Hello, dear colleagues!
This is Vasily Malets — Director of the «Academy of Articles» and the author of an analytical column on journals that may lose their Scopus indexing.
Let me clarify right away to avoid any confusion: this is not a list of journals that have been removed from Scopus. Scopus publishes the list of removed journals itself, roughly every six months, in the “Discontinued Sources” section. But by the time a journal ends up there, it’s already too late for authors. We’re writing about journals at risk of being excluded from Scopus: those that are already showing all the warning signs but are still formally indexed and are actively accepting articles right now.
In this issue:
- 1 Q3 journal from India, in which a single special issue contains twice as many articles as the entire year of 2025;
- 1 Iranian journal that has just been indexed in Scopus and is already being advertised on Telegram channels with a «publication in 7 days» promise;
- 1 Q3 journal on artificial intelligence, featuring an analysis of female characters in novels and the causes of the 1940 bridge collapse;
- 1. Q2 magazine, which «grew» from 3 issues to 14 in just two months.
All four share the same pattern. At the end, I'll show you how to spot it and how to check the journal before submitting your article.
Candidates for Removal from Scopus: October 2026 List
1. Natural Resources for Human Health (NRFHH)
eISSN: 2583-1194
🔗 Link to Scopus
🔗 The magazine's website
Review
The journal was founded in 2021 by the Indian publishing house Visagaa Publishing House. In 2026, it relaunched on a new platform. As of September, 5 regular issues and 12 special issues have been published. Special Issue 10s contains about 130 articles spanning 1,605 pages—twice the total volume of 2025.
The content extends far beyond the stated subject areas: the journal publishes articles on law, political science, management, and literary studies.
Profile: Q3 · India · natural compounds, pharmacognosy, ethnomedicine · APC: 500 USD
Main violations
- 17 issues over the first 9 months of 2026, instead of 4 per year;
- a special issue with about 130 articles;
- articles outside the stated topic;
- The publisher is no longer listed on the website; contact is via WhatsApp.
Risk Assessment: Probability of exclusion from Scopus — 100%; risk of subsequent deindexing of articles from special issues — 100%.
2. Journal of Animal Environment
ISSN: 2717-1388 / E-ISSN: 2717-1396
🔗 Link to Scopus
🔗 The magazine's website
Review
An Iranian journal published by the engineering firm Amayesh Shale Consulting Engineers. The journal was indexed in Scopus in November 2025, but as early as 2026, at least the third special issue of this quarterly journal was published. The journal is advertised on brokerage Telegram channels with the promise of «acceptance in 7 days, publication in 7 days.».
The website claims to be indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science without sufficient evidence. Similar ML frameworks are disguised as animal-related topics.
Profile: Quartile not yet assigned · Iran · zoology · APC: 400 USD
Main violations
- at least 3 special issues during the first year after being accepted into Scopus;
- a sudden shift in the author's geographical focus;
- Advertisements with guaranteed acceptance deadlines;
- Reported indexation without confirmation.
Risk Assessment: Probability of exclusion from Scopus — 100%; risk of deindexing articles from special issues — 100%.
3. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (IJAIML)
ISSN: to be determined
🔗 Link to Scopus
🔗 The magazine's website
Review
The publisher is SvedbergOpen, based in Cape Town. Until 2025, the journal was published twice a year, but in 2026 it switched to a special-issue model. On September 22, Vol. 6 No. 11s was published—the eleventh special issue of the year, containing 73 articles.
About 62% articles do indeed pertain to AI and machine learning, another 12% are borderline cases, and one in four articles has no connection to artificial intelligence.
Profile: Q3 · South Africa · Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning · APC: 800 USD
Main violations
- 11 special issues over the first 9 months of 2026, instead of 2 issues per year;
- About 26% articles fall completely outside the scope of "Aims & Scope";
- a shared technical infrastructure with another journal;
- The authors' works are published simultaneously in journals under the same system.
