Ethics policy

The journal Biodiversidade Brasileira is a signatory of DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) and actively supports Responsible Research Assessment (RRA) practices, evaluating scientific output for its intrinsic merit and impact on environmental conservation.

The journal is committed to publishing research results conducted in an honest, transparent, and responsible manner. To this end, all members of the editorial team, authors, reviewers, and other collaborators of the journal must comply with the following international guidelines recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ensuring responsibility, ethics, and scientific credibility.

Regarding the responsibility of the editorial team

  • Evaluate manuscripts solely based on their academic merit, originality, clarity, relevance, and adherence to the journal’s scope.

  • Ensure the confidentiality of the editorial and peer-review process.

  • Avoid conflicts of interest and decline manuscripts when any ethical impediment exists.

  • Conduct investigations in suspected cases of scientific misconduct (such as plagiarism, data fabrication, or manipulation) according to COPE’s recommended procedures.

  • Make transparent editorial decisions based on technical and scientific criteria and communicate them clearly to authors.

Regarding the responsibility of authors

  • Submit only original and unpublished manuscripts that are not under simultaneous review by another journal, even in different languages. Duplicate publications are not allowed.

  • Properly cite all sources used, avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and any misuse of others’ content.

  • Declare approval by research ethics committees when applicable (use of animals, humans, or the environment).

  • Accurately describe the methods and data used and make them available upon request, respecting the principles of open science and confidentiality.

  • Disclose any conflicts of interest.

  • Take responsibility for the authorship of the submitted work, ensuring that only those who have contributed significantly to the research and writing are listed as authors. The CRediT taxonomy must be used to specify each author’s contribution. Contributions that do not meet authorship criteria should be listed in the “Acknowledgments” section.

  • Cooperate with the editorial process, providing revisions and responding to reviewers’ comments ethically, clearly, and objectively.

Regarding the responsibility of reviewers

  • Evaluate manuscripts objectively, confidentially, and within the established deadline.

  • Inform the editors of any potential conflict of interest and decline the review when impartiality cannot be guaranteed.

  • Indicate possible signs of plagiarism, data manipulation, duplicate publication, or other irregularities.

  • Contribute constructively to improving manuscripts, based on technical and scientific criteria, avoiding personal judgments.

Source: Editorial Policy (https://doi.org/10.37002/biodiversidadebrasileira.v15i3.2881