Browse Sections
- Aims and Scope
- Ethics and Good Practices
- Digital Preservation
- Indexing Databases
- Peer Review
- Conflict of Interest
- Open Science, Preprints and Data Repository
- Responsabilty
- Authorship Policy
- Qualis Capes
- Publication Frequency
- Sponsors
- Privacy Statements
- Adoption of the Use of Artificial Intelligence Software and Tools
- Bibliographic Record
- Publisher
- Websites and Social Media
Aims and Scope
The journal SOCIEDADE & NATUREZA, as a vehicle for recording and disseminating science, has the following objectives: publish original critical review articles on topics relevant to Geography and related areas or research resulting from empirical, experimental, or conceptual studies; foster the exchange of experiences within its field of specialization with national or foreign institutions; defend and respect the principles of pluralism of philosophical, political and scientific ideas.
The journal Sociedade & Natureza published articles only in print between 1989 and 2004 (p-ISSN: 0103-1570). From 2005 to 2016, articles were published in both print and electronic formats. Since 2017, the journal has published articles exclusively in electronic format (e-ISSN: 1982-4513).
Access: the Journal is fully OPEN ACCESS and endorses the COAR-UNESCO and DORA declarations. There are no fees for article submission or publication.
Ethics and Good Scientific Practices
The journal Sociedade & Natureza conducts its activities in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Code of Ethics American Educational Research Association (AERA - available here), the Code of Good Scientific Practice (FAPESP - available here) and the Council of Science Editors (CSE - available here) regarding publication.
To promote the integrity of research, the strengthening and transparency in the process, all the material published in this journal is in accordance with the "Guia de Boas Práticas para o Fortalecimento da Ética na Publicação Cientifica" (available here, only in portuguese) and the Open Science Compliance Form (available here).
The SOCIEDADE e NATUREZA adopts the definition of research misconduct established by the "Office Research Integrity - ORI", which consists of:
- Fabrication: making up data or results and recording or reporting them.
- Falsification: manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or omitting data or results in such a way that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.
- Plagiarism: appropriating another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.
Authors are responsible for the information contained in their manuscripts.
Articles submitted for evaluation undergo a technical review for plagiarism using the Plagius platform (Pro24 version of the Plagiarism Detector). The editorial team will verify the results. In cases of plagiarism, a single paragraph without proper citation is sufficient to the article to be returned to the author, with the issue indicated. In cases of self-plagiarism, a maximum of 10% of the text is permitted for articles, or 50% when the manuscript is derived from a master's dissertation or doctoral thesis. If these limits are exceeded, the article will be returned to the authors, with the issue indicated. The authors may then make the necessary revisions and resubmit the article to the journal.
Cases of plagiarism reported to the Journal after the publication of the paper will be analyzed by the Editorial Committee and, if the complaint is confirmed, the paper will be removed from the Journal immediately. The authors may also be penalized.
It is understood that "Research misconduct" does not include honest errors or differences of opinion, authors are subject to the sanctions established by the Editorial Board when actions falling within the definition presented herein are identified.
In cases involving duplicate and redundant publication, corrections, and retractions, the journal Sociedade & Natureza adopts a policy of publishing original material that has not been previously published or is not under review by other journals, even if submitted or published in other languages, even if in other languages.
Articles submitted to Sociedade & Natureza must not be submitted to any other journal while they are under review by Sociedade & Natureza. Duplicate publication is understood as the practice of submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal. Redundant publication refers to the inappropriate division of the results of a study into more than one article, and if detected, it results in the rejection of the paper or its retraction, and the authors may be subject to the sanctions established by the Editorial Board.
In cases involving corrections and retractions resulting from errors or omissions, regardless of their nature or origin, that do not constitute “publication misconduct,” such errors may be corrected through an erratum. In the case of manuscripts that have already been published in which “publication misconduct” is identified, the article will be subject to retraction, with the reasons clearly stated; in such cases, all authors and co-authors must agree with the content.
Research involving human participants or animals must be accompanied by a copy of the Ethics Committee approval.
Digital Preservation
This journal follows the standards established by the Digital Preservation Policy Program of the SciELO Program (only in Portuguese).
