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1.1 Responsibilities of Authors

Authors of a manuscript must present original research with an accurate account of the work performed, together with an objective discussion of its significance. Authors are responsible for the truthfulness and accuracy of their data. The underlying data must be represented faithfully in the manuscript. When requested, authors must provide the relevant documentation (in the form of raw data, samples, records, data collection instruments, etc.) so that its validity can be verified. Research data must be retained by the authors after publication in accordance with the policies of the institution with which they are affiliated.

A manuscript must contain sufficient detail and references to allow readers to replicate or understand the methodological path of the work. Fraudulent or deliberately inaccurate statements or data constitute unethical scientific behavior and may lead to rejection of the manuscript or even retraction of a published article. Authors must ensure that they have produced entirely original work. If data, statements or derivations from other published work have been reproduced, they must be properly cited or referenced, in accordance with applicable copyright and plagiarism laws. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation, text recycling, or coordinated efforts among several authors for collective self-citation are strongly discouraged. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

Articles submitted to JILS must be unpublished. The author(s) must ensure that the manuscript reports original work and that its content has not been published elsewhere (in part or in full) in any form or language, unless it is an expansion of previous work that is duly cited. A single study must not be improperly split into several parts that are not completely separable for the purpose of multiple submissions. Simultaneous submission of a manuscript to more than one journal, or submission of an already published article to another journal, is considered unethical behavior.

If authors use previously published work or work under review, they must acknowledge and properly cite the original work and clearly identify the unique contributions of the submitted manuscript compared with the earlier work. Authors must also ensure that any reuse complies with copyright policies. The journal will handle cases of text recycling and duplicate submission in accordance with COPE guidelines (COPE Council. Handling concurrent and duplicate submissions).

If a similar or identical manuscript is later found published elsewhere, the Adventist University Center of São Paulo (Unasp), as the institution responsible for the journal, and Editora Alumni IN, as technical editorial support, reserve the right to report it or file a complaint with the respective editor(s) and the institution(s) to which the author(s) belong.

1.2 Authorship and Author Contributions

The names of the authors must be listed in the manuscript in order of their contributions, and all authors take responsibility for their own contributions. Authorship must be limited to those who:

1. Made a significant contribution to the conception or design of the work; or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; or drafted the work or substantially revised it;
2. Approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author's contribution to the study);
3. Agreed to be personally accountable for their contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated, resolved and documented in the literature (COPE Discussion Document: Authorship).

All those who made substantial contributions must be listed as co-authors. Those who participated in certain aspects of the manuscript (for example, language editing or technical support) must be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.

For transparency purposes, authors must include an Author Contribution Statement following the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), detailing individual contributions such as: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing — original draft, and Writing — review and editing.

The corresponding author/submitting author must include the contributions of all authors in the manuscript, before the References section, at the time of submission. Because of double-blind review, the statement must be inserted in a separate file or dedicated field, without compromising anonymity during the review.

Authors must carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting the manuscript and provide a definitive list at the time of the original submission. Requests to add, remove or rearrange author names in exceptional circumstances must be made before acceptance of the manuscript. Such requests must include specific reasons and written confirmation from all authors (original and proposed) that they agree to the change without any conflict of interest. The decision of the Editorial Team on the matter will be final. After publication, no changes to the list or order of authors are permitted.

The corresponding author must ensure that: (a) all co-authors have agreed to the full content of the manuscript, including the author list and contribution statements; (b) there is no undeclared conflict of interest; (c) the submission meets all the stated policies of the journal; and (d) all authors have agreed to the submission for publication.

The journal does not support any unethical practice that improperly attributes authorship credit. Authorship misconduct includes: Ghost authorship — exclusion of significant contributors; Gift authorship — granting authorship to someone who did not contribute; Substitute authorship — replacing legitimate authors with others; Coercive authorship — imposing inclusion based on power dynamics or academic hierarchy; and Artificial collaboration — fabricating collaborations to increase apparent credibility.

If authorship is in doubt, the peer review process will be suspended and an investigation will be conducted to identify ghost, guest or gift authorship. Based on the findings, authors will be instructed to correct the authorship list (COPE Flowcharts — Ghost, guest, or gift authorship).

