THIS THEMATIC ISSUE IS THE RESULT OF THE INSTITUTIONAL COMMITMENT of the Department of Social Sciences (DCS), the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (Ensp), the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), in partnership with the Brazilian Center for Health Studies (Cebes), aiming at scientific dissemination.

The issue addresses in a multidisciplinary perspective a range of topics of interest in the field of social sciences applied to health. Returning to the original assumption of the collective health project, the articles and essays gathered here incorporate ‘in their creation, their thinking, and their performing’ the different points of view of the various human and social sciences, and the field of health. In this sense, we valued the reading of comprehensive problems in which different types of knowledge could explore, from a diverse analytical angle, the intersections and boundaries of disciplinary formations¹1 Birman J. A interdisciplinaridade da saúde coletiva. Physis. 1996; 6(1-2):7-13.. This choice made it possible for a wide range of themes to be placed on the agenda for reflection and debate under the ‘Social sciences and public health: dialogues’ thematic umbrella.

The main feature that marks the project of this publication in relation to the usual pattern of thematic numbers is the choice for non-normative reading on relevant issues in the social sciences, public health, and related areas of public policy. Despite the explicit orientation for democratic values and the defense of civic rights, most articles do not decline from the critical reflection on the possibilities, contradictions, and impasses that are present in the contemporary Brazilian social experience and State intervention in the field of health.

Finally, it is worth noting the plurality of formats of scientific publication contemplated in this issue, especially the presence of a large number of papers in the form of essays and multiple variants of the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion (IMRAD) model. It is necessary to recognize, in the editorial orientation of the journal ‘Saúde em Debate’, the crucial opening for articles with alternative formatting to the standardization prevalent in biomedical journals. We consider that the IMRAD model is not the only one suitable for the dissemination of knowledge from other sciences, even though it is also dominant in national public health journals. We hope that reading the papers gathered here will inspire new editorial projects that promote the diversity and plurality of approaches and scientific perspectives.

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