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Indexing is a process to create indexes for a collection of records. This process of indexing is important to find the required record easily and quickly. An index is represented by a number which number refers to a list of topics, terms, definitions, or others. Also, the indexed records are arranged in alphabetical order to quickly find the required record. This is a great process for researchers because it helps them to organize their publishing documents and paper according to a specific manner.
The citation index is an ordered list of cited articles. It links between old books and articles with the articles that reference these old publications. Also, citation index can be defined as a technique that enables you to trace the earlier documents ad forward them to others who cited them. In the Citation index, the citing article is defined as a source and the cited article is defined as a reference.
How does indexing work?
The tool which does this process is called an indexer. Indexer requires page proof to make a list of headings and subheadings. Also, to make a location for each relevant reference.
Researchers and other related people are using the indexed process for these reasons:
- Using the indexed process help researchers to organize their documents according to a specific manner.
- Make to quickly find the required document or paper.
- It is important where a collection of information is big.
- For users and other readers, the indexed process gives them a systematic and shortcut for required information.
Database indexing is a way of optimizing the performance of a database by minimizing the number of required accesses when a query is processed. It is also a technique to structure data and locate these data to access it quickly.
There are two columns in a database to create indexes:
Column number one: search key which contains the primary key or candidate key of the table in a database.
Column number two: is the data reference or pointer that contains a group of pointers that hold the address of the disk block where the required key can be found.
- Access types: means which is the type of access such as value-based search, range access, and so on.
- Access time: what is the time needed to access the required element or set of elements.
- Insertion time: what time is needed to find a free space to insert new data.
- Deletion time: what is the time needed to delete an item and update the index structure
- Space overhead: the additional space required by the index.
In this paragraph, we will explain why it is important for journals to be indexed? and what are the key points in the indexed process? Also, how do journals apply key standards to increase the reach and impact of their publications?
The journals which are indexed will seek their names as a valid source of scientific information and will be recognized as a prestigious source among many other publications around the world. To achieve the goal of indexing, the journals must resort to different methods to increase their visibility, validity, availability, and readership. The method that a journal can follow is to be indexed by one of the leading databases.
Any author needed to publish his article; he tries to find those indexing journals to publish his article in. And those authors try to find indexing journals that provide several abstracting and indexing services. The indexation process for journals indicates the quality of these journals. So that, indexation journals are of higher scientific quality than those non-indexation journals.
Nowadays, the indexation journals expanded their online presence, improved article discoverability, and are reputable for high-quality publications in their field.
In the term of indexes, there are two types of indexes which are the general indexes and specialized indexes. For more details, here are the two types with more details:
- First index type: General Indexes
General indexes are also called public indexes and this type of indexes cover many disciplines and a wide variety of fields. The public/ general indexes index many types of popular published documents such as magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals.
- Second index type: Specialized Indexes
The second type of indexes type is the specialized indexes. Specialized indexes cover a specialized topic or discipline and will usually index more scholarly journals than the general indexes.
The indexation process for any journal is set up into some basic publishing standards. The journals which have these basic publishing standards should meet the basic indexation requirements. These indexing requirements are:
- First indexing requirement: the first indexing requirement is the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) number. This number is given to one group of series to identify a serial, and recurring publication. An example of documents that have an ISSN is the monthly journals.
- Second indexing requirement: the second indexing requirement is the DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) which is like the social security number. Digital Object Identifiers is given for digital items such as journal article, data file, presentation file, and other digital items.
- Third indexing requirement: the third indexing requirement is the established publishing schedule
- Fourth indexing requirement: the fourth indexing requirement is the copyright policy
- Fifth indexing requirement: the fifth indexing requirement is the Basic article-level metadata
Most indexing requirements will be straightforward they just require a high level of attention to detail, which leads us to our next section. In this paragraph, we will discuss the common specific requirements that some indexes databases need. So, there are five specific requirements which are listed below. The first three specific requirements are listed in this paragraph and the other two specific requirements are explained in the next paragraph:
- Firstly, Publication scope: the first specific requirement is the publication scope which means the fields and areas that an index covers. Therefore, the general indexes cover journals that publish in many fields and disciplines such as humanities, social sciences, technology, history, and many others. On the other side, there are specialized indexes that only cover journals that publish in a specific field.
- Secondly, Minimum publication history length: the second specific requirement is the Minimum publication history length. that’s mean some indexes cover those journals which have a specific time for publishing and accept it. For example, the MEDLINE database only accepts journals that publish scholarly content with a minimum of two years. So, in some databases, the publication history and time is very important to accept indexing journal.
- Thirdly, A certain level of publishing professionalization: the third specific requirement is to achieve A certain level of publishing professionalization. Professionalization means that how do the articles in a journal are easy to read and have quality content. So that, some indexing databases are looking to the readability and the content high-quality for the journal publishing articles.
The other two specific requirements
In this paragraph, we listed the last two specific requirements for indexing journals in indexes databases which are:
- Fourthly, Geographic diversity: the fourth specific requirement is Geographic diversity. Geographic diversity means how do the journals have geographically diverse editorial boards and authors. That’s because some indexes databases look at how much the journals have geographic diversity.
- Fifthly, Adequate citations: the fifth and final specific requirement is Adequate citations. Adequate citations mean how do the journal can demonstrate a good impact by meeting a certain citation-level threshold. Some indexes databases do not accept index journals until if those journals meet a certain citation-level threshold
As the importance of the indexation process, it has the following three basic features that prove the effectiveness of this process:
Accessibility: the first feature of the indexation process is accessibility. While the basic goal for any magazine is to be available to wide readers and audiences. And that’s will happen when a journal is indexed by a leading database. Thus, the indexed journal will be available and accessible for all the users of the index database.
Reputation: the second feature of the indexation process is reputation. While a journal is accessible then it will be got a high reputation. So that, when a journal is accessible by a lot of researchers and the academic population, then it will be considered as a high-quality scientific information source.
Readership: the third feature of the indexation process is the readership. The first activity that a researcher does in his study is finding the leading, established, and well-known databases. So, if a journal is indexed and published in a leading database, then the researcher will be easily finding the journal and read it. Thus, the readership for the journal will be increased.
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