1.3 Pre- and Post-publication Corrections

Authors have an obligation to correct any incorrect information as soon as they identify it, whether during manuscript processing or after publication. In this case, the author(s) must immediately contact the Editorial Team, explaining how the error affects the manuscript. The decision on how to correct the manuscript (erratum, corrigendum or retraction) will depend on the nature of the error, in accordance with the journal's Retraction Policy.

Minor corrections (spelling or grammatical errors) that do not alter the understanding of the content will not be corrected after publication. An erratum will be published when errors in the published article, which went unnoticed during editing and layout, cause an incorrect understanding of the article. A corrigendum will be published when authors identify errors that may affect the validity or accuracy of the scientific content.

If a reader detects a genuine error in a published article, they may send a communication to the Editorial Team. The author, the editor and, when necessary, a reviewer will examine the validity of the reported error. Appropriate corrigenda may be published for genuine errors.

1.4 Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests

When submitting a manuscript, all authors and co-authors must declare any potential conflict of interest (for example, employment, consulting fees, sponsoring organization policy, research contract, patent license, advisory affiliations, ties to institutions or programs evaluated in the study, etc.), stating that "There is no conflict of interest" or describing the nature of any potential conflict.

Authors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permission to include images or artistic material in their articles for which they do not hold the copyright. The source(s) of financial support for the reported research (funding agencies, grants, institutions) must also be declared in the manuscript.

1.5 Journal Publishing Agreement

When submitting a manuscript, authors must sign the Journal Authorization Form/Publishing Agreement, certifying the following:

1. Each author has participated sufficiently in one or more activities of the reported research work and is responsible for them. Each author's contribution has been mentioned in the manuscript. All authors have seen and agreed to the submitted version.
2. The content of the manuscript has not been published in any form, in part or in full, anywhere to date. The authors have not submitted, and will not submit, it elsewhere until a decision is communicated.
3. The data and results contained in the manuscript come from original research work.
4. The author(s) ensure(s) that the full content of the manuscript does not incur plagiarism, text recycling or self-plagiarism.
5. The author(s) assume(s) full responsibility for the data, statements and opinions contained in the manuscript. Unasp, Editora Alumni IN and the Editorial Team are fully exempt from this responsibility.
6. Due mention has been made of the organization(s) where the research work was carried out, and the funding obtained has been duly acknowledged.
7. There is no conflict of interest in the manuscript, or any conflicts have been duly declared.
8. The authors have included information about any preprint submission of the manuscript and agree to update the preprint record with the link to the Version of Record, if accepted.
9. If the reported research involved the use of human or animal subjects, such work was carried out in accordance with applicable laws and ethical standards (including CNS Resolutions No. 466/2012 and No. 510/2016, where relevant), and the opinion of a Research Ethics Committee and informed consents were obtained and are on record.
10. The authors have complied with the highest standards of all the journal's ethical policies.
11. Revisions in response to reviewer/editor comments will be made in a timely manner. The authors agree that, if requested, they will make available the data on which the manuscript is based.
12. Except in extraordinary circumstances, the manuscript will not be withdrawn during the course of review/processing. Written permission from the Editorial Team will be required for this.

1.6 Ethical Oversight Policy

According to COPE, "ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to, policies on consent to publish, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices" (COPE Ethics Toolkit).

Authors must ensure that no violation of the Ethical Oversight Policy has occurred. If the research involved the use of human or animal subjects — which is common in interdisciplinary research with human participants — the authors confirm that such work was carried out in accordance with applicable laws and ethical standards, that the Research Ethics Committee (CEP/CONEP) approval number was provided in the manuscript when required, and that informed consent (ICF) and, where applicable, assent from minors were obtained and are on record. In research involving children and adolescents, authors must protect the identity of the participants.

1.7 Authorship and Artificial Intelligence Tools Policy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT or other Large Language Models (LLMs), cannot be considered or listed as the author of an article, because these tools cannot take responsibility for the work, sign copyright or licensing agreements, or declare the presence or absence of conflicts.

