The prestige of the academic publishers with books in social sciences and humanities in Brazil

Abstract

Book are important means of scientific communication in the Social Sciences and Humanities. That is why their correct evaluation should be continuously improved. In this article, we present the different methodologies for the valuation of academic books applied by the Brazilian and Spanish agencies, as well as the results of a study about the prestige of publishers. The questionnaire through which the data was obtained was sent to 16,542 directors of research groups in humanities and social sciences, and 1,977 answers (12%) were obtained. The results are novel, as it is the first time that a study regarding the quality perception of publishers in Brazil is carried out based on the specialists’ opinions. The most prestigious publishers in the area of Education are presented and, as in other areas, there is a small nucleus of Brazilian publishers that concentrate the most votes. In the case of foreign publishers, prestige is not so concentrated, with Portugal, France or Spain as the origin countries of these publishers. These results can serve as a guide of scientific evaluation processes in Brazil. In addition, the research might provide editors with knowledge about how they are perceived and help authors choose a publisher to submit their manuscripts.