About the Journal

Overview, periodicity, scope and focus

 The Journal of Accounting and Organizations (Revista de Contabilidade e Organizações - RCO) is a Brazilian open-access periodic journal created in 2007, with peer evaluation in double blind-review. The RCO is a publication of the University of São Paulo, maintained with resources from the Accounting Department of the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting/USP and AGUIA/USP.

The RCO publishes research results that are innovative, instigating, surprising and demonstrate methodological rigor and potential impact for accounting and auditing practice across a wide range of organizations, markets and governments. As a multi-paradigmatic journal the RCO publishes several methodological approaches, quantitative or qualitative, and theories of several areas. Interdisciplinary approaches are especially welcome.

Included in the scope of RCO are articles that involve financial and accounting information of organizations, financial decisions of individuals, entities, markets, and governments, managerial control of organizations, regulatory policies, taxation, and government expenditures, governance, combating fraud and corruption, and human and intellectual, social, and environmental development.

Aiming at the speed of the communication process and the dissemination of scientific research, maintaining rigor in the evaluation of submissions, in 2018 the RCO converted its four-month frequency of publication into continuous publishing, launching one number per year between January and December. The journal works with format-free initial submissions. Adjustments will be requested after the Desk Review. 

RCO informs that all articles submitted from 01/01/2020 and approved for publication must be translated, in their final version, into English (if the original submission is in Portuguese) or to Portuguese (if the original submission is in English). The translation into the second language will be up to the authors and failure to present both versions within the stipulated time will result in the approval of the article being withdrawn. RCO will provide authors with a list of translation services that will be accepted.

The policy of free access and license to authors is Common Creative CCBY-NC-ND 4.0. 

This journal is a member of and subscribes to the principles of, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) www.publicationethics.org

 

Themes of interest

The RCO is interested and offers associated editors and evaluators on the following topics:

Financial Information of Organizations

  • Financial accounting and accounting information quality
  • Accounting regulation
  • Tax accounting and tax planning
  • Audit

Markets

  • Information, products, and structure of the capital markets
  • Regulation of the capital markets
  • Personal finance
  • Corporate finance
  • Behavioral finance and economics

Governments

  • Cost analysis and management
  • Historical approaches
  • Public accounting
  • Public finance (fiscal control mechanisms, revenue generation, management, and execution by governments)
  • Budgeting and public planning (in its various approaches, such as budget flow, performance, and social participation)
  • Taxation
  • Mechanisms for transparency, control (internal, external, and social), and anti-corruption efforts

Organizational Management Control

  • Cost analysis and management
  • Planning, budgeting, and management control
  • Economic/financial and non-financial information for organizational management (multinational companies, family businesses, startups, public entities, and hybrid organizations)
  • Strategy, performance management, and manager compensation

Environmental, Social, and Governance Practices

  • Management and information on pollution, natural resource use, and environmental footprint
  • Management and information on corporate social responsibility
  • Corporate governance
  • Anti-corruption and compliance policies
  • Whistleblowing channels and fraud prevention

Research, Technology, and Innovation

  • Methods applied to research in accounting and organizations
  • Technological research
  • Information technology and communication
  • Information systems and big data
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Data analysis

Education and Professional Development

  • Education and professional training
  • Role of the accountant and organization of the profession
  • Careers and profession trends
  • Teaching and assessment in accounting and related courses
  • Curriculum content and professional identity construction
  • Teaching cases

 

Other topics can be evaluated by the editors (we ask that you include in the letter to the editor a justification on why the article is within the scope of the RCO).

 

Section policies

From 2017 the RCO has 3 sections, Editorial, Reflections and Trends, and Regular Articles. The editorial is prepared by the Editor-in-Chief. The Reflections and Trends section is dedicated to sharing experiences and analyzes of periodical editors, area leaders, and reference researchers in their lines of research, on an issue of interest to all. It aims to bring together the years of experience and interaction in the academy of researchers, and analyze international trends in an organized and summarized way, helping to renew the area. The contributions in this section are made by invitation and analyzed by the editorial team. The regular articles section follows the editorial scope and submission rules, and is submitted to peer review.

 

Frequency

Continuously published

 

Ethical behavior and malpractice treatment

Plagiarism is a serious violation and its occurrence is not acceptable in RCO submissions, whether intentional or not. The RCO adopts the plagiarism definition of ‘The Office of Research Integrity’ as the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results or words without proper credit.

