About the Journal

REVISTA DE RELACIONES INTERNACIONALES, ESTRATEGIA Y SEGURIDAD

Editorial guidelines and policy

Focus and scope

The Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad  (Journal of International Relations, Strategy and Security) is an open access refereed scientific publication that aims to be a channel for the dissemination of knowledge in the social sciences, focused on the area of international relations, including the topics of multidimensional security, migration, foreign policy, multilevel governance, transnational organized crime, geopolitics, geoeconomics, environmental issues, and globalization.

The journal is addressed at professors, researchers, teachers, policy makers and organizations involved in research or application of knowledge in the area of international relations with the objective of making contributions and promoting debates in favor of the development of ideas and societies. The journal focuses on the publication of unpublished research articles written in Spanish, English and Portuguese, as well as reflective articles and bibliographic reviews.

Publication frequency is biannual: the first issue is published in the January-June period and the second in the July-December period in electronic format. The printed version meets the requirements of the legal deposit and institutional exchange in Colombia.

Publication cycle

The journal is open for permanent reception of articles on the topics of the journal for publication of miscellaneous issues. We also receive articles on specific topics according to the calls for papers that the journal's editorial team publishes online for its monographic issues. The submission and publication of articles in the journal does not generate any processing charges (APC) to the authors. The publication of articles is subject to the order of arrival and the results of their evaluation, considering the submission and publication cycle.

Submission.

• Submission of articles for evaluation will be made exclusively through the editorial management system Open Journal System (OJS). In no case will submissions be accepted outside this system. This seeks to guarantee the traceability, transparency, follow-up and quality of the editorial and scientific process to which the articles are submitted.
• The submission of articles will be made by the author, but not before reviewing the requirements described in the section "Instructions for authors".
• The article will be sent without data that could identify its authors. The metadata corresponding to the authors should be registered directly in the platform: ORCID code, academic titles, institutional affiliation, country and institutional e-mail. No further author biographical data, multiple affiliations, recognitions or memberships will be included.

Publication cycle

• Article reception and editorial filter. Once the article is received, the journal will carry out a preliminary review, i.e., a filter. All articles will be verified both in formal aspects and academic structure in general according to the "guidelines for authors" and will be submitted to an anti-plagiarism tool to verify respect for copyright.
• Result of the filter. In the event that any inconvenience is detected at this stage, the journal team will contact the authors, either to request corrections or to desist from the probable publication of the article. The continuation of the editorial cycle is then subject to the submission of a new version of the article by the authors, which includes the recommendations made by the editorial team.
• Peer review. If the article passes the editorial filter, academic peers will be selected and invited to review the article under the double-blind modality, according to which neither the author nor the reviewers will know the identity of their counterpart. Authors will receive the official response from the journal in an estimated time between three and five months according to the volume of articles under evaluation.
• Corrections and result of the evaluation. Articles may be approved without modifications, approved with modifications that do not require further revision, approved with modifications that require further revision of the manuscript, or rejected.

Based on the outcome of the concepts, 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 of reply, where they should explain each change they made, as well as the way they did or did not follow the recommendations of the peers, with academic or scientific reasons. The corrected versions will be reviewed by the editor or, again, by the peers. After this, the final notification about the approval or rejection of the article will be sent.

• Proofreading. Articles approved by the editor in the peer review will undergo a professional editing process that begins with proofreading. This consists of a review of the text's wording, syntax and spelling, as well as adherence to editorial conventions and the use of sources and citation. When the authors are notified of these corrections, they will have seven calendar days to approve and complete the correction. After this time, if the authors do not send their response, the journal will assume that they have approved all the corrections sent and will move on to the layout phase.
• Cleaning of the text and layout. The final version resulting from proofreading the article will be adjusted to the design layout of the magazine. This is known as layout. The author will have a maximum of five days (as of the notification) to review and approve the layout proof.
• Art layout review and approval. The editor in charge of the journal will make a final review to give final observations and approve the article for publication. This last review will result in the final version for publication.
• Once the editorial process has been completed, the articles will be published online.
• Post-publication. The content published in the journal will be submitted to the necessary technical processes (html, xml, etc. markup, etc.) to guarantee its online visibility and its inclusion in indexing and abstracting systems. Likewise, the editorial team and Editorial Neogranadina will coordinate dissemination strategies so that your article reaches the main audience of your discipline and, thus, is more easily consulted, read and replicated in professional and scientific training processes or in other research.

Evaluation system

All articles received will be submitted for evaluation, starting with an editorial filter to determine the degree of compliance with formal aspects and an anti-plagiarism software. If the article passes this phase, it will be submitted to the "double-blind" peer review process, according to which the authors will not be aware of the identity of the evaluators and vice versa.

