Preprints

      Ciência Rural recommends that all author’s deposit preprints to accelerate the dissemination of research data prior to peer review. If a manuscript previously posted as a preprint is accepted for publication in Ciência Rural, the preprint and the published article will be linked in the online version. All authors’ must link their respective ORCID iDs to both the preprint and the published manuscript.
      Ciência Rural also encourages editors to consider comments and information available in preprints to support the editorial process and, when relevant, to incorporate such information into editorial decisions communicated to authors.
Ciência Rural strongly recommends the use of preprint repositories such as: BioRXiv, AgriRxiv and SciELO Preprints.
 

Peer Review Process

 
      All submitted manuscripts are initially assessed by the Ciência Rural editorial team, including the Editorial Board and Area Editors, and are subsequently sent to at least two ad hoc reviewers. Review articles are typically evaluated by three ad hoc consultants.
      Ciência Rural adopts a rigorous evaluation process to ensure scientific quality and integrity. The editorial workflow comprises the following stages:

      1. Preliminary Assessment    
      All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial screening by the Editorial Team and Area Committees. At this stage, compliance with the journal’s scope, formatting requirements and originality (via plagiarism detection) is evaluated. Manuscripts that do not meet the minimum requirements are desk rejected.

      2. Peer Review System        
     Manuscripts approved in the initial screening proceed to merit evaluation:

• • Original Articles and Technical Notes: Reviewed by at least two ad hoc experts in the field.
  • Review Articles: Due to their theoretical complexity, these are evaluated by three ad hoc reviewers. The standard review model is Double-Blind Peer Review, in which the identities of both author’s and reviewers remain confidential.

      3. Openness and Open Science       
     In accordance with SciELO guidelines for the promotion of Open Science, the journal offers the following transparency practices:

• • Editor Identification (Mandatory): The name of the handling editor responsible for the peer review process will be published in the final article.

 

Open data

      Authors’ are required to provide a statement indicating where the raw data supporting their study are available (either directly from the author’s or in a permanent repository). Ciência Rural encourages the sharing of research data as a means to strengthen transparency and scientific collaboration. A Data Availability Statement specifying how and where the raw data and supplementary material supporting the reported results can be accessed must accompany all submitted manuscripts.

     Authors’ should indicate one of the following data availability options:
      Data Availability Statement Options
      a) Data included in the manuscript: All relevant data generated or analyzed during the study are included in the article and/or its supplementary material.
      b) Data in a public repository: The data have been deposited in an institutional or subject-specific repository (e.g., SciELO Data, Mendeley Data, Figshare, Zenodo) and are accessible via URL or DOI: [insert link/identifier].
      c) Data available upon request: Due to privacy, ethical or legal confidentiality reasons, the data are not publicly available but can be provided by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
      d) Third-party data: The manuscript uses third-party data that cannot be publicly shared. In such cases, authors must indicate the original sources and the conditions for access.
      e) Not applicable: For review articles or theoretical essays that did not generate original raw data.

Publication Fees

Article Processing Contribution (APC)   
      Ciência Rural is an open access journal that does not charge article processing fees for profit. To maintain its editorial infrastructure, typesetting services, and the use of tools such as CrossRef Similarity Check and Reviewer Locator, the journal adopts an Article Processing Contribution (APC) model, in accordance with the guidelines of the SciELO Network.

Contribution Fees
     The APC applies to all submitted manuscripts and to those accepted after the peer review process, and is calculated as follows:

• Submission fee: BRL- R$ 160.00 per submitted manuscript. This fee is non-refundable if the manuscript is not accepted. Manuscripts archived due to missed deadlines are not eligible for reimbursement.
• Publication fee: BRL- R$ 190.00 per typeset page.
• Additional pages: Manuscripts exceeding the established limits will incur an additional cost of BRL – R$ 350.00 per extra typeset page.

Base Limits for Standard Fees:

• Research Articles: up to 7 typeset pages;
• Short Communications: up to 5 typeset pages;
• Review Articles: up to 9 typeset pages.

Length Limits (Submission Stage)
To ensure conciseness and clarity, Word files must comply with the following limits upon submission:

• Research Articles: maximum of 15 pages;
• Review Articles: maximum of 20 pages;
• Technical Notes: maximum of 8 pages.

