30 steps to produce an issue of V!RUS 

The editorial process for each issue of V!RUS journal usually lasts 120 days, from the end of the submission period to the issue's release date. The Editorial Committee is composed of the Editor-in-chief and four or five postgraduate or postdoctoral researchers from Nomads.usp and is partially renewed with each edition. Their names appear in the Credits section of each issue.

The participation of Nomads.usp researchers in the committee has formative intention. It aims to initiate them in a practice of scientific dissemination, to increase their intimacy with the specific requests of scientific articles, and to encourage a critical reading of texts and the discussion about their structure, content, and argumentation. Various researchers take part in several editions, which contributes to the constant consolidation and improvement of the committee's procedures.

The itemization of this process presented here refers to the actions carried out systematically in each edition, and aims to give it transparency and expose it to academic interlocution. Thirty steps are briefly described below, but more information can be requested by e-mail at vnomads@sc.usp.br. See also our Author Guidelines.

STEP 1: Appointment of the members of the issue's Editorial Committee at a general meeting of Nomads.usp.

STEP 2: Disclosure of the issue's thematic call for articles, whose theme is decided collectively by Nomads.usp researchers, the Editorial Committee and the Editor-in-chief.

STEP 3: End of the submission period and organization of submitted articles in a cloud repository for simultaneous access by members of the Editorial and Scientific Committees.

STEP 4: Technical evaluation of submitted articles, according to the following criteria: 1. suitability to the call's theme and subtopics; 2. compliance of the text structure to academic requirements; 3. writing quality, linguistic and grammatical accuracy; 4. check of the authors' academic qualifications: complete graduation is required, at least; 5. check of whether the article derives from academic research; 6. verification that the article was never published before; 7. verification of plagiarism and self-plagiarism; 8. check of the number of words.

STEP 5: Information is sent to authors whose articles have not been approved in the technical evaluation, explaining the reasons for non-approval.

STEP 6: Preparation of all articles approved in the technical evaluation for the double-blind review process by external guest reviewers. Each article is read and discussed by the Editorial Committee, and all indications that may reveal its authorship are systematically replaced by the expression [OMITTED FOR BLIND REVIEW].

STEP 7: Selection and invitation to external reviewers according to the following criteria: 1. holding a Doctor degree; 2. must be researchers at teaching and research institutions in Brazil or abroad; 3. their thematic affinity with the subjects dealt with in the article; 4. commitment to meeting evaluation deadlines. Reviewers are encouraged to contribute with suggestions for the improvement of the work.

STEP 8: Receipt of external reviews, deliberation by the Editorial Committee, and decision on approval for publication or refusal of articles, depending on the external guests' opinions.

STEP 9: Information is sent to authors whose articles have not been approved by guest reviewers evaluation, appended with the reviewers' advice.

STEP 10: Allocation of the approved articles in the Agora, Carpet, and Project sections of the edition being prepared, according to their content and structure.

STEP 11: Requests are sent to the authors whose papers were approved by reviewers and by the committee for adjustments and corrections. Resolution and authorship of images and videos are checked.

STEP 12: The Committee decides whether or not to invite further authors to publish in the Carpet section, addressing topics of the call that may not have been addressed in the approved articles. The invitation to other authors for publication in the Carpet section intends to enrich and expand the range of topics addressed on the issue, and only occurs after the examination and allocation of the submitted and approved articles. All published articles are identified by the terms "Submitted Article" or "Guest Author Article" in their header.

STEP 13: Invitations for publishing in the Carpet section are sent. A short text (3,000 words) is requested for academic researchers of fields related with the edition's theme, Third Sector agents, or professionals with notorious knowledge, at the discretion of the Editorial and Scientific Committees. The article's subject is suggested in the invitation, according to the profile of each invited author.

STEP 14: The allocation of submitted articles in the Carpet section meets the following criteria: 1. the Editorial Committee intends to gather, in this section, articles submitted and approved dealing with similar topics; 2. publishing of articles submitted and well qualified by the reviewers and Editorial Committee, but whose format is essayistic.

STEP 15: An invitation is sent to Nomads.usp researchers whose research subjects are related to the edition's theme, for publishing in the Nomads section.

STEP 16: The Editorial Committee chooses articles for publication in the Project section from submitted, approved and revised articles. In the absence of a submitted article that addresses a project process in one of the journal's areas of interest, an invitation is sent to a researcher or professional holder of notorious knowledge to publish text about a project of his own, related to the issue's theme. All published articles are identified by the terms "Submitted Article" or "Guest Author Article" in their header.

STEP 17: Receipt of submitted papers reviewed by their authors and verification of compliance with the Editorial Board requests. In case of non-fulfillment of a request and absence of justification, new requests may be sent.

STEP 18: Detailed grammar review of all texts to be published is undertaken, checking references, citations, captions of images, in compliance with the Harvard Referencing System (papers in English or Spanish), or Brazilian ABNT (papers in Portuguese).

STEP 19: Authorization is sent to the authors to produce versions in English or Portuguese, according to the original language of their article.

STEP 20: Receipt and detailed grammar review of the texts of authors invited to the Carpet section. Translation of such texts into English or Portuguese by Nomads.usp researchers with excellent proficiency of the required languages, according to the original article's language.

STEP 21: Review and detailed correction of the English or Portuguese versions sent by authors, and request of completions and adjustments, if necessary. The good quality of the text in English and Portuguese or Spanish is a condition for publication.

STEP 22: Choice and invitation to a researcher or professional holder of notorious knowledge on the edition's subject to give an interview to be published in the Interview section.

STEP 23: Elaboration of a script for the interview, accomplishment, transcription, edition, and translation into English or Portuguese, according to the language the interview has been conducted. The interviewers are members of the Editorial Committee and/or researchers of Nomads.usp.

STEP 24: Receipt and detailed grammar review of articles to be published in the Nomads section, both in Portuguese and English versions.

STEP 25: Definition and realization of the issue's graphic design, which must reverberate the chosen theme.

STEP 26: Production of the authors' short bios according to journal standards, from the information they entered into the submission form, their Brazilian Lattes curricula, institutional websites, and by consulting authors directly if necessary.

STEP 27: Production of *.php and *.pdf files of each article for uploading to the Nomads.usp server, eventually accessible on the journal's website.

STEP 28: Review and adjustment of images and video resolution. Upload of videos, if any, in the YouTube journal's area.

STEP 29: Collective discussion including Nomads.usp researchers and the Editorial Committee on a possible theme for the next V!RUS edition. Topics suggested by the Scientific Committee will be considered at this stage. The Editorial Committee writes the call and makes the text available in a cloud repository to receive contributions from all. Portuguese and English versions of the call are produced, and their *.php and *.pdf files are inserted in the journal's website.

STEP 30: Release of the journal's edition as well as the call for the next issue through social networks, e-mails to scholars, postgraduate programs and research groups in Brazil and abroad, especially in the areas related to the issues' themes.

Parallel to this editorial process, articles from the latest issue are periodically highlighted through public posts on the journal's social network page, by members of the Editorial Committee.