Brazil now occupies a prominent place in the international scientific community in several areas of knowledge. However, Brazilian scientific journals are still far from achieving the same international prestige that already surrounds many researchers in the country. In order for the excellence of studies produced in national laboratories to also translate into the appreciation of Brazilian scientific journals, it is necessary to develop editorial policies that allow putting an end to this apparent paradox.
What has become clear in recent years is that the key to gaining more prominence and international visibility is to evolve in increasing impact rates. The indicator is calculated by dividing the number of citations to your articles by the number of published articles.
The experience of the journal Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz has much to contribute to this. Created in 1909 by sanitarian Oswaldo Cruz, Memórias demonstrates the ability to combine innovation and tradition – following the same centenary commitment of Fiocruz, where it is edited. One of the oldest scientific publications in Latin America still in circulation, the journal has just achieved the status of the region's most important journal in the biomedical area. The nomination from the Institute for Scientific Informatiom (ISI) comes in the centenary year of Memoirs.
Among the modernization actions that explain the magazine's success are free access to content via the Internet and publication in English. Still in the 90s, Memórias was already part of the Scielo base, a platform for scientific publications in Latin America with free content. There was investment in a digital article submission system, which streamlined and made the publication process more transparent. In 2008, the magazine made all the content published in its 100 years of history available for free download. Also last year, articles began to have the DOI, an international system for identifying scientific articles – a kind of digital CPF that guarantees the existence and publication of the article in question.
The publication has one more advantage: publishing in it is free. Unlike other international magazines, which charge hundreds of dollars per published page, at Memórias the process is completely free. In order to improve the impact factor of our scientific journals, researchers from all over the world must have access to what is published in them and also the possibility of publishing in Brazil. Everyone wants to see their work published in “Science”, “Nature” and other similar magazines. Making national and international authors opt for Memórias or for any Brazilian magazine is a matter of convincing. Increasingly, our publications need to be international, impactful, reliable and professional.
Special attention should be given to excellent Brazilian researchers. How to make them publish more in Brazil, in journals that still have a lower impact factor than foreign ones? This conviction, and this has also been shown by our experiences with Memórias, comes at a time when our authors recognize other outstanding researchers, international references, publishing in the journal.
That is why, even with all the modernization measures, nothing replaces the quality of published articles. The structuring of a network of renowned reviewers, national and international, who make a severe screening of those scientific knowledge that are in fact unprecedented and impactful, was a way of ensuring the quality and relevance of published data and attracting new authors and studies of great quality for the magazine.
One of the oldest scientific journals in Latin America reaches 100 years with an eye on the future. The recipe, which can be followed by other national publications, was to grow, modernize and internationalize. Once again, as a century ago, Memórias takes its place among the locomotives of the scientific publishing process in the country, ready to once again be a pioneer in the integration of communication and science.
* Ricardo Lourenço is editor of the magazine Memórias of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
* Text originally published in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, on September 08, 2009, in the Opinião section, page A3.
Brazil now occupies a prominent place in the international scientific community in several areas of knowledge. However, Brazilian scientific journals are still far from achieving the same international prestige that already surrounds many researchers in the country. In order for the excellence of studies produced in national laboratories to also translate into the appreciation of Brazilian scientific journals, it is necessary to develop editorial policies that allow putting an end to this apparent paradox.
What has become clear in recent years is that the key to gaining more prominence and international visibility is to evolve in increasing impact rates. The indicator is calculated by dividing the number of citations to your articles by the number of published articles.
The experience of the journal Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz has much to contribute to this. Created in 1909 by sanitarian Oswaldo Cruz, Memórias demonstrates the ability to combine innovation and tradition – following the same centenary commitment of Fiocruz, where it is edited. One of the oldest scientific publications in Latin America still in circulation, the journal has just achieved the status of the region's most important journal in the biomedical area. The nomination from the Institute for Scientific Informatiom (ISI) comes in the centenary year of Memoirs.
Among the modernization actions that explain the magazine's success are free access to content via the Internet and publication in English. Still in the 90s, Memórias was already part of the Scielo base, a platform for scientific publications in Latin America with free content. There was investment in a digital article submission system, which streamlined and made the publication process more transparent. In 2008, the magazine made all the content published in its 100 years of history available for free download. Also last year, articles began to have the DOI, an international system for identifying scientific articles – a kind of digital CPF that guarantees the existence and publication of the article in question.
The publication has one more advantage: publishing in it is free. Unlike other international magazines, which charge hundreds of dollars per published page, at Memórias the process is completely free. In order to improve the impact factor of our scientific journals, researchers from all over the world must have access to what is published in them and also the possibility of publishing in Brazil. Everyone wants to see their work published in “Science”, “Nature” and other similar magazines. Making national and international authors opt for Memórias or for any Brazilian magazine is a matter of convincing. Increasingly, our publications need to be international, impactful, reliable and professional.
Special attention should be given to excellent Brazilian researchers. How to make them publish more in Brazil, in journals that still have a lower impact factor than foreign ones? This conviction, and this has also been shown by our experiences with Memórias, comes at a time when our authors recognize other outstanding researchers, international references, publishing in the journal.
That is why, even with all the modernization measures, nothing replaces the quality of published articles. The structuring of a network of renowned reviewers, national and international, who make a severe screening of those scientific knowledge that are in fact unprecedented and impactful, was a way of ensuring the quality and relevance of published data and attracting new authors and studies of great quality for the magazine.
One of the oldest scientific journals in Latin America reaches 100 years with an eye on the future. The recipe, which can be followed by other national publications, was to grow, modernize and internationalize. Once again, as a century ago, Memórias takes its place among the locomotives of the scientific publishing process in the country, ready to once again be a pioneer in the integration of communication and science.
* Ricardo Lourenço is editor of the magazine Memórias of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
* Text originally published in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, on September 08, 2009, in the Opinião section, page A3.
The non-profit reproduction of the text is allowed as long as the source is cited (Comunicação / Instituto Oswaldo Cruz)
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