Every two years the International Federation of Science Editors holds its regular meeting, where science editors from around the world gather to discuss issues related to scientific communication and science publications, to exchange experiences about their procedures and hear about recent developments in their field, in search of solutions to their problems.

IFSE’s meeting in 2004 will be held for the second time in Latin America. The turn corresponds to Mexico. The Twelfth International Conference of Science Editors (IFSE-12) is to take place between the 10th and the 14th of October In the town of Merida, Yucatán Peninsula. The central topics of the meeting will be "Future Trends in Science Editing and Publishing" and "Bringing Science to Society".

Through plenary lectures, workshops, and poster and discussion sessions, specific themes of great relevance to those interested in the field will be addressed. New tendencies in science publications, electronic publishing and open access journals, the future of peer review, publishing science in developing countries, training the science editor and science and the mass media will be, among others, the subjects of presentations and discussion.

The primary goal of the Federation is the improvement of scientific communication throughout the world. Within this framework, the organization is dedicated to answering the need for the diffusion of science in less developed countries and regions that can benefit from the expertise and organization of more advanced areas, and to promoting publications from less developed areas which harbor information of increasing interest to the rest of the world.

It is in this context that the celebration of this conference in a Latin American country acquires special significance for us. It is an excellent opportunity for the exchange of experiences, learning, display achievements and search for adequate pathways to overcome limitations.

This is also a most propitious occasion to discuss initiatives leading to the creation of a largely needed Latin American Association of Science Editors, to serve as a platform for cooperation and exchange of experiences beyond national boundaries. The scientific production of the region, while being marginal in a worldwide context, is reflected in several hundreds of periodical publications and monographic series. Perhaps, less than a hundred of them would qualify to be considered as first line journals or series in a highly demanding global environment. We must overcome this situation.

There is no doubt that quality improvement, integration of currently disperse initiatives, collaboration in duplicate editorial efforts and enlargement of markets are necessary actions that would be facilitated and whose outcomes would be consolidated when working together.

A joint posture of editors at a regional level could also be fruitful in getting the institutions that sponsor and finance scientific publications, and the national offices of science and technology, to respond adequately to the needs of journals, which are often limited in their production potentiality, their improvement and insertion into the mainstream of science publications at a global level.

The successful celebration, in August 2000, of IFSE-10 in Brazil and the organization efforts for the forthcoming meeting in Mexico (www.ifsemex.org) lead us to foresee a large attendance and success of IFSE-12.

Miguel Laufer

Editor