Resumen: Mediante el presente artículo se pretenden analizar algunos de los problemas metodológicos más comunes que se presentan a la hora de evaluar las revistas científicas de comunicación y para ello se han tomado como referencia las 10 publicaciones indexadas en el Social Sciences Citation Index con mayor impacto. Mediante el análisis de contenido se estudiará la procedencia y vinculación académico-investigadora de los autores que aparecen reflejados en estas publicaciones, así como las temáticas de los artículos, los géneros y las metodologías utilizadas. Con todo ello se pretenden dos objetivos principales: por un lado analizar el papel de la evaluación de las publicaciones científicas en el ámbito de la comunicación en los procesos de valoración de la investigación lo que nos permitirá poner de manifiesto las dificultades de aplicación de los métodos bibliométricos de repercusión aplicados por la base de datos de Thomson Scientific y, por otro lado, establecer un marco de desarrollo de las publicaciones científicas españolas en el ámbito de la comunicación que cumplen algunos de los requisitos indicados pero que, bien porque su factor de impacto es aún bajo, o bien porque carecen de difusión internacional aún no han sido registradas en el Social Sciences Citation Index. Está investigación ha contado con financiación del Instituto de Investigación en Relaciones Públicas de la Universidad de Málaga.Palabras clave: Comunicación; indexación; bases de datos científicas; evaluación; investigación Abstract: This article examines some of the most common methodological problems in the evaluation of academic journals in the field of communication, based on the content analysis of the ten journals with the highest impact factors in the Social Sciences Citation Index. The analysis focuses on establishing the academic and Revista Latina de Comunicación Social # 067 -páginas 248 a 270Investigación |

Fake News in the media and on social networks have grown exponentially in recent years, forming part of the new strategies of political communication and the dissemination of hate speech. The present work demonstrates in an experimental way the ease of creating and spreading fake news on social networks by putting into circulation, with the collaboration of the TYC communication agency, four false news on different topics without connection to the current news of the moment, following the typology of the so-called summer snakes, during the silly season. Existing profiles on social networks were used, especially on Twitter, as well as the collaboration of influencers for their dissemination. Likewise, complementary online actions were used to analyze the multiplication of reach and interaction, both organically and promoted. The findings confirm the ease of generating and disseminating disinformation on these channels, the high organic interaction obtained, but even more the formidable multiplier effect of up to 10 times its reach thanks to the false content promotion options offered by digital platforms based on a moderate investment in advertising, which is an additional element of controversy on the issue of disinformation in the digital field.

This article examines some of the most common methodological problems in the evaluation of academic journals in the field of communication, based on the content analysis of the ten journals with the highest impact factors in the Social Sciences Citation Index. The analysis focuses on establishing the academic and research origins and links of the authors of the articles published by these scientific publications, as well as the most predominant subject matters, genres and methodologies among the articles of these publications. This research aims to achieve two objectives: On the one hand, to analyse the role of the evaluation of communication journals in the assessment of research, which will allow us to show the difficulties of applying the bibliometric methods used by Thomson Scientific to determine the impact of journals and, on the other hand, to establish a development framework for those Spanish communication journals that meet some of the requirements of the Social Sciences Citation Index but are not yet indexed in it, either because their impact factor is still low or because of their lack of international dissemination. This research has been financed by the