CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF THE JOURNAL ENSAIO: REVISITING OUR PAST AND NEW HORIZONS

ABSTRACT:

In this editorial we rescue the history of the journal Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências highlighting key events that marked the trajectory of the journal as an important vehicle for scientific communication in the area of Science Education. This rescue is a tribute to all the editors who contributed significantly to the magazine and research in the field of Science Education. Faced with a series of challenges, some present since the magazine’s birth and others new, it is also a way of positioning our scientific journal in the face of current editorial trends and demands, outlining perspectives and envisioning new horizons for Ensaio.

Keywords:
Science Education; History; Editorial

RESUMO:

Neste editorial resgatamos a história da revista Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências evidenciando acontecimentos chave que marcaram a trajetória do periódico como importante veículo de comunicação científica da área de Educação em Ciências. Esse resgate é uma homenagem a todas as pessoas editoras que passaram por nossa revista e deram efetivas contribuições à pesquisa no campo da Educação em Ciências. Diante de uma série de desafios, alguns presentes desde o nascimento da revista e outros novos, também é uma forma de situar nosso periódico diante das tendências e demandas editoriais vigentes, delineando perspectivas e vislumbrando novos horizontes para a Ensaio.

Palavras-chave:
Educação em Ciências; História; Editoria

RESUMEN:

En este editorial rescatamos la historia de la revista Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências evidenciando acontecimientos clave que marcaron la trayectoria de la revista como importante medio de comunicación científica del área de Educación en Ciencias. Este recate es un homenaje a todas las personas editoras que trabajaron en nuestra revista y contribuyeron efectivamente a la investigación en el campo de la Educación en Ciencias. Ante una serie de desafíos, algunos presentes desde el nacimiento de la revista y otros nuevos, también es una manera de posicionar nuestra revista ante las tendencias y demandas editoriales actuales, delineando perspectivas y vislumbrando nuevos horizontes para Ensaio.

Palabras clave:
Educación en Ciencias; Historia; Edición

The first issue of the Ensaio was edited, in printed format, in the year of 1999. Professor Arnaldo Vaz, from the Colégio Técnico da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Technical College of the Federal University of Minas Gerais - COLTEC), was the first editor-in-Chief of the journal during the first years in 1999 and 2000. The magazine came up from a project of the CECIMIG/UFMG (Centro de Ensino de Ciências e Matemática de Minas Gerais da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais/Minas Gerais, Sciences and Mathematics Teaching Center of the Faculty for Education of Minas Gerais Federal University). The CECIMIG was created in 1965 and since then, it develops actions for the improvement of the teaching of Sciences and Mathematics and for the formation of teachers in these knowledge areas in the state of Minas Gerais. At the time, as per the words of Vaz (1999), the CECIMIG had conditions to propose a project for creation of a new publishing culture in the research area of Science Education in Brazil. And the journal had as mission the commitment with the required consolidation and advancement in the area of Science Education in Brazil through the publication of research reports with scientific and methodological accuracy, through the processing of data from different Brazilian social and cultural realities and by covering all the sub-areas of Science Education.

The emergence of the Ensaio is associated to a special historical moment for the area of Science Education, in which the discipline was established as a field of knowledge in Brazil, marked by the appearance of important vehicles for diffusion of knowledge in the area, such as: Caderno Catarinense de Ensino de Física (1984), Ciência & Educação (1995), Química Nova na Escola (1995), Investigações em Ensino de Ciências (1996). Here, we highlight the scope of the journal Ensaio, introduced by professor Arnaldo Vaz in the first editorial (Vaz, 1999):

“Ensaio begins as biannual and is intended to publish original reports of research, critical reviews of recent surveys, and discussions on specific topics related to the education of sciences at all levels of education. Few limitations to content, approach and methods will be imposed. The submitted articles are expected to be accompanied by the presentation of conclusions and implications for future surveys and educational practices. It is desirable that the authors establish the relation of their works to the trends of thought about the subject by means of a critical reading of the relevant literature. It is also desirable that the work includes a report of the methods and procedures used in the study.” (p.4)

