Changing times for the Revista Médica del Uruguay

Abstract

The Editorial Board agreed to advance in the implementation of a project that is aimed at a leap in the quality of the publication and that received the approval of the Executive Committee of the Medical Union of Uruguay.The vision of its founders and the clear editorial policy of the last Years made the Medical Journal of Uruguay the most prestigious biomedical publication in the country. Today a new challenge is presented: to achieve more demanding international standards, which will result in a greater dissemination and impact of the scientific production of Uruguayan researchers. It is about improving the quality and optimizing the performance of the resources that the Medical Union of Uruguay allocates to the Journal through an adjustment in the publishing and distribution policies. The new project implies important continuities, such as double edition (in paper and electronic format), the demanding revision of the manuscripts in charge of two or more referees qualified anonymous names and the preponderance of original articles within the contents. But it also involves important changes such as those detailed:

1. Increased frequency. The goal is to edit four issues per year, with a minimum of 320 pages. This is now possible, due to the volume of the flow of manuscripts received, and necessary, to position the Revista Médica del Uruguay at the level of the most demanding quality standards, enter new databases, maintain participation in the ScieLO database, and To shorten the time between the creation of knowledge and its dissemination among the scientific community, at present the only obstacles are of an economic nature and are fundamentally caused by the costs of paper and home distribution.

2. New distribution system. This is a necessary condition to be able to increase the frequency without incorporating additional financial resources. It seeks to replace the classic home distribution system of the paper edition (more than 10,000 copies), between each of the partners, by a mixed system that includes home distribution to members of the interior and authors, sending to all libraries in the country or abroad with strategic importance, and maintaining the system of exchanges with other publications, as well as the possibility that all members of the Medical Union of Uruguay If you wish, you can pick up your copy at the registered office.

3. Online electronic edition. It is proposed to maintain and improve the current online edition in PDF format, which allows members and all users from anywhere on the planet to access the published works in real time and, if required, print the article on the spot. The electronic edition of the Journal will be prioritized - as all prestigious biomedical publications have been doing - through the design of a new portal from where you can access a complete index by topics and authors (from the founding number up to the present), that it has more powerful search engines, where the works that have been awarded are highlighted and the titles, authors and abstracts of the accepted works and in the process of publication are announced.

4. New edition on CD-ROM. The project proposes to allocate part of the significant savings generated by the concept of paper and distribution to the edition of an annual CD-ROM with the content of the entire corresponding volume. This new product would also have an index with the topics and the authors .

5. Contents. The implementation of the new project will allow both a greater availability of space and a greater independence of distribution times. This will make possible the timely inclusion of each issue of emerging ethical or epidemiological interest. Furthermore, it is understood that it is necessary to implement an active policy aimed at disseminating the guidelines and consensus of the different specialties useful for the practitioner. In this sense, all Scientific Societies will be summoned to present the topics of their interest.

The Medical Journal of Uruguay emphasizes that it maintains its regulations, which adheres to the publication guidelines of biomedical journals (Vancouver Standards), thus complying with the level In short, the idea of ​​the project is summed up in improving the quality of our Journal, without adding costs, by optimizing available resources. The new model will give more space to the fruit of the work of Uruguayan researchers , but it will also make it more accessible and timely.For the Editorial Board, a key link in the project is to share with our readers the characteristics of the changes to be processed and to be receptive to the ideas, criticisms and comments that are made. get us there. We are in it.