Editorial Policy

Publication Standards

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Objective and Mission

Cálamo's objective and mission is to generate and disseminate interdisciplinary knowledge of law that contributes to the analysis of contemporary issues, with special emphasis on Latin America.

Who it is Aimed at

Cálamo is aimed at the scientific community and the general public interested in legal studies and their relationship with other sciences.

Frequency and Calls for Papers

Cálamo is an academic journal, published every six months (January and July), edited by the Faculty of Law of the Universidad de las Américas, Ecuador, since 2014.

The journal makes two calls for contributions per year proposing a central theme, and receives contributions on various topics throughout the year: essays and research articles that contribute to the knowledge and analysis of Law.

Scope

Thematic

Cálamo receives spontaneous contributions on various subjects related to the study of Law or that respond to the themes proposed in the calls for papers that are made twice a year. We publish essays and research articles that contribute to the knowledge and analysis of Law, as well as interdisciplinary studies that show the connections of this discipline with the whole of society, from Philosophy, Sociology, Political and Constitutional Theory, among others.

Geographic

Although most of the texts published in Cálamo focus on Latin America and Spanish-speaking countries, articles and other contributions can deal with a variety of topics within legal studies without having to be limited to a particular geographical area.

Languages of Publication

Cálamo receives and publishes contributions in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Originality

All contributions must be original, unpublished and not simultaneously submitted for publication or published in other journals or editorial bodies, either physically or digitally.

In the case of texts that have been published in recognised scientific journals, in a language other than Spanish and, preferably, in countries outside the region (Latin America), their publication may be considered. To this end, the text must be translated and submitted in Spanish, and will be submitted for review by the editorial committee, which will evaluate the relevance and pertinence of the text, as well as its academic quality. Relevance will be considered in terms of the correspondence of the subject matter with that of the current call for papers and relevance in terms of the contribution of the text to its field of knowledge.

Authors

Contributions are welcome from academics and researchers from Ecuador and other countries, regardless of their institutional or academic affiliation, as well as from independent researchers. It is not necessary to be affiliated with academic or other institutions to propose contributions.

Authorship Criteria

Authors are considered to be those who participate significantly in the research and writing of the article, essay or review, and at the same time take responsibility for what is stated in the text. In the case of co-authorship, there may or may not be a distinction between the degrees of participation in the research and writing of the text, which should be stated when submitting an article, essay or review. Likewise, it should be stated whether other person(s) have participated in the research prior to the writing of the text, in the preparation of tables, collection and/or processing of primary and secondary information, or in the revision of the text.

Copyright and Access Policy

Cálamo is an open access journal and operates under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The authors retain their copyright and authorise Cálamo magazine, for an unlimited period of time, to include their text in the corresponding issue of the magazine, to exhibit it, disseminate it and distribute it in its printed and virtual media, nationally and internationally. The journal allows self-archiving of the pre-print, post-print and final version.

Plagiarism Prevention and Academic Honesty Policy

Hate Speech and Discrimination

Cálamo promotes respect for the rights of all, without discrimination of any kind. Texts that encourage hate or discriminatory speech will not be accepted.

Acceptance of the Editorial Policy and Adherence to the Code of Ethics

The submission of any article, essay, review or interview for publication in Cálamo presupposes acceptance of the terms included in the editorial policy and adherence to the journal's Code of Ethics.

Publication Cost and Journal Financing

Cálamo does not charge or receive any kind of monetary benefit or income for the publication of articles, essays, interviews or reviews.

The operating, editing and publication costs of Cálamo are entirely financed by the Universidad de las Américas, Ecuador.

The distribution of the printed version is free and limited.

Digital File Preservation Policy

Cálamo guarantees the preservation of its contents through the Open Journal System (OJS) archiving system. In addition, the magazine assigns a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), a persistent identifier that guarantees the identification and location of its contents, even if URL or other changes occur.

 

Review and Selection Process

The publication of articles and essays requires that they successfully pass through several evaluations and reviews.

