Starting with general search engines - the good news is these indexes will be “looking” for your content. We’ll tackle general search engines first and then move on to mainstream scholarly search engines. Being included in mainstream scholarly search engines, the big two being Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic.Being indexed by general search engines like Google and Bing.There are two layers of search engine indexing to consider to make your journals more discoverable: Since journals can be added to search engines right away, they are great indexing starting points. We can’t stress this enough.Īnother benefit of search-engine indexing is that any journal can be added to a search engine index regardless of its publication history, citation count, or other time-bound specifications academic databases may require. Regardless of which academic indexes you choose to focus on for your journals, you must, must, must make search engine indexing a priority. Many authors also want to know that their articles will appear in search engines that are easily accessible to practitioners in their field as well as the general public - not hidden away in academic databases only. We’re starting off with search engine indexing since, as noted, scholars are increasingly using general and scholarly internet search engines to conduct research.
Index mjournal full#
Generally, indexes that ingest more article information and/or full text will provide greater discovery potential.īelow we outline common index types and the benefits of each for journals.
Some databases index just article titles, abstracts, and/or references, whereas some index full article files. Keep in mind that different indexes will offer different levels of added discovery potential.
Index mjournal free#
For open access (OA) journals, in particular, ensuring content is easy to find via free online search engines and indexes is paramount to maximizing article accessibility. Many scholars are starting their research via free online search engines that they can access anywhere, such as Google Scholar, so you’ll want to ensure your articles are visible in those search results. Keep in mind that getting added to popular disciplinary databases, such as MEDLINE for journals in the biomedical and life sciences, will likely take time because many have strict publication requirements journals must meet before being eligible for inclusion (more on this later).Īll publishers should strive to have their journals added to both scholarly databases and free general search engines to make their articles as discoverable as possible. From there, you can start mapping out an indexing strategy based on your discovery goals and the criteria of the different indexes you’re interested in. The more quality indexes on your list, the better! Each index your journals are added to will help expand their reach and potential impacts. Let’s get started!īefore embarking on any journal indexing initiative, it’s important to first consider the different index types available and start developing a shortlist of indexes you’d like your journal or journals to be added to. Feel free to use the section links above to skip ahead based on where you are in your journal indexing journey. This guide starts with indexing basics and then moves on to more advanced tips.
Index mjournal how to#
How to develop an indexing strategy for one or more titles.What types of indexes should publishers seek to add their journals to first? How should publishers go about prioritizing indexing initiatives? What steps should publishers take to keep improving their journal indexing outcomes? In this blog post, we break down answers to these common indexing questions, covering everything you need to know to initiate and keep building upon a successful journal indexing strategy. Each index a journal seeks inclusion in will have its own requirements for entry and likely take time to get set up, so it’s important to pick a few to start, then follow through with the necessary steps to be added to those indexes before moving on to new ones.
Without proper indexing by discovery services, researchers will be hard-pressed to find even the most groundbreaking scholarly articles.įrom general search engines to discipline-specific databases and aggregators, there are numerous indexing options that journals can pursue, all with different benefits. Academic journal articles are only as impactful as they are discoverable, and online discovery hinges almost entirely on one thing - indexing.