Evolution and future perspectives of scientific journals in Peruvian public universities

Abstract

This study rigorously examines the evolution and future prospects of scientific journals in Peru, with a particular focus on those affiliated with state-sanctioned public universities. The research includes a comprehensive evaluation of the official online resources of each university, following the list sanctioned by the Superintendencia Nacional de Educación Superior Universitaria (SUNEDU). This research includes journals included in the Sistema Regional de Información en Líneo para Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal (Latindex Catálogo 2.0), as well as those indexed in prominent databases such as SciELO, Web of Science (WOS), and Scopus. Using careful data analysis methods, including tabulation in Excel and Minitab 19, the study identified 205 scientific journals. Of these, 51 are indexed in at least one of the aforementioned databases, while 154 remain unindexed, highlighting a significant challenge for editorial teams. In particular, only four journals are indexed in Scopus, mainly from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo. The research concludes that the development of these journals is significantly correlated with their Google Scholar h-index. The results argue for greater support for public universities to promote the indexing of their scholarly journals, thereby increasing the visibility and impact of their research on regional, national, and international platforms. Future strategies should include incentive policies to encourage scholarly contributions to locally based journals.