Editorial Policies

Types of Manuscripts

To promote diversity in actors and experiences within the field of evaluation, RBAVAL accepts the following types of manuscripts:

1. Original Articles: manuscripts of up to 8,000 words presenting results from qualitative or quantitative empirical research, contributing to a deeper understanding of the subject, the generalization of findings, or the replication of experiences.

2. Essays: manuscripts of up to 6,000 words offering analytical and/or critical reviews of themes, social phenomena, and literature relevant to evaluation theory and practice.

3. Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: manuscripts of up to 6,000 words that use primary studies as data sources, assess their methodological quality, and analyze (meta-analysis) and synthesize them to generate new evidence on the subject.

4. Interviews: manuscripts of up to 5,000 words, commissioned by the editors, addressing topics relevant to evaluation theory and practice.

5. Opinion Articles: manuscripts of up to 3,000 words, commissioned by the editors, discussing topics relevant to evaluation theory and practice.

6. Experience Reports: manuscripts of up to 4,000 words describing real cases and experiences in monitoring and evaluation, either completed or ongoing, and offering meaningful contributions to the field and to the training of evaluators. This type differs from original articles not only in length but also in its focus on context, implementation, and critical reflection on what worked and what did not, including lessons learned.

7. Book Reviews: manuscripts of up to 1,000 words reviewing books relevant to the evaluation field, including an overview of content, theoretical foundations, and intended audience. Books must have been published within the three years prior to submission.

Open Access and Copyright

RBAVAL’s editorial policy follows the principles of Open Science.

Submissions must be original, are the full responsibility of the authors, and may not be under consideration by another journal. The journal accepts manuscripts previously published as preprints on the following servers: SciELO Preprints, arXiv, bioRxiv, and medRxiv. Preprints from other servers may be considered at the editors’ discretion.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to share and disseminate their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) at any time, before or during the editorial process, as this can foster productive exchange and increase the impact and citation of the published work.

RBAVAL encourages authors to deposit research data, when possible, in data repositories and to include the corresponding link in the methods section. Data may be deposited in institutional repositories or in open repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, OSF, Dataverse, or other domain-specific platforms.

All texts published in RBAVAL are freely available for anyone to read, download, copy, print, share, reuse, and distribute, provided proper credit is given to the source and authorship. In such cases, no permission is required from the authors or editors. This policy is aligned with the principles of open access as defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). Upon acceptance and publication, copyright remains with the authors. All content is published under an open-access model and licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy

RBAVAL is committed to improving gender balance and diversity in the field of evaluation and in its editorial practices. The journal seeks to ensure gender balance among invited authors in any issue or special edition, as well as to promote institutional and geographic diversity.

In alignment with best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion, RBAVAL supports efforts to enhance the visibility of diversity in scientific production. In this regard, authors are invited to voluntarily self-identify their race/ethnicity and other relevant social markers related to their trajectory and representation, with the aim of making visible the plurality of experiences reflected in published articles. Information on race/ethnicity and other social markers may be published as part of the authors’ biographical notes on the first page of the manuscript, provided that authors authorize such disclosure in the Title Page and Responsibility Statement.

The disclosure of this information at the individual level is therefore not mandatory. Data on social markers of authors, editorial board members, and editors will be compiled and published annually in aggregated form.

RBAVAL also supports efforts to increase the visibility of women in scientific production. Accordingly, the journal requires that full first names of all authors be included in the reference list, rather than initials alone. In addition, authors are encouraged to consider gender balance, as well as racial/ethnic and geographic diversity, in the works they cite.

The journal recognizes that scientific production should reflect the diversity of society. RBAVAL is committed to fostering a more inclusive editorial environment and promoting equity in the field of evaluation.

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence

RBAVAL permits the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of manuscripts. However, AI tools are not recognized as co-authors, as they cannot assume responsibility for the content. AI may be used to improve language and editing in any of the journal’s accepted languages, as well as to generate multimedia content, provided that such content supports the representation of specific data. In all cases, responsibility for textual and multimedia content remains with the authors.

