Ethical and post-publication issues

RBIE adheres to the Code of Conduct of the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) and follows the main practices of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) in its editorial process and published materials. More than ensuring RBIE's adherence to high standards of ethical practices, the journal is committed to educating and supporting authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and all those involved in publication ethics, aiming for more ethical practices.

Requests to the editors regarding ethical issues, complaints, corrections, retractions, updates, and other matters should be made in the "Requests to Editors" section, using the "Make a New Submission" function (check all submission requirements to proceed). Interested parties should submit a plain text PDF document describing the request as directly and thoroughly as possible.

Possible cases (among others) requiring analysis and action by the Editorial Board are listed below.

  • Allegations of misconduct: any misconduct, pre- or post-publication, on the part of the authors. Requests should directly present the issue to be reviewed, providing the necessary evidence or grounds.
  • Authorship and contribution: any problem or potential dispute regarding authorship, contribution, or any information to be corrected about the authors and their contributions. RBIE encourages authors to describe their individual contributions to the article using the CRediT taxonomy and suggests that requests regarding authorship reference the same taxonomy when applicable. As authors are responsible for their publications and must provide their ORCID numbers, requests to update/correct author information (e.g., author name) must have legal basis.
  • Complaints and appeals: any complaint against the journal, the editorial board, the reviewers, or the publisher related to the editorial process, practices, instruments, and conduct. Requests or complaints involving the editors-in-chief should be sent directly to the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) publisher by email (publicacoes@sbc.org.br) with the subject "Communication regarding the RBIE Editorial Board".
  • Conflicts of interest / Competing interests: any request or information regarding conflicts of interest of authors, reviewers, associate or guest editors, journal and publisher, whether identified before or after publication. Requests must explain the conflicts or competing interests, providing the necessary evidence or grounds.
  • Intellectual property issues: RBIE does not charge article processing fees and all published articles follow the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Authors agree to the terms of the license, retain full copyright and publication rights without restriction, and are responsible for ensuring that they have the right to use any third-party material that appears in their publication. RBIE publishes only original works, and extended versions of conference papers must have at least 30% original content. Allegations of plagiarism, redundant/overlapping publication, intellectual property violations, and related issues should be submitted directly, and complainants must provide the necessary evidence to support the analysis.
  • Data and reproducibility issues: RBIE values ​​rigor and reproducibility (or justification), encouraging authors to make their datasets, methods, software, transcripts, and other relevant materials available. Issues related to research rigor and reproducibility that affect its contribution and validity should be reported for analysis, providing the necessary evidence or explanations.
  • Research ethics: As a submission requirement, RBIE requests that authors explicitly indicate how research ethical issues were addressed and managed, including research approval by a Research Ethics Committee and adherence to specific national and international codes of conduct for research, where applicable. RBIE invites authors to critically examine their references, background, and methods, seeking to avoid and combat different biases in science. Any ethical issue related to any aspect of the research should be pointed out and explained, and informants should provide the necessary information for analysis.

Review Process

RBIE is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scientific record and thoroughly investigating concerns formally reported by authors and readers. The Editors-in-Chief will review the requests received and provide an initial response within 30 days, indicating the outcome and subsequent actions, when applicable. If necessary, the editors may request additional information to supplement, clarify, or substantiate the request. When a request is made by third parties or when requested by the authors themselves, the Editors-in-Chief will ensure the anonymity of the process.

Authors will always have the opportunity to respond to questions raised by a formal request and may be asked to provide original, unprocessed documents. The Editors-in-Chief may appoint an advisory committee composed of at least three members to review the request and consult experts during the investigation, if necessary.

Results

The results of the review will be sent directly to the stakeholders via the OJS system. The manuscript may be rejected and returned to the authors if it is still under review. If the article has already been published, the results of the review may include:

  • i) No further action is required, when the clarifications are sufficient and the request is closed;
  • ii) Corrections or Retractions, when revisions regarding the publication are made by the responsible parties and updated in the article record; or
  • iii) Removal of published content, when the published content is removed and is no longer available in the journal. 

Corrections and Retractions

RBIE publishes corrections, retraction statements, and other post-publication updates, including Editorial Expressions of Concern about the published content (articles, supplementary materials, data, etc.). All types of corrections/retractions are bidirectionally linked to the original article and indexed. By clicking the DOI link, readers access the article record, with all published materials, formal amendments, and corrections.

In the case of corrections, the original article (PDF) is usually corrected and bidirectionally linked to the published Editorial Note, which details the original situation and explains the corrections made. When it is not possible to correct the original article, it will remain unchanged, and the Editorial Note will provide all the necessary information and content.

Some common types of corrections and retractions are:

  • Addendum: generally published when essential supplementary information or materials, vital for readers' understanding of the article, are known, produced, or made available after publication.
  • Author Correction: Issued to rectify significant errors made by the author(s) that impact the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the journal, the authors, their institutions, research participants, or any other stakeholders.
  • Author Name Change: When authors change their names for justifiable reasons, they may request the correction of their names, pronouns, and other pertinent biographical data in articles published before the change. This correction may be discreet, without any note, or the author may opt for a formal Author Correction.
  • Editorial Note: Published to inform readers of any relevant issue regarding a published article that requires their attention (for example, the journal has initiated an investigation in response to a formal request).
  • Editorial Expressions of Concern: A statement issued by the editors to notify readers of significant concerns that impact the integrity of a published article.
  • Correction of the Journal: Published to correct errors made by the journal that impact the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication's history, or the reputation of the journal, the authors, their institutions, research participants, or any other stakeholders.
  • Retraction: A published article may be retracted when the integrity of the published work is significantly compromised due to errors in the planning, conduct, analysis, or presentation of the research. Violations of publication or research ethics may also lead to the retraction of an article. The original article is marked as retracted, but the PDF version remains accessible.

Editorial notes, expressions of concern, retractions, and other relevant updates are published in the article record, accessible through its DOI. The retraction statement usually includes a statement of agreement or disagreement from the authors.

Content Removal

In extraordinary situations, RBIE reserves the right to remove an article, supplementary material, data, or other content from its platform. The editors-in-chief may take this action in the following circumstances:

  • (i) The published content presents serious problems that compromise its integrity, and corrections or retractions fail to resolve them.
  • (ii) The content is defamatory, infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties, the right to privacy or other legal rights, or is illegal in some other way;
  • (iii) A judicial or governmental order has been issued or is likely to be issued, determining the removal of the content;
  • (iv) If not removed, the content may pose an immediate and serious risk to the integrity of individuals, organizations, nature, or other stakeholders. Removal may be temporary or permanent, but bibliographic metadata (e.g., title, authors, DOI) will be retained, accompanied by a statement explaining the reasons for the content removal.

The author's institution may be informed of ongoing or completed requests. Since RBIE does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs), authors will be responsible for covering publication costs (e.g., DOI issuance and metadata validation) that are not the result of errors in the editorial process.

RBIE's primary objective is to safeguard the integrity of published material, prioritizing this over assigning blame to specific individuals or institutions. Therefore, while RBIE is committed to providing clear and transparent notifications to readers, its statements will not identify or assign responsibility to named individuals. Statements may direct readers to publicly available institutional investigation reports for further information.

Although RBIE is dedicated to promptly addressing post-publication issues and is committed to responding quickly to requests received, the investigative process takes time due to the complexity of the discussions and the need to obtain original data and consult experts. Therefore, when concerns arise regarding published material, RBIE will issue Editorial Notes or Editorial Expressions of Concern to inform our readers during the investigative process.