Editorial endogamy in some Latin American dental journals

Objective: Scientific publication in a journal by a member of the editorial committee of the same journal is known as authorial endogamy. To determine the presence of authorial endogamy in some Latin American dental journals. Material and Methods: Observational, descriptive, retrospective study. Eight dental journals from Brazil, Cuba and Chile indexed to Scopus in the period of 2018 - 2021 were analyzed. An evaluation was made of the manuscripts that include a member of the editorial committee as author. The results were expressed in percentages and frequency measurements and for the bivariate analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test and Fisher’s exact test were used (p<0.05). Results: A total of 2026 articles, from which 14.52% (n=256), of authorial endogamy were found. The endogamy articles were mostly original articles 98.05% (n=252), experimental design 39.70% (n=102), advisory council 49.36% (n=153), co-authorship position 58.97% (n=184), with presence of 1 endogamic author per article 82.94% (n=214), the number of days from submission to acceptance were statistically lower in endogamic articles (p=0.003). Conclusion: The presence of editorial endogamy in some dental journals in Latin America was low, this finding is more frequent in original articles, mostly from the advisory board and as co-author. Additionally; it was found that endogamic articles took less days in editorial process.


INTRODUCTION
The importance of evidence-based dentistry is recognized, since current times demand ethical and high-quality articles [1].The main purpose of an investigation is the search and generation of knowledge.It can also be a primary tool in dental education to train the next generation of leaders in oral health care [2].
Dentistry is a medical discipline with a growing scientific production in recent years [3], this increase has also been reflected in the last 20 years in Latin America and the Caribbean, but it is still one of the regions with the lowest publication in the world [4].According to the Scimago Journal & Country Rank in its 2022 edition, 39,133 articles were produced in Latin America in the period from 1996 to 2021 [5].
If the results of the research are not published, and/or the place where they are published also has an important impact, since other researchers will not be able to appreciate the value of the scientific evidence generated, causing a negative impact on the development and growth of dentistry [6].Currently, scientific journals play a fundamental role in such commendable work, since it is considered the main means of disseminating research [7].
Endogamy is defined as «social attitude of refusal to integrate members outside the own group or institution» [8].There are behaviors that can be considered endogamic.First would be to prefer research by the editors themselves or by researchers from their circle, from the university itself, instead of other articles that may have greater scientific value, but that lack a link with the journal.With what privileges the person against the scientific value, and in second place the self-citations [9].Scientific publication in a journal by a member of the editorial committee of the same journal is known as either authorial endogamy [10] or endogenous publication [11] self-publishing [12], lately open science and editorial policies mention the degree of endogamy of scientific journals that do not escape the observation of the authors to decide to publish in a specific journal [13].
P r e v i o u s s t u d i e s h a v e s t u d i e d t h i s particularity in original articles from a Peruvian public health journal, finding a prevalence of 23.17% [14].However; there is still no research in the literature that evaluates editorial endogamy in dental journals in Latin America.
Therefore, the objective of the present study was to estimate the presence of editorial endogamy in some dental journals in Latin America, during 2018 to 2021.

Population and sample
Scientific dental journals belonging to Latin America indexed to the Scopus database were analyzed during the period from 2018 to 2021.Journals that have published at least one first volume number published in the period 2018 to 2021 and articles of type were included.original.Journals that did not present the composition of their editorial committee on their website were excluded.

Process
A search was performed on the virtual platform of Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) (https://www.scimagojr.com), of all the journal titles belonging to the area of «dentistry», in «all categories», region of «Latin America» and type «journals», the access date was February 03, 2022.
To specify the composition of the members of the editorial committees of the journals, their web page was accessed in the section «Editorial committee» Likewise, to establish some variation of the editorial committees in the years evaluated, it was used the Wayback Machine tool (https://archive.org/web/),which allows evaluating web pages in different periods of time [15].

