About the Journal

  1. Aims, scope and approach

The journal Revista de Estudios Jurídicos y Criminológicos came into being thanks to an initiative by the Law School of the University of Cádiz. A group of professors and lecturers launched this proposal with the aim of actively contributing to the creation of open-access digital spaces, devoted to academic reflection on the fields of the two formative lines of this centre: law and criminology.

This journal’s scope of work is intentionally generic, with the objective of serving as a channel for reflections on the law and criminology, escaping from self-restrictions with regards to research on one of the many specific areas related to these sciences. With this approach, the journal intends to offer a channel that fosters scientific enrichment in any of the subjects within these fields, favouring the creation of a space for the exchange and interrelation of different research studies.

The scientific and academic approach of this journal does not forget the most practical facets of the fields in which it works, being aimed at both researchers and professionals of Law and Criminology. Fostering scientific dissemination is the main objective of this journal and the reason for its creation, a journal aimed at raising reflection and analytical thinking on legal and criminology conflicts, easing the current task of the professionals who work within these fields.

On the basis of this general approach, the journal begins with the aim of achieving two essential goals, one with an external character and the other with an internal one: the former being to establish a channel for the dissemination of quality research on law and criminology; and the latter, to boost the research profile of the School of Law of the University of Cádiz, which manages the editorial and scientific boards of the journal and promotes the publication of general interest academic work.

To this end, the journal is divided into different sections that aim to provide answers to the diverse, contemporary, theoretical and practical, doctrinal and jurisprudential, concerns of researchers with regards to the present and the future.

Preceded by an explanatory editorial introduction to the content of each issue, the first section is devoted to Studies, containing the longest articles presenting research with a significant impact. The second section deals with Analysis, a section for works that are shorter than the articles, although with the same requirements for submission. Chronicles is the third section, gathering together informative texts on topical issues, of legal, jurisprudential or administrative doctrine, current debates, or others of scientific interest. Finally, the journal presents a fourth section devoted to Reviews. Authors must submit their works to one of these sections, although throughout the manuscript assessment process the editorial team may decide, ultimately, which of the sections is the most appropriate for each manuscript.

The general aim of becoming a vehicle for the dissemination of scientific knowledge within the sciences of law and criminology, explains why the journal publishes works not only in Spanish, but also in other languages, promoting the exchange of knowledge between researchers from different nations.

 

  1. Open Access Policy

For the same reason, namely the intention of being a tool that aims to enrich legal and criminology research, this journal is committed to applying an open access policy to its content, in the belief that offering immediate and free access to research fosters a better and greater global exchange of knowledge.

Authors may retain copyright, granting the journal the right to first publication of the work. This journal grants the authors permission for the non-commercial use of the work, including the right to store it in open access archives, institutional repositories, or public personal web pages, once published in the journal.

This Journal is under a Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.

In view of the above, publication in this journal is completely free as no submission, processing or publication fees are charged.

  1. Frequency of publication

The journal publishes two issues a year, in June and December.

The date of publication of each issue is the first day of the corresponding month.

  1. Peer review

Manuscripts submitted for publication will undergo several, and different, assessment stages.

First of all, they will be assessed by the members of the Manuscript Edition Committee, who will assess the appropriateness of the manuscript with regards to the profile of the journal and the publication guidelines.

Secondly, if the manuscript passes the first evaluation, the work will be assessed by two anonymous experts, from the Scientific Board of the Journal or from the journal’s list of reviewers, specialising in the corresponding area, applying a double-blind peer review. Therefore, authors must exclude their names and affiliations from the manuscripts, although these must be included in the metadata of the submission. The decision of the two experts will result in one of the following recommendations: a) Publication of the manuscript as submitted; b) Publishable following amendments; c) Not publishable. In the event of serious disagreement between the reviewers, the manuscript will be submitted to a third expert. Finally, the incorporation of the amendments suggested by the experts will be reviewed by the editors who took part in the first stage. The complete process – submission, assessment and publication – will take place through the journal’s digital platform.

 

 

  1. Ethics and good publication practice statement

Download the Code of Ethics of the Journal