Poster abstracts

Conflict of interest policies and disclosure requirements among European cardiovascular journals
Fernando Alfonso and Izet Masic

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The European Federation of Medical Informatics: History and Journal Review
Izet Masic

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NECOBELAC project to improve scientific writing and open access publishing in public health: final results
Paola De Castro on behalf of the NECOBELAC working group

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Go international or perish: example of the Croatian linguistic journal Suvremena lingvistika
Ida Raffaelli and Kristian Novak
Suvremena lingvistika (Contemporary Linguistics)

Suvremena lingvistika(Contemporary Linguistics) is one of the leading Croatian linguistic journals. First published in 1963, the journal rapidly gained a leading role in promoting, at the time, new linguistic theories and methodologies. At first it was conceived as a forum for leading Croatian linguists, with insight and knowledge about international linguistic trends, to present new linguistic endeavours. Although constantly in tune with international linguistic ideas Suvremena lingvistika was, regarding the authors and the readers, a regional journal. Namely, the articles were foremost written in Croatian, and the readership and the authorship were regionally oriented or were able to read Croatian. However, the journal has been present in the most important national and university libraries worldwide, especially after the year 1991, and is indexed in some of the most relevant databases for the Humanities (MLA, BL).

Since 2006, when the journal set up its website and became indexed in more relevant databases (EBSCO, ERIH, SCOPUS, among others), there has been a steady increase in its international visibility. We will present bibliometric analysis of the journal since 2006 showing a constant increase of international authorship and readership (the data on different university libraries downloading the journal will be provided), as well as the change of the scope of the journal (the data on topic changes will be provided as well).  In the last six years especially, Suvremena lingvistika has grown from a regional journal in tune with international linguistic trends into a journal with high international visibility.

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Russian architectural science serials and international databases
Alexander G. Burtsev
Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts, Ekaterinburg, Russia

Russian science serials published by higher education organizations play an important role in that they are the official vehicle for the publication of dissertation results. At present, the status and visibility of these journals is supported by their inclusion in the “VAK list” of peer-reviewed journals published by the All-Russia Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation. Unfortunately, this list  is going to be cancelled in the near future, after which the Ministry proposes that all the main dissertation results are to be published only in journals included in international databases. As in many countries, Russian science serials aim to be included in international databases but face many problems in achieving such indexing. Thus many journals, losing the support of the VAK listing and their role in publishing dissertation results, may be forced to close. Such a situation pertains to the science serials in the fields of architecture.

We have assessed the potential of Russian science serials in the fields of architecture to be included in international databases. The analysis used data from the Science Electronic Library and journal websites. It showed that journals with dominant technical bias and privately owned journals have greater potential for being included in international databases than do humanitarian journals and those owned by higher education organizations.

At present Springer publishes Power Technology and Engineering  and Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. Architectural journals of this type (i.e. technically biased) publish more  issues per year (6-12) and have articles that are more extensively referenced and are more highly cited, so these journals are more likely to be included in international databases and indexing services. The Russian Science Citation Index for 2010 included in its top 10 only two journals that were not privately owned: Vestnik grazhdanskih inzhenerov and Seismostoikoye stroitelstvo – Bezopasnost sooruzheniy.

Neither of the journals published by Springer nor others currently pay serious attention to parameters such as an international editorial board, detailed manuscript structure and style guidelines, a clear peer-review process or adherence to guidelines recommended  by EASE or other editors associations.

Technical journals are in a more favourable position because of the better scientific quality of technical publications than of humanitarian ones and the overall technical direction of 21st century architecture and urban planning processes.

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Standardizing citations of research biobanks for a possible evaluation of bioresource research impact factor
Paola De Castro1, Federica Napolitani1, Anna Maria Rossi1, Carlo Petrini1, Anne Cambon-Thomsen2 and Elena Bravo1
1Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
2Inserm, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

Bioresources such as biobanks, databases and bioinformatics tools are important elements in current research but there is no standardized way to acknowledge the effort involved in establishing and maintaining such resources.(1)  Thus there is no way to evaluate the impact of the use of such resources on scientific research.

