The doctoral student submits the article in September. The defense is scheduled for the spring, so it seems there’s plenty of time. As of March, the article still hasn’t been accepted: two journals rejected the manuscript during the editorial screening process, and a third has had it under review for four months.
The content is solid, the presentation is sound, and there is scientific originality.
Two years ago, the same journey would have taken 3–4 months. It’s not that the author has become a worse planner. It’s that the system itself has changed—and it didn’t change gradually, but rather in a sudden leap over the past two years.
And this applies not only to doctoral students. The same problem arises for candidates seeking academic degrees, who need a publication by the date of their evaluation, and for grant recipients, for whom a Scopus-indexed article is a requirement for their grant report. Everyone has different deadlines, but there’s only one queue for everyone.
Let's take a closer look at exactly what happened during this time and why the process from manuscript submission to the publication of a record in Scopus has stretched from 3–4 months to 6–12.
What makes up the line?
Authors typically refer to the “queue” as the entire process a manuscript undergoes before it is added to the database. However, Scopus itself does not peer-review articles or place them in a queue: it is a database that indexes content that has already been published. The pipeline is formed prior to that, on the journals’ side, and consists of three independent stages: peer review (from submission to acceptance), the publishing cycle (from acceptance to publication), and indexing (from publication to the entry’s appearance in Scopus).
Of these three stages, only the first—the review process—dragged on so long that it came to determine the entire timeline. And it didn't happen on its own.
Reason #1: The number of submissions is growing faster than the number of reviewers
In 2024, the peer review process took an average of 3–4 months per submission. Today, that’s still the timeframe for a single submission—but manuscripts are now less likely to be accepted on the first try because editorial offices physically lack enough people willing to review them.
The scale of the problem is evident from objective data. Journals on the ScholarOne platform received 33% more submissions in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of 2025—and the growth rate has nearly doubled year over year. At the same time, the number of available reviewers is not growing nearly as fast: in 2017, editors needed an average of 2.7 invitations to secure one accepted review; by 2025, the forecast is 3.6 invitations per accepted review.
The gap between the flow of manuscripts and the number of people willing to read them is precisely the mechanism that stretches out the first segment of the queue.
Reason #2: An increasing number of countries have made publication in Scopus a mandatory requirement for defending a dissertation
Kazakhstan has introduced a requirement for international publication as a condition for earning a PhD at the national level. A 2025 study showed the direct impact of this policy: the number of publications by Kazakhstani authors increased, while the scientific impact of these publications decreased on average.
A similar policy is in place in Ukraine, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Each of these national policies results not in dozens, but in thousands of additional doctoral students simultaneously submitting their work to the same journals with the same deadlines.
For the editorial office, this means not just more manuscripts, but more manuscripts prepared under the pressure of a deadline rather than in accordance with the requirements of a specific journal. This explains the growing proportion of rejections during the editorial screening process, even before the manuscript is sent to a reviewer.
Reason No. 3: The wave of magazine exclusions has narrowed the pool of safe publications
In 2025, 56 journals were removed from Scopus, and the pace has not slowed: in the May–June 2026 update alone, another 25 titles were removed from the index, including two journals published by Elsevier itself—the Alexandria Engineering Journal and Case Studies in Thermal Engineering. Web of Science removed 128 journals in 2025.
The mechanism that most often leads to exclusion is the «special issue factory.» This has had two effects: some journals have disappeared from the index, and legitimate journals have begun to scrutinize their own special issues more closely.
Reason No. 4: The growing influx of AI-generated texts has forced editorial teams to add a filter
Editorial offices are responding by increasing the number of rejections at an early stage—before the manuscript is sent to a reviewer. Checking the text for signs of AI-generated content now takes up a separate block of the editor’s time.
Conclusion: Why 3–4 Months Turned Into 6–12
None of the four reasons, taken individually, explains the significant difference. But they act simultaneously and reinforce one another.
Based on our experience at the «Article Academy,» on average, an article today goes through 2–4 submission attempts before it is finally accepted. Two consecutive attempts at a typical journal already amount to 8–9 months. Three attempts amount to a year.
Related: A step-by-step guide on what to do after a reviewer's rejection:
What Long Prison Sentence Does a Scientist from Kazakhstan Face?
Risk #1: The magazine will be discontinued while you're waiting
The rules for awarding academic ranks contain an explicit provision: if an international peer-reviewed journal is no longer indexed in Scopus and/or Web of Science, none of the candidate’s articles published in that journal will be considered.
The wording leaves no room for interpretation. The article was published, payment was made, and time was spent—but it does not count toward the consideration of the case for the award of the title.
The longer you wait, the more likely you are to find yourself in this situation.
Related: How to identify such a publication before submission, and what has already been removed from the database:
🔗 How to Avoid Getting Published in a Predatory Journal on Scopus
🔗 Journals Removed from Scopus in March 2026
Don't risk missing your defense deadline because of the wrong choice of journal
Check Scopus indexing and the current percentile 35+ or 50+ and the risk of the journal being excluded before the article is submitted.
Risk #2: The dates do not align with the performance evaluation schedule
| Purpose | International Publications | Scientometric Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility to Defend a PhD Thesis, Basic Option | 1 article or review | CiteScore percentile ≥ 25 or WoS Core Collection / JCR |
| Eligibility for the PhD Defense, Option with Two Publications | 2 articles or 1 article and 1 review | CiteScore percentile ≥ 35 or JCR Q1–Q3 |
| Associate Professor | 2 articles | CiteScore percentile ≥ 35 or JCR Q1–Q3 |
| Professor | 3 articles | CiteScore percentile ≥ 50 or JCR Q1–Q2 |
Important: To be eligible for academic ranks, the applicant must be the first author or the corresponding author of each article.
Related: A breakdown of all eligibility options for the defense and the required percentiles:
🔗 Publication Strategy for PhD Students in Kazakhstan
Writing three papers for a professorship—if you work on them one after another—takes two to three years. Candidates who start a year before submitting their applications almost never meet the deadline.
Risk No. 3: The sequence in the List's journals runs in parallel
Scopus is not the only option. Publications in journals listed in the Directory recommended by the Committee for Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Ministry of National Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan are required for most options for admission to the defense. These two processes are not interchangeable and do not occur sequentially.
Related: How long do authors actually have to wait for their work to be published in the publications listed in the Directory?
🔗 Waiting Lists for Publication in Journals of the KOKSNVO and MNVO of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Conclusion
The time it takes for a paper to be indexed in Scopus has increased because four factors are simultaneously putting pressure on the system. None of them will disappear in the coming year.
There are three factors to consider: the choice of journal, the quality of the manuscript preparation, and the timing of publications. That is why the decision is made not at the time of submission, but during the journal selection process.
Is there less than a year left until your thesis defense, evaluation, or grant report?
Don't waste time on blind submissions. We'll find you a reputable Scopus journal with a specific percentile. 35+ or 50+ Based on your goals, we will prepare your manuscript according to the journal’s requirements and oversee the publication process until it is indexed.