The use of AI must be disclosed in both the methods section and the Title Page. Authors should specify the tool used, the purpose of its use, and how it was applied, clearly indicating each stage of the research process that involved AI.

The journal encourages authors to make available the algorithms and prompts used, preferably through data repositories, with a link provided in the methods section. These repositories may be institutional or open-access platforms such as Zenodo, Figshare, OSF, Dataverse, GitHub, Hugging Face Hub, or other domain-specific repositories.

Language and Style

RBAVAL accepts manuscripts in Portuguese, Spanish, and English from authors of all nationalities, regardless of country of residence.

The journal recognizes that international dialogue is essential to advancing evaluation practice and therefore welcomes both national and international contributions that offer relevant theoretical and practical insights into evaluation.

All manuscripts submitted to RBAVAL, in any language, must be carefully proofread for grammar and spelling by the authors prior to submission.

Publication and Processing Fees

RBAVAL does not charge authors any fees for the submission or publication of manuscripts.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to RBAVAL undergo an initial screening. Submissions that do not comply with the journal’s guidelines are returned to the authors for revision and resubmission.

RBAVAL will acknowledge receipt of submissions within 48 business hours.

Once all submission requirements have been fully met, the editor responsible for the manuscript assesses its potential for publication, including its alignment with the journal’s scope. Manuscripts deemed unsuitable at this stage are rejected with a brief justification. If approved, the manuscript is sent for review by at least two reviewers, who evaluate its originality, scope, timeliness, and adherence to the journal’s editorial policy.

Reviewers are selected by the editors based on the subject matter and their expertise. They may recommend acceptance, rejection, or revisions.

All manuscripts are evaluated through a double-blind peer review process, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers are concealed throughout the review.

RBAVAL aims to provide reviewers’ feedback within 45 days of the submission acknowledgment. Authors are then given 15 days to make the requested revisions or provide additional information. Failure to meet this deadline may result in delays in subsequent stages of the review process, including publication.

The formatted version of the manuscript (layout proof) will be sent by email to the corresponding author for final review. The author must return the revised version within five calendar days of receipt. Publication is contingent upon the author’s approval of the proposed layout.

At this stage, only corrections of layout errors or issues in data or text that may affect comprehension will be accepted. This proof should not be used to revise or improve the writing style.

The final published version of the article will include the name(s) of the editor(s) responsible for overseeing the review process.

Scientific and Ethical Best Practices in Research and Publication

In line with advances in research ethics and best scientific practices, all accepted manuscripts are subject to plagiarism and self-plagiarism checks (i.e., the reuse of previously published material presented as original) at each stage of submission.

At the time of submission, authors must declare that all ethical guidelines related to the integrity of the research have been followed, and must disclose all sources of funding. When applicable, authors must also confirm that the research has been reviewed and approved by the appropriate institutional ethics committee. Compliance with ethical standards in research is the sole responsibility of the authors.

Any cases of misconduct will be reviewed and decided by an ad hoc committee composed of members of the editorial board and the editor, in accordance with: (1) the Guidelines for Research Integrity of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq); (2) the Code of Good Scientific Practices of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP); and (3) the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Instructions for Authors

For submission, authors must prepare the following files: Responsibility Statement, Title Page, manuscript text, and any images, if applicable.

Responsibility Statement and Author Licensing

All authors must sign the Responsibility Statement and Author Licensing Agreement, available for download here. This document may be signed digitally, either through the gov.br electronic signature service or other recognized platforms. Each author may sign individually, and multiple signed forms may be submitted; all must be uploaded to the system.

In the Responsibility Statement, authors must indicate whether they consent to the individual publication of their social markers in the biographical notes accompanying the manuscript.

The Responsibility Statement must be submitted as a separate document from the manuscript text.

Title Page

All authorship-related information must be included in the Title Page, which can be downloaded here.

