Dear authors and subscribers of Universitas Odontologica. We want to share with you our 2020 report and plans 2021. It includes an overview of our organizational structure, last year’s achievements, our goals for 2021, and the challenges we face ahead.

Organizational Structure

• Editorial team: It is made up of an editor-in-chief and three editorial assistants. Two of the assistants are in charge of entering our data into the Minciencias database and digitizing and preparing for publication our issues published prior to 2004. The third assistant supports our daily operations.
• Editorial Board: The Board meets annually and supports the journal’s strategic planning and policy decision-making. It consists of 13 members, 3 from Javeriana University, 5 national, and 5 international (9% are external members).
• Scientific Committee: With about 500 national and international experts, the members of this Committee give us advice, help promote the journal, evaluate eventual manuscripts and serve as guest editors of thematic dossiers (all new evaluators immediately become part of the Scientific Committee).
• Javeriana University Press: The Press supports publishing processes, strategic positioning, and publication of the journal. In collaboration with the Javeriana Technology Division, it updates and maintains the journal’s electronic platform (OJS).
• Mission (in revision process): Universitas Odontologica is the open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana’ Dental School from Bogotá, Colombia. It publishes original high-level dental research, generated in and about Ibero-Latin America, in order to promote professional and scientific-academic development and link it to different forms of dental practice.

2020 Achievements (volume 39)

• Frequency of publication: Starting in 2020, the frequency of publication has changed. It went from semester issues to rolling publication per volume, that is, manuscripts are received, evaluated, and published as they are approved and prepared. This strategy seeks to increase the visibility and agility of publication.
• Articles published in volume 39:

— In 2020 34 manuscripts were received, including 3 that had started the reviewing process in 2019.

— Eight articles (23.5%) were rejected, 17 (50%) were published, and 9 (26.5%) are still in process.

— Countries of origin were Colombia (Javeriana [8], Cali [1], and Cartagena [1]), Mexico (2), Peru (2), Ecuador (2), and Nicaragua (1).

• Thematic dossiers: 2 dossiers were published.

— Oral Microbiology and Public Health: With 6 articles including reflections on research and contributions to dental knowledge by researchers from Javeriana.

— Dental Education: With 5 external articles and one from Javeriana. The dossier’s guest editors were: Dr. Gloria Martínez Zambrano (Mexico), Dr. Nidia Roa (Nicaragua), and Dr. María Isabel Pardo (Colombia).

— In summary, 12 articles are part of dossiers and 5 are studies in our regular sections.

— Note: the strategy of publishing thematic dossiers has served to internationalize the journal and to create a network of authors and experts around it.

• Language of Publication:

— Nine articles were published in Spanish and 8 (47.1%) in English.

— We made the decision to translate into English all the articles starting with the Dental Education dossier to begin preparations to submit the journal to the international indexes Scopus, Emerging Sources Citation Index — ESCI, and PubMed Central.

— In short, there were 6 articles in English from the Education dossier, one from the Microbiology dossier, and one independent study on Covid-19.

• Bibliographic Databases and Indexes:

— Currently, Universitas Odontologica is included in Lilacs, Latindex Directory, RedALyC, RedIB, BVS, Dialnet, MIAR, Ulrich’s, ProQuest, EBSCO, Academic Search Premier, and Informe Académico.

2021 Goals (volume 40)

• Renewal of Editorial Board and Scientific Committee:

— We will review the composition of the Editorial Board and maybe invite 4-5 new members (Update: doctors Karol Ramírez from the University of Costa Rica, María Cecilia Martínez and Gabriel Jaime Otálvaro from the University of Antioquia, and Antonio Díaz-Caballero of the University of Cartagena are the new Board members. They replace the doctors Itali Linero and John Harold Estrada of the National University of Colombia, Jaime Castellanos of the University El Bosque, and Ricardo Sánchez of the Autonomous University of Baja California, who now join the Scientific Committee. Universitas Odontologica expresses its gratitude to the outgoing Board members for their contribution to the success of the journal)

— The Scientific Committee will continue to expand. This committee has served as the equivalent of a scientific or professional association.

• Dossiers’ Calls for Submissions: We plan to publish 3 thematic dossiers.

— Aging and Dentistry. First confirmed guest editor, Octavio González (U. Kentucky). Pending to form the guest editorial team, create, and promote the call.

— Updates on Disability and Dentistry (systematic reviews). First confirmed guest editor, Dr. Patricia Figueroa (U. Autónoma de Baja California). Pending to put together the team of guest editors, create, and promote the call.

— Research Designs in Dentistry. Pending to form the team of guest editors, create, and release the call.

— NOTE: We are asking you to suggest names of international experts on any of these topics to serve as possible guest editors.

• Publication language and requirements:

— The instructions for authors and evaluation forms are being updated according to international trends.

— We will continue to receive manuscripts in Spanish, Portuguese and English, but all accepted for publication will be translated into English.

— Note: The editor-in-chief, an expert in Spanish and English editing, will initially be in charge of the translations, but later on authors will be responsible for this task.

— We will continue to include titles, abstracts and keywords in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

• Previous issues: We will continue to publish on the journal's page issues prior to 2004 that were originally published in printed format.
• Internet and social media: We will continue to attract readers, authors, and advisers through our existing contacts and social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Journal of the Dental School: Like many other university-based journals, Universitas Odontologica was created to disseminate the work of students and professors. This purpose has not been forgotten and will continue to be supported.

Journal’s Current Challenges

• Universitas Odontologica aims to become one of the best peer-reviewed dental journals in and about Ibero-Latin America. To do this, it continues implementing its socialization campaign, attracting experts, and publishing thematic dossiers in addition to its usual sections by application scope.
• Inclusion in bibliographic indexes and databases: Recently, when Universitas Odontologica has been submitted to the Colombian journal index Publindex, it has met all the criteria, except the inclusion in international indexes (quartiles), which is related to its citation indicators.

— We are concerned that there is no transparency in Minciencias regarding the citation standards that are used to classify journals in each annual call.

— The standards have been increasing every year, without the journals knowing in advance what the standard will be for categories B and C. In 2018, the minimum H5 was 5 and we had 4. In 2019, the minimum H5 was 6 and we had 5. In 2020, the minimum H5 was 10 and we had 7.

— Receiving citations is a factor largely out of the hands or the control of journals, especially when they are small or, in fields such as dentistry in which local or regional journals are not commonly cited.

— For the reasons mentioned above, we are more interested in international indexing rather than local, which is our goal since the end of 2020.

— Universitas Odontologica will continue its outreach process through social media and professional networks, and with the publication of all articles in English. The latter, following recommendations of Javeriana Press’s Favio Flórez, is a key factor to entering indices such as Scopus.

• For a journal, achieving an international position is a vicious circle: receiving good materials is determined by indexation, but being indexed is possible if the journal receives good articles. We hope that these strategies will break this circle and increase the level of our publication. We are already recognized in many circles beyond citations and indexes.

Thank you very much again for supporting Universitas Odontologica. We hope to continue counting on you to keep growing and positioning our journal internationally.

Best wishes,

Jorge Enrique Delgado Troncoso, DDS, PhD, Editor-in-chief