2. FOCUS AND SCOPE

Revista de Investigações Constitucionais (ISSN 2359-5639) is an open-access, quarterly (with rolling publication), electronic scientific jornal, promoted by NINC – Núcleo de Investigações Constitucionais da Universidade Federal do Paraná (www.ninc.com.br). Its main objective is to publishing excelling law articles by national and foreign researchers in the constitutional field, and to be read by legal scholars, researchers and law students from different countries interested in constitutional law, through the publication of articles in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Its Editorial Board is composed of renowned jurists affiliated with higher education institutions in Brazil, Germany, Austria, Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, Colombia, United States, Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Singapore and Venezuela.

The journal’s editorial line follows the main research areas developed by the research center (NINC-UFPR), with focus on the critical study of Constitutional Law, prioritizing themes directly related to constitutional dogmatics, such as fundamental rights, constitutional courts, judicial review, relationship between the Powers, federalism, legislative process and constitutional reform, electoral systems, Comparative Constitutional Law, among others.

According to CNPq (the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) classification, the journal covers the following area:

Great area: Applied Social Sciences (6.00.00.00-7)
Area: Law (6.01.00.00-1)
Subarea: Public Law (6.01.02.00-4)
Specialty: Constitutional Law (6.01.02.05-5)

3. BRIEF HISTORY

Revista de Investigações Constitucionais was created in 2014, on the initiative of its Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Daniel Wunder Hachem, Academic Director of the NINC – Núcleo de Investigações Constitucionais da Universidade Federal do Paraná. The founding of the journal was based on two main objectives: (i) to create an open access scientific journal in the area of ​​Constitutional Law, which would meet the criteria of high editorial quality established by the COPE – Committee on Publication Ethics and by the most relevant indexers and databases on the international scene; (ii) to open space for the dissemination of constitutional investigations from different countries, both in Latin America and other parts of the world, contributing to the study of Comparative Constitutional Law.

The Editorial Team, Editorial Policies and Guidelines for Authors were structured after a thorough study of international quality parameters for scientific journals. As a result, the journal was indexed in the four most demanding and important databases on the international scene: Web of Science (2017), Scopus (2017), SciELO (2018) and Redalyc (2018). At the national level, it was classified as Qualis A1 by CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel – Brazilian Ministry of Education) in all classifications since its creation (Quadrennia 2013-2016 and 2017-2020).

In terms of funding, the journal was awarded resources from CAPES and CNPq in the following funding calls:

- Chamada CNPq/CAPES nº 18/2018 - Programa Editorial
- Chamada CNPq nº 15/2021 - Programa Editorial
- Chamada CNPq nº 12/2022 - Programa Editorial

4. PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

The Journal adopts the method of rolling publication. Three issues are released per year, one every four months:

• Issue n. 1 (January/April)
• Issue n. 2 (May/August)
• Issue n. 3 (September/December)

Articles are inserted continuously into published issues, according to approval and layout, without the need to close a complete issue for publication. Each article is published within an issue with its own table of contents and identified within that issue using the e-location (code composed of the letter “e” and three digits - example: e231).

5. PEER REVIEW PROCESS

5.1. Articles are selected through peer review, in two stages: (i) internal review by the Editorial Board (desk review); and (ii) external peer review, which may take different forms in accordance with Open Science practices, as described below.

5.2. In the desk review stage, the article is checked to see whether it strictly complies with all the requirements set forth in the Guidelines for Authors, such as authorship requirements, respect for the number of pages, compliance with the journal's methodological standards regarding citations and bibliographic references, the theme's fit within the editorial line, originality and innovation of the approach, quality of writing, among others. In the event of non-compliance with any of the guidelines, whether for reasons of form or content, the article will be rejected outright.

5.3. Once approved in the desk review stage, the article is submitted to the peer review procedure, adopting the double-blind method as the initial standard: double anonymity of the author and the reviewers. The article is sent without identification of authorship to at least two reviewers holding a PhD degree who are members of the journal's Board of Reviewers or designated ad hoc, affiliated with national (exogenous to the State of Paraná) and foreign higher education institutions.

5.4. Authors who choose to deposit their articles on preprint servers are aware that the deposit makes the work public and allows possible identification of authorship, so that reviewers may occasionally come to know the authorship of the reviewed work. In this case, the double blind peer review process (with double anonymity, of the author and the reviewers) becomes single blind peer review (peer review with simple anonymity), in which only the anonymity of one of the parties to the process – the reviewers – is guaranteed.

5.5. In accordance with Open Science practices, the author has the option of authorizing the editors to promote their direct interaction with the reviewers of the article, waiving the anonymous nature of the review, if the reviewers also agree. In this case, the open peer review modality is adopted. This option must be expressed by the author at the time of submission of the article, in the Form 1 – Authors Data and Open Science Compliance, available for download at: https://revistas.ufpr.br/rinc/libraryFiles/downloadPublic/7. If this modality is adopted, the authors agree that the journal will grant the reviewers the possibility of publishing the reviews in the same issue in which the article will be published.

5.6. To be approved, the article must receive two favorable opinions for publication, either as it is or through corrections suggested by the reviewers. If there is at least one opinion for rejection, the article may be rejected, if the Editorial Board considers the reasons for this to be sufficient. In the event of a dispute between the two reviewers, the article will be submitted to a third reviewer.

5.5. The criteria used in the evaluation form are as follows:

a) Is the reviewer in a position to evaluate the article, since there is no conflict of interest?

b) Does the article address a topic that falls within the focus and scope of the journal (https://revistas.ufpr.br/rinc/about)?

c) Is the definition of the topic and the approach to the research original, innovative and relevant, distinct from other publications on the topic, to the point of justifying a new publication on the subject?

d) Is the text well written, clear and cohesive, free of typos and spelling errors?

e) Does the title clearly and sufficiently reflect the content of the article?

f) Does the article comply with the formatting and scientific methodology standards described in the Guidelines for Authors (ABNT)?

g) Does the abstract indicate the research problem, the objectives of the article, the methodology used and the main conclusions of the research?

h) Does the article present an extensive and in-depth bibliographic survey, which includes a significant number of specific and updated bibliographic references that already exist on the topic?

i) Are the topics covered in the article explored in theoretical depth, examining the issue under debate from different perspectives and considering arguments contrary to those defended in the article?

j) Does the article present arguments and effective contributions developed by the author of the article himself, without relying on excessive long direct quotations from other authors?

k) Are the concepts used throughout the text generally correct?

l) Does the content comply with the criteria of not disseminating prejudice and/or defamation and slander that harm the integrity of the readers and/or individuals cited?

5.6. The possible results of the evaluation process are as follows:

a) Article without restrictions on scientific content; may be accepted for publication.
b) Article with minor restrictions; may be accepted as long as the corrections indicated in the review are made.
c) Article with major restrictions on content; should not be accepted for publication.

5.7. The evaluation process usually takes up to 2 months in cases of rejection by desk review, and 3 to 6 months in cases of submission of the article for peer review.

6. DIGITAL PRESERVATION AND ARCHIVING

The journal follows the standards defined in the Digital Preservation Policy of the SciELO Program. It uses the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archive system among the participating libraries and allows the creation of permanent archives of the journal for preservation and restoration.

LOCKSS system has permission to collect, preserve, and serve this Archival Unit.

Digital preservation is carried out by Cariniana – Brazilian Network of Digital Preservation Services (IBICT – Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology) through the LOCKSS system. Information about preservation is available on the Archival Status tab on the journal's page on The Keepers Registry portal.

7. ARTICLE PROCESSING AND PUBLICATION COSTS (APCs)

Submission, processing and publication of articles are free of charge, with no fees (APCs) charged to authors.

8. SPONSORS

The journal would like to thank CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel – Brazilian Ministry of Education) and CNPq (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) for the funding received. It was awarded financial resources in the following funding notices:

- Chamada CNPq nº 12/2022 - Programa Editorial
- Chamada CNPq nº 15/2021 - Programa Editorial
- Chamada CNPq/CAPES nº 18/2018 - Programa Editorial

9. INDEXING

Revista de Investigações Constitucionais is indexed in the following databases and information sources:

• Scopus
• Web of Science
• SciELO
• Redalyc
• DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals
• Latindex Catálogo 2.0
• Dialnet
• ERIHPLUS - European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences
• vLex
• CrossRef
• Google Scholar
• Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
• Jisc Open Policy Finder
• MIAR - Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals
• WorldCat
• BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
• EZB - Electronic Journals Library 
• Zeitschriften Datenbank
• Mir@bel
• SUDOC - Système Universitaire de Documentation
• OpenAlex
• Diadorim
• Miguilim
• OasisBR: Portal brasileiro de publicações científicas em acesso aberto
• Portal de Periódicos da CAPES
• RVBI - Rede Virtual de Bibliotecas do Congresso Nacional
• Red de Revistas de Derecho Constitucional

The journal is present on the following social media:

• Instagram: @rinc_ufpr
• X (former Twitter): @rinc_ufpr