CLAVES is a Qualis A3 scientific journal (2021-2024) linked to the Graduate Program in Music of the Federal University of Paraíba (PPGM-UFPB). Published at least once a year, it is dedicated to the academic and scientific dissemination of research in the main subareas of music: Composition, Music Education, Aesthetics, Musicologies, and Performance Practices. It publishes original articles, reviews, translations, and research reports in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, fostering dialogue with graduate programs and research groups in Brazil and abroad and strengthening exchanges between Brazilian graduate studies and the international scholarly community.

 

Guidelines

Revista CLAVES receives submissions on a continuous-flow basis of original texts in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, linked to the subareas of music research: Composition, Music Education, Aesthetics, Musicologies, and Performance Practices, as well as to thematic dossiers defined by specific calls for papers. Articles, reviews, interviews, translations, and research reports are accepted, provided that they demonstrate academic relevance, theoretical and methodological consistency, argumentative clarity, alignment with the journal's editorial scope, and compliance with ethical, copyright, and scientific integrity standards. Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively through the journal's electronic system, in an editable file, according to the template provided, without identification of authorship in the body of the text or in the file properties, in order to preserve the peer-review process when applicable. At the time of submission, authors must provide complete authorship information, institutional affiliation, ORCID, contact e-mail address, any funding relationship, conflicts of interest, Research Ethics Committee approval when the research involves human participants, use of preprints, data availability, use of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools, and, in cases of coauthorship, the Author Contribution Statement. Texts must comply with the formatting, citation, and reference standards adopted by the journal; include title, abstract, and keywords in the language of the manuscript and in a foreign language, when required; and contain only materials, images, scores, musical examples, tables, transcriptions, or documents whose use is duly authorized or supported by applicable legislation. Submission implies the authors' agreement with the editorial policies of Revista CLAVES, including open access, Creative Commons CC-BY license, similarity checking, editorial evaluation, and full responsibility for the submitted content.

Revista CLAVES recommends that manuscripts submitted by authors in academic training, especially undergraduate and master's students, preferably include a coauthor holding a doctoral degree or a researcher with recognized experience in the field, without prejudice to the evaluation of the manuscript on the basis of its academic merit, originality, relevance, theoretical and methodological consistency, and alignment with the journal's editorial scope.

Submission of Original Manuscripts for Evaluation (continuous flow or dossiers)

The main requirement for the publication of an article in Revista CLAVES is the presentation of a text that is representative of the subject it proposes to develop, with regard to: consistency, relevance, and importance of the topic addressed, considering the context, the moment, and the subarea(s) of knowledge in which it is situated; definition and pertinence of the objectives; scientific grounding; clarity in the presentation, adequacy, and application of the methodological process; consistency, clarity, and fluency in the text and in the final considerations; and an up-to-date bibliography consistent with the topic addressed.

Download the Template Here

Revista CLAVES also receives original interviews, reviews, and translations linked to the subareas of music research, observing their academic relevance, thematic pertinence, and contribution to scientific and artistic debate. The same template provided above must be followed.

Interviews must present a dialogue with a researcher, artist, composer, educator, performer, or figure of recognized standing in the field of music, with a defined focus, introductory contextualization, and questions pertinent to the proposed topic.

Reviews must provide a critical assessment of publications, scores, recordings, editions, documents, or other materials relevant to music research, and may address a single work or establish critical relationships among two or more productions.

Translations must concern texts of recognized academic, historical, artistic, or documentary interest to the field, accompanied by the appropriate authorizations when applicable, complete identification of the original source, and preferably an introductory note justifying their relevance to the journal's readership.

In all cases, the editorial process will consider the originality of the submission, the consistency, clarity, and fluency of the text, compliance with ethical and copyright standards, and the relationship of the proposal to the editorial scope of Revista CLAVES.

Fees

Revista CLAVES does not charge any fees for submission or publication of texts, nor for evaluation, review, or download processes.

Peer Review Process

The evaluation process for submissions begins with a preliminary review by the Editorial Board, which assesses their suitability for the editorial line of Revista CLAVES. Each manuscript is then assigned to two ad hoc reviewers, who will evaluate the text. In the event of a tie, a third review is requested from another reviewer. In order to ensure greater alignment of Revista CLAVES with an international quality standard, when appropriate and whenever possible, we request that peer reviews be carried out by a Brazilian or foreign specialist based at a Brazilian university and by a Brazilian or foreign specialist based at a foreign university.

Authors may choose one or more forms of opening the peer-review process offered by the journal at the time of article submission.

Periodicity

Electronic (online), serial, annual publication, with submissions received under a continuous publication system.

Revista CLAVES receives articles on a continuous-flow basis and, as of volume 13 (2025), publishes thematic dossiers that follow specific calls for papers and publication schedules.

