RBP is the Latin American medical journal with the highest Impact Factor

Bressan, Rodrigo A; Mari, Jair J; Mercadante, Marcos; Hoexter, Marcelo Q; Lafer, Beny; Miguel, Euripides C; Diniz, Juliana B; Fleck, Marcelo P; Rohde, Luis A; Tavares, Hermano; Kieling, Christian

doi:10.1590/S1516-44462008000300001

EDITORIAL

RBP is the Latin American medical journal with the highest Impact Factor

The success of a scientific journal can be measured by different indicators, and the number of citations is highly acknowledged by the academic community. After Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria (RBP) was indexed in 2005,¹ its first official impact factor was disclosed by the Institute of Scientific Information ISI Web of Knowledge in June 2008: our journal reached a rate of 1.225 in 2007.

With an impact factor of 1.225, RBP ranks first among the Latin American health scientific journals, sharing the position with Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Furthermore, when compared with all Brazilian journals, regardless of the field of knowledge, RBP ranks second among the Brazilian journals, being second only to the Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society, which had an impact factor of 1.539. Within the context of the Latin American journals involving all fields of knowledge, RBP ranks third, being surpassed by Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica, which has an impact factor of 1.344. Therefore, RBP is consolidated as one of the main scientific journals in Brazil and in Latin America.

An increasing growth in the visibility of the articles published in RBP has been observed during the last few years. The 2007 impact factor was measured considering the number of citations of articles published in 2005 and 2006 and cited during 2007 divided by the total number of articles published by RBP in 2005 and 2006. Therefore, the 2007 rate shows the continuous improvement in quality, either regarding the national scientific production² or the articles published by our journal during 2005 and 2006. This result can be understood as a confluence of positive factors at several levels. Overall, it is the evidence of the results of the investment in the Brazilian research and the implementation of a policy of development and reinforcement of Graduate Programs, which are the direct and indirect birthplace of a large portion of the national scientific production.³ It also means that there is a syntonic policy put into practice by consecutive administrative boards of the Brazilian Association of Psychiatry (ABP). Such policy is characterized by investment in the scientific improvement and independence of RBP. We can also mention another very important aspect, that is, the fact the authors and research groups consider our journal reliable enough to submit high quality articles to RBP. The integrity of the work performed by our reviewers, who employ the appropriate methodological strictness before approving a manuscript, must also be highlighted.

With the purpose of completing the changes in the group of Editors, we are saying goodbye to Marcos T. Mercadante with this issue. Marcos accomplished a solid work in the area of child and adolescent psychiatry and was also responsible for the recent achievements of RBP as an associate editor. However, two other prominent young psychiatrists will join us in order to complete the board of associate editors: Leonardo Fontenelle, from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and Guilherme Polanzyck, child and adolescent psychiatrist (currently working in London). We are sure that with the new Associate Editors we will be able to continue implementing the editorial policy and we will have renewed energy to face the new challenges.

With this impact factor, the editorial board of RBP reaches the goal established with ABP and its members, that is, to turn our journal into one of the main Brazilian scientific journals.⁴ However, we should remember that the impact factor is only one of the assessment rates for a journal. The assessment of a journal's quality must include several factors.⁴ Other rates can involve, for instance, data related to the percentage of articles accepted for publication and the length of time between submission and acceptance/publication. The acceptance rate of RBP, which reached 40% of the articles submitted, might decrease since we are receiving a larger number of submissions. Therefore, we need to be even stricter regarding the quality of peer review, assuring the necessary impartiality. Furthermore, we will need the authors to trust us and we are sure that they will understand this new reality. In 2005, the mean length of time between submission and acceptance of an article was 130 days. We intend to reduce this mean length of time to 100 days in 2008. Therefore, a high investment will be necessary to guarantee a streamlined and higher quality editorial process.

In order to consolidate our growth, we will need to keep receiving high quality articles produced in Brazil and in Latin America, but we also need to reinforce the process of submission of relevant articles from other continents. In addition, it is crucial that Brazilian researchers read and cite high quality articles produced in Brazil.⁵

In conclusion, our goal still is to produce an increasingly respectful journal, with international visibility, which is able to provide our members with the best information regarding medical continual education, always trying to improve even more the level of excellence of the national psychiatry.

Rodrigo A Bressan, Jair J Mari, Marcos Mercadante, Marcelo Q Hoexter

Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo (SP), Brazil

Beny Lafer, Euripides C Miguel, Juliana B Diniz

Department of Psychiatry, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo (SP), Brazil

Marcelo P Fleck, Luis A Rohde

Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil

Hermano Tavares

Outpatient Clinic of Pathological Gambling and Other Impulse Disorders (AMJO), Institute of Psychiatry, Hospital das Clínicas, School of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo (SP), Brazil

Christian Kieling

Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil

^{Financiamento e conflito de interesses}

Referências

1. Bressan RA, Rohde LA, Mercadante MT, Mari JJ, Miguel EC. We have reached the ISI! Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2005;27(3):170-1.
2. Bressan RA, Gerolin J, Mari JJ. The modest but growing Brazilian presence in psychiatric, psychobiological and mental health research: assessment of the 1998-2002 period. Braz J Med Biol Res 2005;38(5):649-59.
3. Gonçalves RR, Kieling C, Bressan RA, Mari JJ, Rohde LA. The evaluation of scientific productivity in Brazil an assessment of the mental health field. Scientometrics In press, 2008.
4. Miguel EC, Mari JJ. The right time for a new leadership in Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria. Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2008;30(1):1-6.
5. Kapczinski F. Who reads (but does not quote) Brazilian science. Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2007;29(2):198.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
25 Sept 2008
Date of issue
Sept 2008

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

[1] 1. Bressan RA, Rohde LA, Mercadante MT, Mari JJ, Miguel EC. We have reached the ISI! Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2005;27(3):170-1.

[2] 2. Bressan RA, Gerolin J, Mari JJ. The modest but growing Brazilian presence in psychiatric, psychobiological and mental health research: assessment of the 1998-2002 period. Braz J Med Biol Res 2005;38(5):649-59.

[3] 3. Gonçalves RR, Kieling C, Bressan RA, Mari JJ, Rohde LA. The evaluation of scientific productivity in Brazil an assessment of the mental health field. Scientometrics In press, 2008.

[4] 4. Miguel EC, Mari JJ. The right time for a new leadership in Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria. Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2008;30(1):1-6.

[5] 5. Kapczinski F. Who reads (but does not quote) Brazilian science. Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2007;29(2):198.