History

HISTORY OF THE TENDENCIAS JOURNAL

BACKGROUND

To understand the dimension of TENDENCIAS Journal of the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences of the University of Nariño -FACEA-, as the main body of academic publications, it is necessary to do retrospective to understand how the sum of small publishing activities, the emergence of some journals that soon learned about oblivion, anniversary brochures and the permanent idea of ​​publishing, became conditions that would pave the way for the foundation of one of the leading university journals in the higher education scene of the southern region of Colombia.

Based on a personal file donated by Professor Julián Bedoya Arboleda, it has been possible to reconstruct the existence of some publications, which in their respective moment were important and contributed to the Economics program for their growth and development inside and outside the University. One of the first journals that saw the light for nearly a decade was Proyecciones, an editorial project gestated and directed by Professor Oscar Villada Alzate, which he sustained thanks to the achievement of sponsorships in the commercial environment of the city of Pasto. It was the 80's. It was a vital space where professors and students expressed their socioeconomic criteria and encouraged debate.

Many difficulties surrounded the university publications at that time. Salomón Kalmanovitz, in one of his columns published in El Espectador on July 6, 2009, and which he called "University publications: a mea culpa" commented on the following: ... in the national university of the eighties, teachers were not expected to publish . I remember an assembly where a leader of one of the unions raised his contract to affirm that he should dictate classes, but not investigate or share his knowledge with the academic community. With Jesús Antonio Bejarano we said that in the Anglo-Saxon universities the slogan was "publish or die", while in the national university it was "publish and die". With this quote we want to highlight even more the effort that Professor Villada had for holding a journal, even if it was his personal project.

For these same years, the Dean of the Economics Program, Julián Bedoya Arboleda, created a new publication mechanism that was simply called Boletín, whose purpose was to keep students and professors alert about the main problems that generally afflicted the Latin American continent. particular to the country. They were publications that were made with a lot of effort, with very little topographical technology but with a lot of enthusiasm.

In the middle of the decade, in 1985, the journal Enfoque económico published as a biannual publication. The dean was the director, at the time Professor Edgar Rodríguez Torres and the editorial committee were made up of the teachers: Julián Sabogal Tamayo, Francisco Javier Criollo L. and Alberto Romero, the latter also as Editor and future founder of Tendencias. This journal offered a much broader content than the previous ones, including the collaborations of Julio Silva Colmenares, now a member of the Scientific Committee of the aforementioned journal.

In 1989, in a new effort to maintain a publication, the Research Committee of the then Faculty of Economics draws an interesting and important volume related to the investigative activity that was moving at the time. It was called Revista de Investigaciones Económicas and was under the direction of Guillermo Narváez Ramírez and Luis Alberto Arcos. Its Editorial Board was formed by Rosendo Martínez Ponce, Julián Bedoya Arboleda, Armando Patiño (future Tendencias writer). M. and Servio Tulio Salazar. It contained articles by illustrious professors such as Benhúr Cerón, Gerardo León Guerrero, Alcira Dueñas, Guillermo Narváez and Eduardo Zúñiga Eraso, most of them well-known researchers and writers. Excellent source of study for the students of then. Today, Benhúr Cerón is part of the Scientific Committee of Tendencias, Guillermo Narváez R. has been a columnist on several occasions and Alcira Dueñas on one occasion.

In the decade of the 90s in the Economics program, the study group "Economic Projection" was organized, made up of students and with the support of some professors, periodically they took out some bulletins that they called Eco 21, which they offered to the economics professionals of the different governmental and private entities. Although of small format it was an interesting publication space to express concerns, concerns, aspirations of future professionals in the economic area. This publication was not so sporadic, it resisted a little more time and adversity.

Later (1991) the student body also manages the publication of the papers of the First Congress of Students of the Faculty of Economics. Among those who formed the Coordinating Committee of the Congress and the publication is the economist Oscar Hernán Muñoz Goyes, future editor of Tendencias.

In 1994, the Faculty of Economy already had another denomination like Faculty of economic and Administrative Sciences, because it counted on a new program: Administration of companies. The dynamics of publications already have a new dynamic and better relative perspectives. The journal Visión Empresarial was created, led by professors Luis Alberto Arcos and Guillermo Narváez Ramírez. The Editorial Board was made up of Luis Alberto Arcos, Servio Tulio Salazar, Rosendo Martinez Ponce, Leopoldo Mendoza, Efraín Cabrera and Nelson Leyton. The journal is characterized by the encouragement to the research activity of teachers and students. Among the research students, José Luis Benavides stands out, today evaluator and member of the Editorial Board of Tendencias.

In the middle of 1999, the quarterly journal Empresa & Negocios was founded under the direction of Luis Alberto Arcos and with the valuable collaboration of the teachers Oscar Hernando Benavides Paz and Fernando Guerrero Farinango. Of short duration, the journal nevertheless, continued with the same purposes of the previous ones: to pave the way of the academic publications of the faculty.

FOUNDATION OF THE TENDENCIAS JOURNAL

Indeed, at the beginning of 2000, when the world began with a new air the coming of the third millennium and dreams seemed to take hold, Professor Alberto Romero, picking up all that legacy of his fellow teachers and the most restless research students, presents the project for the faculty: Tendencias Jpurnal of the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences of the University of Nariño. Become founder and first director of the new journal, Professor Romero starts an important campaign within the University to respect the resources allocated to publications, as well as the shifts that the Publications Center programmed for the printing of productions University in Udenar. This took a lot of management time to give it life and continuity. Simultaneously, it develops some motivation mechanisms to motivate new teachers and students, the importance of writing, of publishing. For the first time, it is possible to maintain the continuity and recognition of the university community to a publication, which began to gain strength and prestige from one of its main faculties.

