Sherpa Romeo Indexing: An Important First Step for IJAPS

We are glad to inform you that Sherpa Romeo has recently indexed the International Journal of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (IJAPS). For a young open-access journal, this is an encouraging milestone and an important step in its academic journey.

Sherpa Romeo may not be well-known to some authors, but it plays a significant and valuable role in academic publishing. Sherpa Romeo is a well-known international database that records the open-access policies of scientific journals, particularly regarding copyright, archiving rights, and how authors can share their published work. Through this database, researchers can easily know whether a journal allows them to deposit their manuscripts in institutional repositories, personal websites, or other academic platforms.

Scholarly publications are increasingly relying on this type of transparency. Many universities, funding agencies, and research institutions require authors to archive their work in institutional repositories. Before doing so, they often check Sherpa Romeo to confirm the self-archiving policies and copyright rules of the journal in which the article is published. Inclusion in this database, therefore, helps authors understand how to share their work responsibly while respecting the journal’s publishing policies.

For a new journal such as IJAPS, being listed in Sherpa Romeo indicates that it follows clear, transparent, open-access publishing practices. It also improves the journal’s visibility within the global academic publishing ecosystem. Authors and institutions across the world can easily find the journal’s policy information and confidently engage with it.

While this is an important first milestone, the journey of a scientific journal always progresses gradually. Our next goals include inclusion in widely recognised databases such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Scopus, and, eventually, PubMed. Indexing in these databases significantly enhances the discoverability, accessibility, and academic impact of the research published in a journal.

Achieving these milestones depends not only on the editorial team but also on the active participation of our scientific community. High-quality submissions remain the most important factor in building a strong journal. We therefore encourage researchers and clinicians in aesthetic plastic surgery to consider IJAPS as a platform to publish original research, innovative techniques, clinical experiences, and review articles. Another important way to strengthen the journal is through scholarly citations. When authors cite relevant articles published in IJAPS in their submissions to other journals, it increases the visibility of the work published here and demonstrates that the journal is contributing to the scientific dialogue in our speciality.

The growth of a journal is always a collective effort. Every article submitted, every review completed, and every citation made contributes to the academic development of the journal. Sherpa Romeo indexing represents an important beginning for IJAPS. With the continued support of our authors, reviewers, and readers, we hope to progress steadily towards indexing in DOAJ, Scopus, and PubMed, and to further strengthen IJAPS as a global academic platform for aesthetic plastic surgery.