Scielo and scientific electronic publishing in Brazil

Editor's viewpoint

SciELO and SCIENTIFIC ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING IN BRAZIL

In Brazil, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) provides a way for electronic indexing and publishing of scientific journals on the Internet. This collection includes titles, selected according to international standards that evaluate the quality of scientific journals for presentation and content.

From its very beginning in 1997, SciELO Brasil has continually grown increasing the number of titles, published articles, and online access. At the end of 1998, the first year of operation, there were 25 titles; this had increased to 54 in 2000, and in June 2002 was at 80, with over 15,000 articles online. There has been a tenfold increase in the average number of monthly visitors over the last two years, seven thousand in 1999 to 70 thousand in 2001. The portal http://www.scielo.org is an international library of scientific journals that is gradually being adopted by Latin America and The Caribbean, including Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Venezuela. Spain has also adopted SciELO, specifically for Public Health scientific journals. This collection is made up from the best public health journals in Latin America and Spain, and also includes titles by the Pan-American (PAHO) and World Health Organizations (WHO).

SciELO’s success lies in the fact that it promotes the transition to electronic publishing using a library with a common modus operandi; this exploits Internet resources in order to provide visibility and accessibility; there is also systematic evaluation of usage and impact levels of the less mainstream international.

The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins has been part of the SciELO Brasil collection since November 1998. It is a biannual publication with about seven original papers per issue; the journal has 15 published issues in SciELO going back until 1995 with 104 original papers. SciELO’s usage statistics have shown that the number of visits to these articles has grown more than fivefold in the past three years, from 678 in 1999 to 3,749 in 2001. The 10 most consulted articles since 1998 have been downloaded a total of 1,707 times.

The number of citations from The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins articles published in SciELO Brasil for 2000 and 2001 totaled 54; 33 cite articles published in the last three years. The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins’s impact in SciELO is 0.6667 in 2000 and 0.2308 in 2001 from calculations based on article citation in the last three years. Although self-citations of the Journal’s articles predominate, the last two years’ indicators have shown a significant impact of The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins in relation to citations received.

Abel L. Packer

SciELO, Operational Coordinator

BIREME/PAHO/WHO, Director

[e-mail]

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  16 Sept 2002
• Date of issue
  2002