About the Journal
Focus, scope, and mission
Kerygma is a scholarly journal of the Adventist Theology College (FAT), located at Brazil Adventist University (UNASP). It focuses on the areas of Science of Religion and Theology and is published in continuous flow.
The journal is available in electronic format (ISSN 1809-2454) and publishes original texts – in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Ocasionally, it also publishes studies in relation with other areas within the scope of human sciences and applied social sciences, acting as a channel for the socialization of theological knowledge and research that present sthemes relevant to theology and religion.
In addition, as it is associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the journal also promotes scholarly publications that include studies on Seventh-day Adventism, within the various possible approaches to theology, science of religion, and other related human sciences.
Kerygma offers free and immediate access to its content and to archives of previous issues because we believe in the worldwide democratization of scholarly knowledge. At the same time, new texts can be submitted for evaluation by the journal upon registration, as long as they meet the technical, spelling, and other standardization and scope criteria stipulated by the journal in its guidelines.
Kerygma’s mission is to foster, in the scholarly field, quality theological and religious knowledge, and to present innovative research results in the areas of sciences of religion, theology and related fields, which constitute relevant contributions mainly for the Latin American context. It is also intended to inform researchers about current discussions within the mentioned areas and to serve as a link for international academic dialogue. To this end, Kerygma is configured as a locus that appreciates the plurality of perspectives together with methodological-scientific rigor, enabling a critical and integrating dialogue.
Currently, Kerygma is indexed in the following search engines: Portal do Sistema Eletrônico de Editoração de Revistas (Portal of the Electronic Journal Publishing System -SEER/IBICT); Sistema Regional de Informação em Linha para Revistas Científicas da América Latina, Caribe, Espanha e Portugual (Regional Online Information System for Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal) (LATINDEX); Religion Database, published by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), Chicago, Illinois, USA; CAPES Periodicals Portal; Sumários.org; Crossref; and it is available at the Worldcat catalogue.
Section policies
Free theme: The journal accepts articles to be published in the free theme section. Articles sent to this category can present the most varied subjects – as long as they are aligned with the areas of Sciences of Religion and Theology or in dialogue with the religious phenomenon.
Dossiers: The journal also publishes thematic dossiers, which are called for by their own notices, published on the journal's website, and may include guest editors from other research and/or teaching institutions.
Nominata: The journal annually publishes a list with the names and affiliations of the evaluators who assisted in the blind peer-review process. This list is presented as evidence that, before publication, the texts underwent a peer-review process with the aim of certifying the quality of the published studies.
Blind peer-review process
The first stage of evaluation of articles submitted to Kerygma is based on the “guidelines for authors.” Depending on compliance with these guidelines for submitting an article, the contribution may be forwarded to the second stage, the blind peer review, or forwarded to the author to carry out changes provided for in the journal’s guidelines. If an article is rejected, it can be amended and resubmitted for review by the journal.
All texts submitted to Kerygma undergo two reviews, carried out by academics who are members of the journal’s ad hoc Scientific Council, using the Double-Blind Peer-Review system. This review will be carried out by specialists in the subject of the received submissions. The evaluation, at this stage, concerns specifically the content. Both the authors and the evaluators will not have their names disclosed during the evaluation process. Evaluators have a period of up to four weeks to issue a favorable or unfavorable opinion, or a favorable opinion under reviewed conditions. As needed, a third evaluator can be consulted, especially when there is a difference of opinion between the reviewers.
When the articles are classified as “favorable under reviewed conditions,” the authors will be notified, receiving by e-mail a copy of the evaluation together with the evaluators' demands for the improvement of the work and instructions for modifications. In situations of refusal, authors will also receive a document by e-mail containing, in the words of the evaluators, the reasons for not publishing the article in the journal.
In general, open-themed articles tend to take longer to be evaluated due to the number of articles received continuously. They may also take longer to be analyzed, as it will depend on the availability of a specific specialist to evaluate the text on a particular subject in their domain.
Format and periodicity
Kerygma, since 2022, is published in continuous flow. And since its inception in 2005, it has been published in electronic format (ISSN 1809-2454). The journal has also produced some commemorative issues in printed format published by UNASPRESS.
Open access policy
Kerygma offers free and immediate access to its content, following the principle of free scholarly production. Thus, it promotes worldwide democratization of information and knowledge in the areas of theological studies and the science of religion in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Reinforcing these principles, the journal has a policy of free editorial cooperation by not charging fees from authors for submitting or editing submitted articles. The journal relies on the spontaneous assistance of the scientific community – both for production and for the evaluation of its contents.
Archiving
The journal uses Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (LOCKSS) technology, partnered with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), to create a file system distributed among participating libraries which allows them to create permanent journal archives for preservation and restoration.
Ethics statement
Kerygma understands that both freedom for academic debate and the ethical conduct to carry it out through research are fundamental principles to maintain the level of quality of scholarly publications. Therefore, the journal is committed to ethical standards in the editorial process. In order to avoid misconduct in this context and to uphold ethical standards in its publications, Kerygma takes as a reference the norms of the “Relatório da Comissão de Integridade de Pesquisa do CNPq” (“Report of the CNPq Research Integrity Commission”) and of the “Commitee on Publication Ethics” (COPE). It is also guided by the “Padrões Internacionais para Editores” (“International Standards for Editors”), recommendations indicated by SciELO, and by the “Código de Boas Práticas Científicas” (“Code of Good Scientific Practices”), by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). The journal’s ethical principles permeate the entire editorial process.
