Homenaje póstumo al Doctor Alejandro Goic (1929-2021), Editor Emérito / A posthumous tribute to Alejandro Goic, M.D. (1929-2021), Editor Emeritus

Alejandro Goic, M.D., son of Croatian immigrants, graduated as M.D. in 1955, studying at the Catholic University of Chile Medical School. After a residency in internal medicine, he followed post graduate studies in psychosomatic medicine at the University of Oklahoma and in gastroenterology at Harvard University. Upon his return to Chile he had a brilliant career as clinician and medical educator, becoming a leader and advisor in medical education, clinical ethics and public health. Elected Dean of the University of Chile School of Medicine (1986-1994), he promoted important changes in undergraduate studies as well as in Magister and PhD programs in Biomedical Sciences. During the difficult years of the military government intervention in Chilean universities, he was one of the leaders of critical opposition. In parallel he was chief editor of Revista Médica de Chile (1976-1996), improving the editorial process according to the recommendations of ICMJE and WAME. In 1989 he was elected member of the Chilean Academy of Medicine and became its President (2000-2010). He was awarded honors and membership in prominent national and foreign institutions. In 2006 he received the National Prize in Medicine, the highest medical distinction in Chile. His wise thinking and enthusiasm gave origin to several books that have become classics in Medicine and Medical Education, permeating our institutions.

Connecting Technological Innovation in Artificial Intelligence to Real-world Medical Practice through Rigorous Clinical Validation: What Peer-reviewed Medical Journals Could Do

Artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to substantially influence clinical practice in the foreseeable future. However, despite the excitement around the technologies, it is yet rare to see examples of robust clinical validation of the technologies and, as a result, very few are currently in clinical use. A thorough, systematic validation of AI technologies using adequately designed clinical research studies before their integration into clinical practice is critical to ensure patient benefit and safety while avoiding any inadvertent harms. We would like to suggest several specific points regarding the role that peer-reviewed medical journals can play, in terms of study design, registration, and reporting, to help achieve proper and meaningful clinical validation of AI technologies designed to make medical diagnosis and prediction, focusing on the evaluation of diagnostic accuracy efficacy. Peer-reviewed medical journals can encourage investigators who wish to validate the performance of AI systems for medical diagnosis and prediction to pay closer attention to the factors listed in this article by emphasizing their importance. Thereby, peer-reviewed medical journals can ultimately facilitate translating the technological innovations into real-world practice while securing patient safety and benefit.

Editoriales en revistas médicas colombianas: el arte de opinar / Editorials in Colombian medical journals: The art of giving one's opinion / Editoriais em revistas médicas colombianas: a arte de opinar

Objetivo: evaluar las características de los artículos editoriales de revistas médicas de alta calidad. Metodología: una búsqueda permitió identificar las características esperadas de un artículo editorial. Se seleccionaron las revistas clasificadas A por Colciencias y se evaluaron todos los artículos editoriales. Se determinaron características de extensión, número de autores, número de referencias y adherencia a las condiciones consideradas estándar para este tipo de publicaciones. Resultados: se evaluaron 88 artículos editoriales. El 21% de los editoriales manifiesta una opinión. 10% de los títulos es extenso. El número promedio de palabras por artículo fue de 1 579. 9% está escrito en inglés y el 15% con múltiples autores. 35% tuvo más de ocho referencias bibliográficas. Conclusiones: los artículos editoriales de las revistas médicas en Colombia están lejos de las recomendaciones adoptadas desde el periodismo. Se debe educar a quien decide adoptar la función editorial de una revista médica.

Objective: To assess the characteristics of editorial articles in high quality Colombian medical journals. Methods: A standardized search allowed identifying the expected characteristics of editorial articles according to journalism. Colombian journals with "A" classification by Colciencias were selected and their editorial articles were evaluated. Article length, number of authors, number of references, and adherence to expected characteristics were determined. Results: Eighty-eight editorial articles were evaluated, of which 21% declared an opinion and 10% had long titles. The mean number of words per article was 1 579. Nine percent were written in English, 15% had multiple authors, and 35% had over eight references. Conclusions: Editorial articles in Colombian medical journals are still far from meeting journalism guidelines. It is necessary to educate those who adopt editorial roles of medical journals.

Objetivo: avaliar as características dos artigos editoriais de revistas médicas de alta qualidade. Metodologia: uma busca permitiu identificar as características esperadas de um artigo editorial. Se selecionaram as revistas classificadas A por Colciencias e se avaliaram todos os artigos editoriais. Se determinaram características de extensão, número de autores, número de referências e aderência às condições consideradas padrões para este tipo de publicações. Resultados: se avaliaram 88 artigos editoriais. 21% dos editoriais manifesta uma opinião. 10% dos títulos é extenso. O número médio de palavras por artigo foi de 1 579. 9% está escrito em inglês e 15% com múltiplos autores. 35% teve mais de oito referências bibliográficas. Conclusões: os artigos editoriais das revistas médicas na Colômbia estão longe das recomendações adotadas desde o jornalismo. Se deve educar a quem decide adotar a função editorial de uma revista médica.

