Focus and Scope

The Acta Brasiliensis, printed (ISSN 2526-432X) and online (ISSN 2526-4338),  publishes original articles, notes and scientific reviews, with Open Source, in areas related to Biological and Environmental Sciences, such as: Botany and Ethnobotany, Plant Physiology, Zoology, Environmental and Food Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Parasitology, Pharmacy, Genetics, Ecology, Ecotoxicology, Agroecology, Environmental Education. Therefore, our targets are all researchers (undergraduate and graduate) that work in these areas.

The bibliographic reviews will be accepted only from the invitation of researchers of notable knowledge in their area of ​​action. Published manuscripts depend on the Editorial Board's approval, as described below, in the session "Peer Review Process (Arbitration System)."

The authors are obliged, during the submission phase of the manuscript, to declare that their manuscript is an original work, and that it is not being submitted, in whole or in part, for analysis for publication in another medium of scientific dissemination under penalty of exclusion. This statement is available at: http://revistas.ufcg.edu.br/ActaBra/index.php/actabra/about/submissions.

Mission / Goal and Target Audience

Acta Brasiliensis aims to broaden the publicity of scientific research in the area of ​​Biological and Environmental Sciences, disseminating information and contributing to the scientific development of this area. In this way, the target audience of Acta Brasiliensis comprises all the researchers from the different areas of Biological and Environmental Sciences, at the various levels of education (technological, undergraduate and postgraduate).

Indexing

                                     

 

 Peer Review Process (Arbitration System)

The submitted manuscript will initially be evaluated for compliance with the scope of the journal, compliance with the submission rules (related in Guidelines to the Authors) and verification of plagiarism (by means of specific software and following the software criteria for definition of plagiarism), For these requirements, the manuscript will be forwarded to an associate editor who will evaluate the manuscript as to its relevance, intelligibility and quality of data analysis. Then the manuscript that met the requirements, will be forwarded by the associate editor to two external reviewers (double-blind process) , experts in the area of ​​knowledge of the manuscript. Reviewers may approve it, with or without corrections, or reject it. The opinions of the external reviewers will be sent to the authors. The manuscript will be approved if the two reviewers issue a favorable opinion. Where there is disagreement between the two reviewers' concluding opinions, a third external evaluator shall be invited for a decisive opinion. If there are indications for corrections, the authors will have 2 weeks for these improvements, forwarding the manuscript through the journal system.

Frequency: Quarterly, with the publications being held in the months of January iIssue no. 1 - Jan-Apr), May (issue no. 2 - May-Aug) and September (issue no. 3 - Sep-Dec).

Free Access Policy

This journal offers immediate free access to its content, following the principle that providing free scientific knowledge to the public provides greater global democratization of knowledge. Therefore, readers do not pay to have access to the content of the magazine.

Archiving , License, Copyrights and Self-Archiving

This journal uses the LOCKSS system to create a distributed file system between participating libraries and allows them to create permanent journal files for preservation and restoration.

All content in this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License (Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Authors are allowed to hold the copyright and unrestricted publication of their manuscript.

Self-archiving (in any scientific repositories) of the manuscript submitted to Acta Brasiliensis can be allowed only after its publication by Acta Brasiliensis and in its final editorial version (published version), following the guidelines of the Creative Commons license developed by Acta Brasiliensis.

Privacy policy

The names and addresses informed in this journal will be used exclusively for the services provided by this publication and are not available for other purposes or to third parties.

Publishing, financial support and Fees for Authors

Acta Brasiliensis is published and is financially supported by the Universidade Federal de Campina Grande (UFCG), Patos campus, Paraíba. Address and Contact:

Universidade Federal de Campina Grande - UFCG. Universidade Avenue, s/n. Jatobá. Cx Postal 61, ZIP Code: 58708-110 - Patos, Paraíba. Email: cstr@cstr.ufcg.edu.br. Phone: (83) 3511-3000.

This journal does not charge fees for submission or publication. However, manuscripts published in English should have the translation costs borne by the authors.

Digital Preservation Policy

The journal uses the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system to ensure secure and permanent archiving of your files. LOCKSS is free software developed by the Stanford University Library, which allows you to preserve selected online journals by probing their pages for newly published content and archiving it. Each file is continuously validated against copies of other libraries. If the content is corrupted or lost, the copies are used for restoration.

