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General |
We invite submissions in any of the following forms:
Research Articles of 5000-8000 words which present new research; we welcome contributions applying quantitative or qualitative research methods, or combinations of these;
Review Articles up to 8000 words which make a review (state of the art) of key issues in science communication;Essays of 3000-4500 words which explore current issues, e.g. of policy or theory, in science communication; we aim to stimulate discussion in the science communication communities and such essays may be specifically designed for that purpose but contributors should be prepared to accept possibly critical responses;
Practice Insights of 3000-5000 words which reflect on project evaluations, action/research projects or similar studies focused on practical examples of science communication.
Reviews of c.1000 words on books, films, exhibitions, museums, conferences, festivals or other major science communication-related publications and events.
Letters of up to 1000 words, may be submitted as responses to published papers or to comment on topical issues.
JCOM América Latina also publishes occasional Commentaries, comprising several perspectives on a shared topic. We welcome proposals for topics and possible contributors but these Commentaries will be commissioned directly by the Journal's editors.
After publishing an article, authors should expect a gap of at least one year before having another article published. This rule aims to allow a greater diversity of authors in the journal.Article submissions will be reviewed by the editors, and, if considered potentially suitable for JCOM América Latina, also by at least two referees through a double-blind peer review. The Editor's decision will be communicated to the corresponding author at the end of the review process.
Registration |
All users must be registered in JCOM América Latina. Registration gives access to your personal pages for all the roles you have for the journal (author, referee, editor). There you can perform all the actions connected with the different stages of the editorial process. Registration is easy, free of charge and mandatory for all authors of submitted contributions. Click here to register and complete the form with the following data:
If you cannot remember your registration data, please do not register again, rather click on "Forgot your username?"/ "Forgot your password?" on the home page. You can update your profile and login data by clicking on "modify my personal data".
You can also update your profile and login data by clicking on "modify my personal data".
For your information, when you login to the JCOM América Latina system for the first time you will be asked to read and accept the Privacy Notice in order to use your pages. If you do not accept this notice within 30 days from the date of registration your account will be discontinued.
Manuscript preparation |
Please note that a template is available for authors to download at the following link:
AUTHOR TEMPLATE
Technical guidelines:
Contributions should be submitted as docx files. If the submission comprises many files, a compressed archive (.zip or .tar.gz) should be uploaded.
Proposals for commentaries should instead be sent to the Editorial Office.
Language:
Contributions can be submitted in either Spanish or Portuguese and will be published accordingly.
Length:
Research Articles: 5000-7500 words, abstract (50-100 words) included.
Review Articles: 5000-7500 words, abstract (50-100 words) included.
Essays: 3000-4500 words, abstract (50-100 words) included.
Practice Insights: 3000-5000 words, abstract (50-100 words) included.
Reviews: about 1000 words, abstract (50-100 words) included.
Letters: up to 1000 words abstract (50-100 words) included.
Font:
Text files should
be presented in Times New Roman, 12pt, without page headers or
footers, and with minimum variation of typeface, e.g. bold, italic,
etc.
Text structure:
Title of the contribution - centered at the top of the first page.
Authors - do not insert the name(s) of the author(s) in the docx file. Please do so only in the submission form on the JCOM América Latina web page.
Abstract - the abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the purpose, basic methodology and procedures, main results and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Abstracts should be 50-100 words.
Keywords - identify 1-3 keywords from the list in the submission web page that capture the main topics of your contribution.
Text - if the submission is in the form of an article it should preferably be divided into sections with the headings such as: Context, Objective, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.
Notes - only numbered text notes will be accepted; a source must be referred to in the text by a numbered apex;1 notes should be placed at the bottom of the page where they are cited; i.e. "The decision was at first left with the scientific community.2 Everyone agreed ..."
Figures: Please number figures sequentially in the text. Figures can be included at the end of the document (after the reference list) or uploaded as separate files. Figures should be accompanied by a suitable figure legend.
Tables: Please number tables sequentially in the text. Tables can be included at the end of the document (after the reference list) or uploaded as separate files. Tables should have an appropriate descriptive title.
