Alfa: Revista de Linguística (São José do Rio Preto)
Brief Background
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Alfa began publication in 1962 with up to two issues per year. From 1972/1973 to 1976/1977, the issues covered two years of publication. From volume 24, in 1980, to volume 29, in 1985, one edition was published per year. Starting in 2003, the magazine began publishing two editions per year, one for each semester. In 2005, all issues of the journal became available online. Starting with issue 49, in 2005, the print version was discontinued and the journal became available only in electronic format. In 2012, the journal became quarterly and, in 2020, starting with volume 64, it adopted a continuous publication model. Alfa publishes original articles, critical reviews of recent publications, and interviews, presenting trends in contemporary linguistic studies. Telmo Correia Arrais, José Luiz Fiorin, Roberto Gomes Camacho, Marize Mattos Dall’Aglio Hattnher, Silvia Dinucci Fernandes, Carlos Eduardo Mendes de Moraes, Renata Maria Facuri Coelho Marchezan, Rosane de Andrade Berlinck, Arnaldo Cortina, and other renowned researchers in the field of linguistics were some of the editors of Alfa. |
Open Access
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This journal follows the Open Access model, allowing unrestricted virtual access (including financial restrictions) to all scientific texts that are published. Open access is the condition in which the copyright holder of an academic work grants usage rights to third parties, using an open license (Creative Commons Attribution, CC-BY), which makes it freely accessible and authorizes any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to this work, as well as track it for indexing, pass it on as data to software, or use it for any other legal purpose. Thus, those interested in Alfa magazine can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, as well as use them for any other lawful purpose, without prior permission from the publishers or authors. However, anyone who uses material from the magazine must cite the source with a reference to the publication in Alfa. |
Open Science Compliance
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In order to facilitate the evaluation of the manuscript and, once approved, contribute to the preservation and reuse of content and the reproducibility of research, Alfa recommends that all content (such as collected data and information, program codes, among others) underlying the text of the manuscript be made available prior to or at the time of publication. When not included as part of the submitted manuscript, the underlying content cited in the article must be deposited in open access repositories. The data cited must be referenced in the article along with the bibliographic references, indicating the location address of the file(s) in the repository, if applicable. To ensure accessibility and reuse of data, it is recommended that they be made available in an open file format (e.g., open spreadsheets instead of PDFs). In the case of data restricted for legal and/or ethical issues, the reason for the restriction and the contact details of the person or group responsible for making the information available upon request must be stated in the article. During the submission process, authors must indicate, in the Open Science Compliance Form [Formulário sobre conformidade com a Ciência Aberta] to be submitted with the manuscript, that the work complies with Open Science communication practices. |
Ethics in Publication
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Alfa is committed to complying with the guidelines stipulated by the CNPq Commission for Integrity in Scientific Activity and the recommendations on publication ethics for authors, editors, and reviewers of the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE. Authors must comply with CNS Resolução CNS nº 674/2022 regarding the need for assessment by the CEP/Conep System. Studies that directly or indirectly involve human beings and do not fall under the exemption situations provided for in Article 26 of the aforementioned Resolution must include in the manuscript the protocol number and date of approval by the Research Ethics Committee. |
Focus and Scope
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Alfa, a continuous publication funded by the Office of the Dean of Research at UNESP – São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – publishes original works by professors and researchers affiliated with national or international teaching and research institutions. Works produced by researchers who do not hold a doctoral degree are not accepted. In the case of co-authored works, even if there are authors who are pursuing a doctorate, one of the authors must necessarily already hold a doctoral degree. The journal publishes articles, reviews, and interviews necessarily linked to a line of research in Linguistic Studies. |
Digital Preservation
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This journal follows the standards defined in the SciELO Program's Digital Preservation Policy [Política de Preservação Digital do Programa SciELO ]. |
Indexing Sources
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Full Text Abstract and Indexing Databases Document Access Services |
Bibliographic Journal Information
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Journal title: Alfa: Revista de Linguística
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Peer Review Process
