Ask a group of PhD students what a “high index journal” is and you will get several different answers. One person means a journal listed in Scopus. Another means a journal with a high impact factor. A third means a Q1 journal. A fourth is thinking of the h-index and isn’t sure it applies to journals at all.

They are all using the same phrase for different things, and the confusion costs researchers real time. People submit to a “Scopus journal” that turns out to be Q4. They list an “impact factor” on a CV that was never issued by anyone who issues impact factors. They assume that because a journal shows up in Google Scholar, it has been checked by someone.

This guide separates the two ideas that get tangled together: indexes and metrics. Once you see the difference, journal selection, CV writing and reading other people’s claims all get easier. It sits alongside our guides on the h-index, how to select a journal and the Research Writing and Publishing Guide.

The One-Sentence Difference

An index is a database that lists journals and the papers in them. It tells you whether a journal is on the list.

A metric is a number or a ranking calculated from citation data. It tells you how a journal, a paper or a researcher is performing by one particular measure.

Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar are indexes (or, in Google Scholar’s case, something close to one). Impact factor, CiteScore, h-index and quartiles are metrics. Metrics are usually calculated from the data inside an index, which is part of why people blur the two. A CiteScore only exists because Scopus exists. An impact factor only exists because Web of Science exists.

So “this journal is in Scopus” and “this journal has a good CiteScore” are separate statements. The first can be true while the second is not.

The Three Big Names, Explained

Scopus

Scopus is run by Elsevier. It is an abstract and citation database covering journals, conference proceedings and book series across most disciplines.

The important feature is selection. Journals do not get into Scopus just by existing. They are reviewed by an independent advisory board against criteria such as peer review practice, publication ethics and citation performance. Journals are also monitored after they are accepted, and some are discontinued when they stop meeting the standards. That means a journal that was in Scopus when you first looked it up may not be there now.

Scopus also offers a free lookup of journal titles (the Sources page), where you can search by name or ISSN, see whether the title is active, check which years are covered and see its CiteScore and quartile. You do not need an institutional subscription for that part.

Web of Science Core Collection

Web of Science is run by Clarivate. The part that matters for journal quality is the Core Collection, which is itself a set of separate indexes:

• SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded) for sciences and engineering
• SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index)
• AHCI (Arts and Humanities Citation Index)
• ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index)

This is where a lot of loose language creeps in. ESCI is part of the Core Collection, so a journal in ESCI is legitimately “indexed in Web of Science.” But ESCI is the tier for journals that have passed a basic quality check and are still being watched, not the tier for journals already placed in SCIE, SSCI or AHCI. Many journals start in ESCI and later move up.

So when someone says “my paper is in a Web of Science journal,” the useful follow-up question is: which index? SCIE or SSCI carries a different weight from ESCI in many evaluation settings. You can check on Clarivate’s Master Journal List, which shows exactly which collections a journal belongs to.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine that crawls scholarly material across the web. It picks up journal articles, preprints, theses, conference papers, book chapters and institutional repository files.

The key point: Google Scholar does not select. A journal does not need to pass any quality review to appear. That is why it is the most generous database for citation counts and h-index values, and also why it tells you nothing about whether a journal is any good. Plenty of poor-quality and predatory journals show up in Google Scholar. Treat appearing there as a sign that your work is findable, not that it was vetted.

Google Scholar does publish a metric for journals, called Scholar Metrics, based on the h-index of articles published in the last five years (h5-index). It is useful as a rough guide, particularly in fields where Scopus and Web of Science coverage is thin.

Others worth knowing

• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) lists open access journals that meet its criteria. A useful check for open access titles.
• PubMed / MEDLINE is the standard index for biomedical and life science literature.
• Discipline databases such as PsycINFO, EconLit and ERIC matter within their fields, and some institutions treat them as acceptable evidence of quality.
• Scimago Journal & Country Rank is a free website that presents journal rankings using Scopus data. It is a handy way to see quartiles without a subscription.

The Metrics, Explained

Metrics operate at three levels: the journal, the researcher and the individual article. Most confusion happens at the journal level, so we’ll start there.