Risk Assessment: Probability of exclusion from Scopus — 100%; risk of deindexing articles from special issues — 100%.
4. Journal of Intelligent Decision Making and Information Science (JIDMIS)
eISSN: 3079-0875
🔗 Link to Scopus
🔗 The magazine's website
Review
The journal was founded in 2024; according to Scopus, the publisher is Nexora Academic Press (Romania). In two months, the number of issues grew from 3 to 14. Special Issue 13s contains about 155 articles and nearly 3,000 pages.
About 40% articles fall outside the journal’s scope: spinal MRI, pulmonary rehabilitation, law, Hall motors, concrete strength, and lettuce cultivation. In the broker’s advertisement, the journal is promoted as «Q1» with a 3-day acceptance time, although it is classified as Q2 in Scopus.
Profile: Q2 · Romania · Decision Sciences, AI, Information Systems · APC: 1,200 USD
Main violations
- 14 issues for 2026, with a stated goal of «1 volume per year»;
- a special issue with about 155 articles and 3,000 pages;
- about 40% articles outside of "Aims & Scope";
- 75 days as stated, compared to 3 days in the broker's advertisement;
- The publisher is listed differently on different pages.
Risk Assessment: Probability of exclusion from Scopus — 100%; risk of subsequent deindexing of articles from special issues — 100%.
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What will happen to the article if the journal is removed from the Scopus database?
When Scopus stops indexing a journal, new articles published after the date of exclusion are no longer included in the database. Articles that were indexed earlier generally remain. However, anything that is «in the queue»—manuscripts that have been accepted but not yet indexed, or articles from special issues—risks never appearing in Scopus.
For Kazakhstani authors, the problem isn’t just about indexing. During consultations, we regularly hear the same question: «KOKSNVO, the journal has been removed from Scopus—will my article be accepted?» If a publication isn’t in Scopus, it becomes extremely difficult to use it toward defending a dissertation, obtaining an academic title, or participating in a competition. The money for the publication has already been spent, as has the time, yet the desired result is missing.
Therefore, you should review the journal before submission, not after the article is published.
Conclusion: How to Identify a Journal That Will Soon Lose Its Indexing Status
If you put these four magazines side by side, it becomes clear that these aren't four separate stories, but a single technology.
The same «building set.». All four websites run on the same version of Open Journal Systems, use the same numbering system for special issues («1s,» «2s,» … «13s»), and are expanding their volume according to the same pattern. Two of the four journals, NRFHH and JIDMIS, have a separate page on their websites titled something like «Indexing & Refund Disclaimer.» Think about it: the journal publishes a legal disclaimer in advance stating that fees are non-refundable if indexing is lost. When the editorial board itself is preparing for de-indexing, this is the most honest forecast one could possibly get.
Brokers instead of newsrooms. We found three out of four journals in broker catalogs with a «Submit Article» button, and two on a Telegram channel that guaranteed acceptance times. When a journal is sold through Telegram rather than through the editorial office, it does not undergo peer review by definition.
The camouflage is getting thinner. NRFHH and JIDMIS publish just about anything and everything. The *Journal of Animal Environment*, on the other hand, has already learned to tailor article titles to fit the scope, and this trend, unfortunately, will only intensify. A quick glance at the titles is no longer enough.
It all happens in a matter of weeks, not years. The JIDMIS case shows that it takes not a year, but just a few weeks, from the first indications to a full issue. If you submitted an article in June thinking, «Three issues is still reasonable,» by August you’d already find yourself in a single issue alongside 155 articles on every topic under the sun.
Therefore, before submitting, check not the quartile but the current situation: how many special issues have been published in the last six months, how many articles they contain, whether they meet Scopus criteria, who is listed as the publisher, and where to find the editorial office’s contact information. Or leave it to the experts: we monitor candidates for exclusion from Scopus on a daily basis and identify risks before the database itself flags them.
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CiteScore · Quartile · Percentile across all fields · Number of articles. Official Scopus data.
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