Indexing Databases
Peer Review
Sociedade & Natureza Journal follows rigorous ethical procedures for the peer-review process. These procedures are based on the 'COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (available here) and the 'FAPESP Code of Good Scientific Practice' (available here).
When a new manuscript is submitted to Sociedade & Natureza, it undergoes a preliminary analysis by the Editorial Board before being sent for external peer review. This assessment considers whether: 1) the manuscript is aligned with the journal’s focus and scope; 2) the manuscript complies with the recommendations provided in the Author Guidelines; and 3) the article is unpublished. This process may take up to 15 days from the date of submission.
After completing the preliminary analysis stage, the manuscripts that meet the journal’s criteria are sent to two or three reviewers, who may be members of the Journal's Scientific Council or ad hoc consultants. All reviewers are recognized professors and/or researchers in their respective fields. As a standard practice, the journal adopts a “Double-Blind Peer Review” process, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers remain anonymous. In accordance with Open Science practices, the journal also allows authors and reviewers to disclose their identities during the review process, upon request. To make their names public, authors must indicate this preference in the Cover Letter to the Editor, while reviewers must sign their names at the end of their review reports.
Each reviewer has a period of up to 30 days after accepting the Journal's request to prepare their review report. If a reviewer declines the request or fails to meet the established deadline, a new reviewer will be assigned. Therefore, there is no established deadline for the end of the evaluation process, as it depends on reviewers meeting the stipulated deadlines.
Peer review reports will be prepared based on the following criteria: originality, scientific relevance, clarity, and the graphic quality of illustrations. At the end of the evaluation, each reviewer will indicate, in their report, one of the following recommendations: I) Accept; II) Required revisions; III) Resubmit for another round of review; or IV) Reject. Reviewers have full discretion to suggest changes, correct, delete, or add passages and sections, as well as to identify ambiguous, redundant, or inconsistent descriptions, inappropriate use of terminology and concepts, and other issues. In addition, reviewers may submit files to supplement the comments recorded in the system. Based on the review reports and the criteria outlined above, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision on the submission, which will be one of the four options listed above.
After the review reports have been submitted, the authors will be notified of the editorial decision. If revisions are requested, the authors must adhere to the deadlines established for submitting the revised version of the manuscript. The manuscript will only be published upon submission of the requested revisions and/or justifications for any suggested changes that are not adopted. In the event of disagreement with the editorial decision of the journal Sociedade & Natureza, appeals must be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief and the journal’s Editor (Portal Periódicos UFU), editors will follow the guidance provided in the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (available here) for making their decision.
Conflict of Interest
The conflict of interest can be of a personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial nature. Conflicts of interest can occur when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that could influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts. Upon submitting the manuscript, authors are responsible for declaring any conflicts that may have influenced the work. If a conflict of interest exists, authors must state it in a signed document uploaded to the submission platform.
Open Science, Preprints and Data Repository
This journal follows the Open Access model, allowing unrestricted virtual access (including financial access) to all scientific texts published by the journal.
Open Access is a condition in which the copyright holder of an academic work grants usage rights to third parties through an open license (Creative Commons Attribution, CC BY 4.0). This enables immediate free access to the work and authorizes any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, to crawl them for indexing, to use them as data for software, or for any other lawful purpose.
Research communication within the framework of Open Science promotes greater transparency and reliability of published articles. In this context, authors are encouraged to deposit manuscripts submitted for review in trusted preprint servers. In such cases, authors must contact the journal editors before submission for further information on the process and to sign the Compliance Form (Available here), in accordance with the Gold Open Access model.
Furthermore, we encourage authors, whenever possible, to deposit the data used in the preparation of their articles (raw data, code, methods, models, algorithms, etc.) in reliable public repositories or to make them available for publication as Supplementary Material. Datasets deposited in repositories that assign a DOI may be listed in the references section. Files provided as Supplementary Material will be made available on the article’s webpage.
Responsability
The published articles are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not represent the opinion of the Sociedade & Natureza journal.
