ORIGINAL ARTICLES DERIVED FROM RESEARCH

IBERIC-AMERICAN AND COLOMBIAN OPEN ACCESS SCIENTIFIC DENTAL JOURNALS¹

¹ This study is par t of the author's line of research about scientific journals and their relation with research and higher education in Latin America.
² Doctor in dentistry, master's in education, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. Cer tificate of Advanced Studies in Latin American social and public policy, PhD in administrative and policy studies in Education-social and comparative analysis in Education, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States. Director of editing services, TotalEdit.com. Adjunct Professor, Depar tment of Administrative and Policy Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh, US. Editor-in-chief, Universitas Odontológica journal, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. Co-director of the Group of Special Interest in Higher Education, Comparative & International Education Society, USA. Emails: jed41@pitt.edu, delgado4501@yahoo.com.ar

SUBMITTED: FEBRUARY 5/2013-ACCEPTED: FEBRUARY 4/2014

Delgado JE. Iberic-American and Colombian open access scientific dental journals. Rev Fac Odontol Univ Antioq 2014; 26(1): 126-151.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: the purpose of this study was to identify the Iberic-American open access (OA) scientific dental journals that are included in the regional repositories-indexes SciELO and RedALyC and the most prestigious international indexes, in order to provide an initial inventory and generate questions for future research about the development of dental scientific communication in the region.
METHODS: this is a descriptive study in which OA scientific journals were searched in SciELO and RedALyC and the indexes Publindex, LiLACS, Latindex (catalogue), Medline, Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Google Scholar. Data of variables such as country of publication, journal title, publisher, and indexations were organized in four tables. Likewise, Colombian dental journals included in Publindex were used as a case.
RESULTS: there were 13 journals in SciELO and six in RedALyC (only one in both). Three journals are indexed by Medline (all of them Brazilian), nine in Scopus, and two in the WoS. In addition, there were seven dental journals in Publindex.
CONCLUSIONS: participation of Iberic-American OA dental journals in the regional and international repositories and indexes is modest. The best ranked journals (indexed by the main international bibliographic services) are published in English, publish a larger number of articles, and are included in SciELO.

Key words: scientific journal, bibliographic index, repository, open access, dentistry.

INTRODUCTION

Background

Iberic-American peer-reviewed scientific journals have shown an unprecedented growth in the last two decades. This is evidenced in the development of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México's Latindex collection, the first and most complete journal directory and catalogue in the region that was created in 1997. The Latindex directory includes a great variety of academic periodical publications, while the catalogue focuses on peer-reviewed journals that meet 33-36 quality criteria.^{1, 2} In 2010, the Latindex directory included around 17,600 titles of which nearly 15,500 were active; there were 3,990 titles in the medical field in the directory, and 1,198 in the catalogue, of which 1,089 (90.9%) were electronic publications.³ Journal growth has been prompted by the emergence of electronic publication (that is replacing print) and the open access (OA) movement, that is, the access at no cost to periodical publications and bibliographic databases (BDBs).^4-10

One of the initiatives that has had a major impact on academic OA publication worldwide is the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) that develops OA alternatives for the academic world. One of the main PKP products is a publication-management software and platform called Open Journal System (OJS).^11-14 In January 2012, there were 10,624 registered journals using OJS of which 3,627 were from Latin America.¹⁵

Another factor associated with journal growth is the influence of knowledge-based economies on higher education, which is considered a co-responsible actor for countries' economic development.^16-19

Universities are under pressure to be more competitive through mechanisms such as world university and research rankings and diversification of funding sources that can include public funding for research and the development of alliances with the private sector.^20-27 Higher education systems have also grown to expand access, often propelled by the private sector, which has happened with increasing pressures for better quality. In consequence, quality assurance and accreditation systems are being created and accreditation is becoming a factor for competition. Accredited institutions have access to the best students and resources for research.^{23, 28} The transition from teaching-oriented to research-oriented universities has been evident with the growth of graduate programs (masters and doctorates) and the creation of salary incentive systems linked to faculty productivity. One of the main indicators of productivity is the publication of articles in indexed scientific journals.^{9, 22, 23, 29, 30}

