About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Conjuntura Austral: journal of the Global South receives contributions in a continuous flow, in the form of Scenario Analysis pieces, Research Articles, and Book Reviews, written in Portuguese, English or Spanish. It issues original scientific works whose theme falls within the broad area of International Relations, with an emphasis on topics relevant to the countries of the Global South. With Africa, Asia, and Latin America as the geographical area of coverage, its main focus is on the major themes of international relations, especially issues of security, diplomacy, and development. Contributions that are not centered on international or cross-border phenomena, defined as belonging to the international studies agenda, and which have no direct relevance to the dynamics of the countries of the Global South, are considered outside the scope of the publication.

The main objective of Conjuntura Austral is to publish the most recent, innovative, and relevant contributions in the field of International Relations. Its target audience is composed of researchers, specialists, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the field of International Relations from all over the world.

Conjuntura Austral maintains a high-quality standard whereby the relevance and scientific quality of the submissions are the primary criteria for evaluating contributions.

Conjuntura Austral: journal of the Global South emphasizes that the opinions expressed in the articles are the sole responsibility of their respective authors.

Peer Review Process

Papers submitted to the journal will undergo an editorial process comprising several stages, which are described below. The editorial cycle of the journal (from submission to publication of articles) usually takes around 90 days, and may be longer or shorter, depending on the case.

1. Prior evaluation (average duration: 15 days):

During this phase, the editorial team assesses the conformity of the text to the editorial and the formal requirements listed in the Author Guidelines section, as well as the possibility of plagiarism and the adequacy of the manuscript with the scope of Conjuntura Austral. The journal uses the Copy Spider program to verify the existence of similarities in texts. If the manuscripts, except for their references, present a similarity index higher than 7%, the result will be communicated to the authors, accompanied by a report, and they must present their response to the facts. Accordingly, the journal's Editorial Committee will deliberate and determine whether it considers the evidence as a case of plagiarism – and decide on the immediate rejection of the manuscript or not.

In this phase, adjustments may be demanded from the authors in order to meet the journal's submission rules.

In the event that the submission is rejected, an email will be sent explaining the reasons for this decision.

2. Blind peer review (average duration: 30 days):

If the manuscript complies with the formal and substantial requirements established by the journal, the text is sent to two external reviewers (selected on an ad hoc basis by the Editorial Committee, with advice from the Editorial Council) with recognized knowledge on the subject matter of the manuscript and who are specialists in the journal's fields of interest. These reviewers will, anonymously, issue an assessment regarding the manuscript, recommending one of the following decisions:

a) Reject. The manuscript is not suitable for publication in Conjuntura Austral.

b) Submit to another journal. The manuscript is relevant, but it is more suitable for another journal.

c) Accept with revisions. The author must make modifications requested by the referees.

d) Accept (with suggestions). The article is adequate and has a relevant contribution – but there are minor characteristics that can be improved by adopting the suggestions of the referees.

e) Accept in full.

In case of divergence between the referees, the article will be forwarded to a third reviewer - implying an extension of the evaluation period.

As soon as the evaluations are finalized and sent to the journal, the Editorial Committee will deliberate and forward the final result, by e-mail, to the authors. The preprints will be evaluated by three reviewers, at least one member of the Editorial Committee, and two others selected on an ad hoc basis by the Editorial Committee. The assessments issued for these cases should also recommend one of the decisions mentioned above.

As soon as the evaluations are finalized and sent to the journal, the Editorial Committee will deliberate and forward the final result, by e-mail, to the authors. If the Editorial Committee's final decision is to "accept with revisions", the authors will have a period of up to 30 (thirty) days, to be defined by the Editorial Committee, to carry out the changes considered mandatory, and their compliance will be assessed by the Committee after returning the manuscript. The corrected version of the manuscript must be accompanied by a letter to the Editorial Committee of the journal, explaining the corrections and changes made and those not made (if any), with proper justification.

If the result of the evaluation is "accept (with suggestions)", the authors will have up to 15 (fifteen) days to send a new version of the manuscript, incorporating the suggestions they deem relevant.

The evaluation form used is public and is available here.

3. Editing and Layout (average duration: 20 days):

When the manuscript is accepted, the editing and diagramming process begins. Throughout this stage, possible typing errors, compliance with the journal’s style guide and other flaws that may not have been previously identified may be identified. If this occurs, the collaboration of the authors may be required to correct errors. Once ready, the articles will move to the final layout. At the end of this process, the authors will be contacted and will receive the preliminary version of the final file. The authors will be given a period of two days to proof-read the file and to express the need for any specific corrections. Upon completion of this process, all corrected files will be forwarded for publication on the scheduled date.

