In 2017, Epidemiology and Health Services: journal of the Brazilian National Health System (RESS), will be celebrating its 25^th anniversary with a fabulous gift: it was indexed in MEDLINE®. This inclusion came to confirm RESS scientific quality and the adoption of best editorial practices. Moreover, it will bring greater visibility to our journal, since MEDLINE® is the main bibliographic database of health journals in the world.

MEDLINE® is managed by the United States National Library of Medicine - NLM - of the National Institutes of Health - NIH. RESS was recommended by the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee - LSTRC, an advisory committee composed of ad hoc experts.¹1. US. National Library of Medicine. Fact sheet: Medline [Internet]. Bethesda: US. National Library of Medicine; 2016 [cited 2016 Nov 14]. Available from: Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/medline.html
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/... After the submission, in February 2016, RESS went through a strict evaluation process, which resulted on the recommendation of our journal during the LSTRC meeting, last October.

With MEDLINE® indexing, RESS content can now be found at PubMed®, a bibliographic search tool, provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information - NCBI, of NLM/NIH. PubMed® interface enables bibliographic search and free online access to all citations and abstracts of documents indexed in MEDLINE®.²2. US. National Library of Medicine. FAQ: PubMed [Internet]. Bethesda: US. National Library of Medicine; 1998 [cited 2016 Nov 14]. Available from: Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/pubmed.html
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/pubmed.... This database can also be accessed through the Virtual Health Library, managed by the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (Bireme).³3. Centro Latino-Americano e do Caribe de Informação em Ciências da Saúde. Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde: pesquisa em bases de dados [Internet]. São Paulo: Centro Latino-Americano e do Caribe de Informação em Ciências da Saúde; 1998 [citado 2016 nov 14]. Disponível em: Disponível em: http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/?IsisScript=iah/iah.xis&base=MEDLINE&lang=p&form=F
http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind....

An important feature of MEDLINE® is that it uses descriptors that are part of the structured vocabulary of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), which allows the recovery of information from a set of terms used to describe the content of each scientific document. RESS already uses the Health Science Descriptors (DeCS), a structured trilingual vocabulary (Portuguese, Spanish and English), which is compatible to MeSH and was created by Bireme in order to index scientific documents in Lilacs database (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences Information). The structured vocabularies are used as maps that guide the users to the information they need. Their use becomes more relevant as the amount of information increases.⁴4. Castro E. Terminologia, palavras-chave, descritores em saúde: qual a sua utilidade? J Bras Aids. 2001 jan-mar;2(1):51-61.

Nowadays, MEDLINE® has more than 23 million references to articles in the area of life science, from more than 5,600 scientific journals worldwide. Records go back to 1964, when the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS®), which originated MEDLINE®, was created.¹1. US. National Library of Medicine. Fact sheet: Medline [Internet]. Bethesda: US. National Library of Medicine; 2016 [cited 2016 Nov 14]. Available from: Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/medline.html
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/...

With MEDLINE® indexing, RESS joins the group of the most important health journals worldwide, which is source of pride to the Secretariat of Health Surveillance of the Ministry of Health (SVS/MS), responsible for editing this journal. Our achievement must be valued, taking into consideration that RESS is not edited by a scientific society, nor is bounded to any commercial publisher, besides, Portuguese is its official language and the target-audience consists of health managers and professionals of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS), as well as academics and other people interested in the health area.

RESS was created in 1992, as SUS Epidemiological Report (IESUS)⁵5. Silva Júnior JB. A trajetória do Informe Epidemiológico do SUS. Inf Epidemiol SUS. 2002 out-dez;11(4):201-2.. The current name and format were adopted in 1993, with the creation of SVS/MS.⁶6. Silva Júnior JB. A nova face da vigilância epidemiológica. Epidemiol Serv Saude. 2003 jan-mar;12(1):5-6. In 2011, RESS began a phase of consolidation, with the expansion of its editorial team and the revision of its development plan. This plan outlined several activities aiming at the journal’s improvement and adequacy to criteria for indexing in international bibliographic bases.⁷7. Garcia LP, Duarte E. Fortalecendo a revista do Sistema Único de Saúde. Epidemiol Serv Saude. 2011 jul-set;20(3):273.^,88. Garcia LP, Duarte E. Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde: a trajetória da revista do Sistema Único de Saúde do Brasil. Cienc Saude Coletiva. 2015 jul;20(7):2081-90. Five years later, RESS indexing to MEDLINE® represents the acknowledgment to the intense and committed work of the whole editorial team, but also brings greater responsibility regarding the increasing demands of the bibliographic bases.

At this important moment of celebration of RESS 25^th anniversary and its indexing in MEDLINE®, SVS/MS reaffirms its commitment in supporting the journal’s edition so it can keep the achieved position and seek more ambitious targets. In turn, RESS editorial team carries on motivated and independent so it can conduct the editorial process and maintain the journal quality, which has a unique characteristic of privileging epidemiology in health services. It is SVS role to ensure the institutional resources necessary for RESS to keep on its noble mission to spread epidemiological knowledge applicable to surveillance actions, prevention and control of diseases and conditions of public health interest, aiming at the improvement of the health services offered by SUS. This is our commitment.

References

Publication Dates