Editorial

The Brazilian Journal of Genetics was born 21 years ago (it was then called the Revista Brasileira de Genética), despite the pessimism and resistance of many who thought that we were not prepared to produce a scientific journal, much less would we ever be able to get it indexed.

It was Professor Pedro Henrique Saldanha's idea to create a new journal, which he announced during the second official reunion of the Brazilian Genetics Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Genética - SBG). Perhaps he was motivated by the enthusiasm generated by the creation of the SBG, a dream of all Brazilian Geneticists at that time, led by Brieger, Krug and others, with the presence and participation of many of the most important geneticists of the world, including R. A. Fischer, H. Kalmus, Gertud Cox, W. G. Cochran, and others. This idea became reality in 1978 when Professor Saldanha, as president of SBG, officially supported the creation of the new journal, in answer to the needs and interests of many of his colleagues in the society.

There was a collective decision by the majority of members that the new journal should be published in English, as a necessary step to make it international. Though there were initially some loud criticisms against this measure, time has shown that this was fundamental for recognition on a worldwide basis. Slowly, issue by issue, the journal was transformed from a hopeful attempt into a recognized and reliable purveyor of regional, and finally of international research. With the considerable and unrestricted help of many fellow scientists, as authors, referees and supporters, we have been able to publish this journal without interruption for more than 20 years.

Our journal is indexed by the principal international abstracting institutions, it has a high-level editorial board and has been an excellent forum for those who have published their articles in the Brazilian Journal of Genetics. Nevertheless, we have not been entirely satisfied with the status "awarded" our journal by Science Citation Index. Till 1995, our journal was called the "Revista Brasileira de Genética", with "Brazilian Journal of Genetics" in parentheses below the main title. It seemed that much of the international community had mistakenly assumed that our journal was written in a "foreign" language, though in reality all articles were printed in English (with Portuguese an English abstracts). So we "changed" the title, placing the English title first, and the Portuguese translation afterwards.

This initial attempt to gain more recognition for our journal did not appear to give the results we had hoped for. So, after listening to the suggestions and criticisms of many fellow editors of internationally renowned journals, we have now decided to rename our Genetics and Molecular Biology, reprogramming the objectives and editorial structure to adapt to this new title. We could no longer ignore the way in which genetics and molecular biology have become interrelated, working with the same techniques and towards the same goals. So why not include this "new" area of science, instead of letting this important part of what we know as genetics become detached as if it were somehow something "foreign". Genetics has changed tremendously during the last decade. New techniques and the knowledge that they have provided have made us realize that there is no distinct line that can separate genetics from evolution, or from the rest of biology, chemistry of medicine. All the many excellent scientists, who use these new tools and thus aproximate domains that were once unique to geneticists, should certainly feel welcome to publish in, and thus enrich our journal. This kind of integration will fortify our efforts to make this journal an effective partner in the drive to internationalize Brazilian and regional science.

This change in the title was also motivated by our perception that a country name in the title gave the impression that it was merely a national-level journal, when it certainly is not, as it has contributors, associate editors and referees from all over the world. This same strategy has been taken by a number of important international journals, which changed their names in order to avoid regional connotations.

As with any change, we expect that some colleagues will resist, as even we are reluctant to change a name that has served us well for 20 years, and has helped show the rest of the world the importance and strength of Brazilian science. However we are confident that a majority of our importance and strength of Brazilian sicence. However we are confident that a majority of our colleagues will understand that we take this initiative to help all of our contributors in their desire to make their papers well known and respected. We also welcome our new colleagues in the other areas of biology, including biochemistry and medicine, who we hope will join us to ensure that Genetics and Molecular Biology takes it rightful place in the international community.

I would welcome comments on the changes in the journal from both authors and readers.

Francisco A. Moura Duarte

Editor-in-Chief

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  06 Jan 1999
• Date of issue
  Mar 1998