Selected Index And Selected Journals Of Economics: Spain And Western Europe In Scopus, 2011-2015

One of the most interesting lists of selected journals of Economics research is the prestigious index SCOPUS of Elsevier, which includes a good overview at World level. We analyse some of the interesting features of this index, particularly regarding Economics research in Spain and other Western European countries. We find that, by the number of journals published and selected in the index, the most outstanding countries are the United Kingdom (165) and the Netherlands (75). This agrees with the main role of the English language and the important activity of academic publishers of English journals in those countries. There is also an interesting number of selected journals published in Germany(33), Spain(14) and France (7) and a few ones published in other countries: Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Belgium, Austria, Finland and Cyprus. We list the selected journals of Spain, accordingly to the ranking SJR of Scimago, based on citations in this prestigious index. We find 5 Spanish journals which, fortunately, have reached the Q3 level and 9 the Q4 level of Western Europe. Belonging to any of both groups is important, as a very positive sign of distinction, because this index is highly selective including only around 20% of academic journals of Economics research published in Spain. We also analyse the important role that selected Economics journals have to foster better economic policies, in order to reach higher levels of economic development and quality of life, and we call for improvements in institutional and social support to Economics research in Spain as well as in the European Union.