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Brazilian nursing journals: great achievements, new challenges
Piotr Trzesniak
1It w as 1998 and I held a (less import ant ) posit ion on t he Board of t he Brazilian Associat ion of Scient ific Editors (ABEC – abbreviat ion in Port uguese). We w ere cont acted by ABEn about giving a mini-course during t he Nat ional M eet ing in Salvador. Despite all t he tourist at t ract ions, all t he more-important members w ere unable to at t end; so t here I w ent . It w as my first advent ure in nursing, t hough I had already vent ured into library and informat ion sciences, w hich gave me some, but not much, confidence.
There w as, of course, some homew ork to do before I could go. Fort unately, t he cit y w here I w orked, Itajubá, in t he st ate of M inas Gerais, is home to Wenceslau Brás School of Nursing and it s library. I w ent t here to check w hat Brazilian nursing journals
w ere available, and found about 15 t it les – all in print. At t ent ion all of you under 30 years of age: unt il not so long ago – let ’s say
half a generat ion – t here were no elect ronic journals!
In Sept ember 2009, t here w ere five only in SciELO (one of w hich is also in RedALyC), in addit ion t o anot her five (different ) journals using t he SEER/ OJS plat form (w it hout ment ioning some of general healt h journals, w hich include nursing). What riches, w hat happiness. You see, I obt ained t his informat ion in 10 minutes, in a single session to prepare t his text . Hence,
undoubt edly, t he first and greatest achievement of Science (in terms of infrastructure, if w e can refer to it as such) w as
elec-t ronic disseminaelec-t ion. Nursing (as an area) and elec-t his REEUSP of us all has remained complet ely in t une during t his t ransit ion.
Anot her relevant change concerns indexing. I did not check t his informat ion in 1998. It w ould be possible for me t o find it t oday, but w hat good w ould it serve? It is almost cert ain t hat t here w ere a few in t he LILACS index, but not much more t han t hat . Today, t here is a much more t hriving panorama, st art ing w it h t he dat abases t hemselves, w hich are much broader in
t erms of t it les, much friendlier in terms of queries, and much, much quicker in providing answ ers.
Also, w it hin t his aspect , over t he last few years, REEUSP has done great w ork w it h SciELO, ISI/ Thomson Reuters, and Scopus. Names t hat imply respect from t he communit y, prest ige for t he journal, and sat isfact ion for t he editorial team from t he
feeling of doing a good job.
I believe I have said enough about accomplishment s, but challenges are w hat really mat t er. I t hink I had t he greatest challenge on one of my 1998 t ransparencies. At t hat t ime, slides w ere handw rit t en on a t ransparent plast ic film using a special lit t le pen.
This is w hat I w rote: I went to t he library and found several journals. I t hought of improvements t hat could be made to
some of them, but I had one doubt: what knowledge pertains to nursing alone? What part is not borrow ed from other areas? I do not know, but I am sure that you do.
Yes, I am sure t hat you editors w ho w ere t here in 1998 knew. But do all t he ot her nurses and t hose few everyone know ?
Nursing is an area in w hich pract ice is much more developed and act ive t han it s scient ific aspect , and it s professionals are often t oo busy to t hink academically. Nevert heless, it should be done for at least t w o reasons: (i) from t he perspect ive of t he evalu-at ion by CAPES (Coordinevalu-at ion for t he Improvement of Higher Educevalu-at ion Personnel, abbrevievalu-at ion in Port uguese), all areas are
predominant ly scient ific; and (ii) despite one not being an academic, one should have t he view of a scient ist (I w ill explain later)
t o be able to produce good art icles.
Oops, I ended up ment ioning t he second great challenge (good art icles) before I concluded t he first (t he part icular science
of nursing). It w ould be bet t er to address one at a t ime.
