Ethics and Good Practices

Publishing is an important part of scientific research. Being well aware of our role in this process, here at dObra[s] we are guided through our work by respect to the academic and intellectual culture and ethical principles based on good practices recommendations by the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (Abec) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (Cope). Such guiding principles should be observed by everyone involved in publishing: editors, authors, and reviewers.

Editor’s duties

It is the editor’s duty to review the submitted manuscripts without bias against the author’s race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, nationality, region, political or ideological views, and/or theoretical perspective. The editor should also not be influenced by the possibility of obtaining any personal, commercial, or income advantages.

The editor must keep confidential any information about the submitted works, except from the evaluators and the editorial team.

It is up for the editor to ultimately decide which works should be published or not, taking the journal's guidelines and rules as decision criteria and considering (but not obligated to abide by) the evaluation of the reviewers.

The editor should not use for their research any information contained in manuscripts submitted to the journal without the express written consent of the authors.

The editor should refuse to evaluate manuscripts with which they have a conflict of interest due to competitive, collaborative or other issues, due to the editor's relationship with authors, companies, or institutions linked to the manuscripts.

It is the editor’s duty to receive any complaints about ethical aspects or incorrect content regarding submitted manuscripts or published works, as well as taking the necessary measures, according to the recommendations of Abec and Cope, to deal with the complaints presented.

Reviewers’ duty

The reviewers should know the profile of the journal, its guidelines, and publication standards.

It is their duty to assist the editorial board in making decisions about the publication of manuscripts submitted to the journal, by evaluating the work and recommending improvements to the authors.

They should immediately notify the editorial team regarding: a) their availability to make the evaluations to which they have been invited; b) their inability to meet the evaluation deadlines; c) any conflict of interest manifested by any aspect related to the manuscript; d) their non-qualification for the evaluation of the manuscript.

Reviewers should evaluate the manuscripts objectively and clearly, expressing criticisms or recommendations they may have with the support of arguments and taking into account the theoretical and methodological boundaries explained in the work.

It is the reviewers’ duty to evaluate submitted manuscripts without taking into account the author’s race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, nationality, region, political or ideological views, and/or theoretical perspectives. The reviewers should also not be influenced by the possibility of obtaining any personal, commercial, or income advantages.

Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents. They must not show, discuss, or comment on the work being evaluated with third parties, either in person or through posts on social media (even if not identified).

They should not use any information obtained through the evaluation of manuscripts to obtain any personal gain.

They should refuse the evaluation of manuscripts with which they have a conflict of interests due to competitive, collaborative, or other issues, due to relationships with authors, companies, or institutions linked to the manuscripts.

Reviewers will receive a statement confirming the evaluations performed and their names will be published in the last edition of the year.

Author’s duties

The author should submit exclusively original works that have not been submitted to other journals or events. The editorial board, at its sole discretion, may consider publishing notably modified and updated versions of works presented and/or published in annals of events, as well as manuscripts published on preprint servers. In these two cases, the situation must be reported to the Editorial Board before or during the submission process, at the risk of facing automatic rejection of the manuscript if not.

The author must observe 12 months between the publication of a work and the submission of another manuscript.

It is the author’s duty to elaborate works that present a clear and precise account of the research carried out or of the proposed theoretical discussion, explaining the objectives and conclusions obtained. They should present data, methods, processes, sources, and references that make it possible to reproduce or check the research.

The author must make sure that the manuscript does not contain fraudulent, intentionally inaccurate or distorted statements, as it will lead to the immediate rejection of the manuscript or exclusion from publication.

They should make sure that the ideas, concepts, and speeches from other sources and authors that were mentioned or discussed in the manuscript are clearly presented as direct or indirect citations and correctly referenced according to the Journal's Guidelines so that inaccuracies of this order are not categorized as plagiarism. Any form of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, constitutes unethical and unacceptable editorial behavior.

The author should use images, documents, and any other information privately or privately granted only if in possession of explicit and written permission from sources or copyright holders, where applicable.

They should present, at the time of submission, when applicable, authorization from the Ethics Committee of the institution to which the author of the manuscript is linked or to which the research is linked.

At the time of submission, data and metadata of all authors must be informed, including a link to the Lattes curriculum and ORCID identifier. The work can be signed by up to a maximum of four authors, and the first to be informed is considered the corresponding author.

It is the author’s duty to read, accept, and meet the Submission Conditions in the journal system, at the time of the submission process.

All sources of financial support for the research or project reported in the manuscript should be disclosed by the author, including graduate scholarships from funding agencies.

The author must inform immediately in the event of discovering a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, as well as cooperate to correct the article.

As long as the journal's rules and guidelines are complied with and the manuscripts go on for evaluation, authors are entitled to receive consistent evaluations of the submitted manuscript that constitute an effective contribution to the research and the training of the researcher, as long as written in an objective and polite manner

Authors have a broad right to defense in the event of accusations of plagiarism, unethical behavior, or violation of good practice.