Databases and scientific journals have had a long-term relationship expressed
in the processes of registration, dissemination and access to scientific
information. Through them, publishers have known and adopted a series of
editorial quality criteria for their journals. This article deals with the relation
between databases and journal quality, particularly the experience of the
Latindex information system in Latin America. It also presents the new
proposal of quality criteria that Latindex has designed for online journals,
which is based on standards and best practices. The contribution to the quality
of journals is addressed and a mention is made about the perception of some
degree of uniformity in the adoption of quality standards and the tendency
to have more formal criteria, as well as its evaluation against other types of
indicators. Finally, it is advised on the need to make more transparent the
editorial work aimed at reinforcing the perception of quality in open access
publication