Journals have also grown quantitatively and qualitatively as a response to obstacles that researchers and journals face to be published in mainstream journals the former and to be included in mainstream bibliographic indexing and resuming services (BIRSs) the latter.^31-32 One limitation is the global use of English since it is not a massively spoken language in the Latin American academia. There has also been a preference for journals published in English among international BIRSs such as the US-based Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (that includes indexes like the Science Citation Index –SCI –), Scopus from the Dutch Elsevier, and Medline from the US National Library of Medicine. The two former are generalists and the latter is specialized in biomedical sciences.

Those BIRSs have started to expand their language and regional restrictions.^{4, 9} For instance, a study by Moya-Anegón et al., using data from the global journal directory Ulrich's, showed how Scopus is including more journals from regions, countries, and languages that seem to be underrepresented at the WoS.³³ However, some authors still talk about knowledge neocolonization, to some extent, through the generalization of paradigms from the natural sciences in academic publication.^32-36 Likewise, commercial indexes are criticized for the high costs of their databases because they limit access of top-notch knowledge to researchers from small countries and institutions.

A key factor for the development of Latin American (and to some extent Iberic) peer-reviewed journals has been the emergence of regional journal directories, repositories, BDBs, and BIRSs. The main ones are Latindex, the Scientific Electronic Library online (SciELO) from the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Foundation for Research Promotion of the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil, ^37-39 the Scientific Journal Network of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (RedALyC) from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,^{40, 41} and the PAHO's Biomedical Science Latin American Literature (LiLACS).⁴² The Latindex collection is fed by information provided by designated government agencies from each country of the region.^{9, 43} SciELO and RedALyC started as journal repositories and evolved to become BIRSs by using bibliographic data mining methodologies. These initiatives have gained relevance because they are used as reference in science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy, as well as salary systems throughout the region.

Research problem and relevance

Studying the ways knowledge is generated and disseminated is important to understand how knowledge is socialized and how scientific disciplines and communities advance. In this context, scientific journals play an important role. For instance, more than 80% of scientific production of disciplines such as chemistry, biology, physics, and medicine is published in journals.⁴⁴

However, world participation of researchers and publications from regions like Latin America and their contribution to the advancement of science has been traditionally modest.^{14, 36-39, 41} Furthermore, it is very important to promote publication among scholars and to develop journals. In addition, knowledge generated from research can have global, regional, national, local, and even institutional relevance and impact.⁴⁵ That is why it is so critical to promote regional and local initiatives.

Unlike what happens with mainstream journals that are published by scientific associations and commercial publishers, Latin American journals are mostly published by academic units within mainly public universities, which shows the singular knowledge dissemination dynamics in different regions in the world.^{7, 45} Latin American journals face challenges to gain international visibility, improve their editorial processes, generate sustainable funding sources, improve their editorial and scientific quality, and to be recognized by local and international academic communities.^{3, 34, 35}

Research about publications is part of science and technology studies that are currently more often seen. They usually look at indexations and impact of publications based on citations because in many cases they are associated to salary systems that recognize productivity. Researchers are encouraged to publish in indexed journals that are recognized by local salary systems.^{4, 7, 45, 46} Studies on publications (articles) and journals (using data from national, regional, and global indexes) are becoming more frequent among several disciplines but they are almost inexistent in fields like dentistry. The literature search carried out for this study only evidenced two publications about dental journals, one from Chile and one from Brazil.^{47, 48}

Given the lack of this type of research in dentistry, this study was carried out by starting with an inventory of Iberic-American dental journals (published in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries). In addition, since OA has become a key factor for the development of journals because it increases their visibility and possibility to be cited and in many cases reduces publishing costs and mailing challenges,^{4-8, 11, 44} the study focused on OA journals included in the regional repositories- BIRSs SciELO and RedALyC.

