Tropical Medicine/Infectious and Parasitic Diseases journals align with open science editorial practices

By Adeilton Alves Brandão, Benedito Barraviera, and Dalmo Correia

Pressed by the need to facilitate access to published articles and broadly disseminate scientific advances to all stakeholders, the international scientific community has promoted, since the last decade of the 20^th century, several initiatives that resulted in changes in the way scientific journals publish articles, as well as the structure and organization of the scientific editorial environment. These initiatives also spelled out the urgency of implementing practices that result in more transparent editorial processes, with a direct impact on the so-called quality “certification” of scientific manuscripts through peer review.

These initiatives have been identified as the Open Science movement whose scope, which already included researchers and visionaries from the publishing midst – such as open access publishing pioneers who created online journals with publication charges rather than library subscription fees – over the last 20 years, has also included science funding agencies themselves.

In this context, funding agencies are now demanding more transparency from everyone who receives their resources – open access to published articles, wide dissemination and data sharing – besides accountability, integrity and alignment with best scientific practices. This movement, which originated in the US-UK axis and is practically consolidated in the main scientific knowledge generating countries, has recently started to be assimilated by research institutions and funding agencies in Brazil.

Faced with this scenario of changes and challenges for everyone involved in scientific research results dissemination, the SciELO Program, an Open Access pioneer in Brazil, could not exempt itself from its responsibilities as organizer, supporter and promoter of a network of scientific journals from 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and South Africa. Therefore, SciELO has defined in its priority lines of action¹, approved at the celebration of its 20 years of operation, the adoption of best practices of open science for years to come, encouraging and promoting the alignment of its journals with this movement to provide more transparency, increase sharing and open access to the research results they publish.

As a first step, some initial measures have been established to be implemented by the journals, namely:

• to make it explicit in the editorial policy and instructions to authors the adherence to open science practices in general;
• the acceptance of manuscripts previously deposited on preprint servers;
• the progressive opening of the peer review process;
• the opening and sharing of data as part of the article submission process;
• the creation of post-print mechanisms in the articles published by the journals.

These first steps should compose an alignment plan for the journals with the Open Science movement that should achieve the following objectives:

1. increased transparency in the communication processes;
2. data preservation, replicability and reusability;
3. acceleration of communication of the research results;
4. providing authors with greater control over the communication of research results.

SciELO has begun the implementation of a series of pilot projects to study implementation, starting with three of the most important journals in the areas of Tropical Medicine/Infectious and Parasitic Diseases:

• Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases;
• Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz;
• Journal of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine.

The editors-in-chief of these journals committed themselves to analyze and implement the suggested measures, according to a schedule of actions that should respect the interests of each journal’s target audience, and especially their operational/editorial/budgetary characteristics.

The pilot project for implementing open science practices in SciELO journals will also be supported by the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (Associação Brasileira de Editores Científicos, ABEC).

Note

1. SciELO – Priority lines of action 2019-2023 [online]. SciELO 20 Years. 2018 [viewed 23 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.scielo20.org/redescielo/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/Líneas-prioritaris-de-acción-2019-2023_en.pdf

Reference

SciELO – Priority lines of action 2019-2023 [online]. SciELO 20 Years. 2018 [viewed 23 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.scielo20.org/redescielo/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/Líneas-prioritaris-de-acción-2019-2023_en.pdf

About Adeilton Alves Brandão

Adeilton Brandão has a doctorate in Biological Sciences from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and an executive education certificate from Sauder School of Business, British Columbia University – Vancouver. His research focuses on the untranslated segments of mRNA from protozoa parasites. He is researcher at the Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Medical Research, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, and Editor-in-Chief of Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, a journal of microbes and their vectors causing human infections.

About Benedito Barraviera

Under graduated in Medicine from Unesp, specialized in Tropical Medicine by FMUSP, Master and Doctor in Internal Medicine by Unesp. Associate and Full Professor of Infectious Diseases at Unesp. He is a Researcher at The Center for the Study of Venoms and Venomous Animals (Cevap) at Unesp, Editor-in-chief of The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (http://www.jvat.org) and Full Professor of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at Unesp. He has experience in Toxinology, Tropical Medicine, Clinical Research and Scientific Publishing. Founder and former Director of Cevap, former Pro-Dean of University Extension and President of ABEC. From 2005 he became coordinator of the Research Group on Toxinology certified by Unesp and CNPq, as well as President of the Lucentis Foundation for Culture, Education, Research and Extension. From 2014 approved and became deputy coordinator of the National Institute of Science and Technology of Wildlife Science Center (WSC), CNPq 465429/2014-9. Currently coordinates two phase I/II clinical trials. In 2019, he was appointed as a Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. ORCID: <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9855-5594>

About Dalmo Correia

He is currently full professor of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM). He is a professor and supervisor at the stricto sensu postgraduate course in Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UFTM, since year 2000. He has experience in Internal Medicine, with emphasis on Infectious Diseases (HIV/AIDS and Hospital Infection) and Tropical Medicine, with emphasis on the following diseases: Chagas disease; T. cruzi /HIV co-infection; Analysis of Heart Rate Variability in Chagas disease; and Epidemiology, Clinics, Immunopathogenesis, and Treatment of Chagas and Leishmaniosis diseases. His experience in scientific journal publishing includes a position as Associate Editor of the Journal of the Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (2000 -2011) and as Editor-in-Chief since August 2012

Translated from the original in Portuguese by Lilian Nassi-Calò.