Editorial statutes

Editorial statutes

 

CHAPTER I

Identification and Presentation of the journal.

1. The Millenium journal is a publication of technical-scientific nature published by the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, (IPV).

2. Millennium is published every four months, with three issues per year (January-April; May-August; September-December). Exceptionally, it may publish special issues.

3. Portuguese, English and Spanish are the languages in which the journal is published.

4. The Millenium journal is a vehicle which aims to disseminate the products of the research projects and the knowledge gathered from different technical areas and will be used to facilitate the sharing and the transfer of this knowledge. 

 

CHAPTER II

Objectives

5. To disseminate the technical and scientific knowledge resulting from studies in the fields of Life and Health Sciences, Agricultural, Food and veterinary Sciences, Education and Social Development, Engineering, Technologies and Tourism.

6. To provide people with a chance to get in touch with technical and scientific development and updating and to establish a communication tool between scholars, specialists/experts and professionals that can easily be available to all the people who are interested in such outcomes. 

CHAPTER III

Structure and Editorial Plan.

7. The Millenium journal main body is formed by technical and scientific articles which organization may include the following sections, among others:

- Agricultural, Food and Veterinary Sciences;

- Life and Health Sciences;

- Education and Social Development;

- Engineering, Technologies, Management and Tourism;

Each Millenium issue will have an editorial written by one or more of the journal publishers or by invited experts renowned for their work in different fields.

8. The journal publishes scientific papers of different types: Research Papers (RP), Systematic Review Papers (SRP), Historical Research Papers (HRP), Theoretical Papers and Essays (TPE).

9. The Millenium Editorial Board has the right to invite renowned authors to participate in the Journal without having to go through the proofreading/reviewing process. In this case, this fact will be referred in the paper. 

CHAPTER IV

Editorial Team

10. The journal has an Editorial Team formed by an Editor-in-Chief and four Assistant Editors appointed by the IPV President.

11. The Editorial Team is Millenium’s decision making forum which is responsible for the scientific and technical management of the journal. Its attributions are:

  1. To define and approve the editorial policy of the journal and to present possible changes;
  2. To define the quality standards of the journal and the evaluation criteria for the papers that are submitted;
  3. To approve the format, content, editorial guidance and the periodicity of the journal;
  4. To comment on the special issues and on their content/themes;
  5. To name and approve the Special Editor for the Journal’s special issues;
  6. To suggest and approve the Journal’s reviewers;
  7. To take care of the Journal’s promotion;
  8. To encourage the authors’ participation;
  9. To coordinate the editorial consulting concerning the editorial policy of the journal;
  10. To comment on any other subject that is not contemplated in this regulation.                   

12. The Reviewers are members of the Editorial Team. They are in charge of the reviewing process. They also have the responsibility to evaluate the quality and merit of the papers which are submitted to be published and to issue their scientific and technical opinion within the deadline that had been previously stipulated.

13. The Editorial Team will meet:

  1. Every two weeks and extraordinary meetings will be held whenever it will seem fit;
  2. Regular or/and Extraordinary meetings will be called with a two (2) day minimum notice, so that the members who cannot be present may participate, having previously sent their comments, suggestions and opinions.
  3. A minute will be prepared for each meeting and it will be read and approved by each member of the Editorial Board.

CHAPTER V

Editor-in-Chief

14. The journal is run by an Editor-in-chief, appointed by the IPV President, whose competences are:

  1. To represent the journal;
  2. To coordinate the publishing process;
  3. To observe and to make sure that the editorial policy of the journal and the editorial plan of each issue are followed.
  4. To coordinate the timing and the information during the publishing process and all the other activities that are related to this process.
  5. To examine the papers which had been submitted, verify their conformity with the journal editorial policy, and to redirect them to the Section Editors or to the journal reviewers;
  6. To authorize the publishing of the texts/papers which had been submitted;
  7. To coordinate the tasks related to the compilation of the different issues and include the process of evaluation of the papers submitted to the Section Editors and the reviewing of the approved texts;
  8. To arrange for the dissemination of the journal;
  9. To administer the assets of the journal;
  10. To convene and to act as chairman of the regular and/or extraordinary Editorial Team and Editorial Board meetings. 

CHAPTER VI

Section Editors and Special Editor

15. Section Editors are part of the Editorial Council. Those are the Section Editors and Special Editor’s responsibilities:

  1. To assist the Editor-in-Chief in the management of the journal publishing process;
  2. To coordinate the reviewing process in his section/special edition;
  3. To select the paper’s reviewers according to their scientific area, to analyse all their opinions and every version of the papers;
  4. Assess the merit of the texts submitted for publication and prepare the respective scientific and technical opinions, within the established deadline;
  5. To represent the journal following the Editor-in-chief’s delegation.
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CHAPTER VII

International Editorial Board

16. The International Editorial Board is the consultative forum of the Millenium Journal and they will assist the publishing team. They meet when convened by the Editor-in-chief.

