EDITORIAL
Classification of Scientific Nursing Journals
The development of scientific nursing knowledge of the discipline of nursing has been solidifying internationally through the existence of "strictu sensu" graduate programs in more than 32 countries and the growing number of advanced research in different segments of the discipline leading to the advancement of the science, technology, and societal innovations. In Brazil, the "strict sensu" graduate programs are evaluated according to their quality products or outcomes. These products or outcomes are evaluated using indicators and criteria similar to those of recognized and established parameters for academic excellence. That is, parameters for the highest qualification in the sciences and technology and innovations at the national and international levels.
The dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge of the discipline of nursing occurs through publications in scientific journals indexed in databases recognized by the scientific community of scholars. These databases confer quality control of the journals through the calculation of the impact factor of their manuscripts, which extend the internationalization and the continuing scientific and technological actualization and capacitation of professionals. The classification of scientific journals that publish manuscripts and products of "strict sensu" graduate programs of the discipline of nursing in Brazil occurs through a process in development that is solidifying for more than one decade. This classification system is called "Qualis da Enfermagem." This classification process is based on scientific journals indexation to promote the dissemination of knowledge gained through research by the scientific community of scholars contributing to the visibility of publications in the several retrieval mechanisms of the different scientific disciplines.
The coordination team of the nursing area jointly with ad hoc members of the advising committee of "ENF QUALIS PERIÓDICOS - CAPES 2008," guided by evaluation of the publication of the triennial 2004-2006 and taking into account the national and international specificity and characteristics of the discipline, defined the criteria for classification of the scientific nursing journals including indexes of reference. The databases adopted for the classification of the "QUALIS" of the discipline of nursing included: The SCOPUS, indicator of the impact of production north-south, which indexes 15 thousand scientific journals; the social sciences citation index of the ISI (Institute of Scientific Information); the MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) of the NLM (National Library of Medicine); the SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), which is the main open database for Latin-American countries making efforts to disseminate scientific knowledge in the south-south world geographic area and the Iberian peninsula and African countries that has Portuguese as an official language.
In addition, other specific nursing databases were used: The CINAHL (Cummulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), which is the main international database in the area; the CUIDEN (Base de Datos Bibliográfica sobre Cuidados de Salud en Iberoamérica), which is an important nursing database for Iberian-American and European countries; and the BDENF (Banco de Dados de Enfermagem) and REV@ENF (Portal de Revistas de Enfermagem), with Brazilian indexes of nursing journal in the Virtual Healh Library (Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde - Enfermagem). These two last databases use the SciELO methodology allowing the retrieval of systematic bibliographic data, the use search strategies, and the access full text electronically, and enhance regional visibility and support the collection of bibliometric indexes of the Brazilian and Latin-American nursing literature. Other general databases such as Lilacs, Sport Discus, Latindex, Embase, Eric, PsycINFO, Cuidatge, Cab Health, Cabstracts Periódica, Physical Education Index, Open Journal Systems, Scientific Cambridge Abstracts, and other types of indexators from scientific associations recognized by the community of scholars also were used. It was adopted the calculated "H" index of the Scopus database, the J index of the ISI database, and the Ric index of the CUIDEN database as the bibliometric indicators.
Challenges for the classification of nursing journals and their publications are being overcome thanks to the commitment and efforts of journals editors and involvement of the scientific community of scholars including researchers, faculty, master's students, doctoral students, and the whole academic community who strive for excellence in performance and competencies. This involvement of the scientific community of scholars is reflected in the quality of their publications and in the quality of graduate programs. The "Acta Paulista de Enfermagem" has overcome those challenges; it is indexed in databases relevant for the dissemination of knowledge development of the discipline of nursing. The "Acta Paulista de Enfermagem" is currently classified as "Qualis B1".
Prof. Dra. Alacoque Lorenzini Erdmann
Prof. Dra. Josicelia Dumêt Fernandes
Coordenator Associate Coordinator of the Nursing Area of the Capes - 2008-2010 Term
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
26 Feb 2010 -
Date of issue
Oct 2009
