Transcript Slide 1
INDEXATION
CRITERIA
Christian Kieling, MD
Department of Psychiatry, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
WPA International Congress
Beijing, September 2010
Medline
Decision whether or not to index a journal is made by the
Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM),
based on considerations of both scientific policy and
scientific quality
The Literature Selection Technical Review
Committee (LSTRC) reviews journal titles and assesses
the quality of their contents (incorporating advices of
outside experts in the subject area)
As a result of these reviews, currently indexed titles may
be dropped and new titles added
Medline criteria
Scope, coverage, audience, and quality of content
predominantly on core biomedical subjects, targeted to the
health professions; scientific merit is the primary consideration in
selecting journals for indexing
Types of content
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original research
original clinical observations with analysis and discussion
analysis of philosophical/social aspects of health sciences
critical reviews
statistical compilations
descriptions of evaluation of methods or procedures
case reports with discussions
Medline criteria
Production quality
quality of layout, printing, graphics, and illustrations
Geographic coverage
“special attention is given to research, public health,
epidemiology, standards of health care, and indigenous
diseases”
journals will generally not be selected if contents are already well
represented or if they are being published for a local audience
Foreign language journals
same criteria as for those written in English
however, the majority of published articles should contain an
English-language abstract
Medline criteria
Quality of editorial work
objectivity, credibility, and quality of contents
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information about the methods of selecting articles, especially on the
explicit process of external peer review
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statements indicating adherence to ethical guidelines
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sponsorship by national or international professional societies
evidence that authors disclose financial conflicts of interest
timely correction of errors
explicit responsible retractions as appropriate
opportunity for comments and dissenting opinion
advertising/commercial sponsorship should not raise questions about
the objectivity of the published material
How to get reviewed
The editor should (1) request a journal review by using the MEDLINE
Review Application Form and (2) send the review issues (according to
how frequently the journal is published) to the indicated address
It is also helpful to provide a subscription of the journal (no need to
send CVs or letters to LSTRC members)
What if the journal is available only in electronic format?
Request can be made after the journal has been accessible for at least six
months (necessary >20 articles published online)
Digital archive: MEDLINE wants to ensure that users will always have
access to the full text of every article - permanent archive must be in
PubMed Central or another site that is acceptable to NLM
Publisher must be able to submit data electronically in XML format
The application process
The application process
The application process
The application process
The review process
The LSTRC meets three times a year and
~190 titles are examined at each meeting
Requesters are not informed of the specific date
Notification is sent to the editor weeks after the
meeting
Rating scores range from 0 to 5
Scores 3.75 or greater required to be selected for
indexing
Overall, about 20% to 25% of the titles reviewed
are selected for indexing
If the journal is not selected
LSTRC conducts re-examinations upon request
Titles may be re-examined after a minimum of two years
following the first review date
After subsequent reviews, titles may be re-examined after a
minimum of three years following the prior review date
Intervals should allow editors and publishers time to
implement improvements to their journal
It also guarantees that the majority of the LSTRC
membership will have changed by the time of the
next review
If the journal is selected
When will indexing begin?
If a journal is in its third volume or less when
selected, MEDLINE will index the articles in all
volumes
If in its fourth year or more, indexing will begin
with the current year (articles in earlier volumes
will not be retrospectively indexed)
Congratulations! - What about other
indexation databases?
Web of Science®
Includes
Science Citation Index Expanded™
Social Sciences Citation Index®
Arts & Humanities Citation Index®
Annually reviews over 2,000 journal titles, and selects around 10% to 12%
Major criteria
timeliness of publication (three consecutive issues)
international editorial conventions (optimize retrievability of source articles)
full text (or at least bibliographic information) in English
peer review process
each article should publish information on funding source
International diversity
contributing authors
editors and editorial advisory board members
Web of Science®
In 2008, 700 new regional journals were included
Selection criteria: “same as for international journals although
citation analyses play a somewhat different role in the outcome”
Uniqueness of WoS inclusion process: analyses of citation data
citations to the journal itself
citation record of contributing authors
Other databases
Helpful guidelines
The ICMJE has produced the Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to
Biomedical Journals
www.icmje.org
The CSE has produced the Editorial Policy
Statements
www.councilscienceeditors.org
Thank you.
[email protected]