Openai/69175aae-d5ec-8009-9b40-7d5673d2e160

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User: Who made Scopus the yardstick for excellence in paper publishing?

Who made Scopus the yardstick for excellence in paper publishing?

Assistant: No single person or organization officially “made Scopus the yardstick” for excellence in publishing.

No single person or organization officially “made Scopus the yardstick” for excellence in publishing. Instead, its status developed over time because of how institutions use it.

Here’s the clearer breakdown:

1. Scopus was created by Elsevier

• Scopus is a large abstract and citation database launched by Elsevier in 2004.
• Elsevier did not declare it the global standard; they simply built the platform.

2. Universities and research bodies adopted it

Over time, many institutions worldwide chose Scopus for:

• Research evaluation
• Promotion and tenure decisions
• Tracking citations
• Rating journals and researchers

Because these institutions used Scopus-based metrics, it gradually became a benchmark.

3. Governments and accreditation agencies reinforced its importance

In several countries, national research funding agencies, ranking bodies, or ministry guidelines specify:

• “Publish in Scopus-indexed journals,” or
• Use Scopus metrics (h-index, citations).

This made Scopus an unofficial global standard.

4. Journal indexing became a quality signal

Researchers began viewing “Scopus-indexed” as:

• Proof of peer-review
• Journal legitimacy
• Wider visibility

This further cemented Scopus as a yardstick.

In short:

No one person made Scopus the standard. Its authority comes from global institutional adoption, not a formal decision.

If you want, I can explain why some people criticize Scopus or compare it with Web of Science, Google Scholar, or DOAJ.