Endogamy in scientific journals: analysis of authorship links in articles from journals in Santa Catarina

ABSTRACT

Introduction:  This research addresses authorial endogamy in journals affiliated with universities in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Objectives:  The general objective is to investigate authorial endogamy in scientific journals published by universities in Santa Catarina. The specific objectives are: a) to identify the average rate of authorial endogamy by publishing institution; b) to analyze endogamy rates by evaluation stratum; c) to relate endogamy rates to journal indexing; and d) to discuss endogamy rates concerning the areas of knowledge defined by CAPES.

Methodology:  The research is exploratory and descriptive, with a quantitative approach, utilizing bibliographic and documentary techniques. The study sample consists of 117 journal titles. The institutional affiliations of the authors of the following types of documents were analyzed: essays, review articles, research articles, and data articles published in these journals in 2023. The analyzed variables included: the number of articles, the number of articles with endogenous authorship, the journal’s year of creation, its CAPES Qualis ranking, and its presence in indexing databases such as SciELO, SCOPUS, WoS, and DOAJ.

Results:  The average endogamy rate in universities in Santa Catarina is 15%, but four institutions exceed this value: UNIARP (21.43%), UNIVILLE (22.73%), UNC (39.07%), and UNESC (54%). Regarding journal rankings, most titles fall within stratum A, totaling 62 journals (53%).

Conclusion:  Tolerance for endogamy is related to the field of knowledge and the profile of the journal, as well as the organizational culture of its editors and editorial team members, who establish the journal’s guidelines and define its evaluation criteria.

KEYWORDS:
Scientific journals - Santa Catarina; Endogamy; Indexing; Qualis - CAPES; Scientific communication

RESUMO

Introdução:  Nesta pesquisa, aborda-se a endogenia autoral nos periódicos vinculados às universidades catarinenses.

Objetivos:  O objetivo geral é investigar a endogenia autoral nos periódicos científicos publicados pelas universidades de Santa Catarina. Os específicos consistem em: a) identificar a taxa média de endogenia autoral por instituição editora; b) analisar as taxas de endogenia por estrato de avaliação; c) relacionar as taxas de endogenia com a indexação dos títulos d) discutir as taxas de endogamia em relação às áreas do conhecimento da CAPES.

Metodologia:  A pesquisa caracteriza-se como exploratória e descritiva, sua abordagem é quantitativa e foram utilizadas as técnicas bibliográficas e documentais. A amostra da pesquisa é formada por 117 títulos. Analisaram-se os vínculos institucionais dos autores dos seguintes documentos: ensaios, artigos de revisão, artigo de pesquisa e artigo de dados publicados nos títulos em 2023. As variáveis analisadas foram: número de artigos, número de artigos com autoria endógena, data de criação do periódico, conceito Qualis CAPES, presença nos indexadores SciELO, SCOPUS, WOS e DOAJ.

Resultados:  A taxa média de endogenia nas universidades catarinenses é de 15%, mas quatro instituições estão acima deste valor - UNIARP (21,43%,), UNIVILLE (22,73%,), UNC (39,07%) e UNESC (54%). Em relação aos títulos, o estrato A concentra mais títulos, 62 (53%), periódicos.

Conclusão:  a tolerância à endogenia está relacionada à área do conhecimento e com o perfil do título, com a cultura organizacional dos seus editores e demais membros da equipe, uma vez que são eles que estabelecem as diretrizes da revista e definem os critérios de avaliação.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
Periódicos científicos - Santa Catarina; Endogenia; Indexação; Quali - CAPES; Comunicação científica

1 INTRODUCTION

Endogamy - or endogeny - is a concept present in several areas of knowledge, considered a term with multiple meanings, related to phenomena of internal scientific production (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2022; Pinto et al., 2024).

In the scientific environment, endogamy is identified in different scenarios: academic endogamy, associated with the recruitment of graduates (Pelegrini; França, 2020), or editorial endogamy, which occurs when the members connected institutionally to a journal are authors of or cited by articles published by the same journal (Paz-Enrique; Hernández-Alfonso; Artigas-Morales, 2022; Rozemblum et al., 2015).

In scientific journals, it involves different actors in the editorial process, such as the presence of the board or editorial committee in the authorship of articles or in the references cited in the papers (Griscti, 2018; Paz-Enrique; Hernández-Alfonso; Artigas-Morales, 2022) - which includes self-citation, which may be of the author and of the journal (Pinto et al., 2024) -, and the presence of authors linked to the journal, whether institutional (Paz-Enrique; Hernández-Alfonso; Artigas-Morales, 2022; SciELO, 2014), regional (SciELO, 2014), or national (Strehl et al., 2016) connections. It works as a measure of collaboration between researchers and institutions (Montolio; Dominguez-Sal; Larriba-Pey, 2023). Therefore, editorial endogamy refers to the geographic proximity of the institutional links of the publication and may include different levels, such as institutional, regional, or national endogamy.

High rates of endogamy are highlighted among the factors that compromise the credibility of journals (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2022), as they may indicate the existence of conflicts of interest (Domínguez-Omonte, 2019; Fontenelle, 2023), which include the use of the journal as a self-publishing channel by the institution’s professors and students (Rodrigues et al., 2018), or by the editorial team’s members (Helgesson et al., 2022). The editorial quality of a journal, therefore, is often associated with low levels of endogamy (Cantó-Alcaraz, 2008) - or exogeny.

Thus, the determination of the endogamy rates began to be used as one of the requirements for evaluating scientific production (Pinto et al., 2024). The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) uses it as a criterion for qualifying scientific production in different evaluation areas, and the use of this criterion varies depending on the diversity between areas (Amoras, 2017; Köhler; Digiampietri, 2022; Rodrigues et al., 2018).

CAPES considers endogamy one of the parameters of the evaluation areas, stressing the adequacy or minimization of the risks of endogamy in the training of masters and doctors, based on the variety of professors and students originally not linked to the institution’s staff and the institutional diversity of evaluators and authors in the scientific production evaluation. CAPES Ordinance No. 145 (revoked by Ordinance No. 213, of December 15, 2021), in art. 9, second paragraph, considered the failure to comply with the minimum criteria of exogeny among authors a violation of good editorial practices (CAPES, 2021; SciELO, 2022).

With the diversity of national and institutional links also considered among the criteria for the internationalization of journals (Strehl et al., 2016), endogamy rates are now used as a criterion for rejecting the entry of titles into incubator collections and journal portals (Rodrigues et al., 2018) and as an indexing criterion in different databases (Rozemblum et al., 2015).

Endogamy is among the indexing criteria in the collections of the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), SCOPUS, Web of Science (WoS), Sistema Regional de Información en línea para Revistas científicas de America Latina, El Caribe, España y Portugal (latindex), and the Sistema de información Científica (redalyc) (Rozemblum et al., 2014).

