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Revista colombiana de Gastroenterología

Print version ISSN 0120-9957On-line version ISSN 2500-7440

Rev Col Gastroenterol vol.25 no.1 Bogotá Jan./Mar. 2010

 

Editors Note

Rómulo Vargas Rubio, MD. (1)

(1) Internist Gastroenterologist, Magazine Director and Editor, Colombian Review of Gastroenterology. Bogotá, Colombia. E-mail: romulovargas@hotmail.com

Received: 26-02-10 Accepted: 09-03-10

Each year more than 200 Reviews of gastroenterology and endoscopy are published throughout the world. They contain between 2000 and 5000 mostly original items. In addition there are Internet pages from dozens of gastroenterology centers around the world. This excess of information is not only fatiguing for the practicing gastroenterologist, but to a certain extent also constitutes a paradox. The enormous amount of items that the gastroenterologist must read, perhaps before even finding the truly relevant items which impact on her or his practice or address clinical questions arising in their work, becomes a barrier blocking the physician from updating his her professional knowledge. Databases facilitate the search for information to generate relatively sufficiently the theoretical sources of research protocols, but this is a minimum fraction of the physicians’ information needs. Considering that there are 30 gastroenterology Reviews in Spanish, what then is the role of the Colombian Review of Gastroenterology? What is the sense of publishing one more magazine in Spanish?

We consider the role of the Colombian Review of Gastroenterology to be twofold. First, since this is considered to be a scientific Review, it must prioritize the publication of original basic and clinical research generated in our country and the rest of the Spanish speaking countries. For a magazine to be listed as scientific, its content must have more than fifty percent original research and be subject to peer review. The magazine’s great impulse in this direction in recent years, and the work of previous editors which made it possible, should be commended, as should the significant interest in research and publishing on the part of academic authorities across the country. The magazine has come from a point where it barely had enough material, to a point where the Colombian Review of Gastroenterology’s harvest of good quality original work now serves the medical community as a research reference for those who have an interest in digestive diseases.

As our second objective, the magazine should serve the medical practitioner that in addressing a wide range of issues in digestive pathology. It should be useful and concise, and it should contain opportune and pertinent information relevant to our daily practices. It should also serve as an organ to disseminate healthy and necessary scientific controversy that will enrich the education and practice of our physicians. We believe that balance is what underlies the good image of the Colombian Review of Gastroenterology. This edition is a good example. We seek clarity, elegance, and a certain degree of consistency and reading comfort.

What is the current state of the Colombian Review of Gastroenterology in the context of peer reviewed journals in our environment and in relation to other Latin American medical reviews? In recent years significant progress has been made in raising the index level of the Colombian Review of Gastroenterology. At this moment our magazine is one of the very few, among more than 30 other Colombian medical reviews, which is classified by recognized national entities in group A2. The medium-term goal is to continue improving our international indexing. Although this will be a long process involving major changes, we consider it to be a primary goal because of all that it implies for the visibility, representation and recognition of Colombian gastroenterology. The magazine is now listed in the major Latin-American databases. In this direction we support, and will continue, to translate the magazine completely into English. The English version of our Colombian Review of Gastroenterology is available on the Web. This is just the beginning, but we consider it to be a stimulus for current and potential authors.

We offer the Colombian Review of Gastroenterology as a tribune of medical excellence which seeks to increase publication on relatively forgotten topics in our environment such as the epidemiology of digestive diseases, medical practice and its legal aspects, primary care and public health in gastroenterology, research opportunities , information technology and communication in practice. In addition we propose to nourish large interaction with our readers, especially to learn their interests, preferences and needs. With all this, we look forward to achieving an even more notable position for the magazine’s importance as a serious publication, one which will cause the medical community to look forward to each new issue and each new article.

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