Editorial Policies

Editorial Policies

1) Focus and Scope / Editorial Line

REVISTA DA EMERJ specializes in the various areas of legal knowledge in its broadest sense. In addition to specifically legal themes, it covers Law in its relations with Sociology, Philosophy, Economics, History, Psychology and Politics. The Journal is open to unpublished essays on legal dogmatics and articles with theoretical, applied and methodological approaches. In this way, it intends to contribute to the deepening of interdisciplinary knowledge and the debates and critical discussions, so necessary and enriching for the legal community in the country.

The EMERJ's Journal is dedicated to aligning with the fundamental principles of Open Science and the essential values outlined by the IDEIA principles - Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. In this commitment, the journal has established comprehensive policies to promote gender equity in research, encourage the submission of preprints as an open science practice, define clear guidelines for the ethical use of artificial intelligence, as well as implement general ethics and best practices in publishing. These policies reflect our dedication to creating an inclusive and accessible environment where the diversity of perspectives is valued, and the contributions of all researchers are recognized and encouraged. These policies, among others, are crucial for maintaining high ethical standards, promoting research quality, and strengthening academic integrity in the Journal. The policies will be discussed in the following sections.

Great area: Applied Social Sciences [6.00.00.00-7] / Area: Law [6.01.00.00-1]

 

2) Journal's History

Established in 1998, the EMERJ's Journal has undergone several changes. However, in recent years, these changes have been more evident and, above all, have reflected the significant progress achieved by the publication, with the support of the entire legal community. In 2018, the Journal began a transformative process to improve the quality of production, implementing the OJS system and forming a more heterogeneous Editorial Board to gain prominence in the academic world and achieve higher levels in the Qualis/CAPES evaluation. During the 2017-2020 quadrennium, the journal reached the Qualis/CAPES level B4, continuing its relentless pursuit of improvement, aiming to achieve higher standards in the Qualis/CAPES evaluation. From 2024 onwards, the journal adopted the continuous publication mode, releasing articles in a single annual volume, fully committing to the principles of Open Science, and started evaluating manuscripts deposited in recognized preprint servers. Additionally, the institution established new editorial policies aligned with the principles of Open Science and the values of IDEIA (Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility), reinforcing its commitment to continuously explore innovative ways of disseminating knowledge through scientific publication.

 

3) Article Processing Costs

Submission and processing of articles are free of charges, so there are no fees to be paid by the authors.

 

4) Peer Review Process

All papers submitted by authors are received by the Editorial Board of the EMERJ's journal through the SEER/OJS system, and then forwarded to the executive secretaries for a preliminary evaluation of submission guidelines. If it complies with the guidelines, the article will be assessed by at least two reviewers. Once this process of evaluation and text selection is completed, authors are notified by email regarding the acceptance or rejection of their articles. The reviews are for internal use and exclusive to the editorial team of the journal; therefore, the full content of these reports will not be disclosed, and the names of the reviewers involved in each process will not be revealed. Read: Submission Guidelines, for more information.

 

5) Frequency

The journal is currently a periodical in the continuous publication mode, releasing articles in a single annual volume.

Until the year 2023, issues were published semiannually.

 

6) Open Access and Open Science Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, following the principle that freely sharing scientific knowledge with the public contributes to the global democratization of knowledge.

The EMERJ's Journal is committed to Open Science, strongly supporting and encouraging its practice in publishing research results.

 

7) Gender Equity and Diversity in Research

The EMERJ's Journal is committed to following the principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in its practices, aiming to expand knowledge and improve the human condition. The journal seeks to address systemic inequalities and prejudices, promote equitable opportunities for authors, and foster an inclusive environment.

Editors are guided and motivated to: (1) Improve diversity in the selection of reviewers; (2) Encourage, in their decisions, authors to adopt more inclusive citation practices; (3) Promote the use of inclusive language.

Editors are attentive to increasing diversity, recognizing the barriers that authors, editors, and reviewers from minorities face in publication. They always seek to: (1) Avoid discrepancies in the acceptance of articles, focusing on increasing the diversity of authors, reviewers, and editors; (2) Mitigate both the risk and impact of biases in decision-making during the review; (3) Identify alternative processes to mitigate biases; (4) Adopt standards for an inclusive culture.

 

8) Policy for the Use of Artificial Intelligence

The EMERJ's Journal recognizes the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic production and believes in the responsible and transparent use of this technology. With the aim of ensuring integrity and ethics in research, this policy establishes guidelines for the use of AI tools in the creation of manuscripts submitted to the journal.

When submitting a manuscript for consideration, authors are required to explicitly confirm that the work was created by them and not by an AI tool. This confirmation must be made during the online submission process.

