Mission and editorial policy

The Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais is one of the leading interdisciplinary journals in the field of the social sciences in Brazil. Its missionis to publicize the cutting edge academic production of the three great areas forming as much the scope of the Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ciências Sociais (ANPOCS) as the very tradition of the social sciences: Anthropology, Political Science, and Sociology. The Journal encompasses the characteristically broad thematic diversity of those areas, as well as their corresponding plurality in terms of methodology and theoretical and conceptual development.When clearly dedicated to an interlocution with the social sciences, articles from other areas will occasionally be accepted. The Journal regularly publishes book reviews in order to contribute to the circulation of the national and international production of knowledge with relevance for the social sciences.
The Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais publishes original articles – not previously published in books, magazines or journals – with explicit substantive contributions about relevant issues for the areas and subareas informing them empirically and theoretically. Bibliographical essays are published only when specifically recommended by the Editorial Commission, considering that ANPOCS publishes another journal with editorial profile specialized in diffusing them. Book review articles, on the other hand, are published by the RBCS and must be previously unpublished and regarding cover books concerned with the three mentioned areas and their subareas or that dialogue theoretically or methodologically with them. Specific characteristics of the form of presentation of articles and reviews are referred in the section about the “Norms for the presentation of collaborations”. The Journal accepts the submission of articles and reviews in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, which will be published in the original language.

Publication and evaluation criteria

The publication of articles is subjected exclusively to criteria of merit. The process of merit evaluation is the same for all articles – including those occasionally ordered by the Editorial Commission. After their submission, the articles undergo a process of desk review in order to assess their adequacy to the Journal’s purpose and editorial policy. Not later than 30 days from the moment of the submission, the authors will be informed of the results of this first phase. The approved articles will be subjected to a double blindpeer review. There are four possible results from the second phase: approval for publication without modifications; approval for publication conditioned to modifications; recommendation of revision, and re-submission; and refusal. The third result does not imply that the Journal would necessarily publish the article in the event of a re-submission. The Journal will not accept re-submission if the two peer reviewers suggest “revision and resubmission” or if one of them refuses the article and his/her opinion is considered adequate by the editorial commission. The average time for the second phase is five months. The reviews and considerations to articles submitted in English of Spanish will be formulated in one of those idioms, according to the preferences of the community of the Journal’s peer reviewers. The review expenses of approved English or Spanish written articles should be covered by the authors. RBCS does not charge for publishing.
Articles that received both a favorable evaluation and a recommendation for revision and re-submission shall be sent to the Journal within three months after the author(s) receives the feedback. Once elapsed this period, such articles will be removed from the agenda of the Editorial Commission. Articles with approval for publication conditioned to modifications shall be revised and re-submitted within thirty days. The Editorial Commission reserves the right to suggest new modifications of form, or of punctual character in terms of content, in order to turn the article adequate to the Journal’s editorial or graphical profile. The order of publication follows the criterion of a single row with the exception of brief ad hoc texts– as tributes or honors, for instance – and bibliographic accounts occasionally ordered by the Editorial Commission.

Reciprocity

It is understood that the submission of articles to be evaluated under the system of double blind peer review implies the commitment of the author(s) to respond as satisfactorily as possible to the considerations of the reviewers. The Journal values the quality of the scientific production of the social sciences in Brazil and, accordingly, will not submit to peer evaluation texts having received negative reviews in other publication if their authors have not made the effort of responding to the critical observations involved in those reviews. By the same token, the Journal reserves the right to refuse articles whose reformulation disregards the suggestions of the reviewers without a reasonable justification.
The authors who submit articles to the Journal commit themselves to accept the task of providing blind peer reviews when occasionally demanded by the Journal. The Editorial Commission reserves the right of not submitting to the second phase of evaluation (double blind peer reviews) the articles whose authors repeatedly decline the emission of reviews when invited by the Journal.

Book Reviews

Book reviews are accepted for evaluation when referred to works published no more than 24 months before the moment of their submission to the Journal. All book reviews are subject to the evaluation of the Book Reviews Editor and the Editorial Commission. Such evaluation is guided by three criteria: adequacy to the editorial policy and scope of Journal; relevance of the book reviewed for the field of the social sciences in general, and pertinence in relation to the current debates in the three great areas of the social sciences in Brazil. The Editor of Book Reviews may ask for a specific opinion if judged convenient. In some circumstances, as in the case of works admittedly important for the debate of the social sciences in the country, it is possible for the Editor to order for special book reviews. There are three possible results of the evaluation guided by the above specified criteria. Book reviews may be “accepted”, “accepted with modifications”, or “refused”– re-submission not being admitted. In the cases of the two last results, succinct reportsof the evaluationswill be emitted.

Copyrights, exclusivity and CC-BY license

When submitting an article or a book review, the authors commit themselves to not send them to another journal during the process of evaluation. Conversely, the Journal does not receive articles yet under evaluation in others. It will not either proceed to two simultaneous evaluations of a same author, considering that this would configure a simultaneous submission of a new article while another one has not yet been published or refused.
The submission of any collaboration implies necessarily the integral cession to ANPOCS of the copyrights, including those of translation, in the case of approval of the article for publication. The authors are, of course, authorized to reproduce their articles provided that the original source (Rev. Bras. Ci. Soc.) is mentioned.
In accordance with SCIELO, the Journal adopts the CC-BY license, internationally used by the leading journals and publications of open access. It is understood that any author of an article published in the RBCS agrees with the use of such kind of license.

Good scientific practices

In tune with the advancements in the field of ethics and the good scientific practices, all the articles approved in the first phase will be subjected to tests in order to avoid plagiarism and “auto-plagiarism” or republication (publication of articles already published). Occasional cases of bad practice will be assessed and decided by the Editorial Commission according to the Diretrizes Básicas para a Integridade na Atividade Científica [Basic Guidelines for the Integrity of Scientific Activity] of the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (http://www.cnpq.br/web/guest/diretrizes) and the Código de Boas Práticas [Good Practices Code] of the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP (http://www.fapesp.br/boaspraticas/). The views expressed in the published articles and the all their contents are of absolute responsibility of their authors.