Interview with Khurshid Bozorov, Professor of the Department of Organic Synthesis and Bioorganic Chemistry, Samarkand State University

    What is "Scopus" and "h-index"?

     - "Scopus" is a bibliographic database created by the academic publishing house Elsevier since 2004. Elsevier publishes the 4 largest scientific journals in the world, including databases that count the citation of articles, books, patents and abstracts published in them. That is why the Scopus database has a high rating and reliability.

    - Could you share your experience of publishing articles in Scopus databases?

     - Every scientific journal has a "web page". Check the Indexing section of these pages to see if this journal is indexed by Scopus. But it should not be limited to this. The best way is to search the Scopus database by entering the title of the journal. "Scopus" - the database includes more than 11,600 publishers, of which 36,000 are "peer-reviewed" journals, that is, after you submit your manuscript to a particular journal, your manuscript is reviewed by the editor-in-chief, at least 2 independent ones are sent to the reviewer. The examination process is different, it can last from at least 1 month to 4-6 months, sometimes up to 1 year.

     - What languages should the article be in?

     - Mostly in English. A very small number of Scopus journals are published in German, Chinese, Russian and other languages.

    - How to distinguish between a journal included in the Scopus database and a journal not included in the Scopus database?

     - It's very simple. Firstly, this journal is searched in the Scopus database, but there is one important factor here. As I mentioned above, there are 36,000 "peer-reviewed" journals in the Scopus database, as well as over 2,000 newly added journals. In most cases, most of these journals are removed from this database after 1 year as a result of non-compliance with Scopus requirements. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the "history" of any magazine. That is, if the journal of your choice in your field has been available in Scopus for the past 5-7 years, then you can submit your article to this journal. If a journal has an impact factor, it is very reliable and worth choosing.

     - Your articles included in the Scopus database have a high “Hirsch index” among SamSU professors and lecturers. How did you achieve this? What is the "h-index" itself?

     - "h-index" or "Hirsch index" is a scientific indicator proposed by UC physicist Jorge Hirsch in 2005 to assess the scientific performance of physicists. "Hirsch index" is a quantitative characteristic based on the number of published publications and the number of citations of these publications in the scientific activity of a scientist or researcher. Thus, the value of the "Hirsch index" directly depends on the number of published publications and the number of citations on them. I mainly published my research results in journals with a high impact factor and a large number of readers. I usually focus on the quality of the article, not its quantity.

    - What are your recommendations for young researchers on writing scientific articles?

     - I advise young researchers to get more acquainted with scientific articles in journals with high ratings in their fields. As a result, they acquire new scientific skills and ideas. I would recommend paying more attention to journals in the Science Citation Index - SCI database (what we usually call Web of Science) when publishing your research results in the form of articles. Scopus and Science Citation Index (SCI) databases, both of which are based on citation indexes. Scopus is owned by Elsevier and the Science Citation Index (SCI) is owned by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters). While Scopus targets independent journals in science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences, SCI primarily indexes technical and scientific publications, including the natural and social sciences. Journals indexed by Scopus and SCI are much better than non-indexed journals and there is fierce competition between them. Elsevier journals indexed by Scopus are somewhat inferior to journals indexed by SCI in terms of quality and relevance. This is because the SCI Indexing Database attaches great importance to the credibility, reliability, quality, novelty, and academic relevance of journals. Therefore, SCI journals adhere to strict publishing guidelines. On the other hand, the Scopus publishing rules are also strict, but relatively easy to follow. Assessing journal quality through database indexing results in fewer journals being indexed in SCI and more journals in Scopus. In conclusion, Scopus excels quantitatively and SCI excels qualitatively. Therefore, if you are confident in the potential of your research work, you should browse and select SCI journals, not Scopus. Since almost all journals indexed by SCI are also indexed in the Scopus database, in contrast, many journals indexed in Scopus are not indexed in the SCI database. Abroad, your scientific potential is assessed based on the fact that you have published articles in more SCI journals. Almost all journals in the SCI database have an impact factor value. Simply put, if you publish an article in the SCI database, you will end up publishing the article in the Scopus database at the very least.

Conversation of an employee of
Information Service of
Samarkand State University
Bekhruz SHAMSIDDINOV.
Photos taken by Shavkat AKRAMOV