Editorial

The Importance of Bibliometric Studies.  The Orinoquia Case

The wealth of scientific information generated in recent years combined with new forms of communication, has led the research community to propose the measure, which has given rise to a new discipline of bibliometrics. This uses mathematical and statistical analysis methods that allow obtaining reliable indicators related to quality. Thus, it is possible to obtain information on the number of documents issued by an institution or a country, research groups or individuals with the greatest scientific productivity.

In addition to this, there are some databases that complement the indicators with the called impact factor (IF), which is in fact, the number of average times that an article is quoted in the same magazine. This allows a comparison of journals in a specific field of science. Currently, the IF is a universally accepted measure sponsored by the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), known as Thomson ISI, which includes over 16,000 journals around the world.

Although Orinoquia magazine is not included in Thomson ISI, as it's IF is not known, the information generated by the Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (Redalyc), a project led by the Autonomous University of Mexico State, which includes 732 journals from these countries and provides an analysis of progress in quality processes derived from our magazine. Of 13 numbers included in this database, involving 300 authors who produced 120 scientific papers, which are available full text with an average of 4,406 downloads per month, which shows that the scientific community in general reads us. Articles in partnership reached 25%, demonstrating the relationship of our researchers with other groups and national and international institutions.

The number of downloads of articles increased significantly from 2007, peaking in 2010 with 6,606 downloads per month. Without a doubt, this has been possible because of the visibility achieved, which has favored a greater exchange of trade that has reached 103 national and 11 international journals. Another important factor that ex- plains these results is the inclusion in freely available databases which coincide with the current trend of allowing greater availability of information opportunely and therefore, access a greater number of readers.

To complement the above, it is recognized that high quality scientific output measured by publications has a high impact on the construction of the global ranking of universities. Currently, there are two global rankings, the group developed by Scimago of Spain and the Shanghai ranking. Although using different methodologies, the pursuing result is the same; to rank universities according to their quality.

As head of the magazine along with the editorial board, I believe that the results achieved to date are positive, however we have a long way to go before achieving better standards of excellence, that being, the highest rank in category Publindex and the inclusion in Thomson ISI, allowing also a better classification of the Universidad de los Llanos in the respective rankings.

Agustín Góngora Orjuela

MV. MSc. Dr. Sci, Editor Orinoquia.