EDITORIAL
A New Era of SBQ Publications
The discussion regarding the impact of Internet on the lives of human beings became a cliché at the end of the last century. Internet has transformed people's daily lives - their lifestyles, work, and interaction with the world. Scientific community embraced this revolution much before it became popular. The adoption of Internet and its tools by the scientific community was both intuitive and overwhelming, with no time for preambles or options. Our lives today cannot be compared with the times not so long ago when dissertations were printed in mimeographs, stand-by computers were the size of refrigerators, "Chemical Abstracts" weighed two kilos per volume, and publications, whether old or new, were consulted when available at the "journals" section of the library. The 21st century scientist generates a PDF copy of his thesis that is available via web on pocket-size cell phones, and its bibliographical research, which covers practically 100% of all articles ever published, is obtained within fractions of seconds from several publicly available databases, while the access to the original articles... well, we now have the "Periódicos CAPES" portal; what more could we ask for?
The editorial system - most likely out of compulsion - was the sector with the highest participation in this reform/revolution. Information from several different types of publications can now be directly accessed in real time using tablets or cell phones, from anywhere, subject to instant search tools that facilitate guided access. Traditional newspapers and magazines are now found on the web, with their printed versions ceasing to exist. Recently (09/27/2013), "Lloyd´s List", considered to be the world's oldest newspaper in circulation, announced that it will stop distributing their printed versions to the last mere 25 subscribers. The newspaper of 279 years of printed editions will continue its journey via online access. Other prominent publications, such as Newsweek, have also announced the end of their printed versions.
Scientific publishing did not fall behind. Online access is practically mandatory to any and all noteworthy publications, and providing open access is an important topic of debate today. In this regard, the "Sociedade Brasileira de Química" (Brazilian Chemical Society - SBQ) is a pioneer: its publications became open access as soon as the online versions were implemented. Not only that, but it also has a strict policy about maintaining open access, despite persistent attempts from prominent international publishers to take over the editorial operations of both Journal of Brazilian Chemical Society (JBCS) and "Química Nova" (QN).
For most of its existence, the printed version of QN was sent "free of charge" to all members who were in good standing with the annual SBQ fees, at a very high cost. This cost would be divided among SBQ's treasury department, and SBQ's funding agencies (namely, CNPq and FAPESP). With the rising popularity of its online version, interest in the printed version was clearly falling. In 2009, the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council decided to detach the cost of the subscription (a symbolic value) from the annual fee to cover the costs of the printed version. The value charged for the subscription would cover, with quite a bit of difficulty, the costs of mailing, while expenditure of printing would be covered by projects sponsored by the abovementioned funding agencies. In the first year, the number of subscribers, which were now optional, fell from 3400 to 2200, and printing decreased to 65% of the previous year's volume. In subsequent years, this number continued to decrease, indicating 1900 subscribers in 2010, 600 in 2012, and 330 subscribers at present.
As for JBCS, the story was not different. The number of subscribers fell from approximately 200 in 2009 to less than 80 in 2013. Another important fact is that the cost of printing 150 - 200 copies of the magazine is more than R$120 thousand per year, accounting for more than half of the total cost of the magazine's production, and is superior to the cost of maintaining the office and the employees of SBQ who work on JBCS.
In 2012, the editors of JBCS and QN were already convinced that the number of printed editions of both journals was destined to be greatly reduced. A detailed research was performed and submitted to the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council for analysis, with a proposal to immediately suspend any subsidies allocated toward the printed versions for subscribers, maintaining only the institutional subscription (libraries, institutes, and others). The proposal also included the substitution of large-scale printing (on offset printing machines) for printing on demand. In practice, this would bring prices of subscriptions to parallel the values presented by commercial publishers. We believe that the implementation of this policy will result in a drastic decrease in the number of subscriptions, maintaining the option to purchase for readers who prefer printed issues. In addition, this will also provide a significant reduction in expenditure, in line with the desires of the agencies that already predict that they will be unable to continue this level of funding for the growing Brazilian scientific publishing market. It is certain that these spared resources will be useful for other pressing needs within the publication and within SBQ itself.
At the meeting held in August 2013, the SBQ's Board of Directors and Advisory Council unanimously approved the implementation of this plan, to be put into action from January 2014. The quality of the layout and printing were ensured to be maintained, as was the printed version of ISBN. The subscribers who wish to do so will be able to purchase the printed version, based on annual subscriptions, but without the subsidies, which were partially covered by the members of SBQ.
In times of web 2.0, the changes in paradigms are aimed at generating a "collective intelligence," libertarian and democratic, of unrestricted access to all, processed in a "cloud" that no longer has a sense of hardware stricto sensu. In the editorials of JBCS and QN, the search for this "collective intelligence" will continue through the relentless pursuit of excellence and open and frank communication with the national chemistry community.
Editors of JBCS and Química Nova
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
19 Nov 2013 -
Date of issue
Nov 2013
