Alert and its contribution to scientific communication

Abstract

Today, Latin America and the world are going through unprecedented circumstances concerning public health in the global context¹ Therefore, more than ever, it is essential to be informed in order to follow the evidence-based recommendations to protect our health² not only on the matter of COVID-19 but for all the morbidities that represent an important burden of disease and mortality for the public health systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic, has evidenced a painful truth about science: the current academic communication system is not sufficient enough to comply with the scientific needs and the needs of society. This crisis reveals a research system with default values of closed excluding science with an excessive emphasis in the elite of the English language publications³, regardless of the context, the consequences of research and the knowledge it would generate.

Alerta Journal, is committed not only to contribute to confront the pandemic, but to deterred it and to continue to attend the priorities of public health regarding the diffusion of knowledge production and scientific evidence to contribute to better decision making and promoting the preservation of the Spanish language.

For the current issue, it is important to highlight that scientific publishing has been a complex task, undertaken with the participation of a multidisciplinary team, in which authors, editors, reviewers, proof writing, diagrammers and illustrators, have developed their work in the context of the pandemic, surpassing any obstacle that could bring biases⁴ to their objectivity and ethics.  

These annoying circumstances can influence the timing of the editorial process. Nevertheless, all articles of this publication have a unique standing given that Alerta has been indexed in AmeliCA⁵, and other indexing sites of great importance in the scientific publishing ambiance.

This issue presents original articles related to non-communicable chronic diseases, knowledge attitudes and practices linked to hypertense and diabetic patients suffering from kidney disease; a case report concerning obstetric complications as root causes for maternal mortality, as well as narrative review articles, and brief communications related to COVID -19 correlated to vertical transmission and care for the new born; furthermore, the first genomic sequencing of indigenous samples from patients with SARS-CoV-2 in El Salvador. Likewise, a brief communication on infection rate associated to healthcare provided to neonates is of great importance in the present moment given that it brings about practices that can contribute to decrease the neonatal morbid-mortality rate.