February 10, 2023 (PAHO) – During 2021, as part of the virtual sessions on Best Practices in the Editorial Processes of Scientific Journals for LILACS, a pilot study was developed with journal editors with the following objectives:
- Talk to journal editors about the implementation of Good Practices in the Editorial Processes of Scientific Journals for LILACS;
- Create a support space for integration and collaboration between the editorial teams of health journals;
- Strengthen the bond and performance in bibliographic control for LILACS and for the national Virtual Health Library (VHL) and editorial teams;
- Evaluate the experience and present the results of the pilot study in the last virtual session of the year.
Target audience: journals’ editorial teams, that is, all professionals involved in the stages of the editorial process (members of the editorial committee, executive secretary, librarians, and technical professionals).
Honduras was the chosen country because, among other reasons, it frequently participated in the virtual sessions promoted by LILACS, promotes face-to-face training, and has an active and active Coordinating Center, with exemplary leadership. Eight journals were invited, of which five continued the study: Honduras Pediátrica; Revista Científica de la Escuela Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, Revista de Ciencias Forenses de Honduras, Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, and Revista Médica Hondureña.
In this way, the LILACS team (Sueli Suga, Angélica de Paula and the consultant Juliana Reis), the LILACS/VHL Honduras coordination, with support from the PAHO Representation in the country, and the journals were involved in the project. All contact was made via email and Telegram group, with monthly meetings with all those involved, and individual meetings with each journal. In addition, all sessions were recorded and made available to participants.
The study began with the completion, by the journals, of a self-assessment form Know Yourself – Good Editorial Practices LILACS 2020 with a focus on the areas: education, information, communication, co-responsibility, and anticipation. The LILACS team also completed the form based on the information available on the website of each journal. Based on the answers, a mapping of policies and strategies was carried out and a diagnosis was prepared to carry out the planning and exchange of resources to continue the study.
Besides the monthly meetings based on domains, there were also two additional meetings for thematic analysis of articles already published in LILACS and learning how to use the VOSviewer[1] tool.
The results were presented in November 2021 LILACS Honduras Pilot Study – Good Practices Editorial Processes LILACS 2021, with an explanation of the process by the LILACS team and testimonials from Cecilia Garcia, LILACS Honduras coordinator, and the editors of the participating journals.
All the journals will be able to draw up improvement plans in the short, medium and long term and will continue to practice what was started during the study. It is worth noting among the results obtained, the award received by the Honduran Medical Journal, whose editor-chief is Jackeline Alger, at the II Jornadas Virtuales Iberoamericanas COVID-19 y Salud Pública, with the publication Respuestas comunitarias, aspectos sociales y acción local en salud, developed with LILACS, discovering the journals’ experience the during the pandemic and the effort to build trust and mobilize knowledge. This communication was recognized with a second prize for outstanding innovative experience communications.
[1]VOSviewer is a software tool for building and viewing bibliometric networks. In the specific case of this study, the focus on the thematic indexing descriptors carried out by LILACS to better understand the scope and have more elements for the strategic planning of journals.