The Title Page must be submitted separately from the manuscript text. The order of authorship will follow the sequence indicated in this document. The Title Page must include: the type of manuscript; the title in the original language and in other languages; in authorship order, full names of all authors, self-declared social markers, institutional affiliation, ORCID, email, and individual contributions to the manuscript; the corresponding author; funding information; acknowledgements; conflicts of interest; and a declaration regarding the use of artificial intelligence.

Information on additional social markers will be published as part of the authors’ biographical notes, provided that consent is given.

Manuscript Text

To ensure a double-blind review process, manuscripts must be submitted without any information that could identify the authors or their institutional affiliations. Authors are therefore required, at the time of submission, to remove from the manuscript any elements that could reveal authorship. This includes acknowledgements, references to research projects, the Certificate of Ethical Review Submission (CAAE) number, and self-citations. Self-citations should be replaced with “Author (year).” If the manuscript is accepted, all identifying information will be reinstated in the final publication.

Title: The title should clearly and concisely reflect the content of the manuscript, with a maximum of 10 words. It should be written in bold, using capital letters only for proper nouns, and should avoid acronyms. Manuscripts in Portuguese and Spanish must also include an English title.

Abstract: The abstract must be provided in Portuguese and English, or in Spanish and English, with a maximum of 150 words. It should clearly present the research problem, central argument, contribution to the field, empirical material or research pathway, and methodological choices. The abstract should be unstructured—that is, it should not include headings such as introduction, methods, or results—and should avoid citations and acronyms, except for internationally recognized abbreviations.

Keywords: Following the abstract, include three to five keywords, separated by periods, with only the first word capitalized.

RBAVAL respects authors’ style and creativity in structuring their manuscripts; however, it recommends that original articles, essays, and experience reports include conventional elements such as: (a) an introduction, clearly defining the problem, object, or experience under study; (b) a methods section, described clearly and objectively to allow full understanding and potential replication of the research process; (c) results and discussion, which may be presented together or separately; and (d) final considerations, highlighting key learnings, uses, implications, limitations, and the effects of the evaluation or research conducted.

As the field of evaluation is inherently plural, RBAVAL seeks to reflect this diversity in its publications. Nonetheless, preference is given to manuscripts that are relevant to practitioners, evaluators, and researchers, and that are written in a way that is accessible to a broad audience interested in evaluation.

Bibliography

References must follow the American Psychology Association (APA) standard. For further clarification, we recommend consulting standardization manuals. The most common citations are as follows.

One author

According to Silva (2020), equity in higher education is…

This is why equity in higher education (Silva, 2020) can be seen…

Two authors

For Freire and Faundez (1985), questions are strong levers…

Questions are strong transformation levers (Freire & Faundez, 1985), what...

Three to five authors

1st citation:

(Oliveira, Chieregato, Perez, & Gomes, 2002)

Oliveira, Chieregato, Perez e Gomes (2002)

Subsequent citations:

Oliveira et al. (2002)

(Oliveira et al., 2002)

Six authors or more

To Alves Filho et al. (2001)...

Institutional author

Data from the American Association Evaluation [AEA] (2003) demonstrate…

No author

According to Law 9.984 (2000), the way people...

To support efforts related to the visibility of women in scientific production, our publications propose an adaptation of the APA standard. The final list of bibliographic references must contain the full first and middle names of the authors, and not just the initials.

Silva, Marisol. (2020). The pedagogical dimension of equity in higher education. education policy analysis archives, 28, 46. doi:https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.5039

Underlined, bold and italics

RBAVAL does not use underlined and bold letters. Italics should be used exclusively to mark words written in another language.

e.g., The Bolsa Família analysis demonstrates that local communities...

Quotation marks

Single quotes should be used sparingly exclusively to draw attention to expressions or titles of works.

...‘target population’ and ‘street level bureaucracy’, for instance.

Use of acronyms

The use of acronyms should be avoided as much as possible. The acronym must be cited following the complete spelling of the words it represents the first time it appears in the text. In other passages, only the acronym must be used.

According to the European Evaluation Society (EES)... Data from the EES also demonstrate that...

Capital letters

Avoid using capital letters in the text, except when absolutely necessary.

