New Steps on the Way to Open Science

Discursive communication is a constant theme in Bakhtin's work, being it the dialogue among subjects, discourses, texts, in distinct spaces and various times. Living in a time of great social transformations - World War I (World War II, only Bakhtin), the fall of Tsarism, the Revolution of 1917, the creation of the Soviet Union, change of leaders and conceptions of government and types of Marxism, to name just the major events – the members of the Circle were aware of the dynamism of human communication, both in everyday communication and in differing ideological and, specifically, scientific spheres. Among other examples, this is expressed in the way in which Bakhtin deals with aspects of the notion of discourse genres. He says: “A genre is always the same and yet not the same, always old and new simultaneously. (...) Precisely for this reason genre is capable of guaranteeing the unity and uninterrupted continuity of this development” (1984, p.106).²

The unity and uninterrupted continuity are also aspects of scientific publications; they must be dynamic, as well as their form of expression. Not long ago, we witnessed the transformation of print journals into online publications, now encompassing about all contemporary scientific publishing. Change in support, which reverberates other changes in society. Although some journals continue to publish printed issues, the presence on the web has become essential for the popularization of knowledge.

Bakhtiniana was born online. Exactly one year ago, the journal adopted open science procedures. In the Editorial of number 17.1 (pp.2-15, 2022), the journal presented the first changes in the editorial process that it started to adopt. Among those changes, we highlight the Open Science Compliance Form, which has been required from each author, informing if the work is a preprint and if it has been deposited on a preprint server; whether survey data are available and where they are; whether the authors agree to interact with the reviewers, and whether they agree to see their article’s reviews published. On the other hand, when issuing reviews, the referees also answer if they want to interact with the authors, and if they agree to have their reviews published. During this year, therefore, the journal has published numerous identified reviews, and we have been able to observe how this practice has enriched the dialogue among researchers, among which we find the readers of the articles themselves.

The time has now come to take another step towards open science. As urged by Scielo, Bakhtiniana starts to publish ahead of print approved articles. In this way, there is an acceleration in the communication process of research, soon available for reading and citation. The table below clearly illustrates the editorial flow of the articles submitted to the journal:

As shown in Figure 1, articles will be published as they are approved and edited. The citation of these articles in ahead of print (AOP), however, has a characteristic of its own. The articles, which will later constitute a full volume of the journal, when published separately, will not come with its definitive pagination. This pagination will only appear in the definite and complete final volume publication. The bibliographic reference of the articles in ahead of print (AOP) does not come with volume, issue number, paging, or publishing date. Only the year of publication is mentioned.

Table 1
Publishing flow AOP.

Bakhtiniana will continue adopting its classic publication basis: with volume and issue numbers published every quarter. That is, four issues yearly, respecting the sections for each submission. This publication in ahead of print will allow researchers in general to anticipate a productive academic dialogue as each article responds to a given problem for “any response gives rise to a new question” (Bakhtin, 1986, p.168).⁴ This issue which incorporates the ahead of print articles shows the reader the way an academic journal, as discursive genres are, “lives in the present, but always remembers its past, its beginning” is “always the same and yet not the same, always old and new simultaneously” (Bakhtin, 1984, p.106).⁵

Let's introduce the articles. In this issue (18.1), three texts reach us through Sandra Madureira (PUC-SP) and Anna Smirnova (PUC-SP), who dedicated themselves to bringing together a group of researchers who work with the Russian language in diverse interfaces. Two of them were the first articles that Bakhtiniana published ahead of print. The first is signed by Olesya Kisselev (University of Texas, USA), and is entitled “Russian Learner Corpora Research: State of the Art and Call for Action.” This important research responds to the need to understand the dynamics of learning Russian as a second and heritage language, using corpus linguistics instruments. The following article - “Discourse Diversity Database (3D) for Clinical Linguistics Research: Design, Development, and Analysis” - is a work aimed at research in clinical linguistics and is signed by Mariya Khudyakova; Natalia Antonova and other researchers from important Russian universities (in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod among others), combining studies in linguistics with those in the health field. The paper presents the Discourse Diversity Database (3D) resource for the study of Russian speakers with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and neurologically and mentally healthy individuals.

“Social and Speech Portraiting as a Method for Studying the Russian Heritage Speakers: Elderly Russian Emigrants in Harbin and their Descendants” is a third contribution to the journal through PUC-SP researchers Sandra Madureira and Anna Smirnova. The author, Elena A. Oglezneva (Tomsk State University, Russia) deals with an issue arising from the Russian diaspora in China, at the end of the 19th century, in the city of Harbin. She describes the speakers of Russian heritage in that city in Northeast China, capital of Heilongjiang Province, making use of the method of social and speaking portraying of heritage speakers' identities. According to her, a method that can be applied to the language of emigrants in distinct countries, revealing unique and universal processes of those speeches.

The next article “The Heterodiscursivity in Fantastic Narratives of the Oral Tradition,” by Nádia Barros Araújo (UNICAP), points out the different social voices found in narratives of the oral tradition, reflecting and refracting beliefs, social differences, machismo, and moral issues. The analysis of the narratives is based on Bakhtinian concepts, allowing the author to recognize dialogues between the voices of the narrator, the traditional storytellers, and the characters with the social voices, guided by axiologies, positions and evaluative centers of a social, cultural, and historical order.

