Editorial: Celebrating 30 years of REGE: reflecting on past paths and shaping future perspectives

Citation

Marotti de Mello, A., Schnaider, P.S.B. and Maciel, L. (2024), "Editorial: Celebrating 30 years of REGE: reflecting on past paths and shaping future perspectives", Revista de Gestão, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 350-353. https://doi.org/10.1108/REGE-10-2024-211

1994 was a year full of significant political and cultural milestones that left a lasting impact worldwide. After years of Apartheid, South Africa celebrated a historic moment as Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the country's first black President. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into operation; the world mourned the tragic death of the Brazilian F-1 champion and national hero, Ayrton Senna. The year also saw the release of several iconic, award-winning films, including “Forrest Gump” and Schindler’s List. Additionally, the beloved sitcom “Friends” made its debut and the internet as we know was in its infancy.

In Brazil, it was a particularly eventful year: After the tragical loss of Ayrton Senna, Brazilians feasted, at last, the fourth world title in men's football World Cup; “Plano Real” ended nearly two decades of high inflation; Mr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso was elected as president, inaugurating a cycle of political and economic stability for the largest Latin American country.

In this exciting and optimistic environment, the Post-Graduation Program in Business Administration of the School of Economics, Business, Accounting and Actuarial Sciences at the University of São Paulo (FEA/USP) decided to create an outlet for publishing original scientific articles from Master’s and PhD candidates: The “Administration Research Journal”, or “Cadernos de Pesquisa em Administração”, as shown in Figure 1, its first cover.

Since 1947, FEA/USP has been publishing “Revista de Administração da USP” or “RAUSP Management Journal” (www.rausp.usp.br). At that time, RAUSP was already one of the most highly regarded Brazilian journals among researchers in the field, attracting contributions not only from PhD and Master’s students, but from more experienced researchers from all over Brazil and other Latin American countries. As the number of Post-Graduation Programs was increasing, so as the demand for giving more publicity for the results of the researches carried on those programs, the coordination of the post-graduation program in business at FEA/USP decided to create a new journal, destined to fulfill this growing demand from other universities. As the first editor (and coordinator of post-graduation program at that time) Prof. Fauze Mattar said in his first editorial: “The “Caderno de Pesquisas em Administração” is dedicated to publishing research, articles, research communications, and other results of activities carried out by professors and students in graduate programs in administration in Brazil.”

The journal was published semiannually until 1997. That year, in an attempt to attract more diverse contributions and audiences, it started to accept contributions from MBAs and “tutorial articles”. Until the early 2000s, when the journal launched its own website, most of its authors were from FEA/SP, and it primarily served as an outlet for the post-graduation program's work.

As the journal consolidated its position and its editorial process, it began to receive more contributions from diverse authors from different parts of Brazil. But it remained primarily a local journal. This changed in 2004 when the editor-in-chief, Profa. Maria Aparecida Gouvêa, announced that the journal had been reclassified from “A Local” to “B National”, in Qualis Capes System [1]. In July 2005, Prof. Maria Aparecida announced the rebranding of the journal – it was renamed as REGE – Revista de Gestão, as it remains until today.

REGE, then, experienced a period of steady growth in submissions and publications, remaining as an important outlet for qualified production from Master’s and PhD candidates in Brazil. This situation started to change in 2010, when the editors in that period (Prof. Nicolau Reinhardt and Prof. Cesar Alexandre de Souza) announced that internationalization was the main goal of the journal, reflecting the policy of the FEA Post-Graduation Program, which was at that time already recognized as having “international level excellence” by Capes.

In 2016, REGE began a new cycle with a new editor-in-chief, Prof. Adriana Marotti de Mello, embarking on an ambitious process of modernization and requalification in its field: printed editions were discontinued, a publishing agreement was established with an international publisher, and the process of indexing the journal in major international databases began. Efforts were made to promote the articles through other channels, such as interviews and posts on social media and news outlets (like the “Jornal da USP”), aiming to increase the impact of REGE’s publications. Additionally, Special Issues on cutting-edge topics in administration research began to be published regularly, as well as the promotion of a new visual identity and website (see Figure 2). The editorial team and board were revised to be more diverse in terms of academic background, gender and regional representation. Those efforts have been rewarded: in 2017, REGE was classified as B1 in the Qualis Capes System.

In 2018, another change occurred: REGE began to be published exclusively in English (although it still accepts contributions in Portuguese and Spanish), and it initiated a collaboration with Emerald Publishing. Since then, REGE’s impact has grown exponentially: it has been indexed in Scopus and Web of Science and reclassified in Qualis Capes as A2 (the highest ranking for a Brazilian journal in management).

Since 2022, in addition to the editor-in-chief, REGE has had two co-editors: Prof. Leandro Maciel and Prof. Paula Nissimoff. From its origins to this day, REGE has maintained its commitment to publishing high-quality works, contributing to the dissemination of research and ideas that add value to the work of scholars and practitioners in the field of management. Today, we are cited by and receive contributions from various parts of the world, from Asia to Africa and Latin America. Since our inception, we have been an open access journal, free of publication charges, thanks to sponsorship from FIA (Fundação Instituto de Administração).

The challenges for REGE's future are numerous, not only in terms of consolidating its current editorial practices but also in considering its role in important emerging discussions for the field of scientific publishing in business management, such as open science and the use of artificial intelligence in scientific publishing. We hope that this incredible journey, from a local journal to one of the highest-cited journals in the field of management in Latin America, is just the beginning.

Figures

Figure 1

Front cover of Vol.0, Nr.0 of “Cadernos de Pesquisa em Administração”

Figure 2

REGE website with a new visual identity

Notes

1. Capes (Fundação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) is a foundation of the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) and its mission is the expansion and consolidation of stricto sensu graduate programs (master's and doctoral degrees) in Brazil. It has a system to classify scientific journals, known as “Qualis Capes”, that periodically evaluate journals and its widely used as a quality indicator of journals in Brazil (https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/documentos/avaliacao/avaliacao-quadrienal-2017/DocumentotcnicoQualisPeridicosfinal.pdf).