The evaluation criteria for this phase include the following: compliance with the guidelines established in the "Instructions for Authors", the scientific quality of the content and the thematic relevance. Articles will be rejected if they do not comply with the rules of presentation, if they have been previously published partially or totally, or submitted simultaneously in other publications, as well as articles that make improper use of texts protected by copyright or whose content does not correspond to the thematic spectrum of the journal.

• Peer review. The articles that have passed the initial phase will be evaluated by external peers, who will carry out the respective review of content, methodology, novelty and contribution to the discipline. This process will last an average of three to five months, during which the peer reviewers will give their acceptance, rejection or approval with modifications.

The evaluation concepts issued by academic peers on the articles are an input to support and justify the decisions of the Editor and not binding opinions for the editorial team that oblige the Journal to publish or reject articles. The Editor is responsible for determining the number of peer reviewers necessary to make editorial decisions on the publication or rejection of each article. In the event that an article receives opposing opinions, the Editor may resort to new peer reviewers or issue his own opinion on the article to settle contradictory evaluation results.

The general criteria for the evaluation of an article are as follows:

• Scientific quality. It is related to the contributions to the research, the concordance between objective, results and conclusions, the veracity of the data, the defined object of study, the methodological rigor of the research and its originality, as well as the relevance and the contribution it makes to its area of knowledge.
• Linguistic quality. It refers to the compliance with grammatical and orthotypographic aspects, as well as its discursive coherence and the use of quality bibliographic sources.
• Ethical aspects. This refers to the authorization of the publication when experiments are performed on humans or animals, the declaration of conflicts of interest, the responsibility to present truthful data and results, the need for the appropriate use of sources protected by copyright, etc.

The evaluation process is based on quality based on external evaluation, the selection of evaluators with scientific background and objective feedback to the author. In the selection of evaluators for the journal, aspects such as the following are considered:

• The pre-selection of suitable referees in accordance with the thematic spectrum of the journal and with the particular subject of each article submitted for evaluation.
• Verification of each evaluator's academic degree (preferably with a doctoral degree), publications and impact as a researcher in the last five years..
• Balanced participation of national and international researchers, which contributes to the consolidation of scientific knowledge networks and prevents conflicts of interest due to regional proximity.
• The quality of the evaluation carried out by the arbitrators so that it is professional, rigorous and focused on scientific arguments and on providing useful guidance to the authors.

Periodically, the statistics of acceptance and rejection of articles will be published in their percentage to guarantee the interested community a transparent review process.

Aspects of the journal's editorial structure and policies

Editorial structure: editor, committee and reviewers

The journal is comprised of an editor, who has an editorial team composed of an editorial assistant and guest editors for monographic issues. It also has an editorial and scientific committee. Its editing process is directly supervised by Editorial Neogranadina for aspects of structure and editorial plan and, externally, by reviewers previously selected by the editor.

Selection of members and criteria

• The editor and committee members must have a verifiable academic and scientific trajectory, with current publications (within the last five years) in duly indexed and visible journals in the main national or international indexing systems (Web of Science, Scopus, Scielo Citation Index, Publindex) and a level of training in the area of knowledge at a master's or doctoral level.
• The permanence of the members of the journal's editorial team is subject to periodic evaluations by Editorial Neogranadina to determine their contribution to the management, scientific quality and visibility of the journal.
• In order to avoid possible conflicts of interest and inbreeding, the journal, with the advice of Editorial Neogranadina, reserves the right to admit members with affiliation to the publishing entity (Universidad Militar Nueva Granada) to its committees.

 Functions

Editorial and Scientific Committee. Body in charge of making strategic decisions of the journal in aspects related to editorial and impact policies for its scientific quality. It is in charge of defining thematic trends, positioning strategies and orientations of the journal, as well as supporting the compliance and adoption of editorial quality parameters of the publication.

Editor. The editor is in charge of consolidating editorial policies, as well as managing and making decisions on each article published in the journal. The editor leads the process of evaluation and editing of the article, requesting from the author the necessary revisions 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 arbitration process, guaranteeing the transparency and efficiency of such process oriented towards 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, dissemination and diffusion of the published content through 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. In charge of supporting the journal's editorial processes and establishing an immediate communication bridge between the editors and Editorial Neogranadina. His/her functions include monitoring the editorial processes through OJS and ensuring the proper review and registration of the metadata of each article.

Reviewers. They are professionals specialized in the lines that make up the thematic spectrum defined by the journal with the ability to critically and scientifically evaluate the articles in order to identify their academic and argumentative quality, as well as the contributions to the discipline based on the criteria defined in the review process and its guidelines.

Ethical principles followed by the journal

The ethical principles adopted by the journal are derived from the following organizations that suggest concepts, guidelines, codes and procedures of widespread international use:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): referent in ethical aspects of editorial practices at the level of authors, editors, committee members and reviewers.
• Council of Science Editors (CSE): organization that addresses issues of integrity of scientific publications, conflicts of interest, licensing and authorship, among others.
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): committee dedicated mainly to aspects of anonymity, informed consent and protection of persons participating in research published in the journal.