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ALFA adopts a double-blind peer review process. Without knowing the authorship, two members of the Editorial Board issue an opinion on the works. If one opinion is favorable and the other unfavorable, the work is sent to a third reviewer, who also does not have access to the identity of the author(s). After analysis, copies of the opinions are forwarded to the authors along with instructions for modifications, when applicable. In the case of texts produced by guest authors, the peer review follows the same procedure. Papers that do not meet the journal's standards are returned to the authors or adaptations are requested, indicated in a personal message. Deadlines The evaluation process until the final decision on publication takes an average of six (6) months, depending on the volume of articles under evaluation and the availability of reviewers. The journal ensures that the maximum period between submission and publication does not exceed twelve (12) months. Transparency in peer review Among the practices adopted by the open science movement is transparency in peer review. Thus, when publishing approved articles, Alfa informs the editors responsible for the review. |
Open Data
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In accordance with open science practices, Alfa adopts procedures for transparency and open access to research data and materials, which allow for the evaluation, validation, and reproducibility of scientific results, in accordance with the Guidelines for Promoting Transparency and Openness in Journal Policies and Practices, from the SciELO Program. In this sense, the methodology for data collection and manipulation must be clearly stated in the article. Authors are also responsible for the storage, preservation, and access to the data used in the research. When not included as part of the submitted manuscript, the data, codes, and materials cited in the article, if they can be published without violating ethical aspects, such as the identity of research participants, should be deposited in open access repositories, such as SciELO Data, Dataverse, DataHub, Figshare, Dryad, and Zenodo, among others. Information on the availability of research data should be included in a separate section of the text (see “Manuscript preparation”). Authors are encouraged to promote the accessibility and reuse of data by making files available in a format that allows data to be easily extracted (e.g., open spreadsheets instead of PDFs). In the case of restricted data, the reason for the restriction and the contact details of the person or group responsible for making the information available upon request should be stated in the article. The data cited must be referenced in the article along with the bibliographic references, indicating the location address of the file(s) in the repository, if applicable. All data, codes, and materials used in the design and conduct of the research must be properly cited in the text and included in the list of references, indicating the location of the file(s) in the repository, preferably with a permanent identifier such as a DOI. The article will not be published until the citations and references are adequate and in accordance with current ABNT standards. For more information on this issue, access the Guide for promoting openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research published by SciELO journals. |
Fees
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Alfa does not charge authors any fees for submitting, processing, or publishing their work. |
Ethics and Misconduct, Correction and Retraction Policy
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The editors are committed to preventing malpractice and unethical behavior in the publication of articles and do not tolerate any form of plagiarism. 1. By submitting articles to Alfa, authors automatically declare that the contents of the articles are original and unpublished. They also declare that the article has not been published, in whole or in part, in another journal, even in another language, nor has it been submitted to another journal simultaneously. In addition, they also undertake to inform the journal when they detect any error or inaccuracy in their work (published, under review, or in editing) and to collaborate with the editors to make the appropriate retraction or correction of the article. 2. The editors and reviewers are committed to evaluating the works submitted to the journal objectively and based on their intellectual content, without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, geographical origin, or political beliefs. They also undertake to treat the authors' contributions confidentially while they are under review and if the work is rejected. Papers are subject to evaluation or discussion with third parties only with the authorization of the journal's editors. 3. When reviewers identify that the submitted work contains relevant content that has been previously published—by the author or by third parties, whether statements, arguments, or reproductions of excerpts—they must inform the editors directly, and authors must ensure that such content is always accompanied by the respective bibliographic reference, indicating its origin. Similarly, when there is substantial similarity or evidence that the article under review has already been published in another journal, reviewers must alert the editors that the article violates the journal's ethical principles. 4. Any deviations and other cases not covered in this statement should be reported to the journal editors so that they can take appropriate action to remedy the problem. Cases of plagiarism or similarity are handled in accordance with the guidelines recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For example, depending on the severity of the occurrence, in cases of suspected plagiarism or duplication, the authors are contacted, and the journal may request corrections or even reject the publication. If irregularities are detected after publication, the editors will take appropriate measures to publish an errata or retraction, as appropriate. |
Policy on Conflict of Interest
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Conflicts of interest may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial in nature. Conflicts of interest may arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that may influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts. Authors and reviewers must explicitly declare, individually, any potential conflicts of interest of a financial, political, academic, or commercial nature. In the event of a conflict of interest being identified, whether on the part of the authors or reviewers, the Executive Editorial Board will forward the manuscript to another reviewer with whom there is no conflict. For more information, see: Disclosure of Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest. |
