About the Journal

Focus and Scope

PSI UNISC publishes articles with themes in the areas of Mental Health and Social Practices that prioritize research and discussions at the interface between Psychology and clinical and social processes. The journal accepts only original and unpublished works and among the publishing modalities are: experience and research reports, theoretical works and essays that contribute to the production of knowledge in the area of Psychology. PSI UNISC is a biannual journal and does not charge any fees for the evaluation of manuscripts or publication.

Mission, Values, and Vision

To encourage, promote visibility, and provide access to scientific production in Psychology, specifically in the areas of Mental Health and Social Practices, through articles stemming from empirical research and/or technical production, systematic literature reviews, and essays. To facilitate the dissemination of scientific and technical literature at the interface between clinical and social processes, aiming to become a reference in this field. 

Target Audience

PSI UNISC is aimed at undergraduate students, researchers, professionals in Psychology and the healthcare field in general, as well as managers from various public institutions.

About the Journal

The first issue of PSI UNISC was published in 2017, when it was edited by the Department of Psychology at the University of Santa Cruz do Sul – UNISC. In 2019, the edition started to be carried out by the Graduate Program - Professional Master's Degree in Psychology of UNISC.

PSI UNISC makes its abstracts and texts available in full to readers, in accordance with the official Brazilian academic journal publishing. For this reason, it is considered an open access journal.

Copyright Statement

The submission of originals to this journal implies the transfer, by the authors, of print and digital publication rights. Copyright for published articles belongs to the author, with first publication rights granted to the journal. Authors may only use the same results in other publications by clearly indicating this journal as the medium of original publication. As we are an open access journal, free use of articles in educational and scientific applications is allowed as long as the source is cited in accordance with the CC-BY license of Creative Commons.

Licença Creative Commons Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional.

Currently, PSI UNISC Journal is indexed in the following bases:

Latindex - https://www.latindex.org/

Sumários.org - https://www.sumarios.org/

Diadorim - http://diadorim.ibict.br/

DOAJ - https://doaj.org/

ERIH PLUS - https://dbh.nsd.uib.no/publiseringskanaler/erihplus/

LivRe - www.cnen.gov.br

Portal.periodicos. Capes - www-periodicos-capes-gov-br

CiteFactor - http://www.citefactor.org/

Crossref - search.crossref.org/

Google Acadêmico - https://scholar.google.com.br/

Directory of Research Journals Indexing - http://olddrji.lbp.world/Default.aspx

Peer Review Process

The body of reviewers are professionals with a doctorate degree and are specialists in the area of evaluation at PSI UNISC Journal. In addition, ad hoc reviewers are usually chosen according to their expertise in the theme of the manuscript sent to them.

PSI UNISC is characterized as an open access academic publication. The reviewing process follows the following flow:

1. Submitted articles are first analyzed by the editors to verify publishing guidelines and adequacy to the themes of interest. If the evaluation is negative, the article is archived upon communication with the authors.

2. From the first analysis, a double-blind review process is followed, in which the identity of both the reviewer and the author is hidden from both parties. The review system is composed of two external reviewers (ad hoc) assigned according to the theme and focus of the article, for blind evaluations.

3. PSI UNISC has a bank of registered reviewers according to their expertise in themes related to Psychology and the selection follows the editorial policy that combines invitations to researchers from Brazil and abroad.

4. The reviewers are consulted about the possibility of carrying out the review and, if they accept, they fill out their own form in which they can indicate their recommendation for the work, choosing one of four options: 1) not to publish; 2) publish; 3) publish only with mandatory corrections; 4) submit to another journal. In all cases the author is informed. Upon request for changes, the manuscript and report are forwarded to the author(s) for changes.

5. In the event of conflicting opinions, the articles will be sent to a third reviewer.

6. The corrected version undergoes a new evaluation by the editorial board, where further adjustments may be required. Should the article not require any changes by the reviewers, acceptance is communicated and sent for text editing.

7. If the third reviewer suggests rejection or submission to another journal, the authors of the article are notified and the manuscript is archived.

* There are no fees for submission and review of articles

ITEMS EVALUATED BY THE REVIEWERS:

1. Is the work relevant to the field of study?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please explain:

2. Is the work adequate to the scope of the journal?

*Yes *No

3. Is the title appropriate?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please explain:

4. Abstract: Does it describe the objective, the theoretical framework, the methods used and the main results or conclusions?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please justify your opinion

5. Objectives: Are they clearly explained and effectively developed in the text?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please explain:

6. Are the theoretical and conceptual articulations presented in a clear and coherent way?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please explain how this could be done:

7. Theoretical review: is it adequate and relevant to the study?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please mention the omissions in your comments:

8. Theoretical review: is it consistent and up-to-date (last 5 years)?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please suggest amendments in your comments:

9. Methodology: is the method used by the author consistent with the research proposal (objectives, justification)?

*Yes *No *Partially *Not applicable

If no or partially, please explain:

10. Methodology: Does the author present the procedures used in data collection?

*Yes *No *Partially *Not applicable

11. Methodology: Does the author present the Ethical procedures of the research?

*Yes *No *Partially *Not applicable

12. Methodology: Are data analyzed and interpreted consistently?

*Yes *No *Partially *Not applicable

If no or partially, please explain:

13. Results and Discussion: Do the results presented respond to the objectives proposed in the article?

*Yes *No *Partially *Not applicable

If no or partially, please explain:

14. Results and Discussion: is there an articulation between the arguments used in the discussion of the data and the proposed objectives?

