Abstract A system called QUALIS was implemented in Brazil in 2009, intended to rank graduate programs from different subject areas and promote selected national journals. Since this system uses a complicated suit of criteria (differing among subject areas) to group journals into discrete categories, it could potentially create incentives to publish in low-impact journals ranked highly by QUALIS. Here I assess the influence of the QUALIS journal ranking system on the global impact of Brazilian science. Brazil shows a steeper decrease in the number of citations per document since the implementation of this QUALIS system, compared to the top Latin American countries publishing more scientific articles. All subject areas showed some degree of bias, with social sciences being usually more biased than natural sciences. Lastly, the decrease in the number of citations over time proved steeper in a more biased subject area, suggesting a faster shift towards low-impact journals. Overall, the findings documented here suggest that the QUALIS system has undermined the global impact of Brazilian science, and reinforce a recent recommendation from an official committee evaluating graduate programs to eliminate QUALIS. A system based on impact metrics could avoid introducing distorted incentives, and thereby boost the global impact of Brazilian science.

Resumo Embora a criação de abelhas sem ferrão (meliponicultura) no Semiárido brasileiro tenha se apresentado como uma ferramenta aliada do desenvolvimento sustentável, a avaliação da sustentabilidade dessa atividade nesse espaço geográfico ainda precisa ser realizada como contribuições para torná-la uma prática mais atrativa e promissora. Diante dessa questão, o objetivo deste artigo é identificar pontos críticos de agroecossistemas melíponas no Semiárido norte-rio-grandense do Brasil. Para isso, aplicaram-se os dois primeiros passos da ferramenta Marco para a Avaliação de Sistemas de Manejo de Recursos Naturais Incorporando Indicadores de Sustentabilidade (MESMIS) em 15 unidades de análise. Os dados foram coletados entre junho e setembro de 2014 e sistematizados a partir de fontes bibliográficas, aplicação de entrevistas semiestruturadas com os meliponicultores, mensuração do uso e ocupação do solo de cada agroecossistema e observação direta dos pesquisadores. Os resultados evidenciam sete pontos críticos (vegetação, água, clima, organização, capacitação, diversidade e manejo). Com isso, este estudo revela aspectos positivos e negativos da criação de abelhas sem ferrão, sendo um dos pioneiros retratos na busca pela avaliação da sustentabilidade da meliponicultura no Semiárido brasileiro.

Abstract Although the creation of stingless bees in the brazilian Semiarid has presented like a sustainable activity for development this region, its evaluation of sustainability in this geographical area still needs of best contributions to make it a practice more and more attractive and promising. Based on above writing, the objective of this article is to identify critical points of meliponas agroecosystems in the Semiarid of Rio Grande do Norte state of Brazil. To achieve this goal, was applied the first two steps of tool Marco for the Evaluation of Natural Resource Management Systems Incorporating Sustainability Indicators (MESMIS) in 15 analysis units. The data were collected between June and September of 2014 and systematized from literature sources, application of semi-structured interviews with beekeepers, measurement of land use and occupation of each agroecosystem and direct observation of the researchers. The results show seven critical points (vegetation, water, climate, diversity, management, organization and training). With this support, this study reveals positive and negative aspects of the creation of stingless bees, being one of the portraits pioneers in the quest for sustainability assessment of beekeeping in brazilian Semiarid.