Direito Gv Law Review in numbers: balance sheet of 2019 and prospects for 2020¹

It is with great enthusiasm that we present the first issue of Direito GV Law Review in 2020 (v. 16, n. 1, Jan./Apr. 2020). This issue brings the special dossier “Law and Technology”, conceived by guest editors Marina Feferbaum, Emerson Ribeiro Fabiani and Alexandre Pacheco. We had a record number of 105 submissions for this dossier, which explains the peak in submissions received in January 2019 (see Graph 1, below). Of this total, 7 articles reached the final stage and will be published in this issue: 6 national articles and 1 foreign article. The dossier also includes 3 guest articles by foreign researchers, a review and a translation.

GRAPH 1
NUMBER OF ARTICLES SUBMITTED PER MONTH IN 2019

As we have done for the past three years (BARBIERI, 2017; BARBIERI, 2018; BARBIERI and IZIDORO, 2019), we would like to take this opportunity of the first editorial of the year to present the 2019 balance, as well as the 2020 objectives.

Let us start, then, with the balance of Direito GV Law Review in 2019. As can be seen in Graph 2, there was a reasonable increase in the number of submissions in 2019, compared to 2018. Taking into account all the registered years, we had the largest number of submissions in 2019.

GRAPH 2
NUMBER OF ARTICLES SUBMITTED PERYEAR FROM 2010 TO 2019

In Table 1, we highlight information on the origin of the authors who submitted articles for evaluation by Direito GV Law Review in 2019. São Paulo remained the state with the largest number of author submissions in 2019 - with 22.4% - followed by the states of Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, which when added to São Paulo represented 61.65% of the total number of articles submitted during the analyzed period.

TABLE 1
ORIGIN OFTHE AUTHORSWHO SUBMITTED ARTICLES FOR EVALUATION BY DIREITO GV LAW REVIEW IN 2019, BY BRAZILIAN STATE

BRAZILIAN STATE	NUMBER OF AUTHORS	PERCENTAGE OF AUTHORS
ACRE	1	0.18%
ALAGOAS	1	0.18%
AMAZONAS	5	0.92%
BAHIA	12	2.22%
CEARÁ	21	3.89%
FEDERAL DISTRICT	28	5.18%
ESPÍRITO SANTO	23	4.26%
GOIÁS	5	0.92%
MARANHÃO	9	1.67%
MATO GROSSO	1	0.18%
MATO GROSSO DO SUL	3	0.55%
MINAS GERAIS	49	9.07%
PARÁ	9	1.67%
PARAÍBA	7	1.30%
PARANÁ	53	9.81%
PERNAMBUCO	10	1.85%
PIAUÍ	4	0.74%
RIO DE JANEIRO	61	11.30%
RIO GRANDE DO NORTE	12	2.22%
RIO GRANDE DO SUL	49	9.07%
RONDÔNIA	2	0.37%
SANTA CATARINA	21	3.89%
SÃO PAULO	121	22.40%
SERGIPE	4	0.74%
TOCANTINS	2	0.37%
FOREIGN	22	4.07%
TOTAL	540	100.00%

Source: ScholarOne Manuscripts.

As for articles written by foreign researchers, there was a drop in the number of submissions in 2019, compared to the number of submissions from previous years. In 2018, foreign submissions corresponded to 9.06% of the total articles received (BARBIERI and IZIDORO, 2019). In 2019, as shown in Table 2, foreign submissions represented 4.07%.

TABLE 2
NUMBER OF ARTICLES BY COUNTRY SUBMITTED FOR EVALUATION BY DIREITO GV LAW REVIEW IN 2019

AUTHORS WHO SUBMITTED ARTICLES FOR EVALUATION BY DIREITO GV LAW REVIEW ACCORDING TO COUNTRY	NUMBER OF MANUSCRIPTS	PERCENTAGE
SOUTH AFRICA	1	0,25%
ARGENTINA	2	0,49%
BRAZIL	389	95,81%
CHILE	3	0,74%
COLOMBIA	1	0,25%
UNITED STATES	3	0,74%
MEXICO	1	0,25%
PUERTO RICO	1	0,25%
PORTUGAL	3	0,74%
UNITED KINGDOM	2	0,49%
TOTAL	406	100,00%

Source: ScholarOne Manuscripts.

