Nandita Quaderi and I (Fiona Pring) recently joined some of our Springer colleagues on an engagement tour through Brazil.  Both BioMed Central and Springer are committed to helping Brazilian researchers bring their work to the attention of the international community, and to this end Springer opened an office in São Paulo early in 2011, providing a base as well as local contacts for all our initiatives in Brazil.

During our trip, we participated in author workshops at Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, where we provided attendees with information about open access publishing, including the benefits to the individual researcher, in a presentation entitled ‘Open access publishing: your research on the world stage’.  The main attraction of the workshops, however, was the comprehensive guide ‘How to Write for and Get Published in Scientific Journals’ by Daniel McGowan, Science Director at our publishing partner Edanz. 

This 90-minute presentation – throughout which attendees from masters level through to senior researchers scribbled notes ferociously – covered all aspects of the journal submission process, from choosing your journal, through to tips on writing an article that will reach the review stage, to publication ethics and the benefits for non-native English speakers of publishing in international journals.

Our trip also enabled us to meet with contacts at local institutions, such as Universidade de São Paulo and Conselho Regional De Medicina Veterinária Do Estado Do Rio De Janeiro, including librarians and research Deans.  We were pleased to meet in person a number of BioMed Central Brazil-based Editors and Editorial Board Members from a range of our journals.  Over lunches in both São Paulo and Rio De Janeiro we discussed everything from individual journals, to the possibilities provided to researchers through BioMed Central Institutional Membership, and Brazil’s economy overtaking that of the UK.

The success of the road show, the warm welcome with which we were received at all the venues, and the pleas from our contacts at institutions where we were unable on this occasion to arrange author workshops, encourage us to join with our Springer colleagues on similar ventures in the near future.