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Editorial

What is indexing

T
he prestige of any journal is considered by how many scientist are cited. The SCI’s electronic version is
abstracting and indexing services cover that journal. called “Web of Science.”4 SCI-expanded indexes 8073
It has been observed in last few years that authors journals with citation references across 174 scientific
have started searching for indexed journals to publish their disciplines in science edition6
articles. Probably this is happening because it has become a
mandatory requirement for further promotions of teaching containing abstracts and citations for academic journal
faculty in medical colleges and institutions. However, articles. It covers 21,000 titles from over 5000 publishers.7
the big question is after all what is an “Index Journal”? It is published by Elsevier and is available online only
Is a journal considered indexed if it is documented in a ! 8
local database, regional database, or in any continental is a new web platform for measuring performance of
database? Based on available literature, we would like to Indian research periodically. This online bibliographic
clear in few forthcoming paragraphs what is the history of database was launched in 2009. ICI covers 800 plus
indexing, what is actual indexing, and what is nonindexing? journals which are published from India on science,
technical, medical, and social sciences.8
Citation index (indexing) is an ordered list of cited articles,
each accompanied by a list of citing articles.1 The citing In addition, “CiteSeer” and Google Scholar’ are freely
article is identified as source and the cited article as reference. available online.
An abstracting and indexing service is a product, a publisher
sells, or makes available. The journal contents are searchable INDEX MEDICAUS/MEDLARS/MEDLINE/ENTREZ AND
using subject headings (keywords, author’s names, title, PUBMED
abstract, etc.,) in available database.2 Being represented in
the relevant online abstracting and indexing services is an John Show Billings, Head of the Library of the Surgeon
essential factor for the success of a journal. Today search is General’s Office, United States Army, which was later evolved
done online, so it is imperative that a journal is represented as the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM),
in the relevant online search system. A citation index is a started index medicus (IM). IM was a comprehensive
kind of bibliographic database, an index of citation between bibliographic index of scientific journal articles related to
publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later medical science, in print form, published between 1879 and
documents, cite which earlier documents.3 2004. NLM began computerizing indexing work in 1960 and
called it MEDLARS, a bibliographic database, which later
A form of citation index was first found in the 12th century became MEDLINE. Thus, IM became the print presentation
in Hebrew religious literature. Legal citation indexes were of MEDLINE databases content. Both print presentation (IM)
found in the 18th century and were made popular by citators and online database (MEDLINE) continued until 2004.
such as Shepard’s citations (1873).3 In 1960, the Eugene In December 2004, the last issue of IM was published
Garfields Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) introduced (volume 45). The stated reason for discontinuing printed
the first citation index for papers published in academic publication was obvious because online resources supplanted
journals, first the science citation index (SCI) and later it. The electronic presentations of MEDLINE’S contents
social science’s citation index and the arts and humanities also evolved, first with proprietary online services (accessed
citation index. The first automated citation indexing was mostly at libraries) and later with CD-ROMS, then with
done by “CiteSeer” in 1997. Other sources for such data Entrez and PubMed. PubMed greatly accelerated the shift
include Google Scholar and Elsevier’s scopus.3 of online access to MEDLINE from something one did at
the library to something one did anywhere.9 An abridged
Currently major citation indexing services are: version was published from 1970 to 1997 as the Abridged
IM. The abridged edition lives on as a subset of the journals
of Thomson Reuters. As mentioned, SCI was covered by PubMed (core clinical journals).
originally produced by ISI and created by Eugene
Garfield (1964). 4,5 The SCI’s database has two EMBASE/EXPERTA MEDICA
aims – first, to identify what each scientist has published
and second, where and how often the papers by that Embase is database of Experta Medica (a print version),

115 © 2016 Indian Journal of Orthopaedics | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow

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Dhammi and Rehan-Ul-Haq: Indexing a journal

and it is a biomedical pharmalogical database formed of Address for correspondence: Dr. Ish Kumar Dhammi,
Department of Orthopaedics, UCMS and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital,
published literature. Embase is produced by Elsevier and New Delhi - 110 095, India.
contains over 28 million records of over 8400 files up to E-mail: [email protected]

date, information about drugs, published in literature.

