Author Guidelines

General Recommendations

There is no charge for any amount, either in the submission or publication of articles. To maintain this free collaborative activity, we have set a target of 120 days from the time that elapses between the receipt and publication of articles. For this we adopt a continuous flow publishing system. No APC costs.

Between 2015 and 2019 the references were in accordance with ABNT rules and appearing in alphabetical order. From 2020 onwards this journal adopts APA rules (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples). In year 2020, the journal will publish primarily articles in English and Spanish language. Articles in Portuguese can be published in Special Sections. Articles published not in english must present in english language: the title, abstract and Keywords.

Since July/2019 RPD publish articles with structured abstracts (must contain: Purpose, Methodology/Approach, Findings, Research Limitation/implication, Originality/Value of paper) in English and a second language that can be Portuguese or Spanish. Abstract, Resumo or Resumen must contain the same information and should not exceed 200 words each.

Above Abstract, it must include 3 to 5 keywords. It is required that the descriptors be different words from those used in the title, in order to improve the search engine functionality. Important that Keywords be taken from International Thesaurus' (e.g. Eurydice, ERIC, UNESCO).

Record at the end of the article submission the contribution CRediT of each of authors and contributors. See the template file.

Article submissions that not use the journal template will be declined. Articles that do not use a conceptual basis reinforced by articles published in journals or do not present an original theme and of broader interest to world researchers, will be rejected by the editors.

This journal register in the submission metadata the authors ORCID iD.

As for affiliation presentation, authors must present, primarily, their institutional links with educational institutions, prioritizing those with a labor relationship, and in sequence, if they do not have a labor relationship as a researcher or teacher, they should indicate the relationship as a student.

Peer Review Process

The members of the Scientific Editorial Committee are recruited through invitations issued by the Journal Editor. The activities of the members of this Committee are voluntary and not remunerated. The pre-requisites for participation are the same as those established for the ad hoc reviewers. Additionally, the members of this Committee must have held PhD degrees for at least five years, with significant scientific and technical biographical output, acknowledged as high quality by the editorial staff in their specialty fields.

This Journal’s Editorial Process involves three eliminatory stages as described below:

1. During the first stage the article received in RPD is examined by the Editor-in-Chief for an admission review (desk review). Editor may occasionally request a double-blind opinion by a Scientific Editorial Body member (specialized in the article’s area) in order to support the decision. During this process the editor will ensure that the article complies with the basic requisites for approval by the editorial process: 

• Scientific relevance; 
• A significant theoretical and/or methodological contribution in the field of knowledge;  
• unprecedented; correct language, with special attention to the quality of the text (orthography, concordance and punctuation), regardless of the language in which it is submitted;
• good overall presentation; 
• List of bibliographical references representing the topic in question’s state of the art, necessarily covering articles published in the last five years in Brazilian and international scholarly circles;
• Adequacy with editorial policy and the section to which it was submitted;
• The article will be checked in a plagiarism detector to confirm the originality, and to be accepted, the article cannot have more than 3% of coincidences.

Articles not in accordance with these basic requisites or with the criteria and technical features required by RPD will be rejected by the Editor-in-Chief.

2. The second stage consists of an anonymous review of papers submitted for publication and the double blind review system.  These papers will be forwarded to the ad hoc reviewers, selected on the basis of their fields of specialization Papers approved will be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief with a suggestion for publication.  The Editor may request a double blind expert opinion from a member of the Scientific Editorial Body (specializing in the field of the paper) in order to support the decision.

EVALUATION CRITERIA (for each item the reviewer choose the options: 1 Deficient 2 Limited 3 Modest 4 Good 5 Excellent)

Originality?

Science gap and article goals clearly defined?

Contribution to knowledge ?

The conceptual background and references are relevant and current?

Rigor in the methodology?

If it is an empirical investigation, are results accurately and clearly stated?

Is the analytical perspective new or does it open up relevant discussions for the field of research?

Validity and relevance of the conclusions?

Clarity in its structure and drafting?

General Comments from the Reviewer to the authors

Observations to the editor:

If the article receives an average less than 3, it will automatically decline the submission. If the average is better than 3, but one or more itens receive avaliation 1 or 2, the authors will have the oportunity to adjust. The editor has the right to reject articles that in the evaluation process have detected signs of plagiarism or that he realizes that the changes requested by the reviewers have not been made. Articles that have been found to indicate plagiarism after publication will be excluded from the edition. 