1. The first evaluation is carried out upon receipt of the contributions. Once received, the editorial management sends an acknowledgement of receipt to the authors and proceeds to the internal validation of the text. This first validation focuses on verifying compliance with the editorial and citation rules set out in this editorial policy and in the citation rules document, as well as compliance with the basic requirements listed in our editorial policy (section policy), format, spelling and syntax (style manual), and structural/argumentative correctness.

In this first evaluation, the texts are also analyzed with the Turnitin plagiarism prevention tool (or other).

If necessary, at the end of this first review, the authors will be asked to make the necessary corrections before validating the reception of the text. They will have no more than ten (1) days to do so. Once compliance with the journal's standards has been confirmed, authors will be notified within fifteen (15) days.

2. The second evaluation process consists of double-blind peer review. The evaluators will be, in all cases, people with an academic background of fourth level and/or higher who have proven knowledge and sufficient expertise in the subject matter of the article or essay. Peer reviewers may be internal or external to the Universidad de las Américas, the majority being external to the institution.

Peer reviewers will have between four (4) and six (6) weeks to fill out the refereeing form. The indications of the peer reviewers determine if the work can be published without modifications (P), with slight modifications (ML), with important modifications (MI) or if it is not publishable (NP). The criteria are as follows:

*If the third report considers that the corrected text is publishable (P) or requires slight modifications (ML), publication is subject to the completion of the requested or recommended corrections and the approval of the editorial management. If the third report considers that the corrected text is not publishable (NP) or requires important modifications (MI), the publication is rejected.

These reports will be sent to the author, who will have two (2) to four (4) weeks to make the necessary adjustments requested by the reviewers, depending on the complexity of the corrections requested and/or suggested. In the event of a significant disagreement between peer reviewers (NP + P or NP + ML), the author must make the requested modifications and the corrected text will be submitted to a third arbitration.

It is important to take into account that once the article has been submitted to peers, the author undertakes to make the requested adjustments and to submit the final corrected article for publication within the deadlines established and indicated by the editorial management.

3. A third evaluation is carried out once the authors send their articles again, having incorporated the corrections and suggestions of the peer evaluators. The texts corrected by the authors will be reviewed to verify the implementation of the requested changes in the arbitration reports. The receipt of this final version, if it complies with the requested corrections, determines the approval date of the article or essay. If the modifications are not complied with, the author will be informed and, if possible, additional time will be granted to make them. At this stage, the texts are analyzed again with the Turnitin plagiarism prevention tool, to ensure their originality and correct reference to sources.

4. The corrected and approved versions then go through a style and orthotypographic editing process, in which adequate compliance with citation standards and formal aspects is also verified. During this process, it may be necessary to make adjustments that require the approval of the authors, who will then be consulted. The final version obtained will be sent to its authors for a final review and approval.

5. These final versions are sent to layout. The texts already laid out are reviewed one last time by the Editorial Management, before printing and disseminating the magazine through digital media.

Until the journal's publication date, all authors and evaluators receive the respective proof of participation (publication or evaluation) digitally.

Contributions to reviews and interviews are not subject to blind peer review; They are reviewed, selected and edited by the editorial team.

 

Policy by Sections

Dossier

The articles or essays in this section respond to the current call and are selected for their academic quality, their extensive bibliographic review, their solid argumentative level and, preferably, for their regional and international analysis. Reflection or argumentative essays are also collected that fall into the central theme of the issue and in which the author's position is presented based on a critical reading of academic literature or on a specific research experience. All texts in this section are submitted to the blind peer arbitration process.

Requirements 

• The article must be preceded by an abstract of at least 500 characters with spaces and no longer than 800 characters with spaces, in Spanish and English.
• Authors must provide five (5) to eight (8) keywords that reflect the content of the article and that are not repeated in the title of the article, in Spanish and English. Keywords must be separated by a semicolon and begin with a capital letter.
• The title of the article may not contain more than ten (10) words. Its length may be expanded using a subtitle. However, if the editor suggests changes, they will be applied by mutual agreement.
• The article must have an introduction, development (with the relevant subdivisions) and conclusions.
• The length of the articles and essays will be 30,000 to 50,000 characters with spaces (including footnotes and boxes, and excluding bibliography).
• The article in its entirety must comply with the CHICAGO Deusto citation standards in author-year format, according to the specifications of the Cálamo citation standards document. In the editing stage, the editorial team may make any style correction that it deems necessary.

