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Professionalization Challenges in Brazilian Management Journals
Scientific publishing in Brazil’s academic management community has expanded rapidly over the past three decades. What was once a marginal academic activity has become central to graduate program evaluation and academic careers. While this expansion has increased research output, it has also exposed persistent structural weaknesses in the professionalization of journal editing and management.
Most Brazilian management journals operate under a university-based, non-commercial publishing model. They are predominantly open access, APC-free, and hosted by public universities or business schools. Although this model supports inclusivity and public access to knowledge, it also raises concerns regarding editorial sustainability, quality control, and professional recognition, issues that resonate far beyond the Brazilian context.
Publishing Pressure and Institutional Change
Before the early 2000s, Brazilian scholars, particularly in management and the social sciences, faced limited institutional pressure to publish in peer-reviewed journals. This changed with the growing influence of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).
CAPES introduced formal evaluation criteria linking graduate program performance to publication output. As Master’s and PhD programs became increasingly assessed based on the quantity and quality of journal articles, publishing turned into a strategic requirement. This policy-driven environment led to a rapid increase in manuscript submissions.
However, Brazilian management scholars often encountered difficulties publishing in established international journals due to language barriers, differing methodological expectations, and limited access to global editorial networks.
Expansion of National Management Journals
To accommodate growing domestic research output, numerous national management journals were established. These journals typically follow open access models without article processing charges, are hosted by academic institutions, and operate independently of commercial publishers.
Many of these journals are integrated into regional open access infrastructures such as SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), which has played a central role in strengthening open access publishing in Latin America.
While this ecosystem supports wide dissemination, it also places extensive responsibilities on academic editors who often lack formal training, administrative support, or long-term institutional backing.
Editorial Work as Invisible Academic Labor
A central professionalism challenge lies in how editorial work is perceived within universities. Editorial leadership is commonly treated as collegial service rather than as a specialized professional role.
In practice, editors manage peer review, make ethical and methodological decisions, ensure compliance with indexing and metadata standards, and address issues related to plagiarism and conflicts of interest. Despite the complexity of these tasks, editorial work is rarely recognized in workload calculations, promotion criteria, or performance evaluations.
International frameworks such as those promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) highlight the professional and ethical responsibilities of editors.
Yet, alignment with such standards remains uneven due to limited institutional support.
Training Gaps and Editorial Capacity
Another critical limitation is the absence of systematic training in scientific editing. Editors are typically appointed based on disciplinary expertise rather than editorial competence.
Modern journal management requires familiarity with publication ethics, peer review systems, digital publishing platforms, indexing requirements, and international best practices. Resources from organizations such as DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) emphasize editorial transparency and quality standards.
Without structured training or certification opportunities, many editors rely on informal learning, limiting consistency and international alignment.
Consequences for Journal Quality
The combined effects of limited training, lack of recognition, and insufficient institutional support result in uneven journal quality across the Brazilian management publishing landscape. While some journals have achieved international indexing and visibility, others struggle with long review timelines, inconsistent editorial decisions, and weak enforcement of ethical standards.
These challenges reflect systemic underinvestment in editorial professionalism rather than individual editorial shortcomings.
Institutional Pathways Forward
Improving professionalism in Brazilian management journals requires institutional solutions rather than reliance on individual effort.
- First, structured training programs for editors, supported by universities, funding agencies, and scholarly associations, are essential.
- Second, administrative and financial support, including dedicated editorial staff and technical assistance, can significantly improve workflow efficiency.
- Third, editorial work must be formally recognized within academic career structures, including promotion and workload allocation.
Broader Implications
Although this discussion focuses on Brazil, similar challenges affect university-based, non-commercial journals worldwide, particularly in regions where open access publishing is driven by academic institutions rather than professional publishers.
Brazilian management journals play a vital role in disseminating knowledge and supporting academic development. Addressing professionalism challenges through training, institutional support, and formal recognition is essential not only for strengthening national journals but also for enhancing the credibility and sustainability of non-commercial scholarly publishing globally.
Keywords
Scholarly publishing Editorial professionalism Management journals Brazil University-based journals Open access APC-free publishing Editorial training Peer review Research integrity CAPES SciELO Non-commercial publishing Academic labor Journal quality and sustainability
Herbert Kimura is a Full Professor of the School of Management at the University of Brasilia in Brazil. He is an expert in financial risk management and innovation management. Dr. Kimura is the Editor-in-Chief of the Contemporary Business Journal (RAC) from the Brazilian Academy of Management Association (ANPAD). He is author of textbooks in management and finance, academic papers in the fields of finance and innovation. He served also as coordinator of the Science Park initiative and the Incubator program at the University of Brasilia. Dr. Kimura holds a BS in Electronics Engineering from the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA), a MS and a PhD degrees from the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and PhD degrees in Business and Management from the University of Sao Paulo and from the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV).
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their affiliated institutions, the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE), or the Editor’s Café editorial team.
