In keeping with our position in favor of free access to scientific publications, we believe that measurement tools and software programs should be made widely available, with no restrictions on their use. Comprehensive sharing of tools allows verification of the results’ reproducibility and speeds up scientific progress while saving time and resources. Thus, CSP will only review articles that propose open-access and open-source measurement tools and software programs.

This editorial will concentrate on measurement tools, leaving the discussion of software programs for a later opportunity. We are interested in articles that approach in-house tools, under development by the authors, and tools that are being adapted to the Brazilian social, linguistic, and cultural context.

For articles that present initial stages of cross-cultural adaptation, i.e., the stages involving evaluation of theoretical, item, semantic, and operational equivalence, up to the pretest (Reichenheim ME, Moraes CL. Rev Saúde Pública 2007; 41:665-73), CSP currently adopts the brief communication format: a maximum of 1,700 words and three illustrations. Later larger-scale studies aimed at evaluating measurement equivalence – validity of the dimensional structure and external construct validity via testing of hypotheses (Reichenheim ME, Moraes CL. p. 150-64. In: Almeida Filho N, Barreto ML, org. Epidemiologia & Saúde – Fundamentos, Métodos e Aplicações. Guanabara-Koogan; 2011) – involve greater complexity and can be covered in subsequent full-length articles.

Although it is beyond the limits of publication in CSP, we encourage authors of articles involving instruments to maintain the various versions public, including the version that was finally used in the study for which the instrument published here was adapted. We are thus taking a step towards what we believe is the future of science, with free exchange of knowledge, whether it be a questionnaire, a software program, or even the data used in the analyses.

Marilia Sá Carvalho
Claudia Travassos
Cláudia Medina Coeli
Editors
Michael E. Reichenheim
Methodological Issues Editor

Publication Dates