About the Journal

Rio de Janeiro Law Journal (RJLJ) is a journal of the Attorney's General Office of the City of Rio de Janeiro, aimed at promoting, disseminating and contributing to the production of knowledge and to the legal-scientific debate, with emphasis on the experiences of the city of Rio de Janeiro, through the biannual publication of unpublished scientific articles in the areas of contemporary municipal law and its intersections between the public and the private law, as well as thematic dossiers, reviews and essays, opinions, technical manifestations, in legal advice, commented jurisdictional decisions and legal documents in general produced from the perspective of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro or  Mayor in court, with emphasis on the Representations of Unconstitutionality, and interviews and legal biographies.

The origin of the digital Rio de Janeiro Law Journal (RJLJ) dates back to the publication of the 3 volumes of the Revista de Direito da Procuradoria Geral do Município (1997, 2001, 2002). The 1st volume of Revista Carioca de Direito was published in 2010 and in 2023 the publication will be carried out in online format.

FOCUS AND SCOPE
SECTION POLICES
PEER REVIEW PROCESS
ARCHIVING
PUBLISHING ETCHICS AND PUBLISHING MALPRATICE STATEMENT
AUTHORS' GUIDELINES
SUBMISSION PREPARATION CHECKLIST
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
PRIVACY STATEMENT

I. FOCUS AND SCOPE 

The mission of the Rio de Janeiro Law Journal (RJLJ) is to promote, disseminate and contribute to the production of knowledge and to the legal-scientific debate, with emphasis on the experiences of the city of Rio de Janeiro, through the biannual publication of unpublished scientific articles in the areas of contemporary municipal law and its intersections between public and private law, as well as thematic dossiers, reviews and essays, opinions, technical manifestations, in legal advice, commented jurisdictional decisions and legal documents in general produced from the perspective of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro or  Mayor in court, with emphasis on the Representations of Unconstitutionality, and interviews and legal biographies. Its objective is to publish works, with free and open access, that promote the debate of Rio de Janeiro Law and the vision of the Attorney's General Office of the City of Rio de Janeiro on the subject.

Papers must comply with the guidelines for authors for submission to the journal, with periodic publication in July and December.

II. SECTION POLICIES

Editorial
Section whose contents are the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief, or someone designated by him. Positions related to general theoretical or conceptual aspects with which the journal is aligned are presented.

Articles 
These are unpublished scientific research articles that basically follow the structure of introduction, development topics and conclusion.

Dossiers 
Section with a dossier of studies, reviews and essays, based on approaches to theories, necessarily developed by jurists, referring to the interpretation and systematization of current norms and new legal institutes. 

Legal Advice
Section that gathers opinions, promotions, technical manifestations, produced within the scope of the Legal Advice, prepared by Attorneys of the Attorney General's Office of the Rio de Janeiro City, and of legal relevance. 

Municipality in Court 
Section that gathers commented jurisdictional decisions or legal documents, prepared by the specialized Legal Litigation of the Attorney General's Office of Rio de Janeiro City, in cases of broad legal prominence. 

Jurists of Rio de Janeiro Law
Section that gathers biographies or interviews with renowned jurists for Rio de Janeiro Law, including video, in addition to the list of Attorneys of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

III. PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Articles submitted to Rio de Janeiro Law Journal will be preliminarily evaluated by its editors, who will assess the relevance of the article for publication. Subsequently, if preliminarily approved (desk review), the article will be evaluated by at least two ad hoc reviewers, observing the criterion of double blind review (without identification of its authors). In case of divergence between the evaluations carried out in this first stage, the article will be sent to a third reviewer.

The evaluation of the articles will consider their adequacy to the journal's profile and its norms, as well as the observance of academic-scientific standards regarding the content and quality of the contributions. The evaluation may consider the article "approved", "approved with the appropriate reformulation indicated by the referee" or "rejected".