Next, Deribaldo Santos (UECE) signs “Jackson do Pandeiro: Notes on the Daily Life in the Works of the King of Rhythm.” In the text, the author presents reflections about the musician from Paraíba, selecting parts of some of his songs to demonstrate the importance of everyday life in the singer’s work. The text grows in importance in the Brazilian musical and cultural scene as the author was able to explore the poetic potential of the artist’s work hightlighting relevant aspects of his aesthetic expression. Ana Lúcia Macedo Novroth (UPM), in “From Polarization to Oblivion: A Brief Study of the Chronotopes of Incidente em Antares [Incident in Antares] By Erico Verissimo,” seeks to verify some of the chronotopes that organize the narrative in Verissimo’s novel. The author's focus is especially on the issues of polarization and forgetting. The analysis also intends to understand possible similarities between worldviews from 50 years ago and the contemporaneity, in particular with regard to chronotopes of oblivion and deceit related to fake news today.

The issue closes with the review of another translation of the Bakhtinian work. This time, it is the book “Problems of Dostoevsky's Creative Art,” translated by Sheila Grillo and Ekaterina Vólkova Américo, published this year by Editora 34. The work was originally published in 1929 and later rewritten and expanded by Mikhail Bakhtin for publication in 1963, entitled “Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics.” Until now, we only knew about it through its Italian translation. Paulo Rogério Stella (UFAL) signs the review, presenting us with a critical, detailed, and attentive reading of the new text, and leading us to observe it with the eyes of the researcher and specialist he is.

As readers can see, Bakhtiniana continues to advance along the path of open science, now with the publication of articles ahead of print. The commitment to scientific rigor, sharing and transparency in research, editorial procedures and popularization continues, with the potential for greater interaction among researchers. Therefore, we invite everyone – readers, authors and collaborators – to actively respond to these texts, savoring and including this set in their research. As readers can see, this is an issue that brings together four Brazilian researchers from various Brazilian universities (UECE - CE, UNICAP – PE, UPM - SP, UFAL - AL), and 15 researchers from foreign universities (University of Texas, USA; HSE University - National Research University Higher School of Economics, in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; and the University of Potsdam, in Germany, as well as Russian medical centers of study).

We are once again greatly indebted to the valuable and constant support, help and recognition from CNPq, by means of Chamada CNPq Nº 15/2021 – Programa Editorial, Proc. 402109/2021-0 [Call CNPq 15/2021 – Editorial Program, Process 402109/2021-0], and from PUC-SP by means of Plano de Incentivo à Pesquisa (PIPEq)/ Edital 11913/2022 Publicação de Periódicos (PubPer-PUCSP), Solicitação 22883 [Incentive Research Plan (PIPEq)/ Publication Notice 11913/2022 Academic Journal Publication (PubPer-PUCSP), Request 22883].

• 1
  BAKHTIN, M. Toward a Methodology for Humans Sciences. In: Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Translated by Vern W. McGee. Edited by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986, p.168.
• 2
  BAKHTIN, M. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. 8th printing. Translated by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
• 3
  EDITORIAL FLOW: Editorial Process: Submitted article; Peer review; Article approved (if accepted); Production Process: Article copyediting and typesetting; Attribution of DOI; Proof reading; Correction production; Ahead of Print: Article published online as AOP; Issue Composition: Choice of articles for the composition of issue; Definition of order of articles; Setting of volume, issue number and sequential paging; Adequacy of articles (XMLs and PDFs to inclusion in the vol., no., and pages); Definite Publishing: Publishing of the volume and definite issue number.
• 4
  For reference, see footnote 1.
• 5
  For reference, see footnote 2.
• FAPESP/Proc.n.2019/20703-2

REFERÊNCIAS

• BAKHTIN, M. Por uma metodologia das ciências humanas. In: BAKHTIN, M. Notas sobre literatura, cultura e ciências humanas Organização, tradução, posfácio e notas Paulo Bezerra. Notas da edição russa Serguei Botcharov. São Paulo: Editora 34, 2017. p.76.
• BAKHTIN, M. Problemas da poética de Dostoievski Tradução direta do russo, notas e prefácio Paulo Bezerra. 4. ed. revista e ampliada. Rio de Janeiro: Forense, 2008. p.125.
• SciELO. Guia para a publicação avançada de artigos Ahead of Print (AOP) no SciELO [online]. SciELO, 2019. Disponível em: https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/guia_AOP.pdf Acesso em 22/09/2022.
  » https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/guia_AOP.pdf
• SciELO. O repositório de dados SciELO em operação regular. Disponível em https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/08/24/o-repositorio-de-dados-scielo-data-em-operacao-regular/#.Y1AGbOzMLm1 Acesso em 19-09-2022.
  » https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/08/24/o-repositorio-de-dados-scielo-data-em-operacao-regular/#.Y1AGbOzMLm1

Data availability

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  12 Dec 2022
• Date of issue
  Jan-Mar 2023