Update: Oct. 7th, 2020

Focus and Scope
Peer review process
Article evaluation criteria
Review evaluation criteria
Open access policy
Statement of ethics and negligence
Responsibilities of the Editorial Committee
Editor Responsibilities
Evaluators Responsibilities
Authors Responsibilities
Plagiarism detection policy
Policy for the preservation of digital archives
DOI

Focus and Scope [Top]

SciComm Report, (SCR) is a serial and peer-reviewed publication, it is the official organ of the Center for Communication of Sciences of the Autonomous University of Chile. It has an international scope, is open access and uses a Creative Commons License of Attribution -Non-Commercial- without derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

We are interested in articles that seek to understand how knowledge circulates in society in all its forms. The journal covers a wide variety of topics related to the communication of science and knowledge, from the disciplines Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and also from the social sciences and humanities. Articles that address the objectives of transferring results obtained from conventional research to the community are welcome, as well as the report of systematic experiences of citizen science, as well as environmental and health communication.

Objective: Disseminate original articles related to all aspects of science communication. In general, analytical studies are preferred to descriptive ones.

Mission: Bring scientific knowledge closer to society and create communities around knowledge.

Vision: SCR aims to be a space for academic discussion and multidisciplinary dialogue in the area of ​​scientific communication between research peers and academics in the area.

Aimed at: Academics, researchers and professionals of any discipline who carry out systematic activities of knowledge transfer to society and scientific dissemination in any of its forms.

SciComm Report publishes in the continuous publication scheme in Spanish and English, two issues per year (March and September) following the order of publication of the accepted articles.

Sections include original articles, review articles, letters to the editor, school research, editorials, comments, transfer models, and good practices. SCR does not claim Article Processing Charges (APC) or Article Submission Charges for any of the editorial processes or publication.

e-ISSN 2735-623X

Peer review process [Top]

SCR submits to external peