Focus and scope

The journal Astrolabio. Nueva Época is a biannual publication of the Center for Research and Studies on Culture and Society (CIECS), belonging to the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the National University of Córdoba (UNC), Argentina. Dedicated to research in social and human sciences, Astrolabio. Nueva Época preserves the virtual format with which it was created, promoting the access and circulation of contributions. In this new stage, Astrolabio intends to continue exchanging and disseminating scientific production in Spanish and Portuguese, and publishing articles of quality and critical perspective presenting research and theoretical discussions, with a particular interest in those referring to the Ibero-American universe.

Astrolabio. Nueva Época invites humanities and social sciences researchers to submit contributions for its following issues. In each edition, Astrolabio publishes "Articles of theoretical discussion" and general "Research articles", for which the call for papers is permanently open. It also includes a "Dossier", whose theme is renewed periodically, for which scientific articles are received until the deadline indicated in each call. Also,  "Reviews" of recently published books are also received.

Astrolabio publishes scientific texts subject to double-blind refereeing and under international criteria of editorial quality. The Journal does not charge any submission or article processing fee (APC).

The structure of the journal is based in the Open Journal System (OJS). To submit contributions, the author creates a user account and follows the steps proposed by the system. Submissions must comply with the editorial and style standards indicated at https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/astrolabio/about/submissions.

 

Section Policies

Editorial

  • Dossier

In each number, a section is published that exhibits thematic unity around a previously defined axis. The theme is updated for each issue. The call for the presentation of scientific articles in the dossier is published in advance, along with the deadlines.

o Indexed and evaluated by double-blind external review.

 

  • Theoretical discussion articles

These are articles analyzing authors, concepts, or works, which follow the research and reflection guidelines of the humanities and social sciences. The critical synthesis must result in an original contribution (reading axis, hypothesis, comparison, contextualization, or new information) to the disciplinary field in which the work is included. Essays are not accepted.

 o Indexed and evaluated by double-blind external review.    

  • Research articles

These are articles with empirical basis and conceptual contributions that provide a new input in the social or human sciences field. It is expected for these articles to contain a methodological explanation of how the research was carried out.

o Indexed and evaluated by double-blind external review.

  • Reviews

The reviews are texts of intellectual elaboration that refer to recent work or to a synthesis of the thought of third authors that for some reason become current. These works identify the subject main points of treatment and offer a contextualization in (a) the state of the art, (b) the rest of the work or trajectory of the author, or (c) the relationship between the author with other authors. The text includes a descriptive exposition and a critical reading, grounded and with the incorporation of other sources. Reviews limited to quoting works or authors are not accepted.

                          Review Guidelines

Reviews have a title like any other article. In two languages, Spanish and English.

Before the text itself, insert the complete data of the book including the number of pages, similar to a bibliographic record, in square brackets; example:

[Jablonka, Ivan. History is contemporary literature. Manifesto for the social sciences. Buenos Aires, FCE, 2016, 348 pp].

  1. It must present the theme and its central problem, from an approach that contemplates its structure and a general critical synthesis. It is not a detailed description of the content of each chapter or section.
  2. Specify to whom it is addressed or who are its potential readers.
  3. It is always interesting for a review to place the book in relation to the rest of the work of the same author and/or with other works on the same subject.
  4. Within this framework, the focus of the review should identify its original contributions and strengths, as well as, if applicable, its limitations (substantiate).
  5. However, the review should be sufficiently descriptive to enable a lay reader to grasp the content of the book and the reviewer's assessment of it.
  6. It is essential to avoid detours and data that do not have to do strictly with the author, the book, or the problem that makes the reason for the review. For the same reason, it is necessary to cite firsthand all the texts used.
  7. Finally, the book that motivates the review must be a recent edition. To set a parameter, as far as possible it should have been published (in Spanish) in the same year in which the review is written -and submitted for Astrolabio's consideration-; but it is understandable that, in some cases, there is a lapse of up to two years between its circulation and the critical reading that is being promoted.
  8. Length: 2,000 to 3,000 words of text, including bibliographical references as required by the citations used.

 

Open Access Policy

Astrolabio, Nueva Época is committed to the policies of Open Access to scientific information adopted by Argentina (National Law 26,899) and the National University of Córdoba (RHCS 1365/2017), which promote free, unrestricted circulation of publications and research financed with public funds, in line with international regulations, declarations, and proposals.

All texts are available for reading and can be downloaded for free to be used for academic and scientific purposes. Commercial use of the original work and generation of derivative works is not permitted.

The journal adheres to the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA) license. Therefore, it allows sharing, distributing, downloading, and using the material for academic purposes, whereas:

  1. a) Authorship and the original source of its publication (magazine, editorial, and URL of the work) are acknowledged.
  2. b) Material is not used for commercial purposes;
  3. c) If you remix, transform, or build on the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

 

Preservation policy

National Law 26,899 “Open Access Institutional Digital Repositories, Own or Shared” https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/ley-26899-223459 determine that researchers, teachers, scholarship holders postdoctoral students and master's and doctoral students whose research activity is financed with public funds, must deposit or expressly authorize the deposit of a copy of the final version of their scientific-technological production published or accepted for publication in the digital access repositories open of its institutions, within a period not exceeding six (6) months from the date of its official publication or approval (Art.5). Primary research data must be deposited within a period not exceeding five (5) years from the time of collection, in accordance with the policies established by the institutions.
The materials published in this journal are deposited in the Repository of the National University of Córdoba (UNC), which ensures automatic backups and remote copies, format adjustments, integrity checks and other activities required to ensure digital preservation are carried out through the repository. The UNC is part of the National System of Digital Repositories of the Argentine Republic. It has joined the University Digital Repository as the Journal Portal and complies with the guidelines for content providers of the National System of Digital Repositories of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation. More information at http://oca.unc.edu.ar/normativas.

