“School of Authors” is a website from Comunicar, Scientific Journal in Education and Communication, indexed in main international data bases, that complements other websites in Spanish, English and Portuguese. “School of Authors” is written and edited, basically, by the Editorial Board of “Comunicar” and it aims to offer different sources, for manuscript submissions in scientific journals in a planned and strategic manner. It is intended to make authors think about scientific information management for publishing scientific manuscripts in high impact journals.

A key to scientific quality: The list of references

Posted on July 15^th , 2019 by Arantxa Vizcaíno-Verdú

Author Arantxa Vizcaíno-Verdú – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

The theoretical basis on which an investigation is based is fundamental. A task that consists of compiling and disseminating coherent information and that ultimately requires a solid, verifiable, honest and updated framework. In this sense, the work of reading, reflection and dissemination of knowledge on which the process of publication of articles is based, must pay careful attention to the sources cited, since these will depend on the enrichment of the study. Moreover, these references become the focus of discussion, ratification and / or scientific progress, being considered a necessary element for the contextualization of the research.

This post examines the relevance of the list of references in scientific publications, taking the academic-deontological criteria as the fundamental axis.

A debt with knowledge

As researchers, the first step in starting an investigation is to recognize the sources, while we face a basic intellectual debt of reciprocity. Indeed, every project or study is based on a question that, in turn, is based on an event or phenomenon. This concern, despite its innovative nature, can (and should) feed with the expert criteria, reporting the work of previous authors in the area in question. That is, we start from an ethical point of consideration, where all previous research provides a historical background to the object of study in particular and to scientific progress in general. It is essential, therefore, not only to give credit to the proposals, but to the knowledge that precedes us.

Selection with diligence and accuracy

The sources you choose will talk about you. In a review process, the study will be submitted to the competent criteria of researchers linked to the proposed approach. In other words, the quotes that make up the work may become a reason for praise or, otherwise, for intellectual laziness. In fact, in the process of scientific estimation, the evaluators will submit the theoretical disposition to trial, taking care not only and necessarily of its extension, writing or argumentation, but of the quality and conceptual soundness. Therefore, the lack of knowledge about the subject does not include an impediment to the search and collection of model studies / authors, but a motivating chance for learning.

Control of self-citing and plagiarism

It is important to accentuate the already debated and necessary work of avoiding plagiarism and self-plagiarism, since these may be more than sufficient reason for the decline of a study. The appropriation of contents is not proportionally linked to the authority and reaffirmation of a proposal, but to a disproportionate and undue academic negligence. Therefore, taking up the ethical conception, the academic positioning can be threatened by these practices, simply elusive from the theoretical extension provided by current databases. Thus, an exhaustive control of the number of sources related to a single author must always be carried out, as well as to own studies.

Science that goes beyond borders

Technological globalization has provided us with a world of theoretical possibilities of national and, of course, international quality. In the same way that we indicated plagiarism and self-plagiarism as a cause of major rejection, in this case we face a common practice in scientific writing: the exclusively national citation. And, the domain (or not) of a lingua franca like Anglo-Saxon, is not a real obstacle for the researcher. Learning is a vital premise, without doubt, but to have and to know how to select translation mechanisms is a viable option as a starting point. In short, it is about expanding perspectives, to know and, of course, to recognize the work of internationally renowned authors. Because, naturally, there is scientific life beyond our borders.

The art of adapting with the environment

Finally, when it is intended to adapt the references to the style delimited by a magazine or editorial, an idea has to be clear: we must familiarize ourselves with its surroundings. It is vital to understand the guidelines proposed by the editorial team, as well as to apply them correctly and in full. Quite simply, the adaptation of the citation in text, as well as in the references list, betray the author’s concern and interest in publishing his/her study in that specific scientific-academic space. Therefore, read carefully and, of course, do not conclude the reading in recognition of the proposed style (APA, Harvard, etc.). Each entity is a world, and these formats can generate leads that require a detailed study of citations in their most recent publications.

Reports and services of emerging scientific trends: Essential Science Indicators (from WoS) and SciVal (from Elsevier)

Posted on July 3^rd , 2019 by Raidell Avello Martínez

Author Raidell Avello Martínez – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

From the large volume of information stored in the scientific databases, reports and services of science performance statistics are generated, which allows socializing emerging scientific trends and researchers and more influential centers in the various fields of science. This type of analytical resources is an essential tool for politicians, analysts, universities, laboratories, publishers and foundations, as well as the scientific press.

