#freequalitypubliceducationYES

In 2018, the Journal of School of Nursing – USP (Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP – REEUSP) celebrated achieving the highest impact factor among all Latin American and Caribbean journals (IF = 0.743)!

What does this mean?

It means that we were able to reach readers from all over the world, publishing articles that dialogue with the concerns and scientific problems of researchers beyond the borders of our country. It also means that we have acquired greater agility in promoting scientific dissemination to this area’s researchers, since the IF is defined by the count of citations of very recent publications.

However, we must bear in mind that Brazilian and foreign nursing articles are enduring, i.e. they are cited for a long time after the first two years of publication which are covered by the IF calculation. Therefore, in the Nursing area, the IF is not sufficient to define the impact that scientific dissemination must accomplish by means of scientific journals.

In addition, the IF does not measure the social validity of research, that is, it does not evaluate how much the result of an investigation leads to improvements in care practices in the daily life of health institutions – or houses, when it comes to home care. It also does not measure to what extent changes in paradigms or public policies related to health or care are introduced.

Yet there is no doubt that this is a significant achievement which brings greater responsibility, especially considering the menaces we have faced this year, widespread by groups that, whenever possible, infamously depreciate free of cost quality public education. Shockingly, these groups exist within public universities such as Universidade de São Paulo!

But what does REEUSP have to do with public and free university?

Everything!

REEUSP is a journal supported mostly by School of Nursing (Escola de Enfermagem – EEUSP), whose endowment is part of Universidade de São Paulo’s budget which – like UNICAMP’s and UNESP’s – is financed by the Merchandise and Services Circulation Tax (ICMS – Imposto de Circulação de Mercadorias), which applies whenever merchandise circulates, e.g. shopping in supermarkets and bakeries, electricity and gas consumption, etc. Once ICMS is collected, part of it is directed to financing the three São Paulo State universities. Hence, it would be more appropriate to say that the education they provide is prepaid. However, only a very small number of taxpayers have access to this apparently free education.

EEUSP conducts research and trains qualified personnel to act as nurses, as well as Nursing Masters and Doctors. Research is essential to produce knowledge, innovation and solutions to epidemiological and clinical problems surrounding caretaking assistance in Nursing. It is an essential part of education, especially for the PhD program.

It is the state’s function to train qualified professionals while producing science and innovation. Free (or prepaid) quality public universities are a moral and civic obligation of democratic states. Inside universities, contradictory and contrary ideas are subject to discussion which may be radical (meaning “reaching the roots”) yet not authoritarian. In authoritarianism, only certain hegemonic groups or holders of established power widespread their ideas, seeking their coercive imposition. The discussion of ideas is beneficial, for it develops critical citizens who do not exhibit herd behavior, since they no longer believe in Shangri-La. It also develops citizens who are tolerant to diversity, because they understand that human beings are not all equal and their peculiar approach to the world is only one among various ways of living. If well-conducted, the training process of universities develops citizens with sense of belonging to a collective who are aware of their responsibilities due to this belonging.

Brazil’s debt with education is enormous, even though universities have not been the most penalized, because it is not possible to compare the restrictions of higher education to what occurred to primary and secondary public education over the last 50 years: a real decay. Our country has a secular debt: in 2018, 29% of adults aged 15-64 are still classified as functional illiterates (Indicator of Functional Illiteracy, INAF (in Portuguese Indicador de Analfabetismo Funcional), 2018(¹)), which constitute a contingent of people who may be easily manipulated by appealing discourses which instigate violence, while credulous of easy solutions to complex problems, typical of “saviors of the motherland”.

Brazil lacks quality schools that teach values such as human dignity, equity and respect for the diversity of being, thinking and acting, contributing more to the human achievement of being than having by operating pedagogically in acts of solidarity and respect for life, nature and the environment.

The best Nursing scientific journals in Brazil are linked to public and free schools or colleges of nursing which both support the costs of editing and publishing poles and produce the best articles from public university researchers, either professors or graduate and undergraduate students.

The difference between producing research in public universities is not only in the valuing principle that this is a function of knowledge producing institutions, but especially in its resistance to the market’s allure to what kind of science should be done or the subjects that should be researched. Until now, researchers of public universities are free to decide their priority lines of research that benefit population the most. Nursing’s primary commitment is taking care of the health-illness of the population, differentiated in social groups with greater or lesser vulnerability.

In face of the risk that this electoral year has brought to Brazil and of ideas that are dangerous to democracy, instigating violence against the different ones, it is timely to remember the manifesto of Congregation of the School of Nursing, highest board of the school to which REEUSP is related:

(...) as a public university, we stand for values that bring together all citizens, from all social classes, ethnicities, genders, sexual-affective options, religious orientations and every existent social difference. As researchers, our purpose is to produce knowledge able to change the working conditions, life and health of everyone; as educators, we train for care, anchored in ethical values of human rights; as health workers, we must strengthen public institutions and care for all, without distinction. In the past, the university has known the perverse effects of political and ideological persecution and will not neglect making efforts to prevent them from taking place once again. We call everyone to join efforts so that values of common good may prevail at such an important moment in the history of Brazil’s brief democracy (...) (EEUSP’s Congregation, October 2018).

Preserving the quality of journals depends exclusively upon preserving free public quality education!

Happy holidays to all and may 2019 be the year of #freequalitypubliceducationYES

PhD Professor Emiko Yoshikawa Egry Editor-in-Chief
PhD Professor Regina Szylit Scientific Editor
PhD Professor Maria Amélia de Campos Oliveira President of REEUSP

REFERÊNCIAS

• ¹
  Instituto Paulo Montenegro. Ação Social do IBOPE. Indicador de Analfabetismo Funcional. INAF Brasil 2018: resultados preliminares. São Paulo; 2018.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 Dec 2018
• Date of issue
  2018