International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa EDITORIAL REVIEW ARTICLE How Journals Are Indexed in Scopus and Whether This Guarantees Their Quality: A Practical Case of the International Journal of Science Annals Author’s Contribution: A – Study design; Melnyk Y. B. 1,2 ABDEF B – Data collection; C – Statistical analysis; 1 Kharkiv Regional Public Organization “Culture of Health”, Ukraine D – Data interpretation; 2 Scientific Research Institute KRPOCH, Ukraine E – Manuscript preparation; F – Literature search; Received: 04.08.2024; Accepted: 07.09.2024; Published: 25.12.2024 G – Funds collection Abstract Background and The present study discusses the necessity and sufficiency of the criteria of the Scopus Aim of Study: database for quality assurance of scientific publications, as well as the reviewer's role in the journal evaluation process. The paper analyses the process by which Scopus reviewers evaluate IJSA to ensure the Journal meets the stated criteria for indexing in Scopus. The aim of the study: to investigate the objectivity of the Scopus journal evaluation – to carry out a comparative analysis of the results of the Scopus reviewer evaluation with the real qualitative and quantitative criteria of a particular journal, and to compare them with the criteria of periodicals already indexed in Scopus. Material and Methods: Qualitative and quantitative IJSA analysis methods based on five categories and fourteen selection criteria from Scopus were used. A comparative analysis of scientific periodicals indexed in Scopus has been conducted. We used open databases to study the current state of the research problem: Scopus website, journals websites, journal articles, and social media. Results: A case study of a particular journal, IJSA, was used to describe the whole process of preparing, submitting, evaluating, and appealing the evaluation of the Journal in the Scopus database. A journal may indeed meet high criteria for assessing scientific publications, including those declared by Scopus. However, this does not guarantee its indexing in this database because there is a human factor – a Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) reviewer – who has the power to subjectively evaluate the Journal and reject it on formal grounds or his / her misjudgment. Conclusions: The decision of the CSAB reviewer is more significant for the inclusion of a journal in Scopus than the fulfilment of the quality criteria of the evaluated Journal. This is illustrated by the fact that some journals cannot be indexed or are excluded from indexing in Scopus, while other journals of lesser quality have been indexed in this database for many years. Today's main problems in scientific periodicals are discussed (paper mills, predatory journals, citation cartels, buying an author's place in a commissioned paper, changing journal ownership, fraudulent websites, etc.). A number of criteria for assessing the quality of journals need to be reviewed, and a balance must be struck between their necessity and sufficiency. This eliminates any possible (or forced) manipulation of journals to meet Scopus indexing criteria. Keywords: Scopus, indexing, evaluation procedure, categories and selection criteria, necessity and sufficiency, journal quality. Copyright: © 2024 Melnyk Y. B. Published by Archives of International Journal of Science Annals DOI: https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2024.2.3 Conflict of interests: The author declares that there is no conflict of interests Peer review: Double-blind review Source of support: This research did not receive any outside funding or support Information about Melnyk Yuriy Borysovych – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8527-4638; the author: ijsa.office@gmail.com; Doctor of Philosophy in Pedagogy, Affiliated Associate Professor; Chairman of Board, Kharkiv Regional Public Organization “Culture of Health” (KRPOCH); Director, Scientific Research Institute KRPOCH, Ukraine. 5 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Introduction Scopus is a bibliographic, scientometric, abstract and considered by reviewers to be worthy of indexing, nor citation database of peer-reviewed scientific literature. will all journals already in the database be indexed in the Scopus was launched by academic publisher Elsevier in future. Scopus removes hundreds of journals from 2004 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Scopus indexing each year. covers 330 disciplines, has over 100 million records, We can, therefore, conditionally distinguish 2 groups more than 30 active serial titles, content with 5 categories of journals (Figure 1). These are as предоставляется from more than 7,000 publishers, follows selected by an independent Content Selection and 1. Not indexed in Scopus: Advisory Board, CSAB (Elsevier, 2024). (a) not submitted to Scopus for indexing; Among researchers, Scopus was associated with the (b) submitted to Scopus for indexing but not yet high quality of the publications it indexes. The quality indexed; of publications is the responsibility of publishers, (c) excluded from Scopus indexing. journal editors, and Scopus reviewers, who check the 2. Indexed in Scopus: conformity of published material submitted by (d) indexed in Scopus (3 or 4 quartile); publishers for indexing based on stated factors and (e) indexed in Scopus (1 or 2 quartile). criteria. Not all journals submitted to Scopus are Figure 1 Categorising Journals According to Scopus Indexing Criteria Journals in categories A-B are not indexed in Scopus. The aim of the study. To investigate the objectivity of They can publish both low-quality and high-quality the Scopus journal evaluation - to carry out a literature (articles). comparative analysis of the results of the Scopus Journals in category C are excluded from Scopus based reviewer evaluation with the real qualitative and on reviewer judgement for low quality of published quantitative criteria of a particular journal and to literature or other violations. compare them with the criteria of journals already Journals in categories D-E are indexed in Scopus. They indexed in Scopus and the strategies used by journals to have high-quality published literature. meet the criteria set by Scopus. In the present study, we assume that some journals Materials and Methods (categories A-B) may publish articles of high quality