Diffusion, presence and prestige of the Revista de Otorrinolaringología y Cirugía de Cabeza y Cuello, 2006

Abstract

Introduction. Besides an excellent quality of the papers published, medical journals require good diffusion to reach potential readers. Goal. To investigate the actual situation of the Rev Otorrinolaringol Cir Cabeza Cuello, in terms of levels of national and international diffusion, presence and prestige. Materials and Methods. Review and analysis of the journal’ presence in several of well known bibliometric indexes: National Impact Factor, Citation Reports, indexation in biomedical databases, e-journal rate of diffusion via Internet, existence of an English version and use of Abstracts or summaries. Results. The calculated National Impact Factor for 2006 was a very low: 0.101. Analyses of Citation Reports for 2006 showed an overwhelming presence of American journals (86%), a few Chilean and European journals and none from other Latin American countries. Review of biomedical databases indexation showed that the journal is indexed only in LILACS, a database that is not commonly used by researchers. The electronic version ofthejournal has a low visibility, because it can be only accessed via the website of the Sociedad Chilena de Otorrinolaringología, it does not have an English version and neither Abstracts nor summaries are published. Conclusions: This study showed that, at the present time, the Rev Otorrinolaringol Cir Cabeza Cuello has a poor diffusion and very little national and international presence. A substantial improvement on this condition seems urgent. Several action lines are proposed: First, indexation in widely used databases, such as SciELO and MEDLINE/PubMed; secondly, make access to the journal by foreign researchers easier; in third place, publish in the near future the electronic version of the journal in both English and Spanish, similar to other Latin American journals on the area; and finally, propose to the Editorial Committee to add the word «Chilena» to the journal title, in order to improve the international identification of the journal.