15. Results and Discussion: is the data analysis consistent and relevant to the study area?
*Yes *No *Partially *Not applicable

If no or partially, please explain:

16. Conclusions: are they adequate with the proposed objectives and the data presented?
*Yes *No *Partially *Not applicable

If no or partially, please explain:

17. Article: Does the text as a whole comply with the formal requirements of scientific language?
*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please suggest reformulations:

18. Article: Is the text as a whole clear, consistent and unambiguous?

*Yes *No *Partially

If no or partially, please suggest reformulations:

If you think that the article should not be published as it is, please point out the changes that could be made to make it publishable. Please be advised that it is mandatory to include the evaluation comments or download an expanded version of the document with the comments before defining your evaluation:

My recommendation for the work is:
Do not publish
Publish
Publish only with mandatory corrections
Submit to another journal

Periodicity

Biannual

Open Access Policy

This journal offers immediate free access to its content, following the principle that making scientific knowledge freely available to the public, provides greater world democratization of knowledge. In addition, PSI UNISC does not charge any fees for submission, publication or processing of articles.

Guidelines for Ethical Conduct

AUTHORSHIP

Mentioning authors in a scientific article ensures that the right people are given credit and are held accountable for the research. Intentionally failing to report the relationship of a scientist with his or her work is considered a breach of ethical conduct that undermines confidence in the description of the work itself. 

Listing the names of people who have not contributed to the article, including guest authors, in order to increase the chances of publication, is prohibited;

Submitting articles for publication without the author's permission is prohibited.

Participants in the authorship, whether in writing, data collection or any other role that has contributed to the research, should be mentioned in a specific section of the article in order to avoid “ghost authorship”.

PLAGIARISM

One of the most common types of ethical misconduct is plagiarism – when an author intentionally uses another's work without permission, credit or knowledge. Plagiarism takes different forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing the work of another author.

Literal copying of excerpts is only permitted if the source is referenced and located in the text using quotation marks, in accordance with the rules for publication;

Substantial copying of research materials, processes, tables or equipment, is prohibited. If the article uses the essence of another article, it must be duly referenced;

Paraphrasing is only allowed if the source is referenced and does not change the meaning intended by the original author;

Text recycling is prohibited.

Articles submitted to PSI UNISC Journal will be checked for possible plagiarism using the Crossref Similarity Check software.

RESEARCH FRAUD

Research fraud is publishing data or conclusions that were not generated by experiments or observations, but by invention or manipulation of data.

Authors may be required to submit raw data that relate to the research for editorial review.

Therefore, all data must be stored for a certain time after publication.

Images can only be manipulated in order to improve their clarity.

No specific features within an image can be enhanced, darkened, moved, removed or introduced.

Brightness, contrast, or color adjustments are acceptable, as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information from the original.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

When a researcher, author, editor or reviewer has a personal/financial interest or belief that may affect his/her objectivity, or inappropriately influence his/her actions, there is a conflict of interest. These relationships are also known as dual commitments, conflicting interests, or conflicting loyalties.

When submitting an article, explicitly state whether or not there are potential conflicts of interest, either with research participants or with agencies that may have provided funding for the research. Rapporteurs must disclose to the editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinion of the manuscript and, when applicable, must declare that they are not qualified to review it. If authors are unsure of what may constitute a potential conflict of interest, they should contact the PSI UNISC editorial office. Preferably, authors are expected not to have any conflict of interest with the topic addressed in the article.

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, MULTIPLE AND/OR DUPLICATE PUBLICATIONS

Authors are required to certify that their articles are based on original research and have never been published before. Intentionally submitting or resubmitting articles for duplicate publication is considered a breach of publishing ethics.

Avoid submitting an article for publication in more than one journal at a time.

Even if the article is under review process, wait until you receive a response before submitting it to another journal.

Avoid submitting articles published in other journals for consideration by a new journal.

Avoid submitting articles that are different but describe essentially the same research to different journals.

Always report any previous submission of the article (including presentations, abstracts, and postings of results or records) that could be considered a duplicate submission.

If you want to publish the article in a journal in another country or language, please contact the editorial team.

Avoid revealing any details of the article's publication in other languages or countries.

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

DOI - Digital Object Identifier is a standard for identifying documents in digital networks. Composed of numbers and letters, it is assigned to a digital object so that it is uniquely and persistently identified in the Web environment.

ORCID- Open Researcher and Contributor ID

Due to the importance of identifying the authors with greater precision, the journal requestsauthors to include ORCID in their metadata at the time of manuscript submission.

The ORCID record can be obtained free of charge from the website http://orcid.org.

Rejection Rate Currently

Actually, PSI UNISC has a rejection rate of 19%.

Ad hoc reviewers

The editorial committee of PSI UNISC Journal thanks the ad hoc reviewers who contributed to the analysis and critical appreciation of the articles submitted for publication in the Journal