DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15446/ing.investig.v34n3.47605

Two years ago, when I assumed the editorship of the journal Ingeniería e Investigación I set out myself to various tasks: strengthening the editorial process by implementing it through the Open Journal System (OJS) tool, reducing the time lag between the time in which the authors submitted an article to assessment and the definitive answer regarding its publication, and getting the magazine to be classified in the Internet portal SCImago journal & Country Rank, which contains indicators of scientific performance for magazines and countries included in the Scopus^® database (indicators of the magazine may be consulted in: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=19700173003&tip=sid&clean=0).

Today, thanks to the work of the editorial team formed by Diego Andrés Gil Rincón and Anderson Douglas Imbachi Niño, these goals have been met. Since the second half of 2013, the authors, reviewers and the editorial team of the journal have been carrying out the editorial process through the OJS, facilitating communication and information management of the magazine, while allowing us the reduction of response times. The editorial board reduced the time required to determine whether an article is to be included or not in the process of peer review, and peer search strategies were also implemented to reduce the evaluation time. This allows the authors to have an answer within a period between 8 days to 6 months, depending on how much the article advances in the evaluation process. Last September the journal was classified in quartile 3 (Q3) of SCImago. The number of citations per paper in two years, equivalent to the impact factor defined by Thompson Reuters, was 0.168 in 2013.

While these results are positive for the journal, they represent a challenge for whoever assumes its direction in January 2015, as they can be significantly improved while maintaining the Publindex classification in the following number. Moreover, as has been previously mentioned in these pages, other issues such as the desirability of publishing articles in English language remain to be defined. While this last aspect may have been a factor that has influenced the presence of this journal in SCImago, it is also possible that, given the significant growth of the publications of Latin American researchers, publishing articles in Spanish language will lead us to reach an enormous audience, which in turn constitutes the vast majority of authors and readers of Ingeniería e Investgación.

As with previous editions, here readers will find thirteen articles on the various areas addressed by this journal. These were subjected to our evaluation process by academic peers, whom I thank for their immense and generous collaboration over the last two years at the helm of the magazine. I hope that the information here published is useful to discus or confirm other findings, to feed research processes and the development readers.

Eng. Paulo César Narváez Rincón
Full Professor – Chemical and Environmental Department - Engineering Faculty
Director – Ingeniería e Investigación Journal
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá