Background

During the discussions carried out in the First Workshop on Scientific Publications in Latin America, held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1994, the lack of a distinct information system for the scientific journals published in Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&C) became evident. Certainly, this was not the first time in which the need to have such a system was expressed, as this had already been noticed by several information specialists.

This Workshop held in Guadalajara was attended by a group of publishers and scientists, mainly from Latin America, who expressed their interest in searching for mechanisms that could contribute to an increase in the visibility of academic Latin America journals. The findings of this First Workshop were set forth in the recommendations stemming from the meeting.

Taking into account the drift of said recommendations, several people belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) started thinking about the development of an information system for scientific serial publications published in the countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region. By the end of 1995, a first version of the project already existed. It was named LATINDEX, Scientific Serial Publications Latin American Index. From the start and as an indispensable part of the system, it was agreed that it should have a regional character. Said system, as it would not be centralized in a particular institution or country, would base its strength in shared work and in the closeness of the sources that generate or distribute information regarding said publications.

Likewise, the system should take advantage of the experience and points of view of the various sectors involved in scientific publications: the scientists that generate the basic contents and that are also its main targets; the publishers that produce the journals and that watch over their survival; the information professionals that register and analyze them; the libraries that grant access and disseminate the information once it has been published, and the institutions in charge of scientific policies that evaluate and occasionally finance said publications. From this perspective, LATINDEX aims to join the efforts of all the sectors involved in the production, dissemination, automation, use and evaluation of the scientific information generated in the region itself.

Original project

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS LATIN AMERICAN INDEX LATINDEX

PRESENTATION

The LATINDEX system –Scientific Serial Publications Latin American Index– posits a bibliographic information system stemming from the scientific serial publications publishers in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project is based on the cooperation of a network concerning Regional Collection Centers that will function in a coordinated manner in order to gather and disseminate said information. LATINDEX aims to support both the development of the scientific and publishing sectors in the region, and to provide a Latin American information system that will cover as widely as possible the information needs, avoiding duplications and omissions. The project is based on the participation of the information and documentation centers, the most renowned libraries having the most experience at a domestic and regional level and the publishers, scientists and other specialists whose activities are relevant to the project.

RATIONALE

• Scientific authors in our countries contribute with a very small percentage to the publications produced in developed countries, even if they are logically, the main authors in the publications produced in their own region.

• The scientific publications produced in Latin America are not well known and are almost never used in information searching, notwithstanding the importance of the works published in the same.

• Latin American scientific publications, particularly those written in Spanish and Portuguese are under-represented in the international indexes and databases produced in the developed countries. Recently, their presence has diminished even more.

• Latin American scientific publications are not widely distributed and they almost never reach the libraries in countries outside the region. Also, most of these publications are not compiled in any information system, that is why it is difficult to access them.

• In most of the Southern countries, the flow of printed scientific literature, which has never been important, has diminished in the last decade due to economic problems.

• The practice of evaluating scientific journals based on their registration in indexes and specifically on their ‘impact factor’ defined by the SCI based on quotes received notwithstanding other quality indicators, has proliferated.

• The planning and evaluation organizations, regarding both scientific publications and the productivity of the researchers, require complete and reliable information concerning said publications.

• Latin America lacks permanent harmonization and standardization mechanisms regarding scientific literature, as well as a defined policy based on the criteria pertaining to the region.

• There is an ever growing interest in the scientific and publishing Latin America communities regarding the creation of local standards and the definition of local quality criteria that will be in accordance with the conditions and needs of the region.

• The use of computers and electronic communications – which are rapidly expanding – allow for the possibility of offering and acquiring information in an automated manner.

• The practice of consulting databases and other electronic services in order to support research work, is increasing considerabye among the scientific community.

• In Latin America, there is a great diversity of partial bibliographic databases. These have a domestic or sub-regional character, a fact which, in some cases, implies gaps or redundancies.

• In Latin America, there is a growing awareness regarding the need to have the most ample, complete and representative databases concerning the literature produced in the region.

