Starting a global scientific journal.

Abstract

Does a country need to publish its own internationally recognized journals to be a scientific power? This question was debated recently by a group of Japanese scientists, as reported by D. Normile (“Japan ponders starting a global journal,” News of the Week, 12 March, p. 1599). Following an objective analysis, they concluded that they should start publishing their own international journals. Although our scientific production in Mexico is much lower than that of Japan or other scientific world powers, we have been posing the same question among ourselves for more than a decade. Our scientific community experiences problems similar to those discussed by the Japanese group in attempting to publish in high-ranking international journals. Furthermore, our journals have little or no visibility outside of Mexico and negligible impact in the scientific literature ([1][1]). With these problems in mind, we decided to produce a biomedical journal in English that met top-tier international standards. The local journal, Archivos de Investigacion Medica , was transformed into Archives of Medical Research in a joint venture with Elsevier Science. The journal is produced entirely in Mexico and published in Philadelphia by Elsevier. The result of this enterprise has been quite gratifying. The quality of manuscripts from local scientists has increased substantially, and we now receive nearly 35% of our contributions from about 30 different countries. Approximately 70% of our reviewers are internationally recognized experts with very strict standards, and our rejection rate has climbed to almost 60%. The visibility of our journal in the international scientific literature as measured by the ISI impact factor has increased threefold since 1989, reaching 0.606 in 2003, and our most conservative estimates forecast a figure of 0.850 for this year's impact factor ([2][2]). We have seen a striking increase of online visitors, from 9872 full-text article requests in 2001 to 53,453 in 2003 (Science Direct Online). Our journal is subsidized by the Coordination of Health Sciences Research Center at the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), but is not by any means as expensive as the $18-million annual subsidy estimated by the Japanese Science and Technology Agency. Our experience with Archives of Medical Research is an example for other countries to follow in publishing their own international journals. We believe that our success is due to a focus on high-quality standards. 1. 1.[↵][3]1. W. W. Gibbs , Sci. Am. 273, 92 (1995). [OpenUrl][4] 2. 2.[↵][5]1. L. Benitez-Bribiesca , Arch. Med. Res. 33, 91 (2002). [OpenUrl][6][CrossRef][7][PubMed][8][Web of Science][9] [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1. in text [4]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DSci.%2BAm.%26rft.volume%253D273%26rft.spage%253D92%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [5]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2. in text [6]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DArchives%2Bof%2Bmedical%2Bresearch%26rft.stitle%253DArch%2BMed%2BRes%26rft.aulast%253DBen%25C3%25ADtez-Bribiesca%26rft.auinit1%253DL.%26rft.volume%253D33%26rft.issue%253D2%26rft.spage%253D91%26rft.epage%253D94%26rft.atitle%253DThe%2Bups%2Band%2Bdowns%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bimpact%2Bfactor%253A%2Bthe%2Bcase%2Bof%2BArchives%2Bof%2BMedical%2BResearch.%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1016%252FS0188-4409%252801%252900373-3%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F11886705%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [7]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1016/S0188-4409(01)00373-3&link_type=DOI [8]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=11886705&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fsci%2F304%2F5677%2F1595.3.atom [9]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000174435800001&link_type=ISI