After the evaluation, the articles are returned to the authors for acknowledgment and possible corrections/improvements. The editorial board is composed of faculty members from national and foreign universities, as well as members of the Attorney General's Office, and meets to evaluate the set of accepted articles, other works to be published and finalize the selection.

In the case of submissions of texts referring to current affairs dossiers, reviews and essays, opinions, technical manifestations, commented jurisdictional decisions and legal pieces, produced from the perspective of Attorney's General Office of the City of Rio de Janeiro, interviews and legal biographies, the analysis will be carried out exclusively by the Editorial Board. 

Due to the maximum number of articles to be published per volume of the Journal and, especially, because it takes into account aspects related to exogeny and endogeny, the Editors and the Editorial Board reserve the right not to publish texts approved by the referees.

The average time between submission and publication is between eight and sixteen weeks.

IV. ARCHIVING

This journal uses the LOCKSS system to ensure the integrity, authenticity, preservation, restoration and permanent archiving of the journal.

V. PUBLISHING ETHICS AND PUBLISHING E MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

This journal has a commitment to ethics and quality of publications, following international standards of scientific publication. Ethical behavior is advocated by all parties involved in publishing in this journal: authors, editor, referees, editorial staff and the publisher. Plagiarism or any other unethical behavior is not accepted. For this, the recommendations of Elsevier and the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of the Committee on Publication Ethics - COPE are followed.

Duties of Editors:

  • Publication decision: The journal’s editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may consult with editorial board or reviewers in decision making.
  • Fair play: The editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
  • Confidentiality: The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
  • Disclosure and Conflicts of interest: The editor must not use unpublished information in his/her own research without the express written consent of the author. The editor should recuse him/herself from considering manuscripts in which he/she has conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers.
  • Involvement and cooperation in investigations: The editor should take reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Duties of Reviewers:

  • Contribution to Editorial Decision: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
  • Promptness: Any article reviewer who does not feel qualified to review the article or who is aware that reading it will not be possible should inform the editor.
  • Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others.
  • Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively and referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
  • Acknowledgement of Source: Peer reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. The peer reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
  • Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors:

  • Reporting standards: Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable..
  • Originality and Plagiarism: The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
  • Multiple or Redundant Publication: An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. To publish the same article in different journals without informing the editors and having their agreement constitute unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
  • Acknowledgement of Sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.
  • Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
  • Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
  • Fundamental errors in published works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Duties of the Publisher

We are committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

Our articles are peer reviewed to ensure the quality of scientific publishing and we are also users of CrossCheck (CrossRef’s plagiarism software).

Process for identifying and dealing with allegations of misconduct 

The Editor will notify the author in the event of identification of inappropriate conduct and reserves the right not to publish any work, even if approved by the submission process. Reports of misconduct will be received by the editors in writing exclusively through the RCD contact channels.

VI. AUTHORS' GUIDELINES

1. Article submission
1.1. Authors must comply with all the rules listed below when submitting articles. Submissions to the Rio de Janeiro Law Journal  will be sent through the electronic system, upon registration and access through login and password. 
1.2. The Journal reserves the right to accept, reject or propose any changes to any original received, in accordance with the recommendations of its editorial board.

2. Authors' qualifications

Scientific article submission
2.1. Authors or co-authors of scientific articles must at least hold a Master's degree. Articles by specialists or postgraduate students in stricto sensu and lato sensu courses, and by professors of the respective programs who do not hold a master's degree, will only be published if they reach a level of excellence attested by the Editorial Board of the journal, respecting the other selective requirements. 
2.2. It is recommended that one of the authors of the scientific articles submitted preferably holds the title of Doctor (Dr.), Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Doctor juris (Dr. iur. or Dr. jur.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or Legum Doctor (LL.D.), without prejudice to the fact that this requirement is relativized without exceeding the percentage of 70% per edition. 

