Journals include their publication in multiple databases so that they are accessible to a wider audience. This is INDEXING.
Indexing allows a journal to be known as an authoritative and reliable source of scientific information. Indexed journals stand out in the crowd of many other publications, and benefit from increased visibility, availability, and readership.
Why is an indexing status for the journal noted as PubMed® or Google Scholar or a directory considered to be a red flag?
Databases such as MEDLINE®, Elsevier Scopus and EMBASE, Cumulative Index for Allied and Health Literature (CINAHL), and others are major bibliographic and citation databases, and have rigorous scientific and editorial criteria for journals selected for indexing in their databases.
However, some journals claim to be indexed by PubMed®, are cited in MEDLINE®, and have full-text articles cited from PubMed Central® (PMC).
This can be very confusing!
Although often confused to be the same, PubMed®, MEDLINE®, and PMC® are separate entities, and have different purposes.
PubMed® gathers citations from MEDLINE®, PMC®, and other resources from the NCBI Bookshelf.
PMC® is a free archive of full-text journal articles.
MEDLINE® is a journal citation database from the National Library of Medicine (NLM).
PubMed® is a common platform with a single interface that can lead to confusion about the differences between PubMed®, MEDLINE®, and PMC®.
Journals claiming to be indexed in PubMed® or Google Scholar should, therefore be investigated carefully.
BEST PRACTICE: Verify the indexing status of a journal through bibliographic and citation database rather than relying on the journal website.
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