On September 12, the editor of the magazine received the news from the Scopus Evaluation Committee, the prestigious scientific database of the publishing giant Elsevier, confirming its acceptance in the specialized catalog.

The magazine's mission Logos is to stimulate, disseminate and develop original scientific knowledge, generated by academics in the field of linguistics, philosophy and literature; as well as its countless points of contact.

Logos It is a scientific dissemination tool, developed at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of La Serena, in co-edition with the University of Giessen and is part of institutional history by becoming the first magazine of the study house to be indexed. in Scopus.

In this way, the magazine Logos, already indexed in Scielo since 2016, becomes the first humanities scientific journal to be accepted in Scopus (the most important scientific database dedicated to the humanities worldwide), associated with a university in the Coquimbo Region .

The importance of this achievement, as explained by the editor of the magazine and Director of the Department of Arts and Letters of the university, Dr. Omar Sabaj, is that the indexing reflects the prestige of the magazine and the quality of the work of its editorial board. This prestige, he points out, favors the University of La Serena in increasing its quality indicators; specifically, in humanities research. The editor emphasizes: “for the humanities, having a publication in a journal indexed in Scopus is equivalent to having a WOS publication in the first quartile.”

30 years of history

The current scientific prestige of Logos it's not by chance. 30 years of history of dedicated, rigorous and collaborative work have passed.

It was in 1989, when a group of academics from the Faculty of Humanities decided to start a publication that would bring together different research articles in linguistics, philosophy and literature for the preparation of the first volume of “Logos: Revista de Lingüística, Filosofía y Literature". It was a publication that was promoted by the Interdisciplinary Master in Latin American Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies.

As time went by, the magazine increased its prestige among humanities intellectuals nationwide, becoming a showcase valued by authors for the high quality standards of their contributions.

Until 2009, its editors were the academics, Dr. Luis Soto Escobillana and Dr. Sergio Vergara Alarcón. The magazine was published in print and was published annually. In the same year, the current editor, Dr. Omar Sabaj, was tasked with starting the process of digitizing the magazine and increasing the periodicity, from one to two editions per year (one per semester). These innovations will remain in history as initial milestones in the indexing process of Logos in Scielo and, recently, in Scopus.

Thanks to the boost that the University of La Serena gave to its scientific journals, through the Vice-Rector's Office for Research and Postgraduate Studies, by creating an online portal for access to these publications in 2012, Logos consolidated the path of sustained development of its prestige and reach in the national and international scientific community.

Consolidation is no coincidence

For Dr. Sabaj, this indexing in Scopus has been achieved thanks to the important work dedicated by the journal's editorial team. “The key to success has been coordinating a team with advanced knowledge in publications. One of the advantages of the editing team is that most of its members know the peer review process from research; Therefore, they have been able to apply the knowledge generated in the research to improve the system […] The process of editing a magazine is an activity in which it is impossible to estimate the workload. On the one hand, the number of tasks is very varied and, on the other, the pressure of deadlines and the continuous flow of quality content is a requirement to be able to be in the indexers,” added the academic.

Another characteristic that has increased the positive evaluation of Logos magazine is the fluid communication with the authors. This is according to Germán Varas, in charge of peer review for the magazine. “Nowadays, editors and magazines, in general, take a long time to respond to emails and carry out the process. Within national parameters, we are a super fast journal, which responds diligently to authors, which is always valued by researchers.”

The current work team is made up of its general editor, Dr. Omar Sabaj; associate editors, Dr. Sergio Vergara and Dr. Joachim Born, from the University of Giessen; editorial assistants, Dr. Miguel Fuentes and Dr. Horacio Simunovic; peer review manager, Dr.(c) Germán Varas; Paula Cabezas, in charge of layout and Pedro Palma, in charge of XML marking for Scielo.

The magazine turns 30 and celebrates it in the best way. In December, an event will be held at the Faculty of Humanities to celebrate this milestone of great institutional importance.