La Revista Médica de Chile en el año 2012 / Revista Médica de Chile in the year 2012

During the year 2012, 539 manuscripts were submitted to this journal, following an increasing trend in the recent decade. Rejection rate was 33%. This higher number of submissions demanded a larger number and wider scope of external reviews, retarding the editorial process. The mean time lapse from reception to acceptance (or rejection) was 6.3 months (range 2-14) and from acceptance to publication 5.3 months (range 3-7). Research articles were 43.9% of published manuscripts and the remaining articles were Reviews, Special Articles, Case Reports, articles on Medical Ethics, Medical Education, Evidence Based Medicine, Public Health, History of Medicine, Letters to the Editor and others. Thirty seven published manuscripts (14.6%) came from foreign countries and 9 of them were published with full text in English. The 2012 Impact Factor was 0.360, showing little variation from previous years, locating the journal in the upper part of quartil 4 in the ISI-JCR category "Medicine, General and Internal", while the SCImago Journal & Country Rank locates the Revista in quartil 2 of its category "Medicine (miscellaneous)". In contrast with the low citation rate, the number of visits to the open access electronic version in www.scielo.cl averages over 3 million visits per year, illustrating that the interest among readers outnumbers the country’s expectable readership. Only 22% of articles declared to have received financial help from entities external to the institution where the work was performed, coming mainly from Chilean Governmental competitive funds. The aim of Revista Médica de Chile is to provide readers and authors a valuable source of information about current relevant topics in general and internal medicine, progress in related specialties and updates in basic sciences, rendering them available to Health professionals in Chile and worldwide, following international standards of ethical and scientific quality in medical publications.

El financiamiento de las revistas médicas / Publishing models in medical journals

Medical journals are published by scientific societies, universities, publishing agencies and other for-profit or non-profit organizations. The traditional way to cover the expenses in printed journals has been a "subscribers pay" model. The rise of electronic versions in the internet, either together with the printed version or replacing it entirely, plus a progressive adherence to an "open access" for electronic versions, has created financial difficulties. Therefore, the "authors pay" model has been added. Both models can be subsidized by commercial or institutional advertising, but still a main source for financing relies either in subscriptions or in authors' payments. A small source of income that helps to cover publishing costs is a "charge for manuscript reception", currently applied by several journals. Those authors whose work has institutional or external support can use their grants to cover any charges, but the situation is more difficult for those who do not have such support. Since 1872, Sociedad Médica de Santiago-Chilean Society of Internal Medicine, owner and publisher of Revista Médica de Chile, has employed the "subscribers pay" model, subsidized by commercial advertising and temporary sponsors (Chilean government and others). The printed journal is reproduced in an open access electronic version, in www.scielo.cl. The increasing cost of both publications systems demands a time for reflection.

El aniversario 140 de la Revista Médica de Chile / The 140th Anniversary of Revista Médica de Chile

Revista Médica de Chile was founded in 1872 and thus is one of the oldest medical journals being published since the 19th Century. The sponsoring institution -"Sociedad Médica de Santiago", founded in 1869- initially was the only scientific society in Chile, gathering medical doctors from every existing specialty. With the splitting of independent organizations representing specific specialties, including subspecial-ties of internal medicine, Sociedad Médica de Santiago focused its scope of action to become the "Chilean Society of Internal Medicine". Its official journal -Revista Médica de Chile- is currently a general and internal medicine journal that also publishes articles on scientific and technological advances in many fields of medicine and health sciences. While initially all authors were Chilean, the journal is now open to submissions from abroad and since the year 2000 articles are published in English when the local language of authors is not Spanish. The number of articles received determines an increasing administrative and editorial burden and, together with the high cost of publishing, will require changes in publication policies. The journal will participate in continuing medical education programs as soon as reaccreditation of medical specialties becomes officially organized in Chile.

Revista Médica de Chile: Nuevo miembro del "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors" / Revista Médica de Chile: A new member in the "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors"

After a worldwide call for applications that took place in 2009, two medical journals were selected to become new members of the “International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)”: Chinese Medical Journal and Revista Médica de Chile. Both Editors: Getu Zhaori, MD, and Humberto Reyes, MD, respectively, attended the ICMJE Meeting, 12-14 April 2010, in Queenstown, New Zealand. The meeting agenda included several topics that had been studied in advance by the at-tendants: editors or deputy editors of the 14 journals integrating this Committee plus a representative for the U.S. National Library of Medicine and another one for the World Association of Medical Journal Editors (WAME). The Committee agreed in new recommendations tending to safeguard the integrity and transparency of every manuscript published in all journals that adhere to the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URM)”. These recommendations will be published shortly in ICMJE member journals. An important issue discussed refers to improvements in the “ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest”, that had some changes, a glossary of terms will be attached to it and the Instructions will be accompanied by translations into the offcial WHO languages as well as other languages used by ICMJE member journals. For our journal it is an honor and a great responsibility to become a member of this highly qualifed Committee, the only journal published in Spanish and the frst one from Latin America.

