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Visibility and impact

Visibility and impact:
Inclusion of publications in
citation indices, rankings and databases

Overview:

Definition: Visibility and impact

Nomos Verlag supports authors and editors in the inclusion of their publications in citation indexes, rankings and publication databases. Inclusion in citation indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science as well as in rankings and subject-specific publication databases promotes the broad international visibility of publications.

Indexing makes the scientific contributions visible to the specialist community and citation analysis is used to analyze and compare the impact of the research results. In particular, inclusion in citation indexes follows specific requirements, which may differ from case to case.

Nomos handles the application process for the inclusion of journals and books in the Scopus and Web of Science citation indexes and other rankings. We do not differentiate between titles published in the traditional purchase or subscription model or as Open Access publications, as we apply the same high quality standards to both models. The first step is to check whether the titles meet all the formal criteria for inclusion in the indexes. The quality of the content is usually only assessed by the index reviewers in a subsequent step. We work closely with editors, publishers and authors to ensure that all formal inclusion criteria are met before an application is submitted.

Experience has shown that it takes several months to complete the evaluation of journals or books using citation indexes or rankings. As soon as the titles have been successfully included, Nomos makes the content available to the databases for the purpose of citation analysis and presentation of the metadata. It must be ensured that the inclusion criteria, such as the continuous and regular publication of a journal, continue to be met on an ongoing basis.

Nomos makes the bibliometric key figures collected by the citation indexes and other rankings available on the online publishing offers so that readers and potential authors can compare the values.

In addition to the widely known and internationally relevant citation indices Scopus and Web of Science, there are other rankings, some with a different methodology for analyzing the quality of scientific research results (alternative metrics), where the recording process is different and sometimes less complex.

Nomos cooperates with subject-specific and interdisciplinary publication databases worldwide. If there are other relevant databases or rankings for authors and editors of a specific scientific community for which a publication should also be proposed, we coordinate the application process in close cooperation with the authors.

Requirements for the inclusion of journals in citation indexes

The basic requirement for inclusion in the Scopus and Web of Science citation indexes is compliance with the criteria of good scientific practice, i.e. ethical standards for research and publishing.

In concrete terms, this means, among other things, that there must be a transparent peer review process for the articles in a journal. Submissions must be checked for plagiarism before publication, there must be no conflicts of interest on the part of authors, editors or reviewers and ethical guidelines must be formulated clearly and transparently overall. In the case of open access publications, there must be a dedicated open access policy for quality assurance, which explains the fee model, among other things. Detailed contact information for authors and editors must be provided.

→ The information from COPE can serve as a guide.

Nomos ensures that the formal criteria for inclusion are met, including a registered ISSN, the electronic availability of the content and the long-term archiving of the content.

Best Practice

To increase the international visibility and impact of publications by including them in a citation index or specialist database, we recommend the following best practice recommendations to authors:

INTERNATIONALITY

  • Since the contents of citation indexes and subject databases are usually designed to appeal to an international audience, it is an advantage if the articles in a journal or anthology are published in English. If German is the main language, the title of the article, abstract and keywords must be in English.
  • An international editorial board and an international authorship are an advantage.

PUBLICATION PROCESS AND PUBLISHED CONTENT

  • For journals, the period from submission to publication of an article should ideally take a few weeks and no longer than a year.
  • The thematic focus and objectives of a journal should be clearly differentiated from those of
    other journals with a similar profile.
  • As far as possible, no non-citable articles should be published. With regard to the Journal Impact Factor created by the
    Web of Science, which is one of the most internationally recognised bibliometric indicators calculated annually for journals, some manuscripts, for example, are treated as non-citable articles if they contain many images.
  • There should be no or only a few self-citations in order to prevent the number of
    citations of an article from being deliberately increased.

COMPOSITION OF THE AUTHORSHIP

  • The proportion of articles by persons editorially associated with the journal or an edited volume should be as low as possible, otherwise the neutrality of the review process could be called into question.
  • The proportion of articles by the same authors in a journal issue should be low. This is to ensure that the journal reflects as broad a range of research as possible.

Please note

The Scopus and Web of Science citation indexes essentially produce quantitative analyses (i.e. how often an article or author was cited), which in themselves do not provide any information about the quality of the content of the article. In addition, citation indices have been increasingly criticized in the past due to the methods used and the questioned neutrality. A comprehensive picture of the quality of content and the impact of research results can only be obtained by combining several bibliometric indicators, taking alternative metrics into account and comparing them within a discipline. Nomos offers a comprehensive range of consulting services in this regard.