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Miot, Hélio Amante

doi:10.1590/S0365-05962011000200043

CORRESPONDENCE

Hélio Amante Miot

PhD., Assistant Professor of the Department of Dermatology and Radiotherapy, Botucatu School of Medicine, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil

The Brazilian Society of Dermatology (SBD) is the second largest dermatological society in the world with regard to number of members; however, the Brazilian dermatology produces less than 3% of all the scientific work in the area. Despite having shown a tendency to increase over the last decade, this figure resonates with the Brazilian medical community, which is competent and creative but with a focus on assistance. ¹

The Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia - ABD (Brazilian Annals of Dermatology) is the primary vehicle for disseminating dermatological science in Brazil. Over the past eight years, the journal has been indexed in major databases, such as SciELO, Scopus, ISI, EMBASE and Medline. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system has started being used and authors may now submit their articles online.

Despite these achievements and the consequent increase in the number of submissions to the journal, the volume of citations of our articles is still modest: less than 20% of the texts published in the last two years (impact factor), and those citations have originated mainly from Brazilian journals or from the ABD. ^2-5

Considering the incipience of the dermatological scientific production in Brazil, drawing the attention of foreign scientists to our publications can be a good strategy to leverage the promotion of the Brazilian dermatology and consolidate our leadership in Latin America ^1-3.

The editors of the ABD have recently decided to adopt English as the official language for the submission of articles; the inclusion of videos, which are made available online, to supplement the publication is also possible. ⁶

English is the international language of science; therefore, this measure should increase the visibility of our manuscripts and authors in several countries, as well as attract submissions from researchers with the highest number of personal citations (h index). ^7-10

It is true that the need to write texts in English may initially constrain certain authors and cause temporary resistance. However, such nuisance is worth the effort for the development and international projection of the journal and the Brazilian dermatology. ^10-12

Over the past few years other prominent national biomedical publications have gone through the same process, such as Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Clinics, Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biologic Research, Archives of Neuropsychiatry and Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, which have reached impact factors greater than 100% over the past two years. Their editors have suggested that the choice of English as the official language for publication was one of the differential elements to this success.

The concern and thoughtfulness of the editors of the ABD about the formatting of the online edition, improvement of the search system on the website and the possibility of an EBook version of the journal are proof of their commitment to the quality of information and its accessibility.

In sum, the growing importance of the ABD results in increased responsibility and workload to the Editorial Board. The following should gradually increase the importance of the ABD and of the SBD in the international scientific world: adoption of welldefined editorial policies, priority management techniques, high standards of accepted articles, high iconographic and printing qualities, editorial autonomy and independence, inflexibility in the periodicity of issues, responsible management of the articles awaiting publication, a serious and committed team of reviewers, decentralization of editorial sections, early online availability of articles accepted for publication, ethical and responsible incentive for self-citation, publication in the English language, as well as online availability of the multimedia content.

REFERENCES

1. Regalado A. Science in Brazil. Brazilian science: riding a gusher. Science. 2010;330:1306-12.
2. Vohora SB, Vohora D. Why are Indian journals' impact factors so low? Nature. 2001;412:583.
3. Blank D, Buchweitz C, Procianoy RS. Impact of SciELO and MEDLINE indexing on submissions to Jornal de Pediatria. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2005;81:431-4.
4. Garfield E. Citation indexes for science. A new dimension on documentation through association of ideas. Science. 1955;122:108-11.
5. Costa IMC. The growth of the Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia. An Bras Dermatol. 2010;85:765.
6. Costa IMC. The beginning of a new year brings exciting changes for the ABD. An Bras Dermatol. 2011;86:9.
7. Costa IMC. We have improved, but we still have a lot to accomplish. An Bras Dermatol. 2010; 85:279.
8. Hirsch JE. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005;102:16569-72.
9. Bressan RA, Miguel EC, Mari JJ, Rohde LA, Mercadante MT.Chegamos ao MEDLINE, para onde vamos agora?. Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2004;26:1.
10. Meneghini R, Packer AL. Is there science beyond English? Initiatives to increase the quality and visibility of non-English publications might help to break down language barriers in scientific communication. EMBO Rep. 2007;8:112-6.
11. Vasconcelos SMR, Sorenson MM, Leta J. Scientist-friendly policies for non-native English-speaking authors: timely and welcome. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2007;40:743-7.
12. Vasconcelos SM, Sorenson MM, Leta J, Sant'ana MC, Batista PD. Researchers' writing competence: a bottleneck in the publication of Latin-American science? EMBO Rep. 2008;9:700-2.

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Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
16 May 2011
Date of issue
Apr 2011

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

[1] 1. Regalado A. Science in Brazil. Brazilian science: riding a gusher. Science. 2010;330:1306-12.

[2] 2. Vohora SB, Vohora D. Why are Indian journals' impact factors so low? Nature. 2001;412:583.

[3] 3. Blank D, Buchweitz C, Procianoy RS. Impact of SciELO and MEDLINE indexing on submissions to Jornal de Pediatria. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2005;81:431-4.

[4] 4. Garfield E. Citation indexes for science. A new dimension on documentation through association of ideas. Science. 1955;122:108-11.

[5] 5. Costa IMC. The growth of the Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia. An Bras Dermatol. 2010;85:765.

[6] 6. Costa IMC. The beginning of a new year brings exciting changes for the ABD. An Bras Dermatol. 2011;86:9.

[7] 7. Costa IMC. We have improved, but we still have a lot to accomplish. An Bras Dermatol. 2010; 85:279.

[8] 8. Hirsch JE. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005;102:16569-72.

[9] 9. Bressan RA, Miguel EC, Mari JJ, Rohde LA, Mercadante MT.Chegamos ao MEDLINE, para onde vamos agora?. Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2004;26:1.

[10] 10. Meneghini R, Packer AL. Is there science beyond English? Initiatives to increase the quality and visibility of non-English publications might help to break down language barriers in scientific communication. EMBO Rep. 2007;8:112-6.

[11] 11. Vasconcelos SMR, Sorenson MM, Leta J. Scientist-friendly policies for non-native English-speaking authors: timely and welcome. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2007;40:743-7.

[12] 12. Vasconcelos SM, Sorenson MM, Leta J, Sant'ana MC, Batista PD. Researchers' writing competence: a bottleneck in the publication of Latin-American science? EMBO Rep. 2008;9:700-2.