Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional (Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health): heading to its 50^th anniversary

The Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional (RBSO - Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health) was created in 1973. Launched by Fundação Jorge Duprat Figueiredo de Segurança e Medicina do Trabalho (Fundacentro) as a step toward achieving its goals, it came to fill the gap, in “Occupational Health in Brazil”, of a means to disseminate information on several topics related to the prevention of occupational accidents¹.

Since then, it has evolved, consolidating itself as a scientific journal intended “to disseminate original research articles on Occupational Safety and Health.” It has published more than 1,500 articles which contributed both to knowledge of working conditions and to the prevention of work-related accidents and diseases. For half a century, the research reports and essays published by RBSO provided elements for academic and social debates to stimulate the formulation of public policies related to the content problematized in different forums².

We can examine the history of RBSO considering at least three different periods: (i) until the 1980s, the official media of Fundacentro focused on disseminating knowledge related to accident prevention; (ii) between 1980 and the beginning of this century, it expanded its scope to encompass the relations between work and health, publishing results of qualitative and quantitative studies and of research which uses methodological approaches specific to certain disciplinary fields, such as occupational medicine, occupational hygiene, occupational epidemiology, ergonomics, and work psychology; and (iii) in the last 20 years, together with the Brazilian digital journal library, achieved greater visibility and kept its scope open to the different disciplinary fields constituting “workers’ health.” In recent years, the effort undertaken to build its editorial policy has consolidated its editorial independence².

In 2023, RBSO will complete 50 years of existence. To celebrate its trajectory in this important historical milestone, its editorial team and executive secretary are acting on several fronts, which will be listed below.

During the online event held by Fundacentro in April 2022, on the World Day for Safety and Health at Work and the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, the stamp commemorating 50 years of RBSO was released (Figure 1). With the motto “Broadening horizons, disseminating knowledge,” this event has been registered and is accessible to interested parties (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS569tOcleo).

Figure 1
Stamp commemorating 50 years of RBSO.

The closure event of the thematic dossier “The COVID-19 pandemic and Workers’ Health” was coordinated by Eduardo Algranti (Editor-in-Chief of RBSO), and attended by researchers, RBSO editors, and the general public (available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oahMpWFJ5I8). It aimed to reflect on the results published in the dossier and highlight the challenges workers have faced during the pandemic and the consequences of these experiences to their health.

During 2022, two thematic dossiers raised reflections on the advances and challenges of the RBSO. The first one, with the theme “Contributions of epidemiology to the study of the relation between work and health,” had its call for papers launched in a special session held during the 11^th Brazilian Congress of Epidemiology, in November 2021. The second dossier, entitled “Mental Health and Subjectivity: work and domination in contemporaneity,” convened, together with the first one, dozens of authors from different affiliations and research traditions.

It is worth noting that the publication of thematic dossiers has been adopted as a strategy to encourage the submission of articles on emerging and current themes, disseminate innovative research results, and emphasize scientific production in postgraduate studies. These dossiers have guest editors both on and outside the RBSO Editorial Board. This format indicates coherence, impartiality, and appreciation of the quality of the scientific production. The strategy has proven itself successful. As can be seen on Google Scholar Metrics (2022), the articles published in the thematic dossier “The COVID-19 pandemic and Occupational Health” are among the most cited by RBSO.

In 2022, RBSO ranked 45^th on Google Scholar Metrics among journals published in Portuguese, according to its h-index. We are celebrating the upward trajectory of the journal, which ranked 76^th and 65^th in 2020 and 2021, respectively⁴.

Operational investments were also part of our commemorative activities, such as the development of the RBSO_app for smartphones (available for download on Android and iOS systems). This tool makes it easy to disseminate general information about the functioning of the journal and its other features, search for articles, access abstracts and full texts, save favorite studies, and share them on social media.

