Editorial flow

Here, we describe the editorial flow of the INTERthesis journal, which takes place once the manuscript is submitted through the Open Journals System (OJS) platform.

1. Compliance with guidelines

Verification of the article to ensure it meets the submission guidelines established by the journal. This includes evaluating compliance with specific formatting requirements, standardization, word limits, correct submission of files and documents, and adherence to editorial standards. Authors who do not follow the instructions will have their submission rejected. A manuscript rejected in this first analysis does not exclude the possibility of addressing the issues. Submissions that demonstrate compliance with the policies and guidelines will proceed to the next stage.

2. Editorial review

Evaluation of the manuscript in relation to the journal's thematic focus and editorial line based on criteria of relevance, originality, and scientific contribution. A similarity check is conducted using anti-plagiarism tools such as iThenticate. Submissions that do not meet these criteria will be rejected, and the authors will be informed of the reason. If the review is positive and no plagiarism is identified, the submission moves on to the next stage.

3. Peer review

INTERthesis adopts a double-blind peer review process. The responsible editor will send the submission to at least two external reviewers, who are asked to evaluate the submission within 30 days, considering the following dimensions: textual (grammatical accuracy, cohesion, and argumentative coherence, bibliographic referencing, overall structure), methodological (presence of interdisciplinary methods, contextualization of the research problem, ethical compliance, data analysis), and thematic (originality of the research, discussion and analysis of results, quality of conclusions). In case of conflicting reviews, the editor may request additional reviewers to provide more input before issuing a final decision. Possible outcomes include: "Accept without changes," "Accept with modifications," "Mandatory revisions" (with a new round of peer review), or "Rejection" and archiving of the manuscript.

The average response time from acceptance of the original to confirmation of publication is approximately 150 days.

The editorial team advises that, during the editorial flow described above, some particularities may occur. Therefore, it emphasizes the need for communication between the authors and INTERthesis, based on ethics, transparency, and problem-solving to ensure the process is efficient.