In the second editorial of the journal (Vaz, 2000), they present the types of works accepted for publication. In the section Investigations, there are original reports of research, involving empirical investigations; theoretical studies; critical reviews of the literature and systematic reviews of the literature. The section Perspectives was created to publish articles with discussions about practical, theoretical, and methodological issues that are relevant mainly to researchers and postgraduate students in the knowledge area. The editor was looking for works that presented, in depth, the contributions of certain “classical authors” of the area. Vaz (2000) emphasized the lack of articles introducing subjects and those portraying a panoramic view of a range of topics. The section was opened to comply with this role and to publish productions that, until then, were restricted to the final works of postgraduate courses. It is worth noting that during the history of the journal, only two works were published in the section Perspectives in the year of 2000. This section was reactivated by our chief editor, in the year of 2021, with the publication of opinion-article type works, which we found coherent with the original proposition of Vaz (2000) for the section. The opinion-article was proposed as a method to open the peer review process and to expand the dialogue about the subjects/authors treated in the original article published based on the views and experiences of the authors and referees that performed the arbitration of the original article (further details on this kind of publication can be obtained in the editorial of the Ensaio published in 2023).

We congratulate and thank the CECIMIG team, professor Arnaldo Vaz, and all the people who assisted him in this project called Ensaio. We recognize that it took a lot of courage to start such a great undertaking. Also, we acknowledge our gratitude to the authors who submitted their works for publication in these two initial years of the existence of the magazine, thus showing their confidence in the project.

During the years from 2001 to 2012, the professor at the Faculty of Education at UFMG, Silvânia Sousa do Nascimento, took on the chief editorship of the magazine. Throughout these years, important events contributed to the consolidation of Ensaio in the community of research in the area. In 2001, with the publication of Volume 3, we also initiated the electronic format of Ensaio. During the administration of Professor Silvânia, researchers connected to CECIMIG contributed to the editors of the magazine. We draw attention to the articulation with Professor Danusa Munford (at the time, professor at the Faculty of Education at UFMG) in the editorship of the magazine Ensaio during the years from 2005 to 2007. In 2012, Vieira (2012) announced the expansion of the editorial board of the magazine, then with four associate editors per knowledge area: Rodrigo Drumond Vieira; Ana Luiza de Quadros; Francisco Ângelo Coutinho and Maclóvia Correia da Silva, which was justified due to the increase in number of manuscripts received. The expansion in the editorial board aimed to meet the requirements of a journal that had become a national reference in the publication of quality articles.

Between 2013 and 2016, Orlando Gomes de Aguiar Jr. (professor at the Faculty of Education at UFMG) took on the chief editorship of the journal. Professor Orlando Aguiar, in the editorial of 2013 of the journal Ensaio (Aguiar Jr., 2013), highlighted the huge contribution and dedication of Professor Silvania Nascimento, who had been in charge of the magazine since 2001. It is worth noting the progresses made by the magazine Ensaio during the years commanded by her, which we also emphasize here. We congratulate her for the work and we extend it to the associate editors who shared the editorship in the magazine: Regularization of the publication; establishment of standards for formatting of published works; expansion and consolidation of the journal’s national and international coverage and collaborators (in the position of authors and referees); consolidation of the academic recognition of the research community in the area of Science Education due to the quality of the works published in the journal and the coverage of themes (identified by the CAPES evaluation system, with Qualis A2 for Ensaio in the areas of Teaching and Education, in the year of 2013); influence on science education through dissemination of the results of the research and materials for the initial and continued training of science teachers.

During the administration of Prof. Orlando Aguiar Jr., in the year of 2015, magazine Ensaio was integrated into SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) collection, which is an open access electronic publishing base adopted in the national periodicals collection in the countries of Latin America and Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and South Africa. The integration of the journal into the collection is in line with the conception of open access periodical, free of charges for readers and authors. Since 2015, the articles published by Ensaio can be accessed on the SciELO database https://www.scielo.br/j/epec/ and on the portal of periodicals of UFMG https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/ensaio. The periodicals that are indexed at SciELO are carefully selected for application and maintenance in the collection, including, as elements for evaluation: the scientific feature, acceptance rate of manuscripts, the publication of original articles, punctuality, performance in terms of number of citations, institutional and geographic representativeness of the periodical’s editorial board and, more recently, the adoption of open science practices.

