Journals Losing Scopus Indexation — 5th Edition
Welcome back to our regular series on Scopus removal candidates.
This is our third edition of 2026 — and it gives us reason to pause.
This month’s list includes four journals: three Q3 and one Q2. The Q2 entry deserves particular attention — not because it is exceptional, but because it is becoming a pattern.
As we noted in our previous edition, Q2 journals are no longer rare in this list. A quartile reflects a journal’s standing at the moment of assessment — not a permanent guarantee. Editorial policies shift in a single season. A journal that looked trustworthy twelve months ago may be sending mass invitations today promising “fast publication on any topic.”
This edition covers:
- Three Q3 journals that have become textbook publication mills — conveyor belts with no thematic filter and no genuine peer review;
- One Q2 journal that still holds its ranking on paper, but is already showing every sign of predatory transformation.
Candidates for Removal:
ISSN: 1941-5524
🔗 Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101033328
🔗 Journal website: https://journalofdaoiststudies.org
Overview:
The journal has existed since 2008 and, until 2026, operated as a legitimate niche academic publication with a strict focus on Daoism: one volume per year, 14–16 articles, all exclusively addressing Daoist philosophy, history and practice. Publisher: University of Hawaii Press.
In 2026, something clearly went wrong. In the first seven months alone the journal published 12 (!) issues — nine of which are designated as “special issues” (S1–S9). These special issues contain anything: orthodontics, cybersecurity, Indonesia’s carbon tax, Iraqi banking analysis, automotive suspension components, dental case reports. The connection to Daoism is purely cosmetic: some authors append the word “Dao” to the title of a paper that has no actual relationship to the subject.
Telling detail: the submission date and the publication date in these special issues are identical — peer review is effectively absent.
At the time of analysis, articles from the special issues have not yet been indexed in Scopus, and the journal appears to already be under review by the CSAB.
Journal profile:
- Quartile: Q3;
- Country: United States;
- Subject area: Daoist philosophy, history, religion;
- APC (Article Processing Charge): 1,800 USD.
Key violations:
- Nine special issues published in seven months instead of one annual volume;
- Special issue articles bear no relation to the journal’s Aims & Scope;
- Zero peer-review time — submission date matches publication date;
- The word “Dao” in a title is used as formal justification for publishing any material.
Risk assessment:
Probability of Scopus removal: 100%.
Probability of special issue articles being indexed and subsequently deindexed: 100%.
ISSN: 2150-7988
🔗 Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101017598
🔗 Journal website: https://cspub-ijcisim.org
Overview:
The journal has been published since 2004 and, until 2024, was issued by Machine Intelligence Research Labs. Its scope covers computer information systems and industrial management applications — a stable academic model publishing one volume per year.
Everything changed in 2024 when the journal transferred to a new publisher: Cerebration Science Publishing Co., Limited (Hong Kong). A publisher change of this type is itself a warning signal.
In 2025 the journal published one volume with over 100 articles, but the proportion of Chinese educational papers increased sharply — papers where the link to information systems amounts to the words “big data” or “AI” in the title. Studies on dance, music education, physical education and party-ideological training in universities are not computer information systems, regardless of how the author frames the headline.
By 2026 the special issue pipeline was running at full capacity: ten issues in seven months (two regular plus eight special, numbered 1s through 8s). Special issues regularly contain papers on public procurement in Kyrgyzstan, geopolitical shocks on India’s stock market, coffee production in Southeast Asia, and rubber-composite concrete structures. The link to computer information systems is formal at best — and often absent.
At the time of analysis, special issue articles remain unindexed in Scopus, and the journal may already be under CSAB review.
Journal profile:
- Quartile: Q3;
- Country: Hong Kong (new publisher since 2024);
- Subject area: Computer information systems, industrial management;
- APC: 1,500 USD.
Key violations:
- Publisher change in 2024 followed immediately by a mass-publication model;
- Eight special issues in seven months of 2026;
- Special issue articles fall outside the journal’s Aims & Scope;
- Regular 2025 volume flooded with Chinese educational papers carrying a nominal AI connection.
Risk assessment:
Probability of Scopus removal: 100%.
Probability of special issue articles being indexed and subsequently deindexed: 100%.
ISSN: 0827-3383 / E-ISSN: 1917-7844
🔗 Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/33328
🔗 Journal website: https://internationalsped.com
Overview:
The journal has been published since 1985 — over 40 years of academic standing in special and inclusive education. Publisher: Sped sp. z o.o. (Poland, Bielsko-Biala). Indexed in both Scopus and Web of Science. Until 2025 it published reliably: two issues per year, a strict focus on special education, defectology and assistive technologies.
In 2026 it collapsed. The first seven months produced 14 issues: two regular and 13 special (1s–13s). Special issue S13 alone contains approximately 110 articles — and here the situation becomes striking.
Of those roughly 110 articles in S13, between five and eight are genuinely related to special education. The remainder include: lower-limb surgery under local anaesthesia, dynamic navigation system accuracy in dental implantology, skin cancer classification using multifractal analysis, ACL reconstruction and quadriceps training on a treadmill, financial hedging and CVaR portfolio optimisation, fiscal potential analysis of South Sulawesi province, and Janissaries and Bektashism in the Ottoman Empire. This is not an exception — it is the norm across every special issue.
A separate red flag: the sole editorial contact for authors is a WhatsApp number, +968 96502464 — country code +968 is Oman. A Polish registered company whose only communication channel is an Omani WhatsApp number is a clear indicator that the actual operators of this journal are not in Poland.
