EDITORIALS

Journal of Osteoporosis and Mineral Metabolism. Five years on. New challenges

Revista de Osteoporosis y Metabolismo Mineral. Cinco años después. Nuevos retos

Gómez de Tejada Romero M.J.¹ and Sosa Henríquez M.²

¹Redactora-Jefe
²Director de Revista de Osteoporosis y Metabolismo Mineral

The Journal of Osteoporosis and Mineral Metabolism (Revista de Osteoporosis y Metabolismo Mineral) was first published in March 2009. It has now, therefore, completed its first five years. Born out of the need of the Spanish Society for Bone and Mineral Metabolism Research (Sociedad Española de Investigación Ósea y Metabolismo Mineral (SEIOMM) ) to have its own official organ to disseminate its scientific activities, taking over this role from the Revista Española de Enfermedades Metabólicas Óseas (REEMO) given the insoluble difficulties which the management committee of SEIOMM then found in reaching an agreement with the editors of REEMO, both from an economic point of view and, more importantly, regarding the management of the Journal.

Starting from zero, the path to the present day has not been easy. In the field of scientific publications one of the most important questions, possibly the most important, is the dissemination of the articles and their visibility. Researchers send their best articles to the journals which have the best reach, and consequently, the greatest impact. In turn, the journals which publish high quality articles are the most cited, which leads to a virtuous circle. Inversely, journals having no impact face real hardship, since logically the articles they receive are less interesting and, therefore, will be cited less, which again completes the circle, but this time vicious.

From its early days we have been battling to ensure that the Journal of Osteoporosis and Mineral Metabolism is a quality publication. It has a committee of experts which brings together the best Spanish scientists in the field of mineral metabolism, an editorial committee of researchers of internationally recognised prestige, and our process of peer review, editorial rules and all the procedures for editing and publication of articles is very similar to those of other prestigious national journals in the medical arena, such as, for example, Medicina Clinica (Clinical Medicine). We also have a number of strong points, such as being free, both to publish and to read the articles on the web, and it is the only journal in the field of osteoporosis and mineral metabolism which is bilingual.

In addition, we have been successful in having the Journal of Osteoporosis and Mineral Metabolism in 16 bibliographic databases, and have requested fourteen others that we be evaluated for inclusion. Many of the databases in which we are included are highly prestigious, such as SciELO, DOAJ, or Google Scholar or Academic. However, our first attempt to be included in MEDLINE was rejected. One of the two main reasons was the relatively low number of original articles published each year, while the other was the practical absence of citations in other more prestigious publications indexed in MEDLINE or the Journal of Citation Reports (JCR).

After five years we are at a critical moment in the future of our journal. Its dissemination through the aforementioned databases allows us to believe that we are not invisible. Thus, if in Google we enter a search "Osteoporosis España" the fourth link which appears is the Journal of Osteoporosis and Mineral Metabolism. And if we enter "Osteoporosis and vitamin D" into Google Academic, the Journal of Osteoporosis and Mineral Metabolism is the second journal to appear.

There is still much to do, but now more than ever, it is necessary that all the associates of SEIOMM join forces to try to achieve the inclusion of the journal in MEDLINE as a first priority, and then in JCR. We need to publish high quality articles, above all, so that articles in our journal are cited in other articles, we assume of greater quality, sent to high impact journals. These two tasks, sending articles and bibliographical citations in articles submitted to other publications, are in all our hands. These tasks are feasible and, since fortunately SEIOMM is a society whose members are notable for their hard work and production of research, it is solely a matter of wishing to do them.

We will continue to invest in our publication because we know that the Journal of Osteoporosis and Mineral Metabolism Research, and with it all the researchers of SEIOMM, has its place in international scientific dissemination.