About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The aims of the CITAS journal, of the Faculty of Science and Technology in the Division of Open and Distance Education, are to:

  • present the progress and results of research papers related to science, innovation, technology, environment and society from the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Deanship of the Division of Open and Distance Education (DUAD); and also from other faculties at the Santo Tomás University, from other higher education institutions, and from public and private entities interested in these topics;
  • share experiences and promote the creation of new knowledge through the dissemination of the progress made in projects relating to management (corporate, environmental and/or social), innovation, entrepreneurship and technology transfer that have a national and international impact.
  • • encourage academic production by teaching staff, students and graduates from the Faculty, from the DUAD, from the Santo Tomás University and other higher education institutions.

The journal is open access; there is absolutely no charge for authors or for readers to present, publish or have access to our publication.

Peer review process

The review process of papers presented to the CITAS journal is double blind peer review. It consists of a preselection and general review carried out by the editorial committee, which includes an originality review with the Turnitin platform, followed by a single-blind peer review by subject matter experts from outside the publishing institution.  After the academic peer review has been performed, the author(s) will receive the denomination of Publishable, Adjustments Required or Not Publishable. In those instances where the paper is approved subject to modifications, the author(s) will also receive suggestions and comments made by the reviewers.  The author will have a period of one month from the delivery of the review to make the necessary changes and send the corrected version of the paper to the journal editor, accompanied by a detailed letter of explanation of the changes made.  The editorial committee will verify the incorporation of the changes into the paper and, if considered necessary, will send it to the academic peer again for their opinion.  The final decision regarding the publication of the paper will be subject to the approval of the academic peer and the editorial committee in relation to the inclusion of the requested changes made by the author.

If the paper is accepted for publication, the authors must sign a declaration of originality and an authorisation form for the publication and republication rights of the paper and for its inclusion in national and international databases, web pages, or electronic pages.

Review time frame

The estimated time between receipt of the paper and the first reply from the reviewers is 6 weeks.  And the estimated time between receipt of the paper and its publication is 20 weeks.

Review guidelines

The review of papers focuses on the originality and contributions to new knowledge, as well as the sense of ownership or the creation of discussion on an area of specific interest, by evaluating primarily the methodology, the results and the discussion raised.  The article must contain original, unpublished material.

The time allowed for revision by the academic peers is 3 weeks.  The reviewers must send their observations in the text and fill out the evaluation form available for this purpose.

Open access policy

This journal provides open access to its contents, based on the principle that offering the public open access to research helps to create a bigger global exchange of knowledge.

The content of this journal is published under the open access model, so the journal does not charge for processing or publication of submitted texts; this is a way of sharing academic production in which open access must be guaranteed by the journal without restriction at the time of its publication online.

This open access movement advocates the removal of barriers that limit access to the results of research, which should be a universal right available to all, allowing any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or use for any legal purpose, for free and without any financial, legal or technical barrier beyond that which is necessary to access the internet, with the aim of providing a new space to the authors for their work where they can share it and give it greater visibility and impact.  The only limitation in regards to the reproduction, distribution and copyright will be to give the authors control of the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

You are free to:

  • • Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
  • • Adapt – remix, transform and build upon the material.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

History of the journal

CITAS is a digital journal that belongs to the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Santo Tomás University, published yearly, dedicated to academic, technical, and scientific research.  It was created as a space for dialogue, exchange, and discussion to allow the dissemination of knowledge with articles that develop the thematic focal points of science, innovation, technology, environment and society, in line with the study goals of the different disciplines that make up the Faculty.  Furthermore, it contributes to the national and international trend of online academic dissemination.

Until 2019 the documents published in the magazine were under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA), however, in order to guarantee the open and free distribution of the content published in the magazine, it was decided to change the type Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Language used

The CITAS journal is published in Spanish.  However, since its launch, it has included several articles written in English as an inclusion policy.  All articles include a summary in English and keywords as regulated by the international thesauruses.  The summaries are structured and follow publishing practices of title length, good language use, and in the case of articles written in a foreign language, an edit is made by expert editors in the language who are qualified to evaluate all aspects of form and content of the papers.

Plagiarism detection policy

The CITAS journal actively rejects plagiarism and fraudulent practices.  Therefore, all texts sent for publication will be submitted for verification using anti-plagiarism software (Turnitin).

If any type of fraud is detected, the text will be withdrawn from the process and the author will be informed of the decision.