About the Journal
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation is a scientific journal that is part of the American Global Tech University (AGTU). Its main objective is to be a high-impact scientific journal, seeking visibility and institutional recognition in the global academic landscape. The journal publishes articles in English and Portuguese, or in English and Spanish.
FOCUS AND SCOPE
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation is a scientific journal committed to advancing and disseminating globally relevant knowledge, in line with the American Global Technology University (AGTU) mission of empowering its students for career advancement and personal growth.
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation serves as an essential platform for the production of scientific, sustainable, and technological knowledge, seeking to positively impact both local and global levels.
Our main objectives are:
• To be a high-impact scientific journal.
• To establish itself as a sustainable and accessible editorial management platform, promoting the free and unrestricted dissemination of academic knowledge.
• To achieve indexing in internationally recognized databases, ensuring the visibility and credibility of published research.
• To promote AGTU's visibility and recognition in the global academic landscape.
Thematic Scope
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation focuses on a precise and targeted approach to its themes, reflecting the areas of excellence of AGTU's programs. Our thematic scope encompasses, but is not limited to: • Computer Science • Business • Education • Health • Legal Studies
The journal prioritizes submissions that demonstrate practical skills and applied knowledge in real-world scenarios, contributing to career advancement and personal growth of professionals in the designated areas.
Content Types and Editorial Process
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation accepts articles, reviews, and interviews, all subjected to rigorous peer review according to established guidelines and criteria, aiming for the publication of high-quality and impactful work.
Our editorial process ensures the integrity, quality, and ethical compliance of all publications. The journal adopts an open access publication model, ensuring that knowledge is widely disseminated without financial barriers for readers.
Commitment to Quality and Transparency:
We maintain an unwavering commitment to transparency in all our editorial operations. Our Focus and Scope, author guidelines, peer review policies, and article selection criteria are clearly defined and publicly accessible, ensuring the reliability and legitimacy of the AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation in the global academic landscape.
EDITORIAL BOARD
The journal's editorial structure comprises two distinct and complementary functions: the editorial function and the librarian function.
Editor-in-Chief
• The Editor-in-Chief is the senior editor responsible for overseeing the journal's overall strategy, content quality, and final decisions. Their responsibilities include:
• Managing the journal's daily operations.
• Deciding on topics, content, and contributors for future editions.
• Assigning clear roles and responsibilities to all team members.
• Managing and maintaining regular contact with the editorial board.
• Managing an efficient peer review process to ensure rapid publication.
• Ensuring that content meets the journal's quality standards and appropriate ethical requirements.
• Ensuring that articles are original and have not been published in other journals.
• Resolving research integrity issues (e.g., plagiarism or falsification).
• Generating ideas to promote the journal and increase readership.
• Will be appointed by AGTU's Academic Board.
Editorial/Scientific Board
The editorial board is formed by the editors-in-chief and associate editors, supported by the librarian. This is an internationally diverse group of recognized researchers with strong interest in academic publishing who act as journal ambassadors. Their responsibilities may include:
• Providing scientific expertise to the journal.
• Recommending expert reviewers.
• Identifying new topics for commissioning or special issues.
• Advising on the journal's strategic direction.
• Providing external accountability to the journal team.
• Recommending potential authors or guest editors.
• Peer reviewing articles and providing constructive suggestions to authors.
• Providing content in the form of occasional editorials and other short articles.
• Promoting the journal among authors and readers and encouraging peers to submit their work. AGTU will seek an active, respected, and representative board, prioritizing equality, diversity, and inclusion in its composition.
Reviewers
Reviewers are experts in the manuscript's area, responsible for evaluating the submission's suitability for publication. The journal will provide clear guidelines to reviewers, balancing review speed with review quality. They will be asked to focus on methodological rigor, originality, engagement with open science practices, and other criteria established by the editorial team. AGTU will manage the submission flow and peer review process, seeking to recruit multiple reviewers (ideally at least two per submission).
SECTION POLICIES
The journal will clearly define and publish the types of content accepted on its "Focus and Scope" page and in the author guidelines. A clear distinction will be made between peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed content.
