About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Lumina is an open access academic journal of the Graduate Program in Communication (PPGCOM) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), committed to publishing original, high-quality, unpublished research within its editorial line oriented toward the intersection of Communication and Society. The journal accepts article submissions in Portuguese, English, and Spanish that take as their object communicational phenomena, understood as complex, reticular, sociohistorical, and influenced by political, economic, and technological changes and disputes, within social interfaces. From this perspective, the journal accepts theoretical approaches, methodologies, and lines of research, with a transdisciplinary profile open to a plurality of methodologies, methods, and techniques, valuing works that present empirical research results, whether completed or at intermediate stages, provided they present innovative aspects and social impact in the field of Communication studies.

Scientific Integrity and Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

POLICIES IN EFFECT AS OF DECEMBER 22, 2025

Lumina has decided to establish the following policies of ethical conduct, responsible use, and transparency for authors, reviewers, and editors in their interactions with Artificial Intelligence, based on recommendations from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (ABEC) in response to emerging dilemmas of AI in scientific publishing. These rules will be under constant review.

For authors:

1. It is mandatory to disclose, in the submitted text, the use of AI and at which stages of the process it was used: Methodology, Literature Review, Discussion;
2. It is prohibited to generate original data, fabricate references (nonexistent citations), or replace critical analysis and human conclusions;

For reviewers:

1. The use of any AI tools is prohibited due to Lumina's confidentiality policy regarding unpublished articles;
2. Peer review requires human knowledge and responsibility.

For editors:

1. In the Desk Review process, Lumina uses the academic-professional tool iThenticate for preliminary plagiarism screening, contracted through the Journal Portal of the Pro-Rectorate for Graduate Studies and Research (PROPP) of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora.
2. The editorial team is prohibited from entering any manuscript into generative or general-purpose AI tools.

Peer Review Process

1. Texts (national and international articles, interviews, and reviews) submitted to Lumina are subject to a process of scientific refereeing through anonymous evaluation (peer review) by two specialists in the field appointed by the Editorial Board.
2. The Editorial Board reserves the right not to publish texts that do not fit the scope of the journal (preliminary analysis carried out by the scientific editors), that show a high rate of similarity with other works (verified by plagiarism-detection software, as described in the Author Guidelines), that do not comply with scientific writing standards and ABNT norms (a template is available), that do not comply with the guidelines and regulatory standards for research involving human subjects (Resolution No. 466/12) and the standards applicable to research in the Human and Social Sciences (Resolution No. 510/16), as well as texts whose evaluations are not positive (after double-blind evaluation).
3. Lumina guarantees the anonymity of its authors in the article evaluation process.
4. Regarding the evaluation process and criteria: each text is evaluated anonymously by two reviewers whose research and/or professional area relates to the text. The evaluation form includes scientific quality criteria in the following categories: relevance of the topic to the field, fit with the journal's scope, clarity of objectives and whether they are effectively achieved, currency and appropriateness of the references used, consistency of the theoretical foundation, clarity, appropriateness, and application of the methodology and procedures adopted, clarity, fluency, coherence, and correctness of the text, adoption of the formal aspects of scientific language, appropriateness of the title, appropriateness of the abstract (whether it describes the objective, theoretical framework, methods used, and main results), and overall evaluation.
5. After evaluating these categories, each reviewer indicates whether the text will be Approved, Rejected, or requires Mandatory Revisions. It is important to note that a text whose reviews requested Mandatory Revisions does not signify Acceptance. Finally, in a text field, the reviewer must provide comments on their overall evaluation and clear indications of the changes that should be made (in cases of approval with revisions) or the reasons for rejection. These comments are used to provide feedback to the author(s).
6. Editorial decisions on each text are made based on the evaluations of the two reviewers. In cases of two Approved or two Rejected reviews, the author(s) is (are) immediately notified of the editorial decision (respectively, meaning the sending of the reviews and of the acceptance or rejection versions). In the case of one Approved review and one Approved with revisions, the reviews (anonymized) are sent to the author and a new version of the text is requested; once submitted by the author(s), it is assigned to two editors of Lumina for a decision. In the case of opposing reviews, one Approved and one Rejected, a third reviewer is appointed; if the new review is Rejected or Approved with revisions, the author is immediately notified of the editorial decision (rejection, with the text archived in the system); if the new review is Approved, we send the three reviews to the author(s), requesting a new version, which will be evaluated again by the initial reviewers in a second round. In the case of two reviews of Approved with revisions, the editor assesses whether the changes are very substantial; if they are fundamental changes (errors in the scope, methodology, theoretical framework, etc.), the editorial decision of rejection is communicated and the text is archived in the system; if the changes are easier to resolve (related to text revision, requests to clarify secondary aspects, etc.), we send a request for a new version, which goes through a second round of evaluation by the initial reviewers. The final decision on acceptance and publication always rests with the journal's editorial team.
7. In the system, reviewers may send supplementary documents to the editor. As a final step, they are asked to make a more specific recommendation to the journal's editors (Accept, Mandatory Corrections, Resubmit to the Journal, Submit to Another Journal, Reject, See Comments).
8. Some of the published texts may originate from invitations sent by Lumina to specialists in the field, in which case the works go through the evaluation and editing procedures overseen by the editors.
9. The evaluation form currently used by Lumina can be accessed here.

Estimated Time Between Evaluation and Publication

• 2025: 148 days
• 2024: 175 days

Publication Frequency

Beginning with volume 20 in 2026, Lumina adopts a continuous publication system (rolling pass), making article publication faster. There are no issues, nor the periodicity currently used. Approved articles will be published in several batches within one volume per year. The complete table of contents and the editorial will be published together with the last batch of articles of the volume.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, following the principle that making scientific knowledge freely available to the public fosters greater worldwide democratization of knowledge.

 

Directories and Indexers

Journal History

Journal of the Graduate Program in Communication at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (PPGCOM/UFJF). It continues the print edition, published biannually, of Lumina, Revista da Faculdade de Comunicação / UFJF (ISSN 1516-0785), which began in July 1998. The goal at the time was to encourage and develop research practice at the undergraduate level within the Faculty of Communication. It was published biannually as a print edition until 2003 (ISSN 1516-0785). From 2004 to 2006, it began to be published online (e-ISSN 1981-4070). The editors during this period were Francisco Paoliello Pimenta and Potiguara Mendes da Silveira Jr. It was (re)launched as a biannual publication in 2007, the inaugural year of the Graduate Program in Communication at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. Beginning in 2016, it moved to a four-month publication cycle (three issues per year) and continues to publish articles, dossiers, book reviews, research reports, and interviews with Brazilian and international authors related to the field of Communication studies. It was edited by Potiguara Mendes da Silveira Jr. until 2013, when Gabriela Borges joined as co-editor, and in 2017 Erika Savernini also joined the editorial team for a period of two years. In 2019, Gabriela Borges began editing the journal together with Daiana Sigiliano, as associate editor. Since 2023, Lumina has had a collegiate editorial team composed of Ana Paula Dessupoio, Eli Borges Júnior, Gabriela Borges, Jhonatan Alves Pereira Mata, João Paulo Malerba, Letícia Barbosa Torres Americano, Paulo Roberto Figueira Leal, Telma Sueli Pinto Johnson, and Wedencley Alves Santana. In 2024, the Lumiah channel was launched, featuring podcasts, videos, and posts that promote the articles published by Lumina, including interviews with its authors and occasional appearances by other researchers and faculty members of PPGCom/UFJF. Lumiah's products highlight the social relevance of Communication studies, bridging the gap between research and society. In 2026, Telma Johnson became editor-in-chief, and the journal moved to a continuous publication model.