Ciência & Saúde Coletiva: from birth to maturity

This short story is a summary, written in the first person by the author who created the Journal Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, on behalf of the Brazilian Association of Collective Health, recalling its origins up to the 30th anniversary celebrated in this year, 2025. She recalls the context, the objective conditions and the timing of the journal's birth and its steps towards a strong presence in the field and for the SUS. In this context, she discusses its name, its characteristics, its mission and the steps it has taken over the years to reach its current maturity and the institutions that have helped leverage this process. The author highlights the day-to-day involvement of the Chief editors, the Team of Associate Editors, the Editorial Policy Council, Reviewers and, above all, the Executive Team responsible for technical quality, for the monthly presence of the journal and the management of themed issues and increasingly intense dissemination, with a view to popularizing science. As it was written in the first person, at the end, the author talks about the function of the intellectual in society and looks at the achievements of the present, calling the future editors to innovate without ever losing the pillars on which the journal was built.