Logomarca do periódico: Intercom: Revista Brasileira de Ciências da Comunicação

Open-access Intercom: Revista Brasileira de Ciências da Comunicação

Publication of: Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (INTERCOM)
Area: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
ISSN printed version: 1809-5844
ISSN online version: 1980-3508
Previous title Boletim INTERCOM
Creative Common - by 4.0

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

 

Intercom — Brazilian Journal of Communication Sciences

Version revised in July 2026 and aligned with the current requirements of SciELO (2024 Criteria and DEIA/IDEIA 2026 Principles), Scopus, DOAJ, CNPq Regulation No. 2,664/2026 on the use of Artificial Intelligence, Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD), and current ABNT technical standards.

 

 

Brief Background

 

Revista Intercom - Brazilian Journal of Communication Sciences is a publication of the Sociedade Brazileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom).  Published since 1978, it has steadily improved as a scientific journal and has been published regularly and uninterruptedly since its foundation.

Revista Intercom is the oldest of the Communication journals currently in circulation. Since the 1980s, when it was one of only four journals in existence at the time, it has been an important space for scientific dissemination and the democratization of knowledge, contributing to advances and debates in and about the field of Communication. It is currently one of the main publications in the field, and the first to be accredited by the main international indexing databases.

In order to guarantee its qualification as a journal, which is a requirement for entry and permanence in indexing databases such as SciELO and Latindex, among others, Revista Intercom has a qualified and diverse Editorial Board, in terms of geography and gender. It also has careful evaluation and editorial processes, prioritizing good practices and ethics in scientific research.

The abbreviated title of the journal, which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes, references and bibliographic strips, is Intercom

 

 

Open Access

 This journal follows the Open Access model, allowing unrestricted virtual access (including no financial barriers) to all scientific texts published by the journal. Open Access is a condition whereby the copyright holder of an academic work grants usage rights to third parties through an open license (Creative Commons Attribution, CC-BY), permitting immediate free access to the work and authorizing any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose. 

 

Open Science Compliance

 

Intercom follows the Diamond Open Access model: all content is made freely available, with no submission, evaluation, publication, or reading fees charged to either authors or readers. The Open Science movement proposes guidelines for a collaborative, shared, and public scientific practice; in line with these guidelines, the journal adopts an open-access policy, a code of good practice for editors, and the use of social media to disseminate published work.

The journal requires precise indication of each author’s role in multi-authored works (CRediT taxonomy) and encourages the sharing of analysis datasets, instruments, statistical analysis scripts, interview guides, and additional materials in open repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, NADAC, QDR, OSF, and SciELO Data.
At the time of submission, authors are required to complete the “Open Science Compliance Form”, in which they share information about the manuscript in accordance with these practices.

When the data underlying the research cannot be published in full, this must be indicated in the manuscript: articles reporting research results must always indicate and reference the availability (or the reason for the unavailability) of the content underlying their preparation.

Intercom encourages the prior publication of articles on public preprint servers, such as SciELO Preprints and EmeRI, allowing for open discussion before final publication.

In keeping with Open Science practices, the journal offers authors and reviewers the option of opening up the peer-review process, with or without disclosure of their names. Authorization to disclose a name may be given by authors at the time of submission, and by reviewers on the Review Form. Should the reviews underlying an editorial decision be published, they may be edited by the journal’s editorial team.

Section editors' contributions are duly credited in the published article. Reviewers receive formal acknowledgment of their review activity, which may also be automatically recorded on their ORCID profile through system integration.

 

 

Ethics in Publication

 

Intercom is committed to good practice and follows the standards and recommendations on ethics and responsibility in scientific communication established by leading national and international institutions, including: the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), FAPESP, the SciELO Guide to Good Practice for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publishing, and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (version 4.0, 2022), a joint document by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME.

The journal is committed to standards of ethical conduct for all parties involved in publication — authors, editors, and reviewers — and encourages them to study and follow good practice standards in scientific research.

All articles reporting research involving human subjects are expected to present relevant information on the ethical procedures adopted, with proof of approval by a Research Ethics Committee attached at the time of submission, in accordance with regulations governing research with human subjects.

No form of unethical conduct, including plagiarism in any instance, is accepted by the journal. By submitting an article, authors declare that the content is original and guarantee that the work has not been published or is not under evaluation at any other journal. To promote the originality of texts, the journal uses textual similarity verification software.

Options for Post-Publication Discussion 
Readers who identify relevant issues in already-published articles — whether conceptual, methodological, or factual in nature — may send them to the editorial team via the journal’s institutional email. The team will assess the relevance of the submission and, where appropriate, may publish a clarification note, a correction (erratum), or initiate the misconduct investigation procedure described below, always communicating with the authors of the original article.

Duties of the Editors-in-Chief

  • any unethical conduct identified in works published in Intercom may be brought to the editors’ attention at any time, by anyone, provided it is accompanied by sufficient information and evidence to initiate an investigation;
  • all necessary steps must be taken to resolve the problem; in all cases, the author must be given the opportunity to respond to the allegations;
  • inform or notify the author or reviewer whenever there is an indication of misunderstanding or misapplication of acceptable standards;
  • decide on retraction or formal withdrawal of publication, when applicable.

Duties of the Executive Editors

  • review all submitted articles and are responsible for the decision to accept or reject them based on the reviews received;
  • ensure the desired quality standards, respecting the objectives of the journal and of each section;
  • prevent malpractice and unethical conduct, especially plagiarism and fraudulent information;
  • select reviewers appropriately, considering thematic affinity and recognized academic output;
  • ensure that peer review supports the quality of the publication, justifying any significant deviation from the process;
  • evaluate manuscripts based solely on importance, originality, clarity, and scientific relevance, without regard to the authors’ race, color, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, nationality, career stage, or political or ideological affiliation;
  • not disclose information about a manuscript under review, except to reviewers and the editorial board;
  • prevent the use of unpublished material from a submitted manuscript in the editor’s own research without the author’s express written consent;
  • prevent commercial interests from compromising the intellectual standards of the publication;
  • take appropriate action in response to ethical complaints about manuscripts or published articles, including corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary;
  • decline to review manuscripts in the event of a competitive, collaborative, or other conflict of interest with the authors, companies, or institutions involved;
  • ensure that published material complies with internationally accepted ethical guidelines, consulting the journal’s Scientific Committee when necessary;
  • take all appropriate action in response to suspected misconduct, in published or unpublished work.

