ABC | Volume 111, Nº4, Octuber 2018

Viewpoint Internationalization is Necessary, But is it Enough? Gláucia Maria Moraes de Oliveira, 1 Andrea De Lorenzo, 2 Fernanda Marciano Consolim Colombo, 3 Eduardo Back Sternick, 4 Andréa Araujo Brandão, 5 Sergio Emanuel Kaiser, 6 Alexandre Schaan de Quadros, 7 Renato Abdala Karam Kalil, 7 Christianne Brêtas Vieira Scaramello, 9 Francisco Rafael Martins Laurindo, 8 Ludhmila Abrahão Hajjar 8 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Cardiologia da Universidade Federal do Rio De Janeiro (UFRJ), 1 Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Cardiovasculares do Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia (INC), 2 Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina da Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE), 3 São Paulo, SP – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde da Faculdade Ciências Médicas de Minas Gerais, 4 Belo Horizonte, MG – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Médicas Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), 5 Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Fisiopatologia Clínica e Experimental da Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), 6 Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação do Instituto de Cardiologia do Rio Grande do Sul/Fundação Universitária de Cardiologia (IC/FUC), 7 Porto Alegre, RS – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Cardiologia da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), 8 São Paulo, SP – Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Cardiovasculares da Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), 9 Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Brazil Mailing Address: Gláucia Maria Moraes de Oliveira • Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – R. Prof. Rodolpho P. Rocco, 255 – Prédio do HU 8º andar – sala 6, UFRJ. Postal Code 21941-913, Cidade Universitária, RJ – Brazil E-mail: glauciam@cardiol.br , glauciamoraesoliveira@gmail.com Manuscript received September 22, 2018, revised manuscript September 25, 2018, accepted September 25, 2018 Keywords Scientifcs Periodicals/internacionalization; International Cooperation; Researcher Performance Evaluation System; Journal Impact Factor; Databases, Bibliographics; Citation Databases DOI: 10.5935/abc.20180212 Globalization has left its mark on the 21 st century. One of the many ways of defining globalization is as the integration of information, communication, and economy on a worldwide scale, with a direct influence on all levels of higher education. In this manner, the internationalization of postgraduation may be seen as a response to globalization, taking shape in the form of programs and policies put in place by academic institutions and governments in order to increase student and faculty exchanges and to stimulate and strengthen partnerships in research, among other actions. Universities and research centers have, in fact, been practicing these actions for a long time, but they have expanded significantly, particularly during this century. Various studies 1-3 have repeatedly shown that collaborative research that involves authors from multiple institutions and/or countries have an identifiably greater impact than research involving only one group or institution. In Brazil, the internationalization of postgraduation has been highly valued by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), generating immense efforts on the part of postgraduate programs (PGPs) to achieve the goals defined. In a study conducted with PGPs ranked 6 or 7 by CAPES, Ramos 1 observed that internationalization in these PGPs encompasses everything from international mobility, international cooperation networks, academic output (international publications, international co-authorships, presentation of academic work in international scientific conferences and meetings), to access to resources through the sharing of research facilities and international funding. In Brazilian PGPs, the most popular internationalization strategies were international mobility of faculty, researchers, and students and international research collaboration, implemented mainly through international cooperation agreements. This study, nevertheless, detected inequalities between institutions in the provision of adequate conditions for internationalization. The availability of financial resources, the existence of regulatory frameworks, and organizational support were considered important requisites for achieving this goal. 1 Thus, due to the demands of CAPES, the need to internationalize has led to an institutional “race” between PGPs in search of partners, with or without government support, and often in a competitive manner. The strategies adopted by each institution vary in accordance with their “scope” (based on professors and researchers’ contacts or previously established partnerships) and their level of resources and complexity capable of influencing international visibility and competitiveness. This “academic entrepreneurship” 2 may or may not be considered positive, given that more well known institutions often have a head start in the competition for funds, to the detriment of other academic centers. The existence of national policies that support internationalization, including the publication of national journals, is extremely important, as can be seen in the example of countries that have successfully invested in this form of support. 3 In order to meet the demands imposed by CAPES, PGPs and medical societies are faced with the challenge of making a joint effort to provide all academic institutions with access to opportunities and to allow the scientific output that originates from these PGPs to be disseminated by their national and international peers. In this context, the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (SBC) has held “Postgraduate Meetings in Cardiovascular Sciences.” The theme of the fourth meeting, in 2018, was “The Internationalization of Brazilian Postgraduate Programs.” During this meeting, the international guest speaker Professor Fausto J. Pinto, the Director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, spoke about partnerships between European and Brazilian universities and announced the signing of a recent agreement between the Portuguese institution and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s School of Medicine for the bilateral recognition of diplomas 626