What are scientific journals?
Journals are electronic publications with scientific research. As the name suggests, the editions follow a periodicity. That is: they can be annual, semiannual, quarterly, monthly, in short. What matters is that it is possible to know when the next edition will be. scientific journals
ABNT defines a scientific journal in NBR 6023 as a “ type of serial publication, which is presented in the form of a magazine, bulletin, yearbook, etc. published in fascicles with numerical and/or chronological designation, at pre-fixed intervals (periodicity), for an indefinite period of time ”.
Scientific articles , abstracts , reviews written by researchers and professors are published in the journals . It is common that this research has been carried out through theses, dissertations and even monographs, with the most diverse themes .
It is among this universe of articles that you can find the perfect bibliography for your work
Is there a difference between journals and scientific journals?
Do not. In fact, they are two names for the same thing. Like periodicals, scientific journals are publications with periodicity that are dedicated to scientific knowledge . scientific journals
What are journals for?
Journals are especially important for those who are in the phase of researching research sources for their theoretical framework . After all, they are great ( and safe! ) sources of reference for writing work.
You must already know that no job starts from scratch, right? To build your theoretical foundation , you need to build on ideas from other people who have written about the same topic.
The way to incorporate other people’s ideas into your work is through citations , which are references to information extracted from other works, such as books, movies, websites, articles. That is, other sources that have written about your subject,
So, it is the citations that certify that the work has a firm theoretical and technical foundation. In other words: citations are a fundamental part of your research, because they guarantee the reliability and technical quality of the work. scientific journals
This is where journals play a key role. Since they provide free and open access to various works, for you to develop your research.
What is the importance of journals for a research person?
Journals are a great source of research and I’ll show you why:
1. Access reliable and relevant sources
First, the information in journals comes from research people, who follow a basic structure and scientific method . For this reason, they are sources of high quality and relevant research. This is fundamental in an academic work.
Furthermore, many of the platforms also provide information on how many citations each work received by other researchers.
This is how the relevance of the article to the topic in question is measured, which contributes to the credibility of the source. It is understood that the more citations the research receives, the more relevant it is. scientific journals
When searching for a topic or keyword, the work that received the most citations will appear first. This is a very important data, because it favors the recognition of an expressive scientific work for the academic community.
2. It’s very easy to search
Journals work in a very simple and intuitive way. It is quite possible that you will not have difficulties searching and find the information you need much faster.
3. Free and free access
Journals bring together several articles in one place, free and open access. This is a perfect alternative to solve the difficulty of accessing libraries and books.
Where can I find the journals?
Well then. Even though information about journals seems dispersed, there are some sites – national and international – that gather and make available all types of scientific publications.
They function as large electronic journal libraries. And there are really many. I will list the best ones here:
1. CAPES Journal Portal
The Capes Periodicals Portal is a virtual library that brings together the best scientific articles in the world. The main objective is to provide Brazilian teaching and research institutions with access to scientific research.
In other words, the CAPES Portal was created to overcome the lack of access of Brazilian libraries to international scientific information. scientific journals
The collection of this Portal has more than 37 thousand titles with full texts, 126 reference bases, 11 bases dedicated exclusively to patents, in addition to books, encyclopedias and reference works, technical standards and audiovisual content.
2. SCIELO
The name SciELO is an acronym for Scientific Electronic Library Online. It is a cooperative electronic portal of scientific journals. In other words: through SciELO, electronic access is allowed to full articles from journals from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay.
For this reason, it is considered the main digital library in Latin America. But it also has access to scientific texts from Spain, Portugal and South Africa.
The platform offers versions in Portuguese, Spanish and English, has free access and has a cooperative model of digital publishing.
It is said that SciELO was specially developed to respond to the needs of scientific communication in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is because the model provides an efficient solution to ensure visibility and universal access to scientific production. scientific journals
3. Google Scholar
Imagine a version of Google that considers only collections of academic journals, professional organizations, university repositories and other academic entities as results.
