About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Brazilian Journal of Sociology (RBS) is the scientific journal published by the Brazilian Society of Sociology (SBS). It was first released in 2013 and is published every four months since 2017, focused on disseminating and improving Brazilian and international sociological production resulting from original and unpublished research in the fields of Sociology and the Social Sciences about contemporary societies. RBS aims to reach the specialized and academic audience, as well as a broader audience interested in the sociological debate.

The scope of Brazilian Journal of Sociology includes articles of academic and didactic nature, presenting original theoretical reflections and results of empirical research on themes relevant to contemporary sociology. The journal comprises the following sections:

Articles

Original and unpublished articles are received in continuous flow and should reflect the academic and scientific sociological production, as well as take part in the debate about contemporary Brazilian and global realities, addressing academic and didactic issues.

Dossiers

The dossiers will be selected through a public call for proposals published in the RBS website. The criteria to be met are: (1) relevance of the theme to the field of sociology, (2) academic leadership of its proponents, and (3) interest of the proposal for the internationalization of the sociological debate.

Sociologies in Dialogue

This section is named after the English-language journal of SBS, now incorporated into RBS. It aims to disseminate studies that contain innovative empirical and theoretical analyses relevant to international academic debate. It seeks to promote transnational dialogues and gives preference to texts resulting from empirical research on fundamental themes and questions of sociology as well as contributions to the current debate on social theory.

Past Futures

This section presents contributions on classical, contemporary and emerging themes that provide a broad understanding of the history, trends and futures of sociology. Texts should offer a contribution to the understanding of the history, trends and possible futures of Brazilian and world sociology, as well as to the comprehension of processes and events in contemporary Brazil. The section welcomes, for example, articles, essays, conferences and interviews.

Peer Review Process

Articles submitted for publication will undergo screening through a similarity detection (anti-plagiarism) system (CopySpider) and will be evaluated by the editors, in a first stage, on their suitability to the scope and editorial standards of the Journal. The average duration for this stage is one month as of submission of the article.

If approved, the article will be submitted to blind reviews by two ad hoc, either Brazilian or foreign, reviewers with recognized expertise in the particular theme, regarding the content and quality of the submission's contribution to the scientific debate. In case of disagreement, a third review will be requested. The average duration of this second phase, including possible revision of articles by authors, is four months.

Finally, based on the issued opinions, the Editorial Board will inform authors about the final decision: approved; approved with minor revisions; to be reformulated and resubmitted; or rejected.

When reviewing manuscripts accepted for publication, authors should keep track of all changes made to the text and duly justify, in a letter to the editors, any unmet editorial requirements or recommendations.

Approved manuscripts will be sent for formal and grammatical revision (copy-desk) and returned to the author for consideration of suggested changes. After the author's approval, the text will be sent for formatting and final composition. At this point, no additions or changes will be allowed, except in extraordinary cases. The editors reserve the right to make changes or cuts in the received papers in order to adapt them to the journal's norms, respecting the original content and the style of the author, who will always be consulted.

The data (which should always be available for consultation), analyses, and opinions expressed in the articles are the author’s responsibility.

All authors and reviewers are requested to declare possible conflicts of interest related to manuscripts submitted to the journal. By conflict of interest we understand any commercial, financial, or personal interest related to data or issues in the study of one or more authors that lead to potential conflicts between the parties involved. Conflicts of interest may influence the results and conclusions of a study and its evaluation process. Their existence does not prevent submission of an article or its publication in the journal; however, authors should explain the conflict’s reasons to the editors, who will make a decision about keeping or rejecting the submission.

Authors are allowed to make corrections, publish addenda or errata to published articles, as long as they justify their need to the editors.

In case  of any misconduct reported, the editors will gather information about the case and handle it appropriately.

The journal follows the guidelines of the Codes of Ethics of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, and of the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation.

The journal is committed to publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.

By submitting articles, authors assure that the ethical principles of their field of knowledge have been observed.

Whenever deemed appropriate, the editors may request clarification and complementary documentation.

The journal does not charge submission, evaluation, and processing fees and provides open access to its whole content, following the principle that making scientific knowledge freely available to everyone provides greater global democratization of knowledge.

Authors who publish in the Brazilian Journal of Sociology (1) retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal; (2) are allowed to sign additional contracts for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., publish in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal; and (3) are allowed and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their homepage and self-archiving systems), as this may increase the impact and citation of the published work (see The effect of open access ).

 

Periodicity

Published every four months starting in 2017. 

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

 

Archiving

This journal uses the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and allows them to create permanent archives of the journal for preservation and restoration.

 

Fees

RBS charges no fees to its contributors for the publication of articles.