The use of generative AI (GenAI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process must be carried out under human oversight and control. Authors who use GenAI technologies in writing the manuscript, producing images or graphic elements, or collecting and analyzing data must be transparent, stating in the Methodology section (or in a Declarations section) how the AI tool was used and which tool was employed.

Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, including the parts produced by an AI tool, and are therefore accountable for any breach of publication ethics (COPE Position Statement on AI).

1.8 Research Misconduct

The author(s) must not engage in any form of research misconduct, including but not limited to: self-plagiarism or text recycling; plagiarized authorship; data or image manipulation/fabrication; copyright infringement or use of third-party material without due permission; citation manipulation; duplicate submission or publication; false declaration of affiliations; manipulation of peer review; non-disclosure of competing interests; and unethical research practices.

Manuscripts containing citations intended solely to artificially inflate the citation count of a specific author or journal constitute misconduct. Likewise, manuscripts with fabricated or falsified results constitute misconduct. Any data fabrication, falsification or image manipulation that is detected and that violates ethical guidelines will be subject to investigation and penalties.

The journal treats all forms of misconduct seriously and will take all necessary measures, in accordance with COPE guidelines (COPE Flowcharts — Systematic manipulation of the publication process), to protect the integrity of the scholarly record. Applicable measures include notification and suspension of publication, as provided in JILS's ethics guidelines.

Upon discovering research misconduct, at any stage from submission to post-publication, the Editors, in consultation with the Scientific Editorial Board when necessary, have full authority to reject the article or retract the publication. In cases of repeated violations, the Editorial Team reserves the right to notify the author(s)' institution(s) and to bar further submissions for a defined period.

1.9 Article Sharing Policy

Submitted Version / Author's Original Manuscript (AOM)

The AOM may be deposited at any time on the author's personal website, in an institutional repository or on non-profit preprint servers. However, the deposited version must not be updated to resemble the final version of record. Deposit on a preprint server before submission is not considered duplicate publication and will not prejudice the review, provided that anonymity is preserved during double-blind review.

Accepted Manuscript (AM)

The author may deposit the Accepted Manuscript on their personal website, in institutional or subject repositories at any time after acceptance, with no embargo period. After publication, the accepted manuscript must be linked to the published version with the following text:

Final Version of Record

As an open access journal under CC BY 4.0, authors are permitted to freely share the final published PDF with appropriate attribution. Authors may deposit the published version on personal websites, institutional repositories and academic networks. The following statement must accompany shared versions:

The evaluation of articles submitted to the journal involves two sequential stages: editorial review (desk review) and peer review. A public description of the process is available on the Peer review page.

In the editorial review, editors analyze the received articles (without any identification of the authors) to assess their relevance to the scope of the journal, their potential for a significant contribution to knowledge in the interdisciplinary field, originality, the adequacy of the submission format and compliance with the journal's rules. When necessary, editors involve members of the Scientific Editorial Board. When the submitted work does not meet the journal's policies, authors are informed of the decision within thirty days of the submission date.

Articles approved in the editorial review are forwarded to two experts from the journal's pool of reviewers or to external researchers selected for their knowledge of the article's field of study. Reviewers are professors and researchers affiliated with stricto sensu graduate programs at national or foreign institutions, invited by the editorial team, which ensures full alignment between the reviewer's area of expertise and the article's topic.

Articles are evaluated considering the relevance of the topic studied, the writing, the logical sequence of the theoretical review with the use of appropriate references, the adequacy of the methodological procedures, the depth and consistency of the analyses, the outline of the conclusions and the relevance of the contributions, through a predefined form provided to the reviewers.

Possible Outcomes

After the review, the Editor will make one of the following decisions:

• Accepted — the manuscript is accepted for publication as submitted;
• Minor Revisions — the manuscript requires minor corrections before acceptance;
• Major Revisions — the manuscript requires substantial corrections and will be re-reviewed;
• Rejected — the manuscript does not meet the journal's requirements.

After the requested adjustments have been made and verified by reviewers and editors, articles undergo spelling and grammar review, conformity checking against the journal's adopted standards, and final typesetting.

