Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz ISSN: 1678-8060 EISSN: 1678-8060 Vol. 101, Num. 1, 2006, pp. 1-1

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 101, No.1, February 2006, pp. 1

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz: tradition and inovation

José Rodrigues Coura, Luciane de Carvalho B Willcox

Code Number: oc06001

The Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, officially created by Oswaldo Cruz in 1907 to divulge researches developed at the Institute, had its first volume publicated in 1909 (Tome I). During this 96 years of existence, the journal developed with several inovations until the publication of volume 100, in 2005, maintaining its scientific excelence and tradition. From volume 75, published in 1980, the Memórias launched a progressive process of modernization turning into an international journal, publishing papers from Brazilian and foreign scientists from all over the World. Consequently, from 1987 on, the Memórias started publishing its articles preferentially in English for a better disclosure. Indexed by the Science Citation Index and other international indexes it is considered by Bioline one of the most consulted international journal in the biomedical field in Latin America and the fourth most cited in the field of Tropical Medicine in the whole World.

A new era to Memórias

From the first issue of Volume 101, the Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz intends to initiate a "new era", not only in its dinamic of scientific production, turning the editorial process quicker by incentivating the virtual contact of authors, referees, and the Editorial Office, but also with the creation of a new session: Readers' Opinion and Discussion, to publish comments on published papers with authors' replies, which we consider much more dinamic than the "Letter to the Editor", which seems slightly static. With this session we expect to dynamize the discussion on published papers.

Another inovation intended to be implemented is the development of thematic issues focusing subjects of great importance to the scientific community and Public Health. Some of this thematic issues will be generated by "invitation" to top scientists, and others will be arising out of international scientific symposium occurred in Brazil. Among these we are planning an international meeting on "Social and Epidemiological Determinants of Chagas Disease on the South Cone, Andean Countries, Amazon Region, Central America, and Mexico and its Repercussion in Non-endemic Countries throughout International Migrations", sponsored by the European Union, to be held in Rio de Janeiro from February 20 to 23rd, 2006 with papers being published in a thematic issue of the Memórias.

Considering the multidisciplinarity of the Memórias and the dificulty to make submitted articles to fit in specific sessions of the journal, from the present issue on, we will be separating the papers into three main categories: Reviews, which shall be incentivated, Articles, and Short Communications. Eventualy we may publish Technical Reports and the new session Readers' Opinion and Discussion, which will be stimulated to dynamize the discussion on published papers.

Finally, we will carry on with the project of digitalization of the complete collection of the Memórias, since its first volume, and its virtual distribution, which we believe will bring a high impact to our journal by making it internationally accessible

José Rodrigues Coura
Scientific Editor

Luciane de Carvalho B Willcox
Administrative Editor

Copyright 2006 Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - Fiocruz