An old proverb says: A peddler praises his needles… Today, when the new board of directors of the Colombian Society of Entomology (Socolen), invites us to leave the task as the editorial team of the Revista Colombiana de Entomología (RCdE), we want to highlight some points that will be references in the future, to objectively evaluate the role of the outgoing editorial team in the development of this informative body of society.

In July 2012, we received a journal that, considering the measurement parameters of that year, was highly positioned and it had a great national and international projection. Unfortunately, during 2016, the Colciencias measurement system changed, generating a wave of demands that was the wreck of many national journals. However, we managed to survive the changes and we strive to reach again an acceptable position. Due to both, economic and ecological reasons, the journal went from being a printed publication, distributed among colleagues and entomology lovers, to a completely online journal with an editorial management platform, accordingly to the new demands of modern times. Each change was made to achieve academic excellence and international standards.

Long and painful years passed, where it is hard to measure progress and change. However, due to the Board of Directors of Socolen 2017-2018’ management, headed by Dr. Efraín Becerra, a co-publishing agreement was signed with Universidad del Valle (Univalle), an institution recognized for its trajectory in entomological research, which has provided us with technological and human support by welcoming us as part of its team of scientific journals. In 2018, thanks to this agreement, we accepted the challenge of fully enrolling in the OJS system, an editorial manager that provides facilities for academic arbitration and integrates all the journal’s information in a single portal that is freely accessible to the public. With this, new tasks arrived, which guided by participating in the course “Editor’s Curriculum” summoned by Publindex - Colciencias, and guidelines from Univalle’s Editorial Program, accomplished improvements in the RCdE. Among these advances we can highlight the update of the information presented on the first page of each article and the cover of the RCdE, doi and Orcid inclusion, use of specialized anti- plagiarism software (Turnitin), and the creation of social media, among others, following mid- and long-term work plans to meet international standards, seeking an editorial team with solid knowledge and the ability to generate -beside publications- community.

This is supported by the numbers we have today: 564 manuscripts reviewed, where 274 were published in 10 volumes. A decade ago, 20 % of the documents were published in English with representation from 13 countries in their authorship, now 43 % of the documents have been published in English, and authors from more than 16 countries have participated in the journal, especially from Latin America and the Caribbean regions. According to SciELO Analytics, authors from countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Cuba reaffirm our importance in the socialization of entomological research in the region. Additionally, the citations of our documents recorded by the JCR ranking per year have doubled, which contributes to improve the journal impact factor. We also have an updated platform that provides complete information to authors, reviewers, and readers without any access restriction. Although the internationalization of the RCdE was a banner, it did not dazzle us, and Colombian research continued as our priority, providing all the necessary tools to national authors, especially recently graduated students and professionals.

Step by step, by recognizing and working with this philosophy in mind -in favor of the needs of the journal itself- we managed to create a team of professionals between editorial assistants, translators, designers, style formatters, and the editor-in-chief, at the service of national and international scientific publications. Even though, there were difficulties along the way overshadowing our goals, we always found support on enthusiastic young scientists, in love with entomology, who contributed with the small tasks that together make up the RCdE an amazing journal. To all of those who showed their constant support and confidence in the work of the editorial team, we would like to extend our immense gratitude. Thanks to authors, reviewers, editorial committee, readers, and associates, that the RCdE remains standing and in constant progress.

We would wanted to end this stage whit our characteristic sense of responsibility and appreciation towards the journal by finishing the volume we were working at. However, we were surprised by the lack of resources, time, and support, which combined with other inconveniences, implied the lack of an adequate and gradual transition process between us and the newly assigned editorial team.

Finally, we want to thank the trust given by the previous director boards and Socolen’s associates, the directors of the Vice-chancellor of Research and the Univalle’s Editorial Program, who accompanied us, believed in us and supported our proposals, tasks, and decisions. We wish the best to the incoming editorial team as their successes will be celebrated by all enthusiasts of entomology.

For us, it was a pleasure and a great personal and professional privilege to be part of the editorial team of the Revista Colombiana de Entomología.

Sincerely,

James Montoya-Lerma, Ph. D. Editor-in-Chief July 2012 - April 2021 Colombian Journal of Entomology

Colombian Society of Entomology - Socolen and Universidad del Valle - Univalle

revista.entomologia@correounivalle.edu.co

Cali, April 15, 2021