About the Journal

APPROACH AND SCOPE

The Journal Academia y Virtualidad is an open access refereed scientific publication that has the purpose of being a channel to disseminate knowledge in educational sciences. Its central themes are: research developments on distance and virtual education, practices and experiences related to pedagogical work and higher education under the distance learning methodology, virtual environments, and information and communication technologies (ICT). The magazine also accepts works related to other educational experiences.

The journal publishes unpublished articles that respond to criteria of relevance, originality and thematic relevance, written in Spanish, English and Portuguese. It is aimed at teachers, researchers, students and organizations involved in the research or application of knowledge in the different specialties of the educational sciences.

The frequency of publication is biannual: the first issue is published in the January-June period, and the second in the July-December period in electronic format.

The journal accepts contributions in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

EDITORIAL PROCESS

Reception of manuscripts for the journal is permanent. Calls for monographic (thematic) issues will be published on the journal's web portal and will have an opening and closing date. The editorial processes in the journal are free and the reception of a manuscript does not imply the obligation to publish it. Publication of articles is subject to the order of arrival and the results of their evaluation, considering the next cycle of submission and publication.

Submission

Submission of articles for evaluation will be exclusively through the Open Journal System (OJS). In no case submissions will be accepted outside of said system. This seeks to guarantee traceability, transparency, monitoring and quality of the editorial and scientific process to which the articles are subjected.

The articles shall be sent by the author in accordance with the requirements described in the "Guidelines for authors" section.

The article shall be submitted without information that could identify its authors. Metadata corresponding to the authors must be registered directly in the platform: Orcid code, institutional affiliation, city, country and institutional email. No further biographical data of the author will be included, such as degrees, multiple affiliations, acknowledgments, memberships, etc. This information will be included in the profile that can be consulted online.

Publication cycle

• Article reception and editorial screening. Once the article is received, the journal will carry out a preliminary review, which will take place in approximately fourteen calendar days. All articles will be verified in formal aspects, in accordance with the "Guidelines for authors", and will be subjected to a tool to verify respect for copyright. The journal's editorial team will inform the authors of the results of this pre-review, indicating the formal changes necessary to guarantee the quality and standardization of the article's metadata. If the editors deem any scientific observation on the article necessary that must be addressed before submitting the article for peer review, the authors will also be informed about it at this stage of the process. Making the changes indicated in the editorial filter is a necessary condition to continue with the publication cycle of any proposed article.

Peer review. If the article approves the editorial screening process, two peer reviewers will be selected and called under the "double blind" system. The authors will receive the official response from the journal in maximum five months, according to the volume of articles under evaluation. If the concept of the peer evaluation is the opposite, a third evaluator will be assigned. Also, there is the possibility that the editor or the journal committee can give their concept to resolve a contradictory result between peers.

General criteria to evaluate the articles are:

– Scientific quality. It is related to contributions to research on the proposed topic; the agreement between objective, results and conclusions; the veracity of the data, the definition of the object of study, the methodological rigor of the research and its originality, as well as the relevance and contribution it makes to its area of knowledge
– Linguistic quality. It refers to compliance with grammatical and spelling aspects, as well as to its discursive coherence and the use of quality bibliographic sources.
– Ethical aspects. It refers to the publication authorization’s when experiments are carried out on humans or animals, disclosures of conflicts of interest, responsibility to present truthful data and results, the need for appropriate use of sources protected by copyright, etc.

• Corrections and evaluation result.
  Articles can be (1) approved without modifications, (2) approved subject to modifications without the need for reevaluation, (3) approved subject to major modifications that require a new evaluation or (4) rejected. Based on the concept results, the editor will make a final decision on the publication of the article. Likewise, if the peer reviewers suggest modifications to the article, the editor will ask the authors for a cover letter of the corrected version or letter-reply, in which they must explain each change made, as well as the way to address or no, for academic or scientific reasons, peer recommendations. Corrected versions will be reviewed by the editor or, again, by peers; after this, the final notification about the approval or rejection of the article will be sent.
  
  
• Editorial production process. 
  Articles approved by the editor, in the peer review, will undergo a professional editing process that begins with style correction. This consists of a revision of the writing of the text, its syntax and spelling, as well as a verification of editorial conventions and the use of sources and citation. When authors are notified about these corrections, they will have seven calendar days to approve and supplement the correction. After this period, if the authors do not send their response, the journal will assume that they have approved all the corrections sent and the article will go to the layout phase.

