About the Journal

Approach and scope

Revista Palimpsesto is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that aims at spreading, on open access, a variety of research’s products and outcomes in the Humanities and Social Sciences fields.  As a biannual electronic journal, Palimpsesto started a second period on 2015 affiliated to the Facultad de Humanidades of Universidad de Santiago.

Palimpsesto open its pages to research focused on Chile and Latin America that cover social, political, historical and cultural interest issues that contribute to academical debate and better comprehension of our times.

 

Target Audience

Researchers, academics, graduate students in Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as professionals in related areas.

 

Peer review process

All of the papers sent to Revista Palimpsesto (excluding review articles) are put under double-blind peer review (Comité de Referato) procedure. The Comité de Referato is formed by both Chilean and foreigner specialists of Humanities and Social Sciences that have an extensive and recognized academic background.

Once the Comité de Referato’s evaluation is recaptioned, the Consejo Ejecutivo (C. E.) will decide on the final choice of the publication’s approval or rejection through the following judgments:

 

1. The publication is approved.
2. The publication is approved acknowledging and redoing the aspects observed by the reviewers.
3. The article’s publication is rejected.

 

If the reviewer’s judgment indicates any correction to be made, the author will have a twenty-day period to correct it. If the deadline is exceeded, the publication will be subjected to the decisions determined by the C.E., according to the availability of free space and edition time of the journal. It is important to point out that a paper under evaluation does not imply its immediate publication.

The Palimpsesto’s Editor in chief will acknowledge receipt of the originals during a fifteen-business day period from its reception. The refereeing system implies that each article is under the evaluation of two external members of the editing institution. They will have a twenty-business day limit to perform the evaluation. If eventually, the evaluation turns out dichotomous, a third reviewer is suggested in order to settle the proposal.

The authors are asked to attach the originality letter, which can be downloaded on the link below, to the proposal.

Publication frequency

Biannual periodicity

Open Access policy

• Palimpsesto is exclusively published on the internet, twice a year. The articles can be sent in English, Spanish or Portuguese.  Palimpsesto receives both articles and review articles. To send an article, the journal’s editorial norms on the web page must be followed. Only electronic documents are received. To present an article or a review, you must register as a member and send the article through the journal’s website.

• Palimpsesto has a “blinded examination” policy in which the reviewers do not know the name of the author. The evaluation period is from one to four months. Each article is evaluated by 2 or 3 readers before its publication is approved or rejected.  In both cases, the author will receive an e-mail informing its approval, recommendations, or rejection.

• There are no expenses from the authors in the process of article publication, shipping fees or any other expense in order to send articles to the journal.

Ethical standards

Declaration of ethics

In order to assume the need of specifying the criteria and procedure that protects the relationship between this journal and its authors, and to objectify the rights and responsibilities incumbent to each in the participation process in the public communicational space, Revista Palimpsesto takes notice and promote a proper frame for diffusion practices that are detailed next. These are based on the guidelines that the Committee on Publication Ethics, COPE, propose on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Editors (http://publicationethics.org/).

General duties and responsibilities of Palimpsesto editors  

• strive to meet the needs of readers and authors;
• strive to constantly improve their journal;
• assure the quality of the material they publish
• champion freedom of expression;
• maintain the integrity of the academic record;
• preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards;
• always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Specific about the readers

Be it through direct reference or through requirements of individuals, the editors will always give complete information regarding the origin of the publication, source of funding, the role of the potential funders or sponsors, origin and financial sponsoring of published articles.

Moreover, the information about the editorial policy, edition criteria and indexing will be provided publicly.

Relation with authors

Editors should provide guidance about criteria for authorship and/or who should be listed as a contributor following the standards within the relevant field.

Editor’s decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s importance, originality, and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.

Through this journal’s publication of manuscript and original documents regarding preparation requirements, the editor will inform the author about said requirements.

The editors will deliver all the necessary steps to assure the quality of the publishing material, specifying, if necessary, the objectives and exigency standards of the different sections in which the content is organized.

Through the publication in the journal’s home page, the Editor will publish the review modality of the originals, evaluation guidelines, reply period, appeal mechanism,  copyright, and resolution of conflict of interests to the authors.

Any change regarding people and editorial management criteria of the journal shall not affect the authors -and their works- accepted for publication on a date before the changes are set.

 

Relation with reviewers

Palimpsesto journal’s Editorial Board will publish the evaluation guidelines of the originals for the authors to know what they reviewers will check.

Palimpsesto shall take precautions to assure and protect the secret identity of the reviewers. Any change regarding this information will be informed to the authors in due course.

Palimpsesto’s editors will provide an informed mechanism about the reception and handling of complaints and claims; its reply and appeal instances on different levels, and the final judgement  unappealable by both parts, the editors and the authors, which will take form on the designation of an impartial referee chosen case by case by the concerned parts.

