Gaudium Sciendi is a bi-annual, open and free access journal published since 2012 by the Scientific Society of the Portuguese Catholic University. It has been conceived to be read online on a computer, a tablet or any other mobile devise. The publication of Gaudium Sciendi on the Net reaches readers all over the world and creates new opportunities that include being accessible at any time and place, in Portuguese as well as in foreign libraries. It can also, if the reader prefers, be printed and read as a book.

 

Open Access Policy

The magazine offers freely to its readers the type of scientific information that gives them "the joy of knowing", as implicit in its title Gaudium Sciendi thus contributing to a better democratization of knowledge. Although following a policy of open access, the contacts of the authors will be kept private.

 

Objectives of Gaudium Sciendi

The editorial activity of the magazine follows principles aimed at assuring the freedom of initiative and cooperation and, therefore, Gaudium Sciendi accepts and encourages the collaboration of all the members of Sociedade Científica as well as of academics of the Catholic University and other Portuguese and foreign institutions who are interested in research, tuition and culture, if they want to attain the same objectives and values, thus trying to motivate inter-institutional interchange.

Gaudium Sciendi follows an editorial policy that also aims at establishing contacts and providing occasions for meetings and debates of researchers, authors, students and readers, in the different moments of their scientific career and academic education. Another of its purposes is to promote opportunities for a critical reflection and for a dialogue about the themes presented in the magazine and to provide occasions for an intellectual debate and for academic cooperation, in an interdisciplinary perspective, that contribute to develop the formation and the interest for scientific research among its readers, primarily the younger ones. To attain this goal, it would be good to have regular contributions of the associates of all the different "Sections" of SCUCP. The magazine also gladly accepts collaborations of academics of other institutions, if they follow the directives of Gaudium Sciendi and the rules for the submission of articles. Gaudium Sciendi also wants to contribute to keep its readers – whether they are SCUCP associates or professors, actual or former students or researchers at Universidade Católica Portuguesa – connected to their alma mater. That connection can be made not only by regularly reading the magazine but also by sending articles or, in a more intervening way, by writing short texts to the Sections "Debate", "Letters to the Editor" and "Interviews".

The magazine also wants, within the scope of its possibilities, to contribute to publicly demonstrate, through all the collaborations that it gets, that all those who are connected either to the Sociedade Científica or to Universidade Católica are proud to belong to those institutions. By keeping our readers informed about the results of undergoing scientific research or about the professional success of former students or researchers as well as with the publication of texts, which are related with events organized by Sociedade Científica and by Universidade Católica, Gaudium Sciendi also aims at contributing to demonstrate how both institutions are important in Portugal and abroad.

 

Blind peer review process

The editorial success of the magazine depends on the scientific quality of the articles, which is, obviously assured by the authors but it also depends on the Blind Peer Review Process of evaluation. The Editor, being responsible for the quality, the correction and the variety of the scientific material published in the magazine, has, however, the last word.

The texts sent to Gaudium Sciendi, which should not have been published previously, will be evaluated by the Editor and then reviewed according to the Blind Peer Review Process. The names of the members of the Blind Peer Review Board as well as those of the authors, whose texts they evaluate, are kept secret. The writers will be informed of the evaluation of their texts and also of any required correction.

 

Editorial Board

Editorial Boards are a longstanding tradition in every newspaper. Nowadays, although they no longer have the deciding power they used to have, they still have an important role in the critical analysis they make of every material presented for publication, and it is their responsibility to watch over the scientific content and the public image of the publications.

 The Editorial Board of Gaudium Sciendi is responsible for the edition and the publication of the magazine, which is published twice a year and whose objective is to be a means of transmission of scientific interdisciplinary articles written by members of Sociedade Científica of Universidade Católica and of other academic institutions who want to have their work published and acknowledged at home and abroad. It also has the objective of contributing to the knowledge and the disclosure of critical reflections and research. One of the capacities of the Board is the establishment of the editorial policy of the magazine regarding its different Sections such as Articles, Book Reviews, Poetry, and Interviews and, thus directly collaborating with the Director, who, on the other hand, is the link with the President of the Society.

 The recently created Editorial Board of Gaudium Sciendi is composed by three members of Sociedade Científica, who are Professors at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and reknown scholars in different research areas. Both the diversity in the tuition fields and the levels of seniority were taken into account for the constitution of the Board.

Duties and Obligations

The main objective of the Editorial Board is to assure the publication of the on-line magazine Gaudium Sciendi, thus making known original texts that result both from teaching and research activities and are mainly produced by members of Sociedade Científica of Universidade Católica Portuguesa – once their technical, scientific, artistic and literary value have been assured by the Blind Peer Review. Besides promoting and publicizing the multidisciplinary scientific production of the academic community in which it is integrated, the magazine also publishes articles written by Portuguese and foreign authors from other institutions, if they follow the editorial policy. The Board must also aim at diffusing new ideas and - due to its care for the content and technological aspects – contributing to the development of an editorial project and search for a graphical design that is distinct from others, thus following the tendencies of our days academic editorial market.

Meetings

The Editorial Board will meet, as a rule, every three months and extraordinarily, whenever convoked by the President of Sociedade Científica, by the Director of the magazine or by the majority of its members.

 

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board of Gaudium Sciendi is an external permanent committee that gives scientific advice and support to the Director and participates in the definition of general editorial directives. It is constituted by Portuguese and international academics, researchers and other personalities, who, being well known for their merit and scientific level, are considered experts on the topics published by Gaudium Sciendi. The members are invited by the Director, who proposes their names to the President of the Society. The decisions of the Advisory Board are not mandatory.

 

Thematic numbers

Although one of the aims of Gaudium Sciendi is to publish of academic articles, whose themes are free, there are also some thematic numbers that focus a central topic, such as " The Linguistic-Cultural Transversability of the Bible" (January 2013), "The Law" (July 2013) and "The Concept of Soul – From Ancient Egypt to the World of Matrix" (June 2014).

 

Sections

There are several sections in the magazine, such as the Editorial, Articles, Debates, Critical Reviews, Poetry, Interviews and Letters to the Editor.

 

Information for the authors

We welcome contributions about a wide range of subjects from different research and scientific areas. The Editor is responsible for all the images included in the articles unless the authors have chosen the illustrations themselves and, in that case, it will be mentioned in a note.