Agenda for the Discussion on the Future Development of the SciELO Network

The national coordinating bodies of the SciELO Network are conducting, by mutual agreement, a working agenda to define the priority lines of action for the coming years aimed at improving the journals and the SciELO collections. The lines of action will be debated and approved during the face-to-face meeting of the network which will take place during the SciELO 15 Years Conference. Read More →

Interview with Vincent Larivière

Bibliometrics/Scientometrics is at the heart of information science and It is important to recall the various limitations of bibliometric indicators – warns Vincent Larivière. The journal Impact Factor provides a useful “holistic” indication of the relative position of a journal within a subfield. Most researchers outside Library and Information Science have no clue on its actual limitations! Read More →

Indicators of academic productivity in University rankings: criteria and methodologies

The collective academic output of professors, researchers and students affiliated to universities, measured by the number of articles that are published in indexed journals and/or by citations they receive, is one of major indicators used in the elaboration of university rankings. However, each ranking evaluates academic output differently. Read More →

Altmetrics, Alternative metrics and Alternative measurements: new perspectives on the visibility and impact of scientific research

Altmetrics is a new field which measures the interactions that occur on the Web on the part of users about research results. Sibele Fausto follows up on the post of Atila Iamarino and comments on the repositioning of the invisible colleges in social networks which has resulted in an intensified exchange of information and debate of ideas, whose metrics point to the interest stimulated by scientific works. Read More →

You do the sharing, I “like” it and we create the metrics

The approach instinctively adopted by users of social networks to share articles leaves trails which are tracked almost immediately by metrics which give some indication of their future value as an information source. This is in complete contrast to citation based metrics which can take months or even years to be calculated. Atila Iamarino speaks to us about “The Wisdom of Crowds” as it takes place in real time. Read More →

Get a taste of the real character of Brazil in the Central Market

A visit to the Central Market (Mercado Central) of São Paulo on Saturday or Sunday is our recommendation to the participants of the SciELO 15 Years Conference to get a real taste of São Paulo. Located in the central part of the city, the market is a colorful space full of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, fish and restaurants. Shop keepers, customers, tourists from Brazil and abroad blend together to form a backdrop of many different voices and sights in this lovely architectural landmark. Read More →

Conference Agenda: SciELO 15 Years Conference

The SciELO 15 Years Conference will deal with the dimensions and aspects of contemporary scholarly communication that are molding the form and ways that academic research will be communicated in the future. The conference program attempts to place the analyses and debates within the framework of a global vision of academic research. Read More →

Interview with Hooman Momen, Editor of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization

The editor of the WHO Bulletin talks about the various trends permeating international Open Access scholarly communication, the Finch report (UK), megajournals, multilingualism, and the transformative impact of technologies that always bring out conditions that favor or challenge the development of journals of developing countries or emerging economies, in particular those of SciELO. Read More →

Paper proposes four pillars for scholarly communication to favor the speed and the quality of science

The authors identify four converging cornerstones for advancing the process of communicating academic research: enhancing products and formats of scholarly communication; immediate publication in Open Access; open peer review; and broad public recognition of the process of communication, of the corresponding products and of the academics involved. Read More →

Celebrating the enhancement of the quality, visibility and accessibility of South African scholarly journals

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) held a series of events in July at the launch of the Certified SciELO South Africa collection on national programs that support the development of journals. Susan Veldsman, Director of the Scholarly Publishing Unit of SciELO South Africa discusses these events. Read More →

Open Access and a call to prevent the looming crisis in science

The number of retracted articles has recently been on the rise. Björn Brembs identifies this tendency as a reflection of an imminent crisis in science whose origin is found in the reward and marketing system of researchers which pressures them to publish in high impact journals. The adoption of open access platforms is a way to prevent this crisis. Read More →

Paulista Avenue, more than 120 years … the avenue at the heart of São Paulo

The participants at the SciELO 15 Years Conference will have the chance to visit and stroll along the broad sidewalks of Paulista Avenue (Avenida Paulista) with the thousands of others who come to this street every day. The conference venue is just one block away from Paulista Avenue. This avenue is the financial and cultural center of the city and is a popular place for celebrations, events and other gatherings. Read More →

SciELO – the first 15 years: towards a New Era

The SciELO in Perspective blog makes its debut with the aim of promoting the exchange of information, experiences and knowledge in scholarly communication. The intention is to share the advances of the SciELO Program and Network in their new development phase. Your collaboration is welcomed. Read More →

Declaration recommends eliminate the use of Impact factor for research evaluation

The use of the Impact Factor (IF) beyond the scope of journal ranking as a direct or indirect proxy for the evaluation of research quality, career promotions, granting of funds, ranking of graduate programs, etc. has been questioned for quite some time. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment makes a new and critical call against the use of the IF in the evaluation of research. Read More →

Interview with Abel Packer

SciELO developed as an integral part of the research infrastructure of the countries where it operates, focusing on the goal of contributing to the improvement of the journals it indexes and publishes in open access. Abel Packer, Coordinator of the SciELO Program, talks of the reasons for the success of the program, the expectations of the SciELO 15 Years Conference and the future sustainability of the program. Read More →