About the Journal

Aims and scope

The Eureka Journal centres on the teaching and popularization of science (REurEDC). It has a dual function: on the one hand, it aims to contribute to the development of knowledge within the sphere of experimental sciences, from the point of view of theory and practice. On the other hand, our intention is to provide some guidance - in regard to science teaching and education - for teachers as well as for non-formal educators.

The works included within this journal cover a wide spectrum within the education system, ranging from children’s education to university level. We also focus on science teaching methods for informal teaching environments or those outside of academia.

Some multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary topics are of course welcome in our journal, such as: sustainability education, health education, consumerism education, understanding of the environment in early stages of education, or teacher training. Yet they must be unequivocally written as a contribution from the point of view of or intended for experimental science education.  Thus, general or cross-disciplinary education topics should be avoided, namely when the content pertaining to science or its teaching is secondary or anecdotal (for instance, when it is used as an excuse to broach other subjects not linked to science education), when being taught in conjunction with other disciplines which differ from experimental sciences (social science education, engineering, mathematics, etc.).

The two main aims of REurEDC are: a) To contribute to the research and scientific rationale previously described, b) To promote the improvement of education by providing enriching, stimulating and substantiated teachings, so that through these the interest in and love of sciences may be fostered.

For this reason, REurEDC is structured into seven sections:

1. Foundations and lines of work. This section is aimed at propagating or synthesizing the fundamentals of science education and its social dissemination; or with the objective of presenting results of research carried out to better understand the processes involved in the teaching-learning and dissemination of science.
2. Science: past and present. This section is dedicated to the analysis of the historic evolution of scientific knowledge from an academic point of view, as well as to the clarification of complex notions related to different sciences, always within the context of science education.
3. Experiences, resources and other works. A section which focuses on the dissemination and exchange of innovative experiences within the field of science education, intended for formal or non-formal education. It also accepts articles whose objective is to describe, analyse and/or evaluate specific educational resources which may be of special interest for science education and its social dissemination (analogies, similarities, interesting problems, paradoxes, teaching games, cognitive experiments, practical exercises, etc.).
4. Science education today. This section’s objective is to soundly analyse current science education topics, those issues that require a detailed analysis because they are an educational phenomenon, and that contribute to science, such as: scientific events, professional problems identified by teachers and/or researchers, the role that science plays within educational systems, etc.
5. Science education and sustainability. A section within which articles linked to sustainability education and environmental education are welcome. Nonetheless, all articles submitted to this section must be directly linked to teaching science.
6. Fun science. Dedicated to stimulating and curious experiments that can be attempted with everyday inexpensive materials, as well as original practical activities that can help teachers in everyday teaching.
7. Science teacher training. In this section, theoretical, research and strategic perspectives and/or resources will be offered for the training of science teachers for any level of education.
8. Design-Based research. The purpose of this section is to show the development of research based on the design of Teaching-Learning Sequences.

The articles submitted to REurEDC will have to be directed towards one of these sections. However, the REurEDC editorial team will assess and decide to which of these sections the article is best suited.

Ownership, Governance, and Editorial Structure

Revista Eureka sobre Enseñanza y Divulgación de las Ciencias is a publication affiliated with the University of Cádiz, which assumes the legal and academic supervision of the journal. The management and operation of the journal are overseen by its editorial board and the Editorial Council, who supervise the editorial process. Additionally, the Advisory Board, composed of external specialists, contributes with their recommendations to the development and scientific quality of the publication.

The journal also has a bank of external reviewers who ensure peer review, guaranteeing the academic rigor of the published content.

      Rights and Duties of the Editorial Team
The editorial team has the right to make decisions based on academic ethics and quality, ensuring the independence of the journal from external influences. Furthermore, they ensure impartiality, transparency in editorial decisions, and the protection of manuscript confidentiality.
Among the duties of the editorial team are ensuring the quality of the content, adhering to established deadlines, and promoting diversity of voices and perspectives in the publication.

    Editorial Policies
The editorial decisions of the journal are based on principles of transparency, integrity, and commitment to the scientific community. The entire editorial process is governed by ethical standards that promote the publication of rigorous, relevant, and high-quality content.

     Operational Guidelines
The editorial process follows a clear and defined flow, from manuscript submission to publication. Each step is aimed at ensuring the highest academic quality and fairness in the treatment of all submitted articles. Adherence to ethical standards and respect for confidentiality are essential at every stage of the process.

Peer Review Process

The Eureka Journal centres on the teaching and popularization of science and only publishes original articles in Spanish. These must be about the teaching or dissemination of knowledge within the sphere of experimental sciences.

Any article received for publication will be analysed by the members of the Editorial Committee, who will determine whether the aforementioned article is suited to the journal, its originality in terms of content, if it is potentially interesting to the target readers and if it befits the publication’s rules. The articles that pass this first filter will be peer reviewed by at least two anonymous judges, who may or may not also be part of the advisory board of the journal. This journal carries out a double-blind review process. Authors must therefore omit their names and affiliations from the written article, yet must state them within the article’s meta data.

The average time spent from the receipt of the manuscripts to their acceptance is usually less than six months, considering that the process typically requires at least two rounds of evaluation and that sometimes a third reviewer must be called upon when there is disagreement between the two assigned judges. All accepted articles are published almost immediately upon acceptance as a "preprint" article.

