Being indexed in a prestigious database in its area is an important indicator of the quality of scientific journals. To determine whether a journal enters a database, index or directory, certain quality indicators are taken into account that may vary from one database to another but can be grouped into:
- Quality of research content.
- Technical or formal characteristics.
- Use by the scientific community (number and quality of citations).
The indexing of a journal involves several stages: complying with the required quality indicators, searching for the appropriate indexes, contacting them and achieving the inclusion of the articles on a regular and permanent basis. When the journal is indexed it is because it has gone through a process of selection and analysis by the institutions or companies that do this work.
Journal editors must identify those indexes, directories or databases that match their thematic field, contact them and send them copies of the latest issues that have been published and a report justifying the its quality