This criterion is used differently across various databases and areas of knowledge, both in relation to the exogeny levels required and the different editorial roles that must be observed. In both cases, they are considered harmful to the publication (Delgado-Ponce, 2016).

Journal endogamy is assessed based on institutional links, affiliations, authors, reviewers, and editorial board members, and a given title may or may not present acceptable endogamy rates. Some studies indicate that these levels should be below 20% (Coslado; Báez; Lacunza, 2010).

According to the Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (Lilacs) database, coordinated by the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), the suggestion is that more than 40% of reviewers be external members (Lilacs, 2024), while SciELO guidelines specify that endogenous titles will not be admitted (SciELO, 2022).

Research on scientific communication, especially on scientific journals, is traditional in Information Science, but there are a limited number of studies on the subject (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2022). Those that exist are more focused on academic endogamy (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2022; Piva, 2020; Rodrigues et al., 2018) or on editorial endogamy associated with self-citation (Pinto et al., 2024), and less on the endogamy among the authors of articles published by journals, although this is an indexing criterion among databases.

Endogamy in formal science communication channels is not characterized as a domestic issue given that researchers from other countries also show concern about the matter (Domínguez-Omonte, 2019; Helgesson et al. 2022; Hodgson; Rothman, 1999). In Brazil, over the last two decades, information scientists have dedicated themselves to studying scientific production and communication in different areas and scenarios, and the Working Group on Production and Communication of Information in Science, Technology & Innovation of the National Association for Research in Information Science (ANCIB) is a space for this topic,¹ given the relevance of scientific publications for authors, institutions, and scientific communities, especially scientific articles published in high-impact journals.

Studies on editorial endogamy are associated with authorship concentration patterns, and when related to other characteristics of journals, they can demonstrate compliance with good practices, editorial quality, and the evaluation and visibility of scientific production.

In Brazil, universities and graduate programs (PPGs) are primarily responsible for promoting, creating, and editing scientific journals (Rodrigues; Abadal, 2014; Rodrigues et al., 2023).

Funding agencies, such as the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ) and CAPES, use the bibliographic productions of researchers linked to PPGs to evaluate scientific activity, following criteria established in CAPES documents (CAPES, 2023).

In this context of scientific production and communication, indexing in databases is relevant for journal qualification and visibility (Lopes; Almeida, 2024; Chitumba et al., 2024), given that the area documents for evaluating the production of CAPES graduate programs (and, consequently, the production of researchers linked to the programs) have as parameters the citation indexes (Impact Factor (IF), Citescore, h-index) to attribute the Qualis strata to journals (CAPES, 2023).

Scientific production, educational institutions, funding, and evaluation are distributed heterogeneously among the country’s federative units, making different analytical sections relevant for studies of regional and/or institutional performance, for example.

Santa Catarina, a Brazilian southern state, has thirteen universities, of which two are federal public universities and one is a state public university; the remainder are private universities that operate in teaching, research and outreach.

This piece of research is relevant because it aims to encourage further studies, discussions, and reflection in the scope of scientific production and communication with intrinsic processes to the Sociology of Science, that is, with the social practices of conducting research and its communication with peers and/or scientific communities. In addition, it contributes to understanding the state/situation of Santa Catarina universities’ formal publications, unfolding a scenario through the aspects found by this research, as well as its limitations.

Considering the relevance of scientific journals, here we address institutional endogamy in the authorship declared in articles published by journals linked to Santa Catarina universities. Endogamy is a practice condemned in scientific communication because, depending on its degree, it unbalances the researchers’ scientific capital accumulation and influences the attribution of the CAPES Qualis strata, besides being a criterion evaluated by databases to index journals.

In this sense, we investigate whether there is endogamy in scientific journals published by Santa Catarina universities. The existence of relationships between endogamy and the evaluation, indexing, and areas of knowledge of the journals is also analyzed.

The general objective is to investigate authorial endogamy in scientific journals published by Santa Catarina universities. The specific objectives consist of: a) identifying the average authorial endogamy rate by publishing institution; b) analyzing the endogamy rates by evaluation stratum; c) relating the endogamy rates to the journal indexing, and d) discussing the endogamy rates in relation to the CAPES areas of knowledge.

2 ENDOGAMY IN BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS

At the end of the 20^th century, Hodgson and Rothman (1999) exposed the existence of an institutional oligopoly in economics journals. In the article, the authors highlight the predominance of North American editors and authors among the 30 most influential journals in the field in 1995, of which 21 were published in the United States. They point out as problematic the narrowness of the vision and the lack of theoretical pluralism due to the absence of institutional diversity and approaches, since North American editors and authors predominated.

When analyzing the scientific production of researchers who published articles and papers at events in the accounting area, Leite Filho (2008) considered endogamy in scientific journals when there is a direct and internal relationship between the medium of publication and the institutional affiliation of the authors declared in the published articles, since both are linked to the same institution. In summary, endogamy can occur when a journal publishes articles whose authors are institutionally linked to the same university that holds the publishing medium imprint (Leite Filho, 2008).

Trevisol Neto (2015), when mapping the scientific production in the field of fashion in Brazil, identified a tendency toward endogamy in the Moda-Palavra and Dapesquisa journals, given that the authors were publishing their studies in journals from their institution, both from the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC). From this perspective, Leite Filho (2008, p. 545) draws attention to the formation of

[...] a vicious cycle that restricts the academic production of the area to the styles of authors and tendencies of institutions to present works linked to thematic lines of their interests and that would force other institutions to follow their publication standards [...].

Rodrigues et al. (2018), when analyzing the journals housed in the UFSC Scientific Journals Laboratory, considered endogamy in scientific journals when a given title accepts and publishes articles, reviews, etc., whose authors have the same institutional affiliation as the journal; that is, the authors of the articles are from the same institution as the journal. The authors affirm that endogamy is a negative aspect that depreciates the publishing medium before the scientific community. In this study, they also found that:

Journals are perceived, by some editors, as a channel for disseminating articles by students and professors linked to research groups, undergraduate courses or graduate programs, or even to the department which they are a part of (Rodrigues et al., 2018, p. 191).

In the editorial of the Bolivian Revista Científica Ciência Médica, published by the Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Domínguez-Omonte (2019) addresses the challenge of editorial management related to editorial and authorial endogamy. According to the editor, avoiding endogamy in the journal is essential to ensure the quality of reviews. As a goal, the journal establishes a limit of less than 25% authorial endogamy. To avoid this problem, the journal relies on an international network of reviewers who are not linked to the editorial board of the publication. When editors, reviewers, and editorial board members publish articles in the journal, they are excluded from the review and decision-making process regarding the manuscript and are encouraged to publish their work in external journals.

Marino, Pinto and Martins (2019) called “institutionalization” the movement identified in the Revista Tecnologia of the University of Fortaleza (UNIFOR), when they highlighted a greater number of articles published between 2016, 2017, and 2018 whose authors have the same institutional affiliation as the journal, compared to the percentage of articles that declared another institutional affiliation.

