Editorial Spotlight: Doris Veronica Ortega-Altamirano

This interview and blog post was prepared by PLOS One Associate Editor Jen Edwards.

Doris Veronica Ortega-Altamirano is a Doctor Educationalist by the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, Master’s in health sciences specially on Reproductive Health, by the National Institute of Public Health, Specialist in Women’s Studies by the Metropolitan Autonomous University and, Pedagogue from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Since 1996, she has been a researcher at the Health Systems Research Center of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico. She has publications related to research in sexual and reproductive health, quality of maternal and child health care, and global burden diseases.

Dr Ortega-Altamirano obtained scholarships as a student, teacher mobility grants and funding for her research projects from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, World Health Organization and the CONACyT/Secihti (National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico), VII Erasmus Mundus Europe Union programme; academic exchanges at Washington University in Seattle, Leiden State University, Netherlands, and the School of Nutrition at Harvard University.

In your career, you have contributed to the delivery of a range of training and development programs in Public Health. What motivates you in this area of research?

I started my professional pedagogy practice in the field of health education in a mining community on the outskirts of Mexico City; I was fascinated to learn that the health of miners and their families was interconnected with their eating habits, their lifestyle, culture and resources such as housing and working conditions.

Soon I was curious to understand the causes and magnitude of their diseases. My need to explain these phenomena led me to discover the community as a patient, and to find epidemiology and statistical tools to satisfy this need.

Continuing health care and the involvement of different actors – from women empowered to take care of the health of rural communities in Mexico to graduate professionals in public health, has been one of the paths through which I have experienced the fertile field of public health. Another aspect has been the production of educational materials, assessment and monitoring instruments, and training to enable human resources in health services to provide care for the health of populations. Some examples of these are: family planning and maternal and child health; breast cancer early detection actions, prevention of childhood obesity; Detection of violence against older adults and improvement of the quality of care for people living with Diabetes Mellitus. 

What do you see as the biggest barrier to publication of good quality Public Health research?

One significant barrier to producing high-quality publications in public health is the inconsistency in the quality of research reports and the scientific rigour of the studies from which these reports come. This variability is often linked to the diverse origins of the studies themselves, which can influence the rigor and reliability of the findings presented. Differences in methodological approaches, data collection standards, and reporting practices across various studies contribute to challenges in maintaining consistent publication quality within the field. There are topics that are relevant to researchers in one geographic area but may not be of interest to researchers and decision makers elsewhere.

How does your role as Academic Editor at PLOS One allow you to contribute to maintaining scientific integrity in your field of expertise?

As an academic editor, I have access to information and tools that allow me to verify that the manuscript I am handling is not a previously published manuscript; I can also verify the identity of authors and suspect fictitious authors; I can verify that the manuscripts comply with the international norms of ethics of scientific research (of which the authors provide evidence).

Understanding the limits of the use of tools such as artificial intelligence in the preparation of research reports supports scientific integrity in the dissemination of public health research results. That is the divide between the present and future of knowledge in this field, and it depends on our ability as editors to detect the authenticity of manuscripts. Each technological advance brings a challenge to the scientific community.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by contributors are solely those of individual contributors, and not necessarily those of PLOS.