LILACS database: eighteen years indexing Latin American and Caribbean health sciences journals

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LILACS database eighteen years indexing Latin
American and Caribbean health sciences journals

• Regina C. Figueiredo Castro
• BIREME/PAHO/WHO
• 10th International Conference of Science Editors,
• Rio de Janeiro, August 2000

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BIREME Latin American and Caribbean
Health Sciences Information Center

• Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
  Regional Center for health sciences information
• Coordinates a network of libraries and
  documentation centers comprising 37 countries of
  Latin America and the Caribbean
• Develops computer applications, methodologies,
  information products and services to improve
  scientific communication and dissemination of
  information in countries of the Region

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Bibliographic control of literature
One of the main objectives of BIREME is the
bibliographic control of health scientific and
technical literature produced in the Region
Since 1974 BIREME is a MEDLARS International
Center - indexing LAC health journals for
MEDLINE database - translating MESH
(Medical Subject Headings) to Spanish and
Portuguese
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Health Terminology

• Since 1982, BIREME produces a controlled
  vocabulary - DeCS (Health Science Descriptors),
  which includes translated MeSH terms and new
  subject categories in Public Health and
  Homeopathy fields, in three languages Spanish,
  Portuguese and English
• DeCS terms in Spanish and Portuguese are
  included in UMLS (Unified Medical Language
  System)
• DeCS is used for indexing LAC journals for
  MEDLINE and LILACS

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Database production
In 1978, BIREME started the Index Medicus
Latinoamericano (IMLA) as a complement to U.S.
NLM MEDLINE database. 150 Latin American health
scientific journals were selected to initiate IMLA
In 1982, IMLA database expanded its thematic
scope (from Medicine to Health Sciences,
including Public Health) and indexed more journal
titles and other types of documents, generating
LILACS database
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LILACS Latin American and Caribbean Health
Sciences Literature

• LILACS indexes
• scientific journal articles, books, book
  chapters, thesis, conference papers,
  scientific and technical reports and
  nonconventional literature
• produced by Latin American and Caribbean
  authors and published in countries of the
  Region
• from 1982 on

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Why LILACS?

• To improve bibliographic control of scientific
  production in the health sciences field
  generated in Latin American and Caribbean
  countries

• Because Latin American and Caribbean health
  scientific production was almost absent from
  international databases

• Due to the need to include other types of
  documents such us governmental publications,
  books, conference proceedings, reports and
  nonconventional literature, mainly for the
  Public Health field

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Indexing of LAC health scientific journals
Journals LILACS 699 SciELO
42 MEDLINE 43 EMBASE 49 JCR/ISI
21 Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba and
Public Health
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Dominican Rep., Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica,
Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, USA (PAHO)
Total 699 journals
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Decentralized input to LILACS
More than 400 Cooperating Centers from 37
countries of the Region input records to LILACS
250,816 records by July 2000
Annual average input in the last 3 years 23,000
records
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Total 250,816 records
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79
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Gaceta médica de México (1864) Revista médica de
Chile (1872) Gaceta médica de Caracas (1893)
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Decentralized selection of journals

• LILACS Journals Selection Criteria (updated
  April 2000) common methodology

• Selection of journals is decentralized in
  countries of the Region, according to the common
  selection criteria developed by BIREME

• Journals not accepted in LILACS are indexed in
  national databases to ensure bibliographic
  control of scientific production at national level

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LILACS Selection criteria

• Quality of contents
• (measured by number of original articles,
  statement of peer review, validity and importance
  to the field, standardization etc.)
• Regularity of publication
• Frequency of publication
• Years of existence
• Format of presentation
• Indexing in international databases

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Some evaluation studies of LILACS journals
1993 Editorial procedures for selection of
articles for publishing
1996 Characteristics of health journals
indexed in LILACS comparison of MEDLINE and
non- MEDLINE journals
1999 Evaluation of Brazilian health journals
indexed in LILACS (in progress)
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Main problems in ranking and selecting LAC
journals

• Irregularity of publication
• Low frequency of publication (biannual, annual)
• Less than 50 of original articles
• Lack of systematic peer review procedures
• In-house Editorial Committees
• Few articles in collaboration with foreign
  countries
• Lack of standardization

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Impact of LILACS selection criteria

• Selection criteria established for LILACS had
  contributed to improvement of LAC health
  journals in the last decade
• ISSN
• Editorial Committees
• Standardization
• Frequency of publication
• Use of DeCS terms as keywords

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SciELO Scientific Electronic Library Online

• 1998 SciELO project
• Objectives To contribute to the development of
  national scientific research, improving and
  creating new means for dissemination, publishing
  and evaluation of research results
• SciELO selection criteria based on BIREMEs
  experience with LILACS and on FAPESP, CNPq and
  CAPES experience on evaluation of Brazilian
  journals

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Health journals in SciELO
SciELO Brazil 23 SciELO Chile 6
SciELO Costa Rica 5 SciELO Cuba 5
SciELO Public Health 5
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Future perspectives of LILACS

• Access to documents indexed both in printed and
  electronic format
• full texts (URL) of documents indexed
• Cooperative Access to Documents Service (SCAD)

• LILACS journals included in SciELO Brazil,
  Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba and Public Health

• SciELO/LILACS100 to 150 selected titles on
  health

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Future perspectives of LILACS

• Online indexing on Internet will enable faster
  dissemination and access to LAC journals in
  MEDLINE/PubMED and LILACS databases

• Links to other databases (bibliographic,
  numerical, full text, research projects, etc.)

• Links from electronic journals and other
  databases

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LILACS http//www.bireme.br/bvs