Preparing a journal for indexing: a guide to international index applications

Preparing for international indexes means written publication ethics policies, an uninterrupted and regular publishing schedule, complete and consistent metadata for every article, exports in standard formats such as JATS, and meeting the criteria that indexes such as DOAJ publish openly. Indexing bodies look not at a single issue but at several years of publishing history and how steady it has been. That is why preparation starts long before the application form is filled in.

Why does preparation for indexing start long before the application?

An index application documents what a journal has already done. Evaluators look at published issues, traces of the review process, the structure of the editorial board, the diversity of authors and the policies written on the website. Changes made a few weeks before applying cannot hide inconsistencies in past issues.

Every index has its own criteria, and those criteria are updated over time. The first step should therefore be to read the current requirements of your target index on its official pages and review your journal against that list. The advice in this article summarises the core expectations most indexes share.

When an application is rejected, most indexes impose a waiting period before reapplying. Applying before you are ready can delay a journal's inclusion rather than speed it up. Running preparation against a checklist, and documenting each item with evidence, reduces that risk.

During preparation the whole editorial team should work from the same list. The editor-in-chief, section editors and the technical lead should each know which criteria they own and review progress together at regular intervals. Placing index preparation on a single person's shoulders risks losing all the effort if that person steps down.

An index application is not a form; it is a record of how the journal has worked for years.

How should publication ethics policies be prepared?

Publication ethics is one of the most important parts of an index evaluation. The journal's website should carry clear, accessible policies defining the responsibilities of authors, reviewers and editors. Writing them down is not enough; there should be visible signs that they are applied.

• The review process should be described, including whether it is blind or double-blind and how many reviewers assess each manuscript.
• The policy should explain how plagiarism and similarity checks are done and when a manuscript is rejected as a result.
• Conflict-of-interest declarations should be defined separately for authors, reviewers and editors.
• The handling of corrections, retractions and appeals should be explained clearly.
• The copyright and licensing policy, such as the Creative Commons licence used, should be visible on every article.
• If there is a publication fee, state the amount and when it is paid; if there is none, say so explicitly.

The journal's expectations for research that requires ethics committee approval should also be written down. When it is defined which studies need approval, how it is stated in the article and how the editor checks it, authors and evaluators alike see a consistent picture.

Process records are the strongest evidence that policies are applied. Keeping reviewer invitations, review reports, editorial decisions and revision rounds for each article, with their dates, proves that peer review actually took place if an evaluator asks or an appeal arises. Storing these records in the publishing system rather than in personal inboxes also preserves institutional memory when editors change.

Why is regular publishing decisive?

Indexes check whether a journal keeps to the publication frequency it announces. If a journal promising two issues a year delays, merges or skips issues, evaluators see it as a negative sign. Regularity shows that the editorial process works and that the journal receives enough quality submissions.

The most effective tool for regular publishing is a realistic schedule. Work backwards from issue closing dates to allow time for review, revision and production, and watch editorial turnaround statistics to spot bottlenecks early. Early view eases the pressure by letting accepted articles appear without waiting for their issue.

Author diversity is assessed alongside regularity. If most articles come from a single institution or from editorial board members, the journal appears not to serve a broad academic community. Calls for papers should be circulated widely to reach authors from different institutions and, where possible, different countries.

If there have been delays in the past, it is better to explain them than to try to hide them. A run of regular issues showing why one issue was late and how the journal now keeps to its schedule is far more convincing to evaluators than any single explanation. Showing accurate publication dates for issues on the site and in the metadata is part of that transparency.

How should metadata and article pages be prepared?

Indexes recognise articles through their metadata. Every article's title, authors, affiliations, abstract, keywords, publication date, volume and issue, page range, DOI and licence must be complete and consistent. Multilingual journals need to keep title, abstract and keywords in separate fields for each language.

The article page is a metadata source too. Google Scholar recognises articles by reading the citation_ meta tags on the page, and schema.org markup and a sitemap help search engines understand the article correctly. The page details should match the PDF exactly, and the PDF should be directly accessible.