A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the IJSA and still not be indexed in Scopus, as indexing of the indicators was carried out based on 5 categories and 14 Journal is possible if the publisher applies for Scopus quantitative and qualitative selection criteria declared in evaluation. Indexing, rejection or exclusion from Scopus. A comparative analysis of the editions of indexing is determined by an expert (the CSAB periodical scientific literature indexed in Scopus was reviewer). used. To study the current situation of the research In this paper, using the example of a specific journal, the problem, we used open databases: articles in scientific International Journal of Science Annals (IJSA), we journals, journal websites and social networks, and examine the whole process of peer review of journal electronic correspondence from the official IJSA email. quality in Scopus based on the criteria used by this The resulting data were described narratively, with database. common themes identified. 6 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Results to a higher level through the highly qualified The IJSA was registered in 2018. It has been published recommendations of DOAJ staff and to increase annually, continuously in English, for 7 years. From the readership through open access. first issue, the Journal began implementing the It should be noted that in 2021, the Journal was principles of publishing high-quality scientific journals favourably reviewed and accepted for membership by of international standards (Melnyk & Pypenko, 2021). the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), where it To this end, the Journal invited scholars from 17 is currently a member (COPE, 2021). countries and 5 continents in the social and behavioural Membership in COPE has enabled IJSA editors to sciences (education, psychology and medicine) to form obtain the most up-to-date information and to address the IJSA Editorial Board. problematic issues relating to ethical standards in A system for selecting qualified reviewers has been journal publishing. developed, as well as a form with a set of criteria for The Journal implements the best publishing practices evaluating manuscripts, which can be used by reviewers and technologies for all published articles, including doi, and is available on the website for authors to read. CrossMark, hyperlinks, QR codes, archiving in different The Journal’s website is well structured, with formats (pdf, xml, txt, doaj), etc. information about the editors, and reviewers, an archive The IJSA is represented in more than 40 international of all issues and information about archiving scientometric databases, repositories and search repositories, details of the peer review process and engines: DOAJ, ERIH PLUS, Google Scholar, etc. The ethical guidelines, a system for tracking plagiarism in IJSA is represented at universities and in more than 150 manuscripts, instructions and manuscript templates for libraries worldwide: Stanford Libraries, University of authors, and much more that is necessary for the quality California Davis Library (United States); Simon Fraser publication of a scientific journal (Melnyk, 2018). University (Canada); Maastricht University The Journal has been implementing the principles of (Netherlands); V.I. Vernadskiy National Library of golden open access since its first issue. All texts are free Ukraine, etc. of charge for all users and/or the institutions they The authors’ request for the possibility of having their represent. article indexed in Scopus was the reason for IJSA's In 2020, the Journal was positively reviewed and submission to Scopus for peer review. included in the Directory of Open Access Journals Submitting a journal for evaluation for indexing in (DOAJ) indexing (DOAJ, 2020). Scopus involved filling in a special form freely available In 2024, the IJSA was re-evaluated and reaffirmed its on the Scopus website. compliance with the DOAJ’s indexing criteria. DOAJ The first step was registering on the Scopus website and membership has helped to raise the quality of the Journal obtaining a registration number, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 Suggested title for Scopus and Obtained ID 7 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa The second step was to complete a six-step form: (1) website, journal name, peer review process, ownership Agreement, (2) Before completing the form, (3) Contact and management, governing body, editorial information, (4) Serial title information, (5) Document team/contact details, copyright and licensing, author upload, (6) Additional information. fees, process for identifying and dealing with allegations Each of these six steps describes some information of research misconduct, publication ethics, publication about the Journal. For example, the first of the six steps schedule, access, archiving, revenue streams, requires you to provide information on 16 principles of advertising, direct marketing. The completion of the first transparency and best practices in scholarly publishing: stage of the form is shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 Completion the Evaluation Form (Agreement Stage) for the IJSA After completing the form at each stage, we completed registration and start of the IJSA evaluation procedure the submission of the Journal for evaluation. in Scopus. This is confirmed by the receipt of a message in the On 21 January 2024, we were able to access a graphical official Journal email with information about the representation of the IJSA evaluation tracking image in Scopus (Figure 4). 