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Scholarly Communication

Indexing Your Journal

In order to be found by other scholars and considered legitimate, your journal should be discoverable and visible. Journal indexing is an excellent way to increase discoverability, allowing you to achieve higher rates of readership and citation. Indexing enables your journal to reach a wider audience and become a part of trusted academic databases used frequently by researchers in all disciplines.

Once your journal is indexed in a database, important metadata about your publication (and sometimes the full text of your journal’s articles)  will be available (and searchable) by all of the database’s users. Additionally, as potential authors assess the visibility and impact of your journal, they’ll find that it is widely indexed and discoverable by audiences they are trying to reach. For example, below is a screenshot of indexing coverage from Ulrichs, a database with information about journals and other serials. Ulrichs is a common tool promoted for faculty and graduate students looking for publication venues.  

Screenshot of Abstracting and Indexing in Ulrichs

How do you go about getting indexed by these databases and/ or directories? We have provided a step-by-step Guide to Applying for Journal Indexing to help you through this process! The guide includes a list of  highly used databases that new journals should consider being indexed in. , These include UlrichsWeb, EBSCO, and ProQuest. For each database, we list a quick summary of the database’s scope, the basic set of requirements necessary to be indexed, and links to the necessary forms to start the index application process.

Logo for Directory of Open Access Journals

Our department also provides in-depth  assistance for journals in our program interested in being indexed in  the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). DOAJ is an online directory that indexes open access, peer-reviewed journals, and is considered to be one of the best indicators of high quality for open access content. Authors often go to DOAJ to confirm that an open access publication is not predatory, for example. The Journal Application Form for indexing within DOAJ is detailed , but we have compiled a template that will help you answer each of these questions. Our DOAJ Application Template walks editors through each question, providing default answers for questions that apply to all IU Open Journals, as well as locations for questions you may not be sure about.

If you have any concerns or questions about indexing your journal, contact us at iusw@indiana.edu. We’re happy to meet one-on-one with editorial teams interested in indexing!

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