The archives and the publication of its first impact factor

EDITORIAL

The archives and the publication of its first impact factor

Luiz Felipe P. Moreira

Instituto do Coração -INCOR -São Paulo, SP -Brazil

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The Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia (Brazilian Archives of Cardiology) have been, for more than 60 years, one of the main means of dissemination of scientific research in the area of cardiovascular diseases in our country. Included in all main international databases and published in three language providing free access to its entire content through the Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), the journal currently offers wide distribution and visibility to the scientific articles that it publishes.

The recent news of its first Impact Factor at the Journal of Citation Report of Thompson Reuters, in charge of the database of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), has confirmed the degree of scientific relevance and the range of the national and international scientific researches published in our journal. The Impact Factor of 1.316 was calculated with regard to the first two years of indexing, considering the number of articles published in the journal and the number of times these articles were cited in the year 2009. The score obtained by the journal places the Archives above or at the same level of more than 40% of the 95 international journals indexed by the ISI database in the area of Cardiology. Our journal stands out in comparison to the main journals published by National Societies of Cardiology in the northern hemisphere and also as the only journal in Latin America and the southern hemisphere with a relevant impact in this field of expertise.

The publication of the Impact Factor of the Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia (Brazilian Archives of Cardiology) undoubtedly represents a great incentive to Brazilian and Latin-American researchers, who now have a journal that has achieved great visibility to publish their researches. The level demonstrated by this bibliometric parameter also opens up new perspectives for the better evaluation of Brazilian post-graduation programs with lines of research in the field of Cardiology by the governmental agencies, as the journal has started to be considered by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) of the Ministry of Education a Qualis B1 or B2 journal, according to the area of assessment involved.

The consolidation of this important achievement, a result of the remarkable work developed along the years by the editors who preceded us, represents, on the other hand, a great challenge. In this sense, we are currently working to improve the process of editorial review and the quality of the material published in the three available languages, aiming at decreasing the time between the submission of original articles and their publication.

Another important aspect to be developed concerns the expansion of scientific debate in the area of cardiovascular diseases, promoting the publication of Editorials, Review Articles, Letters to the Editor and Points of View written by well-known national and international specialists. We hope to be able to count on the support of all Brazilian researchers, in the sense of not forgetting to cite the articles published by the Archives in their new publications.

The greater receptiveness of the Archives by the Postgraduation Programs in Cardiology, who encourage the postgraduate students to give priority to the journal, as well as the possible increase in the number of articles submitted by foreign research centers, finally bring in the possibility of creating a "virtuous cycle", thus making our journal ever more appealing.

We congratulate all collaborators of the Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia for the important work developed so far and we hope to count with your continuing support to carry on this new period that has just initiated.

Sincerely,

Luiz Felipe P. Moreira

Editor-in-Chief - Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  29 Sept 2010
• Date of issue
  July 2010