The following questions were used for the analysis: Which Iberic-American OA dental journals are currently indexed by the regional and mainstream BIRSs? In which countries and types of institutions are these journals published? What are the indicators of language of publication and citations among these journals? Moreover, in countries like Colombia national journal indexes (Publindex) ⁴⁷ and salaries of professors from public and some private universities are associated to productivity and use that national index as a reference.⁴⁴ In Colombia, in addition, dental schools that are members of the Colombian Association of Dental Schools have worked several decades to develop national research.⁴⁹ Therefore, Colombia was included as a case country and a fourth question was asked: Which Colombian OA dental journals are indexed in the national, regional, and global BIRSs?

Purpose

The aim of this article was to create an inventory of Iberic-American OA dental journals included in the regional repositories-BIRSs (RedALyC and SciELO) and the mainstream indexes (Medline, WoS, and Scopus). Colombia was chosen as case country. This study will serve as a start point for the study of socialization dynamics of dental knowledge.

METHODS

This is a descriptive study that used data available in several databases: the regional repositories-BIRSs RedALyC and SciELO; the international indexes Medline, WoS, and Scopus; and the Colombian National Bibliographic Index Publindex.

The first step was to search dental journals in the LiLACS database (http://ccs.bvsalud.org/index.php?lang=en)) and the Latindex catalogue (http://www.latindex.unam.mx/index. html?opcion=2) in order to have an idea of the universe (number) of journals in reference services. Since the study focused on the number of titles in both BIRSs and not on the titles, overlapping was not determined beyond RedALyC y SciELO. These BIRSs are not exhaustive but serve as warehouses of publications that meet minimum editorial and scientific quality criteria.^{3, 43}

Second step: Iberic-American OA dental journals were searched in the portals of SciELO (http://www.scielo.org/php/index.php?lang=es) and RedALyC (http://www.redalyc.org/). Title search was carried out in the general, thematic, and country lists in both repositories-BIRSs. The inventory only included dental journals and not those with a more general scope or that combined dentistry with other medical specialties (e.g., Revista de Otorrinolaringología y Cirugía de Cabeza y Cuello). Each journal's website provided information about indexations and was confirmed in each BIRS (WoS, Scopus, and Medline), using the University of Pittsburgh Library System in the US. Information about publisher, type of institution, and city of publication came from each journal and/ or institution's website.

Third step: The Publish or Perish (Anne-Wil Harzing^®, version 4.3.2.4960) software provided some bibliometric indicators with data from Google Scholar to complement the descriptive information gathered from SciELO and RedALyC. Ann-Wil Harzing shows in an article how Google Scholar uses OA information.⁵⁰ This study analyzes OA journals. The search focused exclusively on current journal titles. Data obtained included number of published articles, number of citations, and average citations per article in the period between 2008 and 2012. This bibliometric data was helpful to analyze how these journals are positioned in the field.

Dental journal titles from Colombia came from the Publindex 2012 II update that included a total of 513 journals (http://201.234.78.173:8084/publindex/). The Colombian index assigns categories and provides information about publishers and indexations. Data about city of publication came from each journal and/or institution's website. LiLACS indexation was also considered.

Results are summarized in four tables. Table 1 lists number of dental journals, journals in the health sciences (also called biomedical or medical) and total titles per country in SciELO and RedALyC. Table 2 includes dental journal titles and their countries of publication, publishers, and mainstream indexes. Table 3 provides data about published articles, citations, and article/citation quotient for the period between 2008 and 2012 of the SciELO and RedALyC journals. Table 4 shows Colombian dental journals included in the Publindex 2012 II update and indicates publisher, city of publication, and Publindex category.

Data analysis is descriptive and identified general trends and some particularities of the Iberic- American OA dental journals included in the repositories-BIRSs RedALyC and SciELO.

RESULTS

The search for dental journals in LiLACS and Latindex was carried out on 24 July 2013. LiLACS included 867 titles of which 63 (7.3%) were dental journals. On the other side, the Latindex catalogue had 6,470 journals of which 1,270 were classified in the biomedical fields (19.6%) and 72 in dentistry. Dental journals represented 5.7% of medical journals and 1.1% of all the titles in the Latindex catalogue.