Qualis Capes
Sociedade & Natureza is classified at the highest score for geographical journals according to Qualis - the Brazilian journal evaluation system (you may find information about the journal's Qualis score here).
Publication Frequency
The Journal adopts the continuous publication system. The articles are published as soon as they are approved and edited. This model accelerates the editorial process, reducing the time between submission and online publication of the full texts.
Sociedade & Natureza Journal uses the CLOCKSS method of preservation, through the Scielo and Redalyc platforms, being therefore preserved in all its instantiations of formats and versions.
Funding Source
Since 2014, Sociedade & Natureza journal has received financial support from CNPq and CAPES for its editorial activities.
- CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais
Privacy Statement
Names and addresses provided in this journal will be used solely for the services provided by this publication and are not available for other purposes or to third parties.
Adoption of the Use of Artificial Intelligence Software and Tools
In accordance with CNPq Ordinance No. 2.664/2026 (Available here, only in Portuguese).
The Sociedade & Natureza Journal follows the guidelines established in the Guide to the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools and Resources in Research Communication on SciELO (Available here). The use of tools that assist in the preparation, writing, editing, proofreading, and translation of manuscripts, including Artificial Intelligence resources, is permitted. However, only humans may be recognized as authors, translators, reviewers, or editors.
The Sociedade & Natureza Journal does not use Artificial Intelligence tools during its scientific certification, editorial management, peer-review, or post-publication processes.
Guidance for Authors:
Disclose or cite the sources of materials used in the research and manuscript preparation. Any use of AI applications or content generated by them must be disclosed in the “Letter to the Editors” submitted with the manuscript.
Ensure that all cited materials are accurately attributed, including complete references, and verify that the cited sources support any statements or information generated by AI tools. AI systems may generate inaccurate information or cite nonexistent references.
Accept full public responsibility for the content of their work.
Failure to disclose the use of Artificial Intelligence constitutes an ethical breach that violates the principles of transparency and research integrity. If undisclosed AI use is identified during the peer-review process, the manuscript will be automatically archived.
Guidance for the Editorial Board
Members of the Editorial Board are responsible for evaluating submitted manuscripts fairly and objectively, with particular attention to their quality and originality. Experience and knowledge are fundamental to this process, supported by the use of various tools, including statistical analysis software and academic search engines, among others, many of which are provided by AI applications.
If a member of the scientific board uses AI applications and content during the scientific review process, they must adhere to ethical standards and best practices, and this usage must be disclosed in the review report. The Journal emphasizes that, by the time a manuscript is submitted for scientific evaluation, it has already been checked using anti-plagiarism software.
Concealing the use of AI tools is an ethical lapse that violates the transparency of peer review.
If any ethical concern is identified in a manuscript, reviewers should promptly notify the Editors.
How to cite Artificial Intelligence (AI) content:
Content generated by AI tools must be cited and referenced as a non-retrievable source and/or similar to personal communication (letters, memoranda, emails, and telephone conversations). Since AI does not provide retrievable data, it cannot be included in the reference list. Any content created and/or revised using an AI tool must be disclosed in the “Letter to the Editors” document under the section “Declaration of Artificial Intelligence Use”, specifying the AI software used, the type of use (generative content, revised content, and/or translated content), and the date on which the tool was used (day, month, and year).
The "Declaration of Artificial Intelligence Use" should follow one of the templates below.
- Template A (AI Used During Manuscript Preparation)
Declaration of Artificial Intelligence Use
During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [NAME OF THE TOOL, e.g., ChatGPT (OpenAI, GPT-4o)] for the purpose of [STATE THE PURPOSE, e.g., improving grammar and language fluency; assisting with English translation; statistical analysis; image processing; literature review; identifying gaps in the literature or assisting in defining the scope of the research problem]. All results were verified and validated by the authors. After using the tool, authors critically reviewed and edited the entire content, assuming full and complete responsibility for the published manuscript, including for any inaccuracies or errors. The authors assume full responsibility for the content.
- Template B (No AI Use)
Declaration of Artificial Intelligence Use
The authors declare that no generative Artificial Intelligence tool was used at any stage of the development of this manuscript (conception, writing, data analysis, or submission).
Bibliographic Record
