Why Journals Get De-Indexed: 8 Reasons Scopus, Web of Science and DOAJ Remove Titles (2026)

Reviewed by the NeucitePress Editorial Board — PhD academics, peer-reviewed journal editors and medical communication specialists.

Last updated and fact-checked: October 2026 • Every figure below is taken from the named primary source on the date shown • Reading time: 9 minutes

How re-evaluation works in each database

The 8 reasons

1. Self-citation far above the category norm

Scopus’s re-evaluation benchmarks compare a journal with its subject peers, and “self-citation rate substantially higher than peers” is the first of Elsevier’s published triggers. Clarivate’s impact criteria include comparative and editorial-board citation analysis, and citation stacking between journals is a named integrity concern. Fix: stop any editorial practice that asks authors to cite the journal; track the self-citation share on scopus.com/sources each month.

2. Citation rate or CiteScore far below peers

The second Scopus benchmark: “total citation rate or CiteScore substantially lower than peers”. For a title that has been in Scopus for years with almost no citations, this is the most common path to the outlier model. Fix: tighten scope, commission reviews, improve abstracts and titles, and publish on time, which are the same levers as the original CSAB criteria.

3. Sudden growth in output, special issues or author networks

Elsevier’s outlier model looks for “unexpected patterns” in publication activity and author collaboration. Clarivate’s 2023 delistings concerned journals that failed the quality criteria on re-evaluation; the best-known case, IJERPH, was a journal publishing a very large volume of special-issue content. A journal that doubles its article count in a year, or whose authors cluster into tight repeating groups, is flagged. Fix: cap special issues, apply the same peer review to them, and keep guest editors from handling their own groups’ papers.

4. Paper-mill or integrity concerns validated by the database

Scopus’s first trigger is validated publication concerns raised by the community, assessed by the CSAB. Clarivate’s on-hold process exists for exactly this: a journal is paused while research-integrity concerns are checked, and about 85% of paused journals are delisted. Concerns about a publisher can bring every title it owns into review. Fix: screen for tortured phrases, image duplication and reviewer impersonation; publish corrections and retractions promptly.

5. Publication delays and interruptions

“No delays or interruptions in the publication schedule” is a Scopus CSAB criterion; “timeliness and/or publication volume” is a Clarivate editorial-triage criterion. Both apply after indexing as well as before. Fix: publish the schedule and keep it; if an issue is late, publish a smaller issue on time rather than a combined one late.

6. Changes of ownership, title, ISSN or editorial control

Since December 2024, Scopus validates every such change and treats a journal that has “undergone significant change” as a new journal, which must be evaluated again; Elsevier reserves the right to halt or remove titles without prior notice. Hijacked-journal cases are the extreme form. Fix: inform Scopus, Clarivate and DOAJ before the change, keep the ISSN record current, and keep the editorial board in control of acceptance decisions.

7. Loss of transparency on the website

Clarivate’s “validity of statements” and “website functionality” criteria, and DOAJ’s checks on availability and editorial information, are applied continuously. A site that goes down, drops its ethics statement, hides its board or stops showing full text fails criteria it passed at entry. Fix: keep the peer-review policy, ethics statement, board page with affiliations, contact details and full-text archive live and current.

8. Ceasing publication, or ceasing to meet the entry criteria

A journal that stops publishing, loses its ISSN, drops English abstracts, or (for DOAJ) ceases to be fully open access no longer meets the technical criteria and is removed on routine review. Scopus’s source list marks these with the final coverage year. Fix: if the journal is winding down, tell the databases and preserve the archive; if it is changing model, check the entry criteria of each index first.

What happens after removal

• Scopus: new content stops; indexed content remains; the title appears on the discontinued list with the reason (“Discontinuation” or “Journal change policy”) and a final coverage year; the decision states an embargo, and the title cannot be suggested again until it ends. Concerns can be sent to [email protected].
• Web of Science: the journal leaves the Core Collection and the Master Journal List; the embargo is two years; metrics stop at the next JCR.
• DOAJ: the journal record and article metadata are removed; the DOAJ Seal, if held, no longer applies; re-application waits six months, or longer under a publisher exclusion.