 

The journal also recognizes and adopts the Principles of transparency and best practices in scholarly publishing defined and endorsed by DOAJ, OASPA and WAME; the recommendations recorded in the document known as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) on the proper use of citation metrics and the principles and responsibilities established by the Singapore Declaration on Scientific Integrity.

Considering the parameters established by the aforementioned resources, the journal has defined the following ethical guidelines for all the actors of its publication processes according to their respective roles in the editorial cycle of each article:

• Authors

1. Authors who submit articles to the journal undertake to guarantee respect for copyright, as well as the protection of information and other aspects related to the development and publication of the research.
2. The authors undertake to present the research clearly and honestly, without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate manipulation of the data.
3. Only researchers with (1) undergraduate degrees; (2) graduate degrees; or (3) who are candidates for graduate degrees at the time of submitting an article will be considered as authors of the article for this publication. Teachers, advisors or research assistants may be included as authors of the article if their contribution to the construction of the article warrants it and is endorsed by the main or corresponding author. Otherwise, their names may only be included in the acknowledgements of the article.

    4.The researcher will comply with the formal aspects of submission, guaranteeing the originality of the research, without plagiarism and without previous publication, in another medium, under any model. Salami publications, with self-plagiarism and simultaneous submission in other journals, will be rejected.

5. Conflicts of interest shall be disclosed in a timely manner and duly declared in the article.
6. The authors included in the research assume full responsibility for its content and the actions that may derive from it.
7. It is the obligation of the researchers to acknowledge the participation of the authors who have really contributed to the article, without resorting to false authorship or the inclusion of authors who do not contribute to the preparation of the research. In this sense, they will declare the specific contribution made by each co-author in the letter accompanying the submission of the article.
8. Authors adhere to the evaluation model defined by the journal; therefore, they commit themselves to give a timely, professional and respectful response to the observations made by the editor, peer reviewer and production editor, at the various stages of the process.
9. It is considered inappropriate conduct to submit articles to a review process without the real intention of remaining in it. The withdrawal of an article after it has been approved, and during the editorial process, must be duly justified. Authors who are identified as using the journal to improve their articles through refereeing, without the intention of publishing them, will be penalized for this practice. The journal will not process new article submissions from such authors.

 

• Editor

1. The editor undertakes to ensure the proper development of the various processes of the journal, 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. He/she will adopt editorial policies that guarantee maximum transparency and honesty during the evaluation, editing and publication of the article.
4. The editor protects the integrity of the journal, issuing corrections and retractions derived from the editorial process or suspicious ethical practices that are detrimental to the scientific quality of the articles published by the journal. To carry out these processes, the editor should adopt the Retraction Guidelines established by COPE.
5. The editor will follow up on inappropriate conduct by reviewers, authors or committee members, based on continuous monitoring.
6. All studies involving the participation of humans or animals should be critically evaluated for compliance with international ethical standards, which have defined the corresponding guidelines, and should be accompanied by a letter of approval from the ethics committee.
7. Authors, reviewers and committee members will have prior knowledge of what is expected of them, based on the editorial policies, guidelines and formats defined by the editor, to ensure the appropriate use and management of content.
8. The editor will express the possible conflicts of interest that he/she may have in terms of the reception and evaluation of an article, in order to make a management decision that does not compromise any process of the journal.

• Evaluators

1. The evaluator will be selected by the editor and the editorial team, based on the fulfillment of criteria such as: academic background, number of publications in recognized sources, and impact of his/her production in the area.
2. The evaluator agrees to accept the reading of an article, if his/her level of experience, knowledge and current commitments allow him/her to issue a well-argued 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 evaluation of methodological, content and structural aspects.
4. It is considered an inappropriate practice to impersonate another person during the review process. The person who assumes responsibility for the evaluation process is the researcher who has been called to be the evaluator. In no case is the participation of a third party (e.g., research assistants, doctoral students, graduate students, monitors, other colleagues) accepted without the consent of the editor.
5. It will be the responsibility and commitment of the evaluator to declare in a timely manner any conflicts of interest that may arise in the evaluation of an assigned article. Conflicts may be personal, financial, intellectual or professional.
6. It is considered inappropriate conduct on the part of the evaluator to use the material of an article he/she is evaluating. Under no circumstances are reviewers authorized to use, in whole or in part, data from the research assigned for review. In the same way, it is inappropriate for the evaluator to accept to review very active research similar to some of the research he/she is developing.
7. It is the evaluator's responsibility to give timely response to the requests related to the article he/she is reading, according to the time periods agreed with the journal. Failing this, the reviewer must notify the editor of any changes in the delivery schedule of his/her concept, so as not to affect the process for the authors or the journal.
8. The evaluator has read, understands and follows the editorial policies defined by the journal.
9. The evaluator will notify the journal of any inappropriate conduct identified in the article being evaluated, and will provide the arguments and support for his/her presumption: plagiarism, data fabrication, manipulation of results, duplication of the publication, among others.
10. The evaluation process will be carried out based on the instructions provided by the journal, in its platforms and formats.
11. The evaluator should refrain from suggesting authors to cite him/her or his/her colleagues, in order to generate an increase in citation. If such a suggestion is made, it should be based on duly justified academic, scientific or technical reasons.
12. The evaluator will remain active in the evaluation process, if he/she suggests corrections, so that the editor can count on his/her criteria and advice to verify that the evaluated article was sufficiently and coherently adjusted. However, since the arbitration process is an opportunity for academic interaction, the evaluator should be willing to go into some aspects of his or her concept in greater depth, so that the editor or authors can resolve doubts or better understand the recommendations.

