Estrategias y prioridades para la publicación científica de Neurología y Neurocirugía en las revistas médicas cubanas

INTRODUCTION: It provides a perspective on the publication of scientific articles about Neurology and Neurosurgery in Cuban medical journals during the period of activity of Revista Cubana de Neurologia y Neurocirugia (RCNN: 2011 – 2017). Data are presented in relation to productivity, comparisons are made, and factors that could explain trends and recommendations are formulated. DEVELOPMENT: The behavior for years of different modalities of scientific articles published in RCNN shows a curve with its upper phase during the period 2013-2015. With respect to the year 2015 there was a decrease close to a fifth and a third in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The main topics of the scientific articles are: Vascular Neurology (24%), Neuro-oncology (23%), Neuro-traumatology (13%), and Neuropsychology/Neuropsychiatry (13%). Neuropediatry scope was addressed in 23% of scientific articles (16.4%). When comparing types and themes of neuroscientific articles in RCNN with the set of Cuban medical journals not specialized in Neurology and Neurosurgery analyzed, it is observed that RCNN production is surpassed in almost one third in originals articles and even more so in case presentations. It was similar to the frequency of articles devoted to Vascular Neurology, Epilepsy, Neuro-oncology, Neuro-traumatology, and Neuropsychology/Neuropsychiatry. In other areas, RCNN was exceeded in more than twice as far as the production of scientific articles. CONCLUSIONS: The weakening of scientific potential can explain the findings. The dispersion of initiatives among so many specialties-related journals, as well as methodological shortcomings and rigor in editorial politics, is worrisome. Specific strategies are recommended to stimulate the scientific potential and Cuban medical journals impact.