Editorial Decision Process

The decision on recommending a manuscript is reached through consultation among the editors and, when necessary, the Scientific Editorial Board, based on the reviews received. In evaluating a manuscript for publication, in addition to the criteria of scientific rigor, due consideration is given to other attributes, such as the quality of presentation, the reliability and authenticity of the data, and the contribution to new knowledge in the field of interdisciplinary lifestyle studies and related areas.

Potential reviewers must provide accurate personal and professional information about their expertise, including verifiable contact information. Upon receiving an invitation to review, a response (whether accepting or declining) must be sent within a reasonable time. A review should be accepted only if the reviewer is qualified to judge the manuscript in question and is able to return the report within the proposed or mutually agreed deadline.

Impersonating another individual during the review process is considered serious misconduct (COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers).

All manuscripts received for review are treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share the review or information about the manuscript with anyone, nor contact the author(s) directly. Reviews must be conducted objectively, with opinions expressed with supporting arguments and references where necessary.

The reviewer must bring to the attention of the Editorial Team any potential ethical issues in the manuscript, including any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other published documents of which the reviewer has personal knowledge.

Reviewers who have accepted review assignments must submit their reports by the deadline indicated in the invitation or by a deadline mutually agreed with the Editorial Team. The peer review stage may last up to one month, as stated on the journal's public review page.

Reviewers must declare to the Editorial Team any potential competing interests and must decline to review a manuscript with which they believe they have competing interests resulting from competitive, collaborative or other relationships with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript. As a JILS rule, reviewers are always external to the responsible institution and to the journal's editorial team.

Unpublished content disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by the reviewer in any form without the written consent of the author(s). Information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Personal criticism of the author(s) is inappropriate and must be avoided.

AI tools cannot act as reviewers or as editors responsible for decisions. Any use of AI tools in peer review (for example, for language editing) must be clearly disclosed in the review form (reviewers) or in the decision letter (editors). It is prohibited to input the manuscript, in whole or in part, into AI tools that do not guarantee the confidentiality of the content.

All editorial board members must declare potential conflicts of interest, including simultaneous editorships and participation on other editorial boards, upon joining the editorial team (COPE Guidelines: Editorial board participation).

The Editor must ensure that the peer review process is impartial, timely and of high technical quality, maintaining high standards for manuscripts recommended for publication. All Editors must safeguard the integrity of the double-blind review policy, not revealing the identity of authors to reviewers and vice versa. The Editor also protects the confidentiality of all material submitted to the journal and of all external communications.

The Editor must give due consideration to all disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and self-citation suggestions made by reviewers.

Submissions by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Because this is a journal linked to a sponsoring institution, special attention is paid to preserving editorial independence. Manuscripts authored by members of the editorial team, or by people directly involved in running the journal, are subject to special procedures. As a general rule, manuscripts authored by editors should be avoided. In exceptional and duly justified cases:

• The manuscript will be handled by an independent guest editor without a conflict of interest, and the author-editor will have no access to information about the review process;
• The entire editorial process will follow a rigorous double-blind review procedure, with reviewers external to the responsible institution;
• The editorial independence of reviewers and authors will be preserved;
• A transparency note will be included in the published article or in the editorial explaining the exceptional handling of the manuscript.

The author(s) must ensure that they have reported original work with their own data and statements. If the work, data and words of others have been used, the author(s) must ensure they are properly cited or referenced. A statement that constitutes a previously reported observation, derivation or argument must be accompanied by the relevant citation. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

Every manuscript submitted to the journal undergoes a plagiarism check by the editorial team, using similarity detection software. If similarity is identified, the author is instructed to appropriately revise the manuscript. Manuscripts with a high level of similarity are rejected.

When plagiarism is detected, the process described in the relevant COPE guidelines/flowcharts is followed (COPE — Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript and COPE — Redundant (duplicate) publication).

In case of substantial plagiarism, the journal may inform the institution with which the author(s) is/are affiliated for the appropriate administrative measures and bar further submissions for a defined period.

The journal adopts procedures to identify, prevent and manage conflicts of interest at all stages of the editorial and publication process, in accordance with international best practices and Brazilian standards of scientific integrity.