A working group for the creation of a Bioresource Research Impact Factor (BRIF) was set up within the BBMRI and GEN2PHEN European projects.  The main objective is to promote the sharing of bioresources by creating a link between their initiators or implementers and the impact of the scientific research using them. A BRIF would make it possible to trace the quantitative use of a bioresource, the kind of research using it and the efforts of the people and institutions that construct it and make it available.

The working group  produced a number of subgroups, comprising experts in the relevant fields, which in 2011 started to work on different aspects of BRIF.  The subgroup “BRIF and journal editors” studied how to  raise awareness of journal editors to matters pertaining to citation of bioresources, with the aim of modifying their editorial guidelines accordingly. The group has submitted a proposal for amendments to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts which the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has agreed  to consider. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has been approached to address in their guidelines the editorial and ethical problems concerning biobanks and more generally bioresources.  The same issues will be also discussed within the European Association of Science Editors. The creation of BRIF will certainly benefit from the development of digital technologies which will facilitate the management, standardization, counting and coupling of citations as well as data interoperability.

Reference
Cambon-Thomsen A, Gudmundur A, Thorisson GA, Mabile L for the BRIF workshop group. The role of a bioresource research impact factor as an incentive to share human bioresources. [correspondence] Nature Genetics 2011;43(6):503-4.

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Exploiting digital tools to manage and trace requests from authors in a French university hospital
Frances Thivet-Sheppard, Centre d’Investigation Clinique (Inserm CBT-506), CHU de Besançon, France

As an English mother tongue editor employed by a French university hospital to assist authors with research publications, it is often difficult to manage requests for help. The articles themselves are wide-ranging in their area of specialisation and each author has different requirements in terms of deadlines. While some authors write in French and may therefore require a full translation of an original article into English, others have considerable experience in the publication process, thus needing little linguistic intervention. A website was set up in order to establish an archive, as well as to provide information for authors about the editorial and translation services available to them. Access to the site was limited in order to protect confidentiality. The website has made it easier to trace the outcome of each article submitted for publication, as well as to centralise, quantify and qualify all editorial and translation work done.

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Bibliometric analysis: more than an assessment tool, an aid for developing a collective strategy for publication
Véronique Batifol-Garandel

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An example of EASE impact on scientific writing and editing in Central Europe: the “Polish connection”
Edward Towpik, Wojciech M. Wysocki

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2000–2009 Publication metrics reveal global trends in grain legume research
D. Millot1, F. Bridet-Guillaume2, D. l’Hostis3, A. Baranger4, J. Buitink5, M.H. Jeuffroy6, M.B. Magrini7, B. Tivoli4, G. Duc1

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The success of a new strategy for Agronomy for Sustainable Development
Marjolaine Hamelin1and Eric Lichtfouse2

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Steps toward Medline indexation: Pharmacy journal Pharmactuel
Julie Méthot1,2, Roxane Therrien3, Marie-Claude Poulin4, Louise Mallet5,6
1Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec (Hôpital Laval), Québec; 2Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Laval, Québec; 3CHU Ste-Justine, Montréal;4Ordre des Pharmaciens du Québec, Montréal, Québec; 5Centre Universitaire de Santé McGill, Montréal; 6Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Montréal, Canada

Introduction: Pharmactuel is an international French journal on the practice of hospital pharmacy. Indexation in Medline represents a goal for the editorial committee of the journal.

Objective: To present the different steps for the submission of this application.

Methods: In December 2007, the Associate Editor-in-chief of Pharmactuel was appointed to this application. A sub-committee was mandated to develop and implement an action plan for Medline indexation.

Results: A visit was organized with an American colleague who had gone through the process of Medline indexation to discuss the different steps. An advisory committee was created with representatives from France, Switzerland and Belgium to create an international dimension for our journal. A peer-review process was developed for the following article categories: Research reports, Review articles on pharmacotherapy, Case reports and Critical evaluation of the literature. An editorial letter was implemented.  A copyright assignment form and the ICMJE uniform disclosure form were required to be submitted upon acceptance of a manuscript. Finally, an online manuscript submission system, a review system and a code of ethics were implemented.

Conclusion: All steps for Medline indexation were completed and the dossier was submitted on April 1st 2011.

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If a journal is included in PubMed Central, does the citation frequency by SCIE journals increase? – Non-medline journal cases in Korea
Geum-Hee Jeong1, 3 and Sun Huh2, 3