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EDITORIAL
Psychology & Neuroscience is well-ranked by the Brazilian Qualis Psychology Committee
J. Landeira-Fernandez; A. Pedro de Mello Cruz; Dora Fix Ventura
Evaluation is a major issue in academic life. It encourages dialogue among different points of view, bringing together contributions from numerous distinct sectors of our society. Government and public organizations throughout the world are developing different evaluation systems to better identify successful systematic research across a wide range of scientific areas. Results from these evaluations have important implications for the assessment of university output and allocation of research funds.
Peer-reviewed journals represent an important cog in this machinery. Consequently, they are under constant evaluation pressure. Journal evaluation is a complex task that involves both quantitative and qualitative assessment methods. It is intended to reflect the placement of a journal within its field. Among the information associated with a journal's ranking is the difficulty that authors have publishing their manuscripts and the prestige associated with it.
Brazilian scientific journals are evaluated through the Qualis system developed by CAPES (the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education). This system is based on an A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, and C ranking scale. Qualis recognizes that publication and citation norms are specific to different areas of knowledge (Amin & Mabe, 2000; Cole, 1983). For this reason, the CAPES Technical and Scientific Board designates committees for several areas responsible for formulating journal evaluation criteria by considering the specific characteristics of their respective areas. This is an important issue because Qualis committees from different areas can develop distinct evaluation criteria so that the same journal, when evaluated by different committee areas, may receive different ratings. Therefore, the Qualis stratification system reflects the relative quality of the journal according to the value assigned in each area.
Brazilian journals representing the field of psychology have undergone important changes during the past several years as a result of many factors including the internationalization of graduate programs, qualification of the scientific community, and implementation of the Qualis stratification system. The first evaluation occurred in 1998. Since then, evaluations have been performed on a regular basis. Several evaluation criteria have been developed by the Qualis Psychology Committee. Some of these criteria became obsolete, whereas others have been subjected to criticisms by Brazilian psychological journal editors (Costa & Yamamoto, 2008). An important aspect of these criteria is the fact that the Qualis Psychology Committee always performs an initial assessment to screen whether a journal is appropriately matched to the area of psychology.
In March 2012, the Qualis Psychology Committee released the results of 2,084 scientific journal evaluations. Psychology & Neuroscience was ranked A2 by this committee. This result was consistent with the expectations expressed in one of our previous editorials (Landeira-Fernandez, Cruz, & Ventura, 2010). First published in 2008, Psychology & Neuroscience is the first Brazilian academic journal in the field of psychology that publishes all of its papers entirely in English. Therefore, we are able to reach a greater number of authors and readers worldwide. Moreover, we ensure the quality of our published papers because we have the ability to invite reviewers worldwide. Finally, Psychology & Neuroscience has already been accepted for indexing in important national and international databases including PsycINFO, SCOPUS, SciELO, LILACS, RedALyC, DOAJ, PSICODOC, CLASE, PEPSIC, LATINDEX, and Index Copernicus. This current indexing profile significantly improved our journal's visibility and had a major impact on the present ranking result.
The fact that Psychology & Neuroscience was recognized as a journal from the area of psychology by the Qualis Psychology Committee is a key factor in the integration of psychology and neural science in Brazilian psychology courses. Accordingly, one of the main reasons for launching this journalto improve the impact of neuroscientific knowledge in psychological education (Landeira-Fernandez, Cruz, & Ventura, 2008)is beginning to thrive. Along with this goal, several basic areas in psychology, such as the experimental analysis of behavior and cognitive psychology, and areas of applied psychology, such as clinical neuroscience, can share the same publication. This can certainly strengthen the convergence of multiparadigmatic aspects involved in the study of psychological phenomena.
The positive Qualis evaluation given to Psychology & Neuroscience has already spurred an increase in the number of papers submitted to the journal. The strain of this increased workload has been mitigated by two new members of our editorial team, Sharon Morey and Daniel Mograbi. Dr. Morey is our consulting editor responsible for evaluating and improving the writing quality of the manuscripts before they are published. Dr. Mograbi is our assistant editor responsible for the editorial flow of each manuscript submitted to Psychology & Neuroscience. We wholeheartedly welcome the arrival of these two new members to our team. Finally, we hired the services of a publishing company with substantial experience in text, figure, and table layouts. Collectively, these accomplishments will further improve the quality of the papers published in Psychology & Neuroscience and consequently future journal evaluations.
- Amin, M., & Mabe, M. (2000). Impact factors: Use and abuse. Elsevier: Perspectives in Publishing, 1, 1-6.
- Cole, S. (1983). The hierarchy of the sciences? American Journal of Sociology, 89, 111-139.
- Costa, A. L. F., & Yamamoto, O. H. (2008). Publicação e avaliação de periódicos científicos: Paradoxos da avaliação qualis de psicologia. Psicologia em Estudo, 13, 13-24.
- Landeira-Fernandez, J., Cruz, A. P. M., & Ventura, D. F. (2008). Psychology & Neuroscience: The birth of a new journal (editorial). Psychology & Neuroscience, 1, 1-2.
- Landeira-Fernandez, J., Cruz, A. P. M., & Ventura, D. F. (2010). Psychology & Neuroscience increases its visibility through database indexing (editorial). Psychology & Neuroscience, 3, 133-134.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
26 Oct 2012 -
Date of issue
June 2012
