ABSTRACT

Objective: To characterize the situation of respiratory diseases journals published in Latin America. Methods: The survey was conducted in a meeting sponsored by ALAT (Latin American Association of Thoracic Diseases). Each editor presented a report about his journal and answered a questionnaire. Results: Improve information acquisition would be the main motivation of respiratory societies for editing their own journals Disseminate medical knowledge and report an experience, would be the main motivations of authors to submit papers. The most frequent deficiency of manuscripts submitted is bad adherence to journal’s requirements. An improvement in the relationship between author-editor-reviewer should be the best strategy to enhance the quality of the manuscripts. Suggestions to improve the Latin American journals included: a) professionalize editorial work; b) increase meticulousness of manuscripts reviewers and c) reinforce international norms for editing medical journals. Some major problems reported were: a) lack of a regular and adequate periodicity in publishing the issues; b) lack of original papers submitted that mean a «milestone» for the specialty; c) low percentage of rejection in submitted papers; d) high and frequent turnover of editors. Recommendations: a) although several journals are available in electronic indices, they should be maintained in their printed form; b) each journal should have printed its subscription fee, in spite its subscription is included in the annual society membership fee; c) notwithstanding each Latin American country may decide to publish its own respiratory disease journal, the feasibility to generate a multinational Latin American Journal on Respiratory Diseases should be explored.

KEYWORDS

Databases, periodicals, respiratory tract diseases.

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