On the last day of activities (15/03) of the Opening Week of the Academic Year at Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC/Fiocruz), the slogan was 'Contemporary challenges for scientific publishing in the country due, above all, to technological, social, political and economic changes'.

The topic was addressed by the editor-in-chief of the Memórias Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Magazine, Adeilton Brandão, during the lecture 'Memories of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, 110 years later: data openness, integrity, reproducibility and other contemporary challenges for authors and scientific journals'.

The meeting, integrated into the Center for Studies of IOC, the Institute's most traditional academic activity, was moderated by the director of the SciELO/FAPESP Program, Abel Packer.

Held in celebration of the journal's 110th anniversary, the event was also attended by the director of IOC, José Paulo Gagliardi Leite, the vice-director of Teaching, Information and Communication of the Institute, Marcelo Alves Pinto, and the student representative of the Institute's Postgraduate Programs, João Paulo Sales.

"I would like to welcome the new students. Almost 50% of our Unit's human resources are made up of students. In my opinion, this is very important, as you bring renewal and point out new challenges for those who have been at the Institute for longer", commented the director of IOC at the opening table.

The presentation of some new features for the 2019 academic year was the responsibility of the Vice-Director of Education.

“This is a special year, in which we celebrate, respectively, the 30th and 15th anniversaries of the Stricto sensu Postgraduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology and in Teaching in BiocSciences and Health and 25 years of Lato sensu Postgraduate Programs in Vector Malacology and Medical Entomology. I also advance that, at the beginning of the second semester, we will hold another edition of the Collegiate of Doctors, whose programming will be focused on teaching themes”, commented Marcelo, taking the opportunity to invite students to participate in the Fiocruz Acolhe [learn more], a welcome event for foreign students and Brazilians from other regions of the country who study at the institution's units in Rio de Janeiro.

“This initiative by the Vice-Presidency of Education, Information and Communication (VPEIC/Fiocruz) will allow you to exchange experiences with students from other Units and get to know the institution better”, he declared.

João Paulo Sales, student representative of the Institute and PhD student in Biodiversity and Health, congratulated the editors of the magazine 'Memórias' for its 110 years and reiterated the commitment of student representation to new and old students.

“We are available to follow the trajectory of all of you,” he said.

From print to global access

The editor-in-chief of the magazine 'Memórias' began the special session of the Study Center by presenting the trajectory of the periodical over the past 110 years.

“We have moved away from the printed version and are now accessible through a mobile app. And that’s not all. Over the past century, we have undergone continuous political transformations that have led us to move from being a merely institutional publication to becoming an international publication,” commented Adeilton, drawing attention to the 1980s, the post-military dictatorship period, when the magazine began to take its first steps towards globalization.

“It would be impossible to talk about the trajectory of 'Memórias' without mentioning Professor José Rodrigues Coura, who dedicated himself to revitalizing the journal and consolidating it as a reference in the field of parasitology,” he highlighted, also highlighting some important achievements of the editors who took over the journal after Coura.

“Researcher Ricardo Lourenço [head of the Laboratory of Hematozoan-Transmitting Mosquitoes] modernized the journal and took care to combat plagiarism in the publication of articles. Under the management of researcher Claude Pirmez [now retired], we can mention the focus on the issue of open access,” he said, in a tone of gratitude.

Regarding the immediate availability of content, open sharing of data and open peer review, the editor highlighted that such aspects accelerate the advancement of knowledge, facilitate the reproduction of scientific works, improve the quality of scientific publication and expand the concept of open science.

“The issue of ownership of knowledge and data still looms. The challenge in this scenario is precisely to change the concept of individual ownership of information to the responsible use of a public asset. But to do so, we will need to change the national scientific culture,” he commented, especially regarding data published on pre-print platforms, a trend that has been gaining more and more ground in scientific publishing.

Regarding the points raised by Adeilton, Abel Packer highlighted how good practices aimed at open access to the journal 'Memórias' align with the interests of the SCIELO Program.

“Open science becomes the driver of the operation and improvement of quality journals with a focus on professionalization, internationalization and operational and financial sustainability, such as 'Memórias'. Knowledge is individual. Learning, on the other hand, is social. And it is precisely this path that open science and, consequently, SCIELO follow,” he said.

“Scientific production has begun to be influenced/mediated by the digital environment. Today, interactivity is gradually entering the article and this will probably be the next revolution. Therefore, there are those who advocate that the important thing in this new context is to publish research data well,” he warned.

Finally, Packer spoke about disintermediation in the scientific communication process – as is the case with pre-print – and emphasized that the model will soon be the formal beginning of research communication.

“Journals will act as validators. The role of editors, whether editors-in-chief or associate editors, is essential for the good performance of journals. Therefore, I do not believe that this role will disappear. I just think that they will be more responsible for managing scientific communication in this global and interactive universe,” he concluded.