Author Declaration

All authors and co-authors must declare any potential conflict of interest at the time of manuscript submission. Conflicts may include, but are not limited to: employment or institutional affiliation that could influence the research; consulting fees, grants or financial support; research funding contracts or sponsorships; intellectual property interests; participation in advisory boards or governance roles; ties to an institution, program, product or technology evaluated in the study; and institutional or organizational policies that could influence the results or the interpretation of the study.

Authors must explicitly state: "The authors declare no conflict of interest"; or provide a clear description of any existing or potential conflict. This statement will be published in the final version of the article.

Editorial Assignment and Conflict Management

Manuscripts are assigned to editors and reviewers with the aim of minimizing potential conflicts. The journal avoids assigning manuscripts to editors or reviewers who are: current institutional colleagues; recent institutional or professional collaborators; recent co-authors; former or current supervisees or supervisors; or who have personal, financial or institutional relationships that could compromise impartiality. Reviewers are always external to the responsible institution.

If, after assignment, an editor or reviewer identifies a potential conflict not previously declared, they must immediately inform the Editors and decline to take part in the process. In situations where all available editors have some level of conflict, the manuscript will be assigned to the editor with the lowest potential for conflict, ensuring transparency and editorial independence.

Commitment to Transparency

The journal is committed to maintaining transparency, impartiality and ethical rigor. All declared conflicts of interest are treated confidentially and managed in accordance with COPE guidelines and Brazilian best practices in scholarly publishing.

The journal adopts an open access publishing model and respects the intellectual property rights of authors. Upon acceptance of the manuscript, authors grant the journal the right of first publication. The published work is simultaneously licensed under CC BY 4.0.

This license allows any user to: share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial), provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source is duly cited.

Before publication, all authors must sign a Publication Authorization Form, confirming the originality of the work, the granting of the right of first publication and agreement with the adopted licensing terms. Questions about copyright may be sent to publisher@alumniin.com.

Open Access Policy

The journal provides immediate and unrestricted open access to all published content, based on the principle that making scientific knowledge freely available to the public contributes to the worldwide democratization of knowledge. There is no embargo period. The journal is distributed exclusively in electronic format at revistas.unasp.edu.br/LifestyleJournal.

Repository and Self-Archiving Policy

Authors are permitted and encouraged to disseminate their work widely. The journal allows the deposit of all versions of manuscripts in institutional, subject or personal repositories, including: Preprint (submitted version), Accepted Manuscript (postprint) and Final Version of Record (final published article). No embargo period is applied to self-archiving. The journal's policy is registered in the Diadorim/IBICT directory.

The journal grants third parties the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to and use the full texts of articles, provided that appropriate attribution is given in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 license.

The journal is committed to eliminating financial barriers to scholarly publishing. Authors are never required to pay for submission, peer review, copyediting, typesetting, digital archiving or online hosting. The costs associated with operating the journal are borne by the responsible institution, the Adventist University Center of São Paulo (Unasp), with the technical editorial support of Editora Alumni IN.

This policy applies equally to all authors, regardless of geographic location, institutional affiliation or funding status. There are no hidden charges, surcharges for expedited review or premium publishing services.

The journal does not offer fee waivers or discounts because no fees exist. Authors should be wary of any communication requesting payment on behalf of the journal; any request of this nature is fraudulent and must be reported immediately to the Editorial Team.

The journal encourages authors to make research data publicly available whenever possible, in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Authors must include a Data Availability Statement indicating where the data can be accessed or explaining any restrictions.

When data cannot be shared because of ethical, legal or commercial restrictions — as occurs in research with identifiable participants, especially children and adolescents — authors must explain these limitations. Upon reasonable request and when permitted, authors must provide data to editors or reviewers for verification purposes.

Authors are encouraged to archive additional data and research information that support the results (instruments, interview scripts, protocols, materials used) in an appropriate public repository, within the legal and ethical framework — including the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (Law No. 13,709/2018) — and to include a data availability statement with a link to the repository.

