In today’s crowded marketplace, journals are always looking for a way to stand out among their competitors. One such way is to prioritize index inclusion. If you’re new to indexing, in its most basic form, journal indexes are bibliographic databases with links to the full text. Some databases index just titles, just abstracts, or full text. Some are affiliated with institutions and some are backed by publishers. Some indexes are free (such as Google Scholar and PubMed) while others charge a subscription fee (such as Web of Science). With all of this in mind, the task of applying for indexes can be daunting and overwhelming. But if you’re unsure whether the process is worth the benefit, here are a few reasons you should consider indexing your titles.

Visibility and growth: Indexes allow a wide variety of users to search across many titles and publishers, thus allowing your journal to reach an audience of readers who may not otherwise have had access to or been aware of the title. This will greatly widen your potential author and reviewer pool, and perhaps even increase your submission numbers. It could also drive traffic to your journal’s website, thus increasing ad capabilities.