{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.01849812816560229, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005285179475886369, 'mean_word_length': 5.479315263908702, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Spreading Latin American research at a global level

To mark the 2018 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Congress that will take place in Brazil, the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics (IJGO) made a call for papers to publish in a special issue with a focus on Latin America. It is my pleasure to introduce the epidemiological studies and systematic reviews that were selected to be published in this issue, covering most areas within the obstetrics and gynecology specialty from five countries of Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and Mexico). Some of the articles revisit timehonored obstetric subjects, such as intrauterine growth restriction, preeclampsia, maternal sepsis, diabetes, retained placenta, and delivery preferences. Other articles address contemporary gynecologic topics, including pelvic floor dysfunction and interventions, cervical cytology anomalies and the HPV vaccine, hysteroscopy and endometrial assessment, and polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis. The topics of mental health, sexual reproductive health, and quality of obstetric care are also included. Each article adds significant knowledge to the body of literature on each topic. IJGO is the official journal of FIGO, with a 2017 impact factor of 2.072. The journal publishes clinical and basic research on obstetrics and gynecology, with a special emphasis on issues of global concern. One of IJGO’s main purposes is to communicate, to an international audience, scientific papers originating from lowand middleincome countries (LMICs) that emphasize important obstetric and gynecologic problems, such as maternal and perinatal mortality, family planning, and women’s health. Submissions are received from all world regions and close to 1400 manuscripts are received per year. The Editorial Board aims to ensure that IJGO represents different regions and countries equitably through priority reports on regional research. Nevertheless, for regular journal issues, Latin America is still the region that submits the lowest number of papers to IJGO, representing between 5% and 7% of all manuscripts received by the editorial office. Similar to the present special issue, Brazil submits the most papers to IJGO (more than half of the total) among all Latin American countries, followed by Spanishspeaking countries. Editorial statistics show that one in three papers submitted to IJGO from Latin America is accepted for publication, representing a rate compared with the global acceptance rate, which is one acceptance per five papers submitted. This suggests that peer reviewers consider studies from Latin America to be of good quality. To support this, of the 12 best original papers submitted from LMICs during 2017 that were selected for the IJGO Prize Paper Award, two papers came from Latin American countries. Although it is the continent with the lowest number of articles submitted, the quality of the research originating from Latin America is high. One of the potential limitations for authors submitting articles is the requirement of translating articles into English. Nevertheless, this should not be a deterrent; the Editorial Board and the reviewers consider the relevance of the topic and the study’s methodological quality to be of primary significance, and that poor language should not be the basis for a reject decision. Authors receive advice and collaborate with the editorial team to improve language during the editorial process. Regarding study type, authors should not be averted if their studies are not clinical trials or analytical epidemiological studies because good descriptive research articles that report data from regional realities are also valuable. Through the present special issue, the IJGO Editorial Board would like to communicate its desire to motivate clinicians and researchers to submit articles to IJGO for consideration and potential publication. The Editorial Board is keen to achieve its goal of promoting and disseminating articles on important topics in obstetrics and gynecology from all world regions to a global audience. I strongly encourage all obstetrician/gynecologists and training residents from our region to consider the publication of original studies, as well as systematic reviews and metaanalyses, in important topics for our countries. Thesis dissertation and monographies during the training period may be a good starting point to produce an original paper in which the results are presented to the global community.