If an AI tool was used to develop or generate any part of the manuscript, authors must clearly indicate this fact in the methods section of the article. This information should be presented transparently and in detail to allow proper evaluation by reviewers and readers.

Authors who have used AI in the preparation of the manuscript should include a specific section in the acknowledgments, acknowledging the use of the technology. Additionally, authors are requested to provide additional information about the use of AI in the research process in the "Comments for the editor" during submission.

The EMERJ's Journal reserves the right to conduct additional ethical review in cases where there is suspicion of misuse of AI or lack of transparency in the application of this technology. This may include, if necessary, verification with the authors to ensure compliance with this policy.

Non-compliance with this policy may result in the rejection of the submission or the withdrawal of the already published article. The journal encourages collaboration and open communication to address any concerns related to the implementation of this policy. This policy may be revised and updated as necessary to reflect changes in AI research practices and standards. Authors will be notified of any significant changes.

 

9) Preprint Submission Policy

The journal accepts the submission of manuscripts that have been previously deposited in widely recognized preprint servers. Authors are encouraged to share their research in advance, facilitating access to information and promoting collaboration among researchers.

When submitting an article to the EMERJ's Journal, authors are requested to inform, in the "Comments for the editor," whether the manuscript has been previously shared as a preprint and where it is available. Additionally, authors must include the appropriate citation and referencing of the preprint in the body of the article.

Authors are encouraged to include information about datasets, methods used, and any other relevant information that may be useful for reviewers and readers.

The evaluation of preprints will follow the same standards of quality and rigor applied to traditionally submitted manuscripts. Reviewers will be instructed to consider preprints as an integral part of the research, providing a fair and constructive assessment.

 

10) Publishing Ethics and Publishing Malpractice Statement

This journal is committed to ethics and quality in publication, following international patterns of scientific publication. We support standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in publishing in our journal: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer and the publisher. We do not accept plagiarism or other unethical behavior. Thus, it follows the guidelines of the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010.

Duties of Editors:

• Publication decision: The journal’s editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may consult with editorial board or reviewers in decision making.
• Fair play: The editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality: The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of interest: The editor must not use unpublished information in his/her own research without the express written consent of the author. The editor should recuse him/herself from considering manuscripts in which he/she has conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers.
• Involvement and cooperation in investigations: The editor should take reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Duties of Reviewers:

• Contribution to Editorial Decision:Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
• Promptness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
• Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others.
• Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively and referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
• Acknowledgement of Source: Peer reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. The peer reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors:

• Reporting standards:Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable..
• Originality and Plagiarism: The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
• Multiple or Redundant Publication: An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. To publish the same article in different journals without informing the editors and having their agreement constitute unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
• Acknowledgement of Sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.
• Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
• Fundamental errors in published works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Duties of the Publisher

We are committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

Our articles are peer reviewed to ensure the quality of scientific publishing and we are also users of Plagius (plagiarism software).

* This statement is based on Elsevier recommendations and COPE's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

 

11) Copyright and Licensing

Articles/papers published in EMERJ's Journal are made available continuously, meaning as soon as they are accepted by the reviewers, in accordance with permanent and free publication for all readers. This practice aims to make research accessible to society, reflecting the journal's commitment to promoting widespread knowledge dissemination. In this way, both the scientific community and the general public have free and unlimited access to the content published in this journal through the internet. This approach reinforces the mission of the EMERJ's Journal to contribute to the democratization of knowledge and the enrichment of scientific debate.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

 

12) Copyright Statement

Authors who publish in this Journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal of Constitutional Research the right of first publication with the article simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International which allows sharing the work with recognition of the authors and its initial publication in this Journal.
2. Authors are able to take on additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the paper published in this Journal (eg.: publishing in institutional repository or as a book), with a recognition of its initial publication in this Journal.
3. Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish their work online (eg.: in institutional repositories or on their personal website) at any point before or during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as increase the impact and the citation of the published work (see the Effect of Open Access).

 

13) Privacy Statement

The names and addresses provided in this journal will be used exclusively for the services provided by this publication and will not be made available for other purposes or to third parties.

 

14) Archiving

1. All issues are stored and can be found in the TJ-EMERJ Library.
2. LOCKSS is permitted to store and distribute the content of the journal through the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest.
3. CLOCKSS is activated to store and distribute journal content in participating libraries through an Editor Manifest Page.

 

15) Position Against Predatory Journals

The EMERJ's Journal firmly reaffirms its commitment to the integrity of academic research and vehemently condemns the practice of predatory journals. Such publications, which aim to exploit the scientific publishing system for financial gain without the proper commitment to ethical and academic standards, pose a threat to the credibility and quality of scientific knowledge.