Editors are pressured, mainly by professors from the institution of origin, to publish their research, then the fight for the end of academic endogamy is daily, as it is a requirement to adapt to international indexes (Marino; Pinto; Martins, 2019, p. 56).

Piva (2020) highlights the existence of endogamy in the “Brazilian Journal of Information Science: research trends,” whose imprint is of the “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” São Paulo State University (UNESP). When analyzing publications between 2006 and 2019, the author found that of the 17 authors who published the most in the journal (three or more articles), six (35.3%) belonged to the UNESP faculty. According to Piva (2020), this characteristic needs to be reviewed in the editorial policy in order to diversify the institutional affiliation of authors.

Köhler and Digiampietri (2022) use the concept of endogamy presented by Rodrigues et al. (2018) when examining endogamy in 16 Brazilian tourism journals between 1990 and 2018. The research results reveal a high endogamy level in the first year of publication of the journals, with a downward trend from the second year. Nevertheless, journals linked to the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Anais Brasileiros de Estudos Turísticos, Revista Latino-Americana de Turismologia) and the University of Vale do Itajaí (Turismo: Visão e Ação, Applied Tourism) showed high endogamy level when compared to the other journals in the years 2016, 2017, and 2018 (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2022).

Helgesson et al. (2022) analyzed the prevalence of editors-in-chief and associate editors who published studies in the journals in which they work, discussing the normative issues arising from this practice. Through a systematic review, the authors analyzed 15 articles from different fields that address this practice, evidencing variability in the prevalence of self-publishing by editors. They highlight the main arguments against this practice, such as favoritism, less rigorous peer review, preferential treatment, and lack of transparency with readers. They suggest that editors-in-chief and associates should not publish original articles in the journals in which they work, except in the case of editorials.

Paiva et al. (2023) verified endogamy in the Revista Interdisciplinar de Promoção da Saúde (RIPS) of the University of Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC), between 2018 and 2021, in a total of 128 published articles. A 30% average endogamy rate was found at UNISC, when the acceptable is a rate of up to 20%. Moreover, a 51% average endogamy rate was found for institutional links in Rio Grande do Sul.

The accumulation of scientific capital translates into public recognition of contributions by the community of experts in the area; those who publish more relevant works have a greater chance of being read and cited by their peers, influencing the structure of the scientific field and the search for prestige and scientific authority (Bourdieu, 1983, 2004). Merton (2013) explains that scientific production is not homogeneous for all researchers, given that variables such as training, field, area, country, resources, research priorities, and so on, influence the publication of articles, and science recognizes those with more and better publications. Thus, the inherent processes and practices to scientific production and communication are of interest to the sociology of science, and endogamy cannot be analyzed in a neutral way in the practice of science, since the interests and power relations that exist in the scientific community can influence the acceptance and publication of articles.

3 METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES

The research is exploratory and descriptive, with a quantitative approach, utilizing bibliographic and documentary techniques. The research universe is composed of scientific journals published by universities based in the state of Santa Catarina.

To identify the universities, we used e-MEC, a database of the Ministry of Education (MEC), which contains the national registry of higher education institutions (Brasil, 2025), in January 2024, and the following filters were applied in the advanced search: unidade federativa [federative unit] - Santa Catarina, organização acadêmica [academic organization]- universidade [university], and 13 universities were retrieved. Later, their journal portals (11) and/or publishing institutions (2) were found to map the scientific journals edited by them.

After identifying the sites where the journals are hosted, the titles were listed and organized in electronic spreadsheets; proceedings of events, seminars and other publications were excluded from the research. The search retrieved 159 journals.

Current journals were considered for the research universe, with the issues published up to date. The archives of the identified journals were consulted and those whose last issue was prior to 2023 were disregarded, as well as discontinued journals, and a sample of 117 journals remained. Of the selected sample, eight titles are linked to publishing institutions and 109 are linked to journal portals.

Table 1
Total journals by university x journals selected from the sample

Institution	Administrative category	Journals		Sample
		N	Link	N	%
UFSC	Federal public university	45	Portal	34	75.56
UDESC	State public university	24	Portal	19	79.17
UNISUL	Private non-profit university	15	Portal	9	60
UNESC	Private non-profit university	13	Portal	5	38.46
UNIVALI	Private non-profit university	12	Portal	10	83.33
UFFS	Federal public university	10	Portal	10	100
FURB	Municipal public university	9	Portal	5	55.56
UNOCHAPECÓ	Private non-profit university	8	Portal	6	75
UNC	Special	7	Portal	6	85.71
UNIARP	Private non-profit university	7	Portal	5	71.43
UNOESC	Private non-profit university	5	Publishing institution	4	80
UNIVILLE	Private non-profit university	4	Publishing institution	4	100
UNIPLAC	Private non-profit university	0	-	0	-
Total		159	-	117	73.58

• Source: Research data (2024).

In order to analyze the publications from the 117 journals, one disregarded editorials, dossier presentations, introductions, and YouTube videos. Therefore, the institutional affiliations of the authors of the following documents were analyzed: essays, review articles, research articles, data articles, reviews, interviews, experience reports, case reports, translations, short communications, and research notes.

Other variables analyzed were: number of articles published in 2023, number of articles with endogenous authorship published in 2023, date of creation of the journal, CAPES Qualis stratum of each journal, and indexing. Using the SciELO, SCOPUS and WoS indexes (Lopes; Almeida, 2024) is recommended to map the universities’ scientific production, also mentioned in the CAPES area evaluation documents. In addition to these international multidisciplinary databases, journal indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) was also verified.

“DOAJ is a unique and extensive index of diverse open access journals from around the world, driven by a growing community. It is committed to ensuring quality content is openly available online for everyone” (DOAJ, 2024). To be accepted by DOAJ, journals must meet certain criteria, such as: publishing at least five articles per year; being in existence for at least one year; having their own dedicated URL; being open access, having at least one ISSN; having quality control (editor, editorial board, peer review, similarity check), among others (DOAJ, 2024).

Data related to the journals were obtained from their respective websites, collected between February 1 and 8, 2024. CAPES Qualis was consulted on the Sucupira Platform, considering the 2017-2020 evaluation (CAPES, 2025), and also collecting data on the classification area of the journals. The area documents were consulted on the CAPES website, considering 24 areas:

• Area 7: Biodiversity

• Area 11: Arts

• Area 18: Dentistry

• Area 20: Nursing

• Area 21: Physical Education

• Area 22: Collective Health

• Area 26: Law

• Area 27: Public and Business Administration, Accounting and Tourism

• Area 28: Economics

• Area 29: Architecture, Urbanism and Design

• Area 30: Urban and Regional Planning and Demography

• Area 31: Communication and Information

• Area 32: Social Work

• Area 33: Philosophy

• Area 34: Sociology

• Area 35: Anthropology and Archeology

• Area 36: Geography

• Area 38: Education

• Area 40: History

• Area 41: Linguistics and Literature

• Area 42: Agricultural Sciences I

• Area 45: Interdisciplinary

• Area 46: Teaching

• Area 49: Environmental Sciences

To identify indexing in the databases and directory, searches were made in each database by title and ISSN, and one found the information about indexing on the websites of each journal.

