Author Guidelines

 Download the editorial guidelines in PDF format.

1 Aims and scope

The Iberoamerican Journal of Science Measurement and Communication (IJSMC) is an international peer-reviewed journal of interdisciplinary character. The journal covers cutting-edge potential topics ranging from the quantitative aspects of science, the evaluation of research systems and policies, to science communication and publishing.

The IJSMC accepts theoretical and empirical contributions in several topics (but not limited to) including scientometrics, bibliometrics, informetrics, webometrics, altmetrics, research evaluation, patentometrics, sociology of science, scholarly publishing, and science communication.  

The journal intends to serve as a common platform for researchers and practitioners, enhancing the cooperation between information scientists, librarians, computer scientists, mathematicians, communication specialists, science policymakers, and analysts coming from the public or private sectors.

The IJSMC potentiates the publication of studies focused on the Iberoamerican context but the journal is neither restricted to this geographical space, contributions from around the world referred to the aforementioned topics are more than welcome.

2 Before you submit

2.1 Editorial policies

The IJSMC ensures the publication of high-quality content derived from transparent and trusted research practices. All the guidelines and best publication practices defined by the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) will be followed. In this sense, the iThenticate software for screening plagiarism is used.

2.1.1 Authorship

The IJSMC demands that all authors listed in the manuscripts have taken real responsibility during the research process and article creation. We encourage the corresponding authors, project leaders, or institutions to avoid adding people who did not contribute to the research output (Gift authors) or to exclude people who did contribute and its name is not finally included (Ghost authors). In order to prevent so, it is strongly recommended to decide the authorship prior to the project writing.

Before considering a paper for possible publication, a decision needs to be made regarding the definition of the ‘corresponding author’ and the ‘order of authors’. The corresponding author will play an administrative role since he/she will be contacted by the Editorial Office during the manuscript evaluation, production, and post-publication processes.

A contribution statement needs to be submitted together with the manuscript where the role per author is described. The authors can find support for the roles defined by CRediT. This information will be published together with the full text. All those whose contributions are not listed in the taxonomy defined by CRediT can be listed in the Acknowledgements section.

In case someone requests to withdraw his/her name from a paper, or even claim for inclusion, a formal declaration needs to be submitted to the Editorial Office. This request will be considered once a letter of agreement is signed by all authors.

2.1.2 Conflict of interest

A Conflict of Interest (COI) takes place when authors have personal, academic, or financial relationships with third parties that could influence the content of research work submitted for publication.

At the time to submit any type of paper, authors are requested to complete the COI Statement by which all potential interests are declared, if applicable. By means of this statement, the following issues might be declared:

• Direct or indirect resources received by any institution to complete the research work.
• Financial relationships with entities that supported the performance of the research work. 
• Patents and copyrights, whether pending, issued, licensed, and/or receiving royalties related to the research work.
• Personal relationships with people who can influence the research content.

These are some examples of COI statement: 

• [Author name] has received [state the received benefits] from [Institution name or equivalent].
• [Author name] has [type of relationship] with [Institution name or equivalent].

If there is no conflict of interest, the authors must declare:

• The author(s) declare that there is no conflict of interest.

2.1.3 Research data, reproducibility, and transparency

The authors are encouraged to share the data behind the research work. The IJSMC’s policy is to make all scientific data of open access since we follow the Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data defined by the European Commission.

The data sharing process can occur in the following ways:

• Depositing data in a public repository. The Registry of Research Data Repositories can be of help to select a platform to host the data. The link(s) to access the data should be included in the manuscript.
• Data as supplementary material. During the submission stage, authors can submit supplementary files containing relevant data to share. These files will be available during the peer-review process and will be also published together with the paper's main text. 
• Data on request. Prior to the publication process, authors may be asked for research data at the request of the editors or reviewers.   

Citations to research data should appear in the full text in the reference section. Authors need to follow the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles to provide the correct citation and referencing of the data.

2.1.4 Statement of data consent 

In order to make science more transparent, open, and reproducible, the IJSMC encourages its authors to submit a data statement; which will be publicly available. These are some examples:

• The (Name/type of data) generated during the development of this study has been deposited in (Repository name) and it is accessible at (Data URL).
• The (Name/type of data) generated during the development of this study has been included in the manuscript. 
• The (Name/type of data) generated during the development of this study has been published as supplementary material. 
• The (Name/type of data) generated during the development of this study cannot be freely available due to (reasons) but they might be requested to (contact information).
• The (Name/type of data) generated during the development of this study cannot be freely available due to restrictions imposed by (Name of the restrictor).
• No data have been generated during the development of this study.

2.1.5 Open access and copyright

All articles published by the IJSMC are open access, meaning they are freely available without any kind of subscription nor restriction. The articles are published under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits the sharing and adaptation of the material as long as appropriate credit be given, a link to the license be provided, and all changes are indicated. More information about this license can be found here.

2.1.5 Publication fees

There is no fee or charges applied for article processing and/or publication in the IJSMC.

2.1.6 Preprints

Authors can use preprint servers to host their articles before submission to the journals. This will not count as a multiple or redundant publication. Some of the preprint servers that can be used are ArXiv, bioRxiv, psyArXiv, SocArXiv, engrXiv, e-LIS, RePEc, etc.

3 Article preparation

3.1 Article type

3.2 Text

• All manuscripts should be submitted in Word format.
• Text line spaced at 1.5, plain font 10-point Times New Roman.
• The sections ‘Introduction’, ‘Material and Methods’, ‘Results’, ‘Discussion’, and ‘Conclusions’ should be numbered (eg.: 1., 2., 3., 4., etc.), as well as all the subsections (1.1., 1.2., 1.1.1, 2.1, 2.2., etc.).
• All pages should be numbered consecutively.
• The manuscript should not include personal information about the authors (eg.: names, affiliations, emails, etc.).