  The final version derived from the style correction will be adjusted to the magazine design mockup. This is known as layout. Authors will have the right to review the diagrammed articles within a period of 2 to 5 days after the documents have been sent by email or OJS. In case of not receiving a  response within the stipulated period, it will be assumed that this version of your article is accepted, and it does not require any changes. Subsequent changes will not be made after this stage of the production process and changes will only be considered when the indicated errors compromise the registration of the article's metadata in national and international databases.

  The journal editors will carry out a final review to give final observations, if any, and they will approve the article for publication. The version resulting from this Editor's review, if approved, will be published.

• Publication. 
  Once the editorial process is completed, the articles will be published online.
  
  
• Post-publication.
  The content published in the journal will be subjected to the necessary technical processes (markup in html, xml, etc.) that guarantee its visibility online and its inclusion in indexing and summary systems. The editors will work hand in hand with the post-publication editor of Editorial Neogranadina to guarantee dissemination strategies so that the published articles reach the main audience of their discipline.

POLICY ON EDITORIAL STRUCTURE

Editorial structure

The journal is made up of two editors and an editorial assistant. It also has an editorial committee and a scientific committee. Its editing process is directly accompanied by the Editorial Neogranadina for aspects of style, design, publication and post-publication review; as it is for the definition of policies, structure and editorial plan.

Member selection and criteria

Editors, committee members and evaluators must have a level of training in their area of ​​knowledge at the master's or doctoral level and with an academic and scientific background verifiable through ScopusID, ORCID, CVLAC, Lattes and/or available resumes in electronic channels of higher education or research institutions at an international level. They must also have current publications (in the last five years) in indexed journals and visible in international indexing systems.

Permanence of the members of the journal editorial team is subject to periodic evaluations by Editorial Neogranadina, to determine their contribution to the management, scientific quality and visibility of the journal.

Functions

Editorial and scientific committees. Entities in charge of making strategic decisions for the journal, in aspects related to editorial and impact policies for its scientific quality. They are in charge of defining thematic trends, positioning strategies and orientations of the journal, as well as supporting the compliance with and adoption of the publication's editorial quality parameters.

Editor. He is responsible for the consolidation of editorial policies, as well as the management and decision-making on each article published in the journal. The editor leads the process of evaluating and editing article, asking the author for the revisions that are necessary to achieve a publishable version of the article. The editor carries out the selection, evaluation and follow-up of the reviewers who are part of the referring process, guaranteeing the transparency and efficiency of such process, aimed at optimum scientific and editorial quality. As part of the positioning and visibility of the journal in the academic and scientific context of the discipline, the editor and his team will be responsible for indexing, disseminating and promoting the published content, based on participation in scientific events and the inclusion or updating of the journal in international systems and databases, with the advice of Editorial Neogranadina.

Editorial assistant . her job is to support the journal editorial processes and to establish an immediate communication point between the editors and the Editorial Neogranadina. Their functions include monitoring the editorial processes through OJS and ensuring the proper review and registration of the metadata of each article. Likewise she publishes the journal on the plataform

Reviewers. They are researchers specialized in the lines included in the thematic spectrum defined by the journal, with the ability to critically and scientifically evaluate articles, to identify contributions to the discipline, based on the criteria defined in the review process and its guidelines.

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

Our publication ethics and publication malpractice principles are based on the suggestions of the following organizations that provide, guidelines, codes and procedures with wide international use:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): regarding ethical aspects of editorial terms in terms of author, editor and reviewer committee members.
• Council of Science Editors (CSE): an organization that deals with matters of integrity of scientific publications, conflicts of interest, licenses and authorship, among others
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): a committee that mainly deals with aspects of anonymity, informed consent and protection of individuals participating in research published by the journal.

Likewise, the journal recognizes and adopts the Principles of transparency and best practices un academic edition   defined and endorsed by DOAJ, OASPA and WAME; the recommendations recorded in the document known as San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment  (DORA) on the good use of citation metrics and the responsibilities established by the Singapore Statement on Research Integrity. Considering the parameters established by the aforementioned resources, the journal has defined the following ethical guidelines for all the actors in its publication processes in accordance with their respective roles in the editorial cycle of each article.

