Vol. 25 No. 41 (2010): Acústica e Vibrações 41

Editorial

Acústica e Vibrações has undergone important changes in recent years under the current board of SOBRAC. The main driver behind these changes is the need felt by the acoustics and vibrations community for a quality, indexed local scientific journal. Currently, research works developed at the national level are, for the most part, restricted to presentation at national congresses and a small number of works are published in international scientific journals. This greatly restricts the dissemination of these works, such as master's and doctoral works, in addition to greatly limiting the exchange of information between members of the local community.

The initial idea was then to transform the journal Acústica e Vibrações into an indexed journal, and with this initial objective I accepted to assume the role of editor-in-chief of the journal. The first step was a survey of information regarding the indexing process of a scientific journal. For this purpose, different sources were consulted, including the Scielo database (one of the main databases in the country), people linked to the journal incubator at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, personnel linked to CAPES, in addition to participation in a seminar on the editorial process of scientific journals. In general, the rules for indexing a scientific journal depend on the database chosen, but what can be seen is that many of the indexing criteria of most databases would be difficult to implement in the journal Acústica and Vibrations. Take, for example, the requirements of the Scielo database to provide online content, currently exclusive to SOBRAC members, and purely scientific content, excluding articles of a technological nature that are of interest to many members. In addition, with the transformation into a scientific journal, the journal Acústica e Vibrações could no longer perform its functions as a communication and dissemination tool between the board and associates.

Due to these difficulties and limitations, a new proposal was evaluated: a new journal would be created in the area of ​​acoustics and vibrations, with a scientific character and meeting the indexing criteria of the main databases. In this way, many of the problems associated with the transformation of the journal Acústica e Vibrações into a scientific journal were avoided, in addition to maintaining the latter's functions as a means of communication for the board and its technological character. The solution involving two journals in the area of ​​acoustics and vibrations, one scientific and the other of a more technological nature, follows the examples of other international societies in the area of ​​acoustics and vibrations, such as the American Society of Acoustics (ASA), which publishes the journal “Acoustics Today”, with an informative and technological profile, and the “Journal of the Acoustical Society of America” (JASA), of a scientific nature, and the European acoustic societies, which publish the “Acta Acústica United with Acustica” and which, in their Most also have a technological and informative magazine. Another important change in relation to the initial idea concerns the editorial board, which should not be directly linked to SOBRAC (whose board changes every 4 years), thus seeking to ensure continuity in the editorial line of the new journal.

The fact that the new journal is not directly linked to SOBRAC also opens up space for seeking to include the acoustics and vibrations community in other Latin American countries, which also lack a local scientific journal, which leads to suggestion of the name “Jornal Latino-Americano de Acústica” for the new magazine. In any case, the support of SOBRAC and other Latin American acoustic societies will be fundamental to the success of this undertaking. The project of the new magazine is in an advanced state and more information should be made available on the SOBRAC website soon.

In view of the option to create a new scientific journal, number 41 of the Acústica e Vibrações journal maintains the format of the previous numbers. However, an effort was made to have the submitted articles reviewed. A total of 14 articles were submitted to the journal through the SOBRAC website, and 6 articles were accepted with modifications suggested to the authors, thus guaranteeing the quality of the articles published.

Issue 41 of the journal is the latest issue under the current board. With the change of board, I also leave the position of editor, which will have to be appointed by the new board, and I will dedicate myself to the work of organizing the Jornal Latino-Americano de Acústica. Finally, I would like to thank the support received during my time as editor, especially from Prof. Stephan Paul, from the Federal University of Santa Maria, and the current board of SOBRAC.

Julio A. Cordioli

Summary content:

• A review of methods for in situ measurement of surface acoustic impedance;
• A summary of acoustic performance in residential buildings according to the Brazilian standard ABNT NBR 15575;
• Analysis of mapping studies of sound pressure levels and assessment of noise nuisance in the cities of Maringá and Curitiba in the state of Paraná;
• Thermoacoustic control of a thermogenerator unit: a case study;
• The assessment of environmental noise in industries in the city of Curitiba for social security purposes;
• Assessment of environmental noise pollution – standards and laws used in Brazil; and
• Railway noise.