Duties of Reviewers

  • assist editors in editorial decisions and, through their comments, help authors improve the article;
  • notify the editors immediately if they do not feel qualified to review the article, or if reading it within the expected timeframe is not feasible;
  • treat manuscripts received for review as confidential documents, without exposing them to third parties;
  • consider relevance, correctness, originality, currency of references, suitability to the field of knowledge, methodological rigor, and quality standards;
  • fully complete the review form received with the article;
  • maintain confidentiality regarding privileged information or ideas obtained while reading manuscripts, without using them for personal gain;
  • issue objective reviews, with clear, well-argued viewpoints;
  • identify relevant published work that the authors have not cited;
  • alert the editors in the event of suspected plagiarism or self-plagiarism, indicating any other published or submitted work that is substantially similar;
  • decline to review manuscripts in the event of a conflict of interest with any of the authors, companies, or institutions involved;
  • refrain from using Generative Artificial Intelligence tools to draft, summarize, or otherwise assist in preparing reviews, and refrain from entering, copying, or sharing, in whole or in part, the content of the manuscript under review into any generative AI tool, in accordance with CNPq Regulation No. 2,664/2026 and the duty of confidentiality inherent to peer review.

Duties of Authors

  • engage in serious, systematic research work in their specific field and subfield;
  • declare, at the time of submission, that the content of the article is original and has not been published or submitted to any other publication, in any language;
  • identify, where applicable, the institutions and agencies that provided financial support for the research;
  • ensure that articles reporting research involving human subjects contain information on the ethical procedures adopted, attaching proof of Research Ethics Committee approval at the time of submission;
  • present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance, with sufficient detail and references to allow the study to be replicated;
  • give due credit to the authors of cited works;
  • not submit manuscripts describing essentially the same research to more than one journal simultaneously, nor publish the same article in more than one journal;
  • list as authors all persons who made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study, ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version and agreed to its submission; individuals who contributed to the project but do not meet the authorship criteria should be acknowledged in a note of thanks, with prior authorization;
  • promptly inform the editor or a member of the Editorial Board upon identifying a significant error or inaccuracy in a published work, cooperating in the correction of the article;
  • commit to serving as a reviewer for other articles in their subfield, as a form of reciprocity with the academic community.
 

 

Focus and Scope

 

Intercom focuses on Social Communication, respecting the interdisciplinarity and thematic breadth that characterize the field. It publishes original articles, experience reports, work in progress, interviews, and reviews related to Communication Sciences.

The editorial process adopts blind peer review as standard practice, sending submissions to specialists for analysis in accordance with the criteria of the editorial policy.

Mission 
To contribute to the dissemination of knowledge and pluralistic reflection on Communication.

Objectives

  • To promote and disseminate national and international academic research on Communication;
  • To contribute to the development of research and university teaching in Communication;
  • To serve as a space for reflection on topics of public interest within the field of Communication.

Continuous flow 
In 2022, Revista Intercom adopted the modality of continuous publication, which means that the articles approved and edited are immediately published in an annual volume, without the need to close an issue or obey a certain frequency.

Previously, the journal was published every four months, in January, May and September. In the new format, the articles no longer have successive and sequential pagination and now have an elocation-id, a unique electronic identifier for each article in the volume.

 

 

Digital Preservation

 This journal follows the standards defined in the SciELO Program's Digital Preservation Policy. The journal is also part of IBICT's Cariniana Digital Preservation Services Network, which provides preservation for any Open Journal System [OJS] journal in Brazil. 

 

Indexing Sources

 

Databases

Preprint bases

Directories/portals

Indexes

Under Review

 

 

Bibliographic Journal Information

 
  •  e-ISSN: 1980-3508 (online version) 
  • ISSN: 1809-5844 (printed version - discontinued in 2019)
  • Journal title: Intercom (São Paulo)
  • Short title: Intercom (São Paulo)
  • Other variants of the title: Revista Intercom, Rev. Intercom, Revista Brazileira de Ciências da Comunicação;
  • Published by: Sociedade Brazileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom);
  • Frequency: Annual - continuous flow;
  • mode of publication: continuous publication;
  • Year of creation: 1978
 

 

Websites and Social Media

  

 

EDITORIAL POLICY

 

Preprints

 

Revista Intercom accepts the publication of preprint articles and encourages them to be published on public platforms, such as PreprintsSciELO Preprints and EmeRI, so that, where appropriate, they can be discussed openly before being published.

A preprint is a manuscript ready for submission to a journal, deposited on reliable preprint servers before or in parallel with submission to a journal.

The use of the preprint is at the author's option, and it is assumed that when the article is submitted to the journal, using the "Open Science Compliance Form", the name of the preprint server and the DOI of the preprint will be informed.

The articles submitted to preprints share with the journals the unpublished nature of the publication and the evaluation process will not use the double anonymization procedure, since the authorship will be known.
To ensure that preprints submitted to Revista Intercom are treated with transparency and integrity, it is recommended that authors provide the following information:

  • Identification of the Preprint: authors must provide information about the preprint, including title, authors, name of the repository where it was published, date of publication and DOI.
  • Relation to the Submitted Work: authors should clarify how the preprint is related to the work submitted to the journal, for example, if the preprint is an earlier version or if it contains complementary information.
  • Conflict of Interest: authors should inform us if there is any conflict of interest related to the preprint, such as funding from a company or institution with an interest in the work.

