This editorial presents an assessment of the output of Revista Ciência & Saúde Coletiva in 2021. We list below some of the salient statistics: there were 12 editions and 3 supplements, with a total of 573 published articles, of which 407 were in Portuguese or Spanish and translated into English, 11 were only in Spanish and 155 were only in Portuguese. It shows that this journal currently has a vast bilingual output (73%), with 70.02% articles translated into English or written in English¹1 Meneguini R, Paker A. Is there science beyond English? Initiatives to increase the quality and visibility of non-English publications might help to break down language barriers in scientific comunication. EMBO Rep 2007; 8(2):112-116.. We make available 35 articles per month to the reader, with research summaries and a vast gamut of information. All publications can be accessed through the www.cienciaesaudecoletiva.com.br or the www.scielo.org websites.

For readers and collaborators to appreciate the scale of this nationally and internationally acknowledged collective work, we provide an example. Among the bases for verification of impact, the 2021 Google Scholar ranking stands out, in which Ciência & Saúde Coletiva ranks first among the top 100 Brazilian journals in all areas with international circulation, with an h5 index of 61 and median of 83 (https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=pt-BR&vq=pt). It is important to stress that, despite ranking in first place in the last five years in this benchmark website, our Journal has not yet received the recognition it deserves in the Qualis/CAPES system²2 Nassi-Calò L. Como a retórica da excelência influencia a avaliação da pesquisa [Internet]. SciELO em Perspectiva; 2022 [acessado 2022 jan 1]. Disponível em: https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/01/28/como-a-retorica-da-excelencia-influencia-a-avaliacao-da-pesquisa/.
https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/01/28/... .

Admittedly the good score by impact factor is a source of pride, but we would pose another fundamental question in the context of scientific dissemination: who is our journal targeted at and who reads it? That is the reason why we present a summary of what was published, emphasizing that all thematic issues are the result of research. This year, we present three issues analyzing the 2013 and 2019 National Health Survey. We also provide results from national and regional studies, such as the editions that address: Aging and Dependence; Performance of the Family Health Strategy in Brazil and in the Northeast in particular; The role of the “Rede Cegonha” (Stork Network); Youth Status in Latin America; Inequalities in Access to Health; Contemporary Global Health Issues; Access to Medication, among others. Special mention is given to the fact that no topic of core interest to public health is absent from volume 26 of 2021, including: reviews of relevant topics, theoretical essays and research findings on gender, ethnicities, age brackets, social inequalities, and related topics. A total of 38 prominent articles on COVID-19 from the perspective of public health were published, supplementing the more than 50 published in 2020.

With respect to the authors with articles published in Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, as is to be expected, most are Brazilian: (2,204, corresponding to 93% of the total). However, we had 152 foreign collaborators who, albeit still few in total, highlight the broad scope of the Journal. In order of magnitude, they are from: Portugal (34), Colombia (24), Spain (22), United States (19), Mexico (14), Argentina (13), United Kingdom (9), Chile (5), Canada (5), Italy (4), Australia (1), France (1), India (1) and Scotland (1).

Lastly, we would stress that Ciência & Saúde Coletiva adhered fully to the concept of open science, and in order to encourage all authors to be inspired in the same direction, in the introduction to its website it placed an explanatory letter on the steps of this developing process³3 Hochman E, Campos LA. A ANPOCS, seus Encontros Nacionais e a Ciência Aberta [Internet]. SciELO em Perspectiva; 2022 [acessado 2022 jan 7]. Disponível em: https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/01/07/a-anpocs-seus-encontros-nacionais-e-a-ciencia-aberta/.
https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/01/07/... . Likewise, we are reaching the desired level in the waiting time for articles ahead of print to be incorporated into the indexed edition.

Dear readers, everything we achieved in 2021, namely overcoming difficulties, fears, physical isolation and other obstacles caused by COVID-19, was only possible because we are a united, responsible, professional team and we have the support of several bodies, SciELO being one of them. We are aware of the importance of the Journal for public health and for Brazilian science!

References

Publication Dates