About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Revista Águas Subterrâneas is a journal of the Brazilian Groundwater Association - ABAS to publish original scientific articles focusing on hydrogeology and water resources and other related themes.

The accepted articles will be published continuosly and organized in one annual Volume and several Numbers containing up to 10 original scientific articles each.

The content of this journal is three sections:

Articles Section - ART which is the main focus and body of publications of the journal. In this section, only completely unpublished material is accepted. Content that has been totally or partially published in other publications will not be accepted. The articles published in this ART Section are completely based on original contributions of general interest and application, of scientific focus. Only the articles in this ART Section are peer reviewed and indexed.

The other two sections are strictly for scientific divulgation:

Case Studies and Technical Notes Section - ECNT publish papers that must include unpublished information about specific areas and themes akin to this journal. The material published in this ECNT Section are not peer reviewed.

Thesis Abstracts - RTD publishes abstracts of master and doctorate thesis and has the objective of divulgation. The material published in this RTD Section is neither peer reviewed nor indexed by the journal.

Peer Review Process

The peer review of the manuscripts is double-blind, i.e., neither authors nor reviewers have the their identities open to each other.

The submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism with dedicated and widely accepted software. Suspect manuscripts are declined and sent back to authors with the reasons for declination clearly stated.

The manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers to evaluate its merit. The reviewers are chosen among recognized professionals and researchers, local or international, independently of their relationship to the Brazilian Groundwater Association.

The reviewers will state their review recommending or not the publication of the document and the review may or may not require text revision or rewriting. Controversial cases are sent to other reviewers to be settled and the final decision is taken along with the main editors.

The Associate Editor responsible for the submission will inform the authors about the decision: accepted, declined, need corrections. In the latter case, the authors will receive the comments from the reviewers along with the decision. The authors should review within the accorded deadline and the editor may accept or submitt to the reviewers.

After final acceptance, the manuscript is sent to be formatted according to the RAS layout.

Should the authors do not accept the RAS editorial rules the manuscript will be declined.

Responsibilities and Ethical Statements

By submitting a manuscript to be published, Authors are bounded to the following statements:

To ensure that the manuscript has not been submitted or published in whole or in part elsewhere and will not be submitted to another journal until the editorial process is completed.
To ensure that all authors have been personally involved and made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation, and will hold themselves responsible for its content.
To ensure that all the authors mentioned in the manuscript have agreed for authorship, read and approved the manuscript, and given consent for manuscript submission.
To acknowledge contents reproduced from other sources and obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources, when applicable.
To provide the editors with a copy of any submitted manuscript that might contain overlapping or closely related content.
To maintain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript, and to supply or provide access to these data, on reasonable request.
To declare all sources of funding for the study. Provide the name(s) of the funding agency/agencies along with the grant number(s).
To declare any potential conflicts of interest.
To notify promptly the editor if a significant error in their manuscript or published work is identified and cooperate in the paper correction or retraction.

By accepting a review activity, Reviewers are bounded to the following statements:

To contribute to editorial decisions by reviewing the manuscript in a clear, objective, unbiased and timely manner.
To notify the editor of any potential competing or conflicting interest (personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious in nature).
To indicate related published papers which are not yet cited by the authors.
To notify the editor of any suspicion of ethical violation, such as previously published content.
To maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript submitted to the journal.

Editors, during their editorial duties, are bounded to the following statements:

To participate as a member of the Editorial Board in the development and updates of the editorial policies.
To communicate and implement all editorial policies and recommendations.
To conduct the review and editorial processes in a timely way, assisting authors, indicating reviewers and making editorial decisions.
To ensure the review process remain anonymous for both authors and reviewers (double-blind peer review).
To ensure that material submitted to the journal remains confidential during the review and editorial processes.
To maintain the integrity of the original scientific content.
To assure that the manuscript is free of plagiarism by using appropriated tools.
To declare and decline to manage manuscripts to which they have any conflict of interest.
To adopt reasonable procedures to investigate complaints of an ethical nature or interest conflict.

The Brazilian Groundwater Association, as Publisher, is bounded to the following statements:

To assist the editorial board to ensure good conduct in the publication practice, according to the guidelines that have been previously outlined.
To provide and maintain a suitable site for handling and storing all archives, as well as the communications, used during the review and editorial processes.

Errors, Corrections, and Misconduct

In instances where a significant error has been published for which a correction needs to be made, and in all cases where there is reason for concern about misconduct and unethical behavior (such as plagiarism, fabrication of research, duplicate publication, or failure to disclose conflicts of interest), the editors will review and resolve the matter. The authors will be informed and will be given the opportunity to respond to any complaints. Different measures will be taken depending on the seriousness of the fact, such as correction/erratum or formal retraction.

Publication Frequency

The accepted articles are published continuosly and are organized in one annual Volume and several Numbers with up to 10 articles each. E.g.: Vol.12 N.4