Q: What to do if the journal was indexed at the time of article submission but not at the time of publication?
I had submitted my manuscript in December 2018, and it was indexed in Scopus but when my article was published in the March 2019 issue, the journal was no longer indexed in Scopus. For this reason my article is not accepted by the university/college for promotion. My question is which is to be considered for journal indexing: article submission date or published date? Kindly provide me the answer with valid supportive documents.
It is unfortunate that you have to go through this situation over which you have no control. Scopus and other indexing services have certain eligibility criteria which are madatory for inclusion in the detabase. They conduct periodical checks of journals that are already included in the database and if for some reason, they no longer meet one or more of the inclusion criteria, they are removed from the database. This is done to ensure that journals maintain their quality standards.
If a university or college considers only articles published in indexed journals as a criteria for promotion, they will definitey want the journal to be indxed at the time when they are condcuting the promotion process. It is natural for them to reject papers that do not meet this criteria. Most universities will not consider the fact that it was indexed at the time of submission of the article. Unfortunately, that is how the system works.
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