Journal-level metrics

Journal Impact Factor (JIF). Produced by Clarivate and published each year in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). It is calculated by taking the citations a journal received in one year to items it published in the previous two years, and dividing by the number of citable items in those two years. The 2025 values were released in mid-2026. The JIF is a Clarivate product, so it only exists for journals in the Web of Science Core Collection. Since the 2023 release, Clarivate has extended impact factors to journals across the Core Collection, including those in ESCI, so being in ESCI no longer means having no impact factor.

CiteScore. Produced by Elsevier from Scopus data. It uses a four-year window: citations received over four years, divided by the documents published in those same four years. The 2025 CiteScore reflects 2022 to 2025. Only citations from other Scopus-indexed sources are counted. CiteScore is calculated for a much larger set of titles than the JIF, which is why many journals have a CiteScore but no impact factor.

Journal Citation Indicator (JCI). Also from Clarivate. It is normalised by field, so a value of 1.0 means average impact for the subject. It is useful when you want to compare journals across different disciplines, where raw citation rates differ enormously.

SJR and SNIP. Both use Scopus data. SJR gives more weight to citations that come from prestigious journals. SNIP adjusts for differences in citation habits between fields. You can view SJR on the Scimago website for free.

Quartiles (Q1 to Q4). A quartile is not a separate measurement. It is a ranking position. A journal’s metric is compared with others in the same subject category, and the category is split into four equal groups. Q1 is the top 25%, Q4 is the bottom 25%.

Three details trip people up here:

1. Scopus quartiles come from CiteScore. Web of Science quartiles come from JIF. Scimago quartiles come from SJR. The same journal can be Q1 in one and Q2 in another.
2. A journal can sit in more than one subject category, with a different quartile in each. People naturally quote the best one.
3. Quartiles change every year when new metrics are released.

So “Q1 journal” is an incomplete statement. A complete one says which source, which category and which year.

Google Scholar h5-index. Mentioned earlier, this is Google’s journal-level measure, based on the last five years of articles.

Researcher-level metrics

h-index and related measures count how a person’s publications have been cited. The h-index is a property of a researcher, not a journal. A journal does not have an h-index in the way people usually mean it (although Scimago and Google Scholar do report an h-index-style figure for journals, which adds to the confusion).

Your h-index also depends on the database. It is usually highest in Google Scholar, lower in Scopus and lowest in Web of Science, because each counts a different pool of publications and citations. Always say which database. Our h-index guide goes into the details.

Article-level measures

Individual papers have their own numbers: citation counts, field-weighted citation impact, and altmetrics such as news mentions, policy citations and downloads. A paper in a modest journal can be cited heavily. A paper in a famous journal can be barely cited. Journal metrics describe the journal’s average, not your paper.

At a Glance

Common Mix-Ups and How to Fix Your Wording

“Scopus journal” and “Scopus Q1 journal” are not the same. The first only says the journal is listed. If you mean quality, say the quartile.

“High index journal” means nothing specific. Replace it with what you actually mean: “Scopus-indexed,” “Q1 in Scopus,” or “impact factor of X.”

“Web of Science journal” can mean ESCI. Specify SCIE, SSCI, AHCI or ESCI.

“ISI indexed” is an outdated phrase. ISI was the old name of the organisation behind Web of Science. Ask which index is meant today.

Impact factors from other companies are not impact factors. The Journal Impact Factor is issued by Clarivate and nobody else. Some journals advertise a “global” or “universal” impact factor from an unknown organisation. These are generally invented to look impressive. If you cannot find the journal in the Journal Citation Reports (through your institution’s access), treat the claim with suspicion.

Being in Google Scholar is not a quality mark. It only means the pages could be crawled.

Being indexed is not a permanent guarantee. Scopus discontinues titles and Web of Science removes titles. Check current status close to the time you submit.

Indexing coverage has start dates. A journal may have been added to Scopus or Web of Science in a particular year. Papers published before that date may not be indexed at all. If the journal was only accepted into Scopus in 2023, a paper you published in 2021 may not count the way you assume. On the Scopus Sources page, check the coverage years.

Citation counts differ between databases. The same paper will have different counts in Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science. Say which one you are quoting.