Authors are encouraged to use the following checklist to ensure they meet the requirements before submitting their article or essay. 

Essay

The articles or essays in this section are also selected for their academic quality, their extensive bibliographic review, their solid argumentative level and, preferably, for their regional and international analysis; but they do not deal with the central topic of the current call, but are part of the permanent call for open topics. Reflective or argumentative essays are also collected, in which the author's position is presented based on a critical reading of academic literature or on a specific research experience. All texts in this section are submitted to the blind peer arbitration process.

Requirements 

• The article must be preceded by an abstract of at least 500 characters with spaces and no longer than 800 characters with spaces, in Spanish and English.
• Authors must provide five (5) to eight (8) keywords that reflect the content of the article and that are not repeated in the title of the article, in Spanish and English. Keywords must be separated by a semicolon and begin with a capital letter.
• The title of the article may not contain more than ten (10) words. Its length may be expanded using a subtitle. However, if the editor suggests changes, they will be applied by mutual agreement.
• The article must have an introduction, development (with the relevant subdivisions) and conclusions.
• The length of the articles and essays will be 30,000 to 50,000 characters with spaces (including footnotes and boxes, and excluding bibliography).
• The article in its entirety must comply with the CHICAGO Deusto citation standards in author-year format, according to the specifications of the Cálamo citation standards document. In the editing stage, the editorial team may make any style correction that it deems necessary.

Authors are encouraged to use the following checklist to ensure they meet the requirements before submitting their article or essay. 

Review

Critical evaluations are published of books that have been published in the last two years in Spanish, English, French or Portuguese. Priority is given to reviews that are related to the current call.

Requirements

• Reviews of books published in the last two (2) years are accepted.
• They will have an extension of between 5,000 and 20,000 characters with spaces (including footnotes and boxes, and excluding bibliography).
• They should not contain an abstract.
• They must present surnames and names of the author, year, title of the book, edition, publisher, place of publication. The author's training, his competence, experience, and his purpose in writing the work can be noted.
• A cover of the publication in good resolution will be delivered.
• They will have to indicate how the text is organized (chapters, parts, stories, etc.), its precise ordering or composition; that is, the way in which its various parts relate and articulate with each other.
• They must have conclusions or critical judgments, in which the theoretical, social, political, educational, etc. contributions and repercussions will be discussed, and a balance will be made of personal observations, reduced to general lines.

Reviewers are encouraged to use the following checklist to ensure they meet the requirements before submitting their review. 

Interview

This section includes interviews with legal professionals, public figures, members of citizen initiatives and political or academic personalities linked to the legal scene. Priority is given to interviews that are related to the current call.

Requirements

• Interviews are received from academics, legal professionals, public figures, members of citizen initiatives and political or academic personalities linked to the legal scene.
• They will have an area of between 15,000 and 40,000 characters with spaces.
• They should not contain an abstract.
• Authors must provide five (5) to eight (8) keywords that reflect the content of the interview, and that are not repeated in the title, in Spanish and English. Keywords must be separated by a semicolon and begin with a capital letter.
• The title of the article may not contain more than ten (10) words. Its length may be expanded using a subtitle. However, if the editor suggests changes, they will be applied by mutual agreement.
• They must explore and discuss a topic that is the specialty of the person interviewed, preferably related to the proposal of the current call, and they must follow a clear thread that leads, as far as possible, to issuing conclusions and/or recommendations.

Authors are encouraged to use the following checklist to ensure they meet the requirements before submitting their interview. 

 

Citation and Style Standards

At Cálamo we use the CHICAGO Deusto citation manual in Author-year format. The Citation Guide can be downloaded here.

Cálamo has a Style Manual for its collaborators. It is recommended that you review it before sending articles and other texts nominated for publication.