The Board’s responsibilities are: 

  1. To assist the Publishing Team in the definition of the journal’s policy;
  2. To give an opinion on issues concerning the format, the contents, the editorial path and the journal periodicity presented by the Publishing Team;
  3. To suggest reviewers;
  4. To publicise the journal;
  5. To encourage the authors’ participation;
  6. To give an opinion about any other issue that is not part of this regulation and that had been suggested by the Editor-in –chief.

17. The members of the International Editorial Board can be part of the Reviewers team. They can also assess the quality or merit of the texts which have been submitted and give their scientific and technical opinions in due time. 

CHAPTER VIII

Technical Units

18. The Editorial Team is assisted by two Technical Teams: The Statistical and Languages Supervision Technical Team and the Writing, Editing and Documentation Technical Unit.

19. The Statistical and Languages Supervision Technical Team’s responsibilities include the final revision that will focus on, among other aspects, the statistical treatment, the correctness of the language, and the languages correct use and the treatment of the references. All these aspects are under the respective technical units’ responsibility.

20. The Technical Redaction, Edition documentation and editorial consultancy Unit’s attributions are associated with:

  1. The support and assistance given to all editorial activities, namely: Text Treatment and Revision, Internet Edition, Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) conversion, composition, Graphic Conception and Design.;
  2. Keeping the author and proofreader/reviewer’s property registration updated in the Serviço de Alojamento de Revistas Científicas (SARC) do Repositório Científico de Acesso aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) - (the scientific publications hosting service belonging to the Portugal open access scientific repository)
  3. Keeping the journal’s archives and collections. 
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CHAPTER IX

Submission of articles.

21. An article which is submitted to be published has to be original, it mustn’t have been published elsewhere before and the main author/correspondent has to inform the journal of any previous publication of the said article in any other medium and to inform if its publication somewhere else had been accepted.

22. When they submit the text to be published, the authors must confirm and explicitly declare that the articles are original and totally or partially unpublished and that they authorize their publication in the journal. They should also declare that those articles won’t be published afterwards under the same form or in any other language without the journal’s prior consent.

23. When the authors (to a maximum of 6) submit an article to be published in the Journal, they become legally responsible for ensuring that their work does not violate the copyright laws, and they are also responsible for observing the Ethical Rules that may be applied to scientific work and to the publication, releasing the journal from any legal responsibility.

24. The responsibility for obtaining the competent authorization to publish texts, images or any other material subject to copyright laws rests solely with the authors.

25. The authors will also have to attach, duly signed and scanned, the “Declaração de Responsabilidade Ético-Legal e Cedência de Direitos de Autor”- The Declaration of Ethical and Legal Responsibility and Ceding of Copyright) in its digital form. The declaration model is available on the journal’s website.

26. The contents of the texts and the opinions, ideas and concepts that are expressed in the published articles are their authors’ sole responsibility, and they do not necessarily reflect the Journal Editorial Team’s points of view.

27. The articles must be submitted in Portuguese, English or Spanish. However, their titles, abstracts and keywords/descriptors must always be presented in those three languages. Once the article’s publication in the Millenium Journal is accepted, the articles written In Portuguese or in Spanish will be translated into English against their authors’ payment of the translation fee. For this purpose, Millenium will recommend three (3) certified translation companies. The author will choose one of the companies and will have to submit the translated version within the deadline previously set.

28. The articles must be submitted through the Millenium website. The submission of the articles is subject to the author’s prior registration. In this registration, all the form fields have to be filled. The author’s/ authors’ file is available on the Millenium website and describes the article, the author’s ID (full name, email address for further contacts, phone number), institutional affiliation which will include the institution’s name, its department, street, number, city and country, the author’s indication that he is a correspondent of the Journal, the study funding sources (if any) as well as the ID ORCID and the Portal de Góis registration numbers.

29. When the author sends a text for submission, he has to write, in the body of the message, a referral letter to the Journal Editor-in-chief, in which he will ensure that the article is original and unpublished and that all the ethical procedures regarding scientific work had been taken into account and in which he will express his reasons and motivations that led to the article and why he whishes it to be published. The author also has to declare that he authorizes the journal to index the articles in international database to which the Millenium Journal is or may be indexed.

