About the Journal
FOCUS AND SCOPE
The Journal of Fundamental Rights & Democracy – RDFD is an online, open-access journal, with articles published under the Creative Commons BY, NC, SA license. It is indexed in national and international databases and accepts articles, under a continuous-flow system, from authors holding a doctoral degree, as well as from doctoral degree holders co-authoring with doctoral or master's candidates.
With a biannual periodicity, the RDFD aims to foster academic debate on the theme of Fundamental Rights and Democracy. In pursuit of this objective, the RDFD publishes articles addressing matters related to: (i) civil, social, economic, political, and cultural fundamental rights; (ii) fundamental guarantees; (iii) human dignity; (iv) constitutional, supranational, and international jurisdictions; (v) legal hermeneutics; (vi) the political, administrative, and judicial organization of the State; (vii) forms of substantive and procedural cooperation between the State and local, regional, supranational, and international organizations; (viii) new forms of legal-normative self-regulation; (ix) themes of pluralism, diversity, and identities; (x) transitional justice; (xi) debates on the challenges of democracy concerning the relationships between democracy and popular sovereignty, democracy and populism, democracy and authoritarianism, democracy and colonialism, democracy and new technologies, democracy and nationalism, democracy and globalization, democracy and electoral systems, democracy and freedom, democracy and equality, democracy and affirmative action, democracy and liberalism, democracy and republicanism, democracy and Marxian thought, democracy and conservative thought, democracy, State and development, democracy and social movements, democracy and inclusion, democracy and trust, and democracy and social reality.
SECTION POLICY
The RDFD has two sections: (i) Articles and (ii) Reviews.
MISSION
To establish itself as a national and international reference journal in academic debate on the theme of Fundamental Rights and Democracy, guiding its actions by the quality of its publications, plurality of thought, and transparency of the editorial process.
PEER REVIEW
Submitted articles must meet the criteria of being unpublished, original, and significant, and are subject to a double-blind review procedure — that is, they are sent, with authorship undisclosed, for evaluation by two reviewers holding a doctoral degree.
Reviewers may consider an article (i) suitable for publication, (ii) reject its publication, or (iii) suitable subject to corrections. In the event of disagreement between reviewers regarding acceptance for publication, the article will be sent to a third reviewer. If the disagreement is limited to requested corrections, the article will be returned to the author for adjustments. In this case, the editor may certify, through a reasoned statement, whether or not the author has made the adjustments requested by the reviewer, deciding on the publication of the article accordingly.
The selection of articles to compose each issue will follow criteria of institutional diversity (exogeneity) of authorship and order of submission within the system.
FREQUENCY
The RDFD publishes two issues per year, which together form one volume. Each issue contains its own table of contents. Publication frequency is biannual:
Issue 1 (first half of the year): published in March
Issue 2 (second half of the year): published in September
OPEN ACCESS POLICY
The RDFD provides open access to its content, upholding free access to quality academic knowledge.
INDEXING
The RDFD is indexed in the following databases:
VLEX,
Library of the Brazilian Senate (RVBI),
LATINDEX,
IBICT (SEER),
Joint Catalog of Catalan Universities – Spain,
University of Barcelona Library,
Open Journal System,
Portuguese Open Access Scientific Repository (ACAAP),
Sherpa-Romeo,
Electronic Journals Library, University Library of Regensburg – Germany,
Scirus,
DOAJ,
DIADORIM,
EBSCOHOST,
Universal Impact Factor,
BASE,
Academic Keys,
Cite Factor,
PROQUEST.
NO-FEE POLICY FOR ARTICLE SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION
No fees are charged for submitting articles to the journal, nor for the editorial process and/or publication of selected articles.
SPONSORS
The RDFD is maintained by the Centro Universitário Autônomo do Brasil – UniBrasil, a higher education institution based in the city of Curitiba, State of Paraná, Brazil.
UniBrasil has a Graduate Program – Master's and Doctoral degrees — in the concentration area of "Fundamental Rights and Democracy," rated 5 by CAPES – Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, an agency affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Education.
CODE OF ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
The RDFD adheres to COPE's Singapore Statement on Research Integrity, adopted on the occasion of the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, held in Singapore from July 22 to 24, 2010.
The RDFD is guided by the following ethical and integrity standards:
(i) Freedom of Expression and Academic Research
The RDFD does not tolerate any restriction on freedom of expression, of thought, or of academic research. If an article receives a qualitative evaluation consistent with the standards stipulated by editorial policy, and is related to the journal's scope, its publication may not be rejected.
(ii) Double-Blind Review
All submitted articles must undergo double-blind review evaluation.
(iii) Plagiarism and Ethical Conduct of the Author(s)
Authors are required to submit original articles. One of the requirements for submission is that the article contain no plagiarism of other previously published studies. In cases of self-plagiarism or improper copying of other authors' text, the RDFD Editors reserve the right to reject or even to retract an already published article.
Authors must not submit articles that have already been sent for review to another journal.
The same research may not be the subject of multiple or redundant publication in various journals without the Editors' consent.
The indication of authorship of the article must accurately reflect the contribution made to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study conducted.
(iv) Editors and Reviewers
The Editors commit to respecting authors' rights and to making no distinction on grounds of ideology, race, sex, religion, or politics, while also ensuring that no texts of an offensive nature, or that could constitute a criminal, civil, or administrative offense, are published.
The Editors commit to maintaining confidentiality regarding the content of submitted texts, except with Reviewers and the Editorial Board, and may not even cite unpublished scientific works without the author's express written consent.
The Editors shall make every effort to cooperate with ethical complaints regarding submitted or already published articles.
Reviewers commit to maintaining confidentiality regarding the texts submitted to them, to evaluating articles objectively and with sound reasoning, and to being timely in completing accepted evaluations.
Editors and Reviewers must refrain from any evaluation where there is a conflict of interest in relation to the submitted work, and must report such situations to the Editorial Board.
JOURNAL HISTORY
The history of the RDFD is linked to UniBrasil's Graduate Program in Law and its concentration area in Fundamental Rights and Democracy. The RDFD was created to foster academic debate on the theme of Fundamental Rights and Democracy, with its first issue published in June 2007. Throughout its existence, the RDFD has sought to remain true to its original purpose of serving the academic community with quality publications. This trajectory of success was recognized by CAPES – Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, an agency of the Ministry of Education, which classified it as Qualis A1 and Qualis A2 during the period the Qualis Periódicos system was in force.
ARCHIVING
The RDFD uses the LOCKSS system (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) to ensure safe and permanent archiving of the journal's cache. LOCKSS is free software developed by Stanford University Libraries, which preserves selected online journals by monitoring their pages for newly published content and archiving it. Each archive is continuously validated against copies held by other libraries. Should content become corrupted or lost, these copies are used for restoration.
Backups are performed weekly and retained for up to 15 business days. A permanent copy is stored on the last business day of each month.
