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Author: Fernanda Beigel (CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo)
In the last two decades, bibliometrics has expanded as a relevant indicator to measure scientific trends, individual performance and research capacities. Citation data has become a universal pattern to define what is publishable and which journals have more impact. This paper intends to discuss the “universalization” of these publishing standards and the international hierarchies that this system has built –not only among geopolitical areas but through disciplines. It analyses the role played by Latin American journals and scientists in mainstream databases such as ISI-Thompson & Reuters, CSA-ProQuest, SCOPUS-Elsevier and Ulrich in comparison with local databases (open access) such as SCIELO, LATINDEX and REDALYC. It also analyses collaborative research in comparison with other Southern databases, such as AFRICAN JOURNALS ON LINE (AJOL). The main issue of the paper is the supremacy of English in the international academic-publishing system and the situations of academic dependency emerging from linguistic limitations in graduate and postgraduate training and the fact that Latin American journals are mainly edited in Spanish.