Bibliographic indexes: requirements for indexing your journal and much more
Do you want your journal to be included in some bibliographic repertoire? Do you want to offer the content of your journal to users as a reference or as full text? Well, for this to be possible you will only have to accomplish one thing: to index your journal in some information system or bibliographic index.
This task may be difficult, in a way it is, but do not worry because we are here to take you by the hand and step by step through the whole process of how to enter or index your journal to bibliographic indexes.
Likewise, we will tell you in this article what requirements you must have and which indexes are the easiest or not to apply.
If you are a writer, editor, librarian or journal manager, stay to expand your knowledge.
What is the index?
In order for you to fully understand this topic of indexing and indexing of journals, we will first expand the information with concepts. One of the terms we are going to refer to throughout this text is the index.
Index refers to a database or repertory of worldwide consultation, an example of which are organizations such as Latindex or Doaj that perform a survey of journals, i.e., a review, compilation and research of journals that form a total index where other journals wish to appear. The agglomeration of databases forms an index itself.
The index could also be understood as an indexing and summarizing system that makes use of integrity and quality criteria.
It is itself an exhaustive selection of journals. It is an arduous search and selection process.
What is indexing?
Another term to take into account throughout these paragraphs is the word indexar. According to the Dictionary, indexing is:
- To make indexes.
- To register data and information in an orderly fashion, in order to prepare an index.
The Dictionary makes it very clear, but if you still have doubts let us help you. Indexing is nothing more than inserting your journal in an index or catalog. It is to list your document within a system, which in this case would be the index.
In a purely literary environment, indexar means index, a listing that points to a location.
Index = index.
What is an indexed journal?
An indexed journal is a research publication that is presented in an index or digital information system; a journal is said to be indexed when a bibliographic index gives value or recognizes the publication and integrates it into its system.
General criteria for a journal to be indexed
For a journal to be indexed, it must have a series of elements or general criteria, such as:
- Evaluation of its scientific, editorial and documentary quality.
- Quality of the journal’s content.
Authors and members of the editorial and scientific committees. - Keywords and abstracts.
- Period and regularity of the journal.
- Use by the scientific community.
- ISSN
It should be noted that these indicators may vary according to the index or repertoires where you want to be linked, but globally these are the parameters that must be met.
Indexes, repertories or databases for indexing journals
Currently, there is a large selection of indexes for indexing, however, we have chosen only 5 repertoires that we consider have basic requirements for entry. Taking into account these requested skills contributes, in turn, to the professional development of your journal or publishing house.
If you have a journal that is just starting or has few resources, these are indexes to which you can bet first to apply in a simple way compared to others that require more intricate requirements and processes, such as SciELO, which requires having DOI, being in DOAJ, implementing XML-JATS and having 4 published issues.
Our list is selected as follows:
1. DOAJ
The first thing we see when we enter the DOAJ website is that it tells us that it is an open access journal directory, which is a great point in its favor.
Journals of any language with academic research publications on any subject can apply to DOAJ, but they must publish at least 5 articles per year and their ideal audience must be focused on researchers and professionals.
It is necessary that a journal, before applying to the DOAJ index, must demonstrate a publication history of more than one year or have published at least 10 articles.
To know all the requirements click here. Also, you can listen to the Spanish episode of our podcast Publish or Perish where we talk about DOAJ.
2. LATINDEX DIRECTORY
LATINDEX DIRECTORY is a network coordinated and constituted by 24 institutions, whose purpose is to gather information on regional and Latin American scientific journals. Registration to Latindex is free, as well as its consultation.
It provides two information services:
- A directory with bibliographic and contact data of registered paper and online journals.
- A 2.0 catalog of quality online journals.
The requirements to register in this index are:
- Publish purely academic content.
- Be current.
- At least one publication is required.
- It must have ISSN registration relevant to the publication support or, if it does not have ISSN, indicate that it is in the process of being processed.
3. CLASE
CLASE was created in 1975, CLASE is a bibliographic index of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Its database is made up of approximately 350,000 records including articles, essays and other documents.
The selection criteria includes journals from Latin America and the Caribbean. It includes academic, research, technical-professional and scientific or cultural journals specialized in social sciences and humanities.
To enter this index it is required to have at least 3 issues published and to have ISSN registration, as well as information about the journal, how stable it has been and how much it is disseminated, etc.
4. BIBLAT - PERIÓDICA
BIBLAT – PERIÓDICA is an index specialized in scientific and academic journals in Latin America and the Caribbean. Biblat offers various services such as access to the full text of articles published in open access journals and frequencies and bibliometric indicators emptied from CLASE and PERIÓDICA journals.
Among the parameters that a journal must meet to belong to this index are:
- At least 3 published articles.
ISSN registration. - A regular periodicity at the beginning of each period.
- It is valued that the journal is already indexed in other databases, unless it is a journal that has just started or is less than one year old.
- Each article must have its metadata.
5. REDIB
REDIB is also open access and has scientific and academic content, but it is focused on research in Ibero-America. It aims to stand out for its philosophy of cooperative work in which there is original and collaborative content with volunteers and editors.
On the other hand, it aims to stimulate technological innovation in favor of locating, disseminating and managing scientific information.
Among the requirements to enter this database are:
- To take into account the entity and editorial responsibility of the journal.
- To have a team responsible for management and policy (management and collegiate bodies).
- To declare openness to the participation of authors from outside the publishing entity.
- To have its own website and ISSN or ISSN-L registration.
- 12 months of activity according to the frequency of publication.
To see all the criteria click here.
Other indexes to apply
If you feel that the above indexes do not fit your journal or requirements, you may wish to consult other journal indexing directory options, such as the following:
Other options you should consider implementing in your journal can be expanded in the following links:
These are some of the repositories, search engines, universities, databases or lists that exist and which you can use to index your journal, as you can see, there is variety and you can choose the one that best suits you, however, it is recommended to index in several indexes for greater credibility and visibility, since by being more visible you have a better chance of reaching more users or readers.
Being indexed is a great advantage, since it helps your journal to find authors and articles, while facilitating access from different places in the world.
In addition, a greater exchange is achieved, which leads to a greater reach and development in the scientific, international and national field.
If you want to index your journal to some of these bibliographic indexes, we offer the necessary help, so contact us now.