8 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Figure 4 (5) Online availability (full journal content available Confirmation of Journal Submission and Start of online, English language journal home page available, Evaluation Process quality of journal home page). The evaluation was carried out over 76 days, and it could be monitored periodically through the IJSA evaluation tracking image in Scopus (Figure 5). Figure 5 Tracking the Evaluation Process The evaluation of the Journal by the CSAB reviewer, according to the Scopus official website, implied the examination of the Journal for compliance with the 5 categories and 14 quantitative and qualitative selection criteria: (1) Journal policy (convincing editorial policy, type of peer review, diversity in geographical distribution of We received a negative answer on 6 April 2024 after 76 editors, diversity in geographical distribution of days of waiting. In our opinion, it was wrong and authors); unfounded (Figure 6). (2) Content (academic contribution to the field, clarity The CSAB reviewer’s explicit disregard of the facts of of abstracts, quality of and conformity to the stated aims IJSA’s compliance with the criteria set out in Scopus and scope of the Journal, readability of articles); was the reason for the appeal against this assessment. (3) Journal standing (citedness of journal articles in On 17 April 2024, we filed a written notice of our Scopus, editor standing); intention to appeal the CSAB reviewer's decision, (4) Publishing regularity (no delays or interruptions in stating the reasons for our disagreement. the publication schedule); 9 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Figure 6 Notification of Completion of Journal Evaluation in Scopus We dissented because we were convinced that there 2024 we received the official template for the Scopus were procedural and substantive errors in the review Title Evaluation Appeal Form. We were then allowed to process: lodge a formal appeal following the prescribed 1) The CSAB reviewer subjectively selected some procedure. criteria (8 out of 14) and provided misleading On 12 May 2024, we completed the Title Evaluation information about them during the IJSA assessment Appeal and submitted it to the Scopus email by the procedure. deadline. 2) The CSAB reviewer did not follow the assessment On 24 June 2024, I asked the Scopus team for an update procedure for IJSA: the correct criteria were not on my case. considered, the assessment was not carried out properly, On 12 July 2024, I received a reply asking me to reduce and the reviewer’s opinion does not correspond to the the word count to 300 words. facts, the embargo imposed was not justified. On 16 July 2024, we complied with these requirements In order to justify the failure to follow the assessment and submitted an updated Scopus Title Evaluation procedure and to address this issue thoroughly, Appeal with reasons for our disagreement evaluation of completely and reasonably, we first considered the the Journal (Appendix A). CSAB reviewers' assessment with our comments and The Scopus Title Evaluation Appeal was accompanied evidence. Then, we analysed the IJSA scores based on 5 by an annex (Appeal Against the Assessment of the categories and 14 quantitative and qualitative selection IJSA, Appendix В) consisting of two sections: 1. The criteria, as defined by the official Scopus assessment assessment by the reviewers of the CSAB with our procedure. comments and evidence. 2. Analysis of IJSA indicators On 7 May 2024, we had to reapply to Scopus, what is based on 5 categories and 14 quantitative and qualitative the status of the review of our appeal? Only on 9 May selection criteria (with our comments and evidence). 10 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Scopus uses the following criteria to evaluate journals: III. Journal Standing I. Journal Policy 9. Citedness of journal articles in Scopus 1. Convincing editorial policy 10. Editor standing 2. Type of peer review IV. Publishing Regularity 3. Diversity in geographical distribution of editors 11. No delays or interruptions in the publication 4. Diversity in geographical distribution of authors schedule II. Content V. Online Availability 5. Academic contribution to the field 12. Full journal content available online 6. Clarity of abstracts 13. English language journal home page available 7. Quality and consistency with the stated aims and 14. Quality of journal home page scope of the journal Two weeks later, on 28 July 2024, we received the decision on our appeal (Figure 7). Figure 7 Notice of the Results of the Appeal Against the Evaluation of the Journal in Scopus It should be noted the formal nature of the review of the evaluating the Journal to refuse indexing. Publishers are assessment procedure and the subsequent appeal, which unaware of each criterion's value (weight) in the total is reduced to the use of the keyboard functions “Ctrl+C” score, which influences the decision to index the Journal. and “Ctrl+V” by the reviewer. This method is not Otherwise, how else can we explain the refusal to index complicated to detect by the presence of the exact phrases the IJSA that meets 12 specific criteria and, according to (remarks) with similar symbols and typing errors in our the reviewer, does not meet 2 “fuzzy” criteria?! Journal's evaluation and appeal letters (Figures 6, 7). This Especially when these two criteria are also met by the is confirmed by the fact that the number of comments has IJSA, which we have described in detail in the Appendix decreased (2 out of 6 remaining), and the embargo period to the Evaluation Appeal. A comparison of the for re-evaluation of the Journal has been reduced (by performance on these criteria for IJSA and some journals several months) without any justification or indexed in Scopus for many years shows that these acknowledgement of the reviewer's error in the first criteria are insignificant, as these journals completely evaluation. This situation is disappointing and ignore them. We will look at this next. undermines confidence in the objectivity of the Scopus The question of the necessity and sufficiency of the review to make an informed and fair decision on whether Scopus criteria for the final evaluation of a journal for a journal can be indexed. indexing in this database remains unresolved. Therefore, the lack of qualitative and quantitative We believe that particular attention should be paid to indicators for some Scopus criteria allows the reviewer striking a balance between the necessity and sufficiency 11 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa of the criteria and that the outcome of journal inclusion Analysis of the websites of scholarly journals, literature should not depend on the decision of a single reviewer publications and social media provides comprehensive but should be based on the sum of scores on a scale where information on the methods used by journals and the criteria are strictly regulated and have their own individual scholars to address these issues. qualitative and quantitative indicators. Let us now look at some examples of how journals meet the criteria for indexing