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A Web of Science journal listing is one of the clearest signals of editorial rigor and citation credibility a paper can carry. If you’re still asking what is Web of Science and how it differs from Scopus, or you already know which index you’re targeting, our editors help you move from manuscript to acceptance with journal selection, formatting, and submission support built specifically around Clarivate’s indexing criteria.
Web of Science is a citation database, maintained by Clarivate, that curates journals meeting strict editorial, ethical, and publication-consistency standards. Within its Core Collection, journals are grouped into four indices by subject area — knowing which one your target title sits in matters as much as knowing the journal's name.
Covers natural sciences, engineering, and medicine. This is the index most researchers mean when they ask what is SCI journal status — it's the largest and most cited of the four collections.
An SSCI journal spans economics, psychology, education, sociology, and related social sciences, tracked for citation impact and cross-disciplinary reach.
An AHCI journal publishes in history, literature, philosophy, the arts, and language studies — fields where citation patterns differ from the sciences.
An ESCI journal has passed the same editorial vetting as the other three but hasn't yet accumulated the citation history needed for a full index assignment.
What is SCI journal, in plain terms? It's shorthand researchers use for any journal indexed in Web of Science's science-focused collection — most often SCIE today, since the original SCI print index was superseded by its expanded, online successor. All four indices — SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, and ESCI — sit inside the same Web of Science Core Collection and are evaluated against Clarivate's shared quality criteria, with subject-specific reviewers assessing each application.
Before you commit weeks of formatting and submission work to a target title, confirm it directly. The Web of Science Master Journal List (MJL) is Clarivate's free, public lookup tool for exactly this question — is a journal currently indexed, and in which of the four collections.
Search by journal title, ISSN, or keyword, and a journal's profile page will show precisely whether it sits in SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, or ESCI, along with its subject categories and coverage dates. It's also the safest way to spot predatory or delisted titles claiming a Web of Science affiliation they no longer hold.
Our journal selection team cross-checks every recommendation against the Master Journal List before it reaches you, so you're never working from an outdated or unverified index claim.
Enter your target journal's name or ISSN into the Master Journal List search bar to pull up its current indexing profile.
Narrow results to the Core Collection and select SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, or ESCI to confirm which index the journal is actually listed under.
Check subject categories, coverage start date, and publisher details before you invest time preparing a submission.
Paste your title and abstract into Clarivate's Manuscript Matcher for a shortlist of indexed journals aligned with your topic.
Getting into a Web of Science indexed journal is a matching problem as much as a writing one. Our team pairs strategic journal selection with subject-matched manuscript editing so your paper is aimed at the right index and reads like it belongs there.
We shortlist Web of Science indexed journals — SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, or ESCI — matched to your manuscript's subject, scope, and quality tier, verified against the Master Journal List.
Subject-matter editors refine language, structure, and formatting so your manuscript meets the editorial standards Web of Science indices expect — before an editor or reviewer ever sees it.
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Our native English editors and rejection shields can help you in your revisions. We ensure unlimited revisions, editing, and reformatting of the manuscript for publish-ready quality journals.
Every recommendation we make is checked against these standards before it ever reaches you.
JPE helped me understand and address every reviewer comment clearly. Their guidance made revising my manuscript much easier. Thanks to them, my resubmission was smooth and well-received by the journal.
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All four sit inside the Web of Science Core Collection but cover different fields. SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded) covers the natural sciences and engineering; SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) covers the social sciences; AHCI (Arts & Humanities Citation Index) covers arts and humanities; and ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index) holds journals that meet the same editorial standards but haven’t yet built the citation history for placement in one of the other three.
SCI stands for Science Citation Index, the original Web of Science collection launched in 1964. Today, researchers use “SCI journal” as shorthand for any title indexed in Web of Science’s science-focused collection — in practice, that almost always means SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded), since SCIE replaced the original print-era SCI as the active, continuously updated index. So when someone asks what an SCI journal means, they’re usually asking whether a journal carries current SCIE indexing.
Neither database is universally “more prestigious” — they use different selection criteria and cover overlapping but distinct sets of journals. Web of Science is often viewed as more selective in certain fields due to its long-standing curation model, while Scopus indexes a broader journal pool. Many institutions and funding bodies accept either, though some disciplines and countries have a stated preference, so it’s worth checking your institution’s specific requirement before choosing a target.
Yes. A large number of reputable journals are indexed in both Web of Science and Scopus simultaneously, since the two databases evaluate journals independently against their own criteria. Dual indexing generally signals stronger, more consistent editorial and publication standards, and it gives your published work visibility across both citation ecosystems.
Search the journal’s title or ISSN in the Web of Science Master Journal List (mjl.clarivate.com), Clarivate’s free public lookup tool. If the journal appears, its profile page will confirm which index it sits in — SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, or ESCI — along with its subject categories and coverage dates. Avoid relying on a journal’s own website claims alone, since indexing status can lapse or be misrepresented.
Web of Science is the overall research platform, while the Core Collection is its curated heart — the set of journals vetted against Clarivate’s editorial and quality criteria and organized into SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, and ESCI. The wider Web of Science platform also links out to specialty collections such as BIOSIS Previews and Zoological Record, but “Web of Science indexed” in an academic context almost always refers to Core Collection inclusion.
Not directly. Q1–Q4 quartile rankings come from Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and are assigned based on an Impact Factor, which requires a journal to have accumulated enough citation history — something ESCI titles typically haven’t yet done. Most ESCI journals don’t carry a JCR quartile until they graduate into SCIE, SSCI, or AHCI, though this varies by title and discipline.
Timelines vary widely by journal and field, but most Web of Science indexed journals run a peer-review cycle of a few months to over a year, factoring in initial screening, one or more rounds of reviewer feedback, and revisions. Choosing a well-matched journal upfront and submitting a clean, correctly formatted manuscript are the two biggest factors in avoiding unnecessary delays.
Yes, this happens frequently. Some journals advertise a Web of Science or SCIE affiliation they never had, no longer hold, or have had suspended. Always verify indexing status directly through the Master Journal List rather than trusting a journal’s own homepage — this is one of the fastest ways to screen out predatory or delisted titles before you submit.
No. Impact Factors are published annually through Journal Citation Reports and generally apply to journals in SCIE and SSCI once they’ve built sufficient citation history. AHCI journals are typically evaluated with different metrics rather than a traditional Impact Factor, and ESCI journals usually don’t carry one yet, since Impact Factor calculation requires several years of indexed citation data.
