Focus and scope

Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios socioterritoriales (ISSN online: 2711-3833) is a journal for dissemination about socio-territorial studies. It is an open access journal from Universidad Santo Tomás, campus Villavicencio (Colombia). It was founded in 2010.

The journal is a semi-annual (not biannual) publication of original papers. Topics covered in Episteme include education, social and human sciences, economics, administration, accounting, architecture and urban planning, engineering and related sciences, natural sciences, among others, which are addressed to communicate and reflect on the Colombian and Latin American reality in its various facets.

The journal seeks to form a broad space for interdisciplinary dialogue and reflection in the academic community in general, which contributes to critical development at the regional, national, and international levels.

 

Editorial process

Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios socioterritoriales performs a double-blind- peer review process for all journal submissions, done by two external reviewers to the institution, which seeks to ensure the academic quality of the publications and transparency throughout the process.

The evaluation and selection process consists of several stages in which compliance with the standards, guidelines and policies established by the publication is verified, as well as academic quality, relevance, and thematic focus.

The evaluation process consists of the following stages:

1. The editor of the journal will review the compliance of the guidelines of the manuscript to continue with the editorial process. If necessary, the editor will request adjustments from authors.
2. One member of the editorial committee will review the manuscript, and validate if the theme, originality, and scientific quality are fit to be published in the journal.
3. The manuscript will go through a double-blind peer review process by two external reviewers, in which the anonymity of the evaluator and the author will be guaranteed to avoid any conflict of interest and allow an evaluation with academic criteria.
4. The result of this evaluation will be communicated to the author and may be three types of verdicts:

• Accepted (with minor modifications).
• Revise and resubmit within a month.
• Rejected

After this process, the journal will confirm to the authors whose documents were accepted, the final acceptance of the document and subsequent publication, via email. The communication time to the authors may take between four and six months from the closing of the call.

 

Ethics in publishing

Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios socioterritoriales makes public its ethical policies for the development of correct editorial practices. Likewise, it makes available to authors some guidelines for the presentation of articles.

The authors are responsible for the ideas expressed in their articles, as well as their ethical suitability. Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios socioterritoriales seeks to guarantee academic and investigative suitability, respecting the creation and work carried out by the authors, through its editorial process, which seek to protect pluralism and realism.

 

1. Author Responsibilities

• The journal will only consider original articles that are in accordance with its editorial policies in terms of content and structure. If an author or authors submit a work that has already been published, in whole or in part, their actions will be considered unethical, and the article will be withdrawn from the evaluation process.
• It is the author's responsibility to avoid any conflict of interest in the publication of data and results (financial, institutional, collaborative, or other relationships between reviewers and authors).
• It is considered a good practice for the author to give credit to all people or institutions that have collaborated on the research projects on which the work is based.
• It is the author's or authors' responsibility to respect intellectual property, clearly identifying and citing any fragment that is taken from the work of another author or authors in the construction of their work. If this is not done, it will be considered plagiarism, and the work will be rejected for publication.
• The selection and final approval of an article will depend on the academic opinion of the reviewers invited in each case and on the authors' willingness to make the modifications that are suggested as necessary, within a timely period, after prior agreement with the editor of the journal on the time that is estimated to be necessary to make the adjustments.
• The journal's double-anonymous peer review process means that neither the authors nor the reviewers will know each other's identities. In this sense, it is the author's responsibility to avoid any direct or indirect reference to their identity within the body of the text.
• The evaluation process requires an exclusivity policy. This means that the author or authors may not submit their work to another publication simultaneously while it is under peer review at Episteme. If the authors engage in double submission, their actions will be considered unethical.
• The Editorial Committee reserves the right to reject the publication of any work submitted if it considers that it does not correspond to the academic nature of the journal or if the authors engage in any improper behavior, such as those described above.
• The author accepts in its entirety the editorial rules, criteria, and procedures of the journal.
• Authors must sign a "transfer of property rights" document, in which they authorize the use, reproduction, transformation, publication of the text, and distribution to the Universidad Santo Tomás. This document is essential to be able to include the text in the journal.
• Sending the text to Episteme implies that the authors agree to submit their texts to the established processes, and their greatest collaboration to achieve their successful completion. In any case, the journal reserves the right to make minor style corrections, without consulting the authors.
• If the author decides to withdraw the article or if any inconvenience of authorship or conflict of interest arises that forces the journal to stop the editorial process, the author must assume the expenses incurred up to that point as a reward for the time and trust generated for the publication of the article.