Adoption of Similarity Software
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Alfa uses software available online to verify content similarity/plagiarism policy, with prior technical evaluation by the editorial team. Self-citations should not exceed 30% of the total references used to prevent self-referencing from constituting self-plagiarism. Articles resulting from theses and dissertations must explicitly state this information in order to avoid self-plagiarism. Texts cannot coincide, either in whole or in part. |
Adoption of Software Using Artificial Intelligence Resources
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The use of tools and resources that assist authors in preparing their manuscripts is recommended, provided that attribution standards are respected and scientific ethics and integrity are observed. Thus, authors have the right and freedom to use tools and resources that assist in the preparation, writing, revision, and translation of their articles. Many of these tools and resources are provided by AI applications. However, only humans can be authors, in accordance with the following standards and practices:
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Gender and Sex Issues
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The Alfa editorial team, as well as authors who publish in the journal, must always observe the guidelines on Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER). The SAGER guidelines comprise a set of guidelines that orientate the reporting of information on sex and gender in study design, data analysis, and the results and interpretation of findings. In addition, Alfa observes a gender equity policy in the formation of its editorial board. The SAGER guidelines aim to promote the systematic reporting of sex and gender in research. To this end, they provide researchers and authors with a tool to standardize the reporting of sex and gender in scientific publications, whenever appropriate. They are also intended for reviewers and editors as a tool in the evaluation of manuscripts and as a vehicle for raising awareness among authors and reviewers. It is recognized that not all items included in the SAGER guidelines are applicable to all types of studies. For this reason, SAGER encourages authors, editors, and reviewers to consider whether sex and gender are relevant to the topic of the study and, therefore, to follow these guidelines whenever applicable.
Access the full SAGER guidelines in English and Portuguese.
Table 1 – Guidelines for sex and gender equity in research (SAGER)
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Ethics Committee
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Manuscripts of Brazilian studies involving research or reports of experiences with human subjects must include, as a supplementary document, a copy of the document proving approval by a Research Ethics Committee, and the approval process number must be stated in the text. For articles on research conducted in other countries, authors must attach, as a supplementary document, a copy of the document proving its approval, in accordance with the rules of research ethics in the country of origin. |
Copyright
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Authorship rights are limited to those who have contributed significantly to the development of the research, the interpretation of the data, and the development of the article. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be mentioned in an acknowledgement note. Authors of articles published by Alfa retain the copyright of their work, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, provided that the original work is correctly cited. Authors grant the journal the right of first publication under the same license. |
Intellectual Property and Terms of Use
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Website Responsibility The copyright terms applied to published content must be clearly stated and separated from the copyright terms applied to the website. Author Responsibility All content published on the Alfa website, unless otherwise specified, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which allows users to share and adapt the material without restrictions, provided that proper credit is given and any changes made are indicated. Authors retain the copyright to their work and are fully responsible for its content in the event of any challenge by third parties. The opinions expressed by the authors of the articles are their sole responsibility. Alfa reserves the right to make normative changes to the originals, such as spelling and grammatical changes in accordance with the standard usage of the language, as well as adjustments related to the journal's editorial standards. |
Sponsors and Promotion Agencies
Editor-in-Chief
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Associate Editor
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Coeditor:
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Executive Editors
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Editorial Board
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Reviewers of the English Version
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Technical Staff
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Types of Documents Accepted
