About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Grifos Journal (ISSN 2175-0157) is a quarterly publication by the Community University of the Chapecó Region (UNOCHAPECÓ). It accepts articles from Ph.D. candidates and master’s degree holders, provided that at least one co-author is a Ph.D. The journal publishes multidisciplinary studies, including empirical, historical, theoretical, and conceptual research, professional experience reports, critical literature reviews, and reviews, in the areas of Human and Applied Social Sciences, with the following thematic intersections:
Line 1: Law, Socio-environmentalism, and Public Policies
This line aims to investigate the configurations of citizenship in the face of the socio-environmental crisis, focusing on the role of law in regulating activities that impact both the environment and society. It also examines the role of the state and various levels of government in formulating, implementing, and evaluating public policies to ensure sustainable development and the protection of human rights, with a focus on socio-environmental conflicts, environmental governance, justice, sustainability, and human rights.
Line 2: Transnormativity, Regional Dynamics, and Innovation
This line explores the transnational legal relationships, the impact of innovation and technology on regional and local dynamics, and the role of state and non-state actors in governance and social transformation. It includes studies on Innovation Law, Intellectual Property, the State, Taxation, Public Policies, migration, social mobilization, and the economic, cultural, and socio-environmental transformations that influence multidimensional development and the struggle for social rights and the right to the city.
The content of Grifos is primarily aimed at public and private managers and planners, researchers and professors in Human and Applied Social Sciences, and social, political, and economic leaders. However, it is open to any readers with an interest in the topics discussed.
Peer Review Process
- Papers are submitted exclusively online via the Grifos website: Grifos Submission Page
- The editorial coordination checks format compliance, which may result in rejection or a request for changes.
- The editorial coordination conducts a preliminary review of the contribution, verifying compliance with editorial policies and the areas of knowledge covered by Grifos (desk review).
- The editorial coordination performs procedures to identify possible plagiarism in the works submitted to Grifos Journal.
- Once approved at this stage, the contribution is sent to two ad hoc reviewers who are specialists in the area (double-blind review). Grifos Journal prioritizes reviewers external to Unochapecó.
- The ad hoc reviewers evaluate the contribution and send their reviews to the editorial coordination.
- Based on the reviews, the editorial coordination informs the authors of the evaluation status, which may involve approval, rejection, or the need for content adjustments to be reviewed in a new round.
- Once all requested adjustments are made, the editorial coordination conducts the final review of the contribution and selects those that will be published in the next edition of Grifos, taking into consideration aspects of homogeneity and/or heterogeneity of the themes and the institutional affiliation of the authors.
- The selected contributions go through proofreading and layout processes.
- The final version is sent to the author for approval before publication, with an express response deadline.
- The set of selected contributions is then published on the Grifos website.
- All articles published by Grifos Journal are identified on the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) platform.
Evaluation Guidelines
Reviewers should consider the following guidelines when evaluating submissions:
- Clarity of writing, readability, and scientific structure.
- Relevance and appropriateness of the theoretical-conceptual foundation.
- Clarity and alignment of the study’s subject with the journal’s focus and scope.
- Clearly stated objectives, consistent with the abstract, introduction, and conclusion.
- Well-explained methodology, suitable for the paper’s goals.
- Presentation and discussion of results in relation to the theoretical framework.
- Concise conclusions consistent with methodology and results.
- Originality and contribution to the field.
Periodicity:
Biannual until 2019; quarterly from 2020 onward.
Open Access Policy:
This journal offers immediate free access to its content, following the principle that freely available scientific knowledge promotes greater global democratization of knowledge.
Copyright Statement:
Authors grant the journal publishing rights if their work is accepted for publication.
Approved works will be published for free, without any compensation for copyright, on the journal’s website and indexing databases for reading, printing, or downloading.
Authors will not be compensated for the publication of their articles.
Creative Commons License: Grifos Journal is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - CC-BY-NC-ND license. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses )
Content Responsibility:
The content of submitted articles is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or concepts of the journal’s editors. Authors are fully accountable for the accuracy, authorship (list and order), correctness, relevance, origin, and validity of citations. Additionally, authors are aware that they will be held legally responsible for any claims regarding the content, violations of privacy policies, or occurrences of plagiarism.
Ethical Conduct Guidelines
Grifos Journal and its editors follow the ethical guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).(Code of Conduct and Best Practices Guidelines for Journals Editors, COPE https://publicationethics.org)
Editorial Independence: Decisions are based on submission quality and peer review, not external policies or financial influences.
Permanent Management: Grifos ensures efficient editorial services through appropriate mechanisms and infrastructure.
Ethical Editing: Editor and support staff selection adhere to ethical standards.
Information on the Website: Grifos provides full details on submission, evaluation, and publication rules on its website.
General Guidelines
Plagiarism
Submitted articles will be checked for possible plagiarism using the Crossref Similarity Check software.
Authorship
It is not permitted to include the names of individuals who did not contribute to the article. All authors must be aware of the submission.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Grifos Journal considers a conflict of interest when an author, editor, or reviewer has personal/financial interests or beliefs that could impact their objectivity.
RESEARCH FRAUD
The insertion of data or conclusions that were not generated from experiments or observations is strictly prohibited.
Information: https://publicationethics.org/
Journal Information:
Grifos Journal is associated with the Graduate Program in Social Policies and Regional Dynamics at Unochapecó, shifting to a quarterly publication schedule from 2020 (April, August, December). It is classified as B1 in Interdisciplinary, B5 in Urban Planning and Demography, and B4 in History.
History
Grifos Journal has a long and relevant history, publishing multidisciplinary content since the 1990s. Initially, it was a scientific and cultural dissemination journal of the Universidade do Oeste de Santa Catarina (Unoesc), Chapecó campus. The journal has always had an internal Scientific Committee and an external Editorial Board comprised of researchers from various institutions across Brazil (such as UFRJ, UERJ, UFPR, UFSC, PUC-RS, UMESP, and others). Some of these members still remain on the Editorial Board today. The credit for the configuration and history of Grifos Journal goes to Professor Arlene Anélia Renk, who managed the journal until 2012. Since the 1990s, the journal has focused on thematic diversity and adherence to indexing standards and publication guidelines. In the 2000s, with its print version still in place, the journal expanded through the involvement of the Editora Argos Editorial Board and increased its reach by being indexed in databases like IUPERJ, FURB’s Human and Social Sciences, and IBICT/CCN/UNESP. The journal seeks to diversify the institutional backgrounds of its authors through exogenous efforts, reflected in the publication of thematic dossiers and free-theme articles, driven by interdisciplinary approaches. Since 2007, Grifos has been published online as a biannual journal. Unochapecó’s institutional journals use an Electronic Journal Publishing System (OJS), an open-source platform for managing and publishing journals, supported and distributed by the Public Knowledge Project under the GNU General Public License. Like other national journals, Grifos follows established standards for publications, such as policies on Focus and Scope, Section Policies, Peer Review Process, Periodicity, Open Access Policy, and Archiving. It also includes guidelines for submissions, including Online Submissions, Author Guidelines, Copyright Declaration, and Privacy Policy. From the second half of 2012 until the end of 2021, Grifos was part of the Graduate Program in Social Policies and Regional Dynamics at Unochapecó. Since 2023, it has been integrated into the Graduate Program in Law and is now linked to the Research and Graduate Directorate at Unochapecó.
