As a journal editor and one that tends to either be responsible for very young journals or new launches, I am aware that it is difficult for researchers to distinguish between predatory journals, low quality genuine journals and the journals that are indeed interesting and good quality, though still relatively unknown.
One of the ways we can guarantee that our journal is perceived as a valid and respected project is by being vetted by specific Abstracting and Indexing databases. In the field of Global Health, we are very aware that PubMed Central (PMC) is an essential one. For those more curious, the differences between MEDLINE®, PubMed® and PMC are explained here (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/dif_med_pub.html). The evaluation of the journal by MEDLINE® is now under way.
In fact, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a number of other research funders have public access policies that require funded authors to deposit, in PMC, copies of their manuscripts as accepted for publication by a journal. These can be deposited by the authors, but at Cambridge University Press we facilitate that service for them. Now that we are indexed, that process will be easier and faster. And since ours is an Open Access journal, everyone can read all published articles, whether that was a requirement of the funders or not.
Of course, PMC is not the only indexer and GHEG is also indexed by other major services, including CAB Abstracts and Global Health databases, The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and soon Clarivate’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). As a new index in the Web of Science™ Core Collection, ESCI complements the highly selective indexes by providing earlier visibility for sources under evaluation as part of SCIE’s rigorous journal selection process. Inclusion in ESCI provides greater discoverability which leads to measurable citations and more transparency in the selection process.
We have also been accepted by Elsevier’s Scopus and hope to announce this indexation very soon.
All of these index services will hopefully mean that more researchers find the journal, see what a terrific team is behind it, and not only be persuaded that this is the journal for their research output, but also cite the incredible work already there. The journal, together with its blog page and twitter feed seems to have already connected an important community that is truly global. In 2016 and 2017 our authors came from 25 different countries from all continents and this will surely enrich research and discussion in the Health fields. I would like to take this chance to thank all of the authors, editors and communication team that have helped us reach this stage and long it may continue!
This blog post was written by Monica Moniz, Managing Editor of Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics
Leave a Reply