Design editorial como recurso para disseminação da informação científica: uma análise da Gazeta Médica da Bahia

Abstract

This research pointed to the need for the performance of a multiprofessional team in the development and graphic planning of scientific journals. Shortcomings have been noted in terms of a user-centered design of scientific publications, which requires immediate increments to achieve a better visual presentation of the publication, with the priority of transferring, producing and circulating information efficiently, clear and objective. However, there was an enormous resistance from scientific-academic editors in directing investments to assemble multiprofessional teams, leaving the graphic designer with all this responsibility and demanding from him, on semiotic knowledge, graphic design and on the user's cognitive field. Thus, it was asked: what elements and principles of editorial design should a scientific journal adopt to achieve a better visual presentation, specific to the dissemination of scientific knowledge? Note this questioning, the general objective of this study was to discuss the theoretical assumptions about what editorial design is and its contribution to the dissemination of scientific information in the light of the grammar of visual design and information science. In the specific objectives, the concepts of information, communication, semiotics and design were addressed, identified as issues involved in the design methodology and its vectors for scientific journals; editorial design was understood and its role as a mediator for the dissemination of scientific information; the history of the Revista Gazeta Médica da Bahia was revisited and the layout of the three covers chosen as a sample of the study was systematized, contributing to the areas of information science and design. For this investigation, a visual analysis of the layout of three covers of Gazeta Médica da Bahia was carried out, applying the theory of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996/2006), in order to understand editorial design and its role as a mediator for the dissemination of scientific information.