The Role of Siembra in the Agricultural and Tourism Sectors

Abstract

Nowadays it is more than evident that academia has taken on new challenges, beyond its leitmotif, which is the training of professionals and academic aspects. One of these is engagement with the surrounding environment, through pre-professional internships, community work projects, and the offer of continuing education courses. The second is research, whether formative or advanced, which closes a circle that feeds the Higher Education System so that each of these three processes feeds back into the others. That is, engagement and research are substantive functions that connect academia with the national and international environment, and that are responsible for managing the knowledge developed on the university periphery, generating inputs so that teaching is an updated, dynamic process that nourishes the critical spirit of the much-needed academic debate.

On the other hand, to speak of agronomy and tourism in Ecuador and in the world is to deal with two sectors that have gained ground in the change of the productive matrix of several countries. An agronomy whose challenge is to combat hunger worldwide, while at the same time caring for the natural and cultural resources that sustain the principles of food sovereignty, nutrition, and quality of life. Likewise, tourism, which contributes to leaving behind dependence on the export of raw materials, and places at the center of development the possibility of betting on the services sector as a contribution to building a new model, not mainly dependent on oil or mining.

With this background, it becomes vital to commit to a medium that brings together and disseminates, freely and in solidarity, the written contributions produced by researchers worldwide on the various aspects of agronomy and tourism. This is under a minimum level of rigor, allowing innovative and alternative topics to be presented, while maintaining the methodological standards that validate the results obtained. For the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Universidad Central del Ecuador, this commitment has fallen on the scientific journal Siembra.

This publication, now in its 10th volume, is the mechanism that has made known various contributions to the development of these sectors. Emerging from an institutional tradition of contributing to the generation of new knowledge for academic debate, historically recorded in the now-defunct Rumipamba journal, Siembra takes up this structural foundation and joins the worldwide trend within the academic sphere of sharing the findings and results of research and engagement processes, with a clear objective of influencing critical thinking and strengthening the dynamics of the public policies necessary to sustain these sectors.

The statistics accompanying this publication are very encouraging, since from the beginning up to now approximately 7,000 consultations of its article abstracts are observed per month and more than 250,000 views of its articles in a historical count. This journal processes approximately 54 articles per year, of which 39% have been accepted and published, after going through the rigorous editorial and blind peer review process. This output is sustained by excellent editorial work led by Ph.D. Xavier Lastra, with the support of more than 160 reviewers and 26 section editors from various academic institutions around the world.

The journal has reached historic milestones that underpin its credibility, as it is currently indexed in Scientific Electronic Library Online - SciELO, Sistema de Información Científica REDALYC, Regional Online Information System for Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal - Latindex Catálogo 2.0, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources (ROAD), Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico (REDIB), PERIODICA. Índice de Revistas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias - Dirección General de Bibliotecas, UNAM, European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIHPLUS), Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), AGRIS, EuroPub, CORE, Open Academic Journals Index (OAJI), DIALNET, LatinREV, Google Scholar, Academic Resource Index - ResearchBib, Clasificación Integrada de Revistas Científicas (CIRC), Matriz de Información para el Análisis de Revistas (MIAR), AURA, ICI World of Journals – ICI Journals Master List – Index Copernicus International, Dardo, La Referencia, Actualidad Iberoamericana, with future challenges of gaining entry to other indexers such as Web of Science or Scopus. These achievements surely reinforce a continuous process of improvement in the quality and thematic diversity of this journal.

Without a doubt, much has been achieved, but the future challenges are equally great. These challenges lie not only in managing to enter other indexers, but in aiming to strengthen other processes. First, committing to growing the journal's number of subscribers and users, strengthening its presence in the academic debate of undergraduate and graduate programs. Second, activating networks with similar publications worldwide, to exchange experiences and broaden its geographic reach in terms of readers. Third, promoting special issues, with invited external editors, on various topics of interest within their fields of knowledge. And finally, promoting events to share these events with the communities that took part in them and with those authorities who could draw on their content for public policy decision-making.

On a personal level it has been a pleasure, first to have published in Siembra, and later to be part of the editorial team, since in it I confirm the pluralistic, inclusive, and open character of this publication, in fulfilling its everyday goals of sharing knowledge for a better world.