Nursing science: if I ent ered t he ABEn Congress t roubled about t his issue, it did not t ake long for me t o calm dow n. I found
t hat care is t he nursing science, and t his relieved me. Informat ion can come from Psychology, Physics, Biochemist ry, or
Econom-ics: nursing w ill add t he care dimension t o it and t ransform it int o it s ow n know ledge.
A lit t le should be explained about how a physicist t hinks: t his ... et hnic group becomes sat isfied w it h a plausible hypot hesis
and st icks to it unt il it is revealed inadequat e. They do not really care if it is correct or not . Therefore, if a certain idea of care is correct , great . But , if it is not correct , it is great too: in t he next edit orial, a nurse, w ho, different from me, really underst ands about t he subject , can w rite an editorial correct ing me…
(but please do not hit me t oo hard, first see t he last paragraph).
Good art icles result from t he combinat ion of new know ledge and many individuals involved in t he edit orial process
comply-ing w it h t heir respect ive roles. M any years ago, I defined t hat process as becomply-ing a cordial complicit y among aut hors, reviewers
and editors t owards t he excellence of knowledge. That concept pleases me unt il t oday, and I w ill now t ry to make it clearer.
1. Knowledge: a scient ific art icle should represent advancement in knowledge, based on an original st udy. As a very brief
explanat ion, knowledge is w hat makes us able to cont rol t he universe (nat ural and human) to benefit humanit y (survival,
pleasure, qualit y of life, leisure). Before t he st udy, knowledge does not exist; after complet ing t he st udy, knowledge is revealed,
but st ill does not exist ! Only aft er being published on a journal w it h visibilit y, does knowledge come into existence!
EDIT
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2. The role of t heedit or: t he edit or ’s major responsibilit y is to make the best and most updated knowledge available for humanit y. Best knowledge does not refer to t hat having only t w o posit ive review s, rat her, it refers t o t hat w hich (i) is w ell const ructed and just ified, and (ii) is relevant (i.e., it w ill have direct result s for t he good of humanit y), or (iii) it w ill provide
support for ot her st udies t hat w ill result in direct benefit s for humanit y (has a potential forserving as reference).
The edit or should be posit ive about t he qualit y of what is being published!
3. The role of t he aut hor: first , research, research, and research, becoming pregnant w it h new know ledge. When gest at ion is complet e (don’t w orry, you’ll know w hen t he t ime is right ), t hen w rite!
Do not submit t he art icle w ishing, expect ing, demanding it to be published, but keep a spirit of knowledge const ruct ion.
The journals’ editorial process is part of t hat const ruct ion; t he final version of a manuscript is not complet e know ledge. One should certainly w ant , expect , and demand good review s, and be ready to rew rite t he paper t aking int o considerat ion t he const ruct ive suggest ions (it is t he edit or ’s dut y to ensure t hat review s are good and const ruct ive).
Authors should be positive about the quality of what they are submitting! Never make random submissions, t hinking what comes is gain; never delegate to superiors, t ransferring aut hor responsibilit ies, especially t rivial correct ions, to review ers and
editors. Such opportunist actions make authors a duly target of harsh responses from the editor and/ or reviewers.
4. The role of t he reviewer: remember t hat every reviewer has a day as an author. Do you expect good and const ruct ive
review s, on t ime? Then provide good and const ruct ive review s, on t ime!
Your rew ard, your great est ret urn for t he good review s you provide w ill be t he review s you receive.
5. M ore for t he editor: The edit or should t ake care t hat (i) review ers only receive promising manuscript s, and (ii) aut hors alw ays receive good and const ruct ive review s.
I promised somet hing special for t he final paragraph, and it is a very personal message to t he nursing communit y. It w as indeed very easy to find copies of my 1998 t ransparencies among t he many papers I have collected over 40 years (I st arted really young! ) of academic life, despite having moved t hree t imes (and t hey say t hat t w o is already enough to compare t o a fire! ). The reason for t his is not my being a very organized person. It is t hat I keep a t rue love affair w it h nursing and, if it did not become evident in t he previous paragraphs, I w ant to make it very clear here.