in Scopus to broaden the Discussion international composition of authors in their Journal. The above comments about IJSA are actually It is not uncommon for editorial offices to search for problematic for many scholarly journals, including those potential authors for their journals on social networks indexed by Scopus. Especially when these problems are such as LinkedIn and Facebook (Figure 8), which, in related to issues of international author expansion and/or principle, corresponds to the norms of advertising. high citation requirements for articles published in the However, there is also the less ethical practice of Journal in the same Scopus database. scientists receiving intrusive multiple emails in their The important question in this situation is how journals mailboxes inviting them to publish a manuscript in a will address these issues to meet the Scopus criteria. particular journal. A characteristic feature of these emails Unfortunately, not all journals can address these issues is that the sender (publisher or Journal) argues in favour within the ethical guidelines of scholarly publishing. of giving the prospective author a favourable chance to In fact, these Scopus requirements for journals have publish his or her future manuscript, as well as a caused several problems. To a lesser extent, these reference to his or her previously published work, which problems depend on internal factors and can be is supposedly highly valued by the sender. influenced by the Journal. To a greater extent, these Figure 8 problems are influenced by external factors such as the Example of Promotion of a Scopus-Indexed Journal on visibility of the Journal in the international information the Social Network Facebook space, its presence in bibliographic and abstract databases of scientific literature, and especially its indexing in Scopus. In addition, these problems have been exacerbated by the need for scientists to meet the criteria for academic success, which requires them not only to have publications indexed in Scopus but also to be cited in that database. An analogy can be found in determining the quartile of a journal - it depends on the ratio of the number of articles in it to their citations. It made the situation worse. Journals began to select candidates for authorship more rigorously, based on indicators of the author’s published works with a high This may seem flattering at first, but after receiving citation index in Scopus. Such an author provides the similar emails repeatedly, a pattern begins to emerge Journal with some immunity, protecting it from (Keogh, 2020): downgrading and possibly contributing to a higher - often use flattering language to describe you and your quartile. A paradox has arisen in which an author with no work; articles indexed in Scopus has virtually no chance of - grammatical or spelling mistakes in the emails; being published for the same reason. In this way, both the - promising quick publication, referring to the “next author and the journals have become hostages to citation. issue”; We believe this artificially created citation index problem - offering a substantial discount for publication; has given rise to “citation cartels” that engage in citation - mentioning the indexing of the Journal in Google manipulation by adding irrelevant citations. Scholar or ResearchGate shows how prestigious this is Secchi (2023), who has been studying this phenomenon and adds credibility to your research. for several decades in various disciplines, points out that Authors should be cautious when receiving such emails. it represents a tacit or explicit agreement between authors There is a high probability that they will fall prey to to cite each other more often than they would in a more “paper mills”. “sincere” approach to science. In principle, this could be Please note that the sender is essentially admitting that seen as collusion, which could distort scientific progress the email address received (yours) was taken from by influencing the scientist's attention. another publisher’s site. We believe that such actions We believe that this situation is extremely negative, should be categorised as having the characteristics of a especially for young scientists. First, young researchers “predatory log”. may focus on the artificially created authority of a highly The term “predatory journal” was coined by Beall cited publication. Second, young researchers may not be (2017), a scholarly communications librarian. able to internalise the basic principle of scientific In our view, one of the most serious breaches by such citation: the only measure of citation for an author should journals should be the practice of creating a clone of be the academic duty to argue the facts in the manuscript, another journal’s website or using the content of another not journal metrics or reviewer requirements. journal to create one’s own website. This practice of 12 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa predatory journals has sometimes reached the point of more detail. To do this, we will analyse several recent absurdity, as it is possible to find information on the issues of journals indexed in Scopus, focusing on the websites of these journals that do not even correspond to international composition of authors in these journals. their potential. Their websites are primitive, have Let us start with a journal called “The Journal of Social grammatical and spelling errors, pages contain Policy Studies / Zhurnal Issledovaniy Sotsialnoy contradictory information, hyperlinks are missing or Politiki” (National Research University, Higher School incorrect, etc. of Economics, 2016). This Journal caught our attention Even more egregious is buying an author's place in a both because of the lack of geographical diversity of the commissioned article. On the same social media authors and because of one of the issues it addresses. Let platforms, you can see posts offering a list of article us, however, first outline the general characteristics of topics and the cost per space in that article. For ethical this Journal before looking at the content of a particular reasons, we will not illustrate these contributions or name issue. This Journal has been indexed in Scopus since the journals indexed in Scopus. We assume that this is the 2016 and has a CiteScore of Q3. Vol. 22 No. 2 (2024) of work of intermediaries