Guará Journal Receives an A1 Rating from QUALIS CAPES for the 2021–2024 Four-Year Period

By Otávio Gomes*

Guará Journal, a periodical published by the Pro-Rectorate for Extension (Proex) at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), received an A1 rating from QUALIS CAPES, the highest rating for scientific publications. The rating took into account publications released during the 2021–2024 four-year period.

QUALIS is an evaluation system managed by CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), a foundation of the Ministry of Education (MEC) focused on stricto sensu graduate programs (master’s and doctoral degrees) in Brazil. Journals are evaluated every four years and assigned a grade, with A1 being the highest, followed, in descending order, by A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, and C. 

The ratings for Guará Journal and the other scientific journals evaluated by QUALIS can be viewed on the Sucupira Platform’s website. The classification is conducted every four years by the advisory committees for each evaluation area, following criteria previously defined and approved by the Technical and Scientific Council for Higher Education (CTC-ES), a collegiate body of CAPES. The criteria for evaluating journals can be found here.

“The A1 classification is the highest recognition of academic excellence,” says Paola Primo, Executive Editor of Guará Journal. “Being an A1 journal acts as a magnet for quality. This allows us to attract authors from other regions of Brazil and abroad, increasing the diversity and richness of what we publish. For the author, it means that their article will have the visibility and academic weight of cutting-edge research, which counts significantly toward their career and their Lattes Curriculum,” she adds.

Guará Journal is a scientific journal dedicated exclusively to publishing research on extension initiatives, projects, and programs. According to Paola, this classification serves as recognition that scientific knowledge of the highest standard can also be produced in the field of extension.

“University extension programs are often viewed as secondary to pure research, but this rating proves the opposite: it demonstrates that the dialogue between the university and society produces cutting-edge scientific knowledge, characterized by rigor and impact. When we created the journal, the goal was to give a voice to extension initiatives. This rating puts Guará Journal on the same level as major scientific journals, which is a source of immense pride for our team and for UFES,” she celebrates.

*Intern under the supervision of Paola Primo