Debate Promotion

The editors of Palimpsesto will publish every critic or fundamental objections that are received regarding the publication of an article or opinion. Only the presence of bad terms or insults will prevent its reproduction. Likewise, the criticized authors will be provided of the opportunity to reply, subject to respect and communicational cordiality rules.

Academic Ethics and Integrity Promotion

The editors shall assure the publishing contents match the ethical criteria internationally accepted. If necessary, they will ask the authors for respective ethical evidence (Ethical Committee, Review Board, etc). The collecting of this evidence will not imply, in any case, that the material proposed by the authors possess ethical guarantee. The Editorial Board of the journal reserves the right of final punishment.

The editors will promote the ethical safeguard in both published works and unpublished works. For that purpose, the priority will be to address the objection regarding the authors or the people directly concerned. If necessary, because of scale or the implications of lack of ethics, they shall take the case to other people or institutions.

If significant inaccuracies, misleading or deceptive mentions or distorted information are noted on the publications of the journal, Palimpsesto will inform the authors for its immediate correction on the journals online version, provided that this will be clearly explained in the same publication. If due to any reason the corrections are not provided, the editors reserve the right to deregister the contents addressed.

Conflict of interest

Palimpsesto has mechanisms and formulas to attend and resolve many conflicts of interests that may present among its administrators; among them and the authors; among authors and reviewers; or among the contents and the readers.

Regarding conflicts inside the Editorial Board, team meetings, bilateral consultation among its members and the final decision of the Direction Board are mechanisms of treatment and resolution of inconvenience and problems.

Regarding the journal and its editorial environment (authors, reviewers, readers), the reception of complaints, claims, appeals, rebate, and replies transmitted to the editor, who will determine the procedure and the people and instances to resort to, are contemplated.

In case of the complaints are directed towards the editor, the claims shall, on the first instance, be communicated to the editor themselves. If the complaint is not addressed or resolved successfully, the claimant will be allowed to contact the journals Direction Board, who are able, if necessary, on a  mutual agreement with the claimant, to determine a final referee of a mandatory judgment for both parts.

Plagiarism and self-plagiarism

Without a doubt, the improper use of other or oneself sources represents one of the most serious faults of ethics and probity regarding investigation and scientific publications. About this matter, there is an extensive bibliography in which the issue is described on its multiple dimensions (just as a reference, you can consult Ética editorial: cómo detectar el plagio por medios automatizados, to access the content press here.)

This journal takes on the concern about the phenomenon through the following actions:

Identification through electronic media: subject to a revision and checking the papers titles, author names, and contents on web browsers (Google; DDG). Moreover, open source specialized tools are also being used, such as: plagiarism detect and turnitin, additionally the journal keeps up to date with advice and orientation of HTW, main entrepreneurship on the topic (see HTW site): through the comparison of paragraph identified as suspicious, this labor is carried out by our Executive Editorial team.

Identification of style: through the comparison of paragraph identified as suspicious, this labor is carried out by our Executive Editorial team.

On the other side, the presumptions and judgments of (self) plagiarism and other deceitful use patterns of previous productions, are submitted to the following steps:

Rating of the suspicion or fault by the Editorial Board of the journal.

Informing the author or authors about the doubt or fraud with reliable proof (with data and proofs).

Indicating the period of disclaimers and/or clarifications. The period, except for force majeure reasons, is peremptory, and will not extend for more than 30 days from the moment the parts were informed.  

Deliberation, where applicable, of the clarification and guarantees from the questioned author.

Resolution and final judgment, from the Executive Board, about the final destination of the work under examination for a period no longer than 60 days. The verdict will be unappealable.

All the process will be written and will be duly recorded on the archives of the journal’s management. Where necessary, the Executive Board of the publication could request the consultancy or opinion of experts outside the editorial instance in order to count the elements for a better resolution.

The one punishment for the authors who indeed had consummate the fault of plagiarism or self-plagiarism (who had not given a clear and conclusive response to the doubts and complaints), shall be the impossibility of sending new articles and communications to the journal for a 3 year period. The journal reserves the right, depending on the nature and effects of the issue, of informing the results publicly and/or turn the background to other administrative and jurisdictional instances relevant to the issue.

Note: for effects of concept definition and qualification of the possible detection of this fault, the journal will abide by the stated by CORE and Plagiat-HTW.

Sources of Assistance

Palimpsesto does not charge any kind of right or pecuniary fee to the authors for the reception and editorial management of its publication proposals. It also does not pay for collaborations of any kind. The production costs and online site are covered by Facultad de Humanidades of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile as voluntary labor contributions of an extensive number of collaborators. Palimpsesto is open access, free and open to any curious mind.