Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Policy (DEIA/IDEIA)

Intercom supports and adopts the principles of Open Science with IDEIA — Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility — in accordance with the Declaration formulated by the SciELO Network on the occasion of its 25th anniversary (2023) and detailed in the document "DEIA Principles — Guidelines for Journal Editorial Teams" (2026). Accordingly, the journal commits to:

• expanding the scientific, cultural, social, and economic impact of the research it publishes;

• promoting geographic, institutional, gender, race/ethnicity, and career-stage diversity within its editorial board, reviewers, and authors;

• adopting equity goals in the composition of the editorial board and in the peer review process;

• fostering the inclusion of researchers and topics historically underrepresented in the field of Communication;

• ensuring the accessibility of its content and platform to people with disabilities.

Governance

The journal will designate an editor or committee responsible for monitoring the DEIA/IDEIA policy, working in coordination with the journal's Editorial Development Plan, and will periodically review the composition and activity of its Scientific Editorial Board, in line with the Principles of Transparency of COPE/DOAJ/OASPA/WAME.

Voluntary Collection of Demographic Data

The journal may offer authors, reviewers, and editorial board members the option of voluntary, confidential self-declaration of gender, race/color, and disability, for the exclusive purpose of aggregate, anonymous statistical monitoring. In all cases, a "prefer not to disclose" option will be ensured, and individual data will never be accessed by reviewers or section editors during the review process, nor published individually.

• Gender: cisgender or transgender woman, cisgender or transgender man, non-binary, other, prefer not to disclose.

• Race/color: IBGE categories — white, Black, mixed race ("parda"), Asian descent, Indigenous — or prefer not to disclose.

• Disability: based on Brazilian Law No. 13,146/2015 (Statute of Persons with Disabilities), or prefer not to disclose.

Accessibility

The journal follows the international WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) for its content and encourages their adoption on the publishing platform as well. Specific accessibility guidelines for figures, tables, and charts are detailed in the "Digital Assets" section of the Author Guidelines.

The journal also encourages, as recommended good practice (not a requirement), the production of multimedia accessibility resources — such as audio and video summaries of articles — so as not to create a new access barrier for authors without audiovisual production means.