Internationalization of journals was the central topic of the 4th Annual SciELO Meeting

The extent of national and international dimensions as determinants of the performance of journals of Brazil dominated the program of the 4th Annual SciELO Meeting, held on December 2, at the FAPESP auditorium in São Paulo. Currently responsible for the communication of more than 25% of the national scientific production indexed internationally, the journals of Brazil influence the country’s international scientometric ranking, positively in number of articles and negatively in received citations per article. Read More →

Science and life: Interview – Tribute to Dr. Greene

Completing 80 years of life, Dr. Greene, professor, scientist and editor for more than 30 years awards us by sharing his knowledge and experience on issues that affect scholarly communication of Brazil in an interview given to the SciELO team. From an early age his interests were linked to research; his initial training was in Chemistry, followed later by Cell Biology. We encourage readers to share this experience. Read More →

The Rise of China – a special issue of the Revista Brasileira de Politíca Internacional

Over the past few years, the Revista Brasileira de Politíca Internacional – RBPI has published a number of special issues dealing with burning issues in contemporary international politics, and those with special relevance for Brazil. These special issues are always published in English, and consist of content which has been brought together as a result of calls for international papers, and which have, as invited editors, specialists in the topics being discussed. The special issue for 2014 entitled “China rising – strategies and tactics of China’s growing presence in the world” (special issue – Vol. 57), available in the SciELO Brazil Collection, is published entirely in English and brings together 15 previously unpublished articles dealing with the complex rise of that country to the top level of international structures. Read More →

Paper investigates: is your most cited work your best work?

A study reports research with the 400 most cited authors in biomedical sciences on their perception of their most cited articles published in 2005-2008. The authors were asked to score their ten most cited articles in six ways. The research aims to investigate whether the authors consider their most cited articles and answer questions such as: Science progresses mainly through evolution or revolution? The study has many interesting findings, however, instead of answering the questions, it brings even more interrogations. Read More →

ABEC Brazil and SciELO request the reformulation of the announced plan by CAPES to publicly finance publication of journals of Brazil by a foreign publisher

ABEC Brazil (the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors) and the SciELO/FAPESP program are publicly requesting that CAPES suspend and reformulate its plan announced this past October 29th in order to fund the publication of a group of journals of Brazil by a foreign commercial publisher. In its place, it is proposed that the resources announced by CAPES to be made available to cover publication charges (Article Processing Charges) of articles by authors affiliated with Brazilian institutions published in quality journals published within the country. Read More →

The winds of change are buffeting Alfa

With more than 50 years in existence as an academic journal, Alfa–Revista de Linguística achieved academic all-inclusiveness without stagnating. With the innovations promoted by the Editorial Executive, Alfa became a quarterly publication in 2014 and, in 2015, it will become bilingual, an important step towards the internationalization of its content. Read More →

Exchange of research data remains low and increases slowly

The exchange of academic research data allows other scientists to replicate the experiments and move solidly in the construction of science. Although the major funding agencies in the world established in its policies the open availability of data, only a third of medical research, and much less in other areas comply with these provisions. There are several reasons that slow this progress, ranging from copyright and commercial interests to national security. Read More →

Study proposes a taxonomy of motives to cite articles in scientific publications

Article examines the activity of citing publications during the process of writing a scientific paper. The suggested model consists of four main categories – Arguments, Social Alignment, Mercantile Alignment and Data – plus subcategories. The authors argue that the complexities of citation practice show how little can be assumed about the real reasons for citing an article by analyzing the final paper. The study has an impact mainly in attributing relevance to articles based solely on citations, and therefore, on journal and researcher assessment. Read More →

The visibility of journals of Brazil

The increase in visibility of journals and the research they communicate is an expectation that permeates journals of quality, the policies and programs of funding agencies and, in particular, of the SciELO Program. Throughout its 16 years in operation, and always in partnership with the journals, SciELO achieved outstanding results that are reflected in the performance of the journals. SciELO plans important advances for the coming years, such as the increase in the percentage of articles in English, and by authors with foreign affiliation. Read More →

“10 years of research impact : the most cited articles in Scopus 2001 – 2011” – Synthesis of the article originally published in the Elsevier newsletter “Research Trends, Issue 38”

Gali Halevi and Henk Moed investigate what the most frequently cited articles were in Scopus from 2001-2011, in eight main research areas, and give their authors the chance to comment on their achievements. Read More →

Meeting considers how open access could address inequalities – Originally published in Research Information on October 19, 2014

Mark Patterson reports back from the COASP meeting that was held in Paris in September. The meeting presented a broad range of initiatives covering diverse geographical regions, subject areas and content types. The overarching sense was one of progress on a number of fronts, and the prospects for much greater change in the sphere of scholarly communication. Read More →

Rise of the Rest: The Growing Impact of Non-Elite Journals – Originally published on Google Scholar Blog on October 8, 2014

The world of scholarly communication has changed quite a bit over the last decade. This post from Google Scholar team explore the impact of these changes – looking at how scholarship and citation patterns have changed as publications and archives moved online and comprehensive relevance-ranked search became available to everyone. Read More →

The challenges of retraction: cleaning up the literature might be difficult

There is consensus that misconduct in academic publications should be remedied as soon as possible. However, there are a number of implications – ethical, moral, legal and those related to the reputation of the journals and researchers in the retraction process – that turn the process into a complex one which can often become unworkable. Read More →

The annual meeting of SciELO signals a new phase in the Program

Beginning in 2015, SciELO Brazil will operate under new indexing criteria based on complying with a list of requirements and indicators related to the adoption of the lines of action of professionalization, internationalization and financial sustainability promoted by the SciELO Program. These lines of action aim to contribute to the improvement of the performance of the SciELO journals. The leadership of the editors-in-chief is vital to the adoption of these lines of action. The annual meeting of SciELO Brazil will take place in December with a focus on discussions of the evolution of the performance of the journals, and adopting new indexing criteria. Read More →

Publish or perish? The rise of the fractional author… – Originally published on the Elsevier newsletter “Research Trends Issue 38”

Andrew Plume and Daphne van Weijen investigate how the pressure researchers feel to publish their work has affected co-authorship patterns over the past 10 years. Are researchers publishing more unique articles or co-authoring more articles? Read More →