Open Science Practices

JILS supports open science practices and encourages authors to: (i) deposit research data and materials in open repositories; (ii) pre-register research plans where relevant; and (iii) deposit preprints and accepted manuscripts in institutional or subject repositories, in accordance with the journal's self-archiving policy.

A "preprint" is a preliminary version of a manuscript created before the version accepted for publication. Deposit of a preprint on any recognized platform will not be considered prior publication (COPE Discussion Document: Preprints).

Authors must include details of the preprint deposit, including DOI or other persistent identifier, when submitting the manuscript, taking care that this information does not compromise anonymity in double-blind review. Authors must not enhance the preprint in a way that resembles or replaces the final version.

After acceptance, the corresponding author must agree to the terms of the publishing agreement. Authors must update the preprint to acknowledge acceptance:

After publication of the final version, the preprint must be immediately linked to the Version of Record, and the following text must be added:

To ensure the long-term permanence, integrity and accessibility of all published content, the journal adopts a digital preservation and archiving policy aligned with international standards of scholarly communication.

Indexing and Discovery

The journal is present in, or in the process of being indexed by, the following sources (the complete and updated list, with the respective links, is available on the journal's indexing page): OpenAlex, ROAD / ISSN Portal, Crossref, Diadorim/IBICT, Miguilim/IBICT and OpenAIRE. The following are in the process of having their records updated (migration from the previous title, Lifestyle Journal, to the new title and e-ISSN): Latindex, DOAJ and EBSCO. Gale Learning has accepted the journal, which is in the process of being indexed. The journal is also discoverable through Google Scholar, Dimensions, Scilit, Semantic Scholar, CAPES Journal Portal, OUCI, WorldCat and ResearchGate.

Backup and Redundancy

The journal is published on the Open Journal Systems (OJS/PKP) platform, with periodic system and database backup routines maintained by the responsible technical team, ensuring data integrity and restoration capability.

Preservation Strategy

The journal adopts digital preservation strategies based on internationally recognized archiving principles. These practices include secure hosting, periodic backups, metadata structures compatible with indexing systems and digital libraries, and registration of the journal in open access aggregators and repositories. The policy seeks to ensure that all published articles and supplementary materials remain available in the long term.

Digital Preservation Services

To guarantee permanent custody of and access to the published content, the journal uses the following preservation and redundancy services:

• Cariniana Network (IBICT) — Brazilian network of digital preservation services for electronic publications, based on LOCKSS technology, which preserves copies of the content in multiple institutions.
• Keepers Registry (ISSN) — international registry of agencies that archive electronic serial publications, allowing public verification of the journal's preservation status.
• OpenAIRE — European open science infrastructure that harvests and preserves the metadata of published articles and links them to the open graph of scientific output.

The journal follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record. The full policy is available in the Retraction Policy section. The following editorial actions may be taken when problems are identified in published articles:

Erratum

An erratum is published when errors introduced during the editorial or production process (for example, in figures, tables or layout) caused an incorrect understanding of the article and went unnoticed during editing.

Corrigendum

A corrigendum is published when authors identify that errors in the published article may affect the validity or accuracy of the scientific content.

Expression of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when there is inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct, when an investigation into alleged misconduct is under way but a finding will not be available for a considerable time, or when there are concerns that the results may be unreliable but the author's institution will not investigate the case.

Retraction

Retractions are issued when there is clear evidence that the reported results are scientifically unreliable (due to serious error or misconduct, including fabrication, falsification or plagiarism beyond an acceptable threshold), if the results were previously published elsewhere without proper reference or permission, if the article constitutes plagiarism, or if the research reports unethical practices. Any decision on retraction will be made by the Editors, in consultation with the Scientific Editorial Board.

Retracted articles are not removed from the published record. A retraction notice, clearly linked to the retracted article, will be published with an explanation of the reasons for the retraction. The retracted article will be clearly marked as retracted in all online versions.

Retraction notices will be freely accessible to all readers, indexed and linked to the original article to ensure that the scholarly record is corrected and transparent.

The Editorial Team discourages the withdrawal of manuscripts submitted to the journal, as it wastes the time and effort of editors, reviewers and others involved in processing the manuscript. Authors must carefully assess the suitability of the journal's requirements and policies before submission.