Paper submission to other sections of the journal
2.3. Works may be submitted to the "Dossiers" section, which includes current affairs, reviews and essays, and to the " Jurists of Rio de Janeiro Law" section, which includes Biographies and Interviews, by  Attorneys of the City of Rio de Janeiro and by Coordinators of the Study Groups of the Study Center of PGM-Rio. For the "Legal Advice" section, which encompasses Opinions and Technical Manifestations, to the "Municipality in Court" section, legal pieces prepared by Attorneys of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro may be submitted. RCD's "Legal Advice", "Municipality in Court" and "Jurists of Rio de Janeiro Law" sections will be composed exclusively of works produced by PGM-Rio, in order to meet the focus of the journal to promote Rio de Janeiro Law from the perspective of the Attorney General's Office of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro. 

3. Uniqueness and exclusivity
3.1. The contribution for publication must be original and unpublished, and cannot be evaluated for publication by another journal. After publication in Rio de Janeiro Law Journal, the work may be published in books and collections, provided that the original publication is cited.
3.2. If the contribution derives from research and studies promoted by the Attorney General's Office of the Municipality through study leave or any other type of funding or allowance, it must be stated in the credits of the legal article that it was promoted by the PGM-RJ Study Center: "with promotion by the PGM-RJ Study Center".

4. Languages
4.1. Articles may be submitted in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, German or French.

5. Presentation of the text and pre-textual elements

Formatting the text (articles and other works)
5.1. Original work must comply with the rules below:

  • Texts must be submitted as a file in doc or .docx format (Microsoft Word. PDF files will not be accepted).
  • Page: A4 paper; left and top margins: 3.0 cm; right and bottom margins: 2.0 cm;
  • Paragraph: 2 cm indentation; justified alignment; line spacing: 1.5; spacing before and after the paragraph: 0.0 cm;
  • Title of the paper: Times New Roman, size 14, bold, centered;
  • Subheadings/Items: Times New Roman, size 12, bold, aligned to the left; each item should be numbered with Arabic numerals.
  • Body text: Times New Roman, size 12, justified;
    Quotation in the body of the text: font: size 10; line spacing: single, with a 4 cm spacing to the left;
  • References: Times New Roman, size 12, justified, line spacing: single;
  • Footnotes: Times New Roman, size 10. Highlights should be in italics only;
  • Pages should not be numbered.
  • Any highlighting of the text should be done with the use of italics, being forbidden the use of bold, underlined or uppercase for the purpose of highlighting the text.

Structuring of articles:
5.2. The structuring of articles should observe the following: 

  • Have a title of up to 20 words, an abstract of up to 200 words and 3 to 5 keywords, in the selected language and in another foreign language;
  • Have an introduction, development in separate items, conclusion and bibliographical references in the selected language;
  • Between 15 and 40 pages, with the possibility of accepting works with a higher number of pages, subject to editorial approval by the editorial team;
  • Citations must be written in accordance with ABNT rules (NBR 10520/2002 and 6023/2018);
  • The system of calling references of direct or indirect citations can be author-date or number (NBR 10520/2002);
  • The author must attach files with full name, e-mail, ORCID and bibliographic data. The bibliographic data will be a maximum of 100 words, containing mandatory title, institutional and professional affiliation. The ORCID identifier can be obtained from the ORCID registry. You must accept the standards for ORCID iD submission and include the full URL (e.g. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0070). In this case, this information should appear just below the contact email address.

6. Illustrations, formulas and tables. 
6.1. Figures and tables must be inserted in the text, not at the end of the document as annexes. In this case, the images must be sent in the natural size that will be used, in high resolution (300 dpi), in .jpg, .tif, .eps extension files, or Photoshop files (.psd), CorelDRAW vector format (.cdr) or Adobe Illustrator (.ai), by uploading the files in the format available at the time of submission. 6.2.
6.2. The author(s) must clearly indicate how symbols and equations should be composed.
6.3. The tables must be inserted in the body of the text and made in Word for Windows, being forbidden to send files in Excel or Page Maker format. 

