History

The Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Naturais  arose from the old “Boletim do Museu Paraense de História Natural e Ethnographia”, created in 1894. Its centennial trajectory is intertwined with the establishment of the scientific field in Brazil, which helped to form and consolidate. It can be broken down into six phases.

The first corresponds to the period 1894-1914, when eight volumes were published, with no periodicity. These volumes made public the production of a fertile scientific team of naturalists, led by Swiss zoologist Emilio Goeldi (1859-1917) and the Swiss botanist Jacques Huber (1864-1914). In its first twenty years, the Bulletin has gained international fame for spreading – in unprecedented quantity and quality – scientific information about the Amazon.

The second phase can be characterized by attempts to restore circulation of the Bulletin from 1933 to 1956, after a long interruption caused by the lack of public investment. During this period, only four volumes were published.

The third phase began in the second half of the 1950s, when the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (nowadays Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq), through the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), started managing the Goeldi Museum (MPEG). Between 1957 and 1983, dozens of single issues were published, without periodicity, broken down into four series: Anthropology, Zoology, Botany and Geology.

The fourth phase began in 1984, when the CNPq launched a direct administration of the MPEG. More resources and administrative autonomy promoted new editorial and graphic overhaul in the Bulletin. Three series were kept, Anthropology (ISSN 0522-7291), Zoology (ISSN 0077-2232) and Botany (ISSN 0077-2216), plus a fourth in 1989, titled Earth Sciences (ISSN 0103-4278). With the exception of the latter, of annual circulation, the periodicity was half-yearly for each of the series. The Scientific Council and the Editorial Board were also created, responsible for producing the journal. Rules for submission of papers have become clearer, as well as the exchange program diversified the collection of journals in the Museum Library.

Between 2002 and 2005, the publication of Bulletin ceased. In 2005, due to the need to encourage multidisciplinary and optimization of budgetary resources in Brazilian institutions of S&T, a new graphical and editorial overhaul was promoted in the Bulletin. Since then, the journal began to move in only two series, Human Sciences (ISSN 1807-5398) and Natural Sciences (ISSN 1807-5401).

However, both kept the characteristics of a serial publication, especially in the title and irregular periodicity. That was the reason why, in 2006, with the help of the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional and Instituto Evandro Chagas, the title suffered a fit, passing to Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas (ISSN 1981- 8122) and Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Naturais (ISSN 1981-8114) – titles and ISSN valid nowadays. In the current phase, a special team was organized with the objective of making the relevant editorial reforms and bring the publication to an appropriate benchmark of a scientific journal.

Since 2006, the responsible Editors were renovated and expanded, with the inclusion of researchers from other Brazilian and foreign institutions; the Scientific Council was also renewed, meeting Brazilian and foreign scientists of recognized competence; Editorial Policy was reviewed as well as the instructions for authors, the normalization process, the layout, and the exchange and distribution system; a site was designed for full and free access of published content; there was strong institutional and geographical diversification of the authors; and the indexing was updated in the old databases (CAB Abstracts, IBSS, Zoological Records) and extended to new ones (Latindex).