Challenges and perspectives in editorial practices in the Social Sciences and Humanities in Public Health

Abstract

This essay examines the challenges and perspectives of editorial practices in the Social Sciences and Humanities within the field of Public Health. It identifies a global crisis in peer review, driven by the difficulty of finding overburdened reviewers and by a “publish or perish” culture that fosters redundancy and threatens scientific integrity. Historically, Social Sciences and Humanities journals have been disadvantaged by evaluation models adopted by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, which favored metrics typical of exact and biological sciences. Recent changes, however, seek to place greater emphasis on qualitative standards and the specific features of this subfield. The text also highlights two major trends: Open Science, which promotes transparency through preprints and open peer review, and artificial intelligence, which can optimize technical workflows but may deepen inequalities between the Global North and South because of algorithmic bias. Finally, it argues for the adoption of innovative editorial formats, such as “living articles,” visual essays, and poetry, while strengthening policies that ensure diversity and visibility for research in the Social Sciences and Humanities.