RECENT STRATEGIES FOR ADDING VALUE TO SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS IN LATIN-AMERICA

A recent initiative in some Latin American countries, to define the basic core of credited titles of domestic scientific journals in the different knowledge fields, is reviewed. The policy aim is to strengthen the best journals and to minimize the noise produced by the great number of journals that do a disservice to the authors who publish in them either because of their low quality Dr because even if they are reasonably good, have a very low impact. It is argued that if the exercise were carried out in a rigorous and systematic way in the countries of the region that publish scientific journals, one might eventually obtain a depurated list of Latin American periodical publications. Such list might be useful as a supplement to the catalogues of mainstream journals registered by ISI and other international databases, and could provide ''valid'' alternatives of publication of results for Latin American researchers and for authors of other regions active in subjects in which the countries of the region have significant scientific contributions, It might also help to provide a better indication of the total publishing activity of Latin American countries.