Endogenous articles were considered to be those that declared at least one author as having the same institutional link as the journal, regardless of the number of endogenous authors and their profiles (professor, student, researcher, public servant, etc.). When there was no explicit institutional link in the article, one considered the institution of the last academic title and/or email address, both declared by the authors.

Based on the study of Köhler and Digiampietri (2022, p. 9), the following formula was applied to calculate the endogamy percentage in each journal: N_e (endogenous articles) / NT (total published articles) X 100.

For each journal, year by year, endogamy was calculated as the relationship between the number of articles of the institution responsible for publication of the journal (for example, the University of São Paulo for TA) and the number of articles published in this journal (following the example, the TA) (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2022, p. 9).

For example, a journal that published 100 articles in 2023, and 11 of which are endogenous, has an 11% endogamy rate (NE 11 / NT 100 = 0.11 x 100 = 11%). The endogamy rate was also calculated for universities, evaluation strata, indexing databases and areas of knowledge, from the sum of the endogenous articles divided by the total articles published for each of the variables (each institution, stratum, index, and area) and multiplied by 100.

The limitations of the research include: the data collection period, limited to 2023; data sources, that is, journals linked to university portals or publishing institutions, which excludes other journals issued by the institution, which may not be in these environments; and data on institutional indexing and affiliation, limited to those recorded on the journal website.

4 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

Universities with the highest number of journals analyzed were: UFSC, with 34 (29%) journals, UDESC, with 19 (16%), and UFFs and UNIVALI, both with 10 (9%), showing the public university’s participation in national science, as pointed out in previous studies (RODRIGUES; ABADAL, 2014; RODRIGUES et al., 2023).

Endogenous articles were identified in all institutions; in 2023, there was an average publication of 30.2 articles by journals published by Santa Catarina universities, with an average of 4.6 endogenous articles per journal (Table 2). Although the average endogamy rate in Santa Catarina universities is 15% - less than 20% considered acceptable (PAIVA et al., 2023; Köhler; Digiampietri, 2023) -, four institutions presented a value above this parameter: UNIARP, UNIVILLE, UNC and UNESC, with 21.43%, 22.73%, 39.07% and 54%, respectively.

Table 2
Average endogamy rate of journals by publishing institution

Institution	Analyzed journals	Published articles		Average number of articles by journal		Endogamy rate
		2023	Endogenous	2023	Endogenous
UNESC	5	150	81	30.00	16.20	54.00
UNC	6	151	59	25.17	9.83	39.07
UNIVILLE	4	132	30	33.00	7.50	22.73
UNIARP	5	126	27	25.20	5.40	21.43
UDESC	19	690	105	36.32	5.53	15.22
UNOESC	4	68	10	17.00	2.50	14.71
UFSC	34	1303	156	38.32	4.59	11.97
UNIVALI	10	194	23	19.40	2.30	11.86
UFFS	10	263	28	26.30	2.80	10.65
UNOCHAPECÓ	6	167	11	27.83	1.83	6.59
UNISUL	9	187	10	20.78	1.11	5.35
FURB	5	106	4	21.20	0.80	3.77
Total	117	3537	544	30.23	4.65	15.38

• Source: Research data (2024).

Twenty-seven (23%) journals did not publish endogenous articles in 2023. In addition, there was a disparity in the volume of publications by journal, respecting the particularities of each area, and it was found that two journals (Cadernos de Naturologia e Terapia Complementar and Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria e Desempenho Humano) published only one article in 2023, while three journals published more than 100 papers (Cadernos de Tradução; Texto & Contexto Enfermagem; Revista Insignare Scientia.

4.1 Endogamy by evaluation stratum

The 117 journals analyzed are distributed in 24 areas, following CAPES classification, and 15 (13%) journals are in the Qualis stratum A1 in the following areas: Arts, Law, Teaching, Philosophy, History, Linguistics and Literature, Social Work, and Sociology.

The majority of journals - 62, or 53% - are in the stratum A; 43 journals, or 37%, are in the stratum B, and only three journals, or 2%, are in stratum C. Besides, nine journals, or 8%, have no Qualis classification.

Table 3
Distribution of Santa Catarina’s journals by evaluation stratum and institution

Institution		CAPES Qualis evaluation strata									With no Qualis	Total
		A1	A2	A3	A4	B1	B2	B3	B4	C		N	%
UFSC		8	8	8	3	3	3	-	1	-	-	34	29.06
UDESC		3	4	3	1	4	-	1	-	-	3	19	16.24
UFFS		-	1	1	2	1	-	3	-	-	2	10	8.55
UNIVALI		1	1	2	1	2	-	1	1	1	-	10	8.55
UNISUL		2	-	-	2	-	-	3	-	1	1	9	7.69
UNOCHAPECÓ		1	-	-	1	1	1	1	-	-	1	6	5.13
FURB		-	-	1	2	1	1	-	-	-	-	5	4.27
UNC		-	1	-	1	1	1	-	-	1	1	6	5.13
UNESC		-	-	-	1	1	2	1	-	-	-	5	4.27
UNIARP		-	-	-	1	1	3	-	-	-	-	5	4.27
UNIVILLE		-	-	-	-	-	1	1	2	-	-	4	3.42
UNOESC		-	2	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1	4	3.42
Total	N	15	17	15	15	16	12	11	4	3	9	117	100
	%	12.82	14.53	12.82	12.82	13.68	10.26	9.40	3.42	2.56	7.69	100	-
Published articles	2023	670	614	559	533	394	203	281	68	95	113	3530	-
	Endogenous	73	61	67	39	69	56	77	6	47	49	544	-
Average number of articles by journal	2023	44.67	36.12	37.27	35.53	24.63	16.92	25.55	17.00	31.67	12.56	30.17	-
	Endogenous	4.87	3.59	4.47	2.60	4.31	4.67	7.00	1.50	15.67	5.44	4.65	-
	Endogamy rate	10.90	9.93	11.99	7.32	17.51	27.59	27.40	8.82	49.47	43.36	15.41	-

• Source: Research data (2024).

It is possible to observe that the lower the evaluation stratum, the higher the endogamy rate; strata B3, B2 and C are those that present the highest endogamy rates, with 27.4%, 27.59% and 49.47%, respectively. Not analyzed journals have a 43.36% average endogamy rate.

