After publishing a paper in normal journal, and that journal indexed after, is the published paper will be comes into indexing
Will a Paper Be Indexed If the Journal Gets Indexed Later?
Many researchers publish papers in journals that are not indexed at the time of publication. A common question arises when the same journal later becomes indexed in databases such as Scopus or Web of Science: will the already published paper also become indexed?
In most cases, the answer is yes, but only under certain conditions. Indexing is not always applied retroactively to all previously published articles. Whether a paper becomes indexed depends on the coverage policy of the indexing database and the agreement between the journal and the indexing agency.
Possible Situations
In the first situation, the indexing database decides to include earlier volumes and issues of the journal. If the database indexes from the beginning of the journal or from a year that includes the author’s paper, then the paper will appear in the index and will be considered an indexed publication.
In the second situation, the indexing database starts coverage only from a specific volume or year. If the author’s paper was published before that cut-off point, then the paper will not be included in the index, even though the journal is now indexed.
Important Considerations
Indexing is not automatically applied to all previous issues of a journal. It depends on factors such as the quality of past issues, the technical format of the journal archives, and whether the publisher submits back issues to the indexing agency. Therefore, a journal becoming indexed does not guarantee that all old papers will be indexed.
What Authors Should Do
Authors should check the journal’s coverage details in the indexing database, such as the start year or volume of indexing. If this information is not clearly available, they should contact the journal editorial office to confirm from which volume or issue the indexing begins.
Conclusion
A paper published before a journal becomes indexed will be included in the index only if the indexing database covers the journal from that volume or year onward. Otherwise, the paper will remain non-indexed even though the journal later becomes indexed. Researchers should always verify the coverage period before claiming a paper as indexed.