This information is important so that the editors can assess the originality and relevance of the work submitted, as well as to avoid duplication or redundant information in subsequent publications.

 

 

Peer Review Process

 

Submitted originals are first analyzed (desk review) by the Editorial Team, for compliance with editorial standards, internal textual coherence, fit with the journal’s editorial line, and contribution to the advancement of knowledge.
Once approved at the initial screening stage, the manuscript is sent to at least two reviewers under a double-blind system, chosen for their expertise in the field. At the end of the review, the reviewer must complete a review form. The Executive Editors oversee the entire process, which may extend over more than one round in the event of conflicting reviews.

Reviews are analyzed by the Editorial Team for compliance with publication standards, content, and relevance, and are then sent to the authors with an indication of acceptance, revision, or rejection.

In the event of a significant delay at any stage of the review, the Editorial Team will inform the authors of the reason for the delay, communicating the option of withdrawing the manuscript, should they wish to do so.
Intercom does not ask, in the submission form, for reviewers suggested by the authors; the selection of reviewers is the exclusive responsibility of the Editorial Team, based on thematic affinity and recognized academic output.
When a revision is requested, authors must submit three files: (a) the final version of the article, as a clean file, preferably .docx or .odt; (b) a version with changes marked in a different color (without using track changes); (c) a letter to the editors commenting on the changes made or not accepted, with appropriate justification.

After approval, the article is returned to the authors for review and translation into the second language. Following this step, authors must forward the final versions to editorial production — which includes receipt of the translated article, copyediting, XML, PDF, and HTML typesetting, final proofreading and checking by the editorial team, and submission to databases.

Transparency and Optionality Policy in Peer Review

Intercom publishes, in the final article, the names of the editors responsible for the review, reinforcing its commitment to the integrity of the editorial process.

  • Double-blind review: authors and reviewers do not know each other’s identities — the journal’s standard mode.
  • Single-blind review: authors disclose their identity, but reviewers remain anonymous.
  • Open review: authors and reviewers know each other’s identities.

In the case of preprints, when the anonymity of the authors cannot be guaranteed, review may be single-blind or open. Opening up the process always depends on agreement among the associate editors and reviewers involved.

On Manuscript Processing Times

Intercom continuously works to improve its internal management processes, with the aim of reducing manuscript processing time. The interval between receipt and initial screening (desk review) is 30 days. For approved manuscripts, the time between receipt and publication ranges from six to twelve months.

 

 

Open Data

 

Revista Intercom is committed to the guidelines of the Guia para promoção da abertura, transparência e reprodutibilidade das pesquisas publicadas pelos periódicos SciELO (Diretrizes TOP), with the aim of improving the quality and transparency of published research. These guidelines emphasize the importance of clarity in the evidence supporting the conclusions of studies.

To align with these principles, Intercom Journal requests that all datasets associated with submitted manuscripts be accompanied by the "Open Science Compliance Form". This form should be completed in detail by the authors, highlighting how the research adheres to Open Science standards, and submitted as a Supplementary File with the manuscript.

This practice ensures that all relevant data is available for review and analysis, contributing to the integrity and reproducibility of scientific research. Adherence to these guidelines reinforces the journal's commitment to transparency and excellence in scientific publishing.

All data must be properly cited, including the attributions of each author in co-authored articles, program and method codes using digital object identifiers (DOIs), journal citations or other persistent identifiers. Exceptional situations requiring different treatment, such as confidential information under non-disclosure agreements, must be communicated to the editor no later than the manuscript review stage and clearly mentioned in the Acknowledgements (see guidelines for authors).

All the data used in the analysis must be accessible to any researcher with the aim of reproducing or expanding the analysis. The data must be present in the article or deposited in specialized community repositories or in general-purpose repositories. Examples include ZenodoOSF and the SciELO Data repository. Special situations, such as the protection of privacy or the acquisition of data from third parties, should be discussed with the editor as soon as possible and clearly indicated in the acknowledgements.

 

 

Fees

 

Intercom does not charge any fee (Article Processing Charge — APC) for published texts, nor for texts submitted for evaluation, review, publication, distribution, or download. Publication is entirely free of charge and open access, at every stage of the editorial process.

Because no fees are charged under any circumstances, the journal does not operate a fee-waiver policy: this free-of-charge model is complete and applies equally to all authors, regardless of institutional affiliation, nationality, or source of funding.

 

 

Ethics and Misconduct, Correction and Retraction Policy

 

Revista Intercom complies with the main guidelines of international and national organizations that serve as a reference of principles and good practices on ethics and negligence for scientific publications and is guided by the main ethics practices of Cope, the “Guia SciELO de Boas Práticas para o Fortalecimento da Ética na Publicação Científica” and the “Princípios de Transparência e Boas Práticas em Publicações Acadêmicas” recommended by Cope, Doaj, Oaspa and Wame. Adopting the guidelines helps editors to detect possible fraud and bad publishing practices.

By submitting articles to Revista Intercom, authors automatically declare that the content of the articles is original and unpublished. They also declare that the article has not been published, complete or incomplete, in another journal, even in another language, nor has it been submitted to another journal at the same time. Authors must submit the "Declaration of Submission" as a supplementary file (other) with the manuscript. They also undertake to inform the journal when they detect any errors or inaccuracies in their work (published, under evaluation or being edited) and to collaborate with the editors so that the article can be duly retracted or corrected. 

The editors and reviewers undertake to evaluate the work submitted to the journal objectively and for its intellectual content, without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, geographical origin or political thought.

They also undertake to treat authors' collaborations confidentially while they are under evaluation and if the work is rejected.  Papers will only be evaluated or discussed with third parties with the permission of the journal's editors.
When the evaluators identify that the submitted work contains relevant content that has been published previously - by the author or by third parties, be it statements, arguments or reproductions of excerpts - they must inform the editors directly and the authors must ensure that such content is always accompanied by the respective bibliographic reference, indicating its origin.

