Author Guidelines

REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION – RBADR

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. THE JOURNAL

The Brazilian Journal of Alternative Dispute Resolution (RBADR), published semiannually, focuses on alternative dispute resolution (ADR), including Arbitration, Mediation, Dispute Boards, Dispute System Design, and Online Dispute Resolution.

The RBADR is a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal that publishes academic papers on conflict resolution methods. Published by Editora Fórum, from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, the Journal aims to provide a prominent international platform for in-depth studies on various aspects of alternative dispute resolution.

2. SCOPE AND ORIGINALITY

The RBADR invites authors to submit original manuscripts on all aspects of issues related to alternative dispute resolution. Manuscripts must be based on original research and present a clear and well-developed argument aligned with the scope of the Journal.

Submitting a manuscript to the RBADR indicates that it has not been, and will not be, submitted elsewhere simultaneously. Papers scheduled for future publication in book form will be considered, provided that they appear first in the RBADR.

3. SUBMISSION FILES

Authors must upload three separate files with every submission. Submissions that do not contain all three files will be returned to the author at the desk review stage.

File 1 — Anonymous manuscript. The complete manuscript with no information whatsoever identifying the authors. Author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, e-mail addresses, acknowledgements and funding information must not appear in the text, in the footnotes, in headers or footers, or in the file properties.

File 2 — Manuscript with author details. The same manuscript, identical in content to File 1, containing the authors’ full affiliation, ORCID iD and e-mail address in the first footnote, funding information in the second footnote, and the acknowledgements, where applicable.

File 3 — Title page. A separate file containing, for each author: full name, affiliation, ORCID iD, e-mail address, and a short biography of up to 50 words.

An ORCID iD is required for every author. The submission must also designate one corresponding author, who is responsible for communication with the Editorial Board, for approving the proofs, and for confirming that all co-authors agree with the submitted version.

3.1 File naming and size

Files must be named as follows, using a short version of the title:

• ANONYMOUS_short-title.docx
• IDENTIFIED_short-title.docx
• TITLEPAGE_short-title.docx

No file may exceed 10 MB.

3.2 Anonymisation checklist

To preserve the integrity of the double-blind review, authors must, in File 1:

• Replace self-citations with “AUTHOR, [year]” in the text and in the footnotes, keeping the corresponding entry out of the reference list;
• Remove the names of funders, ethics committees, courts, arbitral institutions, law firms or research projects that would identify the authors, replacing them with a generic description in square brackets;
• Delete personal data from the file properties (in Word: File ▸ Info ▸ Check for Issues ▸ Inspect Document ▸ Document Properties and Personal Information);
• Remove all tracked changes and comments;
• Phrase any disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence tools (item 9) in a way that does not identify the authors.

4. LANGUAGE

The Journal accepts manuscripts in Portuguese, English and Spanish. The title, the abstract and the keywords must be provided both in the language of the article and in English.

Manuscripts written in a language that is not the author’s first language should be professionally revised before submission. Language quality is assessed at the desk review stage.

5. GENERAL FORMATTING

Manuscripts must be written in Times New Roman, font size 12, with 1.5 line spacing throughout the document, including quotations, footnotes and references. Pages must be numbered consecutively.

Notes must be numbered consecutively as footnotes and marked at the punctuation point using superscript numbers.

Manuscripts must be submitted in editable Word format (.docx). Submissions in PDF or in any non-editable format will not be accepted.

Length. Articles: 5,000 to 7,000 words. Book reviews and case comments: 2,000 to 3,000 words. The word count includes footnotes and excludes the title, the abstract, the keywords and the reference list.

6. STRUCTURE OF ARTICLES

Articles must include:

• Title (in the language of the article and in English);
• Abstract of up to 250 words (in the language of the article and in English);
• Up to 5 keywords (in the language of the article and in English);
• Introduction;
• Main text;
• Final considerations;
• Declarations (item 7);
• References, at the end of the article;
• Footnotes;
• Acknowledgements, if applicable (File 2 only);
• Tables and figures with captions, inserted in the main text.

7. DECLARATIONS

A short set of statements must be placed immediately before the reference list. Statements that would identify the authors must appear in File 2 only, and must be neutrally phrased in File 1.

• Funding: source of any grant or sponsorship, or a statement that the research received no specific funding.
• Conflicts of interest: any financial or personal interest capable of affecting the work, including advisory roles and involvement as counsel, arbitrator, mediator or expert in cases discussed in the article, or a statement that there is none.
• Data availability: where and on what terms the underlying data, if any, may be accessed.
• Use of artificial intelligence tools: as provided in item 9, or a statement that no such tools were used.
• Author contributions (optional): described using the CRediT taxonomy.

8. REFERENCES AND CITATIONS

The Journal adopts NBR 6023 (ABNT) as its official referencing standard. All citations must be inserted in footnotes, and a complete list of references must be provided at the end of the article, organised alphabetically by the author’s last name. When available, the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) must be included.

Examples of references:

Books

LAST NAME, First Name. Title of the work: subtitle. Edition number. City: Publisher, year.