For more details, please refer to the evaluation process described in the publication guidelines.

Authorship of papers

REurEDC is a publication aimed at teachers and researchers in the field of science education, as well as science teachers and individuals engaged in science communication. Therefore, authors submitting manuscripts to this journal should belong to these professional sectors.

As of January 1, 2025, the journal has implemented the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy, [https://credit.niso.org/]) system as a way to identify each author’s contributions in cases of multiple authorship. Accordingly, manuscripts must include an explicit statement detailing each author's individual contributions to the manuscript. Only those who have made a significant contribution will be accepted as authors, and the journal may request clarifications if deemed necessary.

Except in duly justified cases, new authors may not be added after the manuscript has been submitted. Any changes to authorship or the order of authors must have the explicit and signed consent of all authors involved.

Furthermore, to ensure that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools does not replace human tasks essential to authorship, from the same date onward, submissions must include an explicit declaration regarding whether AI tools have been used. If so, authors must specify which tools were used and describe their role in the manuscript's development.

For authors who are members of the journal’s Editorial Board, the evaluation process follows the same peer-review procedure as for all other authors, using a double-blind review system. In these cases, manuscripts are assigned to an editor who is not one of the manuscript's authors and who oversees the editorial process in accordance with the same rules applied to all other submissions.

It is important to note that the journal maintains a low level of in-house publications, as evidenced by the fact that, over the past five years, the average percentage of published papers authored by members of the Editorial Board has been below 5%.

Commitment to Gender Equality

REurEDC is firmly committed to gender equality, promoting a fair balance in the composition of the editorial team, the advisory board, the pool of reviewers, and the participation of authors. We strive to ensure diverse and equitable representation, making sure that both decision-making processes and the dissemination of scientific knowledge reflect this commitment.

Additionally, we encourage the visibility of gender in authorship. To this end, it is considered necessary for the full first names of authors to be included, rather than relying solely on initials, thus ensuring full recognition of the identity of those contributing to the advancement of knowledge.

An important aspect to consider is that articles should be written using inclusive and non-sexist language.

Furthermore, we recommend that authors, when their work involves sex as a variable, report on its possible influences on the results and conclusions obtained.

Publication Frequency

This journal publishes three issues per year, which are released during the months of January (No. 1: January to March), April (No. 2: April to August) and September (No. 3: September to December).

The approximate closing dates for the issues are as follows: March 15th, June 15th, and November 15th. However, the journal tries to follow the continuous publication model, by immediately including accepted articles in the pre-printing

Open science policy

This journal is under a Creative Commons Licence

This license allows the use, distribution, and modification of the article, provided that it is for non-commercial purposes and proper credit is given to the author. Authors retain copyright and may upload their article to open access repositories, as long as it is not used for commercial purposes.

Journal Funding Policy

The Journal is a non-profit publication inspired by the ideal of universal, free, shared, and sustainable knowledge. For this reason, it follows a low-cost operating policy, based on the shared efforts of its editorial board members, as well as its authors and reviewers.

Nevertheless, the journal requires minimal funding, which is provided by the University of Cádiz, covering the costs of web hosting and maintenance of the Open Journal System (OJS), the platform used for journal management and editing.

Editorial decisions are made independently and are not influenced by funders or external entities. No article processing charges (APCs) are applied to authors. Additionally, authors must disclose any sources of funding for their research.

The journal does not accept advertisements or commercial sponsorships that could compromise its academic integrity.

Ethics and Good Publication Practices statement

REurEDC centres on the teaching and popularization of science (REurEDC) and is a publication aimed at teachers, disseminators and researchers interested in science education. The editorial team of REurEDC understands that every scientific journal must ensure that the dissemination and transfer of knowledge must be carried out whilst guaranteeing scientific rigour and quality, maintaining the highest ethical standards. Therefore, we respect the Code of Conduct for scientific journal editors set forth by the Ethics in Publications Committee (COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics).

Anti-plagiarism policy

In keeping with our code of ethics, plagiarism and self-plagiarism are deemed unacceptable. Therefore, the journal routinely checks the originality of submitted articles using the software TURNITIN. Every article submitted is analysed with this software. A match percentage higher than 20% (bibliographical references aside) will render the article unacceptable, thus all articles not respecting this rule will be rejected for this very reason. There are only two exceptions to this rule:

1) Where the matches correspond to works not intended for publication or unpublished academic works by the author: doctoral theses, dissertations, end of Masters degree projects, other works included within repositories not yet published, etc.

2) Where matches are derived from publications by the same author, in these instances, the match percentage increases to 30%. When this arises, we carry out a detailed analysis of the nature of said matches and the editor assigned to the articles is notified, so that during the evaluation process they may determine whether the new publication reiterates what the author/s has/have already published.

Publication charges

There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for this journal. 

Statistics reports of the journal

REurEDC annually publishes its statistics regarding the percentage of accepted articles, the time elapsed between article submission and evaluation, the time span between article acceptance and publication, impact indicators, editorial quality, etc.

2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 , 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

Sponsors

This publication is a result of the collaboration between the University of Cadiz and the Association of Teachers APAC-EUREKA.