When it comes time to prepare an ANECA accreditation, a six-year research period, or a merit report, one of the common headaches is how to justify indicators of journal quality where we have published. It is not enough to say that a journal is good: it must be demonstrated with data, recognized sources and indicators accepted by evaluation agencies.
In this context, it is key to know exactly what is considered accreditation, relative quality, databases, indexes and sealsand how to use all that information in an organized way in our applications. There are many resources (Latindex, ERIH PLUS, Web of Science, Scopus, MIAR, CIRC, CARHUS+, FECYT, CSIC Indexes, Dialnet Metrics, etc.), and it's easy to get lost if no one clearly explains what each one is for and what its real value is with ANECA, CNEAI, or other agencies.
What are the indicators of a magazine's quality and why do they matter?
When we talk about indicators of the quality of a publication, we are referring to the set of objective evidence that supports scientific relevance of a journal: in which databases it is indexed, whether it has impact factors, whether it has quality seals, whether it is part of selective lists, or whether it meets rigorous editorial criteria (peer review, punctuality, transparency, etc.).
These indicators are the basis that evaluation agencies use to assess the quality of the articles, reviews, letters to the editor, or short notesThey do not only evaluate the text itself, but also the context of publication: where it appears, what prestige the journal has in its field, and what visibility the works achieve thanks to that editorial platform.
In practice, when you prepare a curriculum for accreditation or a six-year research period, you will have to provide a kind of fact sheet for each item that includes the main indicators related to the magazine: ranking position, presence in databases, inclusion in catalogs of editorial quality, citations received, etc. The more structured and justified this information is, the easier the work of the evaluation committee will be.
It is common to organize this information into four blocks: relative quality of the journal, indexing in bibliographic databases, presence in other evaluation products and citations received by the article or by the journal in general. From there, each discipline can give more weight to some elements or others, but the general logic is the same.
Latindex: directory and catalog for assessing publishing quality
Latindex is one of the fundamental resources for the social sciences and humanities in the Ibero-American sphere, especially for journals in Spanish and Portuguese. The first thing to understand is that Latindex differentiates between Directory and CatalogAnd this is not a minor detail when presenting evidence of quality.
The Latindex Directory includes journals that meet basic identification and description requirements, while the The Latindex catalog groups together those journals that exceed a set of editorial quality criteria. more demanding. For accreditation and six-year research periods, it is especially relevant to be able to demonstrate that the journal is in the Catalog, not just in the Directory.
When searching for a journal in Latindex (by entering the title or ISSN), it is essential to check that the following appears next to the publication name the symbol or mention of “In catalog”This indicates that the journal meets a minimum set of editorial quality criteria recognized by the Latindex system; if this mark does not appear, it means that the publication is only included in the Directory and has not reached the standard of the Catalog.
If you click on the magazine title, you will access a detailed information sheet where you will find Information about the publisher, subject areas, country, publication frequency, and other formal dataA key aspect is the number of Latindex quality criteria it meets: for example, it is common to find journals that meet 30 or more criteria, which you can highlight as an indication of the strength of its editorial policy and the seriousness of the content selection process.
Furthermore, Latindex not only evaluates formal criteria, but also offers complementary information on the bibliographic databases in which the journal is indexedThis allows you to link Latindex with other indexing resources (Scopus, Web of Science, ERIH PLUS, etc.) and thus strengthen the "Database Indexing" section within the quality indicators sheet for each article.
ERIH PLUS: European reference in Humanities and Social Sciences
ERIH PLUS is a European index specifically dedicated to the scientific journals in the Humanities and Social SciencesIt was born as the successor to the old ERIH (European Reference Index for the Humanities), which was limited to Humanities and linked to the European Science Foundation, but with the incorporation of “PLUS” it expanded its coverage to the social sciences from 2014 onwards.
Currently, this resource is managed by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD), under the Norwegian Ministry of Education and ResearchIn Spain, ERIH PLUS has become an important benchmark for assessing the international recognition of journals in these areas, especially for Humanities, where other indicators such as the JCR or the SJR do not always accurately reflect non-English language production.
The main quality indicator provided by ERIH PLUS is of a binary type: Is the journal included in the system or not?When you perform a search by title or ISSN, the results screen will offer you the journal's key data along with the exact date of inclusion in the database, a fact that you can quote verbatim in your quality indicators to show since when the journal has been part of the index.