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Alfa, from Unesp – Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – Brazil, publishes, on a continuous flow basis, online and bilingual editions of unpublished works by professors and researchers with a minimum qualification of PhD and PhD students in co-authorship with professors and PhD researchers linked to national or international teaching and research institutions. The maximum number of authors should not exceed three. The journal publishes articles, reviews, and interviews necessarily linked to a line of research in Linguistic Studies. Articles must be original and unpublished and cannot be simultaneously evaluated for publication by another journal. Reviews should refer only to recently published works: in Brazil, within the last two years, and abroad, within the last four years; interviews should be conducted with researchers of recognized academic prestige both in Brazil and abroad. Papers may be written in Portuguese, French, English, Spanish, or Italian. All articles are published in a bilingual format, with English as the second language. Authors who submit an article originally in English for approval must, if it is accepted, provide a Portuguese version, following the same guidelines indicated for the English version. Only articles that have been accepted in Portuguese (or another chosen language) and English will be published. If one of the versions is not accepted by the reviewers, the article will not be published. All texts published by Alfa receive a DOI – Digital Object Identifier. |
Preprints
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Alfa accepts submissions of preprints available exclusively on the SciELO Preprints platform. The article must follow all Alfa guidelines and will be subject to double-blind peer review adopted by the Journal. |
Interval for publication
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For the publication of articles by the same author, an interval of one year (one volume of the journal) is considered. Thus, the author of an article published in one volume may not have a new article published in the subsequent volume. |
Authors' Contribution
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In the case of co-authorship, the contribution of each author to the preparation of the article must be reported in a supplementary document (Metadata-Authors), following the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT). |
Manuscript Preparation
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Alfa publishes unpublished works by professors and researchers affiliated with national or international teaching and research institutions. Works produced by researchers who do not hold a doctoral degree will not be accepted. In the case of co-authored works, even if there are authors who are pursuing a doctorate, one of the authors must already hold a doctoral degree. The maximum number of authors should not exceed three. |
Article Submission Format
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When preparing the article, the author(s) must follow the sequence below: Title: the title of the article must appear in UPPERCASE and bold, centered at the top of the first page, single-spaced, and, where applicable, the subtitle must be in lowercase; Name(s) of the author(s): the name(s) of the author(s) should appear on the right side of the page, on the third line below the title, with an asterisk referring to the footnote for presentation of the author(s) metadata. This metadata corresponds to the following information, in the order and format below: full name of the institution to which the author(s) is/are affiliated and acronym (in parentheses), unit, faculty or institute, campus, city, state, country. Departmental affiliation. Email. ORCID. Please note: the authors should not be identified in the text of the article submitted for evaluation. Instead of identification, insert XXXX. The same applies to citations of works by the author(s) of the article, which should be replaced by XXX. Only after the article has been approved should the author(s) be identified in the text, in the format indicated. For submission, the authors' identification is made only in the Metadata file (Metadata-Authors). Abstract: text of at least 150 words and at most 200 words, containing a summary of the article, indicating its objectives, theoretical and methodological framework used, justification, results obtained, and conclusion, preceded by the word ABSTRACT in uppercase letters on the third line below the author's name, without indentation, single-spaced, size 11, justified; Keywords: provide a maximum of five (5) keywords, separated by semicolons, preceded by the term KEYWORDS, in uppercase, maintaining single spacing, on the second line below the abstract. To make it easier to locate the work in bibliographic searches, the keywords should correspond to more general concepts in the field of the work and should not repeat words from the title; Text: the body of the text begins on the third line below the keywords, with 1.5 spacing. The Introduction, Conclusion, and References sections, as well as the other sections of the text, should not be numbered and should remain without paragraph indentation, with justified alignment and a space before the title. Section titles should be in bold. Each section of the manuscript should begin after 1.5 line spacing from the previous section and without spacing for the subsequent text. Sub-sections: the sub-sections corresponding to each part of the work, referenced at the discretion of the author(s), must be justified, in bold, without numbering, with a 1.5 spacing after the text that precedes them and without spacing before the text that follows them;
Acknowledgments: when applicable, acknowledgments follow the same layout as subtitles, preceded by the word “Acknowledgments” highlighted in bold; Abstract: version of the abstract in English (for articles written in Portuguese, French, Spanish, or Italian), in italics, preceded by the word ABSTRACT in uppercase and italics, single-spaced, size 11, justified, on the third line after the article title in English; Keywords: version of the keywords, in English (for articles written in Portuguese, French, Spanish, or Italian), separated by semicolons, in italics, preceded by the expression KEYWORDS, in uppercase and italics, single-spaced, size 11, justified, on the third line after the abstract. NOTE: Regarding the last three instructions, articles written in English (French, Spanish, or Italian) must include the Portuguese version of the title, abstract, and keywords. Data availability: authors should insert one of the following texts in this section, as appropriate:
1. All data used in this research are available in the text of the article.
2. All data used in this research are available at (insert full URL).
3. All data used in this research are available in a personal file to be requested from the author(s). References: under the subtitle REFERENCES, in uppercase, left-aligned, bold and without indentation, references should be listed in alphabetical and chronological order, indicating the works of authors cited in the body of the text, separated by a single space, on the third line below the keywords in English. Consulted bibliography: on the third line below the references, if considered essential, under the subtitle CONSULTED BIBLIOGRAPHY, in upper case, left-aligned, bold and without indentation, on the third line below the References; works consulted or recommended, not referenced in the text, may also be indicated in alphabetical and chronological order. |
Digital Assets
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Illustrations The title should appear at the top, centered, with the name of the type of illustration in bold, followed by a hyphen and the title without emphasis, in the same font, single spacing, and size 12. Numbering is consecutive, in Arabic numerals. Example: Figure 1 -; Figure 2 - [...] Chart 1 -; Chart 2 – [...] Illustration 1 -; Illustration 2 – [...] Map 1 -; Map 2 – [...] Photograph 1 -; Photograph 2 – [...] The source must be placed below the illustration, centered, in size 11 and single spacing. The word Source, in bold, followed by a colon. Example: Source: Elaborated by the author(s) Source: Adapted from [...] The author(s) are entirely responsible for the use of images, including those involving copyright. Tables and charts Tables should be used to present statistically processed information, and charts to summarize and organize textual information. The title should appear at the top, centered, beginning with the word Table or Chart in bold, followed by a hyphen and the title without emphasis, in the same font and size as the body text, with single spacing. Numbering should be consecutive, using Arabic numerals. Example: Table 1 -; Table 2 – [...] Chart 1 -; Chart 2 – [...] Tables should be constructed with open side borders and all internal borders. The source should be placed below the table or chart, centered, in size 11 font and single spacing. The word Source should be in bold, followed by a colon. Example: Source: Elaborated by the author(s) Source: Adapted from [...] |
Citations and References
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Citations The author should be cited in parentheses by their last name, with only the first letter capitalized, separated by a comma from the date of publication (Barbosa, 1980). If the author's name is mentioned in the text, only the date should be indicated in parentheses: Morais (1955) “points out [...]”. When it is necessary to specify page(s), these should follow the date, separated by a comma and preceded by “p.”: (Munford, 1949, p. 513), (Bakhtin, 2010, p. 34-35). Citations from several works by the same author, published in the same year, should be distinguished by lowercase letters after the date, without spacing (Peside, 1927a, 1927b). When the work has two or three authors, all should be indicated, separated by semicolons (Oliveira; Mateus; Silva, 1943), and when there are four or more authors, the first is indicated followed by “et al.” (Gille et al., 1960). Never use the terms idem/ibidem. Direct quotations longer than three lines should be highlighted with a 4 cm indent from the left margin, in 11-point font, without quotation marks and single spacing. Quotations up to three lines long should follow the normal flow of the text and be highlighted only with quotation marks. Quotations from foreign texts should be translated into Portuguese. Whenever possible, use existing translations. The original should appear in a footnote. References References should be arranged in alphabetical order by the first author's last name and follow the corrected version 2 of ABNT NBR 6023:2018, which incorporates Errata 2, dated September 24, 2020: single spacing and one space between each work. If the work is translated, the translator's name must be provided. Examples:
Book CORACINI, M. J.; BERTOLDO, E. S. (org.). O desejo da teoria e a contingência da prática. Campinas: Mercado das Letras, 2003. LUCHESI, D. Sistema, mudança e linguagem: um percurso na história da linguística moderna. São Paulo: Parábola Editorial, 2004.
Book chapters
Theses and dissertations
Journal articles
Articles in online journals
Newspaper articles
Electronic document
Conference paper or similar (published)
Films
Paintings, photographs, prints, drawings
Records and record sections JURA secreta. Performer: Simone. Compositores: S. Costa e A. Silva. In: FACE a face. Performer: Simone. [S. l.]: Emi-Odeon Brasil, 1977. 1 CD, track 7. |
Supplementary Documents
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The author(s) must submit a file containing academic information (degree, institutional affiliation) and, in the case of co-authored texts, a description of each author's contribution to the article. The template for this file, which we call Author Metadata, is available at this link: Author Metadata. In addition, the author(s) must attach, if applicable, the approval form from the Ethics Committee for the development of the research. |
Financing Statement
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It is the author's responsibility to disclose sources of support for the work, including names of sponsors, contract numbers (if applicable), along with explanations regarding the role of these sources. This information may be added to the body of the article in the final version submitted after approval. |
Contact
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Gisele Cássia de Sousa | Departamento de Estudos Linguísticos e Literários - IBILCE - São José do Rio Preto | Telefone (17) 3221-2305 | alfa@unesp.br |
Read our Open Access Statement