The search in RedALyC and SciELO was also carried out on 24 July 2013. SciELO had 948 titles and RedALyC 758. 298 journals (31.4%) were classified in the health sciences in SciELO and 90 (11.9%) in the medical and health fields in RedALyC. The 18 Iberic-American dental journals found in SciELO and RedALyC represent 25% of the titles identified in Latindex. On the other side, the 15 dental publications observed in LiLACS are 23.8% of all Latin American journals.

Table 1 shows the number of Iberic-American journals in dentistry, health disciplines, and all fields by country in SciELO and RedALyC. The number of up-to-date journals in SciELO was 795, and the number of titles in the health sciences was 255 (32.1%) of which 13 were dental journals (1.63%). With respect to RedALyC, there were six dental journals (0.78%). Only one journal was included in both SciELO and RedALyC: the Revista Clínica de Periodoncia, Implantología y Rehabilitación Oral (PIRO).

Table 1 also shows that Brazil had the largest share in both repositories-BIRSs. In SciELO, the percentage of journals in the health fields was, the date of the search, 32.4% among Brazilian journals and 31.4% among all journals in health fields. Brazil was followed by Spain, Colombia, and Cuba with around 12% each among biomedical journals. In the cases of Spain and Cuba, most titles in SciELO belong to the health fields. Brazil had five (38.5%) of all dental journals in SciELO. On the other side, 17.1% of Brazilian titles in RedALyC belong to the medical and health fields; likewise, its participation in the total number of medical and health journals in the region was 24.2%. Colombia and Brazil had the same number of journals in this repository: 22. Brazil had three dental journals in RedALyC (50%).

Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Spain, and Uruguay had dental journals in SciELO, while Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela had journals of this discipline in RedALyC. As it was mentioned before, the journal PIRO from Chile is included in both repositories-BIRSs. Table 2)provides a list of the dental titles that were included in SciELO and RedALyC when data was collected.

One of the goals of this study was to identify which journals were included in the indexes WoS and Scopus (both generalist), as well as Medline (specialized in the biomedical sciences). There were two Iberic-American dental journals in the WoS, Brazilian Oral Research and the Journal of Applied Oral Science (Brazil). On the other side, there were nine titles in Scopus (six from Brazil, two from Spain, and one from Cuba). Likewise, there were three Brazilian journals in Medline. Nine journals are not included in any of these three mainstream indexes (50%) (table 2).

Regarding the country of origin, of the 18 dental journals found in RedALyC and SciELO, eight (44.4%) are published in Brazil, while Spain had three (16.7%), Chile and Colombia had two each (11.1%), and Cuba, Uruguay, and Venezuela had one each (table 2). Only PIRO is included in both repositories.

With respect to thematic coverage, which was determined by journal title, 13 journals were generalist (72.2%) and the other five specialized in several areas of dental practice (table 2).

In addition, the search included finding out about the publishing institutions among journals in SciELO and RedALyC. Ten journals are published by universities, seven public and three private (Universidade da Região de Joinville – Univille, Universidade Luterana do Brasil, and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana). Other three journals belong to scientific-professional societies, three are published by commercial publishers, and one belongs to a government agency (Centro Nacional de Información de Ciencias Médicas. Infomed, Ministerio de Salud Pública de Cuba). One Journal, the Pesquisa Brasileira em Odontopediatria e Clínica Integrada, appears as a collaboration between the Associação de Apoio à Pesquisa em Saúde Bucal and the Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (table 2).

Table 3) shows data obtained from Google Scholar, through the Publish or Perish software, about number of articles, citations, and the quotient of both by journal. Two Brazilian publications, the Journal of Applied Oral Science and Brazilian Oral Research, had the highest scores in these three indicators, mainly those related to citations. A second group included the Brazilian Dental Journal and the Revista Cubana de Estomatología and had the second highest scores, particularly citations. When reviewing indexations, the three Brazilian journals are included in Medline and Scopus and, with the exception of the Brazilian Dental Journal, are indexed by the WoS. Moreover, the three Brazilian journals are published in English. The findings suggest that the indicators indexation by the three mainstream BIRSs, number of articles published, and publication in English language increase the possibility of a journal to be cited. The opposite also seem to be confirmed with the journals that are published in Spanish, have a lower number of articles, and are not included in the mainstream indexes. The case of the Revista Cubana de Estomatología deserves further study because this journal is only indexed by Scopus and published in Spanish, but it had the third highest number of citations per article.

