The third year of the Brazilian Journal of Geologyand its international challenge

Abstract

was an important meeting of its Editorial Council, with the presence of 10 of its Brazilian members. The main objective of this meeting was to evaluate the situation of the journal, rethink its future, and guide its next steps toward its full internationalization.In early 2012, Revista Brasileira de Geociências (RBG), with a four-decade-long tradition in Brazilian geology, was placed by the SBG Board of Directors under the responsibility of the present Editorial Council. With the creation of this council, the SBG wanted that the journal would take over the position of a leading national scientific channel in the area of the Earth Sciences and that it would try to improve its importance in the world geological community. After a few months of transition, the formal actions of the new board of the magazine began in July. Still as the RBG, two issues were published in September and December 2012, maintaining the punctuality that had already been acquired by the previous editorial board, whose editor-in-chief was our colleague and friend Alberto Pio Fiori. At the end of 2012, the RBG also published a complementary thematic issue: Avanços em Geologia Sedimentar, Ambiental e Hidrogeologia no Brasil. Back then, the initial goals of the RBG were to manage being accepted in international databases and also to obtain a better ranking in the QUALIS system for classification of scientific journals in the national system of the CAPES, a sector of the Ministry of Education.With Volume 43(1) of March 2013, the RBG changed its name to Brazilian Journal of Geology (BJG), so that with its present volume, of December 2015, the BJG completes its third year of life. Eleven issues of the BJG have already been published on time, with what is best about geology in Brazil, and this is the twelfth one. Not long ago another thematic supplement was published, containing several contributions that were offered during the VI Latin American Congress of Sedimentology. I understand that the initial goals, envisioned three years ago, were obtained. The BJG was accepted by SciELO, the internationally known Brazilian scientific database, and also by the Web of Science, the main international quantometric system. The journal will receive its first impact factor in mid-2016. In addition to that, the BJG was also promoted to B1 in the classification of scientific journals compiled by the CAPES, which corresponds to the journals of international stature.The Brazilian geological community had adapted to the new conditions offered by the BJG, and responded well to its present characteristics. The flow of submissions within the past three years is summarized in Table 1.The table indicates that, within these three years of life, the flow of manuscripts presented some fluctuations, roughly between 6 and 10 monthly submissions. Considering the progresses made, especially on the new improved classification granted by the CAPES, it is possible to expect, in the near future, that this flow will become more pronounced. At the time, 30 articles are under evaluat...