The editorial of 2015 (Aguiar Jr., 2015) specifies two procedures adopted by journal Ensaio to increase the visibility of the periodical internationally. The first was the publication of studies in other languages, preferably English or Spanish. The second procedure adopted by Ensaio was the insertion, starting with volume 17 of summaries of all the articles in three languages: Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Still in 2015, the journal Ensaio published its only special volume, which was organized with the partnership of professors Orlando Aguiar Jr. (UFMG), Rosária Justi (UFMG), Lúcia Helena Sasseron (USP) and Daniela Lopes Scarpa (USP). This special issue came as result of the discussions occurred in the three days of the workshop “Argumentation and science education,” held at the Faculty of Education of the University of São Paulo, in May of 2014.

Regarding the representativeness of the editorial board, in 2015, the editorship of the magazine was increased with the participation of researchers from other institutions from Minas Gerais, additionally to UFMG. During that period, along with the staff of the associate editors that was created in 2012 (responsible for the assignment of the manuscript to the referees and tracking of the process for the manuscript evaluation with issuance of the editorial decision in accordance with the chief editor), they created the assistant editor board (responsible for the technical analysis of the documents in terms of form and content and according to the editorial policy of the periodical). We acknowledge here with gratitude the names of the professionals that have worked (or that still work) in the editorial team of the magazine, who have greatly contributed to their specialties and different roles in the flow of publications of the periodical: Fábio Augusto Rodrigues e Silva, from the Federal University of Ouro Preto (2013 - 2021), Bernardo Jefferson de Oliveira, from the Federal University of Minas (2013 - 2016), Vanessa Avelar Cappelle Fonseca, from the Federal University of Minas (2013 - current). We would like to express our sincere appreciation for the administration of Prof. Orlando Aguiar Jr. (2013 - 2016), whose enormous improvements resulted in the integration of the journal Ensaio into the SciELO collection, thus allowing the periodical to have, throughout time, greater visibility, accessibility, quality, impact, and adhesion to the policies of open science. During this period, we highlight the introduction of a new practice that has become fundamental in the journal’s workflow: the consolidation of the article pre-analysis process, developed by doctoral students and/or recent doctors. During this period, Vanessa Avelar Cappelle Fonseca, at the time a doctoral student at the Federal University of Minas, contributed greatly to the processes of receiving manuscripts and updating data in the system used at the time. After her doctorate defense, Vanessa remained as editor of the magazine, and has been part of the editorial board since then. Subsequently, Luiz Gustavo Franco, as a doctoral student (UFMG), took on this same role, followed by Luciana Martiliano Milena (UFABC). Currently, the journal has a consolidated pre-analysis team with young researchers from different institutions.

Between 2017 and 2020, Danusa Munford (UFABC) and Silvânia Sousa do Nascimento (UFMG) took over as chief editors in the magazine with a proposal of having an increasingly more cooperative editorship through the expansion of institutional partnerships: Glauco dos Santos Ferreira da Silva (CEFET-RJ) (2017 - current), Guilherme Trópia Barreto de Andrade (UFJF) (2017 - current), Cláudia Avellar Freitas (UFJF) (2017 - 2020), Paulo Henrique Menezes (UFJF) (2017 - 2020), Rena de Paula Orofino (UFABC) (2017 - 2023), Paula Cristina Cardoso Mendonça (UFOP) (2017 - current), Luiz Gustavo Franco (UFMG) (2017 - current), Ana Paula Souto Silva Teles (UFMG) (2017 - current), together with editors Fábio Rodrigues (UFOP) and Vanessa Capelle (UFMG), who already belonged to the editorial team. In 2017, the journal adopted the continuous publication, with digital only format, and became part of the Redalyc database. When more established, the periodical started the evaluation of the manuscripts using the OJS (Open Journal Systems) system, which is a software developed for management of electronic periodic publications from the PKP (Public Knowledge Project), highly recommended by CAPES, since it allows the registration of all the phases of the editorial process and the easier retrieve of data from the evaluation processes over a period of time. In addition, rules were established to avoid endogeny in the publications, among which: non-publication of articles in the Ensaio authored by members of the current editorial team of the magazine; avoid the publication of more than 10% of the total number of articles in the volume with authorship of researchers linked to the CECIMIG (UFMG); and avoid publication of more than one article per volume by the same researcher.

