Few lines on a journal's website carry as much weight as "Indexed in". For an author choosing where to submit, it can decide whether a paper will count towards a promotion case or a funder report. For a librarian or research office, it is often the first filter applied to a list of venues. Yet the phrase is written by the journal itself, and nothing obliges a website to use it precisely.
Most indexing claims are made in good faith. Some are simply out of date, because coverage changes and websites are not always updated. A smaller number are careless or deliberately misleading, and hijacked journals, which copy the title and ISSN of a legitimate publication, depend on exactly this kind of claim. The reader cannot tell which is which from the logo alone.
This guide is about reading and testing those claims. It assumes you know broadly what Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE and PubMed Central are; if not, start with our explainer, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and MEDLINE: How They Differ.
Start with the wording
The verbs used on an "Indexing and abstracting" page are worth reading closely. "Indexed in" should mean that a named database has selected the journal and is currently adding its content. "Abstracted in", "covered by", "listed in", "available through" and "discoverable via" can mean much less. A journal "listed in" a directory may simply have a record there; a journal "available through" an aggregator may have signed a distribution agreement, which is a commercial arrangement rather than an editorial evaluation.
Phrases such as "submitted to", "under evaluation for" or "applied for indexing" are not indexing at all. Neither is a claim that the journal is "indexed in Scopus" without saying whether coverage is current. A precise claim names the database, the specific collection where one exists and, ideally, the years covered.
Identifiers and services that are not indexing
Many indexing pages pad their lists with services that do something useful but different. A DOI shows that an article has been registered with an agency such as Crossref; Crossref itself has stressed that DOIs say nothing about the quality of a publication. An ISSN simply identifies a serial publication. Neither is an indexing decision, and neither should appear under that heading.
The same applies to Google Scholar. It finds content automatically through web crawlers that follow technical guidelines, with no application or editorial review. "Indexed in Google Scholar" means the website is crawlable. Archiving services, reference managers, institutional repositories and academic social networks are similarly valuable for preservation or discovery, but they are not evidence of selection by a curated database. A long list made up mostly of such entries is a reason for closer inspection, not reassurance.
Logos prove nothing
A database logo on a homepage is an image file. Anyone can copy it. The principles of transparency and best practice published jointly by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME say that a journal website must not contain information that might mislead readers or authors and must be accurate about the journal's associations with other organisations. Logos should be treated as a prompt to check, never as the check itself.
Be particularly wary of logos for services that do not select journals at all, and of metrics badges from unfamiliar providers. DOAJ's own inclusion criteria tell journals not to display impact factors or ranking metrics from other services through images, links or logos, and to avoid unreliable indexes.
The biomedical trap: PubMed, PMC and MEDLINE
"Indexed in PubMed" is one of the most commonly misunderstood claims. PubMed is a search interface whose records come from several components, chiefly MEDLINE and PubMed Central (PMC). A journal's articles can appear in PubMed because the journal deposits full text in PMC, or because individual authors deposited manuscripts under a funder mandate, without the journal ever having been selected for MEDLINE.
NLM is explicit that the presence of an individual article in PubMed does not mean the journal is included in MEDLINE or PMC. When a biomedical journal says "PubMed", ask which route it means. "Indexed for MEDLINE" and "deposited in PMC" are specific, checkable claims; "in PubMed" on its own is not.
The Web of Science trap: ESCI and SCIE
"Indexed in Web of Science" usually refers to the Web of Science Core Collection, which contains four journal indexes: SCIE, SSCI, AHCI and ESCI. Clarivate places journals that meet its quality criteria in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), and only those that also meet its impact criteria in SCIE, SSCI or AHCI.
Since the 2023 Journal Citation Reports release, ESCI journals have also been eligible for a Journal Impact Factor. A journal can therefore truthfully claim both Web of Science coverage and an impact factor while being in ESCI rather than SCIE. That matters when an institution's rules specify SCIE or SSCI. If a website says only "Web of Science" or "Clarivate", find out which index.
Discontinued and partial coverage
Database coverage has start and end dates. When Scopus discontinues a title, Elsevier's policy is that content already indexed generally remains in the database, but no new content is added. Clarivate also removes journals that no longer meet its standards. A journal can therefore show genuine records in a database for earlier years while no longer being covered today. Our launch explainer, Why Do Journals Lose Indexing?, looks at why this happens.
The practical consequence is that finding an old article from a journal in Scopus or Web of Science does not prove that a paper submitted now will be indexed. Title changes, mergers and changes of publisher can also break the link between a journal's current website and its historic coverage.
How to verify a claim in ten minutes
Always search by ISSN (print and electronic) rather than by title, since hijacked and lookalike journals often copy titles closely.
- Scopus: download Elsevier's source title list from the Scopus content policy page. It is reissued several times a year and shows whether a title is active or inactive, its coverage years and whether it has been discontinued by Scopus. Subscribers can also check the Scopus Sources browser.
- Web of Science: search Clarivate's Master Journal List, which shows current coverage and the Core Collection index.
- MEDLINE and PMC: look up the journal in the NLM Catalog. MEDLINE status appears under "Current Indexing Status", and the record shows the years indexed. A catalog record alone does not mean MEDLINE or PMC inclusion.
- DOAJ: search doaj.org for the journal.
- Hijacked titles: consult the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, which lists journals identified as copying the titles and ISSNs of legitimate publications.
Finally, compare the publisher and journal details held by each database, and any website link it gives, with the site you are on. A correct ISSN on an unfamiliar website, under an unexpected publisher, is a common signature of a hijacked journal.
Conclusion
An indexing claim is a statement made by the journal; the database record is the evidence. Read the verbs, discount identifiers and crawlers, ignore logos until you have checked them, and ask the two questions that most often expose a weak claim: which collection, and which years? Ten minutes with the Scopus source list, the Master Journal List, the NLM Catalog and DOAJ will answer most of them. Journals with nothing to hide can help by naming collections precisely, dating their claims and linking directly to their records in each database.