The plagiarism setting is not something simple and requires a careful process of checking and gathering evidence. The RCO adopts the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (Guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics - COPE). As an indication of originality, the RCO analyzes the similarity rate of the manuscript submitted by the authors compared to published texts available in the database accessed by the Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) tool. The similarities pointed out by the system are analyzed case by case. In addition to plagiarism, the RCO is open to denunciations or questions about malpractices such as fabrication of data and evidence, misattribution of authorship, and simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to two or more journals.

When identified, each malpractice triggers a specific internal process in the journal. In the case of similarity, simultaneous submission or doubt of the ‘salami-slicing’ practice, identified in the evaluation of the contribution, the Editor-in-Chief contacts the authors requesting clarifications. If the justifications are not satisfactory and corrections are not made, the manuscript is removed from the evaluation process and the authors will be penalized for the publication of articles for a period determined by the Editor (s) responsible.

 In the event of denunciations or alerts of malpractices occurring after publication, the RCO opens an internal process for determination, and if the violation is confirmed removes the circulation article. The RCO reserves the right to inform the institutions to which the authors are connected about mal-practices detected before or after publication.

 

Free access and fees policy

The RCO adopts the Free Open Access policy, under the standard Creative Commons agreement (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The agreement provides that:

  • Submission of text authorizes its publication and implies commitment that the same material is not being submitted to another journal. The original is considered definitive.
  • Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which allows the sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are authorized to take additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g. publish in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), with necessary recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their personal page) before or during the editorial process, as this can generate productive changes as well as increase the impact and citation of published work (See The Effect of Free Access).
  • The journal does not pay copyright to the authors of the published texts.
  • The journal's copyright holder, except those already agreed in the Free Open Access Agreement (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), is the Accounting Department of the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo.

No submission or publication fees are charged.

 

Copyright and authorship policy

Up to 4 authors per article are accepted. Exceptionally duly justified cases may be reviewed by the Executive Committee of the RCO. Exceptional cases are considered as: multi-institutional projects; manuscripts resulting from the collaboration of research groups; or involving large teams for evidence collection, construction of primary data, and comparative experiments.

It is recommended that the authorship be ordered by contribution of each of the individuals listed as authors, especially in the design and planning of the research project, in obtaining or analyzing and interpreting data, and writing. Authors must declare the actual contributions of each author, filling the letter to the editor, at the beginning of the submission, taking responsibility for the information given.

Authors are allowed to change throughout the evaluation process and prior to the publication of the manuscript. The Authors should indicate the composition and final order of authorship in the document signed by all those involved when accepted for publication. If the composition and authoring order is different than previously reported in the system, all previously listed authors should be in agreement.

In the case of identification of authorship without merit or contribution (ghost, guest or gift authorship), the RCO follows the procedure recommended by COPE.

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage policies

Following COPE's recommendations, we emphasize that AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper.

Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used.

Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

 

Evaluation process

The evaluation process consists of the preliminary verification in the Secretariat, the evaluation of the editor and associates (desk review), and peer review. The purpose of the evaluation is to ensure scientific rigor and appropriateness to the editorial line, as well as to develop the overall quality of the manuscripts by supporting the authors.

Verification of the Secretariat. The metadata, compliance with the rules of submission, and initial verification of similarity are analyzed. Each similarity case identified, even if minimal, is available to the Chief editors and associates for review in the desk review process.

Desk Review. The preliminary evaluation of the articles received by the Editor-in-Chief and the associated editors evaluates in this order of priority: the appropriateness to the journal's focus, contributions offered for the advancement of scientific knowledge, theoretical and empirical balance and adequacy, and quality of the manuscript. The articles that receive positive evaluation in this step continue to Peer Review.

Peer Review. The peer evaluation in double blind review notes the following:

  • Originality of the work and advancement of the knowledge in the theme.
  • Contribution and practical implications of results.
  • Research problem defined and justified.
  • Relevance and theoretical consistency.
  • Adequacy and appropriate use of methods and techniques.
  • Quality of writing and organization of the text.

The evaluation process is considered a fundamental step for the improvement of the manuscripts. For this reason the RCO evaluators are encouraged to submit, in addition to the opinion on publication, suggestions for improvement in content and form.

The Editor-in-Chief, after the evaluators’ opinion, reviews the final version of the work and can approve it, request new adjustments or send the manuscript again for peer review. The final decision will be up to the Editor-in-Chief, if there are divergent opinions the Editor-in-Chief may request the opinion of another referee.

