Ethical and post-publication issues

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

Requests to the editors

Requests to the editors to address ethical issues, complaints, corrections, retractions, updates, and other matters must be made in the “Requests to the Editors” section, using the “Make a New Submission” feature (check all submission requirements to proceed). Requesters must submit an “Other” PDF document, in plain text, describing the request as directly and as well-grounded as possible.

Cases requiring analysis by the Editorial Board

Possible cases (among others) that require 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 must directly present the issue to be analyzed, 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 concerning authorship refer to that same taxonomy where applicable. Since authors are responsible for their publications and must provide their ORCID numbers, requests to update/correct author information (e.g., an author's name) must have a 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 must be sent directly to the publisher of the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) by e-mail (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, the journal, and the 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 charges, 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 copyright and full publication rights without restrictions, and are responsible for ensuring that they have the right to use any third-party material appearing in their publication. RBIE publishes only original works, and extended versions of articles published in conferences must contain at least 30% original content. Allegations of plagiarism, redundant/overlapping publication, intellectual property violations, and related issues must be presented directly, and complainants must provide the evidence needed to support the analysis.
  • Data and reproducibility issues: RBIE values rigor and reproducibility (or due justification), encouraging authors to make available their datasets, methods, software, transcripts, and other relevant materials. Issues related to the rigor and reproducibility of the research that affect its contribution and validity must be reported for analysis, providing the necessary evidence or explanations.
  • Research ethics: as a requirement for submission, RBIE asks authors to explicitly state how the research's ethical issues were addressed and managed, including approval of the research by a Research Ethics Committee and adherence to national and international codes of conduct specific to research, where applicable. RBIE invites authors to critically examine their references, background, and methods, striving to avoid and combat different biases in science. Any ethical issue related to any aspect of the research must be pointed out and explained, and informants must provide the information needed for analysis.

Analysis process

RBIE is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scientific record and to thoroughly investigating concerns formally reported by authors and readers. The Editors-in-Chief will analyze the requests received and provide an initial response within 30 days, indicating the outcome and subsequent actions, where 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 the issues raised by a formal request and may be asked to provide original, unprocessed documents. The Editors-in-Chief may appoint an advisory committee of at least three members to analyze the request and consult experts during the investigation, if necessary.

Outcomes

The outcomes of the analysis will be sent directly to the interested parties through 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 outcomes of the analysis may include:

  1. No further action needed, when the clarifications are sufficient and the request is closed;
  2. Corrections or retractions, when revisions concerning the publication are made by the responsible parties and updated in the article's record; or
  3. Removal of the published content, when the 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 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's record, with all published materials, formal amendments, and corrections.

In the case of corrections, the original article (PDF) is generally 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: usually published when essential information or supplementary materials, vital to readers' understanding of the article, become 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, the research participants, or any other interested parties.
  • Author name change: when authors change their names for justifiable reasons, they may request the correction of their names, pronouns, and other relevant 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 about any relevant issue regarding a published article that requires their attention (for example, the journal has opened an investigation in response to a formal request).
  • Editorial Expression of Concern: a statement issued by the editors to notify readers of significant concerns that impact the integrity of a published article.
  • Journal Correction: published to correct errors made by the journal that impact the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the journal, the authors, their institutions, the research participants, or any other interested parties.
  • Retraction: a published article may be retracted when the integrity of the 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's 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 measure in the following circumstances:

  1. the published content presents serious problems that compromise its integrity, and corrections or retractions cannot resolve them;
  2. the content is defamatory, infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties, the right to privacy, or other legal rights, or is otherwise unlawful;
  3. a judicial or governmental order has been issued or is likely to be issued, requiring the removal of the content;
  4. if not removed, the content may pose an immediate and serious risk to the integrity of people, organizations, nature, or other interested parties.

The removal may be temporary or permanent, but the bibliographic metadata (e.g., title, authors, and DOI) will be retained, accompanied by a statement explaining the reasons for the content's removal.

The author's institution may be informed about ongoing or completed requests. Since RBIE does not charge article processing charges (APC), 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 main objective is to safeguard the integrity of the published material, prioritizing this over the attribution of blame to specific individuals or institutions. Therefore, although RBIE is committed to providing clear and transparent notifications to readers, its statements will not identify or attribute responsibility to named individuals. The 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 the 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 about published material, RBIE will issue Editorial Notes or Editorial Expressions of Concern to inform its readers during the investigative process.