Soils and Rocks (ISSN 1980-9743 and ISSN-e 2675-5475) publishes papers in the field of Geotechnical Engineering. The journal was originally published by the Graduate School of Engineering of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The first issue of the journal was released in 1978, under the title Solos e Rochas. In 1980, the Brazilian Association for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ABMS) took over the editorial and publishing responsibilities of Solos e Rochas. Since 2007, the journal became an international journal, adopting the title Soils and Rocks, only accepting submissions written in English, and being jointly published by the Brazilian Association for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering and by the Portuguese Geotechnical Society (SPG). In 2021 the journal was admitted to the SciELO library.

The aim of Soils and Rocks is to publish and disseminate basic and applied research in Geoengineering. Soils and Rocks publishes original and innovative peer reviewed articles, technical notes, case studies, reviews and discussions in the fields of Soil and Rock Mechanics, Geotechnical Engineering, Engineering Geology and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

Soils and Rocks embraces Open Science practices.

Publication model: Soils and Rocks follows the Gold Open Access model. Submissions to the journal are completely free and there are no article processing charges for accepted manuscripts. The journal is financially maintained by the Brazilian Association for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ABMS). The scientific editorial work is done on a volunteer basis

Licensing: the journal is published under CC-BY licenses, with authors retaining copyright. Articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. The journal maintains the rights for first publication.

Preprints: the journal accepts submissions that have been deposited as preprints. The journal also publishes accepted manuscripts ahead-of-print at the request of the corresponding author.

Continuous publication: currently, volumes are divided into four issues per year, but papers are published as soon as they are approved and edited. Papers may be published up to eight months in advance of the beginning of a publication interstice of the assigned issue.

Data availability: authors are encouraged to make available all content underlying their manuscript prior to or at the time of publication in open and reputable online repositories. 

Informed peer review: the journal offers authors the options of single-blind or double-blind review processes. Starting in 2025, all published papers include the name of the editor responsible for the evaluation process.

Authors are solely responsible for adequate research ethics practices. Authors must declare in the manuscript cover letter that ethical guidelines have been followed and disclose funding sources. If applicable, they must state in the cover letter that the research project was approved by their institution´s ethics committee. 

Authors are also required to explicitly declared in a section entitled "Declaration of use of generative artificial intelligence" the use of generative artificial intelligence to enhance text, images, graphic elements, treatment, and compilation of data and results. Such tools should only be used as aid and should always be supervised by humans.

Soils and Rocks adheres to COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/) to ensure integrity in the editorial process. The journal´s responsibilities and actions to promote publication integrity and handle misconduct involve all parties managing submissions. 

The Editors implement publication policies and oversee the journal’s relationships with all involved organizations and individuals (e.g., ABMS, SPG, indexers, authors, reviewers, members of the editorial board). The Editor-in-Chief appoints Associate Editors based on their expertise and ensures transparency and quality in the publishing process.

Associate Editors verify if submissions adhere to the Guidelines for Authors, prevent plagiarism, ensure that the peer review process follows academic neutrality, uphold reviewer confidentiality, investigate misconduct and potential financial conflicts.

Reviewers must respect confidentiality during and after the review process and follow Soils and Rocks guidelines. Reviewers must decline evaluations with conflicts of interest, accept invitations only if they can meet deadlines, verify data in open access repositories, and not use manuscript information until publication.

Soils and Rocks follows the standards defined in the Digital Preservation Policy Program of the SciELO Program. The journal is preserved by Rede Cariniana, utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Soils and Rocks is member of SciELO's collection. To access the journal's website maintained by SciELO, click here.