The search for Colombian dental journals using the Publindex 2012 II update as a reference showed seven titles out of 513 indexed (1.36%). 68 journals were catalogued as medical and health sciences in Publindex (13.3%).⁵¹ The Revista Facultad de Odontología Universidad de Antioquia was the only journal in category A2; two journals were in category B, CES Odontología and Universitas Odontologica; and the other four were in category C. Journals in categories A1 and A2 have the highest visibility and recognition, which is given by their inclusion in international BIRSs, while those in category C meet the minimum quality criteria to be part of Publindex.52 Currently in Colombia, the inclusion in SciELO and RedALyC is one of the factors for a journal to be classified in categories A1, A2, and B. Six journals are published by universities (five of them private), and one association. Five journals are published in Bogotá, two in Medellín, and one in Bucaramanga (table 4). Regarding the inclusion in regional BIRSs, the Revista Facultad de Odontología Universidad de Antioquia is part of SciELO and Universitas Odontologica of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana is in RedALyC. None of the seven journals is indexed by WoS, Scopus or Medline. On the other hand, only three journals, CES Odontología, Revista Facultad de Odontología Universidad de Antioquia, and Universitas Odontologica, are included in LiLACS.

DISCUSSION

The purpose of this article was to describe Iberic- American OA dental journals included in regional repositories-BIRSs (RedALyC and SciELO) and mainstream indexes (Medline, WoS, and Scopus). The search was limited to OA journals because this modality has been replacing print, which has historically faced obstacles and high costs of production and distribution. Furthermore, OA has become an alternative for Iberic-American journals to gain international visibility.^{4-7, 10, 38, 53-55} This descriptive study used data from several bibliographic information systems (BISs).

Descriptive studies are important to identify general characteristics of a phenomenon, variable distributions, and trends. Likewise, they are useful to create new research questions, formulate further research hypotheses, and make policy-related decisions.⁵⁶ This is the first study with a regional scope that is published about dental journals, specifically OA. On the other hand, case reports are a type of descriptive study that allow, through analysis of a specific situation, identifying aspects that could be generalizable to a universe and suggest research hypotheses, while showing particularities.⁵⁷ This study also analyzed the Colombian dental journals that are included in Publindex.

The few studies found in the literature about this topic have a national scope only. A first publication about Brazilian dental journals was published by Carvalho et al. in 1991, when electronic publication and the OA movement were in their early stages and maybe unknown in the Latin American region; in the last two decades, BIRSs have shown important changes. For instance, Carvalho et al looked at journals included in the Latin American Index Medicus that does not currently exist.⁴⁷ SciELO and RedALyC emerged in the late 1990s.^36-41 In countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, BIRSs have influenced and/or are part of the national STI policy.^{7, 45, 58} The second article found, published in 2010, identified Chilean OA dental journals included in Latindex, Medline, LiLACS, SciELO, and Google Scholar.⁴⁸ However, that study does not differentiate between those BISs and there were not Chilean dental journals in SciELO at that time. None of the former studies can be used for comparative analyses.

The present study used data from RedALyC and SciELO because both are repositories, that is, publish full-text journals (besides the institutional sites of the journals), and have started to include metrics for the analysis of scientific knowledge communication dynamics. Using this information as a starting point, the analysis moved to identifying which journals were part of the mainstream indexes Scopus, WoS, and Medline. However, this study did not use the SciELO and RedALyC metrics for the bibliometric analysis because they differ from each other and only one journal appears in both repositories-BIRSs. The analysis used indicators from Google Scholar because it includes OA journals even though it does not have standardized terms. The search used current journal titles as shown in tables 2 and 3.

As mentioned at the beginning, a high percentage of Iberic-American journals are published by academic units within universities.

