Journal’s background

Issued in February 2007, dObra’s is the scientific journal dedicated to fashion with the longest circulation time in Brazil, idealized by the Professors Ph.D. Khatia Castilho and Ph.D. Tula Fyskatoris, the journal was created aiming at the dissemination of original and up-to-date research and their multidisciplinary inter-relations, with special attention to the cultural, historical, and social dimensions. In this way, the journal filled a gap that had been under construction for two decades, a period in which the first bachelor courses in fashion were created in the country, and professors and researchers began to dedicate themselves to fashion as a subject of academic research.  

The journal meant both a space for discussion and circulation of research and a gesture towards the construction of fashion as a field of study in Brazil.  These senses are present in the name dObra[s], which refers to the verb “to double”, meaning multiply, expand, make big, more complete, more intense.

The journal was well received by professors, researchers, and students, also by institutions. In 2008, it received first place in the category of Writing Works of the 22nd Design Award of the Museu Casa Brasileira. Among the characteristics indicated by the jury for the award was the “originality in the way of approaching fashion, the contribution to the study and debate about the theme in their broad cultural insertion and the inter-relations with others fields of cultural studies for researchers and professionals.”

Initially, dObra[s] was defined as “a fashion journal, but not only; academic, but not so much”. Between 2014 and 2015, new arrangements redefined the publication’s purposes and work: Professor Ph.D. Maria Claudia Bonadio was appointed as Editor in Chief and the dObra[s]’s editorial profile was increasingly being aligned to the premises of scientific publications. This means, for example, to fulfill a quarterly periodicity, receiving submissions in free flow and in open calls the papers, interviews, reviews, and translations in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. Also, perform double-blind peer evaluations of the received manuscripts, in addition to redefining the Editorial Board, the journal’s production practices, and the Scientific Council, which became international.

Another significant change was the passage of the printed edition to the digital edition. Until then, dObra[s] was an exclusively printed commercial journal, only in physical version, which restricted its circulation. In 2014 the journal started to be funded by the Brazilian Association of Studies and Research in Fashion (Associação Brasileira de Estudos e Pesquisas em Moda – ABEPEM); this allowed to make it completely digital and free access, expanding its circulation and reach. This action included the digitalization and the online availability of all the previous editions, which were hosted in a management-free system of academic journals – OJS (Open Journal Systems). In the address, https://dobras.emnuvens.com.br/dobras, it is possible to find the complete and totally online editions of dObra[s]: more than 600 papers, written by about 480 authors, from over 15 countries.

Making the dObra[s] a journal in digital media allowed for expanding the identification and indexation resources, which enabled the enlargement of its presence in search engines. For example, all the journal’s papers started to receive a D.O.I. (Digital Object Identifier), including the papers published from 2007 on. Besides that, it was possible to insert the author’s identification ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID). Therefore, all the papers and authors/co-authors started to have individual IDs used in the international indexers, which helps with precise identification.

These actions, carried out since 2015, integrate the ethical and good practice's principles for scientific journals recommended by the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (Associação Brasileira de Editores Científicos - ABEC) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and allow the journal to be indexed; it means to be listed in the main international indexers, such as Web of Science and Latindex. As a result of this work, dObra[s] started to comply in a more direct manner with the evaluation requirements of CAPES/Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação), being today evaluated as Qualis A3 in all fields.

The thematic dossiers, carried out since 2016, have been an important means to explore a variety of themes, establishing dialogues between authors, and it’s been a fruitful experience in partnerships with the organizers of the proposal.     

The visuality is another strong point of dObra[s] Journal, which had, since the beginning, a defined visual identity and, over time, improved. For example, when it passed to digital format, it became feasible to expand the use of colors, graphic design resources, and images, using them beyond the cover, in the openings of sections, and beginning of papers. The photographs and illustrations in the journal are freely conceded by invited artists. The images that dObra[s] used were gradually gaining notoriety, and, from 2019, gained an exclusive exhibition space in the edition - the Gallery section, where the work of each artist can be seen as a whole.

In order to increase the visibility of published papers and encourage access to the journal and its archives, in 2021 the profile @dobrasrevista was created on Instagram. There are fragments of articles, reviews, interviews, and translations of the current and previous issues, as well as calls for thematic dossiers, information about the submissions in free flow, answers to frequent questions, and announcements about the release of new editions.