unknown to the editors of these this Journal is represented by 10 articles and 2 reviews, journals. of which 11 are in russian; all 25 authors published in this Let us consider the characteristics that, in our opinion, issue are exclusively affiliated with russian institutions. should be considered by the editorial offices of journals It should be noted that we did not set out to analyse the that accept such manuscripts with multinational quality of the articles in this Journal or in any other authorship for publication. journal. Scopus reviewers and experts should do this. Such a manuscript is usually submitted to the Journal by However, we note how cynical an article by a Moscow the same corresponding author. A number of the graduate student on the problems of Syrian migrants following indicators characterise it: looks in this russian Journal. According to Dibo (2024), - Relevance to the research topic (COVID-19 pandemic, “…this protracted conflict has caused varying levels of war, refugees, etc.); violence and instability within Syria, forcing many - The type of manuscript is in most cases a review article people to seek refuge abroad…”. (no empirical component required); The substitution of “conflict” for “war” is characteristic - The authors often have different affiliations and/or live of russian propaganda and censorship. How acceptable in different countries; this is for a scientific journal indexed in Scopus is a - The authors have not previously published together; matter for reviewers to decide. Let us just recall that the - The authors have no previous publications on the topic. russian military (personnel of the air group with This problem is much more serious than it seems at first diplomatic status), on russian planes, with russian bombs glance. The information in such a “commissioned article” and missiles, bombed Syrian cities, as a result of which is likely to be equally custom or fictitious and unrelated millions of Syrians became refugees. to reality. This is a situation that I personally experienced when In the context of the above, it is appropriate to consider russia launched a war against Ukraine, calling it a an example of a manuscript entitled Ukraine – russia “special military operation” and firing ballistic missiles crisis and its impacts on the mental health of Ukrainian at Ukrainian cities with civilian populations. One such young people during the COVID-19 pandemic (Chaaya russian missile with a cluster warhead exploded in a et al., 2022). In this article, the authors from universities residential area of the city where I live, damaging in Rwanda, Lebanon, India, Turkey, Sudan, the USA, civilians and their property, including our publishing UK, have insufficient knowledge of the information house. This is evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of about the organisation of psychological help in Ukraine refugees who have fled our city, and by the shrapnel from and the demand for these services in Ukrainian society, that rocket that still protrudes from my laptop screen. erroneously claim: “Often, mental health is overlooked in Next, consider the example of another journal, Baltic Ukraine due to the social stigma and taboos, yet more Region (Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, during the state of war and pandemics” (Chaaya et al., 2018), which has been indexed in Scopus since 2018 and 2022). has the following quartiles: SJR Q1 (Cultural Studies) / We note that these statements do not correspond to the CiteScore Q1 (History, Cultural Studies). Volume 16, actual circumstances and give a false picture of the real No. 1 (2024) of this Journal contains only 8 articles, all situation of psychological assistance in Ukraine during in russian, and all 14 authors published in this issue are martial law. We are well aware of the real circumstances, from russia. as the author team has been practising Ukrainian The Journal entitled Monitoring Obshchestvennogo psychologists, researchers and authors of numerous Mneniya: Ekonomicheskie i Sotsialnye Peremeny original articles on the state of mental health of young (Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social people for more than 20 years, including during the Changes Journal) has been indexed in Scopus since 2016 Russian-Ukrainian war (Mykhaylyshyn et al., 2024; (Public Opinion Research Center, VCIOM, 2016). The Pypenko et al., 2023; Stadnik et al., 2022; 2023). Journal has an SJR of Q1, according to its website. In order to assess the objectivity of the CSAB reviewer’s Issue 1 (2024) of this Journal contains only 12 articles, refusal to include IJSA in Scopus because “the 11 of which are in russian; all 24 authors published in this geographical reach of authorship and/or content is too issue are from russia. limited\r\n”, let us examine this aspect of the problem in 13 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa The next Journal, Economy of Regions, has been indexed We only partially agree with this author's position on the in Scopus since 2013. The Journal is ranked Q2 in need for small journals that can be regionally focused Economics, Econometrics and Finance by SJR, and/or serve the university’s interests. However, this CiteScore and SNIP Scopus (Institute of Economics, the does not mean these journals are less relevant or of lower Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 2013). quality (Figure 1) if they are not indexed in Scopus. Volume 20, Issue 1 (2024) of this Journal is represented Moreover, we believe that small journals are necessary by 16 articles in Russian, all 29 authors published in this because they create healthy competition, and it is in such issue are from russia. journals that the work of young researchers, who in most Another journal in this field, Ekonomicheskaya Politika cases do not have the opportunity to submit their own / Economic policy, has been indexed in Scopus since research to a Scopus-indexed journal, can be published. 