Many journals were created with the purpose of disseminating the work of academicians and students from each institution. However, their circulation was limited.^{7, 45} The present study found out that of the 18 Iberic-American dental journals included in RedALyC and SciELO, 10 are published by universities and one by collaboration between a scientific society and an university table 2. They represent 61.1% of all journals. In Colombia, six out of seven dental journals included in Publindex are published by universities and one is published by an association of dental schools. The journal publisher distribution in general and by country can be a topic for future research to determine commonalities and specificities of characteristics and dynamics of the generation and dissemination of Iberic-American scientific knowledge, within and between disciplines.

For instance, the only Cuban journal identified in this study is part of SciELO and published by an office of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. On the other hand, none of the Spanish journals found in this study is published by a university, while Brazilian, Colombian, Uruguayan, and Venezuelan journals were mostly or all published by universities (table 2). Likewise, when analyzing the distribution of Iberic-American university dental journals, three out of ten were published by private institutions; conversely, in Colombia, five out of six journals are published by private universities (table 4).

This finding can be important to analyze the participation of private institutions in Iberic- American research, if considering that most research in the region originates in public institutions.^{16-23, 28} In a study released in 2011, Delgado showed how public and private universities from Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela have assumed the challenges and pressures to develop their scientific capacity through the implementation of institutional policies that include support for journals.⁴⁵

As it has been argued, the country level is also essential for the growth and development of journals. This study showed that Brazil had the largest number of dental journals in SciELO and RedALyC, the best positioned journals in international BIRSs, and the highest scientometric indicators (tables 2 and 3). In recent decades, Brazil implemented the policy, established the government structure, and created the incentive system to develop national science. Particularly, the country focused on developing doctoral education that requires resources for research and ways to disseminate research results. Brazil also has the highest productivity indicators in the region. Of course, it could be argued that this is due to the size of Brazilian science, but it is clearly supported by its STI policy. 45, 54, 58

Venezuela is another example of the relevance of the national context for journal publication. Even though SciELO had an important development at one point in Venezuela, this system is currently almost stagnant and information about the country is not available. It has been described how this situation is the result of the interruption since 2009 of the government funding for the inclusion in SciELO of journals that used to be part of the Fondo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (FONACIT). Most FONACIT journals in Venezuela are published by academic units within public universities, which have been forced to look for alternative services such as free repositories (like RedALyC and Dialnet) and electronic publication platforms. One of those journals is Ciencia Odontológica published by the Universidad del Zulia, which is included in RedALyC and the university repository (RevicyhLUZ, http://revistas.luz.edu.ve/ revicyhluz/) that uses OJS.⁴⁵

Language of publication is one of the critical issues in scientific knowledge communication. Should publications be done in English, the international academic language, or in the local languages of Iberic-American countries where science is actually generated? This is particularly dilemmatic among health disciplines like dentistry. On the one side, it could be argued that every discovery, technological development, or new knowledge should be accessible to everybody, which would be a point in favor of English. On the other side, English is not a commonly spoken language in Ibero-America. Policy decisions and teaching take place in local languages. In addition, in many cases knowledge is relevant and impacts the local level. From the point of view of journals, there is immense pressure to gain recognition through inclusion in mainstream indexes.^{32, 36, 39, 59-61} The present study showed that all SciELO and RedALyC journals that are indexed by WoS and Medline are published in English: the Brazilian Dental Journal, Brazilian Oral Research, and the Journal of Applied oral Science. One of the factors for inclusion in BIRSs is the number of citations that journal articles receive. A journal published in English could be more cited. This seems to be confirmed by citation indicators of the three journals mentioned above (Table 3). An alternative to solve the language issue could be to publish bilingual journals in English and Spanish/ Portuguese but this involves higher production costs. Some journals in different disciplines accept articles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.⁴⁵ A future study could include publishing policies regarding language of publication among dental journals.