3. During the third stage of the review process, the Editor-in-Chief takes the final decision on publication.  Approved papers are sent to production stage for publication.

Editorial decision

Upon receipt of reviews by the editors, a decision will be made: a) Accept. b) Mandatory corrections; c) Submit a new round; or d) Reject.

(a) If the decision is Accepted, the authors will be notified and provided with guidelines for adjustments, content and/or form improvements, grammar and spelling revision, if necessary.

(b) If it is a Mandatory Correction and a new round, an email will be sent to the authors, with the evaluators' orientations for the necessary corrections and adjustments, which must be met within the established deadline. Corrections should be highlighted in the text and posted in the system as a Supplementary Document at the first submission.

In case of a new round, the article will be submitted for a new evaluation by two evaluators, which may be the same ones that performed the first evaluation.

If after the verifications the recommendations are made by the evaluators, the article will be accepted, proceeding according to item (a).

(c) If Rejected, the authors will be informed via e-mail with a summary of the evaluations, highlighting the critical points that led to the decision. In this case, if it is in the authors' interest, they may, after the recommended adjustments, make a new submission.

Approval for publication

Only after evaluation of the content improvements requested by RPD will the article be approved for publication.

In this case, the Author Form will be sent to be filled with the personal and professional data of the author (s), as: full name, title, institution, college and department, city, state, country, e-mail, ORCID and mini curriculum. As well as an indication of individual participation in the construction of the article.

A final version translated into English or Spanish will be requested (final version with official proof of credentials from the translator), under the responsibility of the author (s).

The final version of approved manuscripts should contain a note at the end of the text identifying the contribution of each author in the development of the research.Contributions must be in accordance with CRediTCasrai (https://casrai.org/credit/).

Conflicting Interests Policy

Authors must explicitly and individually state to the publisher (via email available on the submission page) any potential conflict of interest, direct and/or indirect, as well as any conflict of interest with ad hoc reviewers, as appropriate, at the time of article submission and/or during the review process.

For RPD, a conflict of interest is any interest of a financial, professional or personal type that actually or potentially interferes in the preparation, review or publication of a paper and the work giving rise to it. Authors and their employers (academic institutions or not), sponsors, reviewers and editors may have conflicting interests. Conflicting interests may be rated as hidden or explicit, real or perceived.
In order to pursue its mission, RPD feels that it is important to ensure that the research project presented in the papers are bias-free, the greatest possible extent. Thus, the Journal Editor may decide not to accept papers that he believes may be adversely affected in some way through a conflicting interest declared by their authors.

Any conflicting interest by the author or co-authors related to the paper and the work giving rise to it.  During the submission process, the first author must state on his / her behalf and on behalf of other co-authors the existence of any financial, personal and professional interest that might actually or potentially influence the paper’s work and preparation.  Conflicting interests include but are not limited to: research grants received from any sources, travel grants or attendance at meetings, providing paid services, relations with this Journal’s editorial staff, relations with the organizations involved and participation in Government agencies. All sources of financing for the work must be described, including their role and involvement in the decision to submit the paper for publication.  Grants received by institutions or organizations financing the paper from other institutions or organizations that are known to the authors must also be declared.

The Editor will take the final decision on the relevance of any conflicts of interest declared by the authors and their possible influence on the work or paper. If necessary, this matter will be discussed with the ad hoc reviewers and the editorial staff. The decision will be based on the conflicting interests declared by the authors.
The ad hoc reviewers of this Journal must also declare conflicts of interest before starting to review any paper. Should any reviewer feel unable to review a paper due to conflicting interests, the Editor must be advised.

Copyright Declaration

In submission, the authors declare that they are aware of the transfer of copyright.