In the first decades of the 21^st century, the researchers who chose RBSO to submit their manuscripts drew attention to the changes in the nature of their work and its consequences on workers’ health^3),(5. It is evident how impotent unions are to react to the fast pace of production, and the meager investments to improve working environments, contribute to degrade working conditions⁶. Stress, fatigue, diseases, accidents, injuries, and deaths are present in society in general but these problems are generated or exacerbated within work environments⁷. Currently, hundreds of workers migrate to services organized on digital platforms. Given this situation, is it reasonable to maintain the classic separation of the studied events into “at work” and “outside work?” Occupational structures, i.e., which jobs will be available to workers in the next 50 years, increasingly depend on the neoliberal scenario and its policies of labor deregulation. The latest health emergency crisis brought to the scene, on the one hand, the disadvantages linked to the type of insertion people experience in the labor market as parts of the workforce experienced the “dilemma of contagion or hunger”⁸. The crisis, on the other hand, enabled us to see work as the structuring axis of civilized society⁹.

For the near future, the aforementioned aspects motivate researchers to elaborate a conceptual, methodological, and programmatic agenda for innovation¹⁰. Articulated to this process, one RBSO front will revise its instructions to authors in line with current policies of data sharing. Another front will face the challenge of responding to contemporary demands for diversity, equity, and inclusion promotion in research to strengthen these principles in scientific publications. Furthermore, RBSO is preparing itself to be indexed in international bibliographic databases.

Despite the current uncertainties, growing demands, and operational difficulties, this editorial board is imbued with the purpose of strengthening the journal. As part of the RBSO community, readers who are increasingly critical and desirous of knowledge, authors who submitted manuscripts and published articles, reviewers who kindly accept another task in their already overloaded daily lives are all invited to this journey. It will be a nice gift for RBSO to celebrate its 50th anniversary!

Referências

• ¹
  Wünsch Filho V. A RBSO em perspectiva. Rev Bras Saude Ocup. 2011;36(123):6-7.
• ²
  Jackson, JM, Algranti E, Saito CA, Garcia EG. Da segurança e medicina do trabalho à Saúde do Trabalhador: história e desafios da Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional. Cienc saude coletiva. 2015;20(7):2041-51.
• ³
  Google Scholar. Top publications [Internet]. São Paulo: Google; [date unknown] [citado em 24 out 2022]. Disponível em: https://scholar.google.com.br/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en&vq=pt
  » https://scholar.google.com.br/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en&vq=pt
• ⁴
  Lacaz, FAC. Continuam a adoecer e morrer os trabalhadores: as relações, entraves e desafios para o campo Saúde do Trabalhador. Rev Bras Saude Ocup. 2016;41:e13.
• ⁵
  Kalleberg AL. Precarious work, insecure workers: employment relations in transition. Am Sociol Rev. 2018;74(1),1-22.
• ⁶
  Schulte PA, Pana-Cryan R, Schnorr T, Schill AL, Guerin R, Felknor S, et al. An approach to assess the burden of work-related injury, disease, and distress. Am J Public Health. 2017;107(7):1051-7.
• ⁷
  Antunes, R. Coronavírus: o trabalho sob fogo cruzado. São Paulo: Boitempo, 2020.
• ⁸
  Delgado GN, Rocha ALG. Um retrato do mundo do trabalho na pandemia em cinco paradoxos. Direito UnB. 2020,4(2):16-34.
• ⁹
  Peckham TK, Baker MG, Camp JE, Kaufman JD, Seixas NS. Creating a future for occupational health. Ann Work Exposures Health, 2017;61(1), 3-15.
• ¹⁰
  Scientific Electronic Library Online. Critérios, política e procedimentos para a admissão e a permanência de periódicos na Coleção SciELO Brasil. São Paulo; 2022 [citado em 24 out 2022]. Disponível em: https://www.scielo.br/media/files/20220900-criterios-scielo-brasil.pdf
  » https://www.scielo.br/media/files/20220900-criterios-scielo-brasil.pdf

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  02 Dec 2022
• Date of issue
  2022