The challenges faced by the Fournal of Venomous Animals and Toxins Including Tropical Diseases editorial team in the transition between two publishers of international rename

Abstract

The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins, born in 1995 in a public university, was the first Brazilian digital publication. In 1998 it was selected to be part of the SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) database and in 2003, in order to become more comprehensive, Tropical Diseases were included in its scope. It was then named The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD). In 2006, the Journal was selected to be part of two strategic international bases: Web of Science from Clarivate Analytics, which annually publishes the Impact Factor, and Scopus from Elsevier, which publishes Cites / Doc and CiteScore. As these indexes stabilized until 2012 between 0.30 and 0.50, the Editorial Board decided to firm a partnership with BioMed Central Springer-Nature, an internationally renowned open access publisher. A major restructuring of the journal occured on this occasion, including adopting a continuous publication model and indexing in PubMed Central, in order to improving quality and increasing metrics. In 2018 the FI reaches 2,935, Cites per doc 2,973 and CiteScore 2,630. In six years the indicators increased substantially, that is, from 0.5 to 2.9. Given the high investments needed to renew the partnership, the Editorial Board decided to prioritize the maintenance of open access and ensure the financial sustainability of the journal, bringing the publication back to Brazil from 2019. The SciELO team decided to support this courageous initiative and became the new partner in this challenge. The strategies adopted in the transition are described in detail in this experience report.