Editorial board inbreeding in peruvian health journals

Introduction: Scientific journals are the perfect instrument to communicate results of the research process and transmit knowledge. The editorial board is a team of experts of vital importance in the operation of a scientific journal, however, a frequent editorial practice is the publication of manuscripts in the journals they edit; therefore, we sought to determine the frequency of editorial inbreeding in Peruvian journals in the health area. Methods: A review of the articles published by members of the editorial board of 26 Peruvian journals between 2016 and 2019 was performed, evaluating the manuscripts from the editorial board, as well as analysis of association between the status of indexation in two regional databases and how this influences the frequency of inbreeding in each journal. Results: During the period evaluated, 2885 manuscripts were published, of which 520 had authors of the editorial board as authors. The most frequent type of contribution was the original article. Inbreeding in the years 2016 to 2018, as well as a higher percentage of inbreeding per issue, was statistically higher in the journals belonging to the Latindex directory. Conclusion: Peruvian journals in the health area have heterogeneous frequencies of editorial inbreeding. The journals included in the Latindex directory present higher frequency in editorial inbreeding, compared to journals included in the SciELO-Peru database.