The authors, in addition to being able to verify the stages of the evaluation process on the magazine’s website, are informed of the status of their submission by email. A total term of 50 days for the desk review, and 3 to 4 months to receive the result of the double blind review is estimated.

The result of the evaluation process is: Approval, Request for revisions, or Rejection. In all cases the authors are aware of the opinion of the editors, associates and evaluators.

As a way of recognizing the essential work of the reviewers, the RCO strongly recommends that they register their evaluations on the Publons platform.

 

Conflicting Interests Policy

A conflicting interest is any financial, professional or personal interest which potentially interferes with, and leads to the exemption of links to the preparation, evaluation or publication of a manuscript.

Conflict of interests of authors. Authors must ensure that their results are free from the interests of sponsors, employers or with whom they maintain a relationship of dependency. In the submission process the authors must state the existence of any financial, personal or professional interests that may have influenced the preparation of the manuscript.

They shall declare the existence of:

  • Research grants received from any source, for travel or participation in meetings, provision of paid services, relations with RCO editorial staff.
  • Relations with the organizations involved and participation in government agencies.
  • Sources of funding for the work, including its role and involvement in the decision to submit the article for publication.

            The concepts, opinions and ideas published in articles are the responsibility of their author(s). The Institution or any editorial bodies linked to the RCO are not responsible for them.

Conflict of interest of evaluators. Evaluators should be exempt from any connections in order to carry out the evaluation of the manuscript. Despite the double-blind evaluation, currently the title of the articles and their contents can be detected in pre-print databases or annals of online congresses. If the authorship of the manuscript is identified by the evaluator, in the event of any conflict of interests this must be informed before acceptance.

Conflict of interest of associated editors. Associate editors may submit manuscripts for evaluation, but are excluded from the evaluation process that involves submission.

Cases involving a potential conflict of interest in which relevance as well as implication about the manuscript has not been clearly defined, will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and the Executive Committee.

 

Governance of the RCO

The Editor-in-Chief and Assistant Editor are appointed and elected for a 2-year term by the Accounting Department of the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of Ribeirão Preto/USP. The accounting department is the founder and maintainer of the journal. The editors are responsible for editorial management, which includes all of the editorial process, hiring of XML recording services, social media management, event proposal and other activities.

The Editor-in-Chief coordinates and selects the Secretariat staff and associated editors.

Amendments to editorial policies, editorial board amendments, serious misconduct cases of the authors, and long-term decisions are proposed by the Editor-in-Chief and discussed and analyzed by the Executive Committee of the RCO, composed of the head of the accounting department, coordinator of the graduate program of the same department, senior members of the department and the Editor-in-Chief themself.

Decisions regarding scope and content direction are analyzed together with the Editorial Board.

 

Reporting, complaints and suggestions

The RCO responds to voluntary whistleblowers, complaints from authors, reviewers, readers and the community in general through its communication channels: e-mail (rco@usp.br), Facebook, or phone (+55 16 3315 9086).

In the case of a complaint about suspicions of conflicts of interest, data manufacturing, and other problems of ethical deviation, this must necessarily be performed through RCO's e-mail. Responses will be given within 48 hours after the start of the claim.

In serious cases of ethical misconduct or conflicts of interest, if the responsible editor is unable to solve the reported problem, the RCO undertakes to refer the matter to COPE.

In case of suggestions and doubts, authors, reviewers and readers can speak directly to the Secretariat by phone.

 

Indexers, Directories and Catalogs

Indexers:

 

Electronic Management of the Editorial Process

The RCO - Revista de Contabilidade uses the Electronic Journaling System - SEER (Open Journal Systems - OJS) for automation and effective electronic management of its manuscript editorial process (submission, evaluation and review of articles, reviews and case). The "SEER" system is distributed nationwide free of charge by the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology, and recognized by Capes.

 

Catalographic Data

ISSN: 1982-6486 (electronic / online journal)

Journal of Accounting and Organizations – v.1, n.1, (2007) - Ribeirão Preto - SP: FEA-RP / USP Publisher - University of São Paulo, 2007.

  • Quaterly: v.1 to v.11
  • Continuous publication: from v.12 on

Publication of the Department of Accounting – School of Economics, Business Administration and Accounting at Ribeirão Preto (FEA-RP/ USP); and the Post-Graduate Program in Controllership and Accounting FEA-RP / USP.

  • Accounting - Journal

  

Sources of Support

 We are grateful for the sponsorship of Fundace and the Accounting Department of FEARP / USP