The main academic publishers such as Clarivate Analytics and Elsevier, based on their scientific databases respectively, generate reports and services that guide researchers to where science is going, what are the main research niches, the emerging topics and where it publishes the most and appointments are received.

Although in this post I will only comment one of each editorial: Essential Science Indicators and SciVal, there are other complementary such as Incites, Mendeley, Endnotes, among others that also provide very useful and complementary information about it and that have already been addressed in other entries.

Is it necessary to put yourself in the place of the reader?

Posted on June 30^th, 2019 by Ana Pérez-Escoda

Author Ana Pérez-Escoda – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

Starting from the fact that the act of writing underlies the need to communicate something, we accept the premise that writing well means knowing how to communicate properly. Communication, the exchange of information and the production of knowledge have been and are essential activities in the interaction of the human being.

Writing a scientific article implies different underlying objectives, among which is the desire that the scientific contribution help other colleagues to advance, add to the thoughts and concerns of another, enlighten consciences and project new fields of research. Currently, writing implicitly implies the expectation of being read-up to now nothing changes with respect to the past, but, under the protection of the new communicative possibilities provided by ICT, the act of writing becomes an act of multiple interactions, establishing a range of possible communication flows: in social networks, posts, mails to colleagues, academic networks, repositories, etc. Thus, the act of writing becomes an act of personal brand creation for the academic, the vehicle with which to become a renowned author.

Therefore, it is necessary to put yourself in the place of the reader if we pretend to be read.

Write to be read, 6 essential tips

• Homogenize the style of the text: verb tenses, person of the verbs, etc. They give a sense of order and continuity for what they invite to continue reading.
• Less is more, Ockham’s rule, Baroque writing is not synonymous with good writing but more convoluted, less clear. If the reader does not understand, give up.
• Neatness in language, which only communicates when it transmits what is meant. To avoid circumlocutions, passive ones, rodeos, redundancies. If the reader is bored, leave.
• Clarity in the argumentation, the academic or methodological excess or the use of abundant technicalities that build an impossible discourse is not convenient. If we overwhelm the reader, he will renounce to follow us.
• Correction in the writing, cultured connectors, appropriate expressions, good use of punctuation, are elements that tell the reader that it is a careful and well planned text. A correct style seduces the reader to follow us.
• To give importance to all sections that make up the scientific article equally: The importance of conducting a good discussion, The image of the results also matters, A good state of the issue, The dissonance between sections is annoying, gives a message of lack of interest that in conveyed to the reader.

Therefore, when writing a scientific article we will seek to project, communicate, show, transmit, evidence, approach … we will think of that receiver willing, avid, delivered, expectant and we will take into account all the tips to be read. In short, we will put ourselves in the place of the reader.

‘Comunicar’ is consolidated in JCRR- 2018 as the best Social Sciences journal from Spain and among the 10 best in the world

Posted on June 23^rd, 2019 by Ignacio-Aguaded

Author Ignacio-Aguaded – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

Spain is positioned among the 10 world powers of scientific production, being one of the hallmarks of the “Spain” brand. Thanks to the broad and excellent generation of science on the part of Spanish researchers from almost one hundred Universities, in addition to research centers scattered throughout the geography (especially in large cities and universities), Spanish science has a place and recognition in the world. But we must not forget that the fabric of scientific journals that are published in our country occupies an essential role in this achievement.

There are about 1,800 scientific and academic journals in Spain (Navas, Abadal and Rodrigues: https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2018.3.1498), of which just under a third (600) are Scopus journals and a little more than a hundred (129) are journals JCR (Journal Citation Reports), world-class, representing these the most excellent level of our science, for its high rates of visibility, prestige and impact at the international level.

‘Comunicar’ has been present in JCR since 2009 (more than a decade) and in the Social Science Citation Index since 2007, being one of the scientific journals in Social Sciences pioneer of being present in this superselective and prestigious international indexer. With 26 years of editing, more than a hundred scientific advisors from five continents and more than 750 scientific reviewers from 47 countries around the world, ‘Comunicar is today a reference in the model of scientific publication of quality in its editorial management, high visibility and remarkable scientific impact. With bilingual editions in Spanish and English, and abstracts in Chinese and Portuguese, this four-lingual publication receives between 800 and 1,000 manuscripts annually from researchers worldwide (with demanding acceptance rates of around 5%). It has a rigorous and fluid scientific review system (which does not exceed 120 days) and its editions have high international visibility (more than 9,000 followers on Facebook and 7,000 on Twitter), as well as a notable presence on prestigious scientific social networks.