For a journal to be admitted to ERIH PLUS, it must meet a series of requirements. relatively strict editorial and content criteriaAmong them, a publication history of at least two years is required, the existence of external peer review explicitly stated in the journal's policy, and the availability of a valid ISSN.
Requirements are also established regarding the authors and the editorial board: Journals must clearly indicate the affiliation and address of the authors, and a maximum of two-thirds of the published authors may belong to the same institution.Furthermore, the academic editorial committee must include members affiliated with universities or other independent institutions, which reinforces diversity and independence in decision-making.
Regarding content, ERIH PLUS requires that All articles must be original and accompanied by abstracts in English and/or another relevant international language. for the area of knowledge. These requirements guarantee a minimum international visibility of the published works, something highly valued in academic evaluation processes.
Indexing in large bibliographic databases
Beyond specific indices, a very important part of the indicators of quality comes from the presence of the journal in large bibliographic databases of a multidisciplinary or sectoral natureBeing indexed in a prestigious database inherently implies a quality filter and greater global visibility.
In applications for accreditations and six-year research periods, it is common to distinguish between indicators of relative quality (ratings, positions in rankings, quartiles) and Other complementary indicators include indexing in recognized databases in the areaFor the latter, it is essential to review the official lists of journals that maintain these databases and to cite the journal's presence precisely (name of the database, type of coverage, etc.).
Among multidisciplinary databases, Web of Science and Scopus are the two major international references. In addition, depending on the discipline, other platforms such as [insert examples of platforms] may also be relevant. Proquest One Business, EconLit, CSIC INDEXES, Dialnet or specialized databases that record the scientific output of certain areas and countries.
When writing up the quality indicators, it's important to mention not only that the journal is included in the database, but also the specific product that feeds the most well-known rankings or metrics (for example, JCR in the case of Web of Science, SJR and CiteScore in the case of Scopus) and, if applicable, the subject area or category in which the journal is classified.
Web of Science, JCR and the Impact Factor
Web of Science (WoS) is one of the most influential scientific reference libraries internationally, and it is directly fed by the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), where the famous Impact Factor is calculatedIn evaluation processes, being able to say that a journal is indexed in WoS and, in addition, has an Impact Factor in JCR is usually considered a very strong indicator.
To check if a journal is part of Web of Science, the Master Journal List tool is used, where you can enter title or ISSN and verify the journal's inclusion in the various WoS collectionsFrom there you can see the specific databases in which it is indexed (Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, etc.).
The Impact Factor is a bibliometric indicator that is calculated from the average number of citations received by articles published in a journal over a two-year period (although there are also five-year variants). This indicator was devised by Eugene Garfield, founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), in the 70s, and since then it has become the most widely used international benchmark by evaluation agencies.
For decades, committees have used almost exclusively the Impact Factor as a quality parameter, identifying the best journals in a field with those that have a high IF within their subject category. However, In recent years other alternative indicators have emerged such as the SJR (Scimago Journal Rank) or the CiteScore, based on the Scopus database, as well as national initiatives that offer complementary metrics such as MIAR or CIRC.
In any case, when a journal has a JCR Impact Factor, it is advisable to indicate the value of that indicator, the quartile in which it is located within its category, and the specific category.This data provides a very clear picture of the journal's relative position and facilitates comparison with other publications in the same field.
Scopus, SJR and CiteScore
Scopus is currently one of the world's largest databases of scientific literature, which includes peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedingsUnlike Web of Science, Scopus covers a broader spectrum of publications and better coverage of certain areas, especially in social sciences and applied fields.
Indicators such as the following are generated from Scopus data: Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), one of the most consulted rankings of scientific journals worldwide, and the CiteScore indicator, which offers another way to measure the impact of journals based on the citations received.
To check if a journal is included in Scopus, use the Sources section, where you can search by title, ISSN or publisher and consult the associated impact indicatorsIn applications for accreditation and six-year research periods, the SJR quartile (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) or the specific CiteScore value is usually highlighted, in addition to the thematic category and the general area in which the journal is framed.
Given that Scopus offers broader coverage than Web of Science in many fields, especially for journals in languages other than English, The SJR and CiteScore indicators have gained considerable weight. in the criteria of many agencies. In fact, the calls for proposals from ANECA and CNEAI often expressly mention these resources as valid sources of evidence of quality.
Other relevant databases and bibliographic resources
In addition to WoS and Scopus, there are other bibliographic databases that serve as This is an important indicator of quality when the journal is well-positioned in its field.Particularly noteworthy are those that focus on specific fields or on the scientific production of certain countries or regions.