• Authors

1.  Authors who submit articles in the journal undertake to guarantee respect for copyright, as well as the protection of information and other aspects related to the preparation and publication of research.
2. Article authors for this publication are considered only researchers who have  (1) undergraduate; (2) graduate academic degrees or (3) who are candidates for obtaining graduate degrees at the time of submitting an article. Teachers, consultants or research assistants may be included as authors of the article if their contribution to the article preparation is significant and if endorsed by the main author or its correspondent. Otherwise, their names can only be included in the article acknowledgments.
3. The researcher shall comply with the formal aspects of submission, guaranteeing the originality of the research, without plagiarism and without prior publication, in another means, under any model. Salami publications, with self-plagiarism and simultaneous submission in other journals, will be rejected.
4. Conflicts of interest shall be disclosed in a timely manner and duly disclosed in the article.
5. The authors included in the research assume, entirely, the responsibility of its content and the actions that may derive from it.
6. Researchers have the obligation to recognize the participation of authors who actually mad contributions to the articles, without resorting to false authorship or the inclusion of authors who do not contribute to the development of the research. In this sense, they will disclose  the specific contribution that each co-author has made in the letter accompanying the submission of the article.
7. The authors accept the evaluation model defined by the journal; therefore, they undertake to provide a timely, professional and respectful response to the observations made by the editor, the peer reviewer and the production editor, in the various stages of the process.
8. Submitting articles for a review process without the real intention of going through with it is considered as an inappropriate conduct. Withdrawal of an article after being approved, and during the editorial process, must be duly justified. Authors who are found using the journal to improve their articles through the referee process, without the intention of publishing them, will be penalized for engaging in this practice. The journal will not process new submissions of articles by such authors.

• Editor

1. The editor undertakes to guarantee proper development of the journal processes, in an ethical manner and assuming responsibility for its publication.
2. The editor will make fair and impartial decisions, regardless of the context, ensuring a fair and appropriate peer review process for authors.
3. The editor will adopt editorial policies that guarantee maximum transparency and honesty during the article evaluation, editing and publication.
4. The editor protects the journal integrity by issuing corrections and retractions derived from the editorial process or from suspicious ethical practices that are detrimental to the scientific quality of the articles published by the journal. To carry out these processes, the editor must adopt the Retraction Guidelines established by COPE
5. The editor will promptly follow up on inappropriate behavior by reviewers, authors, or committee members, based on continuous monitoring.
6. All studies involving participation of humans or animals must be critically evaluated based on compliance with international ethical standards, which have defined the corresponding guidelines, and must be accompanied by a letter of approval from the ethics committee.
7. Authors, reviewers and committee members shall have prior knowledge of what is expected from them, based on the editorial policies, guidelines and forms defined by the editor, to guarantee the proper use and  management of contents.
8. The editor shall disclose any possible conflicts of interest that he/she may have when receiving and evaluating an article, in order to make a management decision that does not compromise any process of the journal.

• Referees

1. The evaluator will be selected by the editor and the editorial team, based on compliance with criteria such as: academic training, number of publications in recognized sources and impact of their production in the area.
2. The evaluator agrees to accept to read an article, if his/her level of experience, knowledge and current commitments allow him/her to issue a reasoned and timely concept.
3. The evaluator assumes the responsibility of guaranteeing a sufficient review, which allows the authors to understand the reasons for their concept, and which includes the assessment of methodological, content and structural aspects.
4. Impersonation is considered an inappropriate practice during the review process. The person who accepts responsibility for the evaluation process is the researcher who has been called to be an evaluator. In no case participation of a third party is accepted (eg, research assistants, doctoral students, postgraduates, monitors, other colleagues), without the consent of the editor
5. The evaluator has the responsibility and commitment to timely disclose any conflicts of interest that may arise during the evaluation of an assigned article. Conflicts can be: personal, financial, intellectual or professional.
6. The evaluator’s using any materials or pieces of the article under evaluation is considered inappropriate. In no case, evaluators are authorized to use completely or partially data of the article assigned for his/her review. Likewise, it is inappropriate for the evaluator to accept reviews of research that are very active and similar to one he/she is currently carrying out.
7. It is the evaluator’s responsibility to give a timely response to any requests related to the article they are reading, according to the times agreed with the journal.
8.  Otherwise, the evaluator will have to notify the editor about the changes in the delivery schedule of their concept, so that the process for the authors or the journal is not affected.
9. The evaluator has read, understands and follows the editorial policies defined by the journal.
10. The evaluator shall notify the journal on any inappropriate conducts identified in the article under review  and shall provide the arguments and supporting information on his suspicion of plagiarism, data fabrication, data manipulation, publication duplication, among others.
11.  The evaluation process Will be carried out according to instructions provided by the journal,  in its platforms and forms.
12. Evaluators shall refrain from suggesting the authors on quoting them or their colleagues to generate higher number of citations. If such suggestion is made, it should be based on academic, scientific, or technical reasons duly justified.
13. Evaluators shall remain active in the evaluation process (e.g.  if corrections are suggested), so that the editor can have their criteria and advise to verify that the article was sufficiently and coherently adjusted. Now, as the refereeing process is an academic interaction space, evaluators shall be willing to elaborate on some of the aspects of their concept, so that authors can solve any doubts or understand better the recommendations.