Besides language of publication, (table 3) shows that journals with high citation levels (number of citations and proportion of citations regarding number of articles published in a specific period of time) using Google Scholar information, also tend to publish more articles. The opposite is also evident among small journals like Universitas Odontologica from Colombia, Odontoestomatología from Uruguay and Ciencia Odontológica from Venezuela. On the other side, of all journals included in WoS, Scopus, and/or Medline, only one is published in RedALyC (Pesquisa Brasileira em Odontopediatria e Clínica Integrada).

This could be explained through the presence that SciELO has among the STI systems in the region.^{6, 36-39, 45, 54, 58, 59}

An inference from the previous analysis could be that to gain visibility and be included in mainstream indexes, a journal should make decisions about language of publication, publish more articles per volume, and seek its inclusion in SciELO. However, this is a difficult and contradictory process because, in order to receive more and better manuscripts, a journal should be indexed; but in order to be indexed, it should publish more and better articles. In addition, the number of journals does not necessarily represent the size of a discipline's science. It could only be determined with the number of projects and publications by researchers in the region.

The decision to limit this study to OA dental journals was based on the existence of regional repositories-BIRSs RedALyC and SciELO and the influence that OA have had on journal quality improvement and visibility increase in the region, which is recognized by editors, authorities, and experts in some studies.^{7, 44, 62, 63} However, it is important to emphasize that the list of journals in this study is not exhaustive because it does not include print journals or electronic publications that are not included in the regional repositories. For instance, the Latindex catalogue lists 89 dental titles (that become 80 when unifying print and electronic journal lists that are separate) that include journals like the Acta Odontológica Latinoamericana from Argentina. That Journal was recently indexed by Medline and is available at (http://www.actaodontologicalat.com/), even though articles are not available online as soon as they are published. On the other hand, Scopus includes the Revista Portuguesa de Estomatologia Medicina Dentária e Cirugia Maxilofacial (OA Journal published by Elsevier).

Likewise, the Spanish journal Medicina Oral, Patología Oral y Cirugía Bucal is indexed by Medline, Scopus, and WoS; it is an OA journal published in English by the US National Library of Medicine and has a Spanish version available for a fee. In Colombia, the journal Ustasalud Odontología is indexed by Publindex; it is published online through the publishing institution, the Universidad Santo Tomás, but not in an external repository. This journal was outdated when the data collection for this study was carried out (most recent publication: June 2011) and it did not publish separate articles (only PDF files of full issues). It was assumed that the journal prioritizes print publication but it should be confirmed in a future study.

Indexation by international BIRSs should be understood as a dynamic process. Hence, findings of this study should not be considered as definitive because they are time-sensitive; there are always new journals included and others excluded from BIRSs for different reasons. For instance, the search for journals in this study was conducted on 24 July 2013 and showed 795 titles in SciELO and 774 in RedALyC. A new search on 20 November 2013 showed 1,137 journals in SciELO and 885 in RedALyC. Even though the number of dental journals did not have major changes in general in that period, there was a new journal in SciELO: Brazilian Journal of Oral Sciences. On the other side, some journals were discontinued. This was the case of the Revista Odonto Ciência (Journal of Dental Science) that is published by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, uses OJS, and is included in Scopus but is not part of SciELO anymore.

The inclusion of Iberic-American dental journals in mainstream indexes has been modest. For example, there are only three Brazilian, one Argentinean, and one Spanish journal in the biomedical index Medline (three of them also in SciELO). There are only two dental journals in SciELO and the WoS (one in the SCI and one in the JCR) and both are published in English; therefore, there is a concern about the regional impact that research with a regional or local impact could have. OA dental journals included in RedALyC and SciELO found in this study only represent 25% of all dental journals in the Latindex catalogue. It would be interesting to carry out a comprehensive inventory to analyze countries of publication, publishing institutions/organizations, languages of publication, and other indicators, as well to conduct studies to analyze the obstacles that journals face to be indexed by regional and global BIRSs.

Such an inventory should include Latindex, other databases like Dialnet from the Universidad de la Rioja in Spain and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and possibly publisher websites. In addition, a study like that could analyze research activities and interactions between universities and scientific associations for the generation and communication of scientific knowledge. It will be necessary to conduct a standardized evaluation of journals in order to have more accurate bibliometric indicators.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

REFERENCES