MISSION

To disseminate, facilitate and raise the quality of periodical Latin American scientific publications using shared resources.

General objective

To coordinate collecting, processing and dissemination actions, as well as the use and production of Latin American scientific information published in journals and monographs in Latin American countries.

Particular objectives

To establish policies and actions that will lead to:

• Integrate the efforts that are carried out in the various regions and countries in Latin America regarding production, dissemination, systematization and the use of scientific information.

• Reinforce and enhance the quality of the Latin American scientific publications.

• Give them a greater visibility and coverage at an international level.

• Use the processed information as a basis in order to elaborate subproducts.

Goals

• To develop an information system to access and look up data in scientific publications originated in Latin America.

• To develop the human and information science infrastructure that will support said information system.

• To achieve a quality compilation of the information published.

• To establish quality criteria and standards for publishing Latin American scientific publications.

USERS

The potential users of Latindex are all those individuals that use, exchange and generate scientific information published in Latin America, such as researchers, teachers, students, administrators and planners involved in scientific activities, publishers, librarians and information specialists.

LATINDEX will also serve the international scientific community (agencies and/or individuals) interested in the contents, subjects and actions related to science in Latin America.

COVERAGE

Geographic: Latin America and the Caribbean. By subject: this will take into account all the serials, both periodicals and monographic series, in any of the fields pertaining to exact, natural and social sciences. In any case they must be published on a regular basis and must have the ISSN.

Content: the main issue that will determine the inclusion of a title or document will be the content of said publication: this must be original material, the product of scientific research or technological development in any field of knowledge. The titles of the publications may contain a small amount of materials of a different kind, such as reviews, translations, etc.

Language: any language.

PRODUCTS

• A directory of Latin American scientific serial publications that will include the harmonized data for its description according to the guidelines of the International Serials Data System, as well as information regarding the publisher, full address, distribution procedures and prices.

• A catalogue of the scientific journals and monographic series published in Latin America and the Caribbean, grouped according to their scientific field and qualified following the criteria that were previously agreed to. The catalogue will contain additional descriptive information and information regarding the content of the publications.

• An automated bibliographic index that will include the scientific production published in serials and monographic series from Latin America and the Caribbean.

PLANNING

In order to better perform the activities, these shall be carried out in stages. The development of each of the stages will help in planning future stages, thus, said future stages will be more precise.

1st stage: it entails the information searching regarding various specialized information sources in the serials of Latin American scientific journals, such as ISSN Compact, Ulrich‘ International Directory, Bibliografia Latinoamericana, etc., in order to obtain a diagnosis as to how many and which are the present publications.

2nd stage: the registration of present titles and the filling out of the format with the minimum information necessary to identify and locate each one of them.

3rd stage: the compilation of the Directory of present Latin American scientific journals.

4th stage: the definition of criteria and standards in order to include titles in the Catalogue.

5th stage: derived from the above, to structure a selective Catalogue regarding Latin American scientific serial publications.

6th stage: the implementation of the Link to electronic journals, that will only include the contents of the serials comprised in the Catalogue.

Organization procedures associated to the establishment of LATINDEX

Here, the information collection centers that will operate at a regional and subregional level will be identified.At a regional level, work groups will be organized. These will represent the three sectors: publishing, scientific and information ones. These groups will work on the definition of the aforementioned criteria and standards. In order to do so, they will use the information stemming from previous experiences and they will formulate pertinent recommendations concerning the different issues.

The work will be carried out in seminars, workshops and online discussion forums. The results of the work must appear in publications that will support the different sectors endeavouring to achieve feedback.

The technological, and telecommunication elements and the extant human staff shall be evaluated, and their development shall be fostered according to the identified needs.

The definition of institutional and governmental policies that will support the project shall be fostered.

A coordinating body regarding these efforts at a Latin American level will be established. The participation of said body in specific international agencies such as the UNESCO and the ICSU shall be encouraged.

Ciudad Universitaria, D.F., MEXICO. August de 1996.