Authors whose papers were published after the final coverage date are the people most affected: those papers are not in the database and will not be. Tell them before they hear it elsewhere. Our recovery roadmap for a journal removed from Scopus sets out the sequence.

Prevention: the monitoring routine

1. Monthly: check the CiteScore Tracker and self-citation share on scopus.com/sources; check that every issue published on schedule.
2. Quarterly: compare citation rate and self-citation with five peer journals in the same Scopus category; review special-issue proposals against the regular-issue standard.
3. Annually: re-read the Scopus technical and CSAB criteria and Clarivate’s 24 quality criteria against the live website; update the board page, ethics statement and GenAI policy.
4. Before any structural change: notify the databases; a title, ISSN or ownership change announced after the fact is treated as a new journal.

The criteria for staying in are the criteria for getting in; see Scopus, Web of Science and the 25-point checklist.

Frequently asked questions

How many journals has Scopus discontinued?

The Scopus source list (September 2026 edition) contains 1,169 discontinued titles: 999 under “Discontinuation” and 170 under “Journal change policy”. 159 have 2025 as their final coverage year and 38 have 2026 so far. The list is updated monthly.

How many journals did Clarivate delist in 2023?

Clarivate reported on 20 March 2023 that more than 500 journals had been flagged for re-evaluation at the start of the year and that more than 50 had failed the quality criteria and been delisted. Clarivate did not name them; MDPI confirmed that IJERPH lost coverage on 13 February 2023 and JRFM on 22 February 2023.

Does a journal get a warning before removal?

Not as a formal stage. Scopus suspends the content flow while a flagged title is re-evaluated; Clarivate places a journal “on hold” during re-evaluation, and about 85% of on-hold journals are then delisted. DOAJ may contact the publisher for information, but removal follows if the criteria are no longer met.

What happens to articles already indexed?

In Scopus, content indexed before discontinuation stays in the database; only new content stops. Clarivate removes the journal from current coverage. DOAJ removes the journal record and its article metadata.

Can a de-indexed journal reapply?

Scopus: a discontinued title is placed under an embargo stated in the decision and cannot be suggested again until it ends. Web of Science: two years after delisting. DOAJ: six months after a rejection, longer where a publisher exclusion applies (up to three years, with automatic rejection after exclusions totalling six years or three separate exclusions).

Is Google de-indexing the same thing?

No. Removal from Google web search (a manual action, a noindex tag, a robots.txt block) is a website matter and is fixed on the website. Removal from Scopus, Web of Science or DOAJ is an editorial decision about the journal and is fixed only by meeting the database’s criteria again.

Sources (primary, with access date)

• Elsevier. Scopus content policy and selection (re-evaluation triggers, suspension, embargo, journal change policy). Accessed 13 October 2026.
• Elsevier Connect. The guardians of Scopus, 10 February 2021 (benchmarks: self-citation, citation rate, outlier behaviour; 65% of 2017 flagged titles discontinued).
• Elsevier. Scopus source list, September 2026 edition (XLSX linked from the content policy page): 1,169 discontinued titles; 49,104 serial titles; 32,260 active sources.
• Clarivate. Journal evaluation process and selection criteria (24 quality criteria apply after acceptance; removal; two-year embargo). Accessed 13 October 2026.
• Clarivate. Supporting integrity of the scholarly record, 20 March 2023 (500+ flagged; 50+ delisted).
• Clarivate. Why journals are put on hold (about 85% delisted; six-week average; two-year embargo). Accessed 13 October 2026.
• MDPI. Notice on IJERPH and JRFM Web of Science coverage, 22 March 2023 (coverage discontinued 13 and 22 February 2023).
• DOAJ. Guide to applying (removal, re-evaluation, publisher exclusions). Accessed 13 October 2026.
• Laakso, M., Matthias, L. and Jahn, N. (2021). Open is not forever: a study of vanished open access journals. JASIST 72(9), 1099–1112 (174 OA journals vanished 2000–2019).