Free tool, journals
Journal checker
Test an ISSN and go straight to the official indexes.
Enter a journal’s ISSN here and the checker will tell you if the number is valid. Then it gives links to the journal’s official records in the ISSN Portal, Scopus, Web of Science and DOAJ.
Many scholars ask why the ISSN needs checking at all. A dodgy journal can simply print a made-up ISSN on its website. A cloned journal copies the real ISSN of a genuine journal and shows it as its own. A made-up number mostly fails on the check digit, you will know as soon as you click. For a cloned journal you have to open the official records yourself and compare them with the journal’s website.
Not sure the answer fits your study? WhatsApp us or call, and we’ll look at it with you.
How the tool works
An ISSN has eight characters, written as two groups of four with a hyphen in the middle. The last one we call the check digit. ISO 3297, the international standard, says how to get it from the first seven. The first digit gets weight 8, the next one 7, and so on down to 2 for the seventh. Multiply every digit with its weight and add up all seven products. Now divide by 11 and see what remainder you get. Eleven minus that remainder is your check digit. When this comes to 10 the ISSN shows X in last place, and when there is no remainder the digit is 0.
Take 0378-5955 for example. The sum is 0×8 + 3×7 + 7×6 + 8×5 + 5×4 + 9×3 + 5×2, and that comes to 160. When 160 is divided by 11 the remainder is 6. Eleven minus six gives 5, and 5 is the last digit printed, so this ISSN passes. Put some other number in the last place and the checker says invalid. That is how a typing mistake or a made-up number gets caught.
When the number is valid you get four links under the result, and they go to four different official records like this.
- The ISSN Portal, run by the ISSN International Centre, shows who registered the ISSN, the exact title of the journal and its country.
- Clarivate’s Master Journal List shows if Web of Science covers the journal and under which index.
- Scopus Sources does not open from a link that has the ISSN inside it. So when you click, the checker copies the ISSN to your clipboard, and you paste it in the search box on the Scopus page.
- DOAJ lists open access journals, but only the ones that meet DOAJ’s own standards.
Open every official record and match the journal title, the publisher name and the web address with what is given in the journal’s website. If the web address there is different from the site that emailed you, stop there and talk to your guide before sending anything. There are some more things to look at before you pick a journal, our guide to choosing a Scopus journal has them. The result also carries a note that UGC is no longer updating the UGC-CARE list.
Questions scholars ask
The journal has two ISSNs. Which one do I check?
Check both. Many journals have one ISSN for print and one for online, mostly marked as p-ISSN and e-ISSN. Type one ISSN in each box. Both should pass the check, and in the official records both should lead to the same journal title.
The website says the journal is “UGC-CARE approved”. Does that count?
Not on its own. In October 2024 UGC decided to stop listing journals in UGC-CARE, and the notice about it is dated 11 February 2025. Then on 16 July 2025 UGC gave one more notice with a reference list of 1,474 journals. It says being on the list or off it “does not imply validation or endorsement”. So if a journal says it is UGC-CARE approved now, that is old information. Check Scopus, Web of Science and your own university’s rule.
The ISSN fails the check. Is the journal fake?
Not always. First look for a typing error. Many times a 0 gets typed as the letter O. After that, search the ISSN Portal with the journal’s title. If the official record show a different ISSN, or no record at all, be very doubtful about that journal.
Is the journal indexed if it appears in Scopus Sources?
Don’t go by the name only. See the coverage years on its Scopus page. Suppose coverage stopped in some year, then whatever came out after that year is not in Scopus index. Your paper coming out next year will be indexed only if the coverage is still running then.
Do you store the ISSNs I check?
No. The check digit is calculated inside your browser itself. The four official records also open in new tabs, directly from your browser.
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