Pesquisa FAPESP was first sold at newsstands and by subscription in 2002. A year later, new readers were on board, interested in science in Brazil, not just from São Paulo State—as would be expected—but also from Ceará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, and Santa Catarina. Early subscribers included three libraries, two from secondary level educational institutions—the Center for Automation and Information Technology at the National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) and Bandeirantes College in the São Paulo State capital—and the higher-education establishment UNIFAFIBE University Center (Bebedouro School of Philosophy, Sciences, and Languages & Literature), linked to the North São Paulo State Education and Culture Association in the town of Bebedouro (SP).
“The magazine has really improved,” says Brazilian Federal Revenue fiscal auditor Marco Aurelio Ferreira Silva from Santos—23 years a subscriber—on observing over the years that articles no longer exclusively report on research in the state of São Paulo, but have focused more on science and technology produced in other parts of the country. “I keep them all. And copies of Ciência Hoje (Science today) as well, since 1982.”
– Research topics that have stood out since the magazine was launched in 1999
– Content published in the early issues sparked debates and backed Brazilian science
– Researchers explain important humanities concepts
– Teachers use articles from the magazine to discuss science in class
With three university degrees including science (with credentials in biology and chemistry), history, and business administration, along with a lato sensu graduate degree in public administration, Silva is also an amateur ornithologist. Deep in the preserved forests of his smallholding in Itariri, 115 kilometers (km) from Santos, where he sometimes takes copies of Pesquisa FAPESP to read, Silva claims to have sighted 109 bird species to date with his binoculars. He also keeps a collection of around 200 books on plants and animals at the forest retreat.
“Over time I have seen the magazine starting to speak to other people, and not just researchers,” says publicist and cultural producer Celso Loducca, a reader for 22 years. “I got a subscription as soon as I knew the magazine existed, to support science in Brazil. At the time I already had a subscription to Scientific American. Pesquisa FAPESP represents Brazilian science.” Loducca take copies of the magazine, along with science and history books, for some quiet reading at his ranch in the Paraíba Valley.
“It’s a very trustworthy magazine,” comments Fernando Ferreira, of Rio Branco, state of Acre, who this year completes his master’s at the Emílio Goeldi Museum of Pará, in state capital Belém. He read the online version, liked what he saw, and subscribed in May 2023. “I like the print version, which I take for my students to read.” Ferreira is also a secondary level teacher at a public state school in Rio Branco.
These days, Pesquisa FAPESP has readers across all Brazilian states and the Federal District, with São Paulo State accounting for 63% of the 5,028 paying readers (see infographic). Most of the 28,000 copies from the print run go to undergraduate and graduate students and researchers involved in projects funded by FAPESP, as well as scientific advisors from other states, public school libraries in São Paulo State, public science & technology regulators, and journalists specializing in science and technology.
The story above was published with the title “Winning over readers” in issue 344 of October/2024.
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