For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest... (Eclesiastes 3:1)
As well as being a reference for Health Promotion Programs for the Elderly in Brazil, UnATI/UERJ has been a milestone in my life. Participating in the birth and growth of this project has been one of the most cherished and gratifying achievements that a health professional could wish for.
When writing the editorial of volume 19, issue 6 of RBGG in 2016, when we will celebrate 18 years of the journal, I could not fail to reflect on this event and its importance for the history of UnATI/UERJ.
The initiative behind the creation of the journal was to provide a response to the growing demand from researchers, post-graduate students and other academics interested in obtaining subsidies to carry out their work within the challenging areas of interest of aging, old age and the elderly in Brazil.
Human aging has been approached in academic circles through two fields of knowledge production: geriatrics, which is more biological in nature, and gerontology, a field of knowledge that links several areas of academic production (such as the arts, architecture, law and health) to the process of human aging. At the time, there were no scientific journals that regularly disseminated knowledge produced in geriatrics and gerontology.
To meet this demand, in 1998 RBGG was born, under the name of Textos sobre Envelhecimento (Texts About Aging). Since its launch, it has been defined as a specialized periodical that publishes scientific production in the field of geriatrics and gerontology, with the aim of contributing to a deeper understanding of issues related to human aging.
It is impossible to discuss the history of the journal without giving credit to Professor Shirley Donizete Prado, coordinator of the Centro de Referência e Documentação sobre Envelhecimento (Center of Reference and Documentation on Aging) at the time, who had the idea for and led the development of the project behind the creation of the Magazine. Nor can we forget Conceição Ramos de Abreu, the executive editor of RBGG from the outset, when it was still known as Textos sobre Envelhecimento. Professor Shirley Prado and Conceição de Abreu, while they no longer form part of the editorial team, will always be part of the history of UnATI. Our gratitude and admiration for them both is assured.
The first issue of Texts included topics focused on the health and quality of life of the elderly, interpreting these issues in a broad sense, as a multi-professional and interdisciplinary perspective requires, encompassing living conditions and aspects to be considered when investing in a more autonomous and independent aging.
Until the first half of 2001, Textos sobre Envelhecimento existed only in printed form and in Portuguese. It was published every six months, with an average of three original articles and 60 pages per issues. Most of the articles corresponded to works derived from dissertations and theses developed in postgraduate programs in Brazil.
From 2001, the journal complied with the SciELO methodology to make scientific texts available on the Internet, which includes markers to facilitate the internal navigation of articles, links to bibliographic references, allowing the reader direct access to the database where a particular work is cataloged or to its full text, if the work is in the SciELO virtual library (www.scielo.org.br), and bibliometric and impact indicators. Since then, its periodicity has progressively increased until today’s bimonthly publication in Portuguese and English, in a totally electronic form.
Thus, we can look back on this history after 18 years and reflect, and conclude that RBGG continues to make progress towards the fulfillment of its mission to contribute to the consolidation of Brazilian and international networks of information on aging and health.
Congratulations RBGG!!! And congratulations to all those who have contributed to the journal, the impact of which grows with each issue, over these 18 years. We are all part of this story.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
Nov-Dec 2016
