EditorialProf. Dra. Mariana Seoane

The year 2021 continues to challenge science conceived as a tool to advance knowledge and improve society. We are witnessing a global pandemic that has triggered a health emergency currently peaking in Uruguay. This situation places us between hope for herd immunity, searching for the epidemiological thread that is practically impossible to trace, and the potential saturation of the care areas that fight to control this cruel disease.

In this scenario, the role of health professionals, academics, and scientists is expressed with great validity. Research article writers must contribute new knowledge from various epistemological perspectives, faced with the challenge of presenting the results of their studies to the scientific community and the public at large, seeking to disseminate, demonstrate, and, also, train.

We can guide our societies only based on information supported by scientific evidence, understanding the educational role of research, allowing people to choose, decide, take care of themselves and others, mitigate unfounded fears, and become aware of the risks certain behaviors entail. Society needs science today more than ever as it challenges, agrees, and it proposes. Today more than ever, science expresses its commitment to supporting potential policy guidelines and talking to the population for their own benefit.

This is why this context of considerable uncertainty calls for supporting scientific production that has a social impact, with contributions from various studies and methods.

From our role, the primary tool for social improvement comes with access to knowledge. Therefore, we must do it seriously, based on rigorous methodological procedures while considering various perspectives to build new knowledge and respond to the leading social problems.