LILACS database: eighteen

years indexing Latin American

and Caribbean health sciences
journals
Regina C. Figueiredo Castro
BIREME/PAHO/WHO

10th International Conference of Science Editors,

Rio de Janeiro, August 2000
 BIREME
Latin American and Caribbean Health
Sciences Information Center

• Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Regional

Center for health sciences information
• Coordinates a network of libraries and documentation
centers comprising 37 countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean
• Develops computer applications, methodologies,
information products and services to improve scientific
communication and dissemination of information in
countries of the Region
Bibliographic control of literature

One of the main objectives of BIREME is the

bibliographic control of health scientific and technical
literature produced in the Region

Since 1974 BIREME is a MEDLARS International

Center:
- indexing LA&C health journals for MEDLINE
database;
- translating MESH (Medical Subject Headings)
to Spanish and Portuguese
 Health Terminology
Since 1982, BIREME produces a controlled vocabulary -
DeCS (Health Science Descriptors), which includes
translated MeSH terms and new subject categories in
Public Health and Homeopathy fields, in three languages:
Spanish, Portuguese and English
• DeCS terms in Spanish and Portuguese are
included in UMLS (Unified Medical Language
System)
• DeCS is used for indexing LA&C journals for
MEDLINE and LILACS
 Database production

In 1978, BIREME started the Index Medicus

Latinoamericano (IMLA) as a complement to U.S. NLM
MEDLINE database. 150 Latin American health
scientific journals were selected to initiate IMLA

In 1982, IMLA database expanded its thematic scope

(from Medicine to Health Sciences, including Public
Health) and indexed more journal titles and other types
of documents, generating LILACS database
 LILACS
Latin American and Caribbean
Health Sciences Literature

LILACS indexes:
• scientific journal articles, books, book
chapters, thesis, conference papers, scientific
and technical reports and nonconventional
literature
• produced by Latin American and Caribbean
authors and published in countries of the
Region
• from 1982 on
 Why LILACS?
• To improve bibliographic control of scientific
production in the health sciences field generated in
Latin American and Caribbean countries

• Because Latin American and Caribbean health

scientific production was almost absent from
international databases

• Due to the need to include other types of

documents such us: governmental publications,
books, conference proceedings, reports and
nonconventional literature, mainly for the Public
Health field
Indexing of LA&C health scientific
journals

Journals

LILACS 699
SciELO* 42
MEDLINE 43
EMBASE 49
JCR/ISI 21
* Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba and Public Health
 LILACS records by type of
document
Journals
77%

Non Monographs
conventional Thesis
17%
2% 4%
 LILACS journals by country of
publication
250

200

150
Dominican Rep.,
Guatemala,
100 Honduras,
Jamaica,
Panama,
Paraguay,
50 Puerto Rico,
USA (PAHO)

0
Peru

Cuba

Chile

Brazil
Bolivia

Mexico

Other
Colombia

Argentina
Equador
Uruguay
Costa Rica

Venezuela

Total: 699 journals

Decentralized input to LILACS

More than 400 Cooperating Centers from 37 countries

of the Region input records to LILACS

250,816 records by July 2000

Annual average input in the last 3 years: 23,000

records
 Scientific production in LILACS
by country of publication

Brazil
40%

Other
10%

Peru Chile
3% 10%
Cuba
4% Argentina
Colombia USA Mexico 10%
4% (PAHO) Venezuela
9%
5% 5%
Total: 250,816 records
 LA&C journals by initial date of publication

200

150
79 %

Gaceta médica de México 58%

100 (1864)
Revista médica de Chile
(1872)
Gaceta médica de
50 Caracas (1893)

0
<1899

1900/9

1920/9

1940/9

1950/9

1960/9

1970/9
1910/9

1930/9

1980/9

1990/9
 LILACS Journals by frequency of
publication

250

200

150

100

50

0
Monthly Bim onthly Quarterly 3/year Biannual Annual
 Journal articles indexed in LILACS
by language

Spanish
55%

Portuguese
37%

English
8%
Decentralized selection of journals
• LILACS Journals Selection Criteria (updated April
2000): common methodology

• Selection of journals is decentralized in countries of the

Region, according to the common selection criteria
developed by BIREME

• Journals not accepted in LILACS are indexed in

national databases to ensure bibliographic control
of scientific production at national level
LILACS Selection criteria
• Quality of contents
(measured by number of original articles, statement of peer
review, validity and importance to the field, standardization
etc.)

• Regularity of publication
• Frequency of publication
• Years of existence
• Format of presentation
• Indexing in international databases
Some evaluation studies of LILACS
journals

1993 Editorial procedures for selection of articles

for publishing

1996 Characteristics of health journals indexed in

LILACS: comparison of MEDLINE and non-
MEDLINE journals

1999 Evaluation of Brazilian health journals indexed in

LILACS (in progress)
Main problems in ranking and
selecting LA&C journals

• Irregularity of publication
• Low frequency of publication (biannual, annual)
• Less than 50% of original articles
• Lack of systematic peer review procedures
• In-house Editorial Committees
• Few articles in collaboration with foreign countries
• Lack of standardization
Impact of LILACS selection criteria

Selection criteria established for LILACS had

contributed to improvement of LA&C health journals
in the last decade:
• ISSN
• Editorial Committees
• Standardization
• Frequency of publication
• Use of DeCS terms as keywords
 SciELO
Scientific Electronic Library Online

• 1998: SciELO project

• Objectives: To contribute to the development of
national scientific research, improving and creating
new means for dissemination, publishing and
evaluation of research results
• SciELO selection criteria: based on BIREME’s
experience with LILACS and on FAPESP, CNPq and
CAPES experience on evaluation of Brazilian
journals
Health journals in SciELO

SciELO Brazil 23
SciELO Chile 6
SciELO Costa Rica 5
SciELO Cuba 5
SciELO Public Health 5
 Future perspectives of LILACS
• Access to documents indexed both in printed and
electronic format:
• full texts (URL) of documents indexed
• Cooperative Access to Documents Service
(SCAD)

• LILACS journals included in SciELO: Brazil, Chile,

Costa Rica, Cuba and Public Health

• SciELO/LILACS:100 to 150 selected titles on health

 Future perspectives of LILACS

• Online indexing on Internet will enable faster

dissemination and access to LA&C journals in
MEDLINE/PubMED and LILACS databases

• Links to other databases (bibliographic, numerical, full

text, research projects, etc.)

• Links from electronic journals and other databases

LILACS

http://www.bireme.br/bvs