This academic achievement has a great significance. In the first place, it is necessary to point out that Dr. Alberto Romero, whose greatest merit lies in having collected the concerns of his colleagues from the economics program that were reflected in the publications already mentioned, and perhaps others that escape us because they do not have the exemplary to the sight, of relative duration, but that made way to walk. In the second place, having sustained her against all odds during her first five years of life, is something that we should always thank because she allowed the current director to follow the same path.

Was this situation repeated in other universities? Of course, and the University of Nariño was no exception. In the case of the National University, the decade of the 90s with Antanas Mokus was significant for the development of research and publications because it was thought of the salary increase to encourage research, an experience that was later collected by the Ministry of National Education. Done the decree, jumped the trap, wrote Kalmanovitz in the column of the aforementioned date and noted:

Many professors published anything, they plagiarized, they invented journals, the universities undertook editorials whose sole purpose was to increase the salary to the revivals that proliferated. Wineries of printed paper, read by a few, were filled with evidence of the petty investigative spirit of the professors.

Only until 2002 did the Ministry of Education achieve a relative regulation, conditions of evaluation, classification of journals -according to their quality-, editorial committees, external peers and all those requirements that were demanded were imposed. So many were the requirements that turned the research into a path of thorns and stubble, to the point that many teachers truly restless and passionate about research gave up collecting the prizes offered by the system. that is, it was on the other end.

Kalmanovitz continues in his column:

when I thought about the proposal I was imbued with the corporate spirit of the national university, with the professors who consider themselves abused all the time, who are the navel of the world and who must acknowledge all their efforts, judged by themselves. Consider then that first you had to offer them positive incentives and perhaps later supplement them with demands and sanctions.

Today I have an external vision, and I hope, more rigorous. There are excesses of politicking in public universities, teachers are too empowered, work little and are paid more than they produce.

The investigative task is an inherent function of the university teaching and by fulfilling it, an additional payment should not be demanded. If you do not have that vocation to produce knowledge, to research as a team, to publish as a team ... you are simply in the wrong place. Very different is the financing of the projects, which is not a salary assignment. Research and publications are closely linked and one can hardly survive without the other. What research might be useful if they are not shared by the entire university community through the publications?

What academic publication could survive if it is not fueled by the production of knowledge? What sense would its existence have if it does not draw on the articles of the professors, especially those who are part of research groups?

RELEVANT AT THE ADDRESS OF THE JOURNAL SINCE 2004

It stands out that by coincidence, Professor Jesús Martínez Betancourt, being director of the department of economics in 2004, that is, more than 9 years ago and on the occasion of the retirement of the founder Alberto Romero, offered me the direction of the journal, perhaps thinking about my long career as a columnist. I want to thank you for that offer because it allowed me to project the best of myself and pay homage to my parents, who instilled in us all the enthusiasm for the letters. Succeeding Professor Alberto Romero was a great challenge because he had laid the infrastructure of the long-range editorial project. Henceforth, the task was focused on maintaining the publication with its biannual character, permanent motivation to professors and student researchers and stimulating research groups.

And the second major purpose was to index the journal through the Publindex system of Colciencias. It was a stage of growth from the moment of assuming the direction and especially during the first four years at the head of Tendencias journal. At last everyone's efforts were made in the month of January 2009 when we received The corresponding indexation in Category C. There begins another stage, that of consolidating the project, to learn a lot from the mere fact of maintaining the indexation in that category since then and to look for new mechanisms to reach the next categorization. Active research groups and researchers have played a vital role in all this development. His is still this road and this scenario for the benefit of the entire FACEA.

Since the first semester of 2013, Colciencias' Publindex has elevated Tendencias journal to category B and since then, everything has been directed towards the consolidation of the new category to seek promotion for the academic improvement of the FACEA.

RELEASE IN THE ADDRESS OF THE JOURNAL SINCE 2017

After the great legacy of Professor Alberto Romero and Professor Ana María Córdoba, the direction of Tendencias passes to the Magister Ximena Alexandra Ortega Ordóñez, in the second semester of the year 2017. This year represented a great challenge for publications nationwide, as Publindex restructured its journal indexing policy, which led to a reengineering of the editorial and disclosure processes. One of the most relevant changes was the creation of the electronic version of the journal through Open Journal Systems and the registration with the National Library under ISSN-E 2539-0554.

In 2018, Tendencias journal participates in Call No. 830 of 2018, obtaining Category C, which represents a great achievement for the publication due to the recognition of its quality and the commitment of the Editor and the Work Team supported by the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences and the Graduate School FACEA.

As of the second semester of 2019, to achieve greater visibility, sustainability and impact in the academic environment, the journal was published only electronically (ISSN online 2539-0554). The Editorial Team and the Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, considered all the advantages of this form of dissemination, fundamentally with the purpose of reaching more readers in the world, an objective that has given excellent results, while increasing the h5 value.

In Call 875 for indexing specialized Colombian scientific journals - Publindex 2020, Tendencias retains its category in C, a result of the work and quality of the journal.