Waiver Policy

• Institutional Affiliation: Researchers affiliated with the Centro de Ciências Rurais (CCR) of the Universidade Federal  de  Santa Maria (UFSM) and its respective Graduate Programs have publication costs covered by the institution and are exempt from the base APC publication fee.
• Exception: This institutional waiver does not apply to additional pages, which must be covered by the authors according to the current fee schedule.

Transparency and Allocation of Funds
    All funds collected through the APC are fully reinvested in the journal’s operation, covering costs such as:

• Specialized staff (editorial office and proofreading);
• Technological infrastructure (servers and submission systems);
• Editorial services and metadata interoperability;
• Scientific dissemination and science communication initiatives.

 

Ethics and Malpractice Policy, Errata, and Retractions

       Ciência Rural adopts best practices in publication ethics and follows the international recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the scientific integrity guidelines established by SciELO. Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to adhere to principles of honesty, transparency, and responsibility in the conduct and dissemination of scientific research.
       Suspected cases of scientific misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, redundant publication, citation manipulation, or inappropriate authorship, will be evaluated by the journal’s editorial team. When necessary, clarifications may be requested from the authors and the institutions involved, following appropriate investigation procedures.
        When errors are identified in published articles, the journal may issue erratum to correct information that does not substantially affect the study’s results or conclusion. In cases where serious errors, methodological flaws, or evidence of scientific misconduct is identified that invalidate the results, the article may be retracted. Retractions will be published transparently and linked to the original article.
       All corrections, erratum, or retractions will be clearly identified and remain associated with the published article, ensuring the integrity of the scientific record and the transparency of the editorial process.

Conflict of Interest Policy

      The journal requires author’s has to disclose any conflicts of interest, which may be of a personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial nature.       This statement must be included at the end of the article.

Use of Similarity Detection Software

      All submitted manuscripts undergo plagiarism screening using the CrossCheck system (currently part of Crossref’s Similarity Check). Manuscripts are screened at the beginning of the submission process, prior to peer review.
CrossCheck compares documents, highlights identical or highly similar text segments, and generates a report for editors to assist in detecting plagiarism, self-plagiarism (reuse of one’s own paper), and redundant publication. The report provides a similarity percentage; however, the final assessment of whether plagiarism has occurred is the responsibility of the journal’s editorial board.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

       In order to maintain transparency and adherence to scientific standards, Ciência Rural recommends the following guidelines regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI):
a. AI tools should not be used to write the manuscript or to replace the authors’ intellectual contributions, such as drafting the abstract, keywords, hypotheses, or conclusion of the study;
b. The use of AI tools is permitted for language editing and improving the quality of the manuscript’s writing. This use must be carefully supervised by the author’s to ensure that the scientific content is not altered. The use of AI for this purpose must be disclosed in an appropriate section of the manuscript;
c. The use of AI is permitted for improving image quality, provided that it does not remove or introduce elements that could influence the interpretation of results. The use of AI for this purpose must also be disclosed in an appropriate section of the manuscript;
d. If AI is part of the study methodology, it must be described in the “Materials and Methods” section, including sufficient detail to allow reproducibility.

Sex and Gener Issues

      The editorial team of Ciência Rural, as well as the authors publishing in the journal, are expected to follow the guidelines on Sex and Gender Equity in Research (Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER). The SAGER guidelines comprise a set of recommendations that guide the reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, results, and interpretation of findings.
      In addition, Ciência Rural observes gender equity policies in the composition of its editorial board.

Ethics Committee

      Ciência Rural requires proof of approval by an Animal Use Ethics Committee and/or a Human Research Ethics Committee and/or a Biosafety Committee for studies involving animals, humans, or genetically modified organisms.

Copyright

      Authors’ of articles published in Ciência Rural (CR) retain the copyright of their , licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows unrestricted reuse and distribution, provided that the original paper is properly cited. In return, authors’ grant the journal the right of first publication.

Intellectual Property and Terms of Use

 

Website responsibility: 

     The copyright terms applied to published content must be clearly stated and distinguished from the copyright terms applied to the website itself.

Authors’ responsibility: 

      All content of the journal and articles published by Ciência Rural, unless otherwise specified, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
     Ciência Rural (CR) encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts by posting them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and academic social networks, as well as on their personal social media, provided that the full citation to the version published on the journal’s website is included.
     Ciência Rural (CR) encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts by posting them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and academic social networks, as well as on their personal social media, provided that the full citation to the version published on the journal’s website is included.

Sponsors and Funding Agencies

UFSM, CNPq, CAPES