Publication Frequency

Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South publishes quarterly (jan.-mar.; apr.-jun.; jul.-sep.; oct.-dec.) contributions in the form of Scenario Analyses pieces, Research Articles, and Book Reviews, written in Portuguese, English or Spanish. It issues original scientific productions, which may have been deposited (prior or simultaneously to the submission) on preprint servers, whose theme is located in the broad area of International Relations, with an emphasis on themes relevant to the countries of the Global South. With Africa, Asia, and Latin America as the geographical area of coverage, its main focus is on the major themes of international relations, including the security, diplomacy, and development agendas.

Each year Conjuntura Austral publishes four editions. The first, covering the period from January to March; the second, from April to June; the third, from July to September; and the fourth, from October to December.

Open Access Policy

Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South offers immediate free access to its content, on the principle that making scientific knowledge freely available to the public provides greater worldwide democratization of knowledge. There are no fees charged during the process of submission of papers and publication, and users are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles published in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Conjuntura Austral is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Conjuntura Austral is a signatory to the Declaration of Mexico, prepared by LATINDEX, REDALYC, CLACSO, and IBICT, on the use of the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license to guarantee the protection of academic and scientific production in open access. Access the declaration by clicking here.

PPGEEI

The Graduate Program in International Strategic Studies (PPGEEI) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) had it's functioning authorized by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) in December 2010. The PPGEEI is a result of the consolidation of the area of International Relations and relies on the University's solid research tradition. Housed in the College of Economic Sciences (FCE) at UFRGS, where the undergraduate major in International Relations is located, the graduate program reflects the multidisciplinary reality of FCE-UFRGS. The PPGEEI has several associated research groups, such as the BRICS Studies Center (Núcleo de Estudos dos Brics - NEBRICS), the Laboratory on Brazilian Foreign Policy (Laboratório de Política Externa Brasileira - LAB-PEB), the Center on Research, Study and Extension on Migration (Núcleo de Estudos, Pesquisa e Extensão sobre Migrações - NEPEMIGRA), the Center for International Studies on Government (Centro de Estudos Internacionais de Governo - CEGOV) and the Research Center in International Relations of the Arab World (Núcleo de Pesquisa em Relações Internacionais do Mundo Árabe - NUPRIMA). The faculty and staff of the PPGEEI include researchers with great scientific production in the field, involving its three primary lines of research: International Politics, International Security, and International Political Economy. For more information, visit the PPGEEI website.

Evaluation Guidelines

The journal publishes contributions in the form of Scenario Analysis pieces, Research Articles and, Book Reviews, whose theme falls within the broad area of International Relations and Strategic Studies, with a special interest in topics related to the countries of the southern political hemisphere and in their security and development agendas.

Manuscripts other than preprints submitted to the Conjuntura Austral are submitted to a double-blind peer-review process. The reviewers are external members, who have recognized knowledge of the subject of the work and/or are experts in the journal's area of expertise. They are selected on an ad hoc basis by the Editorial Committee, with advice from the Editorial Council.

The preprints submitted to the journal will be evaluated by three reviewers, one member of the Editorial Committee and two others selected on an ad hoc basis by the Editorial Committee. The reviewers will be notified in advance that this is a preprint evaluation, which, therefore, will not be carried out by the double-blind system. If requested, the names of the referees may be, at the discretion of the Editorial Committee, provided to the authors of the manuscript.

By agreeing to carry out the evaluation, the referees agree that in case of approval of the preprints for publication, their assessments will also be published, and may be accompanied by their names.

The journal's evaluation form is public and can be accessed here.

All reviewers who perform evaluations for the journal receive certificates for the assessments issued. In the first edition of each year, Conjuntura Austral publishes a unified list with the names of the referees who performed manuscript evaluations for the journal over the previous year. The titles of the evaluated manuscripts are not mentioned. This practice aims to provide greater transparency to peer reviews and also to serve as a form of public recognition for the essential collaboration of the evaluators for the work of the journal and for the advancement of science.

All referees who agree to carry out evaluations for Conjuntura Austral automatically confirm their agreement with such practice.

Guidelines on Ethics and Good Editorial Practices in Scientific Publishing

Conjuntura Austral: journal of the Global South fully supports the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)'s guidelines for dealing with ethical questions regarding the publication of scientific journals. The journal's editorial and administrative teams, as well as its Editorial Committee, agree that these guidelines are fully in line with the objectives of this publication. In the same spirit, Conjuntura Austral is a signatory to both the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Declaration of Mexico on the use o CC BY-NC-SA license to guarantee protection of academic and scientific open access.