Publisher

1. Editorial Neogranadina, the publishing house of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, shall guarantee the permanent availability and preservation of all research material published by the journal.
2. Editorial Neogranadina shall provide the editorial team with all the necessary means to identify and prevent the publication of articles whose authors have engaged in research misconduct. If the editorial team should find that a submission or a published article constitutes an incursion into such misconduct, Editorial Neogranadina shall facilitate the prompt publication of errata, clarifications or retractions by the journal, depending on the seriousness of the conduct identified.

If an author, evaluator or reader wishes to report a malpractice or a problem he/she has identified in any published article, as well as to refer to difficulties or differences he/she has had with any member of the editorial team or in the development of a process in the journal, he/she should first contact the editorial team through the following e- mails: economia.neogranadina@unimilitar.edu.co  or asistenteeditorial.revistas1@unimilitar.edu.co in order to seek solutions or clarifications to the issues raised. In the event that the editorial team is unable to explain the concerns raised or implement a solution to them, authors, evaluators and readers may communicate these same concerns to Editorial Neogranadina through the email editorial.neogranadina@unimilitar.edu.co  so that a solution agreed upon by all parties can be defined.

 

Access and copyright

Processing and publication costs are assumed by the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada; in the interest of promoting scientific communication and contributing to the production, validation and dissemination of arbitrated scientific knowledge.

Likewis, the journal establishes the relationship with its readers through the use of the Creative Commons 4.0 "Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivative" license; in its latest version; which allows:

• Downloading and sharing; as long as the authorship of the work is acknowledged; and without making any modifications to it; nor commercializing it.
• The author to share and self-archive the article; in their profiles; social networks and online repositories.

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

• The author undertakes to ensure the proper use of sources used in the development of his research, citing and including the corresponding references. The University is exempted 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 derive 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 its data and results.
• - A co-author will only be the person who has a creative and fundamental participation in the preparation of the work. In case of conflicts in terms of authorship, it is the duty of the correspondence author to account for the contribution of each co-author in the article. Subsequent inclusions will not be accepted; however, if the withdrawal of the name of any author is requested, the journal will ask for an authorization signed by all the authors who are part of the article (including the author who withdraws from the publication), explaining the reasons for the request.

Digital preservation and self-archiving

The journal uses the Portico system to create a permanent archive backup for the preservation and restoration of its published contents.

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

Privacy statement and use of data

Editorial Neogranadina because of the reception of articles and peer review makes a record of personal data in its databases to have an adequate support of the processes it manages. For the management of such data the information security policy is adopted which regulates the University according to Resolution No. 4352 of November 17, 2016; article 18 regarding its information systems:

Numeral 10. “The information contained in the databases of the information systems of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada is and will be used in the development of its own functions; as a Higher Education institution; directly or through third parties".

Numeral 11. “The information stored in the databases of the information systems of the University or in any storage media must be governed by the Privacy Policy Manual of Personal Data current and in forcé, of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada; and the user is responsible for the data within the infrastructure".

The journal adheres to the Manual of Privacy Policies for Personal Data of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada regulated by Resolution No. 3225 of December 02, 2013:

Article 11. "The collection; storage; use; circulation or suppression of personal data by the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada requires the free, prior, express and informed consent of the owner of such data".

Article 21. "Ownership of personal data. The Universidad Militar Nueva Granada shall bear in mind at all times that personal data shall be the property of the persons to whom it refers and that only they can decide regarding said data. In this sense, it will use them only for those purposes for which it is duly empowered, and in any case will respect the current regulations on personal data protection”.

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.

^[1] See the document in the following link: <https://publicationethics.org/files/Principles_of_Transparency_and_Best_Practice_in_Scholarly_Publishingv3.pdf>.