References: JCOMAL uses APA citation and reference list style, please refer to the official web page for details and examples: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/referencee
JCOMAL strongly encourages citations to non-traditional research objects available in external repositories. Citations should follow the repository style (i.e, the “cite as” notice) and should include persistent identifiers such as DOIs wherever possible.
Discoverable data citations allow for proper tracking, attribution and recognition apart from increasing discovery & further citations.
Data/Software/Code Availability Statements should be included at the end of articles submitted to JCOMAL to improve their discoverability.
Submission |
After logging in to the home page, you are asked to choose the appropriate option:
- submit a letter
- submit an article
- submit a review article (?)
- submit an essay
- submit a review (?)
- submit a practice insight (?)
- submit an article for a Special Issue
In the case of a contribution submitted for a Special Issue, you will then be asked to select the name of the Special Issue you are submitting to before you proceed with the upload process.
Keyword selection
In order for your contribution to be correctly categorized and tagged, please make sure you select 1 to 3 keywords from the JCOM América Latina keyword list provided in the submission form.
Submission form
Please fill in all the fields in the submission form.
Make sure you fill in the Authors' biography field with a short (max 80 words) descriptive bio for each author. Biographies should be written in the same language as the main contribution.
The submitted file must be completely anonymous in order to guarantee an effective double-blind review process. Therefore, the submitted manuscript should be purged of all mention of the authors' names or personal details.
In "File to process" select the file (docx) containing your contribution. If your contribution contains figures and/or attachments, you may:
a) Prepare an archive (a .zip or a .tar.gz file) containing all your files. If the Word document contains figures, tables, charts etc... they must appear in the docx file, but please make sure they are also included as separate files (GIF, JPEG, TIFF, png, pdf, xls/xlsx) in the compressed archive.
If your archive includes more than one docx, please also fill in the "master file name" field with the name of the manuscript file.
b) In order to upload your additional material, once you have completed the submission, use the "upload attachment" button at the bottom of the page confirming the process has been successful. The button allows you to upload one file at a time. Repeat the procedure for as many times as necessary until you have uploaded all your additional material. The attachments (unless otherwise indicated by the authors) will be reviewed along with the main document but will not be typeset or transformed in any way.
Completing the submission process
Finally, click on the button "upload file". Please DO NOT double-click: push the upload button just once, and please wait. The system will process your files. This can take up to a few minutes, depending on their size.
After completing the procedure, a submission report will be shown to you with the data for your contribution and the link where you can upload additional materials (the "upload attachment" button). If, on the other hand, the submission fails, the report will inform you of the error(s) that have occurred. Should you be unable to complete the process, please contact the Editorial Office (jcomal-eo@jcomal.sissa.it) for assistance.
Please remember that all authors on the submitted contribution's author list must be registered JCOM América Latina users. Each and every author of a contribution submitted to JCOM América Latina must register to the journal and must login to accept the privacy notice.
After submission |
After submitting your contribution, make sure you go to "My author pages (corresponding author)" from the JCOM América Latina home page. Click on the appropriate preprint number and scroll down the page. Please check all available data on your submission. Should you need to communicate with the Editor or the Editorial Office, you will find the appropriate e-mail tool at every stage of the editorial procedure.
JCOMAL policy on data files and similar supplementary material
JCOMAL strongly encourages posting data files and similar supplementary material to publicly-accessible, discipline-specific, community-recognised repositories that comply with the FAIR principles as much as possible.
In cases where a suitable discipline-specific resource does not exist, such files may be submitted to a generalist repository (for example, Zenodo), including any such repositories provided by universities, funders or institutions for their affiliated researchers.
Authors may also wish to explore repository registries such as FAIRsharing.org and re3data.org
Supplementary material should conform to the FAIR principles as much as possible.
Revised versions
Revised versions can be submitted only if requested by the Editor. Contributions must therefore be submitted originally in their final form.
The revisions requested by the Editor are listed in your author's page under "State of preprints" in the sections "To be revised (major revision)" and "To be revised (minor revision)" respectively.
Authors that have been asked to revise their preprints must attend to the requested modifications and provide a new version within the specified deadline. Extensions may be agreed upon by contacting the Editor and explaining your reasons.
Revised preprints must be uploaded from the preprint page by clicking "submit revision" or "submit minor revision".
