Publications Awards Highlight Region's Research

PAHO's publications recently earned awards from two professional associations and inclusion in a leading health research index. The honors indicate growing recognition not only of the PAHO publications program but also of scientific research in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Association of American Publishers recognized the recent PAHO book Vaccines: Preventing Disease and Protecting Health with an award in the medical science category. Edited by Ciro A. de Quadros, the book details the important role vaccines have played historically and examines the current challenges for vaccine research and production.

Another recent PAHO publication, Building Better Health: A Handbook of Behavioral Change, received a special award from the British Medical Association. Aimed at community health promoters, the book is a guide to disease prevention and behavioral change techniques that promote better health habits.

PAHO Publications Area Manager Judith Navarro noted that such recognition is an indication of the growing importance of scientific contributions coming out of Latin America. A recent essay in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology journal showed that the number of scientific articles by researchers from Latin America has increased more than the number from Europe, North America and industrialized Asia. The essay also notes that Latin American researchers remain underrepresented in major international scientific journals and suggests that researchers in this region may not be getting the recognition they deserve.

Something that may help change this is the recent decision by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), a leading indexer of scientific journals, to include PAHO's Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health in its Social Sciences Citation Index and Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences Index. The Revista/Journal is one of approximately 200 journals (out of some 2,000 reviewed annually) chosen by the index for inclusion last year.

With the addition of the Revista/Journal, ISI databases will provide easier access to research on public health concerns in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For the Revista/Journal, inclusion in the ISI index is "a clear acknowledgement, based on objective, measurable criteria, that [the journal] can confidently take its place among the world's top-ranking scientific journals," managing editor Maria Luisa Clark wrote in a recent editorial. It is "proof against the widespread misconception that research from developing countries is, of necessity, second rate."