When submitting a manuscript for consideration at Conjuntura Austral, the authors, on their behalf and that of their respective co-authors, confirm that they have full knowledge of the following guidelines and are in agreement with all of them:

1. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers;

2. Responsible research publication: international standards for editors. KLEINERT, Sabine; WAGER, Elizabeth (2011);

3. Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. WAGER, Elizabeth; KLEINERT, Sabine (2011);

4. Guidelines for integrity in scientific activity of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq);

5. Guidelines for fighting plagiarism of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq);

6. Code of good scientific practices of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP);

7. Rigor and Integrity in Conducting Scientific Research - Guide on Recommendations for Responsible Practices of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences;

8. Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) of the Consortia for Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information (CASRAI);

Journal's rejection rates and processes average duration

The rejection rate for Conjuntura Austral is calculated based on the proportion of rejected manuscripts in relation to the total number of manuscripts received. This proportion, in turn, is separated into two distinct categories: manuscripts rejected in the Prior Evaluation stage and manuscripts rejected during the evaluation process. In the first case, those manuscripts that were rejected because they are not within the publication scope of Conjuntura Austral, and/or because they do not meet the guidelines established by the journal, are counted. These evaluations are carried out by the journal's Editorial Committee, and the manuscripts are not forwarded for peer evaluation. The second case includes works that were approved in the Previous Evaluation and were sent for evaluation and received at least two negative assessments - and thus not published by the decision of the Editors based on such assessments - are counted. The Prior Evaluation and the Peer Review rejection rates are calculated based on the total number of manuscripts rejected during the year.

The average time for the decision refers to the average number of days that the manuscripts were in the journal's system, between their submission and the authors to be notified of the Editorial Committee final decision.

The average time for rejection in the Prior Evaluation refers to the average number of days that the manuscripts were in the journal's system, between their submission and when the authors are notified by the Editorial Committee’s final decision to reject the manuscript.

The average time for rejection in the Peer Review refers to the average number of days that the manuscripts were in the journal's system, between their submission and the authors being notified of the final decision to reject the manuscript based on the referees' assessments.

The average time for acceptance refers to the average number of days that the manuscripts were in the journal's system, between their submission and the notification of the authors regarding the Editorial Committee final decision to accept the manuscripts.

The average time for publication refers to the average number of days that the manuscripts were in the journal's system, between their submission and the publication of the manuscripts.

2020	Scenario Analysis	Research Articles	Book Reviews	Total
Total	7	72	6	85
Rejection rate	100%	52,8%	83,3%	57,5%
Prior Evaluation rejection rate	85,7%	68,4%	40,0%	68%
Peer review rejection rate	14,3%	31,6%	60,0%	32%
Average time for the decision	21 days	36 days	1 day	47 days
Average time for rejection in the Prior Evaluation	10 days	6 days	1 day	7 days
Average time for rejection in the Peer Review	87 days	70 days	24 days	63 days
Average time for acceptance	-	56 days	1 day	52 days
Average time for publication	-	127 days	10 days	117 days

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

The journal does not charge article processing fees.

Submission charges

The journal does not charge fees from the authors for the submission of manuscripts.

Translation

The information on the English version of this website was translated by Guilherme Ziebell and revised by Joseph Marques. The information on the Spanish version was translated by Mayra Lucia Sánchez Mora. Conjuntura Austral thanks the indispensable voluntary contribution of all of them. Any errors or inaccuracies are the sole responsibility of Conjuntura Austral.

Reviewers

Conjuntura Austral uses the double-blind peer review system to evaluate the articles received. The journal counts with the support of researchers from all over the world to perform this task, to whom it is very grateful.

Journal History

Conjuntura Austral, one of the precursors in the field of International Relations in Brazil, was created in 2010 with the objective of promoting greater vision and engagement to the science produced by (and about) the Global South. The result of an ambitious project to disseminate scientific knowledge produced by and about developing countries, it reflected not only the consolidation and strength of the International Relations area but also the reality of transformation experienced by international relations during this period.

On its fifth birthday, the Journal underwent a renovation, adopting a new visual identity and a new subtitle, Journal of the Global South. The Journal, therefore, reaffirmed its vocation for the dissemination of research on Asia, Africa, and Latin America - without, however, abandoning the dialogue with the North, since it is impossible to think of the Global South without thinking of the Global North.

The Southern Cross constellation thus remained our reference symbol, extremely relevant to the southern sailors since the time of the discoveries in the modern era. Upon completing ten years of existence, Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South confirms its maturity, consolidating itself as one of the main academic journals in the area of International Relations in Brazil.

Throughout this decade, the journal has published more than 320 articles by around 370 authors, with the voluntary collaboration of more than 450 reviewers and the production of more than 1000 assessments. During this period, the journal articles were read by more than 100,000 different people, in more than 130 countries.

In order to further advance its internationalization process, the Journal endeavors to ensure that all works are published free of charge and that they have free access and the widest possible coverage, both in Brazil and abroad. For this reason, we seek indexing sources on all continents, in order to guarantee the dissemination of the produced science. Likewise, we have also expanded our social networks, ensuring greater interactivity with the public outside the academy.

In order to make this possible, Conjuntura Austral has received, throughout these ten years, institutional support from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, through the Pro-Rectory of Research (PROPESQ) and the Support Program for Journal Publication (PAEP).

Year	2022	2023	2024
Total	US$ 1,147	US$ 1,209	US$ 1,773