Virtualia Journal, an academic journal linked to the Department of Philosophy at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), is committed to the highest standards of editorial ethics, academic integrity, and intellectual responsibility at all stages of the scientific publication process. This statement is aligned with the guidelines of CAPES (Area 33 – Philosophy), the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), international best practices in scientific publishing, and the journal's Editorial Policy.

1. Fundamental Ethical Principles
Virtualia Journal bases its editorial actions on the following principles:

• intellectual integrity and conceptual rigor;

• ethical responsibility of authors, editors, and reviewers;

• transparency in editorial processes;

• respect for human intellectual authorship;

• institutional plurality and academic diversity;

• critical interdisciplinary curation in the fields of Philosophy, Art, and Technology.

The journal understands academic publishing as a formative, critical, and mediating practice of contemporary intellectual debate, not merely as a repository of texts.

2. Editorial Evaluation and Peer Review
All manuscripts submitted to Virtualia Journal undergo blind peer review, conducted by qualified reviewers selected based on their academic competence and thematic affinity.

Reviews must be analytical, argumentative, and oriented towards the qualification of the text, respecting explicit philosophical, critical, and conceptual criteria.

Editorial decisions:

• are exclusively human;

• are based on academic merit, theoretical relevance, and adherence to the journal's scope;

• do not, under any circumstances, use Artificial Intelligence tools for decisively evaluating manuscripts or for editorial decision-making.

3. Responsibilities of the Editorial Team
The editorial team of Virtualia Journal is responsible for:

• ensuring equitable and impartial treatment of all submissions;

• maintaining the confidentiality of manuscripts and the review process;

• preventing, identifying, and addressing cases of academic misconduct;

• ensuring compliance with policies on institutional exogeny, internationalization, and academic diversity;

• safeguarding the integrity, authenticity, and digital preservation of published content.

4. Responsibilities of Authors
Authors are fully responsible for the intellectual, ethical, and argumentative content of the submitted manuscripts. By submitting a work to Virtualia Journal, authors declare that:

• the manuscript is original, unpublished, and not under simultaneous evaluation in another journal;

• all sources have been properly cited;

• there are no practices of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or redundant submission;

• any potential conflicts of interest have been explicitly declared;

• authorship is exclusively human, with authorship or co-authorship by Artificial Intelligence systems being inadmissible.

5. Responsible and Transparent Use of Artificial Intelligence
Virtualia Journal recognizes the use of Artificial Intelligence tools only as auxiliary instruments, never as a substitute for human intellectual work. The use of AI must fully comply with the CRediT-IA Declaration (responsible use of artificial intelligence), requiring transparent, traceable, and detailed declaration of any use, including tool, version, purpose, limits of use, and explicit confirmation of human responsibility.

The following are expressly prohibited:

• the use of AI for the autonomous generation of philosophical arguments or critical judgments;

• the use of AI for evaluating manuscripts, preparing reviews, or editorial decision-making.

6. Conflicts of Interest and Combating Discrimination
Authors, editors, and reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest of a personal, institutional, financial, or academic nature that could influence, or appear to influence, the editorial process or the interpretation of results.

Practices of racism, sexism, colonialism, and other forms of unjustified discrimination are prohibited. Unjustified discrimination by authors may result in rejection during desk review and a ban on future submissions.

7. Corrections, Retractions, and Publication Integrity
When substantial errors, inconsistencies, or academic misconduct are identified after publication, Virtualia Journal will adopt appropriate measures, including the publication of corrections, retractions, or editorial expressions, in accordance with COPE guidelines.

8. Open Access, Digital Preservation, and Transparency
Virtualia Journal adopts an immediate open access policy, with no charges for submission, publication, or access. All content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This license allows third parties to share and adapt the content for any purpose, including commercial, provided that due credit is given to the authors and the journal.

The journal's issues are also preserved in a decentralized infrastructure based on blockchain (Arweave), ensuring the integrity, authenticity, traceability, and permanent access to published content.

9. Final Provisions
This Statement of Ethics and Good Practices may be periodically revised by the Editorial Board of Virtualia Journal, keeping pace with transformations in academic, technological, and ethical practices of contemporary scientific publication.