Revista Alerta, four years of challenges and quality metrics.

Abstract

In human history, relevant events have taken place, among others, two milestones that allowed science to advance and develop on a large scale. The first one was writing, which determined the leap from prehistory¹, the second one, the invention of the internet, as this, in addition to the exchange of information and the connection between researchers from all over the world ², channeled the digitization of publications and increased the international collaboration.

For almost the last 20 years, the dissemination of publications on-line allowed to reduce costs, increase its reach and dissemination of scientific evidence, as well as to reuse it^1,2. In addition, electronic scientific journals have been favored as the preferred channel for publishing the progress in science. Despite all these, these channels are currently expanding rapidly³, the reason why Alerta Journal is developing a dissemination plan on social networks, in order to increase the visibility of its publications. According to Google Analytics data, there have been 89,756 users in the last three months, being the countries performing the highest organic search: Mexico 35,10%, Peru 13,45%, El Salvador 11,64%, Ecuador 9,04% and Colombia 5,95%.

Since the creation of the first journals in 1665, about 50 million articles would have been published by 2010, CrossRef alone, distributes each year more than 97 million DOI to about 60,000 journals¹; This magnitude brings with it a challenge: knowing how to discriminate relevant journals and articles with quality criteria and filters.

Traditionally, the journals quality has been based on the acceptance in scientific journal indexes and the number of citations received^4,5 ; in fact, for the journals to be attractive to authors, they must be included in databases such as Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus3. Although Alerta is already indexed in relevant regional sites such as Lilacs, REDIB, AmeliCA, Latindex, Periódica and Clase, which contribute to make Latin American publications visible, there is still a long way to go, in compliance with good practices of publication, to «globally visible»¹.

Regarding the impact, currently, the Alerta’s h-index is five. The most cited article is «introduction to different types of sampling»⁶, with 40 citations and 120,466 views; the total number of citations of published articles in Alerta adds up to 90, the year with the most citations was 2021 with 36 citations (up to July 2021), this could be related to the diffusion on social networks.

Inbreeding is another aspect to consider when evaluating scientific Journals⁷ regarding good practices. This term has multiple meanings, but in this case, it is denoted as authorial and editorial inbreeding.

At its beginnings in 2018, Alerta presented an inbreeding of 55,5%, that is to say that most of its manuscripts came from the INS or from members of the editorial committee, in 2019 this percentage decreased to 48%, reaching in the year 2020, 27% inbreeding. Authors from other institutions and countries have been sought, as well as mechanisms that privilege the scientific merit of the content, seeking an objective review and not favoring works of the journal's own editors or researchers. Being said so, during the year 2021, of 37 publications, six were from the INS (two of these were co-authored with other institutions), and three were publications from members of the editorial committee. This constitutes 24% authorial and editorial inbreeding. The third challenge for future supplements is to increase national and international scientific collaboration, maintaining inbreeding below 25%.

During these four years, 150 manuscripts have been received, of these, 99 have been published, that is, 66%, with an average of 12,3 articles published by supplement. The journal has a rejection rate of 34%, of which 9,3% are rejected due to ethical, technical or methodological problems, 6,6% are due to the decline on the part of the authors and 18%, to lack of response or non-compliance with editorial times.
There have been 37 publication this year, out of which, 13 correspond to this issue; of these, 56,7% have been originals, that is, 21 original articles have been published in the year. The increment in publications, regarding previous years, relates to the Special issue dedicated to COVID-19. In the previous three years the average originality has been above 59%, the year 2019 had the highest percentage of annual originality, with 81%.

Among the journal short-term goals can be mentioned: to continue the indexing processes in globally recognized indexes and databases, to maintain the incentives for publication and scientific writing courses; to comply with good publication practices maintaining an inbreeding percentage of less than 25%; to increase international collaboration and work in interdisciplinary teams. The medium-term challenges are to increase the impact and develop metrics using data from social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter ⁸ , to
translate the journal to English, and also to continue the contribution to the construction of a research culture and national publication, which allows the dissemination of contributions in our language and generates social and academic impact.