Indicators to achieve a better positioning of Ecuadorian scientific journals

Abstract

Ecuador's scientific journals are not in a good position worldwide, as seen in the small number of journals indexed in impact databases. This research was carried out due to the current and prevailing need to improve the performance level of national scientific journals at the international level. This work sought to generate the information necessary for Ecuadorian scientific journals to have a greater scope considering the criteria for indexing in the Scopus, Clarivate Web of Science, Scielo, and Redalyc databases. This was determined based on the hypothesis: Failure to comply with the indicators for international scientific databases makes Ecuadorian journals not part of these collections. We identified differences between public and private institutions and the status of communication journals in compliance with the same criteria. We analyzed 55 Ecuadorian scientific journals already indexed in Latindex. The analysis was carried out by creating matrices that made it possible to quantify the fulfillment of the criteria, implementing a categorization of Yes for the journals that meet the indicator or NO for those that do not. Similarly, interviews were conducted with editors of the Ecuadorian journals with the best indexing to triangulate the information discussed in this research. The research showed that, although most magazines meet the vast majority of indexing criteria, the main problems are the geographic and institutional diversity of the editors and authors in the journals.