Many a time, medical teachers and busy primary care physicians end up publishing in predatory journals. A journal may claim that it is indexed in certain bibliographic databases. However, authors should check the authenticity of the claim before publishing in the journal. In this letter, we are describing the steps of checking the indexing status of a journal in different databases suggested by the Board of Governors.
Table 1.
Publication requirement for teachers in Indian medical institutions
| Previous | Current | |
|---|---|---|
| Journals indexed in | Embase / Excerpta Medica | Citation Index* |
| Index Medicus | Directory of Open Access Journals | |
| Index Copernicus | Embase | |
| MEDLINE | MEDLINE | |
| PubMed | PubMed Central | |
| Scopus | Sciences Citation Index Expanded† | |
| Scopus | ||
| Type of publication | Original article | Original article |
| Meta-analysis | ||
| Systematic reviews | ||
| Case series | ||
| Authorship | First author Corresponding author |
First author |
| Second author | ||
| Third author | ||
| Corresponding author | ||
| Number of publication | Two for applying for associate professor | One for applying for associate professor |
| Four for applying for professor (among the four, two should be during the tenure of associate professor) | Three for applying for professor (among the three, two should be during the tenure of associate professor) |
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 and click on the search button
- The indexed journal will be shown on the search result page; click on the title of the journal to view more details
Embase
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Go to https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/embase-biomedical-research/embase-coverage-and-content
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Click on the hypertext - “Download the full list of journal titles in Embase”
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Save the spreadsheet file (with extension.xlsx) on your computer
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Open the file in Microsoft Excel or any other software application (e.g. WPS Office, Open Office)
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On the spreadsheet, scroll down or search (Ctrl + F) the journal title or ISSN
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On the corresponding row of the journal, the indexed journal shows “Yes” on the “Indexed at Embase” column
MEDLINE
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Type the journal title or ISSN on the search box and click on the search button
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The journal details will be shown if it is in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) catalog
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Check the “Current indexing status.” Indexed journal shows “Currently indexed for MEDLINE”
PubMed Central (PMC)
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Type the journal title on the search box below “Search for journals” and click on the search button
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On the search result page, the indexed journal shows “Full” in the “Participation level” column
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You can also check if the latest volume is present in the PMC archive by clicking on the journal title hypertext
Science Citation Index Expanded
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Type the journal title or ISSN on the search box and click on “Search Journals”
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On the search result page, indexed journal title shows “Science Citation Index Expanded” against “Web of Science Core Collection”
Scopus
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Select “Title” or “ISSN” from the dropdown arrow and type the title or ISSN accordingly and click on the “Find sources” button
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From the search result, click on the target journal title
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The indexed journal shows the “Scopus coverage years” (e.g. 2009 to 2019) and does not show “(coverage discontinued in Scopus)” below the years