Open Science

Preprints: As of volume 13 (2025), and as part of initiatives to integrate Revista CLAVES into the Open Science environment, the journal accepts submissions of articles that have been published on preprint servers. Authors must indicate this situation and provide the server and DOI of the preprint at the time of article submission.

Open peer review: Authors may choose one or more forms of opening the peer-review process offered by the journal at the time of article submission.

Open data: Authors are encouraged to make available all content (data, software code, and other materials) underlying the manuscript text before or at the time of publication. Exceptions are allowed in cases involving legal and ethical issues. The aim is to facilitate manuscript evaluation and, if approved, to contribute to the preservation and reuse of the content and to the reproducibility of research.

Similarity Check Software

Revista CLAVES uses Crossref's Similarity Check software to detect plagiarism in texts submitted to the journal. All articles are checked during the preliminary evaluation stage, before being sent to reviewers.

If plagiarism is detected, the text will be returned to the author(s), and the process will continue only after the problem has been resolved. In the event of recurrence, the manuscript will be removed from the evaluation process.

Revista CLAVES values the integrity of its articles; in cases of plagiarism, fraudulent information, or other ethical misconduct, the authors will be held responsible.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence

In accordance with the CNPq Policy on Integrity in Scientific Activity, established by CNPq Ordinance No. 2,664 of March 6, 2026, Revista CLAVES requires authors, at the time of submission, to declare any use of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools - of any kind and at any stage of the development of the research or the writing of the manuscript, including conception, literature review, data analysis, writing, translation, language revision, or submission. The declaration must be included in a separate section at the end of the manuscript, before the references, entitled "Declaration on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence," specifying the tool used, its version when available, the stage of the work in which it was employed, and its purpose.

When such tools have not been used, authors are recommended to include the following statement: "The authors declare that they did not use Generative Artificial Intelligence tools in the preparation of this manuscript."

The use of AI does not exempt authors from full responsibility for the submitted content, originality, accuracy of information, proper attribution of sources, and compliance with the journal's ethical, copyright, and editorial standards. AI tools may not be listed as authors or coauthors of manuscripts.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that making scientific knowledge freely available to the public promotes the worldwide democratization of knowledge. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or reference the full text of articles without requesting prior authorization from editors or authors. This policy is in accordance with the BOAI - Budapest Open Access Initiative - definition of open access.

Revista CLAVES is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY license.

Author Contribution Statement

Revista CLAVES recommends that manuscripts submitted in coauthorship include, at the end of the text and before the references, a section entitled "Author Contribution Statement," in which the individual participation of each author in the development of the research and the manuscript is specified. The statement must objectively indicate the contributions made by each author, preferably based on the CRediT taxonomy (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), and may consider categories such as research conception, theoretical framework, methodology, investigation, analysis of data or materials, curation of sources, writing of the original draft, review and editing of the text, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition, when applicable. All authors must have participated significantly in the work, approved the final submitted version, and assumed public responsibility for the content of the manuscript, in accordance with the journal's ethical, copyright, and editorial standards.

This statement may be included at the end of the text, before the references, or submitted as a supplementary document in the submission system. All listed authors must have contributed significantly to the work, approved the final version of the manuscript, and agreed to its submission to Revista CLAVES.

Author Contribution Statement:
Author 1: research conception, methodology, data analysis, and writing of the original draft.
Author 2: theoretical framework, critical review of the manuscript, and final editing.
Author 3: supervision, curation of sources, and text revision.

Open Access

This journal follows the Open Access model, allowing virtual access, without restriction (including financial restrictions), to all scientific texts published by the journal.

Open access is the condition in which the copyright holder of an academic work grants rights of use to third parties through an open license (Creative Commons Attribution, CC-BY), allowing immediate free access to the work and authorizing any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose.

Copyright

Authors of articles published by Revista CLAVES retain the copyright to their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, provided that the original work is properly cited.

The journal's objective is to reach the largest possible number of researchers, musicians, and people interested in music in general. There is no embargo period for any content; all articles may be accessed and used for academic purposes at any time. Copyright in the published works belongs to their authors, and the journal holds the right of first publication. The content of published articles does not represent the opinion of the editor.

Intellectual Property and Terms of Use

Authors of articles published by Revista CLAVES retain the copyright to their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, provided that the original work is properly cited.

Revista CLAVES encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts by publishing them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and academic social media platforms, as well as on their personal social media, provided that the complete citation of the version published on the journal's website is included.

Conflict of Interest Policy

All those involved in the editorial process of a manuscript must disclose the existence of any conflict of interest. Editors must avoid making decisions on manuscripts that conflict with their own interests, such as those submitted by authors from their department or research collaborators. If the editors responsible for conducting the evaluation process of a manuscript have a conflict of interest, they must delegate the decision-making process to other editors.

Reviewers must consider any type of conflict of interest before evaluating a manuscript. Working relationships with the author must be considered (e.g., participating or having participated in a research project; maintaining or having maintained scientific collaboration with research groups; having an advising relationship with the author; having a financial interest in the project involved in the manuscript).

Publication Ethics

All those involved in the publication process of Revista CLAVES must follow the standards listed below, based on the "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" of the Committee on Publication Ethics - COPE. Research involving human participants must comply with current research ethics regulations.

Authors must include the CAEE number in the article and attach, as a supplementary document, a statement of approval from the ethics committee of the institution responsible for approving the research.

The responsibilities of the editorial board are:

• To contribute to the development and sound management of the journal;
• To act as promoters of the journal;
• To assist the editor in decisions concerning the journal.

The responsibilities of the editor are:

• To decide on the publication of submitted manuscripts, based on the journal's policies;
• To ensure that all evaluation and publication processes comply with legal requirements concerning defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism;
• To inform authors and reviewers about peer-review processes;
• To evaluate manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic and intellectual merit, regardless of the authors' nationality, ethnicity, political conviction, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, or social class;
• To ensure fair and impartial evaluation of results by peers;
• To ensure the selection of appropriate reviewers;
• To ensure that reviewers' identities are protected, unless they express a desire to carry out an open review;
• To send reviewers' comments to authors in full, unless they contain offensive or defamatory remarks;
• To monitor reviewers' performance and take measures to ensure that it meets high standards;
• To identify potential new reviewers and stop inviting reviewers who consistently produce discourteous, poor-quality, or late reviews;
• To ensure that the reviewer database reflects the community and to add new names whenever necessary;
• To publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies whenever necessary;
• To take measures in cases of suspected misconduct related to a submitted or published manuscript;
• To consult the members of the editorial board periodically to request their opinions on the functioning of the journal, inform them of any changes in journal policies, and identify future challenges.

The responsibilities of authors are:

• To assume full responsibility for the content of the article;
• To participate in evaluation processes;
• To ensure that all listed coauthors have participated significantly in the research and that there is consensus among all coauthors in approving the final version and submitting it;
• To ensure that the manuscript has not been submitted to more than one publication at the same time and that it has not been published in another journal;
• To ensure that works or excerpts from works by other authors, contributors, and sources have been properly credited and referenced;
• To notify the editor if any error or inaccuracy is detected in the published work and, in such cases, to cooperate in providing a retraction or correction;
• Authors must be aware that plagiarism in any form constitutes unacceptable unethical behavior.

The responsibilities of reviewers are:

• To assist the editor in making editorial decisions;
• To assist the author in improving the manuscript;
• To notify the editor if they do not feel qualified to review the manuscript or if they have any information about the identity of the author in the case of blind review;
• To maintain the confidentiality of any information or ideas obtained through peer review;
• To inform the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and/or plagiarism by the author;
• To evaluate manuscripts based on content, regardless of the authors' nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, or social class;
• To decline to review if they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors or institutions linked to the articles.

Policy on Ethics and Misconduct, Errata, and Retractions

Revista CLAVES adopts the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the SciELO Guide to Good Practices for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publication as references, including issues related to conflicts of interest, plagiarism, citation manipulation, dissemination of discriminatory opinions, and others. Based on these guidelines, the following are understood as responsibilities of authors:

- To assume full responsibility for the content of the article;
- To participate in evaluation processes;
- To ensure that all listed coauthors have participated significantly in the research and that there is consensus among all coauthors in approving the final version and submitting it;
- To ensure that the manuscript has not been submitted to more than one publication at the same time and that it has not been published in another journal;
- To ensure that works or excerpts from works by other authors, contributors, and sources have been properly credited and referenced;
- To notify the editor if any error or inaccuracy is detected in the published work and, in such cases, to cooperate in providing a retraction or correction;
- Authors must be aware that plagiarism in any form constitutes unacceptable unethical behavior.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors may submit a substantiated appeal against editorial decisions when they identify a possible procedural error, an undisclosed conflict of interest, or a relevant inconsistency in the evaluation of the manuscript. The appeal must be addressed to the Editorial Board, which will analyze the request independently and communicate its decision to the authors. Submission of an appeal does not guarantee reversal of the editorial decision.

Contact: revistaclaves@emo.ufpb.br

Digital Preservation

Revista CLAVES adopts digital preservation procedures with the aim of ensuring permanent access to published content. The journal's digital files are maintained in an institutional environment (Portal de Periódicos of the Federal University of Paraíba) and may be preserved through recognized digital archiving systems, networks, or repositories, in order to ensure the integrity, availability, and retrieval of published texts over time.