This is how Google Scholar works . In other words, there is a filter on the results, so that only scientific knowledge appears as results.
Furthermore, the positions on the results pages are defined according to the number of citations that each publication received. Then, only scientific articles appear as results that can be used as a reliable source of research in bibliographic references of the works.
4. ERIC
The Educational Resources Information Center – ERIC is a database of the US Department of Education, which provides access to various contents in the area of education and other similar topics.
Access to the ERIC is not free. Upon payment of a fee, people can access various articles from periodicals, conference proceedings , events , government documents, as well as theses, dissertations, books and monographs. scientific journals
5. Scopus
Scopus is also a database of abstracts and citations of articles for academic journals. Like the ERIC, it is also available to subscribers only.
In addition to publications, it also offers bibliographic data on who wrote and the publication number.
6. DBTD
The acronym BDTD comes from Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. This library integrates, in a single portal, the theses and dissertations information systems of several Brazilian teaching and research institutions.
The development of this project was carried out by IBICT – Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology, to encourage the registration and publication of works available on the site.
Access to these publications can be made both nationally and internationally. I mean, it’s a great way to increase the visibility of Brazilian researchers. scientific journals
7. PubMed
PubMed is a database of citations and abstracts of scientific articles in biomedicine. It is a gift from the US National Library of Medicine. Overall, it has 4,800 journals published in the United States and in more than 70 countries.
8. Redalic
The Redalyc project – which stands for Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal – is also a bibliography database and a digital library of journals of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, with free access.
The aim of the project, which began in 2002, is to build a scientific information system with the main journals in all areas of knowledge produced about and in Latin America. Since its inception, the goal has been to give visibility to the scientific production of Ibero-America. scientific journals
9. Ulrichsweb
Ulrichsweb is a bank of over 300,000 periodicals of all types. It includes scholarly publications, electronic journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters from over 900 subject areas.
Ulrich records also provide important publication data such as: ISSN , publisher, language, abstract and indexing.
How to choose a journal to publish your work?
Well, in addition to consulting articles, you can also publish your work in a journal.
Here are 4 tips on how to choose the magazine to publish yours:
1. Choose from the topic of the article
It is not the magazine that should define its theme. But on the contrary. First you must have an article ready and then choose the magazine. This might seem obvious. But it is quite common for them to do the reverse process.
To find the perfect journal for your work, you must first assess its scope: what is the object of study of the articles there? What are the academic productions of the person who edits the journal? What is the academic and professional profile of those who have published there? scientific journals
All these questions should be part of your decision process.
2. Indexers and Qualis
After that, check the journal’s indexers and Qualis . Both indicators are important to check whether the journal has credibility and visibility.
But be careful. They don’t mean the same thing. The indexers gather a set of journal titles that have gone through a selection process. They provide important information about the articles, in order to facilitate the location of the material of interest.
This information, in general, is: author, article title, journal title, year and place of publication and number of pages.
On the other hand, Qualis is a set of CAPES criteria to assess and stratify the quality of the intellectual production of graduate programs. Classification takes place in categories A1 to C. A1 is a journal with the highest reputation and C is the lowest. This means that having a good rating on Qualis means having a good quality indicator.
In this context, finding a magazine with these two elements is the best of all worlds. But in the end, you must assess what the main purpose of the publication is. If you’re looking for visibility, it’s important to publish in an indexed journal. After all, everyone who searches for the topic within the database can find your article.
Now if you want to score for your Lates Curriculum, for a Master ‘s or PhD selection process for example, you should consider a journal with a good Qualis. scientific journals
3. Deadlines
You already know that journals follow a specific periodicity. Some receive articles on a regular basis. Others open calls for publication.
Pay attention to the submission deadlines and the deadlines of the reviewers for making changes.
4. Article formatting
Journals have their own formatting rules. In general, they follow ABNT standards. But it is not uncommon for them to present one or another specific rule.
It is necessary to pay close attention to this, as it is a criterion for disapproval of the article. Typically, these rules are in the “ author guidelines ” section . scientific journals