 

Code of ethics, good practices, and conflicts of interest

Astrolabio Nueva Época assumes the commitment with the scientific community and its readers to guarantee the ethics and quality of its content, taking as a reference the code of conduct and good practices defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for editors, reviewers /as and authors of scientific journals. You can consult the code in full here: Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Code of Conduct for Journals Publishers 

The code addresses all parties involved in the management and publication of scientific results. Here are the highlights to be considered:

Best practice for editors would include

  • Quality: refers to the journal's responsibility to guarantee the relevance, coherence, and suitability of the scientific articles it publishes and to ensure the continuous improvement of the editorial processes.
  • Transparency: Astrolabio. Nueva Época is committed to providing information to show the management of each step of the editorial process from the submission of the article until it is accepted or rejected.
  • Privacy: The names and e-mail addresses entered in this magazine will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this magazine and will not be made available for any other purpose or person.
  • Independent review of biases or ideological positions: the journal guarantees that the documents submitted to this journal will be evaluated solely for their intellectual merit and not for ideological issues defended by the author.
  • Qualified evaluation: the journal assures its collaborators that it sends their work to recognized reviewers in the field of reference.

Best practice for authors would include

  • Knowledge: authors declare that they know everything related to the focus of the journal, its scope, author regulations, use policies, and documents for authors.
  • Originality and plagiarism: the authors declare that the papers submitted are original and have not been published in any other journal, since Astrolabio does not admit simultaneous publications. In the case of using graphics, images, photographs, etc.; the authors declare that they are free and without restrictions or licenses for use, or that they have the corresponding permissions for their use.
  • Sources: authors are responsible for mentioning in all cases the sources and contributions mentioned in the article. They also confirm the veracity of the data, that is, that the empirical data have not been altered to verify hypotheses.
  • Authorship: contributors guarantee the inclusion of those people who have made a significant scientific and intellectual contribution to the work.
  • Responsibility: all collaborators accept responsibility for what has been written. Once the article is published, if the authors detect an important error in their work, they must immediately inform the journal and provide the necessary information to make the appropriate corrections/rectifications.
  • Conflicts of interest: authors have the responsibility to acknowledge and declare in the manuscript all financial support received and other financial or personal connections with that work. A conflict of interest exists when there is a confrontation between the personal interests (financial, academic, or related) of the author and his scientific actions, his critical judgment, and the honesty of his acts.

Best practice for reviewers would include

  • Contribution: reviewers assume the commitment to carry out a critical, honest, constructive, and unbiased review, both of the scientific quality and the literary quality of the writing in the field of their knowledge and skills.
  • Confidentiality: each work to be evaluated must be considered confidential, and will not be open to discussions or suggestions from other people without the express consent of the editors.
  • Objectivity: the peer review will be carried out objectively. No personal judgment of the authors of contributions is considered appropriate. Reviewers are required to give sufficient reasons for their ratings. The reviewers will have a guide provided by the editors to facilitate their task, where they can present their suggestions to the authors in a constructive, respectful, and well-founded manner.
  • Corrections/omissions/similarities: the person responsible for the evaluation undertakes to indicate precisely the bibliographical references of fundamental works possibly forgotten by the author. You should also inform the editors of any similarities or overlaps of the manuscript with other published works.
  • Conflict of interest: during the peer review process, the reviewers must not examine papers in which conflicts of interest interfere, either due to relationships of professional competence in the same field of research or for other reasons involving any type of relationship with the authors or the institution they represent.

Works that do not meet these ethical standards will be dismissed.

 

Plagiarism and self-plagiarism policy

Astrolabio. Nueva Época  publishes original works that have not been previously published or are being submitted for consideration by other publications, totally or partially. A statement to this effect will be requested from authors when submitting their manuscripts (see Guidelines for Authors). Translations of works published in another language in Spanish translation at the request of the Editorial Committee are excepted.

All submitted articles will be exhaustively reviewed for plagiarism or self-plagiarism detection. Is considered plagiarism when the authorship is omitted or quotes are not cited and/or when minimal changes are made in the text of a third party and it is presented as original, or when there is an original authorship reference, but the source pages are inaccurately indicated. Is considered self-plagiarism when the appearance of the submission is changed and it is presented as if it were a different one, or when the indication that the work is a new version of another work that has already been published is omitted.

Astrolabio uses the plag.es tool, which allows comparing text coincidences with several databases of public access and payment documents. Text matching algorithms output similar text matches at various fragmentation levels, and allow plagiarism risk to be calculated based on the presence of these largest continuous blocks of similarities in the document (plag.es). If plagiarism or self-plagiarism is detected, the evidence will be sent to the author and a response will be requested. If the answer is not satisfactory, the manuscript will be rejected and no new articles from the author will be received for three years.

 

Sponsorship

Center for Research and Studies on Culture and Society (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad, CIECS), an executive unit of double dependency of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET) and the National University of Córdoba (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, UNC)