Likewise, when there is substantial similarity or evidence that the article under evaluation has already been published in another journal, the evaluators should alert the editors that the article violates the journal's ethical principles.

Any deviations or other cases not provided for in this statement should be reported to the journal's editors-in-chief, who will take the appropriate steps to remedy the problem.

Cases of plagiarism or similarity will be dealt with in accordance with the guidelines recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For example, depending on the seriousness of the occurrence, in the event of suspected plagiarism or duplication, the authors will be contacted and the journal may request corrections or even reject the publication. If irregularities are detected after publication, the editors will take the appropriate steps to publish an errata or a retraction, as appropriate.

  • Errata: Revista Intercom recognizes the importance of correcting errors that may arise after an article has been published. If a significant error is identified, authors should notify the journal immediately. An errata will be published as soon as possible to detail the corrections and ensure the accuracy and integrity of the scientific record.
  • Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism (Text Recycling): Revista Intercom strictly prohibits plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Self-plagiarism occurs when an author reuses significant parts of their own previously published work without proper citation. Manuscripts with text recycling will be rejected and may result in sanctions by the Editorial Board.
  • Duplicate and Redundant Publication: Intercom only publishes original content. It is not permitted to submit a study to multiple journals simultaneously or to split the results of a study into several articles ("publication-salami"). Violations will result in the article being rejected or retracted, with possible sanctions by the Editorial Board.
  • Fabrication and Falsification of Data: fraud such as image manipulation, fabrication or falsification of data will result in the immediate exclusion of the manuscript from the evaluation process and possible sanctions by the Editorial Board.
  • Corrections and retractions: in cases of serious errors or discoveries of scientific misconduct, such as plagiarism or falsification of data, a retraction of the article may be necessary. The decision to retract an article is taken by the editors-in-chief after careful investigation and, where appropriate, consultation with external experts. The retraction will be clearly identified as such and will remain linked to the original article on the journal's website, maintaining the transparency and integrity of the academic record.

These policies are fundamental to maintaining the high ethical standards of scientific publication and guaranteeing confidence in the integrity of the content published by Revista Intercom

 

 

Policy on Conflict of Interest

 

A conflict of interest may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial in nature, occurring when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests capable of influencing the preparation or evaluation of a manuscript.
When submitting a manuscript, authors are responsible for acknowledging and disclosing financial or other conflicts that may have influenced the work, reporting them in a signed document attached to the submission platform (“Declaration of Responsibility and Conflict of Interest”). Where a conflict exists, Intercom informs and advises the parties involved as to the rationale behind editorial decisions.

Reviewers and editors involved in the evaluation must also declare any conflict of interest in relation to the manuscript or its authors — such as affiliation with the same institution, a recent history of collaboration or co-authored publication, or a personal relationship — declining to review the manuscript when appropriate.

 

 

Adoption of Similarity Software

 As part of its commitment to academic integrity and plagiarism prevention, Intercom has adopted, since issue 47 (2024), the Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) textual similarity identification service, natively integrable with OJS via plugin. Other tools and GenAI systems may occasionally be used to verify information (CopySpider, Justdone AI), in addition to AI-generated content detection tools such as ZeroGPT.
Integrity checks take place at the start of the editorial evaluation process, prior to peer review, making it possible to identify and address originality issues early in the submission workflow. Manuscripts with a similarity level exceeding 30% relative to other published works, indicating plagiarism, will be rejected.
 

 

Adoption of Software Using Artificial Intelligence Resources

 

Intercom holds that Artificial Intelligence tools do not meet the fundamental requirements for authorship of a scientific article. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools and Language Models (LLMs) may not be listed as authors or co-authors of any work published by the journal.

This policy complies with CNPq Regulation No. 2,664/2026, which established the Scientific Integrity Policy for research funded or supported by CNPq, and also follows the recommendations of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on ethical considerations regarding the use of these technologies in scientific manuscripts.

Duties of Authors

  • Transparency: report the use of AI tools and/or assisted technologies in every phase of the research in which they were used — conception, drafting, data analysis, and submission — not only in the final drafting of the text.
  • Attribution: state the name of the tool and/or service used and the reason for its use.
  • Responsibility: authors are fully accountable for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of content generated with AI assistance. Undeclared use, if identified during similarity analysis, results in automatic disqualification of the manuscript from publication.
  • Limitations: any limitations and potential biases arising from the use of AI tools must be discussed in the manuscript.

Uses Considered Valid

  • Language assistance: when AI is used to paraphrase or improve the author’s original content — in a manner similar to spell-checkers and thesauruses — rather than to generate new content. Texts fully translated by AI without human review are not accepted.
  • Literature search: generative text models may assist in identifying relevant literature, while the usual requirements for citation accuracy and careful bibliographic review still apply; attention to possible bias in the tool’s suggestions is recommended.
  • Texts of low conceptual originality: when AI is used to describe widely known concepts, the manuscript must disclose this use and ensure that the generated content is accurate and accompanied by appropriate citations.

In all cases involving the use of AI in writing, in the production of images or graphic elements, or in the compilation and analysis of data, the manuscript must detail, in the Materials and Methods section, how and which tool was used. The use of AI may not, under any circumstances, violate the journal’s plagiarism policy.
At the time of submission, authors must include the “Declaration of Use of Artificial Intelligence and/or Language Models”, specifying the tool, version, and purpose of use.

Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers must not use Generative Artificial Intelligence tools to draft, summarize, or otherwise assist in preparing their reviews, nor enter, copy, or share, in whole or in part, the content of the manuscript under review in any generative AI tool. Doing so constitutes a violation of the duty of peer-review confidentiality and of the copyright protections afforded by the blind review process

 

 

Gender and Sex Issues

 

The editorial team of Revista Intercom, as well as the authors who publish in the journal, must always observe the guidelines on Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER). Intercom also observes the 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, where appropriate. They are also intended for reviewers and editors, as a tool for evaluating manuscripts and as a vehicle for raising awareness among authors and reviewers. We recognize that not all of the items included in the SAGER guidelines are applicable to every type of study. For this reason, SAGER encourages authors, editors and reviewers to consider whether sex and gender are relevant to the subject of the study and therefore to follow these guidelines where applicable.

Distinction between Sex and Gender

  • Sex: refers to an individual’s biological, genetic, or physiological characteristics.
  • Gender: refers to gender identity and to socially, behaviorally, and culturally constructed roles (for example: woman, man, non-binary person, trans identities).

What Manuscripts Based on Empirical Research Must Report 
Manuscripts based on empirical research (questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, netnography, reception analysis, audience studies) must, whenever sex and/or gender are relevant to the object of study:

  • In the abstract: state the sex and/or gender of the study’s participants.
  • In the methods: explain how sex and/or gender data were collected (for example, self-reporting on a form, structured interview, secondary data), and justify cases where the research focused on a single sex or gender, or where this variable was not considered in the sample design.
  • In the results and discussion: present data disaggregated by sex and/or gender where relevant, avoiding generic use of terms such as “users” or “receivers” when the data indicate relevant differences between groups.
  • In the study’s limitations: discuss any unintended imbalances in the sample composition by sex/gender and their possible effects on the interpretation of results.

It is further recommended that data-collection forms and instruments avoid strictly binary categorizations when the object of study calls for greater social depth, including options for non-binary and transgender identities.

Race, Ethnicity, and Inclusion

When race and/or ethnicity are relevant variables to the object of study — as in research on media representation, reception, or content production — authors must state and justify the criteria and categories used for their definition and collection (for example, participants’ self-declaration or IBGE [Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics] classification), avoiding treating race as a biological attribute.
It is recommended that results be presented disaggregated by race/ethnicity whenever this variable is analytically relevant, in the same spirit of transparency as SAGER, and that unsubstantiated generalizations about racial or ethnic groups be avoided, adopting up-to-date, non-stigmatizing language.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Policy (IDEIA/DEIA)

Intercom supports and adopts the principles of Open Science with IDEIA — Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility — as set out in the Declaration formulated by the SciELO Network on the occasion of its 25th anniversary (2023) and detailed in the document “DEIA Principles — Guiding Directions for Journal Editorial Teams ” (2026). In this regard, the journal commits to:

  1. expanding the scientific, cultural, social, and economic impact of the research it publishes;
  2. promoting geographic, institutional, gender, race/ethnicity, and career-stage diversity within its editorial board, reviewers, and authors;
  3. adopting equity targets in the composition of the editorial board and in the peer-review process;
  4. fostering the inclusion of researchers and topics historically under-represented in the field of Communication;
  5. ensuring the accessibility of its content and platform to people with disabilities.

Governance 
The journal will designate a responsible editor or dedicated committee to oversee the DEIA/IDEIA policy, working in coordination with the journal’s Editorial Development Plan, and will periodically review the composition and activity of its Scientific Editorial Board, in line with the COPE/DOAJ/OASPA/WAME Principles of Transparency.

Voluntary Collection of Demographic Data 
The journal offers authors, reviewers, and editorial board members the option of voluntary, confidential self-declaration of gender, race/color, and disability, for the exclusive purpose of aggregate, anonymous statistical monitoring. In all cases, a “Prefer not to disclose” option is guaranteed, and individual data will never be accessed by reviewers or section editors during the review process, nor published individually.

  • Gender: woman (cis or trans), man (cis or trans), non-binary, other, prefer not to disclose.
  • Race/color: IBGE categories — white, Black, mixed-race (parda), Asian-descent, Indigenous — or prefer not to disclose.
  • Disability: based on Law No. 13,146/2015 (Brazilian Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), or prefer not to disclose.

Accessibility 
The journal follows the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for its content and encourages their adoption on its publishing platform as well. Specific accessibility guidance for figures, tables, and charts is detailed in the “Digital Assets” section of the Author Guidelines.
The journal also encourages the production of multimedia accessibility resources — such as audio and video summaries of articles — as recommended good practice, without making it mandatory, so as not to create a new access barrier for authors without audiovisual production resources.

 

 

Ethics Committee

 When an article involves research procedures with human subjects, or the processing of sensitive personal data under Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD, Law No. 13,709/2018), authors must attach, during the online submission process, a declaration of approval from the research ethics committee of the institution responsible for the research. 

 

Copyright

 

Intercom adopts a copyright policy in compliance with the SciELO Criteria, essential for protecting authors’ interests while promoting the open and ethical dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Authors who publish in Intercom retain the copyright to their work: intellectual property remains with the person who wrote it, even though the article is published under the journal’s imprint. Authors grant Intercom the right of first publication.

Licensing under Creative Commons 
Articles published in Intercom are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY 4.0), which allows third parties to use and share published works, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and to Intercom. This approach promotes the ethical, accessible dissemination of scientific knowledge, with wide distribution and reuse of works, without restrictions.

Correct Citation of the Original Work
In accordance with the CC-BY license, any reuse or distribution of the articles must include correct citation of the original work, ensuring due recognition of the authors and maintaining the academic integrity of the publication process

 

 

Intellectual Property and Terms of Use

 

Site responsibility: the copyright terms applied to content published by Intercom are stated separately and distinctly from the copyright terms applied to the website itself, ensuring transparency regarding rights and responsibilities.

Author responsibility: the use of generic names, trade names, or registered trademarks in the publication does not imply that they are free of copyright restrictions. It is the author’s responsibility to secure the permissions necessary to reuse any protected material included in their manuscript. The opinions expressed in the articles are the sole responsibility of their signatories.

