Dear Editor:

While extending a warm greeting, we are writing to congratulate, through you, the authors of the article entitled "Scientific production in the Medicine Faculties of Colombia in the last 15 years". ¹ In this work, the volume of scientific production of Colombian universities in the area of medicine during the past 15 years is determined by analyzing the SCOPUS database. ² This type of studies is highly relevant today, if we consider that research is associated, now more than ever, with the quality of teaching ³ and that this can be indirectly measured through intellectual and scientific production. ^4,5

We think it is appropriate to add that one of the biggest obstacles to increasing scientific production in Latin American universities is writing scientific articles, as it is considered a part of research methodology in most of the countries of the region, although it is generally not addressed exhaustively or as an independent thematic unit. ⁶

The aforementioned work becomes even more important as it calls for the generation of research projects and the publication of their results. Therefore, the perspective of the authors towards encouraging research in students, at least implicitly, is remarkable. ⁷

It is worth noting that by publishing this kind of research, the journal, as a host of scientific debate, fulfills the fundamental task of sustaining the notion of science as a social activity. In this context, it plays a key role for the interaction between researchers in order to address issues that, like the one described above, integrate scientific production, teaching and research as the points of the triangle of quality in higher education.