In 2019, ‘Comunicar’ is Scopus-Q1 in Cultural Studies, Communication and Education (top 1%, 8% and 9% in their areas worldwide respectively). It is the first best positioned magazine of all the areas, among the 2,820, of REDIB (Portal of the CSIC for all Latin American magazines) and the best magazine of the top 100 of Google Scholar in Spanish for all areas in 2018.

In addition, ‘Comunicar’ is the best Spanish journal in Social Sciences in the selective index Journal Citation Reports 2018 (valid in 2019/20), with an impact factor of 3,338 that place it in the 9th and 10th place respectively in the world in its areas of knowledge: Communication and Education, being already classified as “Magazine top 10% of the world” (top 5% in Education). It is one of the only nine Spanish journals in the selective Q1 of JCR in 2018, being among them the fifth best in impact and the third best in citations of all areas (1,367 citations in 2018). It is the only magazine of Social Sciences that appears in this prestigious ranking of the top Spanish scientific journals (the rest of the titles are Health Sciences and Environment).

REDIB 2018: The best Latin American indexed journals: ‘Comunicar’ the best positioned

Posted on June 19^th, 2019 by Ignacio-Aguaded

Author Ignacio-Aguaded – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

REDIB (Ibero-American Network of Innovation and Scientific Knowledge) (https://redib.org/?lng=es) is a platform for the aggregation of scientific and academic content in electronic format in the Ibero-American area. Currently (2019-06-20) has in its database with 2,839 scientific journals from 34 countries around the world especially Latin America and Europe, hosting 1,035 institutions, endorsed by the CSIC (Higher Council of Scientific Research) Spain, Universia and Plan E (Spain). Among its most outstanding products, the portal stands out with almost 3,000 journals analyzed: http://bit.ly/2ZulFn7, offering each of them detailed information:

Since a year ago REDIB also offers a selection, among the 3,000 titles of the portal, of the 1,000 best journals, indexed in the Web of Science (WoS), with a five-year citation period (http://bit.ly/ 2IJGdkY) that allows us to access the most comprehensive global product (of all areas) in Latin America, starting from the impact on a prestigious base like WoS, with a wide range of citation (a five-year period). The product already has an accumulated impact of 2017 and 2018 (published in 2018 and 2019 respectively). Among its competitors, Dialnet Metricas only hosts three knowledge areas (2018) and Google Scholar offers only a list of the 100 best journals in Spanish in all areas, based on the H5 of its database and fed without distinction with sources Academics very different in quality (communications, books and chapters, academic journals of all kinds …).

In-Cites and Dialnet Metrics. Two products that “rank” communities. The case of Communication

Posted on June 15^th, 2019 by Rafael Repiso

Author Rafael Repiso – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

• That the population studied is homogeneous. For example, that all elements of the ranking have had similar conditions, same time window to make merit, equality to make them, etc.
• That the elements of organization represent in a reliable way the concept by which the ranking is authorized.
• That there is a sufficient mass of data that allows ordering the elements of the ranking.
• That the element that you want to study has sufficient degree to distinguish between elements and do not accumulate elements with identical values ​​and therefore positions.

The reality is that these conditions are given in few listings and yet we accept the rankings with their defects. When a complex and multidimensional reality is reduced to a single dimension it results in loss of information, despite everything, we like rankings so much! That is why it is important to analyze these products critically.

The present proposal compares two very different products that serve the same population, the Spanish community of researchers in Communication seen from In-Cites (WoS-International) and Dialnet Métricas (Dialnet Spain). While In-Cites WOS (SCIE, SSCI and A & HCI) represents the works published in the elite of international journals, Dialnet Métricas is a product that aspires to represent exhaustively the Spanish scientific production in Social Sciences in the national scope. That is, two different but complementary dimensions of the same reality. If we have given much importance to the international dimension, we should not forget that most of the research communities publish mainly in national journals, so this information is substantial to evaluate our system.

A search in In-Cites limited to authors with Spanish affiliation and in the category “Communication” returns 4456 different profiles, many of them duplicated and tripled results, of which the Top 10 is copied by number of citations. The problem in the rankings is usually in the queues, the headers usually result in the same actors. In-Cites generates a report for any researcher who works in a Spanish center and who has published in the category “Communication”. Therefore, there is no precise identification of the communication research community. It is striking that the two researchers with more citations are foreigners who work in Spanish centers, as well as the presence in the Top of appointments of professors from other areas, a bibliographer (Daniel Torres-Salinas) and a physicist (Juan Miguel Campanario). Another curiosity of the top ten is that a highly cited work positions its author, Ann Majchrzak as the tenth most cited.

