About the Journal

Focus and Scope

After observing the guiding axes, it is important to read the Guidelines for Authors in full.

The main guiding axes are:

• Daily Life and Environment
  A special section for high-relevance scientific-informational publications for the relevant time period.

• Environment and Social Sciences

1. Agroecology and Family Farming;
2. Traditional Communities and Ethnoscience;
3. Landscape, Culture, and Environment;
4. Environmental Education and Epistemology;
5. Social Movements and the Society/Nature Relationship;
6. Tourism, Sustainability, and Protected Areas.

• Technologies and Environmental Studies

7. Ecology, Biodiversity, and their correlates;
8. Geoprocessing, Remote Sensing, and Modeling applied to the Environment;
9. New Technologies/Alternative Sustainable Technologies;
10. Biochemistry and Environmental Sanitation;
11. Pollution, Climate Change, and Water Resources;
12. Precision Agriculture, Agroindustry, and their derivatives;
13. Soils, Minerals, and Rocks.

• Planning and Environment

14. Conservation and Preservation of Environmental Heritage;
15. Environmental Law and Ecological Law;
16. Environmental Governance, Management, Indicators, and Environmental Policies;
17. Health and Environment;
18. Ecological Economics, Ecosystem Services, and their Processes;
19. Urban Planning, Development, and City Issues.

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Peer Review Process

1. Manuscript Submission
   Articles submitted must comply with the Guidelines for Authors.

2. Initial Evaluation Procedures
   Once submitted, the manuscript will be assigned to the Editor. Manuscripts that fall within the scope and comply with the journal's editorial policies (Guidelines for Authors) will be assigned to Section Editors, who will invite external reviewers for a double-blind review. Otherwise, the manuscript will be declined and archived.

3. Section Editors
   After passing the initial procedure, manuscripts will be assigned to Section Editors. Section Editors are researchers in the specific theme, with expertise to share the research with external reviewers within the article's scope, thereby contributing important considerations to the submitted document. The Section Editors will assign two or more external reviewers to analyze the submitted document. The review will follow the double-blind peer review policy.

4. Double-Blind Peer Review (External Reviewers)
   During the peer review process, reviewers can access the manuscript securely using our online system, maintaining the anonymity of both the reviewers and the manuscript's authors. This procedure is called Double-Blind Peer Review, as there is no information about the authors during the document review.

During submission, authors may indicate a limited number of scientists who should not review the article. Excluded scientists must be identified by name. Authors may also suggest potential reviewers; these suggestions are often helpful but are not always followed. If no potential reviewers are recommended, we will use the reviewers in our database and match your research with an expert in the relevant field.

Reviewers' recommendations may include:

• Reject
• Out of Scope
• Recommend for another journal
• Revisions Required
• Accept

5. Decisions After Review
   After evaluating the manuscript and receiving the reviewers' reports, the designated Section Editor will make one of the following decisions:

• Accepted
  Minor revisions are requested, and authors should revise their manuscript to address specific concerns.

• Revisions Required
  Major revisions are requested, and authors should revise their manuscript to address significant concerns and potentially undertake additional work.

Revised manuscripts must be submitted through the initial submission link, not as a new manuscript. The revision should also include a point-by-point response to the reviewers, explaining how the manuscript was changed. Our goal is for accepted manuscripts to undergo another round of review before being accepted for publication. Therefore, please ensure all issues raised are addressed in the first revision recommendation.

Articles with this Editorial Decision of "Revisions Required" are not yet accepted and may be rejected if any procedure that violates ethical guidelines is not followed or implemented.

• Rejected
  The article is declined, and the reasons are provided. The same manuscript may be submitted to the journal again at a later time.

6. Final Submission and Acceptance
   After the article is marked "Accepted" and all editorial issues are resolved, it will be formally accepted for publication. The receipt date indicated in the article will be the date when the original article passed our standard quality control checks, based on the journal's submission criteria. The acceptance date stated in the article will be the date when the Editorial Board Member sent the email confirming acceptance.

After acceptance, authors will receive proofs of their manuscript, but only changes to the title, author list, or scientific errors will be allowed. All corrections must be verified by the layout team. Adjustments to figure, table, and equation sizes may also be made to improve the manuscript's visualization.

7. Appeals
   Authors may request that the Editorial Board reconsider a rejection decision. These are considered appeals, which, as a matter of policy, take a back seat to the journal's workload. In practice, this means that decisions on appeals may take some time. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the Editorial Board Member handling the article.

 

Periodicity

The journal follows a quadrimesterly (every four months) publication schedule. That is, the journal publishes three (3) editions per year. The respective editions cover the following months:

1. January/February/March/April
2. May/June/July/August
3. September/October/November/December

Occasional special editions may be published to honor academic events.

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Open Access Policy

This journal provides public access to all its content, following the principle that offering free access to research promotes greater global knowledge exchange. Such access is associated with increased reading and citation of an author’s work. For more information on this approach, visit the Public Knowledge Project, a project that developed this system to enhance the academic and public quality of research by distributing OJS and other software supporting the public access publishing system for academic resources.