3.3 Language

The IJSMC accepts contributions in English, Spanish and Portuguese languages. Please consider  the following issues:

• In order to assess the quality of your manuscript, ensure that the content is professionally edited. 
• Both American and British spelling is accepted for manuscripts written in the English language; however, only one of them can be adopted throughout the paper.
• Non-native English authors are encouraged to find support from native English colleagues or using professional English editing services.
• All authors whose manuscripts are written in Spanish and Portuguese languages should type the English version of the metadata during the submission process in the journal platform. Bear in mind that these manuscripts require the English version of the title, abstract, and keywords in the full text.    

3.4 Abstract

Abstracts should be structured according to the following format:

Objective.

Design/Methodology/Approach.

Results/Discussion.

Conclusions.

Originality/Value.

3.5 Keywords

Please provide 3 to 6 keywords that represent the content of the manuscript.

3.6. Tables

• Submitted as editable text and not as a picture.
• Cited in consecutive numerical order using Arabic numerals (eg.: Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
• Placed next to the text where is cited.
• Contained data should not appear elsewhere in the manuscript.

3.7 Figures

• Use Arial or Helvetica fonts.
• Cited in consecutive numerical order using Arabic numerals (eg.: Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).
• For the peer review purpose, low-quality figures can be accepted; however, for the publication purpose, high-quality figures of at least 300 dpi are required.
• Figures should be submitted both in the main text and as separate files using JPG, TIFF, or PNG formats. Figures submitted as separate files should be named according to their numerical order in the text (eg.: Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).

3.8 Abbreviations

Non-standard abbreviations in the field should be defined at first mention in the text. Please avoid abbreviations in the title, abstract, and keywords.

3.9 Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to provide additional information to the text, tables, and figures. They should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript.

3.10 References

The IJSMC follows the reference style of the American Psychological Association (APA 6th edition).

Citation in text

Citations in text must appear in the reference list and vice versa. Here are some examples:

Smith (2004) considers …

Smith and Kim (2004) consider …

Smith et al. (2004) consider …

... a technique widely employed in previous studies (Smith, 2004; Smith & Kim, 2004; Smith et al., 2004).

Reference list

Journal article

Osman, M. (2010). Controlling uncertainty: A review of human behavior in complex dynamic environments. Psychological Bulletin, 136(1), 65-86. doi:10.1037/a0017815

Book

Berkman, R. I. (1994). Find it fast: How to uncover expert information. New York, NY: Harper Perrenial.

Book chapter

Baker, F. M., & Lightfoot, O. B. (1993). Psychiatric care of ethnic elders. In A. C. Gaw (Ed.), Culture, ethnicity, and mental illness (pp. 517-552). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.

Conference paper

Bowden, F.J., & Fairley, C.K. (1996, June). Endemic STDs in the Northern Territory: Estimations of effective rates of partner change. Paper presented at the Scientific Meeting of the Royal Australian College of Physicians, Darwin.

Website

Atherton, J. (2005). Behaviour modification. Retrieved from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/behaviour_mod.htm

Thesis

Rahman, M. (2013). Using authentic materials in the writing classes: Tertiary level scenario. (Unpublished master's thesis). BRAC University, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In case you are referencing sources not displayed above, we recommend you to visit this website for more examples. 

3.11 Funding

In case the research has received funds, please declare the following: This research has received funds by [Institution name or equivalent] (grant number).

3.12 Appendices

Appendices should be placed after references. Whether these are in a table or figure format, they must be numbered consecutively.

4 Post-submission

Once a paper is submitted, the journal’s Editor(s)-in-Chief, in coordination with the Associate Editor(s), check its relevance to the journal, completeness of metadata and content, such as technical quality and presentation. At this stage, the Editor might reject the paper if he/she considers it not suitable for peer review. 

When the Editor-in-Chief moves the paper to the peer review phase, a Handling Editor is assigned to coordinate the review process. The Handling Editor invites two potential external reviewers of considerable expertise in the field and who are willing to collaborate. The double-blind peer review is the method employed during this evaluation process. Reviewers perform voluntary work; nevertheless, they are asked to consider timeliness, confidentiality, possible conflict of interests, and ethical behavior.

Once the review process is completed, the Handling Editor in coordination with the Editor-in-Chief makes a final decision, which can be one of the following:

• Accepted
• Considered with minor revisions
• Considered with major revisions
• Rejected

When the papers are ‘considered with minor revisions’, ‘considered with major revisions’ or ‘rejected’, the author(s) will receive the comments resulting from the evaluation process. Those authors whose papers are accepted in their current form may receive comments regarding the journal’s guidelines in order to publish the final version.

The review process is closed when, after all the required review rounds, the author(s) addresses all the comments raised by the reviewers and/or editors.

5 After acceptance

5.1 Proofreading

Once the papers are accepted, the authors will receive proofs to check the completeness of the text. Authors are asked to revise the entire content structure, author(s) information, numbering of figures and tables, references, as well as other issues. Please note that this is a critical stage because, after proofreading, the article will be published.

5.2 Online first

All articles that have passed proofreading by authors and editors will be published in the Online First section.

5.3 Complaints

Any allegation of misconduct or questionable practice must be reported to the Editorial Office, either during the pre or post-publication stages. The IJSMC will follow the COPE’s Core Practices to decide on any ethical issue.