pontifícia Universidad Javeriana facultad de ciencias económicas y administrativas departamento de ciencias contables cuadernos de contabilidad número 32

Editorial

The meaning in trying to have the journal Cuadernos de Contabilidad included in ISI in the future

In the recent article The Scientific Field of Accounting: International Scenario of the Journals (El campo científico de la contabilidad: panorama internacional de las revistas), written by Hugo A. Macias and Tatiana Moneada, from the University of Medellin, and published by Revista Lumina (12), from the University of Manizales, the authors assert that scientific production in Latin America - when it is not included in the indexes of the Institute for Scientific Information, ISI - could be called "lost science", a term used before by Maria Elena Luna and Francisco Collazo (2007).

According to them, a journal not appearing in ISI means that the articles published in it receive no recognition and the interest in writing for such journal decreases. In another section, the authors note, citing Luna and Collazo (2006), that Latin American journals with ISI acceptance related to economic and administrative sciences "are characterized by international arbitration committees, articles written in English, subdivision of each number into separate titles, international publishers' cooperation, electronic versions, visibly diminished endogamic practices and strict selection criteria."

Finally, in the conclusions, the authors say:

Much remains to be done. The paths are full of signs, warnings and deliberations, but each community can choose whether it wants to move towards the more advanced levels or prefers to continue projecting negative influences from the professional associations on education and research.

It is worth exposing these ideas and arguments and submitting them to deliberation, given their significant implications. In an effort to open a formal academic debate between the accounting publications in the country, I will discuss a series of arguments and ideas about what is in my view a longstanding debate brought back to light by that article, and that directly involves the Cuadernos de Contabilidad journal.

The current criteria used by Publindex to classify academic journals in Colombia mean that to reach the highest levels (different quar-tiles of A1 and A2), journals must be included in indices such as Scopus and ISI. As an "intermediate" step, journals should be part of indices such as SciELO, which facilitates the passage from Category B to A2. When a journal enters the national system, it always tries to get into these categories, as Cuadernos de Contabilidad has been trying to do to such a point that, at the publication date of this issue, it has applied for a potential upgrade from category B to A2. Furthermore, in the strategic planning of the Economic Sciences School of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, the journal is expected to reach category A1 in 2016.

Despite these goals, I refuse to believe that the research published to date can be considered invisible or lost, for various reasons that have been discussed in previous editorials and for some others that I will briefly explain. In general, these reflections arise from asking: "lost science" for whom? For example:

• We expect the articles in our journal to be used by, in the first place, the accounting communities in Universidad Javeriana itself, then by the rest of the country and finally by international communities. Such visibility has a high impact on local education and research and therefore, in my opinion, is far from being "lost".
• The evaluation process of Cuadernos de Contabilidad has gained in rigor and higher standards, and in most cases the evaluation results qualitatively improve the articles submitted by researchers. Having a journal like ours, despite the continuous improvements we must make, certainly qualifies the research exercise and indirectly impacts teaching.
• I do not think that publication in English increases visibility, because in many cases the ideas and constructions made by accounting researchers are directed to local realities and communities. A broad and inclusive academia should be able to read not only in English but in several languages, including Spanish.
• Although Cuadernos de Contabilidad is not included in ISI - at least not yet -, reality shows that the interest on publishing in it has not decreased, but, on the contrary, has been increasing and improving. For various reasons, including institutional logics and incentives, we receive more and better articles for our journal each time, which allows us to enhance and qualify the evaluation process.
• Also, the citation logics that increase visibility can lead to excess and misuse by academic communities, as I have stated in previous editorials. The "I will quote you so you quote me" line of reasoning does not necessarily imply quality, though it does increase visibility.

The above suggests that being included in ISI, SCOPUS, SciELO or any other system must not be the journals' ultimate goal, but a result associated with the consolidation of academic and research communities (in our case related to accounting) that have a significant impact on teaching and on the environment in which they operate. That is the real relevance of scientific research, even if some "elites" call it lost science.

The "upgrade" to ISI must not be a formal matter. It must be the result of a long-term, gradual, collective commitment that benefits multiple users, not just certain communities. For this, it is fundamental to have communities and research networks built around the journals, avoiding institutional endogamy (which often occurs under the pretext of defending identity). Those networks should include local, national and international actors. To generate numbers with specialized titles or subjects is only possible when the academic communities working on them have been formed and identified. In turn, this becomes possible when the journals have been built on a long-term process and not just seeking formal results in order to achieve a certain classification.

For Cuadernos de Contabilidad to continue trying to become an ISI journal has the meaning stated above. The road we have traveled, the gradual rise in the Publindex system and the current aspiration to be included in databases such as SCOPUS are the result of prior and collective learning processes, instead of objectives for their own sake.

Around them we will continue to work, and to them we will dedicate our efforts in the coming years.

The process we have undertaken and synthetically described herein has generated the present Number 32 of Cuadernos de Contabilidad, with some special conditions.

First, the articles in this number that come from research results are mostly by non-Colombian authors. As readers can see, six articles included in this issue are written by Spanish and Mexican professors, and two by Colombian professors.

Also, in the articles derived from research projects there are once more works on subjects that hold great interest to our publication, such as finance, capital markets, management accounting and the links between accounting and corporate social responsibility, CSR. Likewise, they include important works on education and the characteristics of formal research in accounting, a very relevant topic in the Colombian context that is equally valid for other countries.

The contrast between works from different backgrounds and nationalities can bring great benefit, such as showing the progress achieved in each place and helping us understand whether we can apply these methods and results or do similar work in our own environments.

The journal also maintains spaces for professors at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and other institutions to publish their non-research-based work. Among the items not formally derived from research projects, we include a very important subject that transcends the purely disciplinary scope of accounting (although affecting it directly) and throws a humanist and very complete light on a fundamental issue such as the new Rio+20 summit on the future of the environment, to be held in mid-2012. Number 32 then includes an interview, a feature we have incorporated over the last few semesters.

We hope that this issue will be useful for our readers and that together we will continue to strengthen this academic space that aims to continue "ascending" in the Publindex system, but feels that this will be a consequence of several results associated with better teaching, better research, and the identification and improvement of accounting communities in the country and abroad.

Gabriel Rueda-Delgado
May 2012

References

Luna-Morales, Maria Elena and Collazo-Reyes, Francisco (2006). Las revistas latinoamericanas y caribeñas en los rankings de la ciencia internacional (Latin American and Caribbean Journals in the International Science Rankings). III Congreso Internacional de Bibliometría Gilberto Sotolongo Aguilar, pp. 1-12. Mexico: Unidad de Servicios Bibliográficos.

Luna-Morales, Maria Elena and Collazo-Reyes, Francisco (2007).Análisis bibliométrico de las revistas latinoamericanas y caribeñas en los indices de la ciencia internacional, 1961-2005 (Bibliometric Analysis of Latin American and Caribbean Journals in the International Science Indexes, 1961-2005). Revista Española de Documentación Cientifica, 30 (4), 523-543. Available in http://redc.revistas.csic.es/index.php/redc/article/view/403/415.

Macias, Hugo A. and Moncada, Tatiana (2011) El campo científico de la contabilidad: panorama internacional de las revistas (The Scientific Field of Accounting: International Scenario of the Journals). Revista Lúmina, 12, 260-278.