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) and the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC) () have more journals in strata A1 and A2, that is, journals that are recognized and well-evaluated by their scientific communities. Of the 15 journals in stratum A1, eight come from UFSC, three from UDESC, two from UNISUL, one from UNIVALI, and one from UNOCHAPECÓ. Only three journals are in the three main databases: Cadernos de Tradução, Encontros Bibli and Ilha do Desterro, all linked to UFSC.

Each one of the three following universities have one journal in stratum C: UNIVALI, UNISUL, and UNC, and according to the area criteria, such communication channels do not have scientific character (CAPES, 2023). It was not possible to identify the CAPES Qualis of nine journals, linked to the following universities: UDESC, UFSC, UNISUL, UNC, UNOESC, and UNOCHAPECÓ.

The fact that UFSC and UDESC stand out in relation to the number of journals may be due to their maturity - both have more than 50 years of existence -, and to the number of stricto sensu graduate programs. UFSC offers 148 graduate courses (professional and academic); UDESC offers 57 graduate courses (professional and academic), according to data from the Sucupira platform,² collected on February 25, 2025 (CAPES, 2025).

Another interesting aspect is that both have journal portals linked to university libraries, where professionals with a degree in library science help editors in the provision of technical services and offer guidelines for the improvement of journals in their institutions.

4.2 Endogamy in journals indexed in databases

Regarding indexing in databases, less than 20% journals are indexed. Of the 117 journals analyzed, only six (5%) are indexed in WoS (Clarivate), 12 (10%) in SCOPUS (Elsevier), and 10 (8%) in SciELO (Table 4).

Besides, a survey was carried out in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and 65 (56%) titles were found.

Table 4
Journals indexed by institution and average endogamy rate by index

Institution		Analyzed journals			Indexing			DOAJ
		Indexed	NI	Total	SciELO	SCOPUS	WoS
UFSC		10	24	34	8	8	3	9
UDESC		3	16	19	-	2	2	2
UFFS		1	9	10	-	1	-	1
UNIVALI		2	8	10	1	1	-	1
UNISUL		1	8	9	1	-	-	1
UNOCHAPECÓ		1	5	6	-	-	1	1
UNC		-	6	6	-	-	-	-
UNESC		-	5	5	-	-	-	-
UNIARP		-	5	5	-	-	-	-
FURB		-	5	5	-	-	-	-
UNIVILLE		-	4	4	-	-	-	-
UNOESC		-	4	4	-	-	-	-
Total	N	18	98	117	10	12	6	65
	%	15.38	83.76	100.00	8.55	10.26	5.13	55.56
Published articles	2023	916	2614	3530	579	650	383
	Endogenous	112	432	544	76	93	53
Average number of articles by journal	2023	50.89	26.67	30.17	57.90	54.17	63.83	0.00
	Endogenous	6.22	4.41	4.65	7.60	7.75	8.83	0.00
	Endogamy rate	12.23	16.53	15.41	13.13	14.31	13.84	-

• Source: research data (2024).

In general, it is observed that indexed journals present a lower endogamy rate -12.23%. Among the identified databases, journals indexed in SciELO have the lowest average rate, 13.13% (Table 4).

Regarding journal indexing in SciELO, the document “Criteria, Policy and Procedures for Journal Admission and Permanence in the SciELO Brasil collection” shows that “The level of endogamy is a key indicator in the analysis of the performance of the periodicals for the purposes of entry and permanence in the collection” (SciELO, 2022, p. 29), given that one of the criteria analyzed in the pre-evaluation of a journal is the presence of endogamy, in addition to the scope, format, and alignment with open science.

It is noteworthy that when consulting guidelines on the SciELO, SCOPUS and WoS websites, precise parameters on the subject were not identified, only the recommendation on the need for institutional diversity of authors.

The analysis of the 18 titles indexed in at least one of the three databases showed 10 journals in stratum A, in different areas, and only four journals do not have any endogamy level in the period: Linguagem em (Dis)curso, Encontros Bibli, Principia and Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria e Desempenho Humano. Except for Fronteiras: Revista Catarinense de História and Cadernos de Tradução, the other journals presented endogamy below 20% in 2023.

Chart 1
Indexing in the main databases of journals linked to the Santa Catarina’s universities.

Journal	Publishing institution	CAPES Qualis		Indexing			DOAJ	Endogamy rate
		Stratum	Area	SciELO	SCOPUS	WoS
Cadernos de Tradução	UFSC	A1	Linguistics and Literature	YES	YES	YES	YES	28.57
Fronteiras: Revista Catarinense de História	UFFS	B1	History		YES		YES	21.74
Turismo e Ação	UNIVALI	A3	Public and Business Administration, Accounting and Tourism	YES			YES	13.79
Ilha do Desterro	UFSC	A1	Linguistics and Literature	YES	YES	YES	YES	12.50
Novos Estudos Jurídicos	UNIVALI	A1	Law		YES			12.00
Tempo e Argumento	UDESC	A1	History		YES	YES	YES	16.13
Texto & Contexto Enfermagem	UFSC	A3	Nursing	YES	YES		YES	15.83
Revista de Ciências Agroveterinárias	UDESC	B3	Agricultural Sciences I		YES		YES	14.12
Revista Estudos Feministas	UFSC	A1	Sociology	YES	YES		YES	10.42
Sequência: Estudos Jurídicos e Políticos	UFSC	A1	Law	YES			YES	8.33
Revista Gestão Organizacional	Unochapecó	B1	Public and Business Administration, Accounting and Tourism			YES	YES	8.11
Urdimento	UDESC	A1	Arts			YES		7.69
Katálisys	UFSC	A1	Social Work	YES			YES	6.12
Esboços	UFSC	A2	History		YES		YES	5.88
Encontros Bibli	UFSC	A2	Communication and Information	YES	YES	YES		0.00
Linguagem em (Dis)curso	UNISUL	A1	Linguistics and Literature	YES			YES	0.00
Principia	UFSC	A1	Philosophy		YES			0.00
Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria e Desempenho Humano	UFSC	B1	Physical Education	YES	YES		YES	0.00

• Source: Research data (2024).

Only three journals are in the three main databases: Cadernos de Tradução, Encontros Bibli and Ilha do Desterro, all linked to UFSC.

The universities with the highest number of indexed journals are UFSC, with 10 titles - Packer (2011) already pointed out UFSC among the 20 Brazilian institutions with the highest number of articles indexed in SciELO and WoS -, and UDESC, with three. Of the 117 titles analyzed, only 18 are indexed in at least one of the databases considered most relevant by the areas of knowledge; such fact is worrying, considering that the main citation indicators such as: IF, from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and CiteScore and SJR, linked to Clarivate and Elsevier. The authors Neubert and Rodrigues (2021, p. 11) point out that

The existence of a “global standard” of Science, based on publications in titles indexed in international databases, obliges fields to recognize, in their instruments for evaluating scientific production, the communication media already used in the region that start to appear among the most prestigious titles, neglecting those that are outside the group.

