Maskana, an institutional research journal. How to improve and maintain its relevance?

Abstract

Research journals disseminate scholarly work to the scientific community and by doing so fulfill a fourfold role, namely sharing knowledge with colleagues for evaluation and verification, serving as a basis for the generation of new knowledge, assisting the society in turning it into a better one, and for the archiving of research work. An immense variety of national and international journals exist, varying from high- to low-ranked peer-reviewed journals, from printed to e-journals. At the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Maskana, an e-journal of the University of Cuenca, a description of its objectives and status is given. Given the recent and in the future to be expected decline in the reception of articles and Maskana’s overall low impact factor, the author discusses some possibilities to maintain, even upgrade the journal’s role and efficacity. The transformation with time of Maskana, preferably in cooperation with the other 6 active institutional e-journals, to a learning platform challenging the graduate students of the master programs in writing the thesis in the format of a peer-reviewed research article is probably the most realistic role for low-ranked institutional journals. If this concept works, other universities in future might be invited to join the UJs adventure.