Original Articles
Contain results from original research, based on data collected through experiments, surveys, interviews, observations, or other research methodologies. They must present a clear hypothesis (or exploratory design, if inductive research), methodology, results, and conclusion.
Review Articles
Provide an overview of existing research on a specific topic, synthesizing the body of research and providing a roadmap for future investigations. They may follow various formats, such as narrative reviews, scoping reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.
Case Studies
Detailed descriptions of real-life situations or events, used to demonstrate the application of a specific theory or concept in a particular context. They typically describe a single case or a small series of cases.
Interviews
Short pieces that may express opinions, offer introductions or commentary on a specific journal issue, or serve as a forum for dialogue and sharing perspectives on a particular subject. These are typically non-peer-reviewed content.
Reviews
Critical descriptions of books, theses, and dissertations that present the most current ideas from research. Reviews provide knowledge and present important works for current scientific discussions.
PEER REVIEW PROCESS: SYSTEMATIC FLOW OF ANALYSIS AND SCIENTIFIC VALIDATION
The peer review process is an indispensable requirement for formal publication in the AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation. The journal implements a manuscript submission and review process, with training for authors and reviewers.
Initial Screening (Desk Review):
Submissions are initially reviewed by the editorial team to verify suitability to the journal's scope, content type, manuscript completeness, file format, and presence of ethical approvals. Manuscripts with low scope suitability may be rejected at this stage.
Article Selection:
Article selection criteria will be explicitly defined by the editorial board, being clear and easily accessible. They will include originality, contribution to the field, alignment with ethical and research integrity standards, and prior publication policy (e.g., preprints).
Peer Review:
Manuscripts that pass initial screening are forwarded to specialized reviewers in the area. It is preferable that at least two reviewers evaluate each submission. The journal will balance review agility with the need for constructive and high-quality feedback. The identification policy (e.g., double-blind, single-blind) will be defined by the editorial board.
Editorial Decision:
After review, the editorial team, under the Editor-in-Chief's supervision, will make the final decision on publication.
Integrity and Ethics:
Research ethics management is crucial. Clear processes for identifying and dealing with ethical issues will be available on the journal's website, covering all stages from submission to post-publication.
PERIODICITY
The journal's periodicity will be defined by the editorial board, considering workload, peer review management, IT costs, and indexing objectives. The journal will seek to publish content regularly to meet indexing database requirements.
OPEN ACCESS POLICY
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation adopts an open access model, providing free and unrestricted access to its online content. The journal's main objective is to share and disseminate knowledge widely, without financial or legal barriers for readers.
Publication Model:
The journal will likely operate under the Diamond Open Access model, meaning there will be no submission or publication fees (APCs) charged to authors or readers. This model is supported by AGTU's institutional funding, promoting equity and global representation in research.
Licensing:
Published articles will use permissive reuse licenses, with Creative Commons licenses being the most likely and widely used.
ARCHIVING
The journal adopts a digital preservation policy to ensure long-term access to its content. Journal management will ensure archiving and preservation of website data. For this, the AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation will consider using external digital preservation services, such as CLOCKSS, LOCKSS, or the PKP Preservation Network. Essential article metadata (such as title and authors) will be retained to maintain academic record integrity.
RESEARCH ETHICS AND GOOD SCIENTIFIC PRACTICES
AGTU maintains the highest standards of academic integrity throughout the university, and the AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation will apply these principles rigorously.
Academic Integrity: The journal will have ethical guidelines and anti-plagiarism policies.
Violations: Academic integrity violations include plagiarism, cheating, data or citation fabrication, collusion (unauthorized collaboration), and inappropriate AI use (e.g., generating complete works or responses). Such violations may result in disciplinary measures, including failure or expulsion from the university.
Anti-Plagiarism Software: AGTU requires mandatory use of anti-plagiarism software (provided by the institution) for all work requiring textual production, and evaluation will only be corrected after passing through this software.
Ethical Conduct: Editorial policies will promote ethical research practices, addressing issues such as data fabrication, image manipulation, authorship, and contribution.
Conflict of Interest: Conflict of interest situations between authors, reviewers, and editors will be clearly defined and managed to ensure process impartiality.
