Peer review process

Peer Review Process

Initial assessment

Initially, the texts undergo a preliminary assessment by the Editorial Policy Commission to verify:

a) if the submission meets the rules of the Journal. At this stage, if the works do not meet the standards, they are rejected and the authors are instructed to make the necessary corrections and make a new submission. Also at this stage, the works will be submitted to the text similarity recognition tool, in order to check for plagiarism.

b) whether the text fits within the scope of the Journal, in terms of originality, quality and subject matter, and whether a full external evaluation is warranted. Articles approved at this stage will be sent to external evaluators.

Important: articles that are not completely in accordance with the specifications of the Journal's norms will not be considered able to follow the foreseen procedures. All information about norms and formatting of texts can be found in the "Guidelines for authors" menu.

 

Evaluation by reviewers

VirtuaJus carries out a “double-blind” evaluation, that is, neither the name of the author or the authors, nor the names of the evaluators are revealed to each other.

VirtuaJus does not accept articles and essays that are already being considered for other publications or that have already been published in other journals. In case of doubt about our editorial procedures, or if you would like to obtain information, please contact us via e-mail: virtuajus.pucminas@gmail.com

Texts approved in the initial stage are forwarded to ad hoc evaluators who are experts in the topic or area covered in the article.

In case there is a disparity in opinions, a third reviewer should be called to evaluate the article. If the disparities are not overcome, the editors must issue the final decision.

The editorial commission asks ad hoc external reviewers to evaluate the text within 20 days. The author will receive, after the external review process, the comments of the evaluators with the removal of identification notes.

 

Conditional acceptance

If external reviews are favourable, the text will be accepted under the condition that the author adequately addresses the issues raised by the evaluators. The article must be resubmitted within a maximum of 30 days, highlighting the changes made. After the author resubmits the text, it will be examined by the article's editor and, if necessary, by at least one of the original ad hoc reviewers. This process is required to verify whether the suggested modifications have been adequately addressed, so that the text is accepted for publication.

 

Rejection

Rejection can occur after the initial evaluation, after the peer review, and after the work has been reviewed and resubmitted within the stipulated period. If the ad hoc reviews indicate the need for substantial revision, the work will be rejected.

The editorial board hopes that authors will recognize the importance of a rigorous review process to ensure high scholarly quality.