Four ways to check if a journal is in Scopus
All four methods are free, and using two of them before you submit is a good habit. The quickest is the live checker on this site: type an ISSN or paste a DOI.
Enter an ISSN or a paper DOI: the checker queries Scopus live and shows how many documents are indexed and the latest one.
Use the live Scopus checker on this site (ISSN or DOI). Open the Scopus ✓ tab and type the journal's ISSN. It queries Scopus live through Elsevier's API and reports how many documents carry that ISSN, the journal name on file and the date of the most recent indexed paper. It also flags titles that Elsevier's official list marks as discontinued. A journal name instead searches an offline copy of the SCImago list (32,193 titles) and shows coverage years.
Search Scopus Sources or download the source title list. The Sources page at scopus.com/sources is part of Scopus Preview, the free version of Scopus, so no subscription is needed. Search by title, publisher or ISSN and open the source profile to see which years Scopus covers. For an offline check, download the Scopus source title list, an Excel file linked from Elsevier's Scopus content page and updated monthly. It gives each source's ISSNs, active or inactive status and coverage years, with separate sheets for discontinued titles and for accepted titles not yet added.
Cross-check on SCImago. SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a free portal built from Scopus data, and every journal it lists comes from Scopus. A journal's page shows its coverage years, quartiles and SJR. The catch is timing: SCImago is refreshed once a year, in June, so it can still show a journal, quartile included, that Scopus has since discontinued. Our guide explains how SCImago quartiles work.
Check a recent paper's DOI. Pick an article the journal published in the last few months and paste its DOI into the checker. If recent papers are in Scopus under the journal's name, coverage is live. If only older papers turn up, coverage may have stopped. Elsevier says fully indexed article data usually appears in Scopus within two to three weeks of appearing on the publisher's website, so give the newest issue a little time.
How to read the checker's result
A live ISSN check ends in one of four outcomes:
- ✓ Indexed in Scopus (actively covered). Scopus holds documents with this ISSN, and the most recent one is from this year or last year.
- Indexed, but the latest paper is old. Coverage may have ended because the journal ceased, was renamed or was dropped. Check its coverage years on Scopus Sources.
- ⛔ Discontinued by Scopus or ⛔ Removed from Scopus. The ISSN is on Elsevier's discontinued list, either after a re-evaluation or after a journal policy change. Older papers still count in the document total, but new ones are not added.
- ✗ Not found in Scopus. No documents carry this ISSN. Try the journal's other ISSN before you draw a conclusion.
Keep two limits in mind. First, the count covers only the ISSN you typed, and Scopus records do not always carry both numbers, so print and electronic ISSN can give very different counts. When we tested Nature, the print ISSN matched about 333,000 documents and the e-ISSN about 59,000. Second, the checker confirms that a title is in Scopus. It cannot confirm that the website in front of you belongs to that title, and hijacked journals reuse real ISSNs (see the next section).
The discontinued flags come from Elsevier's source title list, which the site re-reads twice a month; quartile, SJR and categories come from the SCImago snapshot. If the live service is down, the tool falls back to that snapshot.
Why a “Scopus indexed” badge on the journal's website is not enough
A journal's website can claim anything, and logos are easy to copy. Retraction Watch notes that indexing in databases such as Scopus “is viewed by many universities and governments as a mark of legitimacy”, which is exactly why fraudsters advertise it. Five situations catch authors out.
Hijacked and clone journals
A hijacked journal is a fake website that, in Retraction Watch's words, mimics a legitimate journal “by adopting their titles, ISSNs, and other metadata”. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, built by Anna Abalkina, started in May 2022 with a little over 100 entries and passed 400 in December 2025. Hijackers have even got into Scopus itself. A 2024 study found at least 67 hijacked journals that had penetrated Scopus since 2013: 33 placed unauthorized content in the database, 23 changed the homepage link on the real journal's Scopus profile and 11 did both.
So a positive Scopus result for an ISSN shows that the legitimate journal is indexed, not that the site asking for your fee is that journal. Before you submit:
- search the Hijacked Journal Checker for the journal title and the exact web address;
- compare the address with the URL in the journal's record on the ISSN Portal;
- look up the domain's registration date with a WHOIS service: a journal founded decades ago on a domain registered last year is a warning sign;
- check that the DOIs on the site start with “10.” and resolve at doi.org, and that the published papers fit the journal's subject.
More warning signs are in our guide to predatory journals.
Discontinued titles and coverage years
Scopus re-evaluates indexed titles continuously. A title is flagged when the research community raises concerns about its publication standards, or when an Elsevier model detects outlier performance, such as unusual patterns in publication activity, citations or author collaborations. During re-evaluation its content flow is suspended. The Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) then continues or discontinues coverage, and a discontinued title cannot be suggested again during an embargo period.
Content already indexed stays in Scopus “as a matter of scientific record”, except in rare cases of proven, severe unethical practice. New content does not. The discontinued list gives each title's final coverage, the last complete volume and issue covered, and states that no content will be added after it. A paper published after that issue will not appear in Scopus, even if the journal's older papers do and its website still shows the logo.
The September 2026 edition of the list holds about 1,000 titles marked “Discontinuation” and about 170 marked “Journal change policy”. Because SCImago is updated yearly, some still carry a quartile there: in the SCImago 2025 data used on this site, more than 130 ranked journals are on Elsevier's discontinued list, some of them Q1. Browse them on our Scopus discontinued journals page.
