I’m applying for EB-1A and am qualifying under the scholarly articles criterion. All my publications are in peer‑reviewed journals, but only in electronic form — there is no print edition at all. Does USCIS count such journals for the EB-1 criteria, or is a printed edition specifically required?
A printed edition is nowhere required in 8 CFR — it says „scholarly articles in professional or major trade publications,” without specifying the format. When I put together my packet, two of my articles were only in online editions; the officer didn’t even bring up the paper version. The main thing is that the journal is peer-reviewed and indexed in Web of Science or Scopus — that’s what the officer looks at, not whether you have a physical copy on the shelf.
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Scopus indexing is the baseline, but when I was assembling the package I saw the officer also checks the impact factor — if it’s below 0.5 they may issue an RFE asking why exactly this journal is a major trade publication. Better to attach a Scimago screenshot with the journal’s ranking right away.
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My package also had online-only — the officer didn’t bring it up at all )
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