Journal Guideline Matcher

Look up your target journal to see whether it's indexed in Scopus, its ranking and its reference style, then paste your reference list to find the entries that break that style.

30,416 journals indexed in Scopus, from SCImago. Not sure where to submit? Try the Journal Finder.

Reference style (we use the journal's own style when we know it)

Journal data: SCImago Journal & Country Rank (based on Scopus). Reference styles: Citation Style Language project, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Check your journal and match your references to its style

Is the journal indexed in Scopus?

Type the journal’s name or ISSN. If it is in the SCImago Journal Rank list, it is indexed in Scopus, and you see its quartile, SJR score, H index, subject categories and whether it is open access. A journal that appeared in an older list but not the latest may have been dropped from Scopus, which is worth checking before you submit.

Not being listed doesn’t make a journal predatory: it may be new, or indexed only in Web of Science or PubMed. But if a journal you have never heard of emailed you asking for a paper, and it isn’t listed, check its peer review process, fees and editorial board carefully.

Why journals care about reference style

Every journal sets a reference style in its author guidelines, and a reference list that ignores it is one of the quickest signs to an editor that a manuscript was written for somewhere else. Formatting errors rarely cause a rejection on their own, but they add to the impression of a submission that was not prepared with care.

How the reference check works

For several thousand journals we know the reference style from the Citation Style Language project, the same style files Zotero and Mendeley use. For other journals, choose the style named in the author guidelines. Paste your list (one per line, numbered, or straight from a PDF) and each reference is checked against that style: numbering and its format, author–date order and years, alphabetical order, “et al.” in APA reference lists, quotation marks where MLA and IEEE use them, author format in Vancouver, and DOIs for journal articles.

The checks catch the most common problems, not every rule in a style manual. Use the flagged references as a to-do list, then read the journal’s guidelines for anything special, such as journal-title abbreviations or a limit on the number of references.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check if a journal is indexed in Scopus?

Type its name or ISSN into the Journal Guideline Matcher. Journals in the SCImago Journal Rank list are indexed in Scopus; you also see the quartile and SJR. For certainty, check the Scopus source list too, as indexing can change during the year.

What do Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 mean?

SCImago ranks journals within each subject category by SJR and splits them into quarters: Q1 is the top 25%. A journal can be Q1 in one category and Q2 in another; we show its best quartile.

How do I find my journal’s reference style?

We show it when we know it. Otherwise look for “Guide for authors”, “Author guidelines” or “Instructions for authors” on the journal’s website, under a heading such as References or Citations.

Does the matcher fix my references?

It shows which references break the style and why. To rebuild a reference correctly, paste its DOI into the Citation Builder.