Self-Archiving by Authors 
Intercom authorizes and encourages self-archiving of the published version of articles (the Version of Record) immediately after publication, in institutional or subject repositories, personal blogs, and academic social media, provided the DOI link and full citation of the original source are included.

Privacy and Personal Data Protection Statement
In compliance with Law No. 13,709/2018 (LGPD) and international research integrity guidelines (COPE), Intercom adopts the following safeguards for the processing of personal data belonging to authors, reviewers, editorial board members, and readers.

  • Data Controller: the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Society of Communication Studies (Intercom), responsible for processing the data collected through this platform.
  • Data Protection Officer (DPO): Jorge C. Felz Ferreira (felz.ferreira@ufjf.br) — the channel for exercising the rights set out in Article 18 of the LGPD.
  • Legal Basis: processing is based on the performance of the editorial process (performance of a contract/preparatory procedure) and on compliance with legal and regulatory obligations regarding scientific integrity.
  • Purpose of Processing: the data collected (names, emails, ORCID, institutional affiliation, and biography) are used strictly for the performance of editorial services, peer review, citation metrics, plagiarism prevention, sending communications about submission status, and sending the table of contents of new issues to readers registered for the notification service, subject to consent given at the time of registration.
  • Necessary Scientific Sharing: data are not sold or transferred to third parties for commercial purposes. If an article is approved, authors’ metadata are shared with indexers and databases (SciELO, DOAJ, Redalyc, Scopus, Web of Science) to ensure visibility and correct attribution of scientific authorship — including, where applicable, international data transfer to Scopus (Elsevier) and Web of Science (Clarivate), carried out with the contractual and technical safeguards required under Article 33 of the LGPD.
  • Browsing Data: the website may collect aggregated, non-identified browsing data (such as country of access) for statistical purposes, in accordance with the system’s privacy configuration.
  • Retention Period: data from rejected or archived manuscripts remain confidential for a period of 5 years, after which they are deleted, except for the minimum history required for misconduct investigations.
  • Security and Storage: the journal uses appropriate technical and administrative measures to protect data against unauthorized access.

Data Subject Rights: data subjects are guaranteed, at any time, the right to confirm the existence of processing, access, correction, anonymization, blocking, or deletion of unnecessary data, portability, information on who the data are shared with, and withdrawal of consent, without prejudice to the editorial history and the public record of already-published articles, which respond to the fulfillment of a legal and scientific obligation.

 

 

Sponsors and Promotion Agencies

 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
Intercom)
 

EDITORIAL BOARD

 

Editors-in-Chief

  

 

Executive Editors

  

 

Associate Editor

  

 

Section Editors

 
  • Cristine Gerk (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil); https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4948-6200 
  • Felicity Clarke (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil);
 

Social Media

 
  • Laura Coutinho (Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil);
 

Scientific Editorial Board

  

 


INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

 

Information updated in July 2026

Intercom — Brazilian Journal of Communication Sciences focuses on Social Communication and its interdisciplinary interfaces. Submissions that do not strictly follow these guidelines will be rejected at the initial screening stage and will not proceed to review

 

Types of Documents Accepted

 

Revista Intercom publishes articles resulting from research, critical book reviews and interviews that make a scientific contribution to the field , submitted to the Articles, Arena, Interviews, Reviews, and Preprints sections.

  • Articles: a fixed section for analytical or review texts resulting from original theoretical or field research on topics in the field of Social Communication. They should contain a presentation and analysis of the results and ver introduction explaining the research strategy and methodology used. Priority will be given to texts that are actually research and that show scientific and/or methodological and conceptual invention.
  • Arena: a flexible section for publishing texts on controversial and/or emerging topics, reports on experiences and preliminary research notes. The texts can be more formally reflective.
  • Interview: A fixed section for testimonials from researchers with a recognized academic career who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of research in the field of Communication and/or related area.
  • Reviews: a fixed section, containing the registration and reviews of recently published books.

Texts submitted to the Articles and Arena sections follow the double-blind peer-review process described below. Reviews and Interviews are evaluated directly by the Editorial Team for relevance, quality, and contribution to the field, given the more direct, biographical nature of these formats — this exception to the standard peer-review process is explicitly stated here, in accordance with international good practice regarding editorial transparency.
Regarding Preprints, Intercom does not consider publication in preprint repositories to compromise the novelty of a submitted article. In keeping with Open Science principles, articles published in preprint repositories may be submitted to the journal without prejudice to their originality.

Originality 
Submissions must be the product of original, previously unpublished research. Only manuscripts not simultaneously submitted to another journal will be accepted. Texts previously published in conference proceedings, journals, books, or repositories, in any language, will be automatically rejected at the initial screening stage.

Language 
Intercom publishes all its articles in a bilingual format: in the original language (Portuguese or Spanish) and the English version. Optionally, approved articles may also be published in all three languages. Translation costs are the authors’ responsibility, while the journal is responsible for reviewing the translation.

Articles in other languages may be submitted for review and, if approved, published following translation into Portuguese or Spanish, also at the authors’ expense

 

 

Authors' Contribution

 

Authorship refers to credit for the published work and entails responsibilities related to it. Intercom uses the CRediT taxonomy; all authors must describe their contribution using the CRediT Form, available under the Submission Requirements. Authorship is recommended to be based on the following four criteria:

  • substantial contributions to the conception or design of the research, and to the acquisition, analysis, and/or interpretation of the data presented;
  • drafting preliminary versions of the manuscript or critically revising the article’s intellectual content;
  • final approval of the version to be published;
  • agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the article.

All persons listed as authors must meet all four criteria, and all who meet them must be identified as such. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria may be acknowledged in a note of thanks, with prior authorization. Submission implies tacit, public confirmation that all persons listed on the title page participated in preparing the manuscript.

