In 2019, BIREME offered a series of webinars on Best Practices in the Editorial Processes for Scientific Journals for the LILACS Network. The objective was to revisit the fundamental steps in the editorial processes for scientific journals, to describe the best practices and provide a space for discussion and questions about the topics addressed with the editorial teams of the journals indexed in LILACS. This initiative met the recommendations of the Scientific Editors Meeting that took place at CRICS10.
The reach of the nine online sessions held was 516 participants from 21 countries (Brazil, Spain, Portugal, United States and 17 other countries in the LA&C Region), representing 219 of the journals indexed in LILACS. Each session was presented by an expert on the proposed theme and there was great involvement of the participants through discussions, questions and tasks. The sessions were recorded and made available on YouTube for the following topics:
- LILACS Indexing – on March 20th by Sueli Mitiko Yano Suga (Supervisor of Referential Information Sources at BIREME)
- Quality of scientific journals – on April 17th by Dr. Damián Vázquez (Editor of the Pan American Journal of Public Health)
- Editorial policy – on May 23rd by Dr. Sigmar de Mello Rode (Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors)
- Forming an editorial team – on June 18th by Dr. Piotr Trzesniak (Federal University of Pernambuco)
- Ethics in scientific publication – on July 17th by Dr. Lilian Calò (Coordinator of Scientific Communication at BIREME)
- Peer review process – on August 21st by Ernesto Spinak (Master’s in Information Society, Uruguay)
- Publication guidelines for scientific research results – on September 18th by Dr. Leila Posenato Garcia (Researcher at IPEA and Editor of the Epidemiology and Health Services Journal)
- Publication of scientific articles – on October 16th by Angélica de Souza Alves de Paula (Librarian of Reference Information Sources at BIREME)
- Scientific dissemination – on November 21st by Roberta Cerqueira (Executive Editor of HCS-Manguinhos Journal, Fiocruz)
Seeking to evaluate and continue the initiative in 2020, a survey was carried out with 85 responses from participants in sessions from 15 countries. The majority evaluated the themes presented as very important or important and left very relevant comments.
Figure 1 – General assessment of the themes presented
Some of the participants’ comments regarding satisfaction:
Figure 2. Some statements by session participants
The success of the webinar can be shown by the high access to the recordings of the sessions and to the activities proposed in the virtual sessions, as well as the inclusion of these activities as a pre-event of the “National Meeting of Health Sciences Editors in Ecuador”, which included the participation of Dr. Piotr Trzesniak presenting the theme “Forming an editorial team”. This event was organized by the Hospital de Especialidades Carlos Andrade Marín, the Universidad Central del Ecuador and the Ministry of Public Health with the support of the National Secretariat for Science and Technology Higher Education of Ecuador.
In 2020, the initiative will continue to pursue the theme “editorial processes” with the objective of promoting knowledge on fundamental topics of scientific publishing for the continuous improvement of the quality, positioning and visibility of Latin American and Caribbean journals indexed in LILACS, aimed at editors and members of editorial teams of health journals.
The 2020 program is now available and registration is open. The sessions will take place from March to November, always on the third Wednesday of each month, at 12:00 Brasília (GMT – 03:00). Discover the schedule for 2020 and participate!
Figure 3. Program for the 2020 sessions