Only 10 (8%) journals are indexed in SciELO, which is considered an indexing model in countries with less editorial tradition and a driver of the quality of journals from countries on the so-called scientific periphery. To increase the percentage of journals indexed in SciELO, it would be necessary to promote actions and programs that strengthen journals and meet its requirements: indexing in DOAJ; metadata indexing in Crossref; ORCID ID identification; similarity verification; texts in XML; authors’ institutional affiliation; international reviewers; ethical practices; average processing time; management software; peer review; multilingualism; editorial team; minimum number of articles per year, and publication in English (SciELO, 2022).

Regarding indexing in databases such as SCOPUS and WoS, the challenge lies in the language of publications. According to Chitumba et al. (2024), journals must adopt the English language for scientific communication, since this is the science lingua franca, facilitating collaboration and communication between researchers from different countries and cultures. Publications in English enable global reach and enhance the research visibility and impact.

Lopes and Almeida (2024), when evaluating the scientific productions of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Federal University of São Paulo, Federal University of Pará, and Federal University of Amazonas, indexed in SCOPUS, between 2013 and 2022, found a concentration of documents in the English language, which highlights the universities’ efforts to ensure visibility and international insertion for their publications.

4.3 Endogamy by evaluation area

As noted in CAPES area documents, there is no consensus on the parameters to evaluate whether endogamy is considered high or low (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2023). Just as publication patterns vary between areas of knowledge, variations in endogamy rates are also observed.

The areas of the journals with the highest endogamy rates are Public Health, Economics, Law, and Dentistry, with 80%, 50%, 37.91% and 32% average endogamy rates, respectively (Table 5).

Table 5
Endogamy rate by evaluation area

Assessment area	Journals	Published articles		Average number of articles by journal		Endogamy rate
		2023	Endogenous	2023	Endogenous
Collective Health	2	45	36	22.50	18.00	80.00
Economics	1	6	3	6.00	3.00	50.00
Law	6	153	58	25.50	9.67	37.91
Dentistry	2	75	24	37.50	12.00	32.00
Nursing	1	120	19	120.00	19.00	15.83
Education	17	521	81	30.65	4.76	15.55
Linguistics and Literature	12	367	54	30.58	4.50	14.71
Agricultural Sciences I	2	117	16	58.50	8.00	13.68
Interdisciplinary	10	148	20	14.80	2.00	13.51
Arts	7	264	33	37.71	4.71	12.50
Teaching	8	369	46	46.13	5.75	12.47
Urban and Regional Planning/Demography	1	43	5	43.00	5.00	11.63
Public and Business Administration, Accounting and Tourism	13	313	36	24.08	2.77	11.50
Biodiversity	3	28	3	9.33	1.00	10.71
Geography	2	85	9	42.50	4.50	10.59
Architecture, Urbanism and Design	4	127	13	31.75	3.25	10.24
Sociology	2	109	10	54.50	5.00	9.17
Anthropology/Archeology	1	31	3	31.00	3.00	9.68
History	6	138	12	23.00	2.00	8.70
Social Work	1	49	3	49.00	3.00	6.12
Physical Education	2	57	2	28.50	1.00	3.51
Philosophy	4	119	4	29.75	1.00	3.36
Environmental Sciences	1	41	1	41.00	1.00	2.44
Communication and Information	3	92	1	30.67	0.33	1.09
No classification	9	113	49	12.56	5.44	43.36
Total	117	3530	544	30.17	0.15	15.41

• Source: Research data (2024)

When analyzing the journals by area, the group with the majority of titles is composed of 16 (14%) Education journals, distributed between strata A2 and B2. It is noted that the journals in strata A2 and A4 present less than 20% endogamy. The main publishing institutions in this area are UDESC, with four titles, followed by UNESC, with three titles. It is observed, in the document appendix, that three journals did not present endogamy: Revista Pedagógica, Roteiro and Cidadania em Ação; on the other hand, six journals exceeded 20% endogamy in 2023, namely: Revista Extensão (100%); Saberes Pedagógicos (88%); Teatro Transcendente (50%); Extensão em Foco (46%), and Professare (24%).

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 38: Education,” it is established that to achieve stratum A1, the journals must be indexed in SciELO, SCOPUS, WoS, “[...] have an editorial board with 85% institutional diversity; [...], ensuring broad institutional diversity of authors [...]. In the case of journals published by universities, 90% of the articles must come from authors from other institutions” (Verhine; Souza; Sousa Júnior, 2019, p. 6).

The second group with the highest number of titles is composed of 13 (11%) journals from Public and Business Administration, Accounting Sciences and Tourism, and the titles are distributed between strata A4 and B3. Journals in strata A3 and A4 present less than 20% endogamy. The main publishing institutions are UFSC, with four titles, followed by UNIVALI, with three titles. It can be seen in Table 4 that three titles did not show endogamy: Revista Interdisciplinar Científica Aplicada; Revista Negócios, and Revista Gestão & Sustentabilidade, and the highest endogamy percentage is 20%, in Extensio: R. Eletr. de Extensão.

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 27: Public and Business Administration, Accounting Sciences and Tourism,” it is established that to achieve stratum A1, the following criteria are used: “Impact Factor (JCR)>2.7 or H Index [sic] (Scimago/SCOPUS)>50 or Citescore [sic] (SCOPUS)>2.34” (Guarido Filho; Machado; Verschoore Filho, 2019, p. 6). Furthermore, the area considers the following indexes for the other strata: latindex, EBSCOhost, Galegroup, and DOAJ. No mention is made of endogamy, institutional diversity of authors or of editorial board.

The third most representative group by CAPES area is composed of 11 (9%) journals from Linguistics and Literature; the main publishing institution is UFSC, with 11 titles. It can be seen in the document appendix that four titles did not present endogamy: Linguagem em (Discurso); Linguagens - Revista de Letras, Artes e Comunicação; Anuário de Literatura, and Texto Digital. All titles are in stratum A, with emphasis on three titles that are in stratum A1, and the others distributed between A2 and A4. It is noted that Cadernos de Tradução, classified in A1, presents 29% endogamy. In the area of Linguistics and Literature, the following also presented an endogamy percentage above 20%: Outra Travessia (50%), and Cadernos de Tradução (29%), both linked to UFSC.

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 41: Linguistics and Literature,” the CiteScore (SCOPUS), JCR (Web of Science) and h-5 index (Google Scholar) indicators were used as parameters. Thus, to be considered A1, the journal must obtain a minimum score of 87.5. In addition, they consider the presence of titles indexed in SciELO; however, only three titles were identified in the area (Sales; Magalhães; Zappone, 2019). No mention is made of endogamy, institutional diversity of authors or of editorial board.