Intercom accepts only articles in which: (a) at least one author holds a completed doctoral degree; (b) doctoral candidates may be listed as first author, provided their advisor also signs the article; (c) master’s degree holders may be listed as second author on works signed by a doctoral degree holder. Articles authored or co-authored solely by master’s degree candidates, specialists, or holders/candidates of undergraduate degrees are not accepted.

Authors who have already published in the journal must observe a 15-month interval before publishing again as author or co-author. Submission of only one article at a time is recommended, in light of this interval. The maximum number of authors per manuscript is four.

 

 

Manuscript Preparation

 Intercom accepts online submissions through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform, available at revistas.intercom.org.br. Manuscripts or supplementary documents sent by email are not accepted. We ask that the requirements below be read carefully. 

 

Article Submission Format

 

Authors must proofread the text for spelling and grammar before submission. In case of questions, they may consult the Technical Screening Checklist.

Submissions must include: Title Page, the original manuscript (in the journal’s template format), the Open Science Compliance Form, the CRediT Form, the Conflict of Interest Declaration, and the Declaration on the Use of AI and Language Models.

Texts of original articles, including abstracts, notes, and references, must not exceed 40,000 characters with spaces. Critical reviews must not exceed 15,000 characters with spaces and must include the complete reference of the book reviewed, with the reviewer’s full name and institutional affiliation. Interviews must be between 20,000 and 30,000 characters with spaces, with a complete reference for the interviewee (full name and affiliation) and a high-resolution photograph (.tiff, .jpg, or .png).

With the exception of the title page and supplementary documents, manuscript pages must be submitted without any information identifying the authors — name, email, affiliation, ties to research groups, titles of academic papers presented, or the names of advisors. Where necessary, redacted passages may be replaced with: “Passage removed to preserve blind review.” If the article is approved, this information may be reinstated in the published version.

A) Title Page 
The title page must contain:

  • the manuscript’s title in Portuguese, English, and Spanish;
  • the journal section to which the manuscript is directed;
  • mention of any funding received and the respective funding institutions, where applicable;
  • the full name of each author and their individual responsibility, with affiliation (university, department, city, postal code, country), email, and ORCID for all authors — a corresponding author must be indicated;
  • information on deposit of the manuscript on a preprint server, where applicable;
  • a declaration of approval by an institutional ethics committee, where necessary.

B) Original Manuscripts — Structure 
Title in Portuguese, Resumo, Palavras-chave; title in English, Abstract, Key-words; title in Spanish, Resumen, Palabras-clave; introduction; theoretical framework; method; results and conclusion; research data availability statement; references; acknowledgments; financial or technical support; conflict of interest declaration.

Text Formatting 
Originals must be submitted as a WORD file (.doc, .docx), with: A4 page format; 2.5 cm margins; title in Times New Roman 16, left-aligned, bold, up to 90 characters with spaces, in Portuguese, English, and Spanish; internal titles and subtitles in Times New Roman 14, bold, left-aligned; abstract and keywords (except in reviews and interviews) up to 1,000 characters with spaces and up to five keywords, in Times New Roman 11, no indentation, single-spaced, also in English and Spanish; body text in Times New Roman 12, single line spacing, first-line indent of 1.25 cm, justified alignment; size 11 in tables and references; size 10 in direct quotations longer than three lines and in footnotes.

Use of the journal’s official template, which already contains all required formatting, is mandatory.
Section headings should be brief and clear. Acronyms and abbreviations should be given in parentheses, preceded by the full term at first use. Foreign words should be italicized. Footnotes are optional, explanatory in nature, used only when strictly necessary, no longer than five lines, and numbered consecutively. Once accepted, the article must be translated into English.

C) Supplementary Documents 
Available for download:

 

 

Digital Assets

 

Use of Illustrations, Tables, and Charts 
Illustrations, figures, tables, and charts present results concisely, allow for visual analysis, and help clarify ideas. They must be numbered with Arabic numerals, in the sequence in which they appear in the text, preceded by the word Table, Figure, or Chart, and placed as close as possible to the passage to which they refer — always cited by their number (“Figure 1”, “Chart 2”), never by expressions such as “the image above”.

Tables 
Tables and figures must be inserted directly in the text, following IBGE standards under ABNT, in Times New Roman size 10, regular, single-spaced. Tables submitted as images are not accepted. Avoid long tables spanning more than one page.

Figures 
Drawings, photographs, diagrams, engravings, and maps are considered figures. When preparing visualizations, following accessibility good practice is recommended — we suggest reading “Accessibility in Scientific Visualizations”.

It is mandatory that, after each visualization and its source, Alternative Text (Alt Text) be added with a brief description of the image, essential for access to content via screen readers. This item will be checked by the Editorial Team during the article’s final check before publication, and manuscripts lacking this information will be returned for completion.

Images must also be submitted as supplementary files, sized between 10×8 cm and 15×20 cm, with sans-serif text (size 8 to 12), a minimum resolution of 300 DPI, in jpeg, tiff, gif, eps, or bmp format.

Charts
The most concise format possible is recommended. Consider how the colors used would appear when printed in grayscale. Avoid 3D charts, as they hinder use with screen readers. Use Times New Roman size 8 to 12 for axis titles and legends. Do not include author names, article title, or captions in the figure files themselves — this information belongs in the manuscript’s caption.

 

 

Citations and References

 

Revista Intercom is obliged to use the following normative instructions from the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT):

  • References – Elaboration (NBR-6023/2020);
  • Quotations in documents – Presentation (NBR 10520/2023);
  • Progressive numbering of the sections of a written document (NBR-6024/2003);
  • Abstract – Presentation (NBR 6028/2003).

General recommendations

General Recommendations 
We encourage the exploration and integration of articles already published in Intercom, whenever relevant, as this enriches the discussion and strengthens connections within the field’s academic community.

We encourage the use of the full Digital Object Identifier (DOI) (in the format https://doi.org/…), which guarantees a permanent access link to the electronic article.

For articles or texts published online without a DOI, provide the complete URL (without shorteners) and the date accessed.

