Omar Araujo-Febres

Editor in Chief (1990-1996)

University of Zulia, Faculty of Agronomy

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

55

th

Anniversary of the Journal of the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Zulia

55 Aniversario de la Revista de la Facultad de Agronomía de la Universidad de la Zulia

55º Aniversário da Revista da Faculdade de Agronomia da Universidade de Zulia

Editorial

The journal of the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Zulia was founded in 1968, more as a journal of “scientic dissemination” than

as a scientic journal, and with variable periodicity. Considering the time, it was a great eort to obtain collaborations from the same faculty

that had just begun to bear its rst fruits. Its professors, relatively young, were starting out in research, due to the limited resources assigned to

research, since there were numerous needs in the construction and consolidation of the faculty.

Volume 7 covered a period from 1986 to 1990. Five years in four issues. In 1990 we assumed the commitment to direct the journal. Without

much personal experience, but open to the recommendations that we seek within the university, in other faculties, and in other universities, and

we imagine a concept of the modern scientic journal, a journal open to the reading public and open to researchers. from other national and

foreign institutions. When I invited colleagues from other institutions to publish in our journal, they told us that this magazine belongs to the

Faculty of Agronomy, and they did not understand that they were welcome.

At that time, two separate events occurred that led to the success of the Faculty of Agronomy journal; The rst was the creation of the

Researcher Promotion Program (PPI) in 1990. And the second, the regularization of the publication of the journal and having modernized the

concept applied to the edition. In 1993 the journal was awarded the “Tulio Arends” Prize as the best national scientic or technological journal.

Then, works from researchers from all national institutions began to arrive, and it was consolidated in its frequency and in the number of works

published. It was necessary to increase the publication to 6 issues per year to satisfy the demand for articles received. This continued from 1996

to 2000.

In 2001 the journal was included in the Science Citation Index (SCI Expanded) and in Scopus, which began to give it international visibility,

and with it the inux of articles from other countries.

From then on, the Journal of the Faculty of Agronomy consolidated itself as one of the best scientic journals in Latin America.

The eort it represents today to keep it running, up to date, maintaining high quality standards is extraordinary. The current editorial team

deserves our deepest recognition for their eort and dedication.

Finally, the Journal of the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Zulia presents to its readers a supplement on the occasion of its 55th

anniversary, which includes review articles of renowned Venezuelan researchers from dierent areas of agronomy that develop current issues.