EDITORIAL

The Forum of Scientific Journals of Collective Health/Public Health Area was held at the 10^th Brazilian Congress on Collective Health, in November 2012. The Forum included the participation of editors and representatives from 13 journals. Editors from the traditional periodicals aimed at Collective Health /Public Health were present, such as the Revista de Saúde Pública (Journal of Public Health); Cadernos de Saúde Pública (Reports in Public Health); and the periodicals published by ABRASCO (Brazilian Association of Collective Health): Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia (Brazilian Journal of Epidemiology) and Ciên-cia e Saúde Coletiva (Science and Collective Health); Physis, Saúde e Sociedade (Physis, Health and Society); Interface; and Revista Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde (Journal of Epidemiology and Health Services). Additionally, more recent journals participated, such as Cadernos Escola de Saúde Pública (School of Public Health Reports) from the State of Ceará School of Public Health, Revista Brasileira em Promoção da Saúde (Brazilian Journal of Health Promotion), Cadernos de Saúde Coletiva (Reports in Collective Health), Revista Brasileira de Educação Médica (Brazilian Journal of Medical Education) and SANARE (Journal of Public Policies).

Abel Packer, director of the SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), assessed the participation of Brazilian journals in the international context, emphasizing the performance of the main journals in the area of Collective Health and indicating that, in general, these journals rank 15^th in number of citations. Packer also pointed out that the language of these publications is a major hindrance to national scientific production achieving more recognition abroad, as articles published in English receive double the number of citations than those in Portuguese.

Rita Barradas, representative of the area of Collective Health on Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel/ Ministry of Education), showed the criteria adopted by the Qualis Capes classification, indicating what indexing databases and impact factors of journals are used. The growth in scientific production in this area was emphasized, as was the fact that such production is disseminated by a large number of national and international journals.

Mauricio Barreto, from the ISC-UFBA (Federal University of Bahia Institute of Collective Health) and former editor of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, brought up a debate about the importance of free access in the dissemination of knowledge and of the many existing financial mechanisms that support such dissemination and the difficulty in using the several scientometric indices to evaluate scientific production.

There has been an increase in the number of scientific journals of Collective Health in recent years. The debate showed that these journals of area have been originated in different ways and achieved distinct stages of consolidation. Additionally, editorial approaches differ from one another. Two journals - Revista de Saúde Pública and Cadernos de Saúde Pública - have a wide approach to this area and have consolidated themselves, as they are now indexed in international databases and have a high number of citations and h-index. These journals are published by traditional teaching and research institutions in the area of Collective Health and they were created more than 20 years ago. Ciência e Saúde Coletiva is indexed in main international scientific journal databases as well. Other journals are more oriented towards specific areas of Collective Health such as the Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia, Physis, Saúde e Sociedade; and Interface. These journals are now undergoing a consolidation process, being indexed in different international scientific databases and showing different impact factors. The remaining journals, mainly the more recent ones, have not been indexed in international scientific journals databases yet.

It became clear that the growth in scientific production in Collective Health results from the Science and Technology policy, which began more than four decades ago and emphasized the researchers' qualification through the Brazilian graduate education system and research funding resources. However, the dissemination of scientific production does not rely on a clear policy for the strengthening of Brazilian journals. Funding for journals is still incipient and many have experienced periods of instability to remain active.

The Forum debated the proposals made in the Letter from Fortaleza, which originated from the Meeting of Editors held in the city of Fortaleza in September 2012. One such proposal is the creation of an inter-institutional network of scientific editors in the area of Collective Health, with the participation of ABRASCO, to develop and implement a National Strategic Policy on Scientific and Technical Communication in Collective Health, which will seek the collaboration of the Brazilian Ministries of Health, Education and Science and Technology, Capes, CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and ABEC (Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors) to strengthen the journals of this area.

In addition, the Forum debated the difficulties encountered by journals in obtaining official expert opinions of submitted manuscripts. One way to overcome this obstacle is to value this activity in the CNPq productivity scholarships. This proposal has been submitted to our representatives in the CNPq's Support Committee for the area of Collective Health. Furthermore, aiming to support this activity, a course on submission of official expert opinions on scientific manuscripts was held during the 10^th Congress on Collective Health.

As a result of the Forum, a meeting between ABRASCO and SciELO took place in December 2012, to develop a proposal for the creation of a cooperative network of the scientific journals in the area of Collective Health, aiming to reduce editorial production costs and support the development of scientific editorial services in this area.

Márcia Furquim de Almeida - FSP/USP

Luiz Augusto Facchini - UFRGS

Luis Eugênio Portela - UFBA

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  20 Feb 2013
• Date of issue
  Dec 2012