Due to the fair and objective procedures of an evaluation, the journal adopts the Double-Blind Peer-Review system. However, before this process, its editors check the originality of the submitted texts in order to prevent plagiarism or self-plagiarism. This analysis is performed using specialized software. In addition to this reprehensible practice, the journal also pays attention to manufacturing or counterfeiting problems. According to FAPESP’s “Código de Boas Práticas Científicas”:
- Plagiarism is the “use of someone else’s verbal, oral or written ideas or formulations without giving them, expressly and clearly, due credit, in order to reasonably generate the perception that they are ideas or formulations of their own authorship.”
- Fabrication is the “statement that data, procedures, or results were obtained or conducted that actually were not.”
- Falsification is the “presentation of data, procedures or research results in a significantly modified, inaccurate or incomplete manner, to the point of interfering with the assessment of the scholarly weight that they actually confer on the conclusions drawn from them.”
In specific cases of self-plagiarism, Kerygma will only accept articles comprising a maximum of 25% of the content. In this case, corresponding to the use of previous contents for the preparation of articles, the quotation of old references must be clear. If the article exceeds the limit stipulated by these guidelines, it will be returned to the authors for correction and new submission.
The authors are responsible for the originality and authorship of their own creation. Thus, the journal or publishing company that publishes it will not be financially or criminally penalized for any publication of inappropriate content. When submitting a manuscript, the authors guarantee that the text, in addition to not having been published and not being evaluated by another journal, complies with all the ethical precepts listed here.
After publication, when cases of plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of results are identified, among other fraudulent actions, the journal may remove the article from its records or, in less serious cases that do not invalidate the academic value of the work, correct the published article with an errata, according to the “Guia para Registro de Errata do Scielo” (“Scielo Errata Registration Guide”). It will indicate corrections, additions, deletions, etc. The text of the errata will be available as a link and must contain the same DOI number as the article, as well as other original information.
If the text submitted to the journal carried out any research with humans, it must follow what the Resolução do Conselho Nacional de Saúde (CNS 196/96) ("Resolution of the Brazilian National Health Council") determines (or a similar international document). In addition, it must have been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the institution where it was carried out, sending Kerygma a document confirming this permission. The Terms of Free and Informed Consent (TCLE) must be in possession of the authors responsible for the research, if consultation and verification are necessary.
Faced with such definitions, Kerygma:
- Uses plagiarism detectors (e.g., Plagius) to detect irregularities in the content.
- It receives articles submitted solely by the system, carried out directly by the authors.
- Designates the manuscripts received to reviewers with recognized adherence to the subject addressed in the text.
- Asks authors and reviewers to register in the journal’s system with institutional e-mail information and ORCID.
- Is attentive to behaviors that show “evaluation manipulation,” according to COPE’S flowchart (“How to Recognise Potential Manipulation of the Peer Review Process”), as well as its repair suggestions (“How to do if you suspect Peer Review Manipulation”).
- Offers subsidies to the editorial team with materials that inform team members about misconduct practices, as well as procedures for evaluation according to COPES’ “Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers”.
- In order to resolve suspected misconduct, it commmunicates with other academic journals, sharing information with editors, based on the procedure offered by COPE (“Sharing of Information Among Editors-in-Chief Regarding Possible Misonduct”).
- Receives complaints about bad editorial practices through the UNASP ombudsman website: https://www.unasp.br/fale-conosco-atendimento/ouvidoria/.
The retraction of articles, based on COPES’ guidelines (“Retraction Guidelines”), is understood by the journal as a quality assurance practice for publication. Thus, it does not express a mechanism for punishing perpetrators, regardless of their conduct. A text can be retracted, for example, when the data presented are unreliable, when there are methodological errors or other characteristics of the genre that compromise the reliability of the study. In these cases, the main information of the article is registered in the edition in which the text was published, together with the indication of its unpublishing due to disagreement with the ethical norms of conduct.
Anonymity for these cases is guaranteed, and the questionable situation will be investigated particularly in the dialogue with the involved persons. More complex cases will be submitted to appropriate instances – such as, for example, if a reviewer appropriates data or an idea from an article submitted for evaluation (“What to do if you suspect a reviewer has appropriated an author’s ideas or data”).
Finally, it may be that in the evaluation process a potential conflict of interest arises that is not related to the scope of the research. In this case, FAPESP’s “Código de Boas Práticas Científicas” will be followed. Once detected by the author, evaluator or editor, relevant actions will be carried out for the resolution, in which the editor will be responsible for intermediating the conflict between the involved parties and, likewise, for the final decision.
Nominata: The journal annually publishes a list with the names and affiliations of the evaluators who assisted in the blind peer-review process. This list is presented as evidence that, before publication, the texts underwent a peer-review process with the aim of certifying the quality of the published studies.
Submissions
All articles intended to be published by Kerygma must be submitted online by its authors. To do so, you must register on the platform using your login and password. This procedure is mandatory for the submission of manuscripts, as well as for monitoring the editorial process. Whenever necessary, authors must keep their data updated on the platform so that communication failures do not occur.
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Journal sponsorship
Kerygma is maintained by the Adventist Theology College (FAT) of the Brazil Adventist University (UNASP).
Journal history
Kerygma, since 2005, publishes scholarly contents of an interdisciplinary nature in the scope of Sciences of Religion and Theology. In its 18 years of existence, it has published more than 200 articles, written by national and international researchers.
