Brasil
Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional
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Editorial • Rev. bras. saúde ocup. 50 • 2025 • https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369/00125en2025v50eedfl1 linkcopy

Open-access RBSO on the move: legacy, transformations, and perspectives

AuthorshipSCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Editorial changes

The Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health (RBSO) has a long history, which was recalled during the celebrations of its 50th anniversary1-3. The journal’s development is evident, especially since 2005, when a team of committed editors took over the leadership of the journal and began to outline strategies to strengthen it4-6. Until 2025, the journal’s scientific and executive editorial teams remained practically unchanged. In 2025, changes took place that deserve to be mentioned.

Eduardo Garcia Garcia, RBSO’s executive editor for 20 years, played a key role in the journal’s development. In 2025, he retired as a researcher at the Jorge Duprat Figueiredo Foundation for Occupational Safety and Medicine (Fundacentro). In recognition of his remarkable and lasting contribution, his leadership of the editorial team, and his willingness to continue collaborating with RBSO, he was awarded the title of RBSO editor emeritus.

Ada Ávila Assunção, who has worked on the RBSO editorial team since 2006, stepped down as editor-in-chief in 2016, following her retirement as a full professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Professor Ada, a reference in the field of occupational health, with recognition in Brazil and abroad, has made a significant contribution to improving the journal and the quality of its contents.

Raoni Rocha Simões, professor at the Federal University of Ouro Preto, former associate editor of RBSO and former editor-in-chief of the journal Ação Ergonômica, published by the Brazilian Association of Ergonomics and Human Factors, was appointed to fill the vacant editor-in-chief position. Eduardo Algranti, editor-in-chief, and Leila Posenato Garcia, editor-in-chief, remained in the scientific editorial office. Cézar Akiyoshi Saito, previously RBSO’s executive editor, is now deputy editor. These changes were approved by the journal’s editorial board at a meeting held in May 2025. There were also resignations and additions to RBSO’s associate editorship, which as of that month has 44 members, 25 of whom are women.

RBSO in Scopus

In 2025, RBSO achieved an important milestone - its indexing in the Scopus database, a large database of abstracts and citations of articles published in a set of selected journals. The process of indexing in this database considers strict criteria. The RBSO was evaluated by the Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB), an independent board made up of researchers and scientists with extensive experience in publishing scientific journals. This evaluation addressed the quality, relevance, and impact of the published content, the rigor and transparency of the peer review process, adherence to ethical standards and integrity in research and publishing, the geographical diversity of authors, and regularity of publication.

Indexing a journal on the Scopus database represents recognition of its relevance and visibility in the scientific environment. Such indexing considerably increases the ability of articles published in the journal to be retrieved by a wide audience from the most diverse regions of the world, which consequently increases the citation potential of the articles published. This makes the journal even more attractive to authors.

It also makes it possible to calculate various bibliometric indicators for the journal, as well as for authors and institutions. The main indicators are the CiteScore, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) for journals, and the h-index for authors. In July 2025, RBSO’s SJR was equivalent to 0.325, CiteScore to 1.6, and SNIP to 0.694, and the journal was positioned in the third quartile of the set of journals in public, occupational, and environmental health.

Although bibliometric indicators have recognized limitations and should not be used as the sole criterion for evaluating a journal, or even the scientific production of researchers and institutions7, they are useful for monitoring the citations the journal receives and provide information on the journal’s position in relation to other journals in related areas. Indexing in Scopus allows us to predict indexing in other international databases.

Editorial policy updates

Another strategy to increase the journal’s visibility is bilingual publication. Since 2025, RBSO has published all articles in Portuguese and English. Thus, articles submitted in Portuguese, when accepted for publication, are translated into English, and vice versa. Articles submitted in Spanish, when accepted for publication, are translated into English.

In line with this strategy, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) International Center has been asked to include the journal’s alternative title in English. From July 2025, RBSO will be identified as Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional/Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health in libraries and indexers.

It is important to note that RBSO remains a diamond open access journal, which does not charge any fees for submitting, publishing, or translating articles. It has an independent editorial board and is maintained by Fundacentro, a federal public foundation linked to Brazil’s Ministry of Labor and Employment.

The year 2025 is also a milestone for adapting the journals in the Brazil Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) collection to the modus operandi of open science. RBSO’s editorial policy already included accepting articles that had been published as preprints, encouraging open data practices and publishing the name of the editors responsible for approved articles.

An update in editorial policy concerns the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. In addition to prevent the inclusion of AI tools in the list of authors, in accordance with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)8, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)9 and the SciELO Network10, previously contemplated, guidance was included for authors to declare the use of AI at any stage of the research or preparation of the manuscript, as recommended by the European Association of Science Editors (EASE)11.

In this context of rapid development of the journal and with the recent changes in the editorial team, the RBSO team reaffirms its alignment with the best editorial practices and its commitment to the continuous improvement of the journal. We hope that we can count on the support of the scientific community in occupational safety and health, so that the journal can continue to grow as a privileged vehicle for disseminating content that can support improvements in the health situation and working conditions of the working population.

References

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    15 Sept 2025
  • Date of issue
    2025
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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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E-mail: rbso@fundacentro.gov.br
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