Scopus indexed journals list 2026

Below: where to download Elsevier’s official list and how to filter it, a shortlist of engineering and computer science journals checked one by one on SCImago, how to choose between them, what Q1 to Q4 mean, and why you should check a journal again the week you submit. To check whether one particular journal is genuine, use our guide to checking a Scopus indexed journal.

Where can you download the official Scopus journals list?

From Elsevier, which owns Scopus. Its Scopus content policy and selection page links the Scopus source title list, a free Excel file. Elsevier’s page says the file includes the discontinued sources and is updated monthly. The edition linked when we checked, on 22 October 2026, was September 2026.

The September 2026 counts are from our own count of the file’s main sheet: 49,104 sources, active and inactive, of which 30,264 are active journals. Other sheets list conference proceedings.

To turn the Excel file into a list for your branch, filter the main sheet in this order:

1. “Active or Inactive”: keep Active.
2. “Source Type”: keep Journal, unless you also want book series or conference series.
3. “All Science Journal Classification Codes (ASJC)”: filter for the codes of your field. Codes starting 17 are computer science (1702 is Artificial Intelligence, 1711 Signal Processing), codes starting 22 are engineering (2205 Civil and Structural, 2208 Electrical and Electronic, 2210 Mechanical) and codes starting 21 are energy. The file’s ASJC sheet lists every code.
4. “Open Access Status”: filter it if you want only fully open-access journals.

Lists titled “Scopus indexed journals 2026” on other websites, often PDFs, are copies of this file or of SCImago. They go out of date within weeks and may still include discontinued titles, so download the current month’s file from Elsevier yourself.

Which Scopus indexed journals suit engineering and CS students?

The 40 journals are grouped into five areas: computer science and AI; electronics, communication and signal processing; electrical and energy; mechanical and civil; and multidisciplinary journals. Seven are Indian journals, from IETE, the Institution of Engineers (India), the Indian Academy of Sciences, DRDO and CSIR. “Best quartile” is the highest SJR quartile the journal holds in any of its SCImago subject categories for 2025; each quartile links to the journal’s SCImago page, where you can see every category. Open access “Yes” means every article is free to read and authors usually pay an article processing charge; “Yes, no fee” marks journals whose publisher states it charges authors nothing; hybrid means a subscription journal that also offers paid open access. Fees change, so check the journal’s current article processing charge on its own site.

Computer science and AI

Electronics, communication and signal processing

Electrical and energy

Mechanical and civil

Multidisciplinary engineering and science

How do you choose the right Scopus journal for your paper?

• Match the scope first. Read the journal’s aims and scope and the titles in its last few issues. A strong paper sent to a journal outside its scope is often rejected without review. The papers in your literature survey show which journals publish work like yours.
• Weigh the quartile against your deadline. Top-quartile journals are often more selective, and review can take longer. Many journals print received, revised and accepted dates on each article; read them on a few recent papers to see the real pace, and plan for at least one revision round.
• Check the fee model. Fully open-access journals usually charge an article processing charge after acceptance; a few, marked “Yes, no fee” above, do not. Hybrid journals usually let you publish without that charge, or pay to make your article open. Check the journal’s current article processing charge on its own site.
• Reach the journal through its publisher. Cloned websites copy real journal names and ISSNs. Open the journal from the publisher’s own site (ieee.org, sciencedirect.com, springer.com, mdpi.com and so on), and match its title, ISSN and publisher with its Scopus Sources record. Our guide shows how to spot a cloned or hijacked journal.
• Follow the journal’s author guidelines. IEEE journals use the IEEE template; see our IEEE paper format guide. For the paper itself, see how to write a research paper.
• Check your university’s rule. PhD regulations may ask for a particular database, quartile or kind of journal. Since the UGC-CARE list ended, universities apply their own criteria; see our UGC-CARE list guide.

What do Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 mean?

A quartile places a journal within one subject category. SCImago ranks the journals in each category by their SJR, a citation-based prestige score, and splits them into four equal groups:

• Q1: the top 25% of journals in that category.
• Q2: the next 25%.
• Q3: the 25% below that.
• Q4: the bottom 25%.

A journal in several categories has a quartile in each, and the tables above show the best one, which may not be the category your paper belongs to. Energies, for example, is Q1 in Engineering (miscellaneous) for 2025 but Q2 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Defence Science Journal is Q2 in Multidisciplinary but Q3 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Open the SCImago link to see the quartile in your own category. Scopus publishes its own quartiles based on CiteScore, and the two can disagree. When a rule asks for a “Q1 journal”, ask whether it means SJR or CiteScore, and in which subject. Our Scopus journals guide compares the metrics.

Is a journal on this list still indexed when you submit?

Check it again; do not assume. Scopus re-evaluates journals continuously, and when it discontinues one, nothing published after the final covered issue is added to Scopus. The September 2026 source title list shows how this affects well-known journals: Alexandria Engineering Journal (Elsevier) and Case Studies in Thermal Engineering (Elsevier), both open-access engineering journals, are on its Discontinued Titles sheet, with final coverage in 2025. When we checked, SCImago still showed both as Q1 in SJR 2025, because its rankings describe the past year. We left them out of the tables above.

• Search the ISSN on Scopus Sources the week you submit, and again if your paper sits in review for months.
• Check the Discontinued Titles sheet of the current month’s Excel file.
• Do not rely on SCImago alone for current status: its rankings are published once a year and can still show a quartile for a journal Scopus has since discontinued.
• Match the journal’s website, title and ISSN with the Scopus record before you pay any fee.

What discontinuation means for papers already published is explained in our guide to discontinued titles.

How can we help you publish in a Scopus journal?

We write your paper in IEEE, Springer, Elsevier or the journal’s own format, shortlist journals whose scope fits your results using the checks on this page, and help you answer reviewers. Acceptance is decided by the journal, and we are not affiliated with Scopus, Elsevier or SCImago. See research paper writing and publication for M.Tech and PhD papers, and PhD guidance if the paper is part of your thesis work.

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