Once the papers have been approved, the authors assign their copyrights to this Journal. The Copyright Assignment Conditions include:

1. The Journal holds the rights to all the papers published thereby through assignment of copyright.
2. The author retains moral rights to the paper, including the right to identify the author whenever the article is published.
3. RPD adopt the CC-BY license standard (Creative Commons– BY). Authors are allowed to copy, distribute, display, transmit and adapt articles. Authors must attribute to RPD explicitly and clearly an article’s original publication (with reference to the journal’s name, edition, year and pages in which the article was originally published), yet without suggesting that RPD endorses the author or its use of the article. Contents are released by means of the CC-BY license to fully inter-operate with a variety of different systems and services, including for commercial purposes. In case of an article’s reuse or distribution, authors must make the article’s licensing terms clear to third parties. CC-BY criteria follow open access policies by major OA (Open Access) publishers and journals. 
4. Authors may take photocopies of the paper or distribute it through electronic media, provided that this is intended for their own classes and research activities, under the condition that: (a) such copies are not resold and (b) reference to prior publication in this Journal (Journal name, issue, year and pages) are shown clearly and explicitly on the coversheets of all the copies taken of the paper.

ETHICAL CONDUCT AND RESPONSABILITIES

Authors

• Certify that the content and format of their article is appropriate for the selected journal.
• Certify that their article contains appropriate citations and properly identifies third party source material.
• Certify that this is the correct journal to publish their article.
• Confirm the authenticity and originality of their article.
• Declare any potential conflicts of interest that may be caused by their article.
• Guarantee that article is not undergoing an evaluation process at another journal.
• Guarantee the integrity of the data presented in their article.
• State that articles does not contain any slanderous or defamatory statements and does not infringe on any third party intellectual property, commercial or industrial rights.
• The author who submits the article, who is the main author, declares that all the authors who have signed the article to be published have made effective contributions to its creation and preparation.
• Will immediately notify the editor if any errors are identified in the article and will contribute to their immediate correction, whether before publication and/or in connection with the publication of errata, when the error is identified after publication.

Editor-in-Chief

• Assures that the journal will contribute to the advancement of knowledge.
• Guarantees ethical conduct, integrity, impartiality, transparency and agility in communicating with the various actors involved in the submission, evaluation and publication processes.
• Guarantees integrity, impartiality, confidentiality and transparency in the scientific certification process for the articles submitted for publication.
• Guarantees quality, originality, rigor, coherence, and diversity of thought in the works approved for publication.
• States that ethical conduct has been followed in all the processes involving the submission, double blind review process and the publication of articles.
• Vouches for the journal viability and development together with the scientific, academic and business communities.
• Will define and put in place preventive policies and sanctions in situations involving bad ethical conduct.
• Will establish and manage conflict of interest policies for the various actors who participate in the scientific certification and publication process.
• Will make every effort to constantly improve the journal.

Members of EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

• Will alert the editor-in-chief about possible conflicts of interest that could prejudice the integrity of their actions as members of the journal’s Editorial Board.
• Will contribute to journal expansion.
• Will not use, under any circumstances, privileged information to which they have access to as members of the Editorial Board.
• Will reinforce, together with academic scientific community, the practice of ethical conduct in all the journal processes involving the submission, double blind review and publication of articles.
• State that ethical conduct has been followed in all the processes involving the submission, double blind review and publication of articles.
• Guarantee a high standard of ethical conduct, integrity, impartiality, transparency and agility in communicating with the various actors involved in the submission, evaluation and publication processes.
• Will immediately alert their immediate manager about possible conflicts of interest that could prejudice the integrity of their actions as members of the journal’s Editorial Staff.
• Will suggest themes for especial issues.

Members of the SCIENTIFIC REVIEW COMMITTEE

• State that ethical conduct has been followed in all the processes involving the review and scientific certification of articles submitted for publication.
• Will alert the editor-in-chief about similar published or submitted works and/or any other information relevant to adhering to this publication’s ethical standards.
• Assure confidentiality, impartiality and integrity in evaluating the article.
• Will suggest suitable active reviewers with experience directly related to the specific area of the article submitted for publication.
• State that they will contribute effectively to the improvement of the paper, stimulating reviewers to review the work critically, offering suggestions for improvement and complementing their respective reviews.
• Agree to complete the evaluation in the timeframe agreed to with the editor.
• Will alert the editor-in-chief about any possible conflicts of interest that would prejudice the integrity of the evaluation process.
• Will be reference in terms of ethical conduct and integrity.
• Assure confidentiality, impartiality and integrity in evaluating the article.
• Will not use, under any circumstances, privileged information to which they have had access as a reviewer.
• Promise to contribute to the effective improvement of the paper, with critical and constructive reviews.
• Agree to complete the evaluation within the timeframe agreed to with the editor.
• Will alert the editor about any possible conflicts of interest that could prejudice the integrity of the evaluation process.
• Will alert the editor about any similar published or submitted articles

WHAT WE RECOMMEND FOR THE ARTICLE STRUCTURE?

