crossref-indexing-requirement

Indexed with Crossref Requirement

To get indexed with Crossref (i.e., to register DOIs and make your journal metadata discoverable), a Bangladeshi Medical Journal must meet several technical, editorial, and policy-related requirements. Below is a clear breakdown:

✅ 1. Journal Eligibility Requirements

Your medical journal must:

  • Be a legitimate scholarly publication
  • Publish peer-reviewed research
  • Have a regular publication schedule (quarterly, biannual, annual, etc.)
  • Have a stable journal website
  • Display editorial board and peer-review policy
  • Follow publication ethics (COPE recommended)

Crossref does NOT evaluate research quality like PubMed or Scopus — it focuses on metadata quality and publishing standards.

✅ 2. Mandatory Technical Requirements

Your journal must have:

🔹 ISSN (Required)

  • Print ISSN and/or Online ISSN from Bangladesh National ISSN Centre
  • ISSN must be active and verifiable

🔹 DOI Membership Application

You must apply for Crossref membership:

Required information:

  • Publisher name (Journal authority or institution)
  • Official email
  • Journal website URL
  • ISSN
  • Publication type (Journal)
  • Country: Bangladesh

There is no membership fee or DOI registration fee for Bangladeshi Journal

(Waivers sometimes available for developing countries)

✅ 3. Required Journal Website Elements

Your journal website must clearly show:

Editorial Information

✔ Editor-in-Chief name
✔ Editorial board
✔ Institutional affiliation

Policies Pages

✔ Peer-review policy
✔ Publication ethics
✔ Plagiarism policy
✔ Retraction policy
✔ Open access policy

Article Pages Must Include:

✔ Title
✔ Authors
✔ Abstract
✔ Keywords
✔ References
✔ Publication date

✅ 4. Metadata Requirements (Critical)

Each article metadata must contain:

  • Article title
  • Author names
  • ORCID (recommended)
  • Abstract
  • References (important)
  • DOI landing page URL
  • License information (Creative Commons recommended)

Crossref requires structured XML metadata deposit or plugin-based submission.

✅ 5. Reference Linking Requirement

Your journal must:

  • Deposit reference lists
  • Enable citation linking
  • Use correct reference formatting

This improves:

✔ Google Scholar indexing
✔ Citation tracking
✔ Impact measurement

✅ 6. Publishing Ethics Compliance

Medical journals especially must follow:

  • ICMJE authorship criteria
  • COPE ethical guidelines
  • Patient consent statements
  • Clinical trial registration (if applicable)

✅ 7. Recommended (But Not Mandatory)

To improve acceptance and credibility:

✔ OJS platform (Open Journal Systems)
✔ Crossmark metadata
✔ Funding metadata
✔ ORCID integration
✔ CC-BY license

⚠ Important Note for Bangladeshi Journals

Many Bangladeshi journals get rejected due to:

❌ No ISSN display
❌ Fake editorial boards
❌ No peer-review page
❌ Broken article links
❌ Low-quality website
❌ Incomplete metadata

✅ After Crossref Approval

You will be able to:

  • Assign DOI to every article
  • Appear in global DOI databases
  • Enable citation tracking
  • Improve Google Scholar visibility
  • Integrate with PubMed Central (if eligible)

If you want, tell me:

  • Your journal name
  • Website link
  • Current ISSN status

👉 I can check whether your Bangladeshi Medical Journal is Crossref-ready and what exactly needs fixing.

Dr. Sadequel Islam Talukder
Experience Editor of Medical Journal
sadequel@yahoo.com