ProQuest One Business is a database specializing in economics, business, tourism, marketing, accounting, and related disciplines. Its value lies in the fact that It offers thousands of full-text journals with peer-review processes.This makes its inclusion a relevant indicator for the economic and business sectors, especially if the magazine has a strong presence on this platform.
EconLit, for its part, is the database of the American Economic Association and is considered one of the most prestigious reference sources in the field of economicsIt contains over 1.100.000 records from 1886 to the present and covers virtually all branches of the discipline. Being indexed in EconLit is a clear sign of international recognition in economics and closely related fields.
Dialnet is a key platform for Spanish and Latin American scientific literature, especially in the social sciences, humanities, and law. Its Journals section offers a wealth of resources. the list of indexed publications and access to information about their frequency, content and visibilityIn many cases, Dialnet also serves as a gateway to full-text articles and other derived indicators.
ÍnDICEs CSIC (Information and Documentation of Science in Spain) is a multidisciplinary bibliographic resource that It mainly brings together articles from Spanish scientific journalsIt emerged as an evolution of the old CSIC databases (ICYT for science and technology, IME for biomedicine and ISOC for social sciences and humanities) and offers unified access to this information, making it a relevant element in the indicators of the quality of Spanish journals.
Relative quality: national rankings and indicators
The relative quality of a journal is measured through indicators that allow compare it with other publications in the same thematic categoryIt's not just about knowing if the magazine is good, but about knowing if it's among the best, in an intermediate position, or rather at the bottom of its field.
The main indicators of relative quality come from the aforementioned Web of Science and Scopus (JCR Impact Factor, SJR quartiles, CiteScore), but there are also national tools that are especially important for social sciences and humanitieswhere presence in international indexes is sometimes limited or does not accurately reflect production in Spanish.
Dialnet Metrics is a good example of an initiative aimed at measuring the relative quality of Spanish journals in social sciences and humanitiesIt offers citation-based indicators and derived metrics that allow journals to be ranked and their performance to be compared within different subject areas.
Another key tool is MIAR (Matriu d'Informació per a l'Avaluació de Revistes), which allows you to enter an ISSN to find out in which databases is a journal indexed in among those included in its matrix?Based on this information, MIAR calculates the ICDS index, which reflects the journal's dissemination in databases and evaluation repositories.
MIAR also reports on the magazine's presence in specific evaluation frameworks such as the FECYT Quality Seal, Scimago Journal Rank, CARHUS+ or CIRCas well as the open access policy found in services like ROMEO. This combination of data makes MIAR a very useful resource for building a comprehensive picture of a publication's quality indicators.
CIRC, CARHUS Plus+ and other classification systems
In the field of social sciences and humanities, national evaluation agencies have been consolidating integrated rankings of scientific journals which complement international impact indicators. Among the most cited are CIRC and CARHUS Plus+.
The Integrated Classification of Scientific Journals (CIRC) aims to integrate different assessment products and build a classification by quality levels from social sciences and humanities journals. In practice, CIRC combines information from databases and systems recognized by agencies such as CNEAI and ANECA, making it a widely used reference at the national level.
CARHUS Plus+ is a system developed by AGAUR (Agència de Gesció d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) that It classifies scientific journals in the social sciences and humanities into four quality categories.This ranking is based on local, national, and international visibility. It is updated periodically and taken into account in various academic evaluation processes, especially in Catalonia, but also as a general reference.
Among the supplementary resources, the lists of journals with FECYT Quality Seal, which certify compliance with certain editorial and scientific quality criteria, and specialized projects such as RETI, focused on translation and interpreting journals, which compiles quality indicators accepted by organizations such as AQU, ANECA and CNEAI.
The RETI portal, promoted by the Department of Translation and Interpreting and the staff of the Humanities Library of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, also offers Practical information on editorial requirements, links to bibliographic catalogs and self-archiving permissions in institutional repositories, which makes it a very comprehensive resource for justifying the quality of journals in that specific field.
FECYT Quality Seal and renewal processes
The FECYT Quality Seal has established itself as one of the most relevant awards for Spanish scientific journalsespecially in the context of social sciences, humanities, and emerging fields. This seal certifies that the journal meets a series of standards of editorial quality, transparency, timeliness, and good scientific practices.