The fourth group is composed of 10 (9%) titles from the Interdisciplinary area; the only publishing institution is UNOCHAPECÓ, with two titles. The titles are between stratum B1 and B3, while the journals that exceeded 20% endogamy are: Interthesis (40%), Gravai (25%), and Revista Brasileira de Tecnologias Sociais (21%). Journals classified as B1 have more than 20% endogamy.

In “Qualis Journals Report, Area 45: interdisciplinary,” CiteScore (SCOPUS), JCR (WoS), and h-5 index (Google Scholar) were used as parameters. Thus, to be considered A1, the journal must obtain a minimum score of 87.5 and have an editorial board with 85% institutional diversity. The presence of journals indexed in the databases indicated by the area was also considered (Faljoni-Alario; Winter, 2019).

The fifth group consists of eight (7%) journals in the Education area, and the main publishing institutions are UFSC and UFFS, both with three titles. It can be seen in Table 7 that three titles did not show endogamy: Revista Dinamys, Educação Matemática Sem Fronteiras, and Revista Brasileira de Extensão universitária. The only A1 journal is Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física, the other titles are in strata A2 and B3. The only journal that exceeded 20% endogamy was Boletim Online de Educação em Matemática (43%). A1 journals have less than 20% endogamy.

“Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 46: Education” defines that to be A1 “The journal must be linked to at least one of the following databases: WoS (JCR) or SCOPUS (SJR). A minimum of five years of publication is required” (Borba; Ramos; Rizzati, 2019, p. 6). DOAJ is used in other strata such as A2 and A3. It is also considered desirable for an editorial board and authors with institutional diversity to “limit the number of publications that come from the same institution to which the journal is linked” (Borba; Ramos; Rizzati, 2019, p. 6).

The sixth group is composed of eight (6%) journals in the Arts area, and the main publishing institution is UDESC, with six titles. All journals in the group are in stratum A, with three titles standing out in A1: Revista Poiésis, NUPEART, and Urdimento. NUPEART did not present endogamy, and two titles exceeded 20% endogamy: Palindromo (24%), and Aphoteke (23%). A1 journals have less than 20% endogamy.

“Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 11: Arts” details the qualitative criteria used to evaluate the journal, such as institutional diversity of authors and of editorial board and association with the h-5 index (Google Scholar). Thus, the title that obtains a minimum score of 90 points is classified as A1 (Siqueira; Castilho; Robatto, 2019).

The seventh group is composed of six (5%) journals in the Law area, and the main publishing institutions are private universities. Two titles are in the stratum A1: Novos Estudos Jurídicos, and Sequência; Academia de Direito presents 100% endogamy and is in stratum C, while Espaço Jurídico does not present endogamy. Journals in Qualis A1 have less than 20% endogamy.

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 26: Law,” among other criteria - such as a percentage of authors with doctoral degree and foreign authors -, titles indexed in the WoS, SCOPUS or that have an h-5 index (Google Scholar) with a median higher than 8 are considered A1. In addition, it requires 75% exogenia of authors, co-authors and the board of reviewers, as they must belong to other states, different from the institutions responsible for the titles that they publish or evaluate (Rodrigues Júnior; Pinto; Morães, 2019).

The eighth group is composed of five (5%) journals in the History area, and the main publishing institutions are public universities. Fronteiras presented 22% endogamy and Mundo do Trabalho did not present endogamy; three journals are in stratum A1: Cadernos Ceom, Mundo do Trabalho, and Tempo e Argumento. A1 journals have less than 20% endogamy.

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 40: History,” journals are considered A1 when they are indexed in three databases, which can be Wos, SCOPUS, SciELO, Historical Abstracts (EBSCO), redalyc, latindex, Dialnet, European Index for the Humanities (ERIH), and Clase, and they also have to meet the criterion of institutional diversity regarding the boards of the journals (Batalha; Pacheco; Silva, 2019).

Ten titles from Applied Social Sciences were identified, whose strata are between A1- Social Work - and B4 - Architecture, Urbanism and Design. Encontros Bibli and Estudos em Jornalismo e Mídia, from the Communication and Information area, did not present endogamy; on the other hand, Revista Textos de Economia presented 50% endogamy. A1 and A2 journals have less than 20% endogamy.

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 32: Social Service,” it is mentioned that to be A1, its editorial board needs at least 80% institutional diversity, including researchers from other states and countries (Carvalho; Santana; Stampa, 2019). “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 29: Architecture, Urbanism and Design” mentions that titles that do not have an impact factor and are not indexed in SciELO and latindex will be classified as A1 when:

They present institutional diversity of authors, with at least 75% of articles by authors from at least 4 institutions other than the institution that publishes them. [...] They have an editorial board composed of researchers from at least 5 different institutions, and 3 of which are international (Santos Junior; Merino; Elali, 2019, p. 3).

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 31: Communication and Information of 2019,” it is explicit that journals should avoid endogamy, as it may negatively reflect in the production of the graduate program (D’Almonte et al., 2019). In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 28: Economics” and “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 30: Urban and Regional Planning and Demography,” one did not find criteria for institutional diversity and endogamy.

There are nine titles in the Humanities area; UFSC’s influence is evident, with six titles, and two are in stratum A1 - Philosophy and Sociology. Four titles did not present endogamy: Em Tese, @Ethica, Principia, and Revista Cidades. Other titles did not reach 20% endogamy.

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 33: Philosophy,” there is the information that that for the journal to be A1, it must present less than 20% endogamy:

[...] it must present at least 80% exogeny of articles by authors linked to at least seven institutions other than the one in which the journal is hosted, and it must also have a high degree of internationalization measured by: 1) the quality and quantity of national and international indexes; 2) authors with links to foreign institutions, and 3) the excellence of its publications (Oliveira Junior; Silva; Coteski, 2019, p. 3).

In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 34: Sociology,” one did not find criteria for institutional diversity and endogamy. In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 35: Anthropology and Archeology,” concern was mentioned about institutional endogamy in scientific journals, and “For qualified strata, the presence of at least 30% to 75% of external authors was observed” (Lima; Almeida; Miranda, 2019, p. 4). In the evaluation form attached to “Qualis Periodicals Report: Area 36: Geography,” journals that have greater institutional diversity of authors and of editorial board members -Brazilian and foreigners - are better evaluated (Paes; Corrêa; Marafon, 2019).

Seven journals come from the Health Sciences area; only Texto & Contexto Enfermagem is in stratum A, the others are between stratum B1 and B3, in different areas. Inova Saúde presents 82% endogamy, Revista Sul-Brasileira de Odontologia appears with 33%, and the Journal of Research in Dentistry with 25%; UFSC is represented by three titles in the Physical Education and Nursing areas.

Criteria for institutional diversity and endogamy were not mentioned in the reports of the following areas: “Area 18: Dentistry,” “Area 22: Collective Health,” “Area 20: Nursing,” and “Area 21: Physical Education.”

