EDITORIAL
Major changes in Revista de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul
Local Editorial Board
A journal needs constant update and enhancement; otherwise, if it does not make the proper changes, it might become obsolete. When we took charge of the editorial board in 2006, we noted that much had been done by previous managements, but we also observed that, in order to continue to grow, deep changes were required. At that moment, we called our management "The growth of challenge." What we list next is the result of one year of intense work by the whole local Editorial Board and that we now want to share with our readers.
Change in Editorial Boards: Revista de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul (RPRS) had a much qualified Editorial Board (which is now called local EB), but it became reduced for the increasing number of articles over the past years. Our first attitude was to increase the number of participants in this Board (more than twice the number of previous members), and also to choose specialists in many areas of psychiatry for the local EB, thus creating subeditors divided by areas. These subeditors are of great help to the editors concerning the specificity of each article. Besides the changes in the local EB, we also introduced some modifications in the national and international EB (previously called Consulting Boards). More than increasing the number of their participants, we believe that now these boards are more representative of many areas of psychiatric knowledge and similar areas. We invited Brazilian colleagues who stand out, whether for their intense publication, whether by the recognition of their peers. Finally, for the international EB, colleagues from the most important university centers and institutions from many countries were invited. We register our acknowledgement to all colleagues who were part of both the local and national and international Editorial Board in previous managements, since collaboration, dedication and quality of each one was decisive to generate excellence for our Journal and to encourage new challenges.
Change in article evaluation: we created a subcommission that, throughout several months, developed a new form for article evaluation. This new form is more concise and more in accordance with the international standards of reports in renowned journals.
Change in rules of article submission: a submission was also created to carefully develop new rules for the articles submitted to our journal. Such rules explain authors the criteria used by the EB when evaluating articles. We also adapted these rules to the specificity of our journal, creating a type of article called "Theoretical clinical communication." This type of article allows authors to express new ideas about an issue and share their thoughts with our readers without the required rigidity of an original article or systematic review.
Change in rate of article refusal: due to the exponential growth of articles the journal has been receiving (there was a 200% increase in received articles over the past three years), more articles had to be refused. This certainly values the quality of articles that are published.
Implementation of a totally online operational system for submitting and evaluating articles: since last February, the journal's flowchart is totally online. The SPRS Board, in harmony with our innovation project, has supported us to acquire a management software called SGP/SG1, which uses Brazilian technology, allowing us to operationalize the journal online. Authors, when submitting articles, can follow their articles through our web site at www.revistapsiqrs.org.br. On the other hand, referees immediately receive the articles to be evaluated and are regularly reminded of their deadlines. The editors and the secretary have full access to the whole operational structure of the journal; therefore, they have a better management of the flow of articles. The result of the first months using this new system of online submission is more agility, maintaining quality in evaluations. Our current time rate is, in average, 15 days to evaluate an article and around 27 days between submission and/or refusal. This is a highquality standard in any international journal, and shows our respect for the author who choose our journal. Thus, they know that their articles are evaluated with the required rigor by at least two referees.
Renovated layout: this issue brings a complete change in the old graphic layout of our journal, which lasted for 27 years. For some time there had been an internal debate concerning the layout, which was outdated and in disagreement with the main contemporary publications. The new layout brings major changes: not only the font is different, but the space in the sheet, the new position of the abstracts in both languages (removal of abstract and keywords in Spanish), list of authors, as well as their titles. All those changes were made so that RPRS could be in accordance with what other quality journals presented as graphic norm, whether in Brazil or abroad. Our online operational system for article submission is already adapted to all these rules, and authors, when sending their articles, automatically adapt to them.
Maintaining and obtaining new indexes: our journal follows its policy of acknowledging the importance of national and international indexes as a form of promoting the articles published here. At a national level, it is worth stressing that RPRS remains QUALIS A according to CAPES (which is the evaluation standard for Brazilian journals). In 2006, we obtained level A in all evaluated health areas (Medicine I, Medicine II, Multidisciplinary and Collective Health). We still maintain the full publication in English at the international SciELO site at www.scielo.br/rprs. We fully intend to keep aiming at other international indexes.
Redefinition of the editorial line: RPRS, since its creation, has been characterized by a comprehensive, "pluralistic" editorial line. Such plurality concerning published articles reflects the psychiatric practice performed in our country. It seems to us that few journals in the world publish articles representing both clinical psychiatry and psychotherapeutic psychiatry. We do not want to move away from this. However, we would like to reinforce our rigor as to the quality of approved articles. In terms of editorial redefinition, we prioritized the publication of original articles, as well as brief communications, case reports and theoretical clinical communications. We leave some space only for reviews that are systematic and that, in fact, are relevant for our readers. Finally, the current editorial line, in agreement with what occurs in every large journal, prioritizes the role of editors as being an initial filter from which articles are sent or not to referees.
Challenges of growing, updating and searching for more qualification were the main motivators so that the local Editorial Board decided that 2006 would be the year of changes. These changes were gradually implemented, based on a serene and judicious debate. What we present today is the partial result of this work. We would like to share with our readers the "backstage" of editing our journal, which, judging by its consistency, is certainly a reason for satisfaction and pride for all of us.
We wish a pleasant reading for our colleagues!
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
06 Sept 2007 -
Date of issue
Apr 2007
