Since its foundation, the Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ, Sociedade Brasileira de Química in Portuguese) has been committed to its editorial policy, launching Química Nova, in 1978, and the Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (JBCS), in 1990, both thanks to the vision of Professor Eduardo Peixoto and, in the case of the JBCS, also following the community’s support to create a journal aimed at publishing original articles in English to enable its international circulation and increase its impact on global literature.¹

In its first decade, according to the Web of Science database (using the search string “All Fields/Chemistry”), 514 papers by authors with at least one affiliation to a Brazilian institution were published in the JBCS, corresponding to approximately 10% of all publications in indexed chemistry journals by Brazilian researchers in this database. In subsequent decades, this percentage decreased, reaching approximately 6.0% in the 2010-2019 decade and around 2.5% over the last five years (2020-2024), despite the JBCS being indexed in several databases (in the Journal Citation Reports since 1998) and the extensive editorial modernization in its recent history.

How can we explain the decrease in the attractiveness of the JBCS, the flagship journal of the SBQ?

The almost exponential increase in the number of indexed journals in recent years, particularly those that do not value strict editorial standards and are driven by commercial interests - “pay and publish” - and the significant number of contributions per issue (mainly through special issues) is part of the explanation. These publications offer an easier path than well-established journals with better editorial reputation, especially those linked to scientific societies.

This greater ease of publishing in less demanding journals combines perversely with the still almost omnipresent ethos of “publish (at any cost) or perish”, which, although justifiable in the past (given that we find only about 600 original articles published by Brazilian authors in indexed chemistry journals in the 1970s), can no longer be considered a strategic action for our community.

Besides the inherent drawbacks of such conduct (fragmentation of results, author consortia, and other ethically questionable practices), it diverts attention and effort from the true advancement of knowledge, prioritizing topics for which obtaining results is less challenging, thus contributing to the overall impact of Brazilian publications remaining below the global average. Dismantling this logic is a task for current and future generations. Although some funding agencies and research institutions in our country claim to base their selection criteria only on a limited number of publications highlighted by the candidate, in practice, many of us still resort to numerical criteria when acting as reviewers or committee members.