In addition, each manuscript receives the Digital Identifier or Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

 Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement (PEMS)

Acta Brasiliensis is committed and has responsabilities in complying with the ethical criteria in all stages of the publishing process, which involves the author, editors and reviewers. For Therefore, we follow what is recommended by the Ethics Committee on Publication (COPE). We also suggest reading the Guidelines on good publication practice.

Below we relate some of the key aspects of expectations for publishers, reviewers and authors.

1. Ethical Expectations

Publisher Responsibilities

- To act in a fair and objective manner, without discrimination of gender, sexual orientation, religious politics or ethnicity.
- Adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the case of ethical or accordance with the Company's policies and procedures, as appropriate. Give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any claim. All complaints should be investigated, regardless of when the original publication was approved. The documentation associated with these should be maintained.
- All original studies should be reviewed prior to publication, taking into account the possible bias due to related or conflicting interests.
- Publishers should treat all submissions as confidential.
- Editorial decisions should not be influenced by advertising or potential advertising revenue.
reprint: editorial advertising management should be clearly separated.

Responsibilities of reviewers

- Contribute in decision making and help improve the quality of the published article.
- The revision of the manuscript must be in a timely manner, committing not to retain the manuscript in period, without justification or communications to the publishers.
- Maintain the confidentiality of any information provided by the publisher or author. Do not hold or copy the manuscript.
- Alert the publisher to any content published or submitted that is substantially similar to the one under review.
- Be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between the reviewer and the author) and alert the publisher to them, if necessary, withdrawing its services for this manuscript.

Responsibilities of authors

- Maintain accurate records of the data associated with the submitted manuscript and provide or provide access to such data upon reasonable request.
- Confirm / affirm that the manuscript as submitted is not under consideration or evaluation for publication elsewhere. Where parts of the content overlap with published or uploaded content, to recognize and cite these sources. In addition, provide the editor with a copy of any manuscript submitted content that may contain superimposed or closely related content.
- Confirm the originality of the submitted manuscript and acknowledge and quote reproduced content of other sources. For permission to play any content from other sources.
- Authors should ensure that any studies involving humans or animals are in compliance with national, local and institutional laws and requirements, communicating the necessary to prove this approval.
- declare any potential conflict of interest (for example, when the author has an interest competitor (actual or apparent) that can be considered or improperly over their functions at any stage during the publishing process).
- Notify publisher promptly if a significant error in your publication is identified. Cooperate with the editor to publish a errata, addendum, rectification or retract the document, when this is considered necessary.

2. Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior

 Identification of unethical behavior

- Misconduct and unethical behavior can be identified and brought to the editor's attention at any time, by any person. 
- Misconduct and unethical behavior may include, but are not limited to, examples as described above.
- Whoever informs the publisher of misconduct and unethical behavior must provide information and evidence enough for an investigation to be initiated. All allegations must be taken seriously and treated in the same manner, until a successful decision or conclusion is reached.
- Disappointment may be intentional, by reckless negligence of possible consequences, or by negligence. This implies, therefore, that "best practice" requires complete honesty, with total disclosure.

Investigation

- An initial decision must be made by the publisher, who should consult or seek guidance from the publisher
associated, if appropriate.
- Evidence must be collected, while avoiding spreading any claims beyond those who need to be informed.
- The examination of faults should focus not only on the particular act or omission, but also on the intention of the researcher, author, publisher, reviewer or publisher involved.

Minor misconduct

- A minor misconduct can be treated without the need to consult more widely. In any In this case, the author should have the opportunity to respond to any allegations.

Serious misconduct

- A serious misconduct may require that the employers of the accused be notified. The editor, in consultation
with the publisher or the Society, as appropriate, must decide whether or not to involve employers, either by examining available evidence or by consulting other limited number of specialists.

Outcomes

Once the misconduct and unethical behavior have been identified, the following actions may apply. They are in increasing order of severity and can be applied separately or together).

- Inform or educate the author or reviewer where there appears to be a misunderstanding or misapplication of standards acceptable.
- A letter with strong words to the author or reviewer covering the misconduct and as a warning for future behavior. 
- Publication of a formal notice detailing misconduct.
- Publication of an editorial detailing the misconduct.
- A formal letter to the head of the author's department or reviewer or funding agency.
- Retraining or formal withdrawal of a publication of the journal, together with the information of the
author's department or reviewer.
- Imposition of a formal embargo on the contributions of an individual for a defined period.
- Report the case and result to a professional organization or higher authority for investigations and additional actions.