Each issue presents a particular challenge, as the objectives keep expanding and growing deeper. One of these is to collectivize the progress or findings of different investigations; another one is to obey the indexing process that strengthens, supports and makes visible the publications nationally and internationally. A third objective is to comment on the latest developments in national and international politics, such as the peace process proposed by the Santos government, now being negotiated with the FARC group and also the adverse ruling of The Hague which enlarged the Nicaraguan maritime space in detriment of Colombia; even if at this time there is no reference to these last subjects, the aim is to extend an invitation so that these matters are addressed in a serious and objective manner, with an academic point of view that leads to reflection and, furthermore, that transcends the government agencies, which in the absence of a real synergy between government and academy, allows the decision-taking process in transcendental issues with the endorsement of scholars, specialized in the various topics involved.

Public politics, as its name indicates, is the answer to the demands of the people in general, thus requiring the involvement of all, so that the guidelines and the decision making process, benefit everyone. Surely, if there was a more active culture of participation academy-government, government affairs would work better.

Moreover, in this editorial we pretend to comment on some aspects of the reform proposed by Publindex. There is no doubt that the good quality of the indexed journals depends on several actors coming together to achieve a good product. They are: authors of articles, internal and external expert peer reviewers, editorial and scientific committees, the editor and the institution or institutions that support and endorse the publications. In that sense, all journals must observe the requirements of Publindex, that become a challenge not only for the editors, but for the writers seeking to publicize their research.

Currently, categorization is based on a policy of evaluating the research processes at the institution level, the research groups and the researchers, whose essential function is to publish research results through articles that are classified in three categories: research, reflection and revision, which must be evaluated by external anonymous peers or in some cases internal, to ensure scientific quality.

From Colciencias - Publindex, it is proposed a new measurement model (NMM) which concerns editors and authors. In a broad sense, this editorial will comment on the proposed initiative. The editors and the academic community in general share the view that there must be a strict scientific quality control and in order to achieve it, there must be compliance with all requirements, in order to obtain recognition by Publindex. However, the NMM becomes an obstacle to the serial publications, due to certain onerous new requirements, which ultimately will result in the demise of many of them, because they cannot meet the new standards.

Although there are some requirements that without doubt will support and endorse good publications, there are others that do not propose substantial changes, but are confusing in so far as they are intended to eliminate the typology of articles, in order to leave just one category of research and innovation, based on being original and never published.

If you analyze the above carefully, you will notice that there is no change, given that the current typology that intends to be changed, fully answered to research. For articles of types 2 and 3 - reflection and review - it applied to products of research and resulted in something new and unprecedented.

Another change is the number of articles, and in the case of categories C and B would go from 9 to12 and from 11 to15 respectively. While at first glance the difference is small, it corresponds to an increase of 33.3 % and 36.4 %, which puts pressure on many editors and maybe sometimes would lead to filling the publications with articles of dubious quality.

As for the restriction that the articles published by authors belonging to the publishing institution correspond to 25%, is positive and very important, because it requires breaking with inbreeding and ending with practices that leave doubt on the objective selection of articles within institutions.

Despite the fact that those changes have been announced in advance, they should be phased in to minimize traumas and to ensure that many of the serials are in the forefront. For that, a careful examination of the situation must be made and not try to go from 0 to 100. A transition period is ideal, changing the requirements one by one.

In addition, regarding the publication of indexed journals as vehicles for transmission of scientific knowledge, it is without question that there are other variables that must be taken into account to move forward in research in the country, such as investment in the different thought centers such as universities, specialized institutions and others. Colombia has postponed moving forward in research as an essential function and this is due to the low budgets; in addition, the curricula and the institutional school projects of the various entities are not in direct agreement with it.

However, the most serious issue is that research is not carried out from the perspective of state policy, which is how it should be, but according to government parameters, which in turn are dictated by the political interests that give more dividends. The result: inconsistency and improvisation that destroys any attempt at continuity and produces backwardness. Thus, the assessment of progress in research in the country, is impossible as every government conceives, designs and implements its proposals almost from scratch.

Despite the above, from the academy we will continue making all possible efforts to strengthen research and achieve significant progress. This idea commits the universities and research institutes to improve the standards of quality of their publications in order to be among the best, and to adjust and respond to the new guidelines of Publindex - Colciencias, that help and support entry into international databases.

Alejandra Ripoll
Editor