A formal written request must be sent to the Editors by the corresponding author, clearly stating the reasons for withdrawal. The request must be signed by all authors listed on the manuscript.

If a withdrawal request is received after the review process has been completed and/or acceptance has been communicated, the Editorial Team may bar the author(s) from submitting new manuscripts for a maximum period of three years. The withdrawn article is archived in the journal's database and will no longer be processed.

The editorial content published by the journal is not compromised by commercial or financial interests, nor by any agreements with advertising clients or sponsors. Unasp, Editora Alumni IN and the Editorial Team do not accept any consideration and do not publish advertising, commercial content or sponsored articles. Authors of scientific articles may not link advertisements using keywords.

Editorial decisions are made independently of any commercial considerations. No advertising revenue influences the selection, peer review or publication of articles.

The journal adopts transparent procedures for receiving, evaluating and resolving complaints and appeals related to editorial processes, publication ethics and scientific integrity. All cases are handled with seriousness, impartiality and confidentiality.

Scope of Complaints

The Editorial Team considers complaints relating to, but not limited to: authorship disputes; plagiarism or self-plagiarism; duplicate or simultaneous submissions/publications; misappropriation or misuse of research data; errors, inconsistencies or suspected fraud in research; violations of ethical standards; undisclosed conflicts of interest; reviewer bias or unethical interference; excessive delays in editorial processing; and allegations of intellectual property infringement.

Submitting Complaints and Appeals

Complaints and appeals must be formally submitted to the Editorial Team in writing, through the channels indicated on the journal's Contact page. The submission must include: clear identification of the complainant; a detailed description of the issue; and supporting documentation or evidence, when available. Anonymous or unfounded complaints may not be considered.

Appeals Against Editorial Decisions

Authors may submit an appeal against an editorial decision, including manuscript rejection. The Editors will evaluate the authors' justification, the reviewers' reports and compliance with the journal's policies. Based on this assessment, the journal may: uphold the original decision; reconsider the manuscript; request additional independent review; or dismiss the appeal. Decisions resulting from the appeal process are final.

Investigation of Ethical Complaints

Complaints involving publication ethics, intellectual property infringement, research misconduct or unlawful content will be investigated by the Editors in consultation with the Scientific Editorial Board. The investigation may include: requesting clarification from the parties involved; consulting independent reviewers or experts; temporary suspension of editorial processing; and issuing corrections, expressions of concern or retractions when appropriate.

All allegations of misconduct are evaluated in accordance with COPE guidelines and applicable Brazilian legislation on copyright and academic integrity.

Governing Jurisdiction

All legal matters relating to the journal's publications and editorial processes are governed by Brazilian law. Any disputes that cannot be resolved administratively will be submitted to the jurisdiction of the competent courts in Brazil.

Continuous Publication

Articles are published individually as soon as they complete peer review, editorial processing and production, without waiting for an issue to close. This model ensures that approved articles are made available to the academic community as quickly as possible, reducing the time between acceptance and publication. After publication, the article is incorporated into the current volume/issue.

The journal accepts submissions in Portuguese, English and Spanish, following the journal's guidelines and template.

Editorial Workflow

The editorial process of Journal of Interdisciplinary Lifestyle Studies follows these stages:

Estimated Editorial Process Timeframes

In accordance with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, the journal discloses its revenue sources and business model.

Journal of Interdisciplinary Lifestyle Studies is maintained by the Master's Program in Health Promotion of the Adventist University Center of São Paulo (Unasp), São Paulo campus, with technical editorial support from Editora Alumni IN. All operating costs — including hosting, digital preservation, editorial management, copyediting and typesetting — are funded by the maintaining institution and its technical editorial support. The journal does not charge article processing charges (APCs), submission fees or any other fees to authors, readers or institutions.

The journal does not accept advertising, sponsorship or any form of commercial revenue that could influence editorial decisions or the integrity of the published content.

This financial model ensures that editorial independence is preserved and that no financial consideration influences the acceptance, rejection or publication of scholarly work.