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Open Access Declaration

Open Access is a broad international academic movement that seeks free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. When anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or use information for education or other purposes within legal agreements, the publication is called "open access," as there are no technical or financial barriers.

Open access is also a term for a new business model for academic publishing that makes research information available to readers at no cost. This contrasts with the subscription model, where readers access academic information, often through a library, by paying a subscription fee.

This movement offers several advantages:

• Increased visibility and use of academic research results.
• More people can read academic research results, including those who would otherwise not have access due to the inability to afford expensive journal subscriptions.
• New ideas can be disseminated more quickly and widely, triggering new research studies and serving as a catalyst for knowledge.
• Companies also benefit from broader access to the latest scientific ideas, which they can build upon.
• Since open access implies broader reuse, recent knowledge can be immediately applied in education.

Criticism: In science and medicine especially, researchers are ranked based on their ability to publish in journals with a high impact factor. However, it takes time for new journals—both traditional and open access—to acquire an impact factor. Only then do they become attractive to researchers. The number of fully open-access, high-quality journals varies greatly across disciplines. Some fields have very few or insufficient options. Researchers may also receive spam from open-access journals of often questionable quality, which request significant financial contributions under the guise of publication offers.

The principles of open access are outlined in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003). This declaration has been signed by many international academic research organizations, including all Dutch universities and research institutions.

Open Science includes open access to academic publications, research data, learning tools, software, etc. Regarding research data, we refer to open data. Open data offers many benefits for scholarship, such as:

• Increasing the visibility of research results.
• Making research results citable through digital object identifiers (DOIs).
• Encouraging the reuse of data for new research questions and verification purposes.

It is worth emphasizing once again that the principles of open access are outlined in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003). The document can be accessed at: Berlin Declaration. The Portuguese version can be viewed at: Berlin Declaration (Portuguese).

The Brazilian Journal of Environment aligns with the principles of the Open Access Declaration.

 

Anti-Plagiarism Guidelines

Before initiating the Peer Review process, the Brazilian Journal of Environment employs a plagiarism screening system consisting of the following steps:

1. The author submits the article to the journal.

2. The editor uses the CopySpider software (https://copyspider.com.br/main/), and if the manuscript falls within the accepted percentage range for publication (up to 3%), it proceeds to the evaluation process.

3. The editor uses Turnitin Similarity software, and if the manuscript meets the software's recommended acceptable specifications, it will proceed to the evaluation process.

4. The Peer Review process is initiated, during which reviewers are recommended to use, in addition to CopySpider, other anti-plagiarism software for assessment.

5. If any inconsistencies in the manuscript related to academic plagiarism or self-plagiarism are identified during the evaluation process, the evaluation form includes a specific section for this matter. If filled out negatively, the manuscript will be entirely rejected.

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Exceptional Situations: Procedures

EXCEPTIONAL SITUATIONS (EXCEPTIONAL PROCEDURES)

These procedures are of an exceptional nature but may arise. Below is a step-by-step guide on how the journal will handle each exceptional case:

1. What the journal will do if it suspects redundant (duplicate) publication:

   • Suspicion of redundant publication in a submitted manuscript:

2. What the journal will do if it suspects redundant (duplicate) publication:

   • Suspicion of redundant publication in a published manuscript:

3. What the journal will do if it suspects academic plagiarism in submitted works:

   • Suspicion of plagiarism in a submitted manuscript:

4. What the journal will do if it suspects plagiarism in a published manuscript:

   • Suspicion of plagiarism in a published manuscript:

5. What the journal will do if it suspects fabricated (non-real) data:

   • Suspicion of fabricated data in a submitted manuscript:

6. What the journal will do if it suspects fabricated data in published articles:

   • Suspicion of fabricated data in a published manuscript:

7. Changes in authorship:

   • Corresponding author requests addition/removal of an extra author before publication:

8. Changes in authorship:

   • Request for addition/removal of an extra author after publication:

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Note: These points align with the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) best practices policy. The document has been modified and translated based on COPE's recommendations (see link).

 

Procedures Involving Humans and Animals (Ethics Committee)

The Brazilian Journal of Environment takes great care with procedures involving animals and humans in research. For this reason, the Supplementary Letter/Document requires and verifies whether any manipulation in research with humans or animals has occurred.

If the work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that pose unusual risks inherent to their use, the author must clearly identify them in the manuscript. The recommended section for this notice is Methodology (Materials and Methods).

If the work involves the use of animals or humans, the author must ensure that the manuscript contains a statement confirming that all procedures were conducted in accordance with relevant institutional laws and guidelines and were approved by the appropriate institutional committees.

The Supplementary Letter includes a declaration that authors confirm, both in the manuscript and externally, that informed consent was obtained for experimentation involving humans. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be respected. Ethical Committee codifications are also recommended to be detailed in the Methodology (Materials and Methods) section.

