About the journal

Basic Information

The Brazilian Political Science Review (BPSR) was launched in 2007 with the mission of disseminating high quality scientific papers on topics of political science and international relations, thereby contributing to the exchange of ideas in the international political science community and the internationalization of scientific knowledge produced in Brazil.

Published by the Brazilian Association of Political Science, the BPSR welcomes the diversity of themes, problems and theoretical and methodological approaches present in the various sub-areas of political science and international relations. Its editorial scope is thus both disciplinary and broad and covers the whole range of research: theoretical and/or empirical; transnational, international or on a particular country; quantitative and/or qualitative.

The only Brazilian scientific journal in the field of political science published entirely in English, the BPSR accepts works by foreign and Brazilian authors.

The BPSR publishes original articles, research notes, review essays, and reviews of books published by international publishers in which Brazil is one of the countries studied. Each kind of manuscript is published in related specific sections. The journal does not welcome proposals for special issues, thematic reports or interviews, although in exceptional cases, for reasons of interest to the journal, the editorial board may decide to request submissions of these, which are published in BPSR Forum section.

All draft articles submitted to the BPSR must be unpublished and may not have been submitted for review by other publications. Unpublished articles include those not published in whole or in part in journals, books or on websites. Articles published in proceedings on academic events, in personal profiles on academic platforms, in preliminary versions such as working papers or in preprint platforms are also regarded as unpublished. Once the article evaluation process has begun, the original text and any revised versions thereof may not be published in any way whatsoever until such time as it is published by the journal. During the evaluation process, the original article and any revised versions thereof are screened by means of plagiarism detection software.

All submissions are subjected to a double-blind peer review process except for book reviews, which are reviewed by the BPSR's editorial board. Peer reviews may be credited to reviewers by name at their option. BPSR is committed to ethical practices and transparency. Therefore, editorial decisions sent to authors are also shared with the articles’ reviewers.

The BPSR imposes a publication interval of two years between articles by the same author within the same document category. This restriction does not apply to book reviews or articles published in BPSR Forum section. The BPSR does not accept simultaneous submissions of multiple articles by the same author for the same category.

The BPSR charges an article processing charge (APC) payable by authors whose articles are approved for publication, which is used exclusively to cover the costs of translation into English and/or proofreading in cases where the article is submitted in English. These services are performed by professionals selected and recruited by the BPSR. The value of the article processing charge varies according to document type. Members of the Brazilian Association of Political Science, recent PhD researchers and researchers from specific Brazilian regions are eligible for a discount. The BPSR may issues receipts of APC payment at authors’ request. More details at Author Guidelines.

The BPSR adopts the continuous publication model. Three issues comprise one volume.

Its abbreviated title is Braz. Political Sci. Rev, which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes and bibliographical references and strips.

PUBLICATION ETHICS

The BPSR has a strong commitment to editorial ethical practice and strives at all times to ensure the highest best practice standards in respect of the articles it publishes at all stages of their submission, evaluation and publication (see Data sharing policy and Publication speed as well).

Any allegations of misconduct are received by the Editor in Chief, who will submit them for consideration and evaluation to the BPSR Ethics Committee. Allegations of misconduct may comprise but are not limited to authorship; bad practices by reviewers, editorial team or BPSR staff; conflict of interest; data and reproducibility (see Data Sharing Policy); ethical oversight; plagiarism and republication. Allegations of misconduct may comprise as well other issues related to the editorial process.

The BPSR Ethics Committee comprise the President of the Brazilian Association of Political Science, the heads of the Publications and Projects Directorates, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. Alleged cases of misconduct will be evaluated in the light of the Guiding documents embraced by BPSR (see Guiding documents).

All authorship must be informed when an original manuscript is submitted and the contact details of all authors must be informed. The specific contribution of each author must be acknowledged. Manuscripts with ghost, guest or gift authors are withdraw of the editorial process.

Any complaints about bad practices by reviewers, editorial team or BPSR staff should be sent to the Editor-in Chief, who will submit them for consideration and evaluation to the BPSR Ethics Committee.