Consistency of author names is often overlooked. When the same author appears with different spellings in different issues, indexes may treat them as separate people. Collecting ORCID iDs and showing them on article pages largely solves this.

The journal's own details need the same care. Its full title, abbreviation, print and electronic ISSNs, publisher, frequency and contact details should appear identically across the website, in PDFs and in exported files. Small differences in this information can cause problems that go as far as the journal appearing as two separate records in an index.

What is JATS and why does it matter?

JATS (Journal Article Tag Suite) is an international XML standard that describes the structure and metadata of journal articles. Every element, from title and authors to sections and references, is marked up with specific tags. This lets an article move between systems without losing its meaning.

Some indexes and archives, such as full-text archives associated with PubMed, expect articles to be submitted in JATS. Even where it is not required, working with JATS keeps metadata structured and consistent and makes future applications easier.

Preparing JATS files by hand for each article takes expertise and time. Keeping metadata structured in the publishing system and generating JATS output from it automatically is the most sustainable route for small editorial teams.

Another benefit of JATS is portability. A journal that keeps its articles in a standard format does not need to rework its data when it changes publishing systems or deposits content in an archive. Being able to import back issues from JATS or Crossref data makes it easier for journals moving to a new system to bring their archive across intact.

How do you prepare for DOAJ's criteria?

DOAJ is a directory of open access, peer-reviewed journals that publishes its application criteria openly. Those criteria also summarise good practice for any open access journal, so they make a useful checklist even for journals not planning to apply.

• The journal must have an ISSN, displayed on its website.
• All articles must be free to read immediately, with no embargo and no registration required.
• Aims and scope, the editorial board with affiliations, the review process and author guidelines must be on the website.
• The licence of articles and who retains copyright must be stated clearly.
• The publication fee policy and contact details must be easy to find.
• There should be an archiving policy for the long-term digital preservation of articles.

Gathering this information in a clearly named, easy-to-find policy section, rather than scattering it across the site, makes evaluation easier. An evaluator who cannot find a policy in a few clicks may treat it as missing. Having policy texts available in each of the journal's publishing languages also matters for international evaluation.

Journals accepted into DOAJ can send article metadata to the directory on a regular basis. Generating this from the publishing system in the format DOAJ expects removes the need for manual data entry after every issue.

Frequently asked questions

When should a new journal apply to indexes?

Most indexes expect a certain publishing history and a certain number of published articles. Since the exact conditions vary from index to index, the soundest approach is to check the target index's current criteria and apply once the journal can demonstrably meet them.

Can a journal apply to an index without DOIs?

Some indexes do not require DOIs, but persistent identifiers are generally seen as a positive sign in evaluations. Using DOIs also makes it easier to track citations and match articles across indexes.

Does the editorial board need international members?

International indexes generally expect the editorial board to consist of experts suited to the journal's scope and not to be concentrated in one institution. Members from different countries strengthen the international profile, but what really matters is that members actually contribute to the editorial process.

Does missing metadata in back issues affect an application?

Yes. Evaluators may look at the whole archive, not just recent issues. Completing back-issue metadata, making author names consistent and uploading missing PDFs before applying strengthens the journal's professional profile.

What should you do if an application is rejected?

Turn each reason given in the rejection into an item on an action list and document how each one has been addressed. Use the waiting period before reapplication to fix the gaps and to show that the fixes have been applied over several issues.

Making preparation part of the publishing routine

Index preparation is the sum of small good habits repeated with every issue: keeping policies current on the site, publishing issues on time, entering complete metadata and producing exports in standard formats. Once these habits are in place, an application simply documents work the journal already does.

The application and its outcome depend on the indexing bodies' decisions; what lies in the editorial team's hands is the quality of preparation. At Bir Web Ajans we help journals keep that preparation going with every issue in Nova JournalPort, which generates Google Scholar meta tags and schema.org markup for every article, along with Crossref, DOAJ, PubMed and JATS exports, from publishing data.