scopus-indexed — particularly very new journals, which have not yet built the publication history CSAB requires to evaluate them.
Technical prerequisites before CSAB review
Before a title is even routed to CSAB for substantive evaluation, Elsevier checks it against a set of baseline, largely binary requirements. A journal that fails any of these is not forwarded for full review:
- Peer review with a publicly described process. The journal must publish peer-reviewed content and make its peer-review policy (the type of review used and how it works) publicly available on the journal’s own site.
- Registered ISSN. The journal must hold an ISSN registered with the ISSN International Centre.
- Established publication history. There must be a track record of issues to review — a title with only one or two published issues typically cannot yet be assessed.
- Content readable by an international audience. At minimum, English-language article titles and abstracts, even if the journal publishes primarily in another language.
- A publicly available publication ethics and publication malpractice statement. Elsevier does not mandate specific wording, but points to models published by organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Formal COPE membership is not itself a stated requirement, but a journal whose ethics statement and editorial conduct visibly track COPE’s guidance is easier for CSAB to evaluate positively on the journal-policy criterion below.
The five CSAB evaluation categories
Titles that clear the technical prerequisites are then evaluated by CSAB against five published categories. CSAB combines quantitative signals (citation data already visible to Scopus, publication regularity) with qualitative subject-matter judgment from its own reviewers.
1. Journal policy
Whether the journal has a convincing editorial approach, what type of peer review it uses (single-anonymized, double-anonymized, open, etc.), and the geographic diversity of both its editorial board and its published authors. A board and author base concentrated in a single country or institution is a common reason a title is held back.
2. Content
The quality and clarity of the published research and its abstracts, and how well the actual content matches the journal’s stated aims and scope. CSAB reviewers with relevant subject expertise read sample content rather than relying on metadata alone.
3. Journal standing
Citation metrics already visible for the journal’s articles elsewhere in Scopus (for example, citations to its papers appearing in already-indexed journals), and the professional standing and track record of the editor and editorial board.
4. Regularity of publication
Whether the journal publishes on the schedule it advertises, without the kind of delays or irregular gaps that suggest an unstable or under-resourced operation.
5. Online availability
Full-text content available online, an English-language journal homepage, and a functional, professionally maintained website — basic infrastructure CSAB treats as evidence the journal can sustain ongoing indexing.
How editors and publishers apply
Journal editors, publishers, or authors on a journal’s behalf submit a title for consideration through Elsevier’s Scopus title-suggestion process (via the Scopus support site), supplying the journal’s website, ISSN, sample issues, and the editorial and ethics information CSAB needs to check the criteria above. Elsevier’s own guidance describes evaluation as an ongoing process rather than a single pass/fail event on a fixed date — CSAB reviews suggested titles on a rolling basis, and outcomes range from acceptance, to rejection with the option to reapply once the underlying weaknesses (regularity, board diversity, ethics documentation) are addressed, to a request for more information.
Because CSAB looks for an established track record, editors of very new journals are generally better served by building a consistent publication history and visible editorial infrastructure first, rather than applying immediately at launch and accumulating a rejection that then has to be overcome on reapplication.
Ongoing re-evaluation and discontinuation
Acceptance into Scopus is not permanent by default. Elsevier runs ongoing re-evaluation of indexed titles, and journals can be flagged for review if their performance becomes an outlier — for example, a sharp shift in citation patterns, self-citation rates, or other integrity concerns. Where re-evaluation finds a journal no longer meets Scopus’s criteria, CSAB can discontinue the forward flow of new coverage: articles already indexed typically remain searchable as part of the scientific record, but new issues stop being added. This is functionally different from a full retraction of prior coverage, which Elsevier reserves for cases involving serious, confirmed ethical violations.
Scopus indexing vs. Web of Science inclusion
Scopus and Web of Science are separate, competing databases, each with its own selection body, its own published criteria, and its own coverage — acceptance into one does not carry over to the other, and a journal must apply to and clear each independently. The mechanics differ in several concrete ways:
- Selection body. Scopus uses CSAB, an Elsevier-convened panel of subject experts. Web of Science Core Collection uses Clarivate’s own in-house editorial selection process, evaluated separately for each of its constituent indexes — the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), and the broader Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), among others. A journal can be accepted into one Web of Science index and not another.
- Coverage breadth. Scopus generally indexes a larger number of active journals than the more selective SCIE/SSCI indexes within Web of Science, though ESCI has widened Web of Science’s own coverage considerably since its introduction.
- Evaluation criteria emphasis. Both databases assess peer-review rigor, editorial standards, ethics policy, and publication regularity, but weight and document these somewhat differently, and each maintains its own independent citation-metrics infrastructure (Scopus’s CiteScore/SJR/SNIP family versus Web of Science’s Journal Impact Factor via Journal Citation Reports).
See Scopus vs. Web of Science vs. OpenAlex for a full side-by-side comparison of coverage, cost, and metrics, and What Does It Mean for a Journal to Be Indexed? for how Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed/MEDLINE, and DOAJ inclusion criteria compare across all four databases.
Why indexing status matters for researchers and institutions
Whether a journal is Scopus-indexed has practical consequences beyond discoverability:
- Citation tracking and author metrics. Scopus only counts citations from Scopus-indexed documents. An article published in a non-indexed journal, or one citing a non-indexed journal, is invisible to a researcher’s Scopus-based citation count and to metrics computed from it, including a Scopus Author ID profile’s h-index.
- Institutional research assessment. Many universities’ tenure, promotion, and internal research-output reporting processes reference Scopus indexing status (sometimes alongside Web of Science) as one signal, among several, of a venue’s standing — even where institutions have also signed onto reform commitments such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) or the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) that caution against treating indexing or journal-level metrics as a proxy for individual article quality.
- Funder and national reporting requirements. Some funders and national research-evaluation exercises use Scopus (or Web of Science) coverage as part of how they compile institutional or national publication output.
- A signal against predatory publishing, not a guarantee. Because CSAB screens for a publicly available ethics statement, transparent peer review, and editorial-board legitimacy, Scopus indexing is one useful signal that a journal is not a low-quality or predatory operation — though it is a point-in-time assessment, not an ongoing content-level guarantee, which is why Elsevier’s re-evaluation and discontinuation process exists.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for a journal to get indexed in Scopus?
Elsevier does not publish a fixed turnaround time, and CSAB reviews submitted titles on a rolling basis rather than at scheduled intervals. Editors should expect the process to take months rather than weeks, particularly if CSAB requests additional information or the journal needs to address gaps (such as editorial-board diversity or publication regularity) before reapplying.
Can a new journal apply for Scopus indexing before it has published any issues?
No. CSAB requires an established publication history to evaluate content quality and regularity, so a title needs a track record of published issues before it is a realistic candidate for review.
Does Scopus indexing guarantee a journal is not predatory?
No. It is a meaningful positive signal because CSAB screens for a public ethics statement and legitimate editorial infrastructure, but Scopus itself acknowledges an ongoing re-evaluation and discontinuation process exists precisely because indexed journals can later be found to fall short.
Is Scopus indexing the same as having a high impact factor?
No. Impact factor is a Clarivate/Web of Science metric computed from Journal Citation Reports data. Scopus computes its own separate metrics (CiteScore, SJR, SNIP) from Scopus-indexed citation data. A journal can be Scopus-indexed without appearing in Journal Citation Reports at all, and vice versa.
What happens to already-published articles if a journal is discontinued from Scopus?
Articles already indexed generally remain searchable in Scopus as part of the scientific record; discontinuation stops new issues from being added going forward. Full removal of existing coverage is reserved for cases involving serious, confirmed ethical violations.
