Submissions

Author Guidelines

Download the instructions for authors

1. Aims and scope

The Iberoamerican Journal of Science Measurement and Communication (IJSMC) is an international, open-access, peer-reviewed journal of interdisciplinary character. The journal addresses a range of emerging topics, including the quantitative aspects of science, the evaluation of research systems and policies, and science communication and scholarly publishing. The journal aims to serve as a forum for researchers and practitioners from various disciplines, facilitating collaboration between information scientists, librarians, computer scientists, mathematicians, communication specialists, science policymakers, and analysts from the public and private sectors.

The IJSMC encourages submitting research and review articles focused on the Ibero-American context. However, the journal is not restricted to this geographical region. We accept theoretical and empirical contributions on topics related to science and technology, including quantitative and qualitative studies, science communication, science and research policy, research evaluation, scholarly publishing, and the sociology of science.

2. Before you submit

a. Authorship

• All authors listed in manuscripts must take responsibility for the research and article creation process.
• Do not add or exclude people who did or did not contribute to the research.
• Decide on authorship before submission.
• Choose a "corresponding author" and decide the order of authors.
• Each author's metadata must be uploaded to the system accurately.

b. Contributorship 

A contribution statement describing each author's role according to the CRediT Taxonomy must accompany the manuscript.

c. Conflict of interest

Authors are requested to complete the Conflict of Interest (COI) Statement by which all potential interests are declared, if applicable. These are some examples of COI statements: 

• [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.

d. Research data, reproducibility, and transparency

The authors are encouraged to share the data behind the research work. The data-sharing process can occur in the following ways:

• Deposit data in a public repository.
• Data as supplementary material.
• Data is available upon request by the editors or reviewers.   

Citations should appear in the reference section. Authors must follow the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles to cite and reference data correctly.

e. Statement of Data Consent 

Authors must submit a data statement consent. 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 were generated in this research.

f. Open access and copyright

All IJSMC articles are open-access and published under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Authors retain copyright.

g. Article Processing Charge (APC) 

The publishing fee is 700 euros, payable upon acceptance. Some authors receive a discount. More info is here.

h. Preprints

Authors can host their articles on preprint servers before submitting them to the journal. Some preprint servers are ArXiv, bioRxiv, psyArXiv, SocArXiv, engrXiv, e-LIS, RePEc, etc.

1. Third-party materials

All content in submitted manuscripts must be original or have permission to reproduce. Third-party materials include text, data, images, figures, screenshots, tables, audio, and videos. The authors must get permission and give credit for any content they use. Permissions must be in figure captions. Not following copyright rules may delay the review process or result in rejection. The journal is not liable for copyright violations by authors.

3 Article preparation

a. Article type

• Original article: It requires a structured abstract of 150 to 250 words. The article structure should include a title, abstract, keywords, introduction, material and methods, results, discussion, conclusions, acknowledgments (if applicable), funding, statement of data consent, references, and appendixes (if applicable). The article length can be between 3000 to 8000 words, discarding references and appendixes.
• Review article: It requires a structured abstract of 150 to 250 words. These articles may follow a more free-writing structure than the IMRaD format; however, the following elements are necessary: title, abstract, keywords, introduction, conclusions, acknowledgments (if applicable), funding, statement of data consent, references, and appendixes (if applicable).

b. 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 (e.g., 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 (e.g., names, affiliations, emails, etc.).

c. Language

The journal accepts manuscripts in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. 

Please think about the following:

• Have your manuscript edited professionally. 
• Manuscripts in English can use either American or British spelling.
• If you are not a native English speaker, get help from a colleague or use our editing service.
• If your manuscript is in Spanish or Portuguese, enter the English version of the metadata during submission. Manuscripts must have an English version of the title, abstract, and keywords in the full text.    

d. Abstract

Abstracts should be structured like this:

Objective.

Design/Methodology/Approach.

Results/Discussion.

Conclusions.

Originality/Value.

e. Keywords

Please provide 3-6 keywords for the manuscript.

f. Tables

• Tables should be in text format, not images.
• Tables should be numbered in order (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
• Tables should appear near the text where they are cited.

g. Figures

• Use Arial or Helvetica fonts.
• Figures should be numbered in order (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).
• High-quality figures of at least 300 dpi are required for publication.
• Submit figures in the main text and as separate files in JPG, TIFF, or PNG format. Name figures in the text order (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).

i. Abbreviations

Define non-standard abbreviations at first mention. Avoid abbreviations in titles, abstracts, and keywords.

j. Footnotes

Footnotes give extra information. They should be numbered in order in the manuscript.

k. 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.

For more examples of referencing sources, visit this website. 

l. Funding

If the research has received funds, please declare that this research has received funds by [Institution name or equivalent] (grant number).

m. Appendices

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

4. Editorial process

1. Once a paper is submitted, the editor checks to ensure that it is relevant, complete, and suitable for peer review. 
2. When the Editor-in-Chief moves the paper to the peer review phase, two external experts are invited to review it. The double-blind peer review is used during this process. 
3. Once the review process is complete, 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

4. When papers are reviewed, authors will receive comments. If your paper is accepted, you may also receive comments.
5. The review process ends when the author(s) respond to all the comments and/or make the required changes.
6. Once your paper is accepted, you will receive proof to check that everything is there. This is important because your article will be published after proofreading.
7. All proofread articles will be published online.

5. Complaints

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