The board members agreed that program purposes are...

Literal quotes

They must be presented in italics and in double quotation marks in the body of the text, when shorter than three lines. If they are longer than three lines, they must be written in italics, without quotation marks, detached from the text, justified to the right side, with single spacing and font size 11.

"We always claim that the health unit should have the complete team, with a doctor, nurse, assistant, health agent, dentist and dental assistant. There are almost five thousand in the community and it is not possible to travel to the city to get a treatment" (community leader)

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly, only for supplementary information of substantive nature. Footnote markings must be written in superscript and sequentially numbered.

Reiniciado¹ em 2015, o programa foi desenhado com o......

O programa original criado em 2011 havia sido paralisado em 2014...

Figures

Graphs, photographs, diagrams, illustrations, etc. must be cited as figures (Figure 1, Figure 2, Figures. 1, 2, 5-7, etc.) in ascending order to their citations and follow the guidelines of the sections "Use of Colors" and "Preparation and manipulation of figures" .

In the case of using arrows, symbols, letters or numbers to highlight parts of the figures, be sure to clearly identify their use in the respective legend.

Images of people must ensure that they cannot be identified, except in cases where their use has been specifically authorized for publication in the article. This authorization must be stated in the methods section.

RBAVAL encourages the inclusion of alternative text for figures to ensure that readers who use screen readers or who are unable to view images (due to technical limitations) can understand the information they convey. Alternative text (alt text) is a brief and objective textual description of the essential content of an image (figure, chart, diagram, photograph, map), including its main units, axes, and key patterns. Alt text is an important accessibility feature and also improves the indexing and retrieval of content.

Tables and charts

Tables and charts must be in high resolution and submitted in files separate from the text, one by one, following the order they appear in the material. They must be prepared using the Microsoft Word table tool or corresponding text editor, and never be constructed using spaces, tabs and images. Even the smallest text must be perfectly legible.

They must be numbered and contain title and source. In the text, the authors must identify the place where such elements should be inserted. The file must be editable and, therefore, not have been removed from other files, such as a print screen, for example.

Use of colors

Although the use of color is permitted, it is important that the authors (or professionals hired for editing) strive to ensure that the use of color does not impair understanding for readers with vision disorders. We recommend that the following resources be consulted before preparing figures or tables using colors:

• How to make scientific figures accessible to readers with color-blindness (2019, Science News,The American Society for Cell Biology)

• Wong, B. Points of view: Color blindness. Nat Methods 8, 441 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1618

• Tips for designing scientific figures for color blind readers

Preparation and manipulation of figures

Resolution and formats

Graphs, photographs, diagrams, illustrations, etc. must be sent in TIFF or JPG formats with high resolution (300 or 600 dpi). We recommend that authors (or professionals hired for editing) follow the following guidelines:

• Imagine whether the figure will be published occupying the width of the entire page or a column, and then make sure that it allows the perfect reading of all the text and symbols used.

• If you believe the figure will use the width of a page, send it with a width between 2500 and 5000 pixels.

• If you believe the figure will use the width of a column (or half a page) send it with a width between 1200 and 2400 pixels.

Editing and manipulation

When preparing your images, be careful when using filters or other types of editing to include highlights, etc. The images should not be excessively manipulated or adjusted, so that they can cause misinterpretation of the information. We recommend that authors (or professionals hired for editing) observe the following tips and examples:

• "What's in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation" (Mike Rossner, Kenneth M. Yamada. J Cell Biol 5 July 2004; 166 (1): 11–15. doi: https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200406019).

• Digital Images and Misconduct. (Council of Science Editors, White Paper on Publication Ethics)

• Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to a Medical Journal > Illustrations (Figures). (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)

Guidelines for Manuscript Submission

The Title Page and the Manuscript must be saved in .doc or .docx format and submitted through the Submit system used by RBAVAL for submission and peer review.

The Responsibility Statement must be submitted in PDF format.

Images must be uploaded in TIFF or JPG format, in high resolution (300 or 600 dpi).