For research involving humans and animals, the author must ensure that the work described was conducted in accordance with the Brazilian Code of Ethics, provided by the Plataforma Brasil - National Health Council, or the councils established by universities and institutes, which adhere to Brazilian and international ethical guidelines for research involving humans.

Appropriate consents, permissions, and releases must be obtained when an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients or any other individuals in a publication. Even with consents, the journal considers it entirely relevant for the Ethics Committee on Research to provide approval for the study. Such support reinforces best practices within the scientific community.

It is strongly recommended that, in addition to the approval codes from National Ethics Committees or university and institute councils (federal or private), the Methodology (Materials and Methods) section includes explanations about consent, participant anonymity, measures to safeguard participants, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and any other responsibilities pertinent to specific situations. A subsection within the Methodology may be included if necessary to provide pertinent and transparent information regarding human and animal research processes.

In addition to numbering the research approval in Plataforma Brasil, written consents (e.g., Informed Consent Form - TCLE) must be retained by the author, and copies of these consents or evidence of their acquisition must be provided to the Brazilian Journal of Environment upon request.

 

Research Incentive Policy (Waiver Policy)

In Brazil:
To encourage research in environments where obtaining data is challenging, whether in remote areas or in data collection within Brazil, the Brazilian Journal of Environment will give special attention to research conducted in the North, Northeast, and Central-West regions, particularly in the most remote territories.

In other countries:
For other regions of the world, priority will be given to research conducted in any country classified by the World Bank as a low-income or lower-middle-income economy as of July 2018, with a 2017 Gross National Income (GNI) of less than 200 billion US dollars.

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On Article Rejections

ABOUT ARTICLE REJECTIONS (RESUBMISSION TIME):

A) As stated in the basic guidelines for authors, files that do not conform to the journal's format (e.g., missing journal header, significant formatting errors, etc.) will not be evaluated. In this case, the manuscript will fall under point B and can only be resubmitted after a 4-month interval.

B) ARTICLES REJECTED DUE TO MISSING DOCUMENTS can be resubmitted after a 3-month interval.

C) ARTICLES REJECTED BASED ON REVIEWER REQUESTS can be resubmitted after a 5-month interval.

D) ARTICLES REJECTED BASED ON REVIEWER REQUESTS AND RECOMMENDED TO A PARTNER JOURNAL can be resubmitted after a 3-month interval (with corrections).

E) ARTICLES WITH EDITORIAL DECISIONS APPLIED, where no revised version was submitted or where the corresponding author failed to justify their absence, will be rejected and subject to a 1-month rejection period (resubmission allowed after 6 months). When resubmitting, the previous submission number must be included in the author's comments.

F) ARTICLES FALLING UNDER EXCEPTIONAL SITUATIONS THAT WERE REJECTED WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR FUTURE SUBMISSIONS IN RVBMA.

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Indexation and Research Portals

Indexations:

• SCOPUS [Elsevier]
• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)
• REDALYC (Scientific Information System of Open Access Journals)
• LATINDEX (DIRECTORY) (Regional Online Information System for Scientific Journals of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal)
• Miguilim (Directory of Brazilian Scientific Electronic Journals)
• ERIHPLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences)
• MIAR (Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals)
• CAPES Journals
• QUALIS CAPES
• AURA (Amelica.org)
• LatinREV (Latin American Journal Network)
• DIADORIM (Directory of editorial policies for Brazilian scientific journals)
• FATCAT!
• SUDOC (Agence bibliographique de l'enseignement supérieur)
• MIR@BEL (Mutualisation d'informations sur les revues et leurs accès dans les bases en ligne)
• ZDB (German Union Catalogue of Serials)
• SUMÁRIOS.ORG (Summaries of Brazilian Journals)
• LATINOAMERICANA.ORG (Latin American Journals)
• LET PUB (CHINA) - Scientific Data

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Journal History

The journal was founded in April 2018 by Afonso Feitosa Reis Neto and Jadson Freire da Silva, with a multidisciplinary editorial board focused on Development and Environment. The creation of the journal emerged while the founders were pursuing their doctorates in the Graduate Program in Development and Environment at the Federal University of Pernambuco (PRODEMA/UFPE). Despite their different academic backgrounds (Law/Environmental Management and Geography/Administration), both agreed on the need for a journal dedicated to exploring all dimensions and interconnections of the environment (natural, artificial, cultural, and work-related). This initiative aimed to promote knowledge sharing across various educational levels (high school, undergraduate, and graduate), regardless of geographical location.

From the diverse perspectives necessary to understand the environment, the Brazilian Journal of Environment (RVBMA) was born. Its mission is to disseminate environmental research to society, providing broad visibility to those seeking to share their experiences and observations. The journal's values are grounded in the plurality of ideas, the dissemination of knowledge, and the appreciation of the environment. RVBMA strives to fulfill its role based on these principles, aiming to reach the widest possible audience interested in understanding the environmental context.

ISSN: 2595-4431