Example: OLIVEIRA, Rafael C. Curso de Direito Administrativo. 12. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Método, 2024.

Book chapters

LAST NAME, First Name. Title of the chapter. In: LAST NAME, First Name (org.). Title of the book. Edition number. City: Publisher, year. p. xx–xx.

Journal articles

LAST NAME, First Name. Title of the article. Journal Title (in italics), city, volume, number, p. xx–xx, year. DOI.

Example: FERREIRA, Daniel B.; GROMOVA, Elizaveta A.; GIOVANNINI, Cristiane J. Online Sports Betting in Brazil and conflict solution clauses. Revista Brasileira de Alternative Dispute Resolution, Rio de Janeiro, v. 4, n. 7, p. 75-87, 2022. https://doi.org/10.52028/rbadr.v4i7.5.

Legislation

JURISDICTION. Legal instrument, number and date. Official title or summary. Publication data.

Example: BRASIL. Lei nº 9.307, de 23 de setembro de 1996. Dispõe sobre a arbitragem. Diário Oficial da União: seção 1, Brasília, DF, 24 set. 1996.

Court decisions

JURISDICTION. Court. Type and number of the proceeding. Parties (where public). Rapporteur. Place, date of judgment. Source of publication.

Example: BRASIL. Superior Tribunal de Justiça. Recurso Especial nº 1.639.035/SP. Relator: Ministro Paulo de Tarso Sanseverino. Brasília, DF, 18 set. 2018. Diário da Justiça Eletrônico, 15 out. 2018.

Arbitral awards

ARBITRAL INSTITUTION. Case number. Type of decision, date. Source, where publicly available. Confidential awards must not be identified; refer to them generically and observe item 12.2.

Example: ICC. Case No. 12345. Final Award, 12 March 2019. ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin, n. 2, p. 45-58, 2020.

Theses, dissertations and working papers

LAST NAME, First Name. Title of the work. Year. Type of work (academic degree) – Institution, City, year. Series and number, in the case of working papers.

Online sources (grey literature)

Institution or Author. Year. Title of the document. URL. Accessed [day month year].

Example: AAA-ICDR. 2021. Arbitration Rules. https://www.adr.org/sites/default/files/ICDR_Rules_0.pdf. Accessed 26 July 2022.

The first footnote of the article must contain the author’s full affiliation, ORCID iD and e-mail address. Funding information, if applicable, must be included in the second footnote. Both footnotes must appear in File 2 only and must be omitted from File 1.

9. USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The use of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, or of any other artificial intelligence tool to create content does not meet the Journal’s authorship criteria or ethical guidelines. Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors, since they cannot take responsibility for the content, approve the final version or declare conflicts of interest.

Permitted use. Authors may use artificial intelligence tools or software for language polishing, grammar correction and proofreading. All intellectual and analytical contributions must be entirely the work of the authors.

Prohibited use. Authors may not use such tools to:

• Generate text presented as the authors’ own analysis or argument;
• Produce, complete or fabricate data, sources, quotations or references;
• Generate images, tables or figures that are not expressly identified as AI-generated.

Authors remain fully liable for every source cited. A reference that does not exist, or that does not support the proposition for which it is cited, is treated as a fundamental error and may lead to rejection or, after publication, to a correction or retraction.

Disclosure. Any significant use of artificial intelligence tools must be disclosed in the Declarations and in the Acknowledgements section, using the following formula: “The authors used [tool and version] for [purpose] on [date]. The authors reviewed the output and take full responsibility for the content of the article.” Because the acknowledgements are identifying, the disclosure appears in File 2 and must be neutrally phrased in File 1.

Editors and reviewers. Manuscripts under review are confidential. Editors and reviewers must not upload a manuscript, or any part of it, to publicly available artificial intelligence tools, and must not generate referee reports by such means.

Compliance with this item is verified during desk review.

10. TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables and figures must be inserted in the main text, numbered consecutively and accompanied by clear descriptive captions. Sources must be cited in footnotes, where applicable.

Tables must be submitted in editable format, not as images. Figures must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. For any third-party material protected by copyright, authors must obtain written permission from the rights holder and provide it to the Editorial Board on request.

11. EDITORIAL PROCESS AND PEER REVIEW

All submissions undergo desk review, which verifies scope, originality, formatting, completeness of the three files, anonymisation and compliance with the Journal’s ethical policies. All submissions are checked with plagiarism-detection software at this stage; manuscripts showing unattributed overlap are rejected, in line with COPE guidance.

Manuscripts approved at desk review are sent to double-blind peer review by at least two reviewers.

Indicative timeline: desk review, up to [4] weeks from submission; peer review and first decision, up to [12] weeks from submission. Authors are informed of any material delay.

Decision categories: accept; accept subject to minor revisions; major revisions and resubmission; reject.

12. RESEARCH ETHICS

12.1 Studies involving human subjects

Authors must ensure that studies involving human participants, their data or biological material received approval, or a formal exemption, from the relevant ethics committee. Written informed consent must be obtained if there is any doubt about anonymity.

If there is uncertainty regarding compliance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or equivalent standards, the authors must explain their approach and demonstrate approval by an independent ethics committee.

