Why are some publications outside the ranking year range?

Elsevier gives the ranking agencies a snapshot of data that they use as part of the ranking scores. This set of publications is static. However, the data in SciVal is updated weekly, with adjustments potentially taking place to both old and new data. As a result, the data available in SciVal today may be slightly different to the data given to the ranking agencies (fig 1).

Adjustments can occur to any part of the metadata for a publication, including the year of publication.

The year of publication for some articles can change based on number of different reasons such as:

• Articles in Press: An "Article in Press" refers to a journal article that has been accepted for publication and available online but has not yet been assigned to a specific issue or volume of the Journal.
• Late Publication: Sometimes, articles might be published later than expected due to various reasons, for example an extended peer review process, author revisions, or scheduling within the journal.
• Reprocessing of Articles: Articles might be reprocessed due to corrections, retractions, or updates, which can change the publication date.
• Online Early Release: Some journals release articles online before they're officially published in a print issue, causing them to appear earlier in the database.
• Data Update Delays: Occasional delays in data updates from Scopus could result in articles appearing outside the ranking year.

With all the reasons listed above, the original year captured by SciVal can be different to the final volume and issue year, even by a couple of years. This is why you may find publications considered in the rankings that sit outside of the ranking agencies' year ranges.