Reflections on the editorial work experience

In 2005, I assumed the commitment and assignment of coordinating the editorial process of the Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health (RBSO) on the suggestion of university colleagues^b who foresaw the development contributions the journal could make to the field of Worker’s Health.

Created from a technicist perspective, for many years RBSO gave little consideration toward political and social aspects that are essential to the field. Moreover, it was necessary to expand its scope and editorial policy beyond the individualizing and or technicist bias, mainly concerned with prevention and risk analysis, that predominated in the journal for many years and still influences research and professional practices¹.

Understanding the health problems workers face is impossible unless the analysis contextualizes work, including its organizational, relational, and environmental factors integrated with workers’ subjective and cognitive aspects². Moreover, health effects on workers result from complex interactions and relations among actors, which characterize the political economy of each country³.

With these two assumptions at the core of my practice, along with my colleagues on the editorial board^c, we focused our efforts on organizing special thematic issues to attract renowned authors in the field and to compose volumes that would become obligatory references for scholars on these topics. This allowed us to ensure regularity and periodicity in publications and successive indexations until reaching the SciELO database¹.

Equally important were the actions aimed at ensuring the physical and organizational structure for the journal’s secretariat functioning⁴, now referred to as editorial management, as well as its regulations, with a new version published in February, to guarantee the necessary administrative support and editorial autonomy.

RBSO was thus able to cover several topics: health and work in telemarketing activities, occupational accidents and their prevention, exposure to chemicals, work and mental health, policies for occupational health care, interventions in worker’s health, COVID-19 and workers’s health and the contribution of Epidemiology in the field, among other subjects. An overview of research in Occupational Health and Safety can be found in the dossier on the 50 years of RBSO, covered by several articles published by its editors.

Our practice, albeit anonymously, contributed to the drafting of numerous studies published, stemming from the essence of editorial work: reading, documentary research, reviewer selection, interactions with colleagues, critical analysis, writing comments, successive revisions, and suggestions.

However, consolidating the journal as a locus of academic production in the field⁵ required extensive social construction involving various authors and researchers on Occupational Health⁶ and related areas.

Selection of associate editors and, especially, the editor-in-chief from institutions outside Fundacentro^d has always been done extremely carefully, seeking individuals engaged in the field and the journal itself. Multiple interactions and partnerships between the editorial board and other colleagues were established to involve them in the journal’s policy, whether as associate editors and peer reviewers or as guest editors coordinating various special issues. Moreover, the physical presence of editors at events such as congresses, seminars, and working groups has been essential for integration within the research communities and the field of Occupational Health, attracting publications that influence theoretical, empirical, and methodological development.

While editorial work-fundamental to academic production-is currently recognized in major journals by international publishers who hire renowned researchers as editors, in Brazil, editorial work depends on movements and actions of editors in forums and associations to influence funding agencies and scientific societies to support national scientific publication and its internationalization. Hence the importance of the editorial board’s presence in these spaces over the past 18 years.

Although I feel fulfilled for having actively participated in these developments, especially in this careful social construction, I know that numerous theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges lie ahead for the journal.

From a conceptual standpoint, the journal should contribute to and address the following questions posed by the academic community:

How can the journal draw in and publish studies that consider the new contours of work, new objects, and problems⁷? How can it produce knowledge in the field influenced by neoliberal policies that enable positive transformation of labor conditions and relations⁸? How can it include in research agendas the reflection and production of research based on concrete intervention situations or on the intervention itself⁹?

In the realm of practice, and associated with these questions, it is necessary to maintain the historical connection with the professional community. The number of downloads of RBSO articles demonstrates the impact of its production among Occupational Health and Safety professionals¹.

After 18 years, I left these duties with peace of mind, as I leave its coordination in good hands with the arrival of Leila Posenato Garcia, who will now join Ada Ávila Assunção and Eduardo Algranti in RBSO’s scientific editing team.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the people who have contributed to the journal over the years, especially my colleagues on the editorial board and in the journal’s staff.

Referências

• ¹
  Jackson Filho JM, Algranti E, Saito CA, Garcia EG. Da segurança e medicina do trabalho à Saúde do Trabalhador: história e desafios da Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional. Cienc Saúde Colet [Internet]. 2015 [citado em 4 abr 2024]; 20(7): 2041-51. Disponível em: Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232015207.05812015
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232015207.05812015
• ²
  Guérin F, Laville A, Daniellou F, Duraffourg J, Keguelen A. Compreender o trabalho para transformá-lo: a prática da ergonomia. São Paulo: Edgard Blücher; 2001.
• ³
  Wooding J, Levenstein C. The point of production: work environment in advanced industrial societies. New York: Guilford Press; 1999.
• ⁴
  Garcia EG, Jackson Filho JM. Sobre o projeto de reestruturação da RBSO. Rev Bras Saúde Ocup [Internet]. 2007 [citado em 4 abr 2024]; 32(116): 4-5. Disponível em: Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0303-76572007000200001
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/S0303-76572007000200001
• ⁵
  Wünsch Filho V. A RBSO em perspectiva. Rev Bras Saúde Ocup [Internet]. 2011 [citado em 4 abr 2024]; 36(123): 6-7. Disponível em: Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0303-76572011000100001
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/S0303-76572011000100001
• ⁶
  Lacaz FAC, Jackson Filho JM, Costa DF, Vilela RAG. Resultado da parceria entre a RBSO e o GT saúde do trabalhador da Abrasco. Rev Bras Saúde Ocup [Internet]. 2013 [citado em 4 abr 2024]; 38(127): 9-10. Disponível em: Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0303-76572013000100002
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/S0303-76572013000100002
• ⁷
  Cordeiro R, Assunção AA. Saúde e trabalho: novos tempos, novos paradigmas. Cad Saúde Pública [Internet]. 2024 [citado em 4 abr 2024]; 40:e00176323. Disponível em: Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311XPT176323
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311XPT176323
• ⁸
  Assunção AA, Algranti E, Jackson Filho JM. Sociedade neoliberal, saúde e segurança no trabalho. Rev Bras Saúde Ocup [Internet]. 2023 [citado em 4 abr 2024]; 48:edcinq1. Disponível em: Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369/00123pt2023v48edcinq1
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369/00123pt2023v48edcinq1
• ⁹
  Jackson Filho JM, Pina JA, Vilela RGA, Souza KR. Desafios para a intervenção em saúde do trabalhador. Rev Bras Saúde Ocup [Internet]. 2018 [citado em 4 abr 2024]; 43(Supl. 1): e13s. Disponível em: Disponível em: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369AP0141218
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369AP0141218

• b
  I would like to thank Professor Ada Ávila Assunção from the Faculty of Medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and Professor Julia Issy Abrahão from the Department of Psychology at the University of Brasília (UnB).
• c
  Eduardo Garcia and Eduardo Algranti.
• d
  Professor Ada Ávila Assunção from UFMG.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  10 June 2024
• Date of issue
  2024