Table 2 details the origin, by country, of the articles submitted for evaluation by Direito GV Law Review in 2019. In regard to the diversity in origin of foreign articles, the number in 2019 remained the same as in 2018, with a total of 10 countries.

There was a significant increase in Brazilian articles submitted to Direito GV Law Review in 2019, greatly driven by the deadline for the special call for submissions on “Law and Technology”. Despite efforts to disseminate in international research networks, very few articles submitted to the dossier were from foreign researchers. This phenomenon shows the importance of reflecting on the specific challenges for Law as a discipline in achieving the rules and parameters established by CAPES-Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (CAPES, 2019) and SciELO’s internationalization guidelines (SCIELO, 2017).

As discussed in past editorials (BARBIERI, 2016, 2017 and 2018; BARBIERI and IZIDORO, 2019), Direito GV Law Review pursues internationalization by publishing foreign articles in English and Spanish that add relevant reflections to the Brazilian academic community and by publishing Brazilian articles that address specific problems and issues in Brazilian law in a novel and innovative way.

What our experience has shown us, however, is that foreign articles are rarely spontaneously submitted to Brazilian journals and, often, the quality of foreign submissions is much lower than that of national articles. One of our strategies to minimize this problem is to count on the active work of our Editorial Board members, whether members are foreigners or Brazilians with ties to foreign institutions.

We also observed that the ratio between the number of received manuscripts to that of published manuscripts in 2019 dropped compared to 2018, even though the total number of published articles remains the same year after year (on average 12 articles are published per issue). Despite this the number of articles received versus the number of articles published remained within the average for the last eight years (Graph 3).

GRAPH 3
PERCENTAGE OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES PERYEAR, BETWEEN 2010 AND 2019

This data reinforces the importance of the editorial selection made in the desk review stage. At this stage, all articles submitted are evaluated in light of the editorial policy’s thematic guidelines. Articles with serious methodological or content problems and those that are outside the journal’s editorial objectives are rejected. Our goal is to reach the peer-review phase with a varied, but smaller, set of articles with strong potential. In 2019, about 40% of the total submissions reached the peer-review stage. This is the only way possible to evaluate all the articles thoroughly, find a sufficient number of reviewers, reach the goal of a final decision (either approval or rejection) within 180 days, and for the journal to publish approved articles within 12 months, as indicated by the SciELO Criteria (SCIELO, 2017).

As for the evaluation deadlines, the news is positive. The aforementioned SciELO Criteria indicates that the ideal average duration between submission and the final decision on manuscripts should be 180 days (SCIELO, 2017). Discounting the articles rejected in the naturally faster process of desk review, in 2018 our average processing time for articles sent to reviewers was 170 days, and in 2019 we achieved a significant reduction to 131 days.

In addition, the average waiting time between approval and publication of articles decreased from about 6 (six) months in 2018 to about 4 (four) months in 2019. The adoption of the rolling publication system was one of the major advances for the Journal in 2019 and is responsible for this considerable reduction. For Direito GV Law Review, the adoption of rolling publication allowed for an end to the backlog of approved articles still pending publication due to the need to wait for other articles to complete an issue.

This measure also made it possible to reduce the total average time between submission and publication of all articles published in a given year (including those submitted in previous years) from about 16 (sixteen) months for those published in 2018 to about 15 (fifteen) months for those published in 2019. Therefore, the expectation is that by 2021 the Journal will reach the ideal period of 12 (twelve) months between submission and publication (SCIELO, 2017).

The last point of emphasis concerns the reviews issued throughout 2019. A total of 325 invitations were made for the double-blind peer review stage, resulting in a total of 182 reviews delivered thanks to the collaboration of 163 reviewers, to whom we are immensely grateful for their effort and commitment. Without their reviews the Journal would not be possible.