2013 (Editorial Board of the Journal Economic Policy, Today, many universities and scientific institutions are 2013). The Journal has Q3 (SJR), Q2 (CiteScore). autonomous and have their own publishing houses and Volume 19, No. 2 (2024) of this Journal contains only 4 journals; they often organise their own projects, articles printed in russian, all 8 authors published in this conferences and competitions, including those at the issue are from russia. The next issue (No. 3, 2024) of this international level. Journal already contains 5 articles, also in russian, and all To illustrate this model, consider the example of IJSA, 9 authors are from russia. The next issue (No. 4, 2024) of which was founded by Kharkiv Regional Public this Journal is also represented by 5 articles, which are Organisation “Culture of Health” (KRPOCH). KRPOCH also in russian, and all 12 authors are from russia. has structural subdivisions, including the KRPOCH It is easy to assume that other issues of these journals Scientific Research Institute and KRPOCH Publishing. have a preponderance of articles in russian and are not The activity of the Institute and the Publishing House characterised by a wide geographical diversity of authors. extends far beyond the local community, as for more than It follows that the question of the geographical diversity 10 years, it has been organising the annual International of authors and the scientific value of these russian- Conferences “Current Issues of Education and Science”, language journals to the international scientific “Psychological and Pedagogical Problems of Modern community is obviously rhetorical. Specialist Formation”, as well as the International In considering this issue, attention should be drawn to the Competitions “Mental Health in the Digital Society”, diversity of authors in the IJSA's geographical “Blockchain in the Digital Society”, which are aimed at distribution. At the time of Scopus evaluation, the Journal supporting (organisationally and financially) young had published articles by 90 authors from 21 countries. scientists. In addition, each author has a personal page on the IJSA The next issue we feel the need to highlight is the website with papers published in the Journal. It remains availability of “predatory journals”. In his study, Demir unclear why this information was ignored or deemed (2018) collected data from nearly 25,000 articles and irrelevant. identified a significant number of predatory journals that Thus, while some journals cannot be indexed in Scopus are indexed, highlighting the need for rigorous review or are excluded because of an insufficient (in the processes. reviewer’s opinion) international composition of authors, Singh (2021) states that “Scopus hosts papers from more other lower-quality journals have been in this database than 300 potentially “predatory” journals that have for many years, have a high quartile and are not affected questionable publishing practices”. More than 160,000 by the problem of 'geography of authors’, and the CSAB articles were published in them over 3 years, representing reviewers do not see this as a problem. almost 3% of the research indexed in Scopus over this The analysis of periodical scientific literature shows that period. The presence of such articles in indexed there are serious problems for journals to achieve databases contaminates the scientific literature and indexing in Scopus and for those already indexed in provides misleading information about research. Scopus. Grudniewicz et al. (2019) describe a case of dubious Malvić et al. (2022) discuss the difficulties small journals ideas being disseminated through publications in face in meeting the stringent criteria of Scopus, such as predatory journals. The authors proposed a consensus citation metrics and publication frequency. These definition of predatory publishing to help identify and challenges can hinder the dissemination of valuable combat such practices. research, especially from emerging scholars and niche Kakamad et al. (2024) consider the problem that disciplines. predatory journals pose to the scientific community by When considering the problems of small journals, it is blurring the line between legitimate and questionable appropriate to start with Donovan (2013). More than a publishing practices. The authors examine the positive decade ago, the author suggested that in the age of and negative characteristics of the three main lists ratings, “small journals” could exist in print and (Beall’s, Cabells, and Kscien’s lists) that keep track of electronically on the web to maximise the benefits predatory journals. This group of scholars stresses the (grades, ratings) for the authors’ parent institution. need to refine these lists by creating a separate list Donovan’s disappointing conclusion was that journals of supported by clear evidence, such as accepting a forged this calibre could only serve the local community by manuscript (established in a shell operation). filling a gap in some regional publications. Macháček and Srholec (2021) examined differences between countries in the propensity of scientists to 14 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa publish in such journals. The study argues that countries known about the activities of “paper mills” and how with large research sectors at the middle level of publishers, independent organisations and individuals economic development, particularly in Asia and North can work to prevent and detect their activities. Research Africa, are most vulnerable to predatory publishing. readers can also play an important role in discovering the O’Rorke et al. (2024) point out that predatory publishers mill and informing their peers. and journals typically use an open-access model with As noted above, citation manipulation is another little or no peer review. common concern. Joshi and Pandey (2024) point out that The role of publishers in perpetuating these problems citation bias, excessive self-citation and forced citation cannot be overlooked. Teixeira da Silva and Al-Khatib are standard techniques used to artificially inflate the (2018) criticised some publishers for putting profit ahead impact of scientific articles, undermining the integrity of of scientific integrity. One of the weakest areas for abuse academic research. of trust in the submission and publication system is the It should be remembered that these techniques distort peer review process, which leads to the proliferation of academic data and mislead researchers. This low-quality journals in databases. manipulation not only affects the performance of the The commercialisation of academic publications can Journal but also jeopardises the overall reliability of certainly have negative consequences. Rodrigues et al. citation-based assessments. (2020) argue