The VHL, as a mechanism for the development of health through equitable access to information and scientific and technical knowledge, makes an absolute commitment to the search for quality and reliability. The reach and maintenance of this quality standard is guaranteed by the adoption of policies, criteria, and procedures for the production of each different type of source of information.
As a characteristic product of science, scientific publications have internationally consolidated criteria for quality assurance and control. These criteria include peer reviews, editorial boards, regularity of publication, periodicity, among others. However, there are publications contained in the VHL sources of information that are not submitted to these criteria, which does not mean that they have inferior quality. Oftentimes, these publications dispense with this evaluation process because they are institutional documents, such as reports, briefings, etc.. Among the variables considered in the evaluation of these publications are the institutional linkage of the document, its indexing in national and international databases, reliability and significance of the published data, etc.
Aiming to contribute to improving quality of publications and scientific journals of the Latin American and Caribbean region, one of the lines of action of the regional coordination of the VHL Network is the training of editors and others involved in the editorial flow on all the stages and best practices related to management of scientific and technical journals, from submission of articles to their final publication.