Editorial Policies
The Trends Hub – Revista de Tendências em Comunicação e Ciências Empresariais is guided by the principles of academic rigour, research integrity, editorial transparency, and open access to knowledge. These policies govern the processes of manuscript submission, evaluation, and publication.
1. Peer Review Policy
The Trends Hub subjects articles to scientific evaluation by a committee comprising academics, professionals, and specialists in the subject areas covered by the journal.
Manuscripts are initially assessed by the editorial team for their suitability within the journal's scope, compliance with submission guidelines, and general requirements of originality and academic integrity.
Manuscripts deemed eligible are referred for scientific evaluation by reviewers approved by the editorial team, taking into account their expertise and experience in the relevant subject areas.
The evaluation considers, among other aspects, the relevance and timeliness of the topic, theoretical grounding, quality of argumentation, methodological rigour where applicable, critical analysis, relevance of the conclusions, and compliance with academic and editorial standards.
Reviewers may recommend acceptance, revision, or rejection of manuscripts. Where necessary, authors are invited to make revisions based on the feedback received. The final decision regarding publication rests exclusively with the journal's editorial team.
All participants in the review process must act impartially, maintain confidentiality, uphold the principles of academic integrity, and disclose any potential conflicts of interest.
2. Publication Ethics and Editorial Integrity Policy
The Trends Hub promotes good practices in research, academic writing, and scholarly publishing, emphasising the responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and members of the editorial team.
Submitted articles must be original and unpublished, free from plagiarism, and not simultaneously under consideration for review or publication by another journal.
Authors are responsible for the authenticity of their work, the proper acknowledgement of sources, the recognition of third-party contributions, and compliance with the ethical principles applicable to their research.
All authors must be properly identified and disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the interpretation or evaluation of their work.
The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, data falsification or fabrication, manipulation of results, inappropriate attribution of authorship, or other forms of academic misconduct.
Where substantiated concerns about irregularities arise, the editorial team may request clarification and additional documentation, assess the situation, and take appropriate measures, including manuscript rejection, publication of corrections, or, where justified, retraction of published articles.
3. Copyright and Licensing
The Trends Hub holds the economic rights in published articles, in accordance with its editorial policy and applicable publication agreements.
Authors retain the right to be acknowledged as the creators of their works, as well as all other moral rights protected by law.
Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
This licence permits the copying and redistribution of content for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the original publication is acknowledged. The distribution of adapted versions requires additional permission.
The licence is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
4. Funding and Publication Fees Policy
The Trends Hub is an academic publication with no dedicated monetary funding or independent budget for its editorial activities.
The journal benefits from non-financial institutional support provided by the Technical University of Porto, particularly through the provision of the Academic Journals Portal (PARC), which ensures the hosting and editorial management infrastructure, as well as support from institutional services for the registration of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs).
Manuscript submission, scientific evaluation, editorial processing, and article publication are entirely free of charge.
The journal does not charge submission fees, article processing charges (APCs), publication fees, or any other fees to authors. Access to published content is also free of charge.
Decisions regarding manuscript evaluation, selection, and publication are made with scientific and editorial independence.
5. Open Access Policy
The Trends Hub makes its published content freely available, promoting public access to knowledge produced by higher education students.
Articles may be accessed and downloaded without payment or subscription.
The reproduction and sharing of content must comply with the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence, ensuring appropriate acknowledgement of the authors and the original publication.
The journal thus seeks to enhance the visibility, dissemination, and recognition of research conducted within the context of academic education.