We recognize the work performed by the editors in this period, which can be confirmed through the four-year period evaluation of CAPES in the period from 2017 - 2020, in which the magazine obtained classification A1 for the areas of Teaching and Education. Above all, we want to highlight the innovative management proposal of professors Danusa Munford and Silvânia Nascimento in magazine Ensaio, with the integration of recent doctorate graduates and young researchers, additionally to the team of researchers connected to CECIMIG. The insertion of a new generation of Science Education researchers from different institutions corroborates that the magazine has been maturing over the time, always maintaining the foundations anchored to the CECIMIG, while also being constituted as a periodical of the Science Education community in Brazil, just as much as the creation of the project intended to in 1999.

It is also worth highlighting our sincere gratitude to the administrative technicians linked to CECIMIG. Flávio, Angela, Maurício and Graça dedicated themselves to the magazine’s activities at different moments in its trajectory, providing assistance to authors, plagiarism analysis and other secretarial services. Unfortunately, with changes in the university’s administrative structure, we were unable to reposition this position, which reflects part of the challenges we have faced, along with issues of budget restrictions for open access journals in the current context. Since 2020, we no longer have an employee for the magazine.

In 2021 we continued sharing the editorial direction, which was assumed by Luiz Gustavo Franco (UFMG) and Paula Cristina Cardoso Mendonça (UFOP). The positions of joined and associate editorial direction were expanded to different geographical regions in the country and abroad: Arthur Galamba (King’s college, London, 2022 - current), Alessandra Fernandes Bizerra (USP, 2021 - current), Luciana Massi (UNESP, 2021 - current), Luciana Passos Sá (UFSC, 2021 - 2023), Marina Rodrigues Martins (UFRB, 2021 - current), Nathália Helena Azevedo (University of Groningen, Netherlands, 2021 - current), Paloma Blanco-Anaya (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 2021 - current), Rosana Louro Ferreira Silva (USP, 2021 - current), Rafael Alves Ferreira (SEE-MG, 2022 - current), Mariana Tambelini (SEE-SP, 2023 - current), Leonardo Gonçalves Lago (UFLA, 2021 - current), besides of professors Glauco Silva (CEFET - RJ), Guilherme Trópia (UFJF), Rena Orofino (UFABC), Vanessa Capelle (UFMG), who were already part of the previous editorial direction. Besides of having the team of joined and associate editors selected according to their educational aspects (chemistry teaching, physics teaching, and biology teaching), we looked for people with different specialisms (environment education, scientific diffusion, for example) in the area of Science Education, due to the different subjects published by the magazine Ensaio in the last volumes.

Throughout these three years of administration, we have been striving to include editorial practices in line with the movement of open science, as discussed with the community during the years of 2021 (Mendonça & Franco, 2021), 2022 (Bizerra & Sá, 2022) and 2023 (Mendonça et al., 2023) in our editorials. We highlight here some actions of the magazine that were implemented in these years and that impacted the pioneering spirit and visibility of the journal on the national scenario: declaration of authorship and collaboration occupations for submission and publication of the article; declaration of the editor responsible for the processing of the article; document of compliance with open science when submitting the manuscript for evaluation; opening of process identities with the publication of opinion article in the section Perspectives; review of the site with explanation of the editorial policy of the journal about ethical issues and good scientific practices; acceptance of preprint; removal of anonymity in the evaluation per peers; and sharing of research data. We also highlight that the magazine Ensaio has been encouraged to discuss these subjects in different spaces, such as events of the SciELO Open Sciences in Humanities³ (2022) and the XIV National Meeting of Research in Science Education, ENPEC⁴ (Goiás, 2023), intending to incite the reflection about and open science agenda consistent with the epistemological and methodological assumptions of the humanities/education area.

