Annals of Palliative Medicine has become indexed in Emerging Sources Citation Index Web of Science and Scopus
On 8/3/16, we learned that Annals of Palliative Medicine (APM) was accepted for coverage in Thomson Reuters’ index in the Web of Science, the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). ESCI is a multidisciplinary Citation Index that includes all areas of the scholarly literature of the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities (1). Only journals that are peer reviewed, follow ethical publishing practices, meet Web of Science technical requirements, have English language bibliographic information, and are recommended or requested by a scholarly audience of Web of Science users are considered for ESCI inclusion (2).
Inclusion in ESCI is an important milestone for APM since ESCI is a true Citation Index that allows users to track citation activity at the article and publication levels and for the content of APM to be discoverable and citable on Web of Science. Furthermore, citation activity for the journal will now be used in the journal selection process for (I) Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and (II) to have a calculated Journal Impact Factor, both of which we hope will occur before the end of 2017. Coverage of APM in Web of Science begins with the journal content published in 2016.
Additionally, APM articles published beginnings in 2015 are now featured in Scopus. Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and includes selected scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings. Scopus includes selected publications from such diverse fields as medicine, science, technology, social sciences, and arts and humanities; with health sciences (32%) and physical sciences (29%) comprising the largest proportions of Scopus publications per subject area. Of the more than 60 million records in Scopus, many come from the over 21,500 peer-reviewed journals indexed in Scopus. Scopus also allows for smart tools that can track, analyze and visualize research (3).
Inclusion in these important citation indexes and databases is a testament to the quality of APM and is a reflection of the esteem for which the journal is regarded. Since the peer-reviewed content of the journal has met the high bar for inclusion in ESCI and SCOPUS, readers and contributors of APM can now expect:
- Journal content can now become discoverable sooner through ESCI than it did previously;
- Journal citations can now be tracked and measured;
- Consideration for inclusion in SCIE and consideration for obtaining an official Impact Factor.
Today, APM is increasingly being considered a premier outlet for original research and review articles in palliative oncology. The Editorial Team at APM continues to strive to develop the journal into the premier source of scientific information and a tool for international collaboration within and throughout the palliative care community. Following the indexing of the journal in PubMed in early 2015 (4), the inclusion and coverage of APM in Web of Science and SCOPUS are tremendously important steps towards this goal.
Acknowledgements
None.
Footnote
Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
References
- Intellectual Property & Science is now known as Clarivate Analytics. Available online: http://thomsonreuters.com/en/products-services/scholarly-scientific-research/scholarly-search-and-discovery/web-of-science.html
- Testa J. The Thomson Reuters Journal Selection Process. Available online: http://wokinfo.com/essays/journal-selection-process/
- Scopus Content Coverage Guide. Available online: https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/69451/scopus_content_coverage_guide.pdf
- Simone CB 2nd. Annals of Palliative Medicine is indexed in PubMed. Ann Palliat Med 2015;4:46-7. [PubMed]
