Impact of National Scientific Production in Cardiology on the Rating of Journals Published in Brazil

The significant advances in the scientific production in the health sciences area in recent years have been accompanied by the indexing of several journals published in Brazil in the main international databases and a significant increase in the number of Brazilian publications in the cardiology and cardiovascular medicine areas has also been observed. According to the Scopus-Scimago index, we currently occupy the 15th position in international publications in this field of research, with the publication of approximately 750 articles per year. To this number are added many publications by Brazilian researchers in other international journals, demonstrating the wide inclusion achieved by our cardiological science. The growing increase in the number and quality of publications in cardiology in our country is explained by better education of Brazilian researchers, from the training provided by sensu stricto post-graduation programs1,2, by increasing the number of researchers registered with the National Research Council (CNPq)3,4 and incentive programs aimed at training and scientific production sponsored by medical societies . In this sense the Brazilian Society of Cardiology has implemented a research training program in collaboration with U.S. Duke University5, which was responsible for the training of more than 50 researchers from 24 centers or universities. In parallel, the implementation of several multicenter registries regarding major cardiovascular diseases has been supported by the society, aiming at expanding knowledge of the national situation regarding its incidence and regional characteristics6-9. In the presence of a current scientific scenario with great perspectives, the challenge of journals published in Brazil is also growing. The authors prefer to publish their articles in journals of high quality, credibility and greater impact, justifying the publication of the best quality research performed in the country in the major journals in the field of cardiology at the international level. This situation, which is often based on the Impact Factor of journals10, leads to the maintenance of a lower rating of our journals, a situation that can only be modified through the continuous improvement of our disclosure methods, associated with greater collaboration from our researchers11. The Brazilian Archives of Cardiology is still the main vehicle of Brazilian research disclosure, concentrating more than 25% of national publications in its field. In parallel to the improvement of the quality of Brazilian scientific research, the journal has also shown increasing levels of citation of articles published in it, a situation unquestionably due to a more detailed and consistent peer-review process12. As perspective, we expect to continue to see the continuous evolution of the impact of our publications internationally, whereas we increase the rating and inclusion of our journals.