How to publish an article in Scopus

The authoritativeness of a researcher is determined by his/her publication activity on scientometric resources. The number of publications and the frequency of their citation in the studies of colleagues in the scientific community are taken into account. The citation level of a publication is an indicator of success for the author involved in science.

One popular resource is the international journal Scopus, with a huge database of scientific articles, abstracts, seminar reports, journal citations, serial books, conferences, and other peer-reviewed scientific literature in the sociological, natural and technical sciences.

Young scientists (PhD students and postdoctoral fellows), in an attempt to reach the global level, try to publish articles in Scopus without first studying the same Scopus criteria for selecting a journal and without familiarizing themselves with the editor's requirements for content. Not everyone understands how to properly translate material into academic English and find article reviewers. After all, writing an abstract in English is a prerequisite for publishing an article.

There are two ways here: 1 - to deal with all the aspects and write a scientific article yourself, 2 - to seek help from a consulting company that provides services from preparation and editing to the publication of articles in Scopus.

What are the benefits of publishing an article in Scopus

Placing a scientific article in Scopus provides a lot of opportunities for the scientist:

1. Academic collaboration with experienced authors and participation in various international studies in a similar field.
2. Coverage of the target audience - the article will be seen by scientists from other countries.
3. Additional points for admission to graduate school or doctoral programs.
4. Increased ranking among peers in the workplace and in international academic circles.
5. The prospect of a higher position at the university and an improved financial situation (increased scholarship, research grants).
6. Formation of the list of mandatory publications when defending a candidate or doctoral dissertation, because the articles in the Scopus journal are indexed in the VAK list (Category A).
7. Search for new ideas to further differentiate the topic of scientific research.
8. Analysis of citations and tracking of interactions with the author's published articles among potential audiences.

Research institutes in which the author of the Scopus articles works can use the outputs in their reporting and meet the standards set by the Ministry of Education that affect the rating of the institution.

Where to begin

The first thing to do is to come up with a topic for publication. The topic of the article should be close, interesting and well, but not completely, studied, meet the personal scientific interest and the requirements of the market conditions in this or a related direction.

What follows is painstaking work - the search and study of articles on the topic. Experienced authors recommend collecting at least a hundred sources, of which about half of the literature of English-language journal articles will remain for further work. Theses, scientific reports, dissertations can be sent to the basket.

Tip: Do not use the bibliography in Cyrillic, as you will not be able to cite such sources. The editors of Scopus journals, and not all of them, may allow you to cite only a couple of papers in Cyrillic transliteration.

Next, you need to write an "Introduction" of the article, outlining the problem in a narrow area. It is necessary to write the introduction clearly and accessible to the reader, grouping scientific facts with their sources of literature in separate paragraphs. The last paragraph formulates several hypotheses, arising from the separately grouped paragraphs. It is recommended to write 2-4 hypotheses (depending on the topic of the article), so that at least one is not confirmed by the research, otherwise the meaning of the scientific article itself is lost.

From the list of references used, choose the optimal method of laboratory analysis, statistical processing, and repetition for which the article will pass peer review on the scopus resource. If at least one of the methods turns out to be worse than those already in the indexed publications - the article will not pass the reviewer.

Structure and design requirements

The article for Scopus is designed according to the technical requirements of the periodical. The style is scientific, the presentation is consistent and logical, without complicated turns and word constructions.

Structure of the article:

1. Title - title of the publication, indicating the name and surname of the author (or several authors), the address of the work or ongoing research.
2. Abstract - a summary of the essence of the publication.
3. Key words - indicates the main keys that are mentioned in the material of the scientific work.
4. Introduction - an introduction to the article, indicating the subject of the research (what was researched and why this particular topic).
5. Materials and Methods - Materials and methods used to study the problem (what was done and how it was done).
6. Results - conclusions with descriptions of scientific discoveries revealed during the preparation of the work (what could be found).
7. Discussion - discussion and analysis of experimental results (what it means for science).
8. Acknowledgements.
9. References - a list of the international literature used.