1. INTRODUCTION

In Introduction section of the article, the author should describe the state of the art of the problem, as well as justify and present the problem and the objectives of his work. The introduction is the opening text of the article, which should present: general considerations about the theme, other similar articles published recently in journals about the theme, the science gap, the purpose and objectives of the proposed work, as well as limitations among other relevant issues that explore the topic addressed, and the contribution of the article. At the end of the Introduction section (a last paragraph), you must present a presentation of the article. For example, beyond the Introduction, what else did you do?. Similar to a summary.

There are no strict formatting requirements but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to convey your manuscript, for example Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions, Artwork and Tables with Captions.

Please ensure the figures and the tables included in the single file are placed next to the relevant text in the manuscript, rather than at the bottom or the top of the file. The corresponding caption should be placed directly below the figure or table.

The text must present a scientific language and cannot be written in the first person. Must be original, unpublished, and be written in English. Eventually texts in Portuguese or Spanish are accepted.

The article must be submitted by the electronic system of the journal in ".doc" format, with tables and figures included in the body of the text. The entire body of the text should be written in Times New Roman, size 12, justified and with single line spacing, and between paragraphs from zero to item before and 6 points to after. The page margins should be 2 cm (top and bottom) and 2 cm (left and right). All paragraphs should have a 1.25cm tab and the tables and figures should be quoted in full in the text body (eg, Figure 1, Table 1). Throughout the text, the international system of units (IS) should be used to indicate measures.

The availability of a template for submission aims to standardize the graphic standard of the journal, reducing the publishing period, and making possible the scheduled periodicity. Do not use footnotes. It is hoped that this document will support the formatting of articles submitted to RPD, with a view to establishing a textual and graphic standard, minimizing revision by submissions without the expected formatting. These standards are suitable for the main journals and indexing criteria and have as main objectives:

a) To facilitate the correction of texts;

b) Assist the author in the formatting process;

c) Standardize the style and layout of the journal (covers, logos, layout and content).

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work, it will make possible a study from a theoretical basis. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

The Literature Review must give cientific support to the developed article, that is, the state of the art must be presented. It is expected that the author presents traditional references on the subjects investigated, in addition the journal request that at least 65% of the cited references used be from articles published in journals in the last 3 years.

3. MATERIAL AND METHODS

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Papers that have used human beings as object of study or animal experimentation must indicate in the text the number of the approval by the respective Committees of Ethics. The article should not be simultaneously under evaluation by another journal and all authors should be aware of the submission.

4. RESULTS

Results should be clear and concise. The results must dialog with the literature review presented. Discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Please ensure the figures and the tables included in the single file are placed next to the relevant text in the manuscript, rather than at the bottom or the top of the file. The corresponding caption should be placed directly below the figure or table.

Math formulae: Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Figure captions: Ensure that each illustration has a caption. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables: Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the associated text in the article. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.

5. CONCLUSION

The main conclusions of the study can be presented in a short section, which should present the results achieved in the study, which science gap was able to contribute, the limitations of the research, the expected findings and unexpected findings, if any, and suggestions for future studies.

6. REFERENCES (news for 2020)

Bibliographic citations must be included as references to the text. The bibliography should not include any references not cited in the text. The number of references must be sufficient and necessary for contextualizing the theoretical framework, the methodology used and the results of research in an international research context. These are to be presented alphabetically by the author’s first surname (adding the second surname only when the first surname is very common and attached with a hyphen). Bibliographic citations must be taken from the original documents –preferably journals and, to a lesser extent, books– always indicating the initial and final page of the article or work from which they have been taken, except for complete works. Given the importance for indexing purposes of citations and calculations of impact factors, correct citation will be assessed in accordance with the APA style 7 th edition (https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition), valuing the inclusion not only of national but also international references from prestigious international journals

The Reference text must use Times New Roman and font size 10 should be used, without tabulation and single spacing. Only the references cited in the article should be mentioned. Justified alignment and 6-point spacing should be maintained between references. For the best understanding and visualization, the following are transcribed some examples of references.

Whenever possible, the DOI or, failing that, URLs for references will be provided. Please use the free tool: http://www.crossref.org/simpleTextQuery.

SECTIONS YOU CAN SUBMITT