The smallest group is composed of different areas: Biodiversity, Environmental Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences I; except for the titles in stratum C, the others are in strata B3 and B4. Biotemas did not present endogamy, and the others did not exceed 20%.

Criteria for institutional diversity and endogamy were not mentioned in the reports of the following areas: “Area 42: Agricultural Sciences I,” “Area 7: Biodiversity.” In “Qualis Periodicals Report, Area 49: Environmental Sciences,” there is the information about endogamy being one of the criteria for stratum lowering: “As for stratum lowering, the following adjustment criteria were used: i) signs of endogamy and maintenance of local scope; ii) inadequate use of established editorial criteria; iii) publications aimed at audiences outside the scope of graduate studies” (Almeida; Schmitt; Naval, 2019, p. 6).

Of the 117 journals analyzed, nine did not have CAPES Qualis classification; some were created in recent years (2021, 2022, 2023) and did not undergo the four-year evaluations. Conhecimento em Construção had 100% endogenous content, Compor appeared with 89%, Revista de Medicina UNC with 83%, Regionem with 69%, and Revista NIPEAS with 40%.

Conhecimento em Construção showed evidence of publishing the course completion work of UNOESC Civil Engineering students. This evidence reinforces the finding of Rodrigues et al. (2018), who affirm that journals are understood by some editors as a channel for disseminating articles by students or professors, whether from undergraduate or graduate courses of their institutions. The creation of journals with specific purposes and that do not meet or do not intend to meet the standards demanded by the main indicators of quality in science must clearly explain their purpose, so as not to create mistaken expectations for authors who may submit papers for publication.

It was also possible to identify significant variation in the number of articles published per year, which range from one or two in Revista Gestão e Sustentabilidade of UFFSQ - Qualis B3 -, Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria e Desempenho Humano of UFSC - Qualis B1 in Physical Education -, and Cadernos de Naturologia e Terapias Complementares of UNISUL - Qualis B3 in Public Health - to more than 100 articles per year in Texto e Contexto Enfermagem of UFSC - Qualis A3 in Nursing -, Revista Insignare Scientia of UFFS - Qualis A4 in Teaching -, and Cadernos de Tradução of UFSC - Qualis A1 in Linguistics and Literature.

6 CONCLUSION

The average endogamy rate in Santa Catarina universities is 15%, but four institutions present endogamy level above this value - UNIARP (21.43%,), UNIVILLE (22.73%,), UNC (39.07%), and UNESC (54%). With regard to journals, the majority of titles is in stratum A concentrates - 62 (53%) -; 43 (37%) are in stratum B, and only three (2%) are in stratum C. Nine journals (8%) have no Qualis classification. As the evaluation stratum decreases the endogamy rates increase, and strata B3, B2 and C are those with the highest endogamy rates - 27.4%, 27.59%and 49.47%, respectively. Not analyzed journals have a 43.36% average endogamy rate, and indexed journals have a lower endogamy rate, 12.23%. Among the identified databases, journals indexed in SciELO have the lowest average endogamy rate, 13.13%. The areas with the highest average endogamy rates are Collective Health, Economics, Law and Dentistry, with 80%, 50%, 37.91% and 32%, respectively.

The study of journals published by universities allows identifying the behavior of institutions and titles for which it is responsible. The concentration of titles in the so-called soft areas of science show at the same time the editorial domain of these areas and the lack of journals in the areas of exact and life sciences, which reflects a trend of Brazilian journals. The number of journals in each university is proportional to the number of graduate courses it offers in the areas, but only 15% of the 117 journals analyzed are indexed in at least one of the most relevant databases. Even in SciELO, we find only 10 titles, and in the three databases only three titles. Moreover, only 56% of the journals analyzed are indexed in DOAJ, which is a less restrictive directory for admission.

Among the main research findings, it is evident that UFSC stands out regarding publication of Humanities, Applied Social Sciences, and Linguistics journals, which does not correspond to the articles produced by the authors of the institution, which distinguishes itself for publishing most of their work in English and in journals with high impact factor in Health and Agrarian areas (Rodrigues et. al., 2021). UDESC stands out for publication of Arts and Humanities journals.

Journals indexed in at least one of the major international databases have a lower endogamy rate in general, but not enough to establish a clear relationship between endogamy and indexing.

The analysis of the results does not allow direct associations between the endogamy percentage and the Qualis strata attributed to the journal; this happens due to two main aspects: each area establishes criteria, parameters, and distinct indicators for the evaluation of scientific production published in journals; and there are no explicit parameters to evaluate endogamy as high or low between different areas (Köhler; Digiampietri, 2023), although literature considers the lack of institutional diversity of the authors a problem. When the documents of the main area mention an acceptable percentage or contraindicate its occurrence, each area adopts its own rule.

It can be inferred that endogamy tolerance is related to the area of knowledge and the journal profile, with the organizational culture of its editors and other team members, since they establish the journal guidelines and define the evaluation criteria. The lack of definition of the limits to publication by authors of the same institution, region, or country has consequences in the journal management and evaluation and can cause disparities in titles in the same area.

The areas with documents that establish parameters or indications about endogamy, exogenia, and institutional diversity of authors and/or members of the editorial boards were: Education, Interdisciplinary, Teaching, Arts, Law, History, Philosophy, Anthropology, Social work, Communication and information, Geography, and Architecture, Urbanism and Design. The areas whose documents do not mention questions about endogamy, exogenia, and institutional diversity of authors and/or members of the editorial boards were: Dentistry, Collective Health, Nursing, Physical Education, Sociology, Economics, Agricultural Sciences I, Biodiversity, Public and Business Administration, Accounting and Tourism, Linguistics and Literature, and Urban and Regional Planning and Demography.

The study evidenced the diversity of behavior of the various areas of knowledge in relation to endogamy, and it was not possible to distinguish whether those who do not mention the subject do not care about the lack of institutional diversity of the authors or are so consolidated to the point of considering institutional diversity of authors in journals to be an obvious requirement.

Finally, it is noteworthy that the research results can arouse reflections and new practices for those professionals who work in the processes of communication and scientific publication.

Acknowledgments:

Not applicable.

References

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• 

  
  
• 

  
  

• Funding:
  Not applicable.

• 1
  https://ancib.org/coordenacoes-e-ementas-de-gt/
• 2
  https://encurtador.com.br/qRwHi

• Ethical approval:
  Not applicable.
• Availability of data and material:
  https://doi.org/10.48331/scielodata.ANDAMK
• Image:
  Extracted from the Lattes platform.
• JITA:
  JB. Serials management
• ODS:
  4 - Quality Education

Edited by

• Editor:
  Gildenir Carolino Santos

Data availability

https://doi.org/10.48331/scielodata.ANDAMK

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  18 Aug 2025
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  11 Mar 2025
• Accepted
  02 May 2025
• Published
  22 May 2025