30. The submission of the article requires the attachment of two separate files: an Author File and another File that will include the article alone, with its title, all its tables, graphics and figures (in jpg format) in their right position within the article. The submitted archives will have to respect the Microsoft Word, Open Office or RTF formats. The proponent/ correspondent author of the article also has to indicate the nature of the article and the section in which it belongs.

31. All the submitted articles have to respect the current publication policy, which is available on the Millenium website. The articles that do not comply with the journal’s publication policy will be immediately turned down and won’t even go through the proofreading/reviewing process.

32. The implementation of the submission process requires the authors to follow all the on-line submission steps and to upload their integral and anonymous texts. Support documents are available on the Millenium website.

33. The texts that were approved and that, because of space or time limitations, didn’t get the chance to be published in the latest journal edition will be published in the following edition/s.

CHAPTER X

Reviewers Board and Review Process

34. The journal’s Reviewers Board is composed of nationally and internationally renowned scientific and academic personalities.

35. The selection of the Reviewers Board members is the Journal’s Editorial Team’s responsibility and this participation may be permanent or occasional. Each reviewer will fill in a Reviewer’s File in which he will indentify 2 to 5 fields of expertise. This file will be available on the Millenium Journal’s website.

36. It is for the reviewers to assess the quality of the submitted texts and to prepare the scientific and technical reports within the deadline set for this matter.

37. The articles submitted for publication have to go through a double-blind peer review, according to the following criteria, once the specific nature of the articles’ typology is assured:

  1. Relevance for the diffusion and development of the respective scientific area;
  2. Originality (significant and innovative contribution);
  3. Objectives (formulation and suitability);
  4. Accuracy (concepts’ suitability and accuracy);
  5. Methods (suitability and depth regarding the topic’s approach; the observance of scientific research and publications’ ethical standards);
  6. Results (accurate presentation, analysis and discussion);
  7. Conclusions (contribution for innovative or confirmatory knowledge); the study’s technical and scientific implications; its limitations and further research possibilities);
  8. Up-to-date and accurate References (exactness of the citations used; precise and accurate reference technique);
  9. General quality of the text (the objective that are to be achieved; logical and balanced structure; clear and coherent presentation; objective and factual writing style; grammar correctness and precision in language;
  10. Adjustment to the Millenum Journal‘s editorial policy and standards that can be found on the journal’s website.

38. The article’s assessment is carried out anonymously by one or more reviewers according to the evaluation instrument suitable for each type of article.

39. Reviewers may use an evaluation grid to assess the quality of the article. This document is available for consultation on the Journal’s website.

40. The reviewers are given a maximum of 4 consecutive weeks, from the date on which the article was received, to perform their evaluation of the article and to give their opinion. The Editorial Team reserves the right to change this deadline, in individual cases. The information system generates reminders to warn the reviewer about the review process timings.

41. Whenever a reviewer is unable to carry out the review of the texts he is responsible for, he will have to inform the Section Editor within a maximum of eight (8) days from the date on which he received the texts, so that the latter could send the documents to another reviewer. Whenever a reviewer misses a deadline, he will be excluded from the review process and a third reviewer will have to be assigned.

42. The classification of the articles’ quality will be carried out according to four different levels: Level A (the article should be published without any changes); Level B (the article may be published with a few changes); Level C (the article may be published as soon as the changes suggested by the reviewer are made; the new version will have to be reviewed); Level D (the article doesn’t meet the essential conditions to be published).

43. The authors get the Editor’s appreciation and an anonymous copy of the Reviewers’ opinion which will include the evaluation and comments sent to the authors.

44. The authors have a maximum of 30 days from the date on which they received the notice to make the necessary changes and to submit the new version of their article. Exceptionally, this new article might be reviewed by decision of the editor.

45. The reviewers have the right to present a favorable opinion that will depend on the reformulation of the article.

CHAPTER XI

From Arbitration Procedure to Evaluation Mechanisms

Peer evaluation is a constructive process so reviewers, besides evaluating the scientific contents of the article, should contribute with their constructive criticisms and recommendations to its improvement. The reviewers’ opinions/comments will be sent to the authors whenever they are deemed relevant. However, the authors of the articles will not be informed of the reviewers’ identity. 

46. All the articles submitted to Millenium will be subject to a technical and scientific quality and merit appreciation, through an arbitration by peers process, with double-blind peer review.

47. The arbitration and evaluation process will begin once the article is received and comes to an end with its publication or its rejection. This process is supported by the 9 step (ABCDEFGHI) Decision for Publication Flowchart: A- Code assignment; B- Pre-analysis through Checklist; C- Peer review; D- Review supervision; E- Technical and documental review; F-Final Review; G- Translation; H- Composition, graphic Design; HTML; I- Dissemination in databases.