• Publisher

1. Editorial Neogranadina, Publishing Brand of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, should ensure permanent availability and preservation of all research material published by the journal.
2. Editorial Neogranadina should make available to the editorial team all the means necessary to identify and prevent publication of articles whose authors have incurred in research malpractice. If the team identifies that an application or a published article is breaching, the Editorial Neogranadina shall promptly publish the Journal’s erratum, clarification or retraction depending on the severity of the behavior identified.

If an author, evaluator or reader wants to report a malpractice case or a problem that they have identified in a published article, as well as to report any difficulties or differences they have had with any member of the editorial team or in the development of a process in the journal, they should first contact the editorial team at academiayvirtualidad@unimilitar.edu.co or asistenteeditorial.revistas2@unimilitar.edu.co to seek solutions or clarifications to the issues raised. In case the editorial team is unable to explain the concerns raised or solve them, authors, reviewers and readers may communicate these same concerns to the Editorial Neogranadina by email at editorial.neogranadina@unimilitar.edu.co, +so that a  solution agreed by the parties can be reached.

Access and Copyright

The entirety of article processing charges and other fees required for publication are coverd by Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, looking to promote scientific communication internationally and contributing to the production, validation y difussion of peer reviewed scientific research. Appart from that, the journal stablishes a relationship with its readers and authores trough the usage of the Creative Commons 4.0 License: “Atributión – No comercial - No derivatives”, on its last version, which permits:

• Downloading and sharing as long as authorship is propperly recognized and no modifications or commerce is done to or with the published product
• Authors to share and self-archive the article in his varios profiles on social networks and online repositories

Regarding the relationship of the authors with the journal, an ethical commitment and a transfer of rights are requested, under the conditions of the letter-format of the Editorial Neogranadina, which includes the following elements:

• The author undertakes to guarantee the proper use of sources used in the development of his research, citing and including the corresponding references. The University is exempt from any liability that may arise from the inappropriate use of other works.
  Compliance with ethical standards and scientific integrity is the responsibility of the authors. The University is exempted from responsibilities that may arise from bad ethical practices incurred by the author during the creation, development and publication of the work, and that lead to the manipulation, error or falsification of their data and results.
• Only the one who has a creative and fundamental participation in the elaboration of the work will be co-authored. In case of conflicts in terms of authorship, it is the duty of the corresponding author to account for the contribution of each co-author in the article. Subsequent inclusions will not be accepted; Now, if the withdrawal of the name of an author is requested, the journal will request an authorization signed by all the authors that are part of the article (including the author who is withdrawing from the publication), explaining the reasons for their request.

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose contemplated by our CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Digital preservation and self-archiving

The journal uses the Pórtico system to create a permanent backup of files, for the purpose of conservation and restoration of its published contents.

The self-archiving policy, according to the Sherpa Romeo classification, corresponds to the possibility of depositing the postprint (latest version of the article after the peer review process) and the publisher's version, and it is designated with the color blue.

Disclaimer

The authors’ opinions are their sole responsibility, therefore, they do not represent the position of the journal on a subject, or the Editorial Neogranadina, or the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada. On its side, the approval of articles for publication is given through an academic process, by consensus of peer experts on the topics and the editors involved in the edition, respecting scientific criteria and editorial autonomy.

Privacy and data use statement

The Editorial Neogranadina, as part of the article reception and peer evaluation processes, records personal data in its databases, to provide adequate support for the processes it manages. in handling this data the information security policy is adopted, which is regulated by the University in Resolution No. 4352 of November 17, 2016, Article 18, on its information systems:

Section 10. "The information in the databases of the Nueva Granada Military University information systems is and will be used in the development of its own functions, as an institution of Higher Education, directly or through from third parties "

Section 11. "The information stored in the University information systems’ databases or in any storage medium must be governed by the Personal Data Privacy Policy Manual of the Nueva Granada Military University, current and in force, and the user is responsible for the data within the infrastructure "

The journal adheres to the Nueva Granada Military University Manual of Privacy Policies for Personal Data, regulated in Resolution No. 3225 of December 2, 2013:

Article 11. "The collection, storage, use, circulation or deletion of personal data by the Nueva Granada Military University requires the free, prior, express and informed consent of the owner thereof."

Article 21. “Property of personal data. The Nueva Granada Military University will keep in mind, at all times, that personal data will be the property of those to whom it refers and that only they can decide on them. In this sense, it will use them only for those purposes for which it is duly empowered, and in any case respecting current regulations on the protection of personal data "

This information will be shared, for academic or educational purposes, with entities that accredit, classify or value productivity, such as Colciencias, Publindex or international indexing systems.