ICML 9

9º World Congress on Health Information and Libraries

Salvador, Bahia - Brazil, September, 20 to 23 - 2005

BVS4

4th Regional Coordination Meeting of the VHL

September, 19 to 20 - 2005

P77 - Are the Latin American and Caribbean (LA & C) scientific journals well represented in the international databases?

Participants:

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the level of representation and visibility of the Latin American and Caribbean (LA & C) scientific journals in the international databases and the importance of the development of regional databases based on the international criterion. In 2003, the number of periodicals, according to the ISSN database, was 745,260. Of those titles, only 30,428 journals were from LA & C. The scenario is even worse if you think about the level of representation of those journals in the international databases. An analysis of titles indexed in international databases, such as ISI and MEDLINE/Index Medicus shows that, in general, less than 2% of the journals indexed are from LA & C. Based on that analysis, the regional databases, such as LILACS, LATINDEX/Catalogo and SciELO, assumed a crucial role in the dissemination and increase of the visibility of the LA & C scientific journals. Those databases are important in the dissemination of the scientific production of the region and they can also help to increase the number of journals indexed in the international databases.