that commercial publishers clearly exercise In the last two years, there has been an increase in the control over the journal field. They are in the business of number of cases of illegal authorship related to the use of registering new names according to the interests of their text generated by artificial intelligence (AI), large companies, which do not necessarily coincide with the language model (LLM) or ChatGPT. interests of the scientific community or society at large. Kendall and Teixeira da Silva (2024) focus on the fact Therefore, the next issue that deserves attention is an that authorship abuse of articles created using large extreme form of commercialisation – purchasing a language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT is rising in journal that is known or already indexed in authoritative academic science. This group of scholars suggests that databases. This is becoming an increasingly common society faces unavoidable risks associated with AI practice. After a change of ownership, such a journal technologies, which could contribute to strengthening a becomes primarily profit-oriented, and the quality of the predatory publishing "industry". The discovery of AI- publications becomes a less important or even irrelevant generated text is, therefore, becoming a new factor. responsibility for editors, journals and publishers. A typical case of change of ownership of the Journal Melnyk and Pypenko (2023) believe that apart from the Experimental & Clinical Cardiology, which had been negative aspects of using AI technologies in publishing, published for 17 years by a respected Canadian publisher, there are also positive aspects of using chatbots, which was widely publicised. The Journal, which had an impact may soon greatly simplify the process of preparing factor of JCR (0.7), was reportedly bought by investors scientific publications. However, the authors’ use of from Switzerland, but their bank accounts are in Turks chatbots should be strictly regulated and transparent to and Caicos. The new investor changed the business the public. The authors propose a method to indicate the model to open access and APC funding and quickly involvement of AI and the role of chatbots in scientific increased the number of articles from 63 in 2013 to over publishing through a specially designed basic logo. 1,000 in 2014. “And for $1,200 they’ll print anything - With the intensive development of digital technologies, even a garbled mix of fake cardiology, Latin grammar another major problem has arisen – the existence of and missing graphs submitted by the Citizen” (Spears, fraudulent websites that “hack” or clone official journal 2014). As the example shows, these problems have been websites. around for many years, but there has been no real The researchers point out that Scopus indexes articles mechanism to solve or at least reduce the growth rate of from legitimate and cloned journals. This results in predatory publishers and journals. articles with different titles being published on It should be noted that this problem has become overlapping pages in the same issues of the Journal. increasingly relevant in recent years and no longer Abalkina (2021) describes a method for identifying concerns only “small journals”, but also large publishers hijacked journal domains based on an analysis of clone and journals with a long history. journal archives. This method is based on the argument However, a critical issue is the inclusion of predatory that fraudulent publishers recycle identical papers to journals in authoritative databases, including Scopus, create a fictitious archive. which needs to be brought to the attention of reviewers Shahri et al. (2018) propose a method to detect captured and administrators of these databases. logs using a classification algorithm. The emergence of “paper mills”, which produce We believe that authors are also responsible for using fraudulent research papers for a fee by creating fake unethical practices. Mertkan et al. (2021), investigating manuscripts and offering authorship slots to academic the reasons why authors choose to publish in predatory clients, with subsequent indexing of these articles in journals, identified the following problems: on the one Scopus, has further complicated the situation. hand, there is pressure on the author to publish the work Parker et al. (2024) claim that many thousands of fake (“publish or perish”), on the other hand, there is a limited paper mill manuscripts have been successfully published opportunity to publish the work in legitimate journals. in peer-reviewed journals. The authors discuss what is This may be particularly important for junior researchers, 15 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa who face a “points” system where the number of that organisations such as COPE and DOAJ make to publications may be more important than quality. developing scholarly journals, academic science and In the present study, we do not examine authors' motives society as a whole. for publishing in predatory journals. Probably, it is trivial ignorance or, in their opinion, a simple and easy way to Conclusions increase their academic ranking. It should be noted that IJSA’s experience building an international team of these authors should be aware that such a publication editors and qualified reviewers to prepare and publish may have serious consequences for their image as articles over 7 years is a good example of its efforts to researchers and scientists. Therefore, before submitting a publish high-quality periodical literature. Authors prefer manuscript to a publisher or Journal, authors should to publish their manuscripts in indexed journals. This consider the risks of publishing in a journal with a ensures that their ideas are disseminated in the scientific dubious reputation. An effective way to protect yourself community, contributes to the recognition of their from this type of publication is to pay attention to the qualifications and enhances the prestige of their ethical standards of the Journal in which you choose to academic work. publish. One of the most respected bibliographic and abstract We fully agree with Chandra and Dasgupta (2024), databases of peer-reviewed scientific literature is Scopus. Kharumnuid and Singh Deo (2022), Tomlinson (2024), It is driven by the need of the scientific community to who suggest that education