science

Latindex

Latindex is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Latindex rather than just read about it. In short: Latindex (Regional Cooperative Online Information System for Scholarly Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal) is a bibliographical information system available for free consultation. Established as a network in 1997, the project is based on the cooperation of 17 national resource centers that operate in a coordinated scheme for the gathering and dissemination of relevant information and data…

Key takeaways

Latindex belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Latindex to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Latindex from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Latindex (Regional Cooperative Online Information System for Scholarly Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal) is a bibliographical information system available for free consultation. Established as a network in 1997, the project is based on the cooperation of 17 national resource centers that operate in a coordinated scheme for the gathering and dissemination of relevant information and data on the Iberoamerican journals. The aims of Latindex are disseminating, fostering and developing both the scientific and the editorial fields, and to fulfill their information needs in the best possible manner. Latindex was created following the recommendations arose in the First Workshop on Latin American Scientific Publications held in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1994. The idea was adopted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1995, and in February 1997, the First Technical Meeting was held in Mexico City with the commitment of four countries (Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico). With the incorporation of Spain and Portugal in 1998, Latindex evolved towards an Iberoamerican system.

Products 1. Directory. It’s a Comprehensive inventory of scholarly journals. Available since 1997 it provides basic bibliographic data of each title such as publisher, contact address, subject coverage, prices, frequency, etc. The online version of the Directory contains detailed information of almost 17,000 journals from 30 countries. 2. Catalogue. Set online in March 2002. Being a subset of the Directory, it contains a selection of journals that fulfill a series of international quality criteria. Titles are classified according to a previously agreed international quality parameters such as peer review procedures, coverage in international databases, abstracts and keywords in more than one language, international editorial boards, among a total of 33 parameters for printed journals and 36 for electronic journals. The list of parameters met by every title is shown in each record. To date, more than 3,500 journals have been rated and included in this catalogue. 3. Electronic journals. Offers direct access to a growing collection of Iberoamerican online journals offering full text articles. Currently links to almost 3,000 titles.

Latindex website is also a valuable resource to find up-to-date information of materials on scientific journals practices and editorial standards, useful for librarians, researchers and students. Likewise, the site offers PowerPoint presentations from a number of seminars and workshops organized in several of the participant countries. The News Section presents information about events and news of the professional activities developed in the Library and Information Science field, mainly from Iberoamerica.

Participating institutions The general coordination of the system is based in the Department of Latin American Bibliography, part of the Assistant Office for Information Services of the General Directorate for Libraries (DGB) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In each participant country there is an institution responsible for the input of data to the system’s databases.

Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) (Argentina) Centro Argentino de Información Científica y Tecnológica (CAICyT) (Argentina) Instituto Brasileño de Información en Ciencia y Tecnología (IBICT) (Brazil) Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT) (Chile) Departamento de Información (Chile) Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología "Francisco José de Caldas" (COLCIENCIAS) (Colombia) Universidad de Costa Rica (Costa Rica) Instituto de Información Científica y Tecnológica (IDICT) (Cuba) Biblioteca Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (BNCT) (Cuba) Universidad APEC (UNAPEC) (Dominican Republic) Fundación para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FUNDACYT) (Ecuador) Red Europea de Información y Documentación sobre América Latina (REDIAL) (France) Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (Guatemala) Biblioteca Central (Guatemala) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (Mexico) Dirección General de Bibliotecas (Mexico) Dirección General de Servicios de Cómputo Académico (Mexico) Instituto de Física (Mexico) Universidad de Panamá (Panama) Sistema de Bibliotecas (Panama) Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONCYTEC) (Peru) Centro Nacional de Documentación e Información Científica y Tecnológica (CENDICYT) (Peru) Ministerio de Ciencia y Enseñanza Superior (Portugal) Fundación para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (Portugal) Serviço de Informação e Documentação (Portugal) Universidad de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico) Escuela Graduada de Ciencias y Tecnologías de la Información (Puerto Rico) Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) (Spain) Instituto de Estudios Documentales sobre Ciencia y Tecnología (ex-CINDOC) (Spain) Ministerio del Poder Popular para Ciencia y Tecnología (Venezuela) FONACIT - Centro de Documentación (Venezuela) An agreement was reached between Latindex and REDIAL (European Network for Information and Documentation on Latin America) in 2005 in order to include in Latindex those journals published in Europe which content was relevant to Latin American issues.

Events

Latindex Technical Meetings A total of 14 annual technical meetings have been held since 1997 to date in the different participant countries:

Seminars and Workshops Latindex has organized in Latin America, a series of seminars and workshops addressed to professional editors of scholarly journals with the objective of sharing experiences and practices about publishing standards and the editor’s work.

Funding Additional support for the development of the system has been provided by the partners themselves. Specific activities have been supported in part by UNESCO (Science Sector -Paris and regional Montevideo offices); the International Council for Science (through ICSU Press and COSTED); the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); the Organization of American States (OAS), and the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP).

References

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Latindex

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Latindex claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Latindex before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Latindex ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Latindex

In research: Latindex appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Latindex in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Latindex is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bibliographic databases and indexes, Caribbean studies, Latin American studies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Latindex outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Latindex in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Latindex means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Latindex out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Latindex in simple terms?

Why does Latindex matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Latindex?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Latindex.