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Civilizar Ciencias Sociales y Humanas

Print version ISSN 1657-8953

Civilizar vol.15 no.29 Bogotá July/Dec. 2015

 


Editorial

Yadira Caballero Quintero
Editora

We are very pleased to inform our readers that in 2015 we entered Scielo Citation Index, so fulfilling our target of expanding the dissemination of Revista Civilizar Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, as it is explicit in our editorial policy. We also continue in the task of strengthening international readers and authors. In this occasion we have the participation of researchers from Chile, France, Argentina and Spain. We have undergone evaluation in order to enter Science Direct and have achieved excellent results in terms of editorial and content quality; we are now working on increasing citation in order to get our admission in 2016-2017.

In our constant pursuit of excellence a question arises, what is the rationale of editors, such as we are, of social science journals? It is important to question, what is the impact of our publications? In this sense we have to make a distinction regarding the type of impact to which we refer or we want to measure, which can be estimated by well-known methods in the world of publishers' indices, such as the impact index. But beyond the impact in terms of citation, it is more necessary than important, to discuss the social impact that our journals can have.

Scientific journals contribute to the dissemination and communication of results of science, but because of their level of specialization they are beyond public or private media. They are often used as a space for the publication of the results of researchers in their effort to achieve the cherished scores needed to obtain a positioning of individuals and institutions. The initial objective of informing and making knowledge available is lost. On the other hand, science magazines, which have been relegated and neglected in academia, have a more tangible social impact, because they communicate the results, reach more readers and have fewer restrictions than scientific journals, for which in most cases one has to pay a subscription to specialized indexes to have access to them.

Often investigations are unlinked from needs to be resolved and the country's goals are lost. Some publications are made for the mere pleasure of publishing, by simply filling a further requirement showing results regardless of what their impact is on the development of the nation. At this point, other questions arise, such as, is researching about finding real and necessary solutions, especially urgent for Colombian society? How much is being investigated by the social sciences concerning the post-conflict? Are we facing the challenges in terms of research for the country's growth objectives? Or are we just filling scores and conducting research outside the context and investing money that does not have a high impact at the level of responses? These are the questions that each of the educational institutions that owns a scientific journal in social sciences should make themselves, with a view to rethink our goals and establish its relationship with direct social benefit.


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