Editorial

Agustín Góngora Orjuela

MV. MSc. Dr. Sci, Editor Orinoquia.

The significantincrease in scientific publications in Colombia during the last fewyears(reaching 372indexed journals to date in thenational bibliographicalindex,Publindex)hasled to questioning their true quality. This could have been worse, compared to the number of journals from countries having greater trajectoryand research capacity.Such unusual increase has been attributed to (amongst other factors)thefinancialrecognition paid for publications in universities, institutionalaccreditation orthe result of the market competitionmodel (Delgado, 2011).

Experts on the topic have warned against the scope of such situationandposed the following questions. What will happen when all the faculties in the country belonging to the same discipline having their own journals?Who will publish in them when greater exogamy is demanded and not enough investigation is going on?Who will read them when there is worldwidegrowth in publicationshaving higheditorial quality andscientific content within a framework of recycling knowledge which will make them become obsolete in less than 10 years? (Delgado, 2011). A recent international forum for scientific journals has approached this controversy, highlighting Colombian journals' most outstanding cross-sectional features:little internationalvisibility, publication preferably in Spanish, being located on web-sites which are not bilingual, failure to comply with stated periodicity, poor peer-reviewquality, an excess ofjournals in the same scientific field anda sensationof responding more to thepublishinginstitution than to the community which they are supposed to be addressing (Bustos-González, 2011).

What can thus be done for indexed journalsto remain within the system?Without pretending to be an expert on the topic, I would suggest some strategieswhich could maintain the ground already covered.Firstly, each institutionshould considermaintaining a minimum ofjournals, seeking to keep those having the best quality, those which would be submitted to maximum requirements at the beginning. Editorial tasks must be improved, highlighting the editor's role, as such recognition continues being marginalat institutional level.

Aspects regarding evaluationmust be strengthened and improved, seeking to promote a culture aimed at complying with thelimits fixed by editors, ensuring constantinteraction with evaluators (peer reviewers), at the same time striving to avoid endogamy. Academic administrativeprocesses must be made more flexible to enable periodicity to be complied with as theobstacleswhich editors must overcome to have the financial resources available for ensuring that the "next issue" comes out on time have been immense to date.It is also indispensable that journals' web-sites be published in at least two languages;as well as Spanish, English would be ideal, since it is recognised as the official language in more than 75 countries(Agudelo, 2010)thereby helping to raise international visibility. It would be interesting to explore collaborative efforts between institutionsleading to creating journals inthe same scientific field.

I also think that editors have a great responsibilityin overcoming the aforementioned limitations and maintaining the highest levels of qualityregardingourjournals, without forgetting that researchrepresents the community's wellbeing.

Agudelo JH. Publicar en Ingles. Rev Colom CiencPec. 2010: 24, 1.

Bustos-González A. ComunicaciónCientífica y Gestión de la calidadun romance prometedor. MemoriasForoInternacional de RevistasCientíficas. La labordel editor y lasestrategias de Indexación. Mayo 12 de 2011. Bogotá, Colombia.

Delgado JE. Las revistas científicas en Colombia: logros, oportunidades y riesgos. Asociación de editorialesUniversitarias de Colombia-ASEUC. 2011; 18:90-92.