ciências biológicas e da saúde - USC

EditorialMULTIDISCIPLINARITY IN CONFLICTThe university is still the choice place for production of knowledgeand technological innovation. On the one hand, periodicals for sciencedissemination remain the adequate tool for fixing and spreading thisknowledge. In fact, different from technological products, the resultedknowledge of research is not necessarily aimed for patents or are regardedas merchandises: the focus is publishing (Ayçaguer, 1995).Undoubtedly, Internet opens a new room for the concept of disseminatingknowledge. Among them, the availability of an increasing and almostunfailing amount of information in the various fields of science.As per the biological and health sciences, this fact is particularly relevantsince the improvement in technologies for investigation in the last50 years led to a compartmentalization of knowledge. With the introductionof this new instrument for dissemination and interaction (De Almeida,2001) – the Internet – such specificity tends to increase. Specializedjournals and w.w.w. sites are the rule, both to absorb an accelerated productionof knowledge and to cope with intellectual and commercial interestof groups that produce this knowledge.These initial statements are necessary due to the uncomfortable situationthat some periodicals are facing – those of multidisciplinar nature.Their broad scope seems to be regarded as detrimental to their usefulnessand quality. The fact is that, acting primarily to disseminate the endogenousproduction of Universities, by definition necessarily multidisciplinar,such periodicals would not be coherent if dedicated only to aspecific area of science. However, most of them are navigating in the editorialand indexing sector as those ships in old times with a yellow flag– refused in all harbors.It should be remembered that most of these periodicals adopt and followstrict criteria of scientific editorship, including Peer Review, assuringhigh standards of layout and contents. Most of their articles, if submittedto sectorial journals, would comply with their requisites andwould be published without restrictions. However, the multidicisplinarityof the University – and of its journals – contributes to their outcast.7