The cover letter with your reply to the referee report is required and should clearly describe all the changes with respect to the previous version, explaining how you have addressed the Editor's requests. You will be asked to enter the cover letter in a text area during the upload procedure. Please make sure you save it in a file on your computer before uploading it, as a network failure could cause the resubmission to fail and the cover letter might be lost. Should you forget to enter the cover letter when resubmitting your contribution, please connect to your JCOM América Latina Author pages and send it with the "write to editor" e-mail tool.
If you wish to add the cover letter as a PDF file, after submitting the revised version, please use the "upload attachment" button on the confirmation page to upload your PDF as an attachment to the revision. Cover letters embedded in submitted archives will NOT be picked up automatically by the system and will not be visible to anyone.
After rejection
Contributions are considered, processed and reviewed as fairly as possible. Authors of contributions that have been rejected may appeal for reconsideration and reply to the Editor and Referee(s). Appeals must be scientifically justified and not polemic. Please send your rebuttal letters by connecting to the preprint page and using the "write to Editorial Office" button.
Author inquiries
Although the identity of editors is anonymous, authors can communicate with them at all times through the appropriate "write to editor" button on their pages.
After publication
In case corrections or additions to published papers are needed, authors should contact the Editorial Office.
Withdrawal
Authors may withdraw their contributions by clicking on the corresponding button on the preprint status page or, if it is unavailable, by contacting the Editorial Office.
Coauthors |
A coauthor is a registered user selected by the corresponding author that has access to the author pages without being able to view the correspondence relating to the contribution or change its status.
Please remember that all authors on the submitted contribution's author list must be registered JCOM América Latina users and must have logged into the website to accept the privacy notice.
After submitting your contribution you can select the coauthors. On the JCOM América Latina home page click on "my Author pages (corresponding author)" and on the preprint number. At the bottom of the page you will find the "Select Coauthor" button which allows you to select and notify the coauthors one by one. Please note that, in order to be selected as a coauthor, the person must already be a registered JCOM América Latina user. Information regarding registrations is available in the section Registration.
Switch Corresponding Author
Once a coauthor has been selected, the corresponding author may choose one of the co-authors to take over his/her role by clicking on the "Switch Corresponding Author" button.
The preprint web page |
As soon as a new contribution is submitted to JCOM América Latina, a preprint number is assigned and the preprint appears in the section "Waiting for Editor's decision". The preprint number identifies your contribution throughout the editorial procedure, and is required for any correspondence with the JCOM América Latina Editorial Office.
To access the preprint web page of a particular document, you should:
1. login to the JCOM América Latina website at SISSA
2. Click on "my Author pages"
3. Preprints still in progress are in the "pending papers" page, divided into sections according to their status.
The preprint web page contains all the information about that particular preprint, except for confidential data (i.e., Editor and Referee names). From the preprint web page, you can perform the following actions:
check the status of the preprint and the progress of the editorial procedure
download the preprint itself
communicate with the Editor and with the Editorial Office
read and download the report
submit the revised version of the preprint, if requested by the Editor
Copyright statement |
After a contribution has been accepted for publication, authors are requested to accept the Open Access and Copyright terms available here.
Only after these terms have been accepted will the contribution be typeset and sent back to the authors for proofreading.
All contributions are published on open access terms, with Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and the copyright is retained by the authors.
Proofreading and publication |
After your contribution has been accepted and typeset, you will be notified and be able to:
layout (i.e., wrong floating of figures or tables),
spelling mistakes
mistakes or updating in references
The corrections must be suggested using the web form accessible via the button "send proofs", explaining where they occur in the document (page number, paragraph and line) and specifying both the old (wrong) version and the correction.
Please note that if the corrections you request are not minor, your contribution will be shown to the Editor-in-charge for approval. If (s)he reckons that they affect the content significantly, you may be requested to submit a revised version of the preprint for which a new review process will begin. This will be listed in the "Pending revision after proofreading" section.
approve the document for publication by clicking on the "ready for publication" button on your author pages, unless there is a request for information from the Editorial Office.
When you approve the document for publication, or after your requested corrections have been implemented, the document is ready to be published. It will be stored in the "published" section of your JCOM América Latina Author pages and will also be available on the JCOM América Latina website.
At the time of publication your contribution will receive a publication ID and a DOI.