7. Notes and Bibliographical References
7.1. Notes will be numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals and will be in footnote format. Endnotes will not be used. 
7.2. The use of "op. cit.", "ibidem" and "idem" in the bibliographical notes is forbidden and should be replaced by the complete reference, in full.
7.3. Bibliographical references must be listed at the end of the text, with single line spacing, aligned to the left, in alphabetical order of the author's last name, according to the examples below:

TARTUCE, Fernanda. Mediação nos conflitos civis. 3.ed. Rio de Janeiro: Método, 2016.

MIRANDA, Martinho Neves. A Responsabilidade Civil nos Espetáculos Desportivos. Revista de Direito Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, n.1, p. 23-35, jan. /jun. 2010.

7.4. The elements of the references must comply with the following standard:
7.4.1. Author: SURNAME in capital letters, comma, Name with initials in capital letters, followed by a period.
7.4.2. Edition: information should be included only from the second edition onwards, without ordinal, followed by a period and "ed.". Example: 2. ed.
7.4.3. Year: spelled with Arabic numerals, without a period in the thousand, preceded by a comma and followed by a period.

8. Review 
8.1. Texts must be proofread and their language must be appropriate for a scientific editorial publication.
8.2. In the case of works written in Portuguese, the writing must comply with the new spelling rules in force since the enactment of the ORTOGRAPHIC AGREEMENT OF THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE, as of January 1, 2009.
8.3. Quotations from texts prior to the AGREEMENT must respect the original spelling.

9. Structure of works for the Dossiers, Legal Advice, Municipality in Court and Carioca Law Jurists sections. 
9.1. Legal works will be accepted for the Dossiers, Legal Advice, Municipality in Court and Rio de Janeiro Law Jurists sections, selected by the Editorial Team or indicated by the heads of PGM-Rio's specialized Attorney's Offices.
9.2. The works directed to such sections must comply with the guidelines for articles, where applicable, respecting the legal structure of opinions, promotions, technical manifestations and legal pieces and the structure of the biographies and interviews genres. 
9.2.1. In the case of the "Legal Advice" and "Municipality in Court" Sections, the guidelines will be those set forth in the Internal Regulations of the Attorney General's Office of Rio de Janeiro City.

VII. SUBMISSION PREPARATION CHECKLIST

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 

  1. The contribuition is original and unpublished and it is not being evaluated for publication by another Journal. Otherwise, it must be justified in "Comments to the Editor";
  2. The submission file is in  "doc." or "docx." (Microsoft Word);
  3. The text follows the standards of style, format, citations and bibliographic requirements described in the Author's Guidelines, with abstract and keywords in native and foreign language;
  4. The identification of authorship of the work has been removed from the file and from the "Properties in Word" option to guarantee the journal's confidentiality criteria and ensure Blind Peer Review;
  5. The author will include in the profile or in the attached file at the time of submission the following information: Highest degree and Institution where it was obtained; Academic link with name of the Institution, Unit, Department, as well as its Campus, its city and State; and Electronic address of the lattes or vitae curriculum (mandatory) and ORCID (if registered);
  6. The author or authors have updated their title and institutional affiliation in the user profile;
  7. Articles will have a title of up to 20 words, an abstract of up to 200 words and 3 to 5 keywords, in the selected language and in another foreign language;
  8. The author declares that he/she has participated sufficiently in the research to make public his/her responsibility for the content and that all statements contained in the manuscript are true or based on research with reasonable accuracy;
  9. The author ratifies the terms of the copyright statement and agrees to the privacy statement, as well as to consent to the treatment and sharing of their personal data by the editorial team and the Attorney General's Office of the Rio de Janeiro City, made available in the registration and submission, for the specific purpose of the journal's submission and editing process.

VIII. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 

By publishing the scientific article or paper, the author confirms that the production is original and has not been previously published in any other periodical or physical or digital book. The author also assigns the copyright of the production to the journal that will make its content freely available through the portal, without, however, assigning to any other journal or publisher the material for publication, unless previously authorized by the author.

 IX. PRIVACY STATEMENT

The names and e-mail addresses entered in this journal will be used exclusively for the services provided by this publication and are not available for other purposes or to third parties.