Editor of the Journal of the BSTM defends appreciation of papers published in national journals

Researches published in national journals cannot be inhibited. On the contrary, they should be valued and encouraged

The strengthening of original papers publication approaching tropical and neglected diseases is a major challenge for the Journal of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine (RSBMT), as well as the need to demand the federal organs for technical-scientific production support. This is the belief of the journals editor, Doctor Dalmo Correia Filho. He says the independence of the BSTMs journal is its greatest asset, since the journal is able to receive contributions from the entire scientific community, always under ethical principles, and whichs published contempt is 100% free and available online.

Despite the journal of the BSTM being a reference both in Brazil and abroad, Dr. Dalmo is concerned about the policies regarding scientific publications in national journals. It is a fact that regulation and appraisal organs that classify national scientific journals put enormous pressure over graduation courses (masters, doctorate and post-doc), requiring that, in order to be better appraised and qualified, and the researchers must publish in international journals. The impact factor is simply what is being considered, while research supports is in general drastically reduced, he regrets.

Researches published in national journals cannot be inhibited. On the contrary, they should be validated and valued. And courses cannot be harmed for this, says the editor. He believes this policy needs and must be changed, since it can cause the failure of Brazilian scientific publication. Besides this, the impact factor itself does not reflect the technical scientific quality of what is being published. Other indicators can and should be used in this process. In an interview on May 5, 2015, the Chief-Editor at The Lancet said almost 50% of the papers published in the journal – including the high-impact articles – could be fake. Other issues are plagiarism and publication redundancy.

The problem goes beyond, with discoveries about Zika virus in Brazil being published in high-impact international journals. The overwhelming majority of these articles should have been published in our journals, because the population is suffering here. We need to have technical scientific sufficiency to search our solutions in partnerships, without allowing this imperialist and extractive partnership reach us, explains the editor.

The physical also stresses the need to increase support for national journals, besides supporting researches from the origin. We must ensure, also, support for journals to maintain, and organs as the National Bank for Development (BNDES) should support national journals, not only putting millions of non-refundable money in other countries, with no concerns with scientific research and technological innovation, fundamental for our Countrys technical scientific self-sufficiency, he says.

Priorities

The Journal of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine is one of the journals that has valued national research production. The journal, created in 1967, has given great contribution to the national and international scientific community, by disclosing scientific papers about tropical and neglected diseases. The national scientific journals contribute in a decisive way for the formation of an academic and self-sufficient system for the disclosure of relevant scientific research results.

Its mission is to prioritize the publication of these subjects. We understand there is no privilege, but a need to disclose the problems and diseases that affect our society. It is important to stress that the emergence of diseases as dengue and, now, chikungunya and zika, have changed the publication priority, says Doctor Dalmo. Priorities are established every year, according to the General Assemblys decision along with the journals Editorial Board.

Support agencies in Brazil, especially the Coordination for Higher Education Staff Development (CAPES) and editors at national scientific journals agree that we should give more credit for national scientific journals by a broader evaluation process, where other indicators are included allowing a more individual assessment from the scope of each journal and the interpretation of its bibliometric indicators. This evaluation process will allow good editorial standard national scientific journals to be recognized by these agencies and draw interest of national researchers, who will know that by publishing in these journals their scientific production will be valued.

I understand the important role played by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and by the Research Support Foundation of Minas Gerais State (FAPEMIG), by maintaining their support programs for national scientific journals, by releasing special public notices for edition and publication of national scientific journals, where the received financial support has been extremely important to ensure the increase of technical scientific level and keeping the frequency of the RSBMT with 100% online and open contempt without charging researchers with absolutely no fees, finishes the journals editor.…