In recent editions of the process, FECYT has incorporated new features. For example, the ninth call for proposals establishes that Magazines that already have the Seal and whose validity ends on July 24, 2025 must submit to a renewal processThis involves registering on the participation platform, providing the required documentation, and signing the application in the Renewal mode.
Journals that apply for this renewal process are re-evaluated in all quantitative indicators established in the current evaluation guideIn other words, maintaining the seal is not automatic: the magazine must demonstrate that it continues to meet quality standards and has even improved in some aspects.
For those applying for accreditation or research grants, a journal having a valid FECYT Seal is a highly valuable indicator of quality. It is worth noting the year of acquisition, the category of the seal and, if possible, the period of validity, along with a reference to the journal's official entry on the FECYT website or in resources such as MIAR that collect this information.
Some university library services supplement this information with specific guidelines on the evaluation of scientific publicationsThis section explains basic resources and offers training courses, such as those dedicated to "Evaluation of scientific publications: indicators of quality and impact factor." This support is especially useful for gaining a thorough understanding of how to interpret the FECYT Seal and other accreditations.
Receipts received and how to present them correctly
Citations are another fundamental pillar in indicating quality, both for the journal and for individual articles. However, it is important to use them carefully: Citations from different databases should not be indiscriminately added together.because there is a risk of counting the same reference twice.
It is recommended to create a list of unique appointments, indicating which source they come from (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, CSIC Indexes, etc.) and specifying the basic bibliographic dataIn some cases, it may be sufficient to provide an overall number of verified citations in a primary source; in others, particularly in areas where international databases have less coverage, it may be useful to rely on several complementary sources.
For journals, indicators based on aggregated citations can also be used, although evaluation agencies generally focus more on normalized metrics such as the Impact Factor, SJR, CiteScore, or derived indices defined by each systemAgain, the important thing is to always cite the source and the year to which the data refers.
In some contexts, especially in the humanities and social sciences, the mere fact that a journal is well represented in resources such as Dialnet, CSIC indexes, or prestigious disciplinary databases can serve as indication of the impact and circulation of its content in the academic community, although there is no classic impact factor like that of JCR.
Many library services and research support units offer advice to help researchers locate, weed, and to correctly submit appointments in your accreditation and six-year service applicationsThis task may be laborious, but a good presentation of the citations can make all the difference in the final assessment of the merits.
How to structure the quality indicators of an article
To ensure your application is clear and easy to assess, it is very helpful to follow a standard structure when detailing the indicators of quality for each article, review, letter, or similar contributionA common proposal, aligned with the recommendations of many university libraries, is organized into four basic sections.
First, the relative quality of the journalThis includes the JCR Impact Factor (if available), its quartile in the corresponding category, the SJR or CiteScore value and quartile, and any other relevant national or international index (Dialnet Metrics, CIRC, CARHUS+, etc.). Here, it is advisable to be concise but very specific, always indicating the year, source, and subject category.
Secondly, the details are provided Indexing of the journal in bibliographic databasesThe main databases in which the publication is indexed are listed (Web of Science, Scopus, EconLit, Proquest One Business, CSIC Indexes, Dialnet, ERIH PLUS, Latindex Catalog, etc.) and, if of interest, the date of inclusion or the type of coverage is added.
The third section focuses on the presence of the journal in other evaluation products or catalogs of editorial qualitysuch as Latindex, FECYT, MIAR, RETI, or other sectoral systems. Here you can mention the number of Latindex criteria met, membership in the Catalog, possession of the FECYT Seal, or the CIRC or CARHUS+ category held by the journal.
Finally, data is incorporated on appointments receivedThis applies both to individual articles (if the number is significant) and to the journal as a whole, always taking care not to mix or duplicate figures from different sources. A brief comment on the article's impact within the field of study can also be useful, provided it is supported by verifiable data.
This organization not only helps the evaluator, but also the researcher, because it forces them to identify, select and justify the best available quality indicators for each of their projects, aligning them with the formal criteria required by ANECA, CNEAI and other evaluation agencies.
Having a thorough understanding of all these resources (Latindex, ERIH PLUS, Web of Science, Scopus, MIAR, CIRC, CARHUS+, FECYT, CSIC Indexes, Dialnet, RETI, Proquest One Business, EconLit, and others) allows one to construct a solid and well-documented narrative about the quality of the journals in which it is published, the activity of the research groups in education and ICT and the real impact of scientific contributions. When facing accreditations and six-year research periods, this combination of editorial criteria, presence in databases, impact indicators, and verified citations becomes the best calling card of a research career.