Embase enables tracking and retrieval of drug information.10 REFERENCES

Index Copernicus 1. Garfield E. Citation indexing for studying science. Nature

Index Copernicus (IC) 11 is an online database of 1970;227:669-71.
2. Journal Indexing: What it is, and What It’s Not.
user-contributed information, including scientist profiles
Available from: http://www.scholarlyoa.com/2012/11/20/
as well as of scientific institutions, publications, and journal-indexing-what-it-is-and-what-its-not/. [Last accessed
projects established in 1999 in Poland. The database is on 2016 Jan 27].
named after Nicolaus Copernicus and operated by IC 3. Citation Index. Available from: https://www.en.wikipedia.org/
International. However, ICS evaluation methodology is wiki/Citation_index. [Last accessed on 2016 Jan 27].
criticized.12 4. Garfield E. The evolution of the science citation index. Int
Microbiol 2007;10:65-9.
5. Science Citation Index. Available from: https://www.
As per Editor insight series of Wolters Kluwer, there are en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Citation_Index. [Last accessed
four major online bibliographic sites – MEDLINE, PubMed on 2016 Jan 27].
Central, ISI, and scopus.7 Inclusion in MEDLINE confers a 6. Yuh-Shan H. Science citation index expanded. Scientometrics
mark of quality upon a publication. PubMed Central gives 2013;94:1297-312.
greater access to open access contents and ISI provides an 7. MacRae DA. Indexing: Myths and Realities, Editor Newsletter
official impact factor. Inclusion in Scopus gives a clear view Series I. Georgia, United States: Wolters Kluwer Medknow
Publications; 2015.
of journal metrics and provides H-Index and citation impact.7 8. Indian Citation Index. Available from: https://www.en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Indian_Citation_Index. [Last accessed on 2016 Jan 27].
There are certain nonabstracting and indexing services that 9. Index Medicus. Available from: https://www.en.wikipedia.org/
many publishers claim to be indexed in Scribd Cabelles wiki/Index_Medicus. [Last accessed on 2016 Feb 12].
Directories, slide share Google Docs, open J-Gate, and 10. Embase. Available from: https://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
New journal. Embase. [Last accessed on 2016 Feb 12].
11. Index Copernicus. Available from: https://www.en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Index_Copernicus. [Last accessed on 2016 Feb 12].
Editor insight series of Wolter Kluwer claim PubMed (NLM) 12. Medical Council of India. Clarification with Regard to
and PubMed Central (NLM) as not an index. PubMed is a Research Publications in the Matter of Promotion for
website that includes the bibliographic data from MEDLINE Teaching Faculty in Medical Colleges/Institutions (Dated
index. Sept 3, 2015 and No. MCI-12 (1)/2015-TEQ/131880);
2015. Available from: http://www.mciindia.org/circulars/
Circular03.09.2015-TEQ-Promotion-Publication.pdf. [Last cited
PubMed Central is a free digital repository that archives
on 2015 Sep 19].
publically accessible full-text articles. About 1600 journals
automatically deposit their articles.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows
Medical Council of India considers following as indexing others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the
author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
agencies: Scopus, PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase/Excerpta
Medica, Index Medicaus, and IC.12
Access this article online
Quick Response Code:
To conclude, citation indexing services include SCI, SCI Website:
expanded. Rest are search engines or bibliographic online www.ijoonline.com
data base. Major such bibliographic sites are MEDLINE
(most prestigious and its most of the data are published by
DOI:
PubMed), ISI, Scopus and Indian citation index (emerging). 10.4103/0019-5413.177579

Ish Kumar Dhammi, Rehan-Ul-Haq

How to cite this article: Dhammi IK, Rehan-Ul-Haq. What is
Department of Orthopaedics, UCMS and Guru Teg Bahadur, indexing. Indian J Orthop 2016;50:115-6.
Hospital, New Delhi, India

Indian Journal of Orthopaedics | March 2016 | Vol. 50 | Issue 2 116