References and Citations 
References must be cited in alphabetical order, without numbering, single-spaced, with 6pt before and 0pt after between paragraphs. If there is more than one work by the same author, chronological order should be followed; if there is more than one work by the same author in the same year, differentiate them with a, b, c. Include only works actually used in preparing the article.

Examples

1) Books 
SURNAME, Author’s full name. Book title: subtitle. Edition. Place: Publisher, date.
Example: HAGEMEYER, Renata Rezende. História & Audiovisual. 1st ed. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2013. 152 p. 
In-text citation: Hagemeyer (2013) or (Hagemeyer, 2013).

2) Book Chapters 
SURNAME, Full name of the chapter’s author. Chapter title. In: SURNAME, Full name of the book’s author. Book title: subtitle. Edition. Place: publisher, date, pages.
Example: RIBEIRO, Cristina Maria. Biblioteca digital. In: SANTOS, Gildenir Carolino. Acrônimos, siglas e termos técnicos: arquivística, biblioteconomia, documentação, informática. 2nd ed. Campinas, SP: Átomo, 2012. 289 p.

3) Conference Proceedings 
SURNAME, Author’s full name. Title: subtitle. In: NAME OF EVENT, number, year, location. Proceedings […]. Place: Publisher, date, pages.
Example: SANTOS, Gildenir Carolino. Biblioteca escolar digital (BedNet). In: SEMINÁRIO DE GESTÃO DO CONHECIMENTO EM EDUCAÇÃO E TECNOLOGIA DA INFORMAÇÃO, 3rd, 2004, Campinas, SP. Proceedings […]. Campinas, SP: UNICAMP/FE, 2004. p. 25-35.

4) Journal Articles 
SURNAME, Author’s full name. Article title. Journal name, city, volume and issue, pages, date.
Example: AMORIM, Ana Luiza Teixeira; ARAÚJO, Maria José Costa Gonçalves. Como o isolamento social causado pela pandemia de covid-19 impactou o consumo de podcasts no Brasil. Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v. 7, n. 3, p. 25802-25815, mar. 2021.

5) Theses and Dissertations 
SURNAME, Author’s full name. Title: subtitle. Year. Number of pages. Category and field — Faculty, University, city.
Example: MENDONÇA, Maria Carolina. A maternidade na publicidade: uma análise qualitativa e semiótica em São Paulo e Toronto. 2014. Thesis (Doctorate) — Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP.

6) Online Publications 
SURNAME, Author’s full name. Article title. Journal name, city, volume, issue, pages, year. ISSN. Available at: complete web address. Accessed on: day/month/year. DOI (where available).
Example: SOUZA, Kelley Paschoalino. Biblioteca universitária: análise de riscos. RDBCI: Revista Digital de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação, Campinas, SP, v. 17, p. e019037, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20396/rdbci.v17i0.8653319.

For further examples, consult ABNT-NBR-6023/2020. For electronic reference-management systems (Mendeley, EndNote, Zotero, or others), adopt the ABNT style as the default.

 

 

Supplementary Documents

 

To submit a manuscript, use the online submission system available at revistas.intercom.org.br. The submission must include, attached separately:

  • Title Page;
  • Manuscript template;
  • Open Science Compliance Form;
  • CRediT Form;
  • Conflict of Interest Declaration;
  • Declaration on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and Language Models.

Before starting, the person responsible for the submission must register in the system as an author and create or link their ORCID record — all authors must have an up-to-date ORCID record and, whenever possible, authenticate via login on the ORCID platform itself.

All data and metadata requested by the system must be completed. Authors must also ensure that metadata are completed in the three languages used by Intercom. This includes data about the author, their affiliated institution, and the submitted manuscript. Incomplete author records will be rejected at the desk-review stage.

After acceptance, authors must attach an Authors’ Declaration signed by all authors, along with separate high-resolution files of images, illustrations, and charts. Reviewed and translated files must also be attached through the system.

 

 

Financing Statement

 

 It is essential that authors provide detailed information on the sources of support for the work, including: identification of the sponsors (institutions, organizations, or individuals that provided financial or other support), contract or grant/process number details, and the role played by each source of support in the development of the work — study conception, data collection, analysis and interpretation, manuscript drafting, or the decision to submit.

The statement must include, without exception: the funding agency’s name in full, the country of origin of the funding, and the grant or process number awarded.

 

 

Additional Information

 

Once a manuscript is approved, the corresponding author will be notified and will have 30 days to submit the revised Portuguese version and the English translation. For the English version, Intercom will perform a check using the free AJE’s Grammar Check Tool (American Journal Experts — part of Springer Nature); only manuscripts with a language assessment score at or above the 75th percentile will be accepted.

After the revised version has been checked, authors will receive a proof of the manuscript (.doc or .docx) with the team’s comments and changes, with a four-day deadline for review. After acceptance, they will receive the finalized version in PDF for approval; corrections at this stage must be limited to typographical errors, without altering content or the author list, with a turnaround of up to 48 hours.

As a form of reciprocity with the academic community, Intercom reinforces its commitment to having authors of approved works serve as reviewers for other submissions to the journal.

Advertising
Intercom does not carry commercial advertising of any kind on its pages, in its articles, or in its official communications. This policy ensures that no editorial decision is influenced by commercial or advertising interests

 

 

Contact

 INTERCOM - Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação
AV. BRIG. LUÍS ANTÔNIO, 2.050 - CONJ. 36- BELA VISTA
Zip code: 01318-912 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
Phone and WhatsApp: (+55 11) 9.4178-8528
 revistaintercom@intercom.org.br
 

 

location_on
Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (INTERCOM) AV. BRIG. LUÍS ANTÔNIO, 2.050 - CONJ. 36- BELA VISTA, Zip code: 01318-912 , Phone and WhatsApp: (+55 11) 9.4178-8528 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: revistaintercom@intercom.org.br
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