  Colombian scientific journals are poorly represented in international digital
libraries; however, through Google Scholar (GS) it is possible to determine
their use by the community. Between the years of 2003 and 2007 a classification
of 185 Colombian journals indexed in the Colombian National Bibliographical
Index (IBNP) was performed using the information provided by GS, basing
categorization on size indicators, indexation and citation. The indicators were
analyzed by grouping the journals in two general areas: sciences and social
sciences. In each area, the indicators provided by the digital libraries
Scopus, Redalyc and Scielo were compared. Additionally, the indicators provided
by IBNP journals categories (A1, A2, B and C) were also compared. The sciences
and social sciences had a similar pattern in their indicators. The existence of
positive correlations was established between some indicators and they
predicted that the number of citations per journal in GS and the h index
depends on its visibility in GS and Scopus. We put forward that the current
IBNP categories (A1, A2, B or C) faintly reflect the use of journals by the
community and we propose a classification based on the h index as an infometric
indicator, which reflects not only its visibility in Google Scholar, but also
its inclusion in certain international digital libraries, particularly Scopus.
Our results may be applied to the creation of public policies regarding science
and technology in Colombia and in developing countries.