Variables
The variables were: study design: descriptive, analytical and experimental, conflict of interest: none, pharmacist, labor, editorial committee and unmentioned, the number of members of the editorial committee: including all the members listed in the section «editorial committee» of its website, categorized as editor-in-chief, editorial board (associate and/or deputy editors) and advisory

Aquino Canchari CR
Editorial endogamy in some Latin American dental journals

Aquino Canchari CR
Editorial endogamy in some Latin American dental journals board (students and/or professionals of recognized expertise whose purpose is to answer editorial questions or reviewers); the position they occupied within the article: first author, corresponding author or co-author, and the proportion of endogamy publication by number and by year.

Data collection
12 dental journals distributed in Latin American countries were included, of which 2 were excluded because they were not current in the evaluation period (Brazilian Research in Pediatric Dentistry and Integrated Clinic, Odonto Science Journal), and another 2 for not having access to its editorial committee (Clinical Journal of Orthodontics Dental Press, Dental Press Endodontics).
The data was collected in a file of the Microsoft Excel program version 2019, the articles were evaluated by 3 researchers.The degree of kappa interobserver agreement between the 3 authors was 0.89 for the agreement of the selection of the study variables.The degree of intraobserver agreement for each evaluator was 0.89, 0.87, 0.89.Both evaluation parameters indicated excellent agreement.

Analysis of data
Statistical quantification was performed through the statistical package STATA v 17.0 (Stata Corp. TX, USA), measures of central tendency (median, interquartile range) were obtained, percentages and frequency measures were obtained for univariate analysis.For bivariate analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test and Fisher's exact test (p<0.05)were used.

Regulatory statement
The data analyzed are publicly available and freely accessible, so prior approval by an institutional ethics committee is not considered necessary.

RESULTS
2026 articles from 8 dental journals were analyzed, finding a presence of editorial endogamy of 14.52% (n=256), being the journal with the highest contribution Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics (n=55), followed by Brazilian Dental Journal (n=48).Table I The type of article with the greatest presence of editorial endogamy was the original Aquino Canchari CR Editorial endogamy in some Latin American dental journals

Aquino Canchari CR
Editorial endogamy in some Latin American dental journals 252 (98.05%), with an experimental study design 102 (39.70%), being more frequent in the year 2021 74 (28.79%), the majority did not report any conflict of interest 160 (62.25%).Likewise, the time elapsed from the date of submission to the publication of the article was statistically less in inbred articles (p=0.003).Table II.
Regarding the characteristics of the articles with editorial endogamy, it was evidenced that the majority were co-authors 184 (58.97%), members of the advisory council 153 (49.36%), with a single author per article 214 (82.94%) and from Brazil 223 (86.77%).Table III

DISCUSSION
Endogamy has various meanings and perceptions, placing us in a certain conceptual disparity; above all, when reflecting on it from an ethical point of view and even more so in the scientific contribution.In the present investigation, we started from the analysis of 2026 articles from 8 dental journals, finding the presence of editorial endogamy in 14.52%, agreeing with the research performed by Arteaga-Livias et al. [14] who mentions that editorial endogamy in the Peruvian Journal of Experimental Medicine and Public Health (RPMESP) between 2016 and 2018 is below 25.00%, likewise; it is concentrated between the editorial committee and the advisory council.Likewise, the review by Arteaga-Livias et al. [16] and Zdeněk [17] corroborate the data obtained Finally; regarding the conflict of interest and importance of this study, it is imperative to mention that editorial endogamy is one of the factors that most influences the indexing or not of serial publications; In addition, the abusive use of endogamy brings negative consequences for publications.However; we must focus on the final good of any publication, which ends up on benefit of students, users, technicians and health professionals involved in scientific growth.

CONCLUSION
The presence of editorial endogamy in some dental journals in Latin America was low, this finding is more frequent in original articles, mostly from the advisory board and as co-author.Additionally; it was found that endogamic articles took less days in editorial process.

Table I -
Characteristics of the dental journals selected for the study

Table III -
Characteristics of articles with editorial endogamy in some dental journals in Latin America, 2019-2021

Table II -
Presence of editorial endogamy in some Latin American dental journals 2018-2021 * Mann-Whitney U. † Fisher's exact test.