At the time of analysis, special issue articles remain unindexed in Scopus and Web of Science, and the journal is almost certainly already under CSAB review.
Journal profile:
- Quartile: Q3;
- Country: Poland (Sped sp. z o.o.) — actual operators: Oman;
- Subject area: Special and inclusive education;
- APC: Not publicly disclosed; submission via WhatsApp.
Key violations:
- 13 special issues in seven months of 2026;
- ~95% of special issue articles have no connection to special education;
- Editorial contact is an Omani WhatsApp number rather than an institutional email address;
- Declared peer review is incompatible with the publication pace and article volumes.
Risk assessment:
Probability of Scopus and Web of Science removal: 100%.
Probability of special issue articles being indexed and subsequently deindexed: 100%.
eISSN: 3079-0875
🔗 Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101392299
🔗 Journal website: https://jidmis.org
Overview:
The journal was established in 2024 — it is two years old. Publisher: Nexora Academic Press (Romania). Declared focus: decision sciences, AI and information systems.
The journal’s homepage displays a CiteScore of 3.4 (2026) — an abnormally high metric for a publication that did not exist three years ago. Mature journals build that figure over decades. For a journal with two complete volumes to its name, this is either the result of citation manipulation or misrepresented data. We covered the criteria Scopus actually uses to evaluate journals — and what really triggers removal — in How Scopus Decides to Remove a Journal.
The website declares one volume per year, a 17% acceptance rate and a 75-day decision timeline — the profile of a serious publication. The 2026 reality is three issues (Vol. 3, Vol. 3 No. 1s, Vol. 3 No. 2s), with the first special issue appearing just two years after the journal was founded.
In Vol. 3 No. 2s (56 articles, June 2026), roughly 40% of articles have no connection to decision making or information science: mathematical modelling of tumour growth, water absorption by plant roots, fracture mechanics in concrete beams, aerosol hydrodynamics in respiratory tracts, mathematical constraints of DNA supercoiling, PDE-based tissue regeneration. The link to the declared Aims & Scope is zero.
Most revealing is the authorship structure. In a single special issue, the same five or six Indian authors appear simultaneously across five to eight entirely different articles. Alongside them, the same cluster of Chinese and Central Asian “co-authors” migrates between papers on completely unrelated topics. This is the classic signature of a paper mill: a network of authors redistributing publications among themselves regardless of actual contribution.
At the time of analysis, special issue articles remain unindexed in Scopus, and given the pace of development, the journal may already be on CSAB’s radar.
Journal profile:
- Quartile: Q2;
- Country: Romania (Nexora Academic Press);
- Subject area: Decision sciences, AI, information systems;
- APC: 1,200 USD.
Key violations:
- CiteScore 3.4 for a 2-year-old journal — a marker of citation manipulation;
- Declared frequency of one volume per year — in practice already three issues in 2026;
- ~40% of special issue articles fall outside the Aims & Scope;
- Paper mill signature: the same authors appearing simultaneously in 5–8 unrelated papers in a single issue;
- Journal created from scratch with a commercial objective and no academic heritage.
Risk assessment:
Probability of Scopus removal: 100%.
Probability of special issue articles being indexed and subsequently deindexed: 100%.
🔒 CHECK YOUR SPECIAL ISSUE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT
All four journals in this edition used the same scheme: a special issue factory. If you are planning to submit to any special issue — verify it first.
✓ 6 verifiable red flags drawn from real 2025–2026 Scopus removal cases
✓ Takes under 5 minutes to complete
✓ Delivered instantly via WhatsApp
Conclusions
This edition covered four journals, and when viewed together they reveal a single, coherent picture.
All four operate the same scheme: the special issue factory. A journal with an established reputation and a quartile opens a series of special issues into which anything is accepted — dentistry, civil engineering, financial hedging, Ottoman military history — as long as the payment clears. Article published, peer review completed in zero days.
This edition introduced something new. Until now, this series predominantly covered journals that had deteriorated — publications that once had academic credibility and then degraded. Today’s list includes JIDMIS: a two-year-old journal, built from the outset for commercial purposes, that nevertheless acquired Q2 status in Scopus through citation manipulation. This represents a qualitatively different threat: not degradation, but the systematic fabrication of academic credibility from scratch. We outlined the full set of 5 warning signs your Scopus journal will be excluded in 2026 in a dedicated article.
And the critical point: quartile provided no protection. IJSE is Q3 with 40 years of history — and already has 13 special issues in seven months of 2026 with an Omani WhatsApp number as its sole editorial contact. JIDMIS is Q2 in Scopus — and in a single special issue the same five or six authors appear simultaneously across eight unrelated papers.
Researchers who select a journal on quartile alone risk the same outcome in 2026: money spent, time lost, and a paper that either never reaches Scopus or is deindexed after the first CSAB review. The pattern is no longer hypothetical — it is documented, recurring, and accelerating.
Before every submission: verify the actual dynamics of the issue archive, review the authorship structure of recent special issues, and pay attention to detail — who is the publisher, where is the editorial email, how many special issues have appeared in the last six months. Or consult specialists who monitor these journals daily and identify risks before they become obvious.
For comparison with confirmed removals, Arxivia lists journals delisted from Scopus in April–May 2026 and the June 2026 delisting update with direct Scopus links.
If you are choosing where to submit a new paper, Arxivia’s AI journal matcher for verified Scopus journals compares scope, quartile, APC and review time before you format the manuscript.