The average time for issuing reviews was around 18 days, a three-day decrease compared to 2018. However, our biggest bottleneck in the double-blind peer review stage is the high number of invitations that go unanswered and reviews that are not delivered even after reviewers accept the invitation, which also makes the process of evaluating articles longer than necessary.

In the peer review phase, it is also essential that substantial reviews are delivered - that is, reviews that are capable of pointing out the qualities and defects in a text, in order to support the editorial decision to approve or reject (CAMPOS, 2019). In order to attract and encourage good reviewers, Direito GV Law Review now has a new tool - Publons platform - through a partnership with the SciELO Brasil collection and Clarivate Analytics, the ScholarOne evaluation system, aimed at recognizing good evaluators. Publons acts as a register of reviewer contributions to give visibility and recognition for peer reviews, which require time and commitment on the reviewer’s part and are essential to the journal’s evaluation process (NASSI-CALÒ, 2017).

We are very happy with the positive 2019 numbers, and we would like to start this year by once again thanking the Direito GV Law Review community of authors, reviewers, editorial board, and editorial team.

Have an excellent 2020 and happy reading!

Referências

• BARBIERI, Catarina Helena Cortada. Editorial. Revista Direito GV, São Paulo, v. 12, n. 1, p. 7-9, abr. 2016. Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1808-24322016000100007&lng=pt&nrm=iso Acesso em: 06 jan. 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2317-6172201601
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• BARBIERI, Catarina Helena Cortada. Editorial. Revista Direito GV, São Paulo, v. 13, n. 1, p. 7-13, abr. 2017. Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1808-24322017000100007&lng=pt&nrm=iso Acesso em: 06 jan. 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2317-6172201701
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• BARBIERI, Catarina Helena Cortada. Revista Direito GV em números: balanço de 2017 e perspectivas para 2018. Revista Direito GV, São Paulo, v. 14, n. 1, p. 7-16, abr. 2018. Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rdgv/v14n1/1808-2432-rdgv-14-01-0007.pdf Acesso em: 06 jan. 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2317-6172201801
  » http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rdgv/v14n1/1808-2432-rdgv-14-01-0007.pdf» http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2317-6172201801
• BARBIERI, Catarina Helena Cortada; IZIDORO, Leila Giovana. Revista Direito GV em números: balanço de 2018 e perspectivas para 2019. Revista Direito GV, v. 15, mai. 2019. Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1808-24322019000100100&lng=pt&tlng=pt#B4 Acesso em: 06 jan. 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2317-6172201901
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• CAMPOS, Luiz Augusto. Como redigir um parecer acadêmico? Blog DADOS, 2019. Disponível em: http://dados.iesp.uerj.br/como-redigir-um-parecer/ Acesso em: 06 jan. 2020.
  » http://dados.iesp.uerj.br/como-redigir-um-parecer/
• COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR (CAPES). Relatório do Qualis Periódicos Área 26. Direito. 2019. Disponível em: http://www.capes.gov.br/images/Relatorio_qualis_periodicos_referencia_2019/Relatorio_qualis_direito.pdf Acesso em: 06 jan. 2020.
  » http://www.capes.gov.br/images/Relatorio_qualis_periodicos_referencia_2019/Relatorio_qualis_direito.pdf
• NASSI-CALÒ, Lilian. In time: Publons busca atrair pareceristas e aperfeiçoar a avaliação por pares. Revista Paulista de Pediatria, São Paulo, v. 35, n. 4, p. 367-368, dez 2017. Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-05822017000400367&lng=pt&nrm=iso http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1984-0462/;2017;35;4;00018
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• SCIENTIFIC ELECTRONIC LIBRARY ONLINE (SCIELO). Critérios, política e procedimentos para a admissão e a permanência de periódicos científicos na Coleção SciELO Brasil São Paulo, out. 2017. Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/avaliacao/Criterios_SciELO_Brasil_versao_revisada_atualizada_out Acesso em: 06 jan. 2020.
  » http://www.scielo.br/avaliacao/Criterios_SciELO_Brasil_versao_revisada_atualizada_out

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  Traslator: Elizabeth Ann Miller

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  27 Apr 2020
• Date of issue
  2020