A – Code Assignment: all the articles submitted to Millenium get an identity numeric code to support the arbitration process, in a double-blind review system that will protect the authors and reviewers’ identities.

B – Pre-analysis through Checklist: Once the Editor has received the article, he carries out a first evaluation that will focus on its adjustment and relevance to the Journal’s editorial policy. If the article meets the journal’s requirements and is suitable for the review process, it goes into the Checklist phase. In this phase, the consonance of all the items which are part of the checklist is validated, as is the presence of all necessary documents. Then the Section Editor/Special Editor submits the article through the Urkund Program to detect any plagiarism situation. If the Section Editor’s assessment is positive, the article goes into the double-blind peer evaluation phase. If the evaluation is negative, the Section Editor/Special Editor will ask for the missing documents or will notify the authors of their article’s rejection.

C – Peer Review: The Section Editor/Special Editor sends the article to two reviewers whose field of expertise is appropriate to review the article submitted. These reviewers proceed to the evaluation and give their opinion. The final result based on the evaluation specific instruments for the article will be expressed as follows: Level A (the article should be published without any changes); Level B (the article may be published with a few changes); Level C (the article may be published as soon as the changes suggested by the reviewer are made; the new version will have to be reviewed); Level D (the article doesn’t meet the essential conditions to be published).When the reviewers’ opinions are not unanimous or if  any justified doubts remain, the Section Editor will send the article to a third reviewer.

When the acceptance of the article depends on its further review or reformulation, new dates to its reformulation and for the new evaluation process will be set.

  The opinions will focus, among other things, on the following topics:

  1. Relevance of the article for the diffusion and development of the respective scientific area;
  2. Originality (significant and innovative contribution);
  3. Methods (suitability and depth regarding the topic’s approach; the observance of scientific research and publications’ ethical standards);
  4. Results (accurate presentation, analysis and discussion);
  5. Conclusions (contribution for innovative or confirmatory knowledge); the study’s technical and scientific implications; its limitations and further research possibilities);
  6. Up-to-date and accurate References (exactness of the citations used; precise and accurate reference technique);
  7. General quality of the text (the objective that are to be achieved; logical and balanced structure; clear and coherent presentation; objective and factual writing style; grammar correctness and precision in language;
  8. Adjustment to the Millenum Journal‘s editorial policy and standards that can be found on the journal’s website.

D – Review Supervision:  Once the authors have met all the reviewers’ recommendations, the article will be assessed by the statistics (if applicable) and languages Reviewers. After the Section Editor/Special Editor’s opinion, it will be sent to technical and documental review.

E – Technical and Documental Review: The documentation technicians check the descriptors adequacy (if any) and if the references are in agreement with the normative format. Then, the translators check the language.

F – Final Supervision: The article’s text is morphologically and syntactically reviewed. The authors will be notified of the final decision about the article’s publication and the reviewers’ anonymous opinions will be attached whenever the Section Editor/Special Editor deems it necessary. The final decision about the publication is the Editor-in-Chief’s responsibility, taking into account the Section Editor/Special Editor’s opinion.

G - Translation: The article will be translated into English, if it is submitted in Portuguese or in Spanish, by the translators. For this purpose, the authors are subject to the prior payment of the translation fee. The articles that have been translated are sent to the authors to be approved and have to be returned to their respective Section Editor/Special Editor.

H - Composition, Graphic Design and DOI Code Assignment: A maquette of the articles in bilingual format is made and they are assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) code. This last phase is still in progress.

I - Digital Dissemination in Databases: The documentation technicians create the metadata (HTM, XML and selective marketing materials). The articles will be freely available in their full text format in the journal’s webpage. They are also sent to all databases, indexes and dissemination circuits.

CHAPTER XII

Monitoring and Registration

48. For internal control purposes, the following elements will be registered on the Millenium platform:

  1. The article’s code and typology;
  2. The article’s submission/reception date;
  3. The date on which the article was sent to the reviewers to be assessed;
  4. The date on which the reviewers’ opinions were received;
  5. The date of the article’s acceptance or non-acceptance for publication.
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The date of the article’s receipt and the date on which it was accepted for publication will appear at the end of the article on its release.

CHAPTER XIII

Financial Resources

49. The journal is funded by the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, (IPV) . Other financial resources that will be required for the journal’s production will be obtained through specific projects and from the support granted by public and private entities.

CHAPTER XIV

Final provisions

50. The cases not covered herein will be addressed by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief.

51. This regulation may be revised whenever deemed necessary or appropriate. This revision will be approved, once again, by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief.

Viseu, June 27th 2016