in this area should focus on have publications indexed in it to meet the criteria of raising young scientists’ awareness of the problem, academic and scientific success. promoting responsible publishing practices, and the If specific requirements are met, a publisher can submit implications of engaging with predatory journals for their a journal for evaluation in Scopus by filling out a special academic careers. form. The Journal should then be checked for compliance We believe that one of the most important criteria for with specific criteria and evaluated by a reviewer. Even assessing the quality of journals is their adherence to the if the publisher believes that the Journal fully meets the COPE ethical principles. This compliance should not be stated criteria, there is still a possibility that the Scopus a mere declaration of such information on journal reviewer will refuse to index the Journal based on his/her websites, as is often seen even on “predatory journals” own opinion. websites. This should be supported by factual evidence We believe that the objective evaluation of journals for of the editorial team’s work in this area. inclusion in scientometric databases, including Scopus, For example, in addition to double-blind peer review of should be based on strictly regulated criteria of manuscripts, editorial and technical checks for the use of qualitative and quantitative indicators and that the artificial intelligence, etc., IJSA has created a system of outcome of inclusion should not depend on the decision triple-checking of the work for possible illegal borrowing of a single reviewer. of text. Such a check involves all those involved in the The current procedure for evaluating journals in Scopus publication process (authors, reviewers, editors), as well and the experience of peer review give us reason to argue as the possibility for readers to complain if they find that it is necessary to revise the evaluation criteria: to plagiarised text or other people's ideas in the manuscript. justify the necessity and sufficiency of each of the When non-standard situations arise, IJSA editors can criteria. This is particularly true for the criteria of provide feedback or discuss the problem in the COPE geography of authorship and citation of publications by forum. their own database (Scopus). The only metric of citation The second important quality criterion of journals is the for authors should be the academic duty to argue the facts possibility of free and unrestricted access to the text of presented in the manuscript, not journal metrics or the articles, which makes it possible to cite and use the reviewer requirements. Otherwise, the problems of the information obtained correctly. In our experience, the emergence of “paper mills” and “citation cartels” to best evaluation of journals in this respect is carried out by manipulate citations and add irrelevant references will DOAJ, which evaluates and maintains journals that not only not be solved but will also be exacerbated by the adhere strictly to the principles of open access and ethical other problems mentioned above. standards. Indexing a journal in DOAJ is not only In addition, some Scopus criteria require the specification prestigious but also practical and helpful for all of quantitative indicators. This would remove the stakeholders. For example, IJSA includes lists from over subjectivity of the examiner’s judgement. The appeal 150 libraries worldwide through indexing in DOAJ. process should not be formalised, and the final decision An important criterion for a journal’s quality is its should be reasoned based on the facts and clear and indexing in the COPE and DOAJ databases. This gives convincing. This will encourage publishers and journal authors confidence that their manuscripts will be editors to improve the publishing process and create real ethically reviewed and their rights protected and that the prospects for journal indexing in Scopus. manuscripts will be open and widely available to the We, therefore, believe that there is a case for reviewing a global scientific community. number of the criteria used to evaluate journals in Scopus However, most authors continue to focus exclusively on in order to strike a balance between their necessity and journals indexed in Scopus. This is a consequence of the sufficiency and the possible technologisation of this need to comply with the criteria for academic success. process to reduce the role of the subjectivity of the human Such authors fail to appreciate the enormous contribution factor in reviewer judgement. 16 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Acknowledgments Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., I thank the two anonymous reviewers who supported this Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., Ardern, C., manuscript, recommended it for publication and Balcom, L., Barros, T., Berger, M., Ciro, J. B., motivated me to persevere. I would also like to thank my Cugusi, L., Donaldson, M. R., Egger, M., family, wife and young son for allowing me to work Graham, I. D., Hodgkinson, M., Khan, K. M., through this difficult time. Mabizela, M., Manca, A., Milzow, K., … Lalu, M. M. (2019). 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BMC https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2023.2.2 Medical Education, 24, Article 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05024-x 18 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Appendix A 19 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa 20 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Appendix В 21 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa 22 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa 23 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa 24 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa 25 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Cite this article as: Melnyk, Y. B. (2024). How journals are indexed in Scopus and whether this guarantees their quality: A practical case of the International Journal of Science Annals. International Journal of Science Annals, 7(2), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2024.2.3 The electronic version of this article is complete. It can be found online in the IJSA Archive https://ijsa.culturehealth.org/en/arhiv This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en). 26