Print ISSN and e-ISSN
A journal published in print and online has a separate ISSN for each medium. The ISSN International Centre gives Dance Research as an example: ISSN 0264-2875 for the print edition and 1750-0095 for the online one. A linking ISSN, the ISSN-L, groups them. Scopus lists both numbers where it has them. If one ISSN returns nothing, search the other, and be wary of a journal whose ISSN matches neither number in its Scopus record.
Title changes
Under ISSN rules, a significant change such as a new title requires a new ISSN. Scopus's journal change policy says Elsevier verifies changes to a title, ISSN, ownership or editorial oversight, does not guarantee coverage after the change, and may treat a significantly changed journal as a new one that must be evaluated again. The source title list records title history (“Formerly known as”, “Continued as”). Indexing under an old name does not carry over automatically to a new one.
Verify the ISSN itself
The ISSN Portal is the official register. Without an account you can see a record's ISSN, ISSN-L, key title, country, medium and URL, enough to check that the number exists and belongs to the expected title. But an ISSN is only an identifier. The ISSN International Centre states that it “does not guarantee the quality or validity of the contents”, and the German ISSN centre explains that only formal criteria are checked when one is assigned.
Signals at a glance
| Signal | What it means | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| ISSN returns documents, the latest from this year or last | Scopus is actively covering the journal | This site's checker, Scopus Sources |
| Documents found, but the latest is several years old | Coverage ended: the journal ceased, was renamed or was dropped | Scopus Sources; source title list |
| Listed as “Discontinuation” on the discontinued sheet | Removed after re-evaluation; nothing after the final covered issue is added | Source title list, our discontinued list |
| Listed as “Journal change policy” | Removed after a change of title, ISSN, owner or editorial oversight | Source title list (discontinued sheet) |
| Ranked on SCImago with a quartile | In Scopus for the years shown; not proof of current coverage | scimagojr.com, then confirm on Scopus |
| No documents for either ISSN | Not indexed, or accepted so recently that nothing is loaded yet | Checker; “Accepted Titles” sheet of the source title list |
| Web address differs from the ISSN record or is on the hijacked list | Possible hijacked or clone site | Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, ISSN Portal, WHOIS |
| “Scopus indexed” logo on the journal's website | Nothing on its own | Any of the checks above |
Scopus vs Web of Science vs DOAJ
These three are often mixed up, and a committee that asks for “indexed journals” may mean only one of them.
| Database | Run by | What it includes | Free way to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scopus | Elsevier | Selective abstract and citation database; 29,905 active journals in March 2026, chosen by the independent CSAB | Scopus Sources, source title list, this site's checker |
| Web of Science Core Collection | Clarivate | Selective citation index with its own evaluation process | Master Journal List |
| DOAJ | Independent, community-curated | Open access journals only, reviewed against DOAJ's criteria; no citation ranking | doaj.org |
Being in one says nothing about the others: many diamond open access journals are in DOAJ but not Scopus. For the overlap, browse free journals indexed in Scopus, free Q1 journals or journals by subject, and see our open access guide and diamond, gold and green explainer.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free Scopus indexed journal checker?
Yes. The Scopus tab on this site checks an ISSN or DOI live against Scopus and flags discontinued titles. Elsevier's own free options are the Sources page in Scopus Preview and the source title list in Excel.
The journal is listed on SCImago. Is it in Scopus right now?
It was in Scopus for the years shown, but SCImago is updated yearly. Confirm current coverage and check the discontinued list.
My paper came out after the journal was discontinued. Will it be indexed?
Not unless it belongs to an issue up to the final coverage Elsevier lists. Elsevier does no gap filling unless it can be proven that the article appeared in an issue before the final covered one and was online before the title was put on hold. Papers indexed before the discontinuation stay in Scopus.
The journal says it was “accepted for Scopus”, but I can't find it. Why?
After acceptance, Elsevier first sets up a content feed with the publisher, then it can take a few weeks before the title is added, and it only shows in the Sources section from the next monthly update. The Excel list has an “Accepted Titles” sheet where you can verify the claim. Coverage then starts four years before the year of selection: a title selected in 2026 is covered from its 2022 content onwards.
How do I tell a hijacked journal from the real one?
Compare the address with the ISSN Portal record, search the Retraction Watch checker, check the domain's age and test a few DOIs. Promises of guaranteed acceptance or guaranteed Scopus indexing are a red flag.
Is every Scopus-indexed journal Q1?
No. Quartiles rank journals within each subject category, and Scopus journals range from Q1 to Q4, with some unranked. See our SCImago quartiles guide.
Sources
- Elsevier, Scopus content: source title list (monthly) and Content Coverage Guide (June 2026).
- Elsevier, Content policy and selection.
- Elsevier Support, What is Scopus Preview?
- Elsevier, Scopus source title list, September 2026 edition (discontinued sheet, “final coverage” note; counts by us).
- SCImago, SJR help and FAQ.
- Retraction Watch, The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, and “Hijacked Journal Checker now has 400 entries” (26 December 2025).
- Abalkina, A. (2024). Challenges posed by hijacked journals in Scopus. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 75(4), 395–422. doi:10.1002/asi.24855
- ISSN International Centre, What is an ISSN? and The ISSN-L for publications on multiple media.
- Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, ISSN FAQ: does an ISSN say anything about quality?
- Clarivate, Master Journal List; DOAJ, About DOAJ.