The "Materials and Methods" section should provide an opportunity to repeat the author's research. "White spots" in the text are a reason for the journal editor to reject the article without further investigation or explanation. If the author is working with biological material, the research program must be approved by the Ethics Committee, which should be mentioned in the Materials and Methods section.

In order for an editor to accept an article for publication in Scopus journals, the author must comply with a number of requirements regarding technical design:

1. Articles for posting on Russian-language resources are written in Russian and English.
2. The publication clearly outlines the goals of the research, its relevance and importance to the scientific society.
3. The optimal length of the article is within +/- 25 pages (font Times New Roman 12, margin width - 2 cm, line spacing - 1.5 cm with a uniform width).
4. The originality rate of the article must be at least 80% when checked through Anti-Plagiarism (Advego Plagiatus, Etxt or similar).
5. Illustrations and pictures are added in a format that allows further formatting. Visuals can be in black and white or in color. The names of the images are indicated at the end of the article.
6. Tables appear in the article as needed (their number and title are given below the table).
7. For the design of the abstract it is recommended up to 200 words (voice the purpose of the scientific work, methods and results of experiments).
8. The number of key phrases for one scientific paper should be from 5 to 10 - separated by semicolons.
9. The list of references is given in alphabetical order. References from the list are taken in parentheses.
10. The metadata are prepared for the author and co-author of the article with the possibility to compose a brief description of their biography (up to 50 words in English).

What you need to pay attention to

The editorial board of the international journal Scopus has the full right to set its own requirements for the style of publication. But there are also typical citation styles for each scientific field, which are adhered to in the world. The number of typical styles is 20.

The most in-demand ones are: APA (American Psychological Association) for sociological sciences, MLA (Modern Language Association) for humanities, Vancouver Style for physical sciences and medicine.

Review period

The article review process may last from a month to six months, and in some cases it may take as long as a year. In different journals of the Scopus database the review period may vary, depending on the authority of the publication, the periodicity of the journal, review algorithms, publication category, and a number of other factors.

First, the paper is checked by the editor for formal requirements. If all is well, the article is then sent to the editor-in-chief and the reviewers. On average, no more than 50% of the articles submitted to the editorial board reach the review stage.

In case the scientific work has passed the review and the review, the author is sent a notification of the successful decision of the editorial board and several reviews of the anonymous reviewers with recommendations. The article will be sent for publication, provided that the author accepts the recommendations of the reviewer or provides justified arguments, for which reason the comments of the editorial board cannot be fulfilled.

Why an article may be rejected by Scopus

The author will be denied a Scopus article if:

• The material did not pass the technical check (there is a suspicion of plagiarism, not complied with the requirements for the design and structure of the article, the insufficient level of English, and more).
• The article does not correspond to the goals and field of scientific interests of the publication, does not contain new information, or is focused on another related direction.
• The research is incomplete in the publication (the material contains sample studies, other important works of other authors are not taken into account).
• The research does not conform to generally accepted methods and analysis of statistical data.
• The research findings do not coincide with the conclusions of the article or the results of the work ignore the bulk of the literature used.
• The article is an expanded version of another publication by the author, with minor additions that do not expand the scientific field.
• The writing style, language, structure, and visual images are of very low quality.
• The article is not relevant or of particular scientific interest.

Prices for publishing articles in Scopus

The price of publishing an article in Scopus is largely determined by the ranking of the journal and the category (Q1-Q4) in which it will be placed. The average cost of publication varies from $100 to $500, but can be more.

To find out the final price of publishing your article in Scopus, leave an application on our website and our manager will contact you shortly to specify the price and the terms of publication. "Academy of Articles" will undertake the publication of your article in Scopus. Our authors are candidates and doctors of science who have a great experience in publishing scientific articles in more than 60 fields.