Shaping the Qualities, Values and Standards of Science. How Reporting Guidelines Improve the Transparency of Biomedical Research.

What is scientific quality and how can it be achieved? Recent developments in clinical biomedicine gave prominence to transparency as a new core value for scientific research. Without transparency, other characteristics and values remain unknown. But how can abstract concepts and values be implemented in day-to-day scientific practices and what gets lost on the way? In order to answer this question, this study investigates the role of the PRISMA reporting guideline for writing systematic reviews and meta-analyses. By combining a document analysis and expert interviews with its developers, it attempts to bridge the gap between research practice and current modes of evaluation. Beside showing how the guideline was designed to be applicable and acceptable as a new standard, the analysis revealed crucial distinctions between transparency as an abstract quality goal and its practical implementation in the form of specifically formulated rules. Although PRISMA relies on transparency in order to be meaningful, it blurs the concept in order to circumvent some of its main disadvantages.

Indicadores de Productividad e Impacto de la Revista Cubana de Farmacia durante el período 1995-2013 / Productivity and impact indexes of Revista Cubana de Farmacia in the period of 1995 to 2013

Introducción: la Revista Cubana de Farmacia constituye el órgano oficial de las Sociedades Cubanas de Farmacia y Farmacología, así como una de las publicaciones nacionales que ha logrado ingresar a bases de datos internacionales de gran prestigio como Scopus. Objetivo: caracterizar la productividad e impacto de la Revista Cubana de Farmacia durante el período 1996-2013 desde la perspectiva de un estudio bibliométrico. Métodos: se desarrolló un estudio descriptivo, longitudinal y retrospectivo de la producción científica publicada en la Revista Cubana de Farmacia desde 1995 hasta 2013. Fue empleada una muestra intencional de 651 artículos, los datos recopilados fueron procesados empleando el gestor bibliográfico EndnoteX. Se aplicaron indicadores bibliométricos para evaluar la productividad (por autores y género, índice de productividad, asociatividad y transitividad, producción por naciones, instituciones, provincias y palabras clave), así como el impacto de la revista (Scimago Journal Rank e Índice de atracción). Resultados: fueron identificados 1 199 autores (61,02 por ciento del sexo femenino), de ellos 24 con 10 o más trabajos publicados, y es Caridad Margarita García Peña, la autora más productiva. Existió una mayor tendencia a la asociación de autores que a la publicación de forma individual. Cuba resultó el país con más contribuciones (89,98 por ciento), mientras que el Centro de Investigaciones y Desarrollo de Medicamentos (24,73 por ciento) fue la institución más productiva y La Habana la provincia más representada dentro de la muestra. Las temáticas más abordadas por los artículos fueron la Tecnología Farmacéutica y el Análisis Farmacéutico y obtuvo un Scimago Journal Rank igual a 0,111 y un Índice de Atracción de 7,37 unidades, ubicándose el en cuartil 4 de la base de datos Scopus. Conclusiones: el comité editorial debe aumentar las acciones de promoción y marketing a nivel internacional con el objetivo de elevar su visibilidad e impacto(AU)

Introduction: Revista Cubana de Farmacia is the official journal of the Cuban Societes of Pharmacy and Pharmacology and also is one of the Cuban publications that managed to ber included in the well-known international database Scopus. Objective: to characterize the productivity and impact of Revista Cubana de Farmacia during the period from 1995 to 2013 from a bibliometric perspective. Methods: adescriptive, longitudinal and retrospective study of scientific production published in this journal in the period of 1995 through 2013 was conducted. An intentional sample of 651 articles was used. All collected data were processed using the reference manager EndnoteX. Bibliometric's indicators that made it possible to evaluate aspects related to productivity (by author, sex, productivity index, associativity and transitivity, production per country, institution, keywords and province) as well as impact of the journal (SCimago Journal Rank and the Attraction's Index) were applied. Results: a total of 1 199 authors were identified (61.2 percent females) of whom 24 have published 10 or more papers, being Margarita García Peña the most productive author. Cuba turned out to be the country with the highest number of articles published (89.98 percent) whereas the Centre for Research and Drug Development and Havana where the most represented institution and province the sample. Pharmaceutical Analysis and Pharmaceutical Technology were the most addressed topics in the journal and he obtener a showed a SCimago Journal Rank of 0,111 and an Attraction Index of 7,37. Conclusions: the editorial commission must increase the marketing and promotion actions to gain more visibility and impact factor worldwide(AU)

Comparison of scientists of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA on the basis of the h-index

A new scientometric indicator, the h-index, has been recently proposed (Hirsch JE. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2005; 102: 16569-16572). The index avoids some shortcomings of the calculation of the total number of citations as a parameter to evaluate scientific performance. Although it has become known only recently, it has had widespread acceptance. A comparison of the average h-index of members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (NAS-USA) was carried out for 10 different areas of science. Although, as expected, the comparison was unfavorable to the members of the BAS, the imbalance was distinct in different areas. Since these two academies represent, to a significant extent, the science of top quality produced in each country, the comparison allows the identification of the areas in Brazil that are closer to the international stakeholders of scientific excellence. The areas of Physics and Mathematics stand out in this context. The heterogeneity of the h-index in the different areas, estimated by the median dispersion of the index, is significantly higher in the BAS than in the NAS-USA. No elements have been collected in the present study to provide an explanation for this fact.