Trough the editorial process, reviewers and authors are requested to inform finance support and (see Financing) and possible conflicts of interests. Additionally, Associated Editors and the Editor-in-Chief are advised to drop the handling of any manuscript that may entail competing interests.

BPSR follows the ethical oversight standards and procedures for research with human beings set by the Social and Humans Science work Group of the National Commission of Ethics on Research (CONEP) and specific rules defined in knowledge fields or research institutions by the Committees of Research Ethics (CEPs). All research which does not rely on extant data and involve direct participation in data production by researched populations, groups or individuals must be carried with the explicit consent of the later by signing the “Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido” (TCLE).

Guiding documents

The BPSR urges everyone involved in its editorial processes – authors, reviewers, associate editors, the editor-in-chief and external suppliers – to consult, whenever necessary, the documents that guide the BPSR’s editorial ethical practice, especially in respect of issues involving authorship and references, the responsibilities of authors, conflicts of interest, anonymity and/or evaluation processes and research involving living beings

The BPSR adheres to the “Basic Guidelines for Integrity in Scientific Activities” laid down by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) as well as the “Guidelines for Reporting Research Results” laid down by the Code of Scientific Best Practice of the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp). Both available at:
https://www.gov.br/cnpq/pt-br/composicao/comissao-de-integridade/diretrizes,
http://www.fapesp.br/boaspraticas/FAPESP-Codigo_de_Boas_Praticas_Cientificas_2014.pdf

The BPSR adheres to the Brazilian national policy on ethical oversight (see ethical oversight) and adopts the “Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing”, of the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE). Both available at:
https://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/saudelegis/cns/2013/res0466_12_12_2012.html
http://publicationethics.org/files/Principles_of_Transparency_and_Best_Practice_in_Scholarly_Publishingv2_0.pdf

As for best practices regarding more specific aspects of the editorial process, the BPSR adopts the “White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications” by the Council of Science Editors:
https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics

Archiving

All BPSR published materials have backup provided by SciELO. Permanent access at any time to BRSR content, nowadays or in the future, is granted by SciELO as well, even in the event that the journal gets no longer published.

DATA SHARING POLICY

The BPSR has a data sharing policy whereby databases and metadata are made available on the journal’s website (brazilianpoliticalsciencereview.org) and the Harvard Dataverse. Authors whose articles are approved for publication must make their files available for replication.

In addition to making databases and metadata available on the BPSR website and the Harvard Dataverse, an important part of our data sharing policy concerns thorough checking of metadata and databases, with the aim of ensuring transparency and the replicability of the results presented in articles. All replication procedures are verified. Data and metadata assessments are sent to authors to request that any appropriate adjustments be made. The material is made available on the BPSR website and the Harvard Dataverse only after it has undergone this evaluation stage.

Upon submitting empirical articles, authors must agree to provide, when and if their submission is approved: (i) the database used for the analysis; (ii) the code dictionary describing the variables; and (iii) the script or detailed description of the analysis procedures and steps performed to produce each graph and/or table.

The database must be in a format that is easily accessible to conventional statistical software packages such as R, Stata, SPSS and Excel. The code dictionary shall indicate the name of the variable, its description and the data source. Where appropriate, code for analysis replication should be extensively commented. Where the article does not use statistical software that allows for the creation of a replication code, the authors should describe the steps one by one so that replication is possible.

PUBLICATION SPEED

While keeping high editorial standards, BPSR is strongly committed to speed publication and follows a continuous publication policy. The editorial team strives at all times to keep publication speed under the ceiling defined in the flux figures below.

FLOW OF SUBMISSION AND SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION

EDITORIAL PRODUCTION FLOW

Indexed in

Intellectual Property

Sponsors

Editorial board

Editor-in-chief

Associated Editores

Data Editor

Editorial Comission

Editorial Assistant

Editorial Board

Editorial Board

Instructions to authors