Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC): UC research journals continue to grow in impact and visibility

According to the annual report of indicators such as JIF and CiteScore, the performance of the publications that belong to the Catholic University is outstanding at the national level, standing out especially in the area of ​​social sciences.

The monitoring and analysis of different bibliometric calculations allow corroborating the impact and positioning of scientific journals at a local, national and international level. One of the main sources of this information is the annual publication of the “Impact Factor or Journal Impact Factor (JIF)” and the “CiteScore (CS)”, two indicators that reveal the average number of citations and quartiles of the journals indexed in the prestigious Web of Science and Scopus databases .

This report of indicators -released in the middle of each year- makes it possible to compare the results of the journals with their peers and also with their own performance of the previous year, which offers a global overview of the status and scope of the publications. “If we compare the results of the UC journals with the results at the national level, it is observed that our journals have a better performance: For example, and according to our analysis, 71% of them increased their JIF this year, while -at the national- 56% registered increases in this indicator”, explains Patricio Cortés, head of the Scientific and Technological Strategic Information Area (ICYT) of UC Libraries .

“If we compare the results of the UC journals with the results at the national level, it is observed that our journals have a better performance” – Patricio Cortés, head of the ICYT Area

This analysis carried out by the UC Libraries team also confirms the important contribution of UC journals to the impact of research in Chile and the development of their respective disciplines of study. “We make special mention of the EURE and Chilean Law Journals that increased their indicators in both databases (WoS and Scopus). This is especially valuable considering that, at the national level, journals in the area of ​​social sciences (or connected to them) did not register the main increases this year”, adds Cortés.

Reception of the editorial teams
“Undoubtedly we receive these results with joy. It is the conclusion of a permanent effort carried out by the team”, says Cristóbal García Huidobro, general coordinator of the Chilean Law Review (RChD), one of the publications that presented notable advances in the JIF and CS this 2022.

The also academic of the Faculty of Law attributes this good news to key elements of the editorial work of the RChD such as the orientation to the excellence of its articles, the editorial analysis and also the work carried out by referees and peer reviewers.

The work with UC Libraries is also another point that stands out: “The collaboration between the journal and the library is perhaps one of the most important turning points in the history of the journal as a periodical publication. The RChD is a publication that, in two more years, will be half a century old, but that faces the challenge of the modernization of editorial work. In this, the library has been fundamental, since it has allowed us to internalize ourselves with the work of the indications, the improvement of our editorial norms as well as the editorial flow”.

From the area of ​​urban studies, the EURE Magazine also stands out for its good results. “For us it is very important to have the information on these indicators because we are the only journal in the area of ​​urban studies in Spanish that is in WoS and it is a challenge to remain in the ranking and go up in impact factor. In the case of Scopus, it also helps us to have the information to reaffirm editorial decisions and help consolidate our regional leadership position in the area”, comments its editor-in-chief, Felipe Link.

Regarding the projections of the publication, Link emphasizes quality standards and new ways of making his work visible: “The biggest challenge is maintaining the quality that indexers demand, which implies constant management. In addition, there is the challenge of articulating with new ways of disseminating academic content, perhaps more agile and immediate than the time taken by traditional editorial management”.