About the Journal
Journal without Processing Fees
Mission
The UIIPS Journal, currently designated as the UI_IPSantarém Journal, is a multidisciplinary electronic periodical publication, covering the four scientific domains included in the Research Unit (UI) of Polytechnic Institute of Santarém (IPSantarém): Life and Health Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Natural and Environmental Sciences, Exact Sciences and Engineering. UI_IPSantarém Journal aims to disseminate research activities developed by the academic community of the IPSantarém, as well as other higher education and research institutions. The journal follows an internationalization strategy, which involves collaboration with several universities and research entities, under protocol with IPSantarém, and which result in the publication of special issues.
ISSN 2182-9608.
Journal without Processing Fees
The journal does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Plagiarism Check Policy
The journal has a policy of checking plagiarism by reviewers.
Open Access Policy
This journal offers immediate free access to its content, following the principle that scientific knowledge should be free of charge to the public, to provide greater world democratization of knowledge.
The content of this journal is available free of charge. It is allowed to search, read, download or link to the full articles, and any other use permitted by law, according to the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial -NoDerivations 4.0 International).
Indexing
RCAAP (Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal) - (https://www.rcaap.pt/)
Peer Review
The publication of articles in the RIAL Journal is subject to prior evaluation through a double-blind peer review process. At no point during the review process will reviewers have access to the authors' identities.
The scientific review procedure comprises the following stages:
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The manuscript is submitted to the platform by an author in accordance with Template 1, available in the journal's Instructions for Authors section. This template must not contain any author identification. During the submission process, all authors must be listed on the platform, designating the corresponding author who will handle communications with the journal.
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The Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to a Section Editor based on the manuscript's scientific domain.
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The Section Editor assumes management of the review process or assigns it to another editor within the same domain. The handling editor evaluates the manuscript for its structure, originality, relevance, and methodological adequacy in compliance with the journal's guidelines. Articles that do not meet the submission requirements will be returned to the authors, along with the reasons for rejection, without initiating the peer review process. Authors may resubmit their work once the requested adjustments have been made.
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Manuscripts that fall within the journal's scope and comply with its guidelines are subsequently forwarded by the handling editors—stripped of all author identification—to reviewers with established expertise and professional competence in the relevant scientific field. Reviewers are asked to provide a critical and substantiated assessment, which is submitted via the platform.
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Upon completion of the review process, minor or major revisions may be requested for the submitted article. In such cases, authors will be granted a specified timeframe to resubmit the corrected manuscript, taking the reviewers' feedback into account. After verifying the revisions (if requested), the reviewers issue their final evaluation to the handling editor, who will consolidate the feedback and generate a single comprehensive report to be forwarded to the Section Editor.
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The final decision regarding publication rests exclusively with the Section Editor and is formally communicated to the corresponding author by the Editor-in-Chief.
Continuous Publishing
Publication until September 30
The RIAL Journal inherits the DNA of the events hosted by the International Academic Network of Lusophony, which have been published since 2022 in the Journal of the Research Unit of the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém (renamed Polytechnic University of Santarém on August 1, 2026). It adopts a continuous publication model, where each article is published individually and immediately upon approval following the peer review process.
Annually, one volume is published containing editions from four scientific domains: Life and Health Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Natural and Environmental Sciences, and Exact Sciences and Engineering. These editions open on November 1st of each year and close on October 31st of the following year. Articles submitted prior to the closing date are published continuously in the edition corresponding to their scientific domain. This procedure will commence on November 1, 2026, alongside the restructuring and official launch of the International Academic Journal of Lusophony.
In addition to the continuous publication flow, the journal continues to publish special issues, subject to equally clear, rigorous, and properly documented editing and review rules. Whenever justified, these include special issues associated with events hosted by the International Academic Network of Lusophony since 2022, such as the Symposium on Economics and Management of Lusophony or the Intercontinental Conference on Digital Transformation.
Publication Flow
The publication flow is totally performed in the journal platform and should be completed within 60 days after submission and acceptance for revision. The following dates and responsibilities are:
- Submission of the article submitted to the section editor within 2 days (Main Editor)
- Send to the editor who will be responsible for the review process within 2 days (Section Editor)
- Submission to at least 2 reviewers within 3 days (Editor responsible for review)
- Review process within 21 days (Reviewers)
- Sending any request for changes to the article to the authors within 3 days (Editor responsible for the review)
- 7-day deadline for authors to respond to the change request (Authors)
- Possible new submission to reviewers for final opinion on article submission within 3 days (Editor responsible for review)
- Sending the opinion on acceptance/rejection to the editor responsible for the article within 2 days (Reviewers)
- Submission of the acceptance/rejection opinion to the section editor within 2 days (Editor responsible for the review)
- Decision and submission to the Main Editor on the acceptance/rejection of the article within 2 days (Section Editor)
- Notification and publication (in case of acceptance) within 7 days (Main Editor)
- Dissemination/dissemination of the article published by digital channels and social networks within 2 days (Main Editor)
- Sending certificates to the editors, reviewers and authors involved within 4 days (Main Editor)
Journal History
The International Academic Journal of Lusophony serves as the successor to the former UI_IPSantarém Journal, providing a publishing platform that is now globalized and extended to the entire Lusophone community. Building upon the heritage of the UI_IPSantarém journal—established in 2013 by the then-active Directorate of the IPSantarém Research Unit and integrated into the Scientific Journal Hosting Service (SARC) in 2015—its editorial coordination underwent changes in 2016 (led by the Editor-in-Chief who now returns to this role for the RIAL Journal) and again in 2021. The journal has now officially been renamed the International Academic Journal of Lusophony and has been assigned a new ISSN.
