An up-to-date view of the evolution of Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz from 1907 to 2006.

The journal Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz was created by Decree No. 1812, of December 12, 1907, when the Manguinhos Experimental Pathology Institute (Instituto de Patologia Experimental de Manguinhos) was founded. Article 1, paragraph 9, of this decree determined that studies originating from the Manguinhos Institute would be published by ways of annals (“memórias”), as the experiments were confirmed. Memórias would be distributed among the professional schools of medicine, veterinary science, and agriculture that existed in the country, and would have exchanges with foreign publications of the same type. Memórias was initially a typically institutional journal, in that it performed the role of an archive for scientific production from the institution that edited it. Thus, in 1923, the information was given just after the contents list that Memórias would be exclusively reserved for the publication of original work carried out at the Institute. Since there was no one at the Institute who could take care of setting the journal up, Oswaldo Cruz took on all the work himself. He had the responsibilities of choosing the printing presses, selecting the typeface, ordering the paper, reaching understandings with lithographers and specialists in stereotype plates, selecting translators and reviewing the proofs. When, for any reason, he had to be absent, he passed the task over to Adolpho Lutz, who equally distinguished himself with regard to the journal’s quality. Oswaldo Cruz’s personal involvement was also underscored in the regulation that determined that studies could only be published in the name and under the responsibility of the Institute if they had been approved by the director. To meet the quality criteria demanded by the journal’s regulations, the Institute installed its own printing press, on which Memórias was printed from 1909 to 1940. In 1940, by decree, the National Press became responsible for carrying out all the printing work for federal government departments. The first issue of volume I was published in April 1909, in which each article had a text in Portuguese and another in French, English or German, according to the author’s wishes, in order to make the articles accessible to foreign readers who did not know our language. In the second issue, the article Nova tripanozomiaze humana, by Carlos Chagas, was published with a translation into German. Memórias was initially published as one volume per year, with a possible range of one to five issues per volume. Breaking the sequence of one volume per year, two volumes per year were published in 1922, 1930, 1934, 1943, 1944, and 1945. In 1996, publication of six issues per volume started. The first supplement for Memórias dates from 1928/ 1929 and contained a variety of studies without, however, demonstrating a relationship with events of any nature. Without such justifications, the publication of supplements was halted and resumed in 1984, always connected with a given scientific event. Examples that can be cited include symposia in homage to Carlos Chagas, Hugo de Souza Lopes, and Lauro Travassos and symposia on malaria, immunomodulators, insects, pests and vectors, pharmacology and natural products, extracellular matrix, eosinophilia, nitric oxide, paleoparasitology and paleopathology, among others. Furthermore, there were the supplements that reproduced the annual meetings on basic research relating to Chagas disease, from 1986 to 2000, and the international symposia on schistosomiasis, of which the tenth was published this year. Whereas initially Memórias exclusively published studies originating from the Institute, in 1956 the adverb “exclusively” was replaced by “principally”. In 1959 it was made explicit that the journal was destined for publication of original research produced by members of the Institute’s scientific staff, which exceptionally could include collaboration by authors from outside the Institute. In 1980, now in its modern phase, Memórias started to publish studies from other national and foreign institutions, under the condition that these should be original, of a good level and be guided by the journal’s publication standards. It was at this time that the journal came to have the figure of the Editor, since up to that point this role had been performed in different manners: from 1909 to 1959, all the indications are that it had a director; from 1959 to 1964 it had an editor-secretary for publications; from 1965 to 1975 there was an editorial committee composed of two to five researchers; in 1976 the position became one of “editorial consultancy”; in 1980 the title of editor emerged, which until 1985 was a function of the Director of the Institute, who started to have the collaboration of an Editorial Board; and from 1986 onwards, the position of editor started to be occupied by an independent researcher, a policy that has continued until today. I had the honor of becoming the first official Editor of Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, when in January 1980, as the Director of our Institute, I took on this position cumulatively, so that we could resurrect the journal, which had not been published for three years (19771979). From January 1980 to December 2006 the following researchers were the editors of Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz: