Steps for publication
The work submitted to RAC follows well-defined steps for the evaluation and processing of documents in the editorial workflow, which are as follows:
Step 1 – Initially, all manuscripts will be evaluated by the editors-in-chief regarding their suitability to the scope and formatting of the journal. Verification of the submission of mandatory documents: manuscript; supplementary documents; submission declaration containing: authorship data, declaration of compliance with RAC guidelines, declaration of originality, conflict of interest, ethics in research, copyright, authorship contribution, availability of research data, preprint publication, and declaration of compliance with open review.
Stage 2 – Similarity and plagiarism checks are performed. The article is then subjected to analysis using anti-plagiarism software (CopySpider is iThenticate). If plagiarism is found, the article will be rejected and the parties involved will be notified.
Step 3 – Subsequently, the manuscripts will be sent to the section editors, who will evaluate the relevance and quality of the writing, and may reject or forward them to reviewers.
Step 4 – If a favorable opinion is received, the manuscript will be submitted for review by two to three expert reviewers, which may be conducted through blind or open review.
Step 5 – The authors will be notified by the section editor of the editorial recommendations, along with the reviewers' opinions, who may indicate the following options: Accept; Mandatory corrections; Resubmit for review; Submit to another journal; Reject. When Mandatory corrections are indicated, authors must review the recommendations to prepare a new version of the manuscript within 15 days, submitting the file in .doc format. If any of the reviewers' suggestions are not met, authors must provide justification.
Step 6 – The author must submit the corrected version of the text with the "Track Changes" feature enabled. The corrected version will be evaluated by the section editor for the completeness of the changes suggested by the reviewers. If necessary, the section editor will send the manuscript back to the reviewers for a second round of evaluation. In this case, after the new evaluation, the manuscript should receive a consensus recommendation from the reviewers, which may be acceptance, request for further corrections, or rejection. If the section editors' decision is challenged, the manuscript will be sent to a member of the editorial board for a final decision on acceptance or rejection.
Step 7 – Once accepted for scientific merit, the manuscript will be forwarded to a reviewer in English or Portuguese. After the manuscript has been corrected, the authors will receive the revised version for review, and will subsequently notify the editor of the acceptance of the revision. When necessary, even after this stage, the editors reserve the right to make specific modifications, respecting the author's style, including grammatical, spelling, and normative aspects, to maintain the publication's consistency. In other cases, the author will make any revisions requested by the journal.
Step 8 – After agreement on the final version of the manuscript, it will be translated into English or Spanish, reviewed for standardization, layout, and metadata insertion.
Step 9 – The final manuscript will be immediately published as a continuous publication in PDF/A format, in open access.
Step 10 – RAC uses Epagri's communication networks and channels to promote the scientific dissemination of the materials published by the journal, but also aims to disseminate them internationally.
The manuscript may be submitted in Portuguese, English, or Spanish; however, after acceptance, it will be published in two languages: Portuguese/English or Portuguese/Spanish, regardless of the language of submission.
