Editorial discourses in the history of Acta Paulista de Enfermagem (1988-2017).

Objectives: to analyze the editorial discourses of Acta Paulista de Enfermagem from 1988 to 2017.

Methods: qualitative, historical, oral research, with interviews with the journal's editors. Statements were categorized and presented in three decades, discussed from Foucault's archaeological perspective.

Results: seven statements presented three discourses. In the first decade, the discourse of knowledge registration and circulation presented statements of graduate studies and professional recognition. In the second decade, knowledge internationalization was added, with statements of business and editorial panopticism, selection criteria, indexing and digitalization. Finally, the discourse of shifting scientific assessment centrality was added with statements of preprint, open science, exclusive digitalization and mediatization of science.

Final considerations: the journal needed to adapt to form its official discourse, which made it possible, over the years, to change its initial peripheral position to a central one within scientific communication, supporting its panoptic role.