Los medios de comunicación y los avances biomédicos / Mass media communication of biomedical advances

The public dissemination of advances in biomedical research and clinical medicine generates several difficulties and problems. Mass media have the responsibility to report accurately and in a comprehensive way, and physicians and researchers mustprovide this information in a timely manner and without bias. Afíer reviewing the ¡iterature related to this subject and discussing some examples of inadequate information in the Chilean context, the authors suggest the foüowing recommendations: journalists should compare and evalúate the information appropñately before its publication, researchers and journalists should work together, reports should inform clearly about the state of the research and every academic institution should avoid reporting publicly preliminary experiences. If these recommendations are foüowed, the general public, physicians, researchers and health care institutions will be benefited.

¿Qué opinan sus lectores de la Revista Médica de Chile? / An opinión survey among readers of Revista Médica de Chile

Background: A few objective indicators support the relevance of articles published in medical journals, such as the ISI Impact Factor and Citation Indices. However, a feedback from the readers can help to improve ajournal Aim: To report the results of an opinión survey addressed to readers of Revista Médica de Chile, in June-August 2007. Material and methods: A survey was devised and distributed electronically or by mail among all subscribers. It requested information about gender, age, site of work, proportion of time dedicated to clinical practice, teaching or research, plus their opinion about the contents and format of the journal, inviting them to propose improvements. Results: The survey was distributed to 1274 subscribers (98.7 percent physicians, most living in Chile) and was responded by 309 (24 percent). Those who responded were practicing medicine for a mean of 24 ± 13 (SD) years and did not differ in gender, age or years of medical practice from those that did not respond. Sixty three percent practiced as internists and dedicated 63 ± 26 (SD) percent of their time to clinical practice, 21 ± 16 percent to teaching activities and 16 ± 17 percent to research. More than half of respondents qualified the sections of the journal asgood or excellent. Fifty one per cent requested to include more clinical topics updates, 35 percent more articles on evidence based medicine and 34 percent more articles focused on continuing medical education. The more frequent free suggestions referred to changes in the format of the journal. Conclusions: Most readers are satisfied with the journal's contents. Suggested changes were referred to review articles and the journals format.

Una mirada epistemométrica de la Revista Médica de Chile y su aporte al conocimiento en Medicina / A scientometric view of Revista Médica de Chile

Background: During the last decade Revista Médica de Chile increased its visibility, measured on citations and impact factor. Aim: To perform a scientometric analysis to assess the performance of Revista Médica de Chile. Material and methods: Thomson's-ISI Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports QCR) were consulted for performance indicators of Revista Médica de Chile and Latin Amerícan journals whose subject is General and Internal Medicine. We also report the h-index of the journal, which infers quality ¡inked to the quantity of the output. Results: According to the h-index, Revista Médica de Chile ranks 4 among the 36 journals indexed and published by Argentina, Brazil, Chile and México. The top ten articles published by Revista Médica de Chile and the institutions with the higher contríbution to the journal, were identified using citations. In the Latin Amerícan región, Brazil relevantly increased its scientific output. However, Argentina, Chile and México maintain a plateau during the last decade. Conclusions: Revista Médica de Chile increased notoriously its performance. Its contríbution to the Chilean scientific community dedicated to Medicine appears to be of central value.

Medical journals: Old, not senescent. A tribute to Revista Médica de Chile on its 135th Anniversary

Medical journals, like the Revista Médica de Chile, are the product of a long history of printing, literary styles, and scientific inquiry. They would not have developed without the craft of paper making, the invention of movable type, the need to communicate ideas and observations in a timely and digestible format, and the growth of "natural philosophy" during the European Renaissance and Enlightenment. The proliferation of scientific and medical periodical literature during Europe's industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries followed the emergence of medical science and care as a separate discipline and the creation of common and worldwide professional expectations and credentials. Medical journals continue to evolve with the advent of digital paperless publishing. Prognostication remains uncertain but it seems to me unlikely that printed paper, so called "hard copy, "journals will become extinct any time soon.

Las revistas médicas, como Revista Médica de Chile, son el producto de una larga historia de impresores, estilos literarios e investigación científica. No se habrían desarrollado sin la pericia de fabricar papel, la invención de los tipos mecánicos en la imprenta, la necesidad de comunicar ideas y observaciones en un formato oportuno y digerible, y el desarrollo de una "filosofía de la naturaleza" durante el Renacimiento y la Ilustración en Europa. La proliferación de publicaciones periódicas científicas y médicas durante la industrialización de Europa en los siglos 19 y 20 siguió a la emergencia de la ciencia médica y la atención de salud como disciplina aparte, y a la creación de expectativas y credenciales profesionales comunes y universales. Las revistas médicas siguen evolucionando con el advenimiento de las publicaciones digitales electrónicas, sin papel. Pronosticar es incierto pero al autor de este artículo le parece improbable que las revistas impresas en papel vayan a desaparecer en un futuro próximo.