12.2 Confidential material in ADR research

Empirical work in this field frequently draws on confidential arbitral, mediation or dispute board material. Authors must confirm that any such material has been used with the consent of the parties or in properly anonymised form, and that the duties of confidentiality owed by the authors as counsel, arbitrators, mediators, experts or institutional staff have been fully observed. Where anonymisation is relied upon, it must extend to the identity of the parties, the institution, the case number and any detail capable of identifying the dispute.

13. PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

The Journal’s ethical guidelines align with the COPE Principles of Transparency, Best Practice Guidelines and Code of Conduct.

13.1 Duties and responsibilities of editors and publisher

• Editorial Board: composed of recognised experts in the field.
• Publication decisions: based on scientific validity and relevance.
• Peer review: all articles undergo double-blind peer review.
• Fair play: evaluation without discrimination or bias.
• Digital archiving: as provided in item 17.
• Confidentiality: strict confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts.
• Conflicts of interest: handled with ethics and transparency.
• Unethical behaviour: addressed promptly and appropriately.

13.2 Duties and responsibilities of authors

• Publication and submission fees:
• Reporting standards: accurate and objective reporting.
• Data access and retention: availability upon request.
• Originality and plagiarism: all work must be original and properly cited.
• Multiple or redundant publications:
• Acknowledgement of sources:
• Authorship: limited to those who contributed significantly.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest: must be declared.
• Fundamental errors: authors must notify the editor immediately.
• Sharing of published papers: as provided in item 16.

13.3 Duties and responsibilities of reviewers

• Contribution to editorial decisions: peer review supports editorial judgment.
• Promptness: reviewers must meet deadlines.
• Confidentiality: manuscripts must not be shared, including with artificial intelligence tools.
• Objectivity: evaluations must be fair and evidence-based.
• Acknowledgment of sources: relevant works must be cited.
• Conflicts of interest: must be disclosed and managed properly.

13.4 Corrections and retractions

Where an error is identified after publication, the Journal will publish, as appropriate, a correction or erratum, an expression of concern, or a retraction notice, following COPE guidance. Notices are linked to the original article, which remains available with a clear indication of its status. Requests may be submitted by authors, readers or third parties to the editorial address in item 14.

14. COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS

All complaints from authors and third parties must be addressed to the Journal’s institutional editorial address [editorial address on the Journal’s or the publisher’s own domain]. Authors may appeal editorial decisions through the submission system or by e-mail. Appeals are examined by an editor who did not take the contested decision.

15. PUBLICATION AND SUBMISSION FEES

No fees or charges are required from authors for manuscript processing. Authors pay neither submission nor publication fees.

16. OPEN ACCESS, LICENCE AND SELF-ARCHIVING

The Journal is freely available online after a one-year embargo period. Authors must agree to this policy, which allows unrestricted access and reuse of all published articles once the embargo has expired.

Licence. Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). Users may copy, redistribute and build upon the material for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and to the Journal. Copyright remains with the authors, who grant the Journal the right of first publication.

Self-archiving. Preprints — versions prior to peer review — may be deposited at any time in a preprint server or institutional repository, provided that the deposit is disclosed on submission and that the record is updated with the full citation and DOI once the article is published. The accepted manuscript — the version approved after peer review, without the Journal’s layout — may be deposited in an institutional or subject repository before the one-year embargo has expired. The published version, with the Journal’s layout, may be shared in academic networks and repositories after the embargo. Before the embargo expires, authors may share the published version privately with individual colleagues for non-commercial purposes.

17. INDEXING, DOI AND DIGITAL PRESERVATION

Every article receives a DOI registered with Crossref. Content is preserved on the publisher’s website and deposited in a recognized digital preservation service [PKP Preservation Network], so that it remains available in the event that the Journal ceases publication.

18. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND DATA PROTECTION

The names and addresses provided to this Journal will be used exclusively for the services it provides. They will not be made available for other purposes or to third parties.

Personal data are processed in accordance with Law No. 13,709/2018 (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados). The controller is [Editora Fórum / the RBADR], and data subjects may exercise their rights of access, correction, deletion and portability through [contact point for data protection requests].

19. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND LIBRARY ACCESS

To be granted full access to the Journal, contact:

Editora Fórum

0800 704 3737

vendas@editoraforum.com.br

Libraries are invited to list the Journal in their electronic catalogues. The publishing system is designed to be hosted and operated by libraries to support academic journal publication.

20. AUTHOR DECLARATION

On submission, the corresponding author declares, on behalf of all authors, that:

• The manuscript is original, is the authors’ own work, and all sources are properly cited;
• The manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal;
• All persons listed as authors contributed significantly to the work and approved the submitted version, and no person who so contributed has been omitted;
• Any use of artificial intelligence tools has been disclosed in accordance with item 9;
• Funding, conflicts of interest and data availability have been disclosed in accordance with item 7;
• Any research involving human subjects, and any use of confidential ADR material, complies with item 12;
• The authors accept the Journal’s open access, licensing and self-archiving policy set out in item 16.