Challenges to the publishers of humanities in scientific journalism and social networks: reflections and experiences

Abstract

This article analyzes the experiences of História, Ciências, Saúde - Manguinhos (History, science, health), a journal published since 1994 by the House of Oswaldo Cruz, at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. The background being the difficulties faced by journals of the humanities, it discusses the pathway of HCS - Manguinhos until it is welcomed by the SciELO Portal, the resulting implications in regard of the editorial routines, the potential of dissemination and the perspectives of internationalization. Editors are viewed amidst currents of thought which express either convergent or contradictory opinions concerning: first, the processes underway to hierarchize and internationalize the Brazilian scientific journals; second, the ways to disseminate their contents and evaluate their impact; and, third, the quantitative and productivist tendencies that prevail today in the academic milieu. The paper describes difficulties arising from the effort of making HCS - Manguinhos international and analyzes the results achieved after joining the social networks, in June 2013, by making use of metrics different from those long ago defined to assess the impact of scientific publications.