Study on the use of continuous publication in SciELO Brazil collection

By Édna Timm and Samile Andréa de Souza Vanz

Image: CHUTTERSNAP.

Continuous publication emerged in Europe and its main characteristic is the promptness of articles publication, which are made available individually and definitively as soon as the editorial process is completed. This publication mode speeds up the science communication process and is an alternative for journals that face difficulties in keeping their periodicity timely.

The research was carried out by Edna Timm in her undergraduate Librarianship course thesis, presented in May 2021 at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. The research was guided by Professor Dr. Samile Andréa de Souza Vanz, and was justified by the scarcity of previous studies on the subject. Data collection was carried out from July 2020 to January 2021, where 296 journals from different areas indexed in SciELO Brazil were analyzed. It was possible to conclude that continuous publication has grown significantly since its inception and that there is a strong influence of SciELO on national journals.

The results of this qualitative-quantitative research showed that 52.02% of the journals indexed in SciELO Brazil use continuous publication, and 77.92% of these journals started to use this format after SciELO’s recommendations of continuous publication as the preferred publication mode. The area of Biological Sciences is the one with the greatest adherence to this practice, totaling 86.67%, while Health Sciences is the one with the largest number of journals in continuous publication, with 48 journals. It was possible to conclude that 64.94% of the journals in continuous publication use the format with just one annual volume.

Source: Prepared by the author (2021).

Graph 1. Comparison between Continuous and Traditional Publication by area of knowledge in the SciELO Brazil collection.

The Covid-19 pandemic reiterates how continuous publication can be a facilitator for areas that require greater publication celerity. The areas with the greatest adhesion and the greatest number of journals in continuous publication, respectively, Biological Sciences and Health Sciences, are key to fight and control of the pandemic, therefore continuous publication is an option to make research results be disseminated promptly.

Highlighting SciELO’s importance for the development of continuous publication in Brazil, the authors believe that it is important to expand this study to journal collections of other countries that make up the SciELO Network, as well as the use of this publication mode by journals indexed in other internationally relevant databases.

References

PACKER, A., et al. Speeding up research communication: the actions of SciELO [online]. SciELO in Perspective, 2016 [viewed 30 September 2021]. Available from: https://blog.scielo.org/en/2016/03/10/speeding-up-research-communication-the-actions-of-scielo/

RODRIGUES, C.M. and SANTOS, G.C. A importância e o impacto da Publicação Contínua (PC) nos periódicos eletrônicos [online]. Blog PPEC, 2019 [viewed 30 September 2021]. Available from: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/blog/index.php/2019/01/15/pc/

SOUSA, J.B.M. COVID-19 e os desafio da publicação contínua. RAC: Revista Angolana de Ciências [online]. 2020, vol. 2, no. 2, e-020200 [viewed 30 September 2021]. Available from: http://publicacoes.scientia.co.ao/ojs2/index.php/rac/article/view/99

VANZ, S.A.S. and SILVEIRA, L. Publicação continuada: algumas reflexões. Em Questão [online]. 2020, vol. 26, no.1, pp. 12-16 [viewed 30 September 2021]. https://doi.org/10.19132/1808-5245261.12-16. Available from: https://seer.ufrgs.br/EmQuestao/article/view/98781

About Édna Timm

Edna Timm is a graduate student of the last semester of the Librarianship course at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Scientific Initiation Scholar since 2019, responsible for the electronic editing of the journal Intexto, a publication linked to the Graduate Program in Communication at UFRGS.

About Samile Andréa de Souza Vanz

Samile Andréa de Souza Vanz is an associate professor at the Department of Information Science, at the Graduate Program in Communication (PPGCOM UFRGS) and at the Graduate Program in Information Science at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (PPGCIN UFRGS). Bachelor’s in Library Sciences from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (1999), holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Communication and Information from PPGCOM UFRGS (2004 – 2009), with a sandwich internship at Dalian University of Technology (China, 2007-2008). Post-doctorate at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (Spain, 2016). Editor-in-Chief of the journal Em Questão (2014- ). CNPq Productivity Scholarship – PQ 2 CNPq. She develops research in the field of Scholarly Communication, with an emphasis on the production of scientific indicators, bibliometrics, scientific collaboration, citation analysis, co-citation analysis and university rankings. She has academic and professional experience in the field of Library Planning, Management and Architecture.

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