Un nuevo capítulo en la publicación de contenidos biomédicos en la Revista de la Facultad de Medicina: publicación continua

A new era in the publication of biomedical content in the Revista de la Facultad de Medicina: continuous publication

In the ever-changing landscape of scientific publishing, biomedical journals must continually adapt to meet the demands of a fast-paced, interconnected world.¹ Accordingly, the Revista de la Facultad de Medicina (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) in recent years has made several changes in its publication policies, including the publication of its contents only in digital format (2017) and in English (2021).^2,3 Along the same lines, starting in 2025, the Journal will adopt a continuous publication model, under which articles will be published as soon as they complete the editorial process, without the need to wait for a certain number of articles per issue to be submitted, thus allowing readers to immediately read, download, and cite the articles. This major change reflects the Journal's commitment to improving the accessibility, immediacy, visibility, and global reach of biomedical research.⁴

En el panorama siempre cambiante de la publicación de artículos científicos, las revistas biomédicas deben adaptarse constantemente para satisfacer las demandas de un mundo acelerado e interconectado. ¹ En ese sentido, la Revista de la Facultad de Medicina (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) en años recientes ha adoptado varios cambios en sus políticas de publicación, incluyendo la publicación de sus contenidos únicamente en formato digital (2017) y en inglés (2021). ^2,3 En esta misma línea, a partir de 2025 la revista adoptará un modelo de publicación continua, donde los artículos serán publicados tan pronto hayan culminado el proceso editorial de producción, sin necesidad de esperar a completar un determinado número de artículos por número, lo que permitirá leer, descargar y citar los artículos de forma inmediata. Este cambio significativo refleja el compromiso de la revista de mejorar la accesibilidad, inmediatez, visibilidad y alcance global de la investigación biomédica. ⁴

editorial

Franklin Escobar-Córdoba1,2,3 Cristhian Leonardo López-León2,4 Lina Johana Montoya-Polo2,4

1 Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Psychiatry - Bogotá D.C. - Colombia.
2 Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Faculty of Medicine - Revista de la Facultad de Medicina - Bogotá D.C. - Colombia.
3 Fundación Sueño Vigilia Colombiana (FUNDASUVICOL) - Bogotá D.C. - Colombia.
4 Sociedad Colombiana de Cirugía Ortopédica y Traumatología - Revista Colombiana de Ortopedia y Traumatología - Bogotá D.C. - Colombia.

Open access

Corresponding author: Cristhian Leonardo López León. Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Bogotá, D.C., Colombia. Email: cllopezl@unal.edu.co.

Keywords: Publication Format; Journal Impact Factor; Editorial Policies (MeSH).

Palabras clave: Formato de publicación; Factor de impacto de la revista; Políticas editoriales (DeCS).

How to cite: Escobar-Córdoba F, López-León CL, Montoya-Polo LJ. A new era in the publication of biomedical content in the Revista de la Facultad de Medicina: continuous publication. Rev. Fac. Med. 2024;72(4):e119202. English. doi: https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v72n4.119202.

Cómo citar: Escobar-Córdoba F, López-León CL, Montoya-Polo LJ. [Un nuevo capítulo en la publicación de contenidos biomédicos en la Revista de la Facultad de Medicina: publicación continua]. Rev. Fac. Med. 2024;72(4):e119202. English. doi:https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v72n4.11920.

Copyright: Copyright: ©2024 Universidad Nacional de Colombia. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original author and source are credited.

The traditional model of publishing scientific articles in an annual volume issues, while historically effective, has limitations in the current digital era.4 Delaying the publication of peer-reviewed articles that have finalized the editorial process until an issue is completed has created unnecessary bottlenecks, especially when research findings are time-sensitive. Continuous publication solves this problem by ensuring that articles are available online as soon as they undergo the peer review and copyediting process.5

This publication model is consistent with the growing expectations of researchers for immediate access to the most recent studies. By the same token, authors prioritize the rapid availability of their papers, and therefore, once the peer review and copyediting stages have been completed, any delay in the publication of their work that is beyond their control is frustrating. By implementing continuous publication, the Journal aims to optimize the time elapsed from manuscript acceptance (after a rigorous editorial review process) to its publication online for reading, downloading, and citation purposes.5

Regarding the publication of biomedical articles only in English in the Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, this decision was made to increase our impact factor, since studies published in English are more visible worldwide and, consequently, have a higher citation potential.2,3 In fact, since that policy was implemented, along with an even more rigorous initial methodological review, the Journal's impact factor has increased considerably, from a CiteScore in Scopus of 0.6 in 2021 to 1.1 in 2023. It is well known that English is the lingua franca of science, and it enables researchers from all over the world, regardless of their native language and place of origin, to interact with the findings published in the literature and to create new knowledge based on such information.6

In this sense, by standardizing the publication of articles in English, with open access and under a continuous digital publication model, the Revista de la Facultad de Medicina attempts to ensure that its contents are available to the largest possible audience, increasing the visibility of the published articles and making it more attractive to new authors. Concerning the latter aspect, it should be noted that although policies such as the publication of articles only in English entail extra costs, the Journal will continue to be an open access publication and will not charge authors for the processing of their articles, not even at the translation stage, since once accepted for publication, the articles will be translated into English by our official translator. The English version will be forwarded to the authors so that they can review and approve it prior to publication.

While the adoption of a continuous publication model aims to optimize publication times, it is worth emphasizing that the articles submitted to the Journal will continue to undergo a rigorous editorial process that includes an in-depth methodological and content review by the Journal's editorial team, under the guidance of the editor-in-chief, and double-blind peer review. The purpose of this approach is to ensure that the articles accepted for publication meet the highest standards of scientific and editorial quality.

This change is a milestone in the history of the Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, as the continuous publication of articles in English not only expands its reach, but also positions it as a dynamic platform for the dissemination of high-impact research in the region.2,3 Therefore, we welcome readers, authors and reviewers to join us in this new chapter and work together to publish biomedical articles with the highest quality and accessible to the scientific community around the world.

References

1.Gierasch LM. Faster publication advances your science: The three R's. J Biol Chem. 2020;295(2):672. https://doi.org/n7c3.

2.Escobar-Córdoba F, López-León CL, Montoya-Polo LJ. Publishing biomedical research articles in English, but in quality English. Rev. Fac. Med. 2018;66(4):527-8. https://doi.org/c95k.

3.Escobar-Córdoba F, Eslava-Schmalbach J, Cote-Menéndez M. The Journal of the Faculty of Medicine implements a transition process to publish articles in English. Rev. Fac. Med. 2017;65(2):181-2. https://doi.org/cs55.

4.Pérez AC. La publicación continua frente a la publicación periódica: otra vuelta de tuerca en la edición de las revistas científicas en Internet. Rev. Esp. Salud Publica. 2015;89(6):533-536. https://doi.org/gqqh6b.

5.Chippaux JP. Les différents modèles de revues scientifiques [The different models of scientific journals]. Med Trop Sante Int. 2023;3(4):mtsi.v3i4.2023.454. French. https://doi.org/n7c4.

6.Amano T, Ramírez-Castañeda V, Berdejo-Espinola V, Borokini I, Chowdhury S, Golivets M, et al. The manifold costs of being a non-native English speaker in science. PLoS Biol. 2023;21(7):e3002184. https://doi.org/gshbsm.