EDITORIAL

Thirty years divulging Nursing Research and Education

Treinta años divulgando la Investigación y Educación en Enfermería

Trinta anos divulgando a Investigaçao e Educaçao em Enfermagem

María de los Ángeles Rodríguez Gázquez¹

¹ RN, Ph.D. Professor, Nursing Faculty, Universidad de Antioquia. Editor of Investigación y Educación en Enfermería, Colombia. email: marodriguez@udea.edu.co.

How to cite this article: Rodríguez-Gázquez MA. Thirty years divulging Nursing Research and Education. Invest Educ Enferm. 2012;30(2):175-177.

Thirty years ago, the Faculty of Nursing at Universidad de Antioquia fulfilled one of its dreams: the creation of the journal Investigación y Educación en Enfermería.¹ The first number of the Journal was issued on September 1983 during the celebration of the 3^rd National Colloquium on Nursing Research, held in our University. Among the preparations for the event's organization, an inventory was made of the research conducted by nursing professionals in the department of Antioquia - Colombia.² The results of this task³ revealed that research was being undertaken since the 1970s and that its invisibility was due to the scarce publication of its findings.

It was also found that half of these research projects had been carried out by professors from the Faculty of Nursing at Universidad de Antioquia, whom ever since then linked teaching to research. Also, a tendency was noted specializing studies on topics that would become the primal of future lines of research: epidemiology, education, along with administration of healthcare services, social medicine, and basic sciences.²

As a result of the prior findings, motivation emerged for the preparation of articles for publication, lines of research were defined, and research results also started being divulged in the Nursing Academic Meeting, which since then is held weekly in the Faculty.

Upon the weakness of the scarce publication in the discipline, which in part was due to only two journals circulating in Colombia in the field - Revista ANEC from the Colombian National Association of Nursing Professionals and Avances en Enfermería from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, came the initiative of creating the journal: Investigación y Educación en Enfermería.²

The managing group for the Journal included professors Amparo Zapata Villa and María Consuelo Castrillón Agudelo, supported by Deans Lola Zapata Escobar, who encouraged the idea and facilitated processes, and Liria Pérez Peláez, who presented introduced the first number.² Since its beginnings, it was defined as ''a specialized academic journal, whose purpose was to become the main organism of expression in the Faculty of Nursing at Universidad de Antioquia, to transmit knowledge regarding processes of health and disease and the nursing practice a products of research, teaching, care, and administrative work of nursing professionals, and to become a channel for the exchange of knowledge and experiences with Nursing Faculties from other regions of the nation and Latin America''.⁴

The volume of research articles published in our Journal was an important stimulus for the creation, 25 years ago, of the Research Center of the Faculty of Nursing (CIFE, for the term in Spanish), to facilitate management of research within the Faculty.

In time, the Journal adapted to the increasing demands dictated by serial scientific publications for recognition of its quality, like the conformation of the Scientific and Editorial Committees, blind peer evaluation of articles, inclusion of abstracts and key words in two languages, and - the most important - improve the capacity to transmit knowledge endorsed in our pages.⁵

During the time we have been in circulation, the quality of Investigación y Educación en Enfermería has been recognized by national and international organizations, which led to its indexation in COLCIENCIAS' Publindex since 1996, with a current A2 classification. Other bibliographic databases in which we are integrated are: SciELO, Latindex, Fuente Académica by EBSCO, REDALYC, CUIDEN, LILACS- BIREME, DIALNET, IMBIOMED, DOAJ, CIBERE, and Index Copernicus.

Globalization, with its tendencies of universalizing scientific communication, also required modifications in the editing and publishing concepts of Investigación y Educación en Enfermería. Having a web page, not merely to consult abstracts, but for the possibility of reading and downloading complete articles without costs; in addition to the availability of tools for on-line editorial management for submittal, peer review, and follow up of articles by authors, increased its visibility, until reaching a historical record in 2011 of receiving 107 manuscripts submitted to the editorial process for approval assessment.

During its 30 years of uninterrupted publication of the Investigación y Educación en Enfermería Journal, we thank the 11 professors who have been its editors. They have had the responsibility of editing 63 numbers that have managed to compile in 622 articles the research effort made by the discipline; thus, propitiating the compliance of the social purpose of legitimizing, storing, and keeping a rigorous record of scientific knowledge in nursing to make it available worldwide.

Very special gratitude is, likewise, deserved by the authors who have published in our pages, as well as by those who have supported us in the Scientific and Editorial Committees or who participated in the irreplaceable evaluation of the manuscripts, which has been an example of impartiality and independence of judgment. It is also fitting to recognize the dedicated work of the members of the editorial team and, above all, we thank our readers, who throughout these 30 years have accompanied us in this setting for the reflection on knowledge seeking to improve the care of people.

We count on everyone's constancy and enthusiasm, to continue making this the best means of dissemination.

REFERENCIAS

1. Díez-Mejía BL. Una aproximación a su historia. Rev Invest Educ Enferm. 2008;26(2):16-7.        [ Links ]

2. Castrillón-Agudelo MC. Período 1983-1987. El despegue. Rev Invest Educ Enferm. 2008;26(2):17-20.        [ Links ]

3. Comisión de investigación. Inventario de investigaciones realizadas por o con participación de enfermeras. Antioquia 1980-1983. Rev Invest Educ Enferm. 1984;1(1):11-20.        [ Links ]

4. Presentación. Rev Invest Educ Enferm. 1984;1(1):5-8.        [ Links ]

5. Ramirez-Jaramillo LA. Período 1992-1998. Rev Invest Educ Enferm. 2008;26(2):27-9.        [ Links ]