ICML 9

9º Congreso Mundial de Información en Salud y Bibliotecas

Salvador, Bahia - Brasil, 20 a 23 de septiembre de 2005

BVS4

4a. Reunión de Coordinación Regional de la BVS

19 y 20 de septiembre de 2005

The difficult way forward the e-journals

Participantes:
  • Instituto de Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá  - Colombia
  • Instituto de Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá  - Colombia

The difficult way forward the e-journals

Antecedents. Colciencias, the respective national authority, recognised a total of 114 serialised scientific journals produced in Colombia during 2004. 10 of these were classified in category A, 9 in category B and the rest in category C. Nine universities were editing 66 journals (57.9% of the total); 22 of them (19.3%) were from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, followed by the Universidad de Antioquia with 14 and the Universidad Javeriana with 9. All of the journals so recognised (except for one) were produced in printed form and some had a Web-site which still does not give them a typically electronic version. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia has 64 journals, 22 of which are recognised by Colciencias (2 in category A, 2 in B and the rest in C).
Objetives. Designing an institutional project directed towards raising the quality of serialised scientific journals, making readers more aware of them and seeking better national classification and access to international indexation in different disciplines. The criteria regarding quality stated in Colciencias’ classification system and the SciELO methodology were adopted. The idea of transforming printed editions into electronic versions was also proposed.
Methodology. A Virtual Forum was organised with editors of scientific journals for a 4-month period. Individual plans for progressive improvement were voluntarily adopted; these were centred on reducing institutional endogamy, forming editorial committees, peer revision and the articles’ editorial characteristics. A policy of expert and technological support for relevant processes undertaken by the journals.
Results. Most of the institution’s journals accepted the idea of designing improvement plans, but only some journals expressly formulated them. However, some of Colciencias and SciELO’s quality criteria have been introduced, especially in that related to editorial committees, peer revision, the number of articles per editio n, the organisation and presentation of articles (summaries in two languages and key words). The changes have been slowly made to journals and, even though the number of Web-sites has increased, typical e-journals have not been organised so far.
Obstacles. The following obstacles have been identified: sticking to traditional printing techniques and layouts, a lack of knowledge and management of the criteria regarding quality, disinterest and a lack of relevant technology.