Academic Jabuti will recognize works in scientific areas – 01/30/2024 – Science

The country’s most traditional literary award has grown — and is focusing on academic productions. Starting this year, books from scientific, technical and professional areas will have their own award, called Academic Jabuti.

The announcement of “Jabuti’s son” was made this Tuesday (30) by the Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL), responsible for the Jabuti Prize and important events in the country’s literary market, such as the São Paulo International Book Biennial.

After 65 uninterrupted annual editions, the award had already undergone some changes, for example, in its categories. This is the first time, however, that Jabuti has created an extra prize.

The name behind the new Academic Jabuti is that of the physicist and former dean of Unicamp Marcelo Knobel — himself the author of two academic and scientific popularization books published in 2021: “A Ilusão da Lua” (Ed. Contexto) and “Reflexões sobre Higher Education” (Ed. Blucher).

As curator of the award at the invitation of CBL, he had the mission of designing the new Jabuti in just over six months. For this, he says, he had help from a board of trustees, the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC) and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC).

“What was happening was that a very large sector of the editorial area had little presence in Jabuti”, he says. “There has been a discussion at CBL for a long time to expand coverage of this sector, which is quite relevant.”

In fact, according to a survey by the Brazilian Book Chamber released last year, 3 of the 10 areas of greatest literary production in 2022 are academic: economics; administration; business and public administration; human and social sciences; and psychology and philosophy. All are included in the new Academic Jabuti.

Each of these areas had at least 1% of the total books produced in 2022 (to understand the numbers: more than half of the national production of works in Brazil refers to textbooks; the other portion is divided into all other categories, such as religion, literature, self-help and all academics. In this context, having 1% of the total produced is very significant).

In the new Jabuti, the first challenge was to define the award categories. Each academic institution in Brazil divides the areas of knowledge in a different way — and, outside the country, everything changes. Knobel started from the 49 areas of knowledge categorized by Capes, an agency of the MEC (Ministry of Education) focused on postgraduate studies in Brazil.

From then on, some areas were grouped here and there until reaching 27 categories that integrate the science and culture axis of the new Jabuti. We are talking, for example, about food science and nutrition, law and physical education, physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy.

The new Academic Jabuti also brings two awards in another area, called special awards, aimed at works of scientific dissemination and illustration (which in the academic area is a very important production).

With this, the new award totals 29 categories. It is more than the traditional Jabuti which, in the last edition, in 2023, had 21 categories across four axes (literature, non-fiction, editorial production and innovation).

In total, 87 names will participate in choosing the books highlighted in the new Academic Jabuti — three per category. Defining them according to diversity criteria, for example gender and sub-areas within a large area, says Knobel, was even more difficult than creating the award categories.

And it’s not over yet: the new award will also pay tribute to an academic of the year—chosen by the Brazilian Book Chamber— and to a classic book from an area of ​​knowledge from any time. In this case, there will be a public consultation to indicate the works, open from this Tuesday (30) for 30 days.

Before the new Academic Jabuti, scientists with academic works could compete for the traditional award by fitting their works into the “non-fiction” axis in categories such as science or humanities. It is not yet known whether they will be maintained. “This is being discussed. But they are two independent awards,” says Knobel.

Registration for the new Jabuti follows the traditional Jabuti — can be made by the publisher, author, literary agent or attorney — until 6 pm on March 19th. Works by Brazilian authors (born, naturalized or foreigners with permanent residence in Brazil) must have been published in the first edition between January 1st and December 31st, 2023. The award-winning authors in each category will receive the famous statuette and R$5,000 . The publishers of the award-winning works also receive a statuette.

Will there be a lot of registration? “We don’t know. We have good prospects, but we also have a series of doubts”, says Knobel. “But we hope that the award can encourage more scientific authors to dedicate themselves to producing books.”