The case of Dialnet Métricas is different, first of all, the Communication area is divided into two categories: “Journalism and Audiovisual Communication” that bring together 1266 researchers together. The assignment of areas has to do with the data of Dialnet profiles, so the selection is very precise. Only one researcher seems to be at the top of both rankings, Juan José Igartua. In the top only appear two women Carmen Marta-Lazo and Carmen Costa-Sánchez.

Link Journalism (https://dialnet.unirioja.es/metricas/ambito/13/area/1960) Link Audiovisual Communication (https://dialnet.unirioja.es/metricas/ambito/13/area/1961).

Advantages of In-Cites.

• It allows to restrict the reports to areas, combine them with other categories, show for periods of time, even perform searches by set of authors (names and individual identifiers).
• The results can be downloaded in tabulated formats.
• They reflect a very homogeneous scientific production, that of the elite of international journals.
• Provides multiple indicators.

Problems with In-Cites to order investigators:

• The names are not normalized, so there is more than one version of them, in this Top 10 the different profiles have to be unified.
• Some affiliations do not correspond to reality.
• Researchers from other areas can be introduced, as in the case of Daniel Torres and J.M. Belfry, who have published Documentation articles in “The Information Professional” magazine, which is in two different categories “Library & Information Science” and “Communication”. Therefore, the presence in more than one thematic category of journals used as a source can significantly alter the results.
• In-Cites’ own search and report creation system excludes articles published in other areas outside of “Communication” even though they are Communication or Communication professors jobs. In-Cites could take advantage of the profiles of Publons that are managed by the authors to assign more exhaustively the areas, but for that it is necessary that these profiles have a massive use. For example, Professor Igartua registers more than 20 articles published in journals indexed in JCR, but the report only shows those published in the “Communication” category.

Advantages of Dialnet Metrics

• They not only record articles, but also record other types of documents such as books, book chapters and theses.
• The transparency of the system and its connectivity with other types of data allow in-depth analysis of the communities.
• Very exhaustive control of the researchers, there are no duplications, at least they have not been detected in Communication.
• Visualize a reality where Spanish researchers participate massively, production at the national level, something that despite being the majority phenomenon in the disciplines of Social Sciences is ignored.

Problems with Dialnet Metrics:

• They omit the impact production published outside Spain that is perhaps the most significant for a researcher.
• Some of the area assignments are not correct, the assignment between Journalism and Audiovisual Communication / Advertising is not entirely clear, but this is an inherited problem …
• Some of the university assignments are not updated.
• Confuse conference proceedings with book chapters.
• Poverty in the indicators. Although it provides very interesting data such as the “age” of the researchers, it would be very important for the Ranking to include indicators that would allow the gross indicators to be relativized as the impact normalized by categories.

In short, these two products allow us to better approximate a set of data that is difficult to understand and also, in a combined way, we can obtain a very complete view of the communities of researchers in Social Sciences, however they use two very different approaches and in general They offer different data. We look forward to the growth of the Dialnet platform in number of areas as well as the correction of errors and the implementation of improvements. The interesting thing is that both Clarivate and the Dialnet Foundation have shown that continuous improvement is a daily goal, so we are very confident that we will soon be able to use both products with guarantees to better study the Spanish scientific communities.

Dialnet Metrics: A new way of evaluating the scientific prestige of the journals in Spanish

Posted on May 25^th, 2019 by Ignacio-Aguaded

Author: Ignacio-Aguaded –Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion

The second beta version of a new product has been published a few days ago (May 2019), which is aimed at clarifying the panorama of the instruments to assess the prestige, visibility and impact of scientific journals in Spanish. Last year the product was tested by publishing a first version with the magazines of Education, generating its impact factor for 2016 and 2017.

This year DIALNET MÉTRICAS is definitively consolidated, expanding to three new areas, apart from the already analyzed Education: Communication, Documentation and Sports, already extending its analysis to the impact factors of 2016-2018, publishing even this year this new index before the recognized international indexers: WoS (JCR) and Scopus (CiteScore and SJR). Precisely of these two products, known and valued worldwide, Dialnet Métricas is going to be its complement because, without colliding with them, it offers a product based on the impact of publications with the complementarity of analyzing Spanish literature, based on the great portal that is, without doubt, Dialnet, at the level of Spanish as a science in the world and second scientific language after English.