2. Reviewer Responsibilities

• Respect the confidentiality policy of the article's opinion established by the journal, which implies that the identity of the reviewers cannot be revealed to the authors and that they should not make any type of distribution or dissemination of the materials submitted for their evaluation.
• Only accept manuscripts that correspond to their academic training and to their areas of expertise.
• Review the manuscripts in a responsible, objective, and impartial manner, supporting with sufficient reasons the reason for rejection, and in the same way, they should guide the authors to improve the presented text.
• Deliver a clearly explained valuation that fits the evaluation format of the journal.
• Deliver a verdict within the agreed time frame with the editor.
• Use clear, non-offensive language, respecting the authors in the evaluation of their manuscripts.
• Report any conflict of interest that is identified at the time of evaluating the assigned text.
• Identify and report to the editor any coincidence of the document with any other publication or ongoing work. In turn, issue comments on ethical problems and possible inappropriate research and publication behaviors that arise from the material received.
• Maintain strict confidentiality in the evaluation of a manuscript and do not disclose its content to third parties.

 

3. Editorial Responsibilities

The participants in the editorial process, in accordance with the established functions, are responsible for the definition, execution, and evaluation of the Editorial Policies, so that they meet the standards of a scientific academic publication valued at a national and international level.

The continuous self-assessment process is a fundamental principle of editorial work, and for this purpose, it has the structure and organization that ensure the quality and expectations of the academic community.

When the circumstances warrant it, the journal Episteme must publish corrections, clarifications, rectifications, and offer the relevant explanations. In this way, the receipt of complaints implies the response of the person in charge, within a timely period; initiating, if necessary, internal investigations to resolve the inconveniences.

Always, respecting, insofar as possible, the dates of receipt, the selection of the most pertinent articles to be published is sought; based on this, in the evaluation and review processes that have been established; which privilege quality, originality and relevance - in addition to those that have been expressly indicated as follows:

4. Responsibilities of the editor, the Editorial Committee, and the Scientific Committee

• Maintain the reputation of the journal by publishing only original, academic, and scientifically relevant and quality material.
• Publish each issue according to its periodicity.
• Assess the manuscripts received before they are sent to peer review, in which it is verified that they comply with the Guidelines for Authors defined by the journal.
• Accept or reject the manuscripts received based solely on the anonymous opinions received from the peers (if these do not coincide in their verdict, the editor, the editorial committee, and the scientific committee of the journal must make a final decision).
• Always maintain mutual confidentiality in relation to both authors and reviewers.
• Provide clear and timely information to authors from the time of receipt of their papers until a decision has been made.
• Carry out a transparent and impartial editing and publication process, with full respect for the authors and their work.
• Be available to both authors and reviewers to clarify any doubts that may arise during the evaluation and editing processes.
• Pass all manuscripts submitted for the journal through the plagiarism software, to avoid, as far as possible, an accusation of plagiarism.
• Send the complete material to Ediciones USTA for its editorial production, complying with the requirements established by the publishing house, guaranteeing the quality, relevance, and veracity of the content.

Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios socioterritoriales adheres to the COPE (Committee of Ethics of Publications http://publicationethics.org/).

Plagiarism Policy

The journal Episteme is committed to promoting academic integrity and ethical publishing. Therefore, all manuscripts submitted to the journal will be analyzed using the Turnitin plagiarism prevention system.

Turnitin compares the text of the article to a database of millions of documents published on the internet and in academic journals. If the software detects a significant match, the article is a possible case of plagiarism.

If a practice that could be considered plagiarism is detected, the article will be removed from the evaluation process and the author will be notified of the situation.

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that providing the public with free access to the advances and achievements of the knowledge production processes that help to a greater global exchange of knowledge. Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios sociterritoriales is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Publication frequency

Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios socioterritoriales has a semi-annual (not biannual) periodicity.

Article processing charges

This journal does not charge for the submission, evaluation, and publication of submitted articles, nor article processing charges (APC).

Sponsorship

Episteme. Revista de divulgación en estudios socioterritoriales studies is a publication belonging to the Universidad Santo Tomás, campus Villavicencio.

We invite you to join this effort with your writings and contributions.