Data Sharing and Reproducibility: The journal will encourage authors to make their data, codes, and methods publicly available to promote verification and reproducibility of results.
SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION FEES
According to AGTU documents, there is no mention of fees for submission or publication of articles. Consistent with its objective of being an open access journal and promoting equity and global representation in research, the AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation will operate without charging fees to authors (Diamond Open Access Model).
SUBMISSION
• The journal will operate with an Electronic Journal Publishing System (SEER/OJS), with support from AGTU's Technology area. • Authors will have access to clear guidelines and an easy-to-navigate website to submit their manuscripts. • Training will be provided to authors and reviewers on guidelines and the submission process. • Submission management and peer review flow monitoring will be implemented.
AUTHOR GUIDELINES
Author guidelines are a transparent expression of the journal's editorial policy and workflow. They will be reviewed and updated annually or whenever there are changes in editorial policy. Key components include:
• Journal focus and scope.
• Languages accepted for submission and publication (English, Portuguese, Spanish).
• Journal privacy and archiving policy.
• Types of content accepted and description of the evaluation flow.
• Detailed formatting and structure instructions for each content type, including figures, tables, and schemes.
• Bibliographic standards adopted for citations and references (e.g., APA guidelines).
• Journal commitment to ethics and good research practices, including anti-plagiarism policy (with mandatory use of AGTU software).
• Description of how corrections, retractions, and concerns are handled, and the appeal process.
• Authors' rights and responsibilities and instructions on how to report individual contributions to the manuscript (e.g., CRediT taxonomy).
• Conflict of interest policy.
• Information about licensing and copyright retention.
• Information about funding source declaration.
• Open science practices, including the journal's policy for accepting preprints, research data availability statements, and open peer review.
• Instructions on obtaining permission for proper use of copyrighted material.
• AI Use: Artificial intelligence tools do not meet authorship conditions; authors remain fully responsible for their manuscript content, even parts produced by an AI tool.
• Document templates for accepted file formats for submission may be made available.
ARTICLE SUBMISSION STANDARDS
Articles must adhere to author guidelines, which detail formatting and structure requirements.
• Original Articles: Must present clear design, methodology, results, and conclusion.
• Review Articles: Must synthesize existing research and may follow various formats (narrative, scope, systematic).
• Case Studies: Detailed descriptions of real situations to demonstrate the application of theories or concepts.
• Experience Reports: Descriptions of practical applications or observed situations, aligned with AGTU's emphasis on practical skills and applied knowledge.
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
The journal will specify the copyright terms applicable to published articles. In line with open access principles and best practices, authors will likely retain copyright of their works, granting the journal the right of first publication through a permissive license (such as Creative Commons licenses). The use of permissive licenses implies that statements such as "All rights reserved" do not apply to individual articles.
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE 4.0 – CC BY
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation will adopt Creative Commons (CC) licenses for its published articles, with the CC BY (Attribution) license being a common choice for open access journals. This allows content to be copied, distributed, and adapted, provided proper attribution is given to the original creator. The chosen license will be prominently displayed on each article's pages (HTML, PDF) and included in the article's metadata to facilitate discovery and reuse.
PRIVACY POLICY
The journal's privacy policy will be aligned with AGTU's institutional guidelines on Data Protection and Privacy. AGTU complies with data protection laws (e.g., FERPA for student records in the US). The policy will cover the responsible collection, use, and storage of personal information (contact data, academic and financial records), students' access rights to their records, and security measures (encryption, secure systems) to prevent unauthorized access. In case of data breach, students will be promptly notified.
INDEXING
The AGTU Journal of Science and Innovation aims for indexing in internationally recognized databases, with Scopus being one of the main targeted databases. Indexing is fundamental for credibility, visibility, and attracting authors, often being a requirement of funding agencies or institutions. The journal will develop an action plan to meet the indexing criteria of each relevant database, considering AGTU's knowledge areas. Additionally, it will seek indexing in open access directories such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and academic search engines such as Google Scholar. The journal will ensure compliance with academic publishing standards for indexing, including clear scope, peer review information, copyright, ethics, editorial board, and use of DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) for articles and article-level metadata.