With reference to the last item, we established the position of data editorial direction in 2022, which was occupied by the researcher Nathália Helena Azevedo. The data editorial direction assists the team of Ensaio throughout the editorial process and the authorship during the data curation. The position includes the evaluation of the methodology and the representation of the data, offering specialized opinions to improve clarity in the communication of these aspects, aiming at the sharing in the repository of the magazine Ensaio on SciELO (Dataverse). In addition, this editorial direction manages the Dataverse of Ensaio, helping to define the openness level and the formats for availability of data, always guided by ethics and transparency. Due to the novelty in the position of data editorial direction in the Science Education area and thanks to the work already executed by the function throughout the year of 2023, in this editorial we are sharing with the public of the magazine our path in this practice of open science, and we provide clarifications on what open data is, what types of data can be shared in the educational research and how to share data securely.

Lastly, but not really important, we highlight the magazine’s coordinated effort in disseminating research to the general public, through scientific dissemination on different platforms. Through lives on YouTube and posts on social networks such as Instagram® and X®, Ensaio seeks to bring its articles to society. Furthermore, publications on the Scielo Blog and partnerships with the Bori agency are other initiatives in the same direction. Different young researchers made contributions at different moments in this process: Rafael Ferreira Almeida, Edyth Priscila Campos Silva, Deborah Cota, Luan Henrique Alves and Rafaela Valero.

We are grateful for the partnership of the evaluators, readers, and authors in this 25-year endeavor, and we count on your reliance on our journey towards the open science with IDEIA (Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility).

THANKS

To CECIMIG for the trust placed in our Ensaio team (2021-2014). The Federal University of Ouro Preto, Postgraduate Program in Education and Researcher Aid Notice, for the resources for translating the editorial into English and Spanish. To CNPQ, for the 1st author’s research productivity grant.

REFERÊNCIAS

• Aguiar Jr. O. G. (2013) Editorial. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências, Belo Horizonte, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172014150101
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172014150101
• Aguiar Jr. O. G. (2015). Editorial. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências, Belo Horizonte, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172015170213
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172015170213
• Bizerra, A. F., Sá, L. P. (2022). Editorial: Vamos conversar sobre autoria? Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências, 24, https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172022240112.
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172022240112
• Mendonça, P. C. C., Franco, L. G. (2021). Editorial: A ciência aberta e a área de Educação em Ciências - perspectivas e diálogos. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências, 23, https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172021230102
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172021230102
• Mendonça, P. C. C., Franco, L. G., Massi, L., & Coelho, G. R. (2023). Editorial: Experiências da revista Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências com avaliação por pares aberta. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências, 25, https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172022240137
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172022240137
• SciELO. Guia de preparação de dados de pesquisa [online]. SciELO, 2021. Available from https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/Guia_preparacao_pt.pdf
• SciELO. Guia de depósito de dados de pesquisa [online]. SciELO, 2023. Available from https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/Guia_deposito_pt.pdf
  » https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/Guia_deposito_pt.pdf
• Vaz, A. (1999). Editorial. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências. Belo Horizonte, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21171999010101
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• Vaz, A. (2000). Editorial. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências. Belo Horizonte, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172000020101
• Vieira. R. D. (2012). Editorial. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências. Belo Horizonte, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172012140101
  » https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-21172012140101

• 3
  https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/06/09/a-ciencia-aberta-nas-humanidades/
• 4
  https://enpec2023.com.br/programacao

• 10
  CECIMIG would like to thank National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and Research Support Foundation of the State of Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) for the funding forediting this article.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 Mar 2024
• Date of issue
  2024