How to Check a Journal in Ten Minutes

Do this before you submit, and again before you write the journal’s status on a CV or application.

1. Check Scopus. Search the journal name or ISSN on the Scopus Sources page. Confirm it is listed as active (not discontinued), note the coverage years, and read the CiteScore and the quartile in each subject category.
2. Check Web of Science. Search the Master Journal List. Note whether it appears in SCIE, SSCI, AHCI or ESCI.
3. Check the impact factor properly. The JIF is in the Journal Citation Reports. Many university libraries have access. If you cannot get in, ask your librarian instead of trusting the number on the journal’s website.
4. Check Scimago for a free second view. The SJR and quartile there are useful for comparing journals.
5. For open access journals, check DOAJ. A listing there is a useful, though not final, signal.
6. Verify the journal’s own claims. If a website says “Scopus indexed” or “Impact Factor 5.2,” check it in the source database. Do not use the journal’s website as the evidence.
7. Look at the publisher and the review process. Indexes and metrics help, but neither replaces reading recent issues and looking at who is on the editorial board.

Which One Matters for Your Situation

There is no universal answer, because different institutions, funders and countries use different yardsticks.

Some universities and regulators name a specific list or require indexing in Scopus or Web of Science. In India, for example, the UGC-CARE list that researchers once relied on has been discontinued, and researchers there now generally rely on peer review and indexing in recognised databases such as Scopus and Web of Science. Requirements vary by institution and regulator, so check the current rule with your own university rather than assuming.

Elsewhere, hiring and promotion committees may look at quartiles or specific journal lists in their field. In business and management, lists such as the FT50 carry weight at many business schools. In other settings, the emphasis is on the quality of the work itself.

A growing number of funders and institutions also deliberately avoid journal metrics when judging individual researchers. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is the best-known statement of this position: a journal’s average citation rate is not a reliable measure of the quality of any one paper in it. You do not have to take a side. You do need to know what your target employer, funder or committee actually uses.

The safe habit is to keep both facts on record for every publication: where it is indexed, and what its metrics are, with sources and years.

How to Write It Correctly on a CV or Application

Vague claims look weak and are easy to challenge. Specific ones look careful. Compare:

Vague: “Published in a high index Scopus journal.”

Specific: “Journal of Example Studies (Scopus-indexed; Q2 in Business and International Management, CiteScore 2025).”

If you are quoting an impact factor, say which year: “Journal Impact Factor 2025 (Clarivate JCR): 2.4.” If you are quoting your h-index, name the database: “h-index 6 (Scopus).”

The extra few words show that you understand the difference, and they save reviewers from having to look it up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Scopus better than Web of Science?

Neither is simply better. They cover different sets of journals with different selection processes. Scopus is larger, which means broader coverage. Web of Science’s Core Collection is more selective in its main indexes. Some journals appear in both, some in only one. Look at what your institution or field expects.

Can a journal be in Scopus but not in Web of Science?

Yes, and the other way round. Many journals are in both. The overlap is large but not complete.

Is impact factor the same as CiteScore?

No. They are calculated by different companies, from different databases, over different time windows (two years for the impact factor, four for CiteScore). The numbers are not comparable with each other.

Is Google Scholar an index?

It works as one in practice, because you can search it for papers and citations. But it does not curate. Anything it can crawl may appear, so it cannot be used to judge a journal’s quality.

Does being indexed mean a journal isn’t predatory?

Not automatically. Indexing is a strong positive signal, particularly in Scopus or the main Web of Science indexes, but databases do occasionally list journals they later remove. Check current status, look at the journal’s practices, and read the research integrity guidance from your own institution.

Conclusion

Indexes and metrics answer different questions. An index tells you whether a journal is on a recognised list. A metric tells you how it ranks on a particular measure. Most of the confusion in researchers’ conversations comes from using one word for both.

If you keep one habit from this article, make it this: whenever you describe a journal, say which index and which metric, and say where you checked. It makes your journal choices better, your CV more credible and your writing harder to argue with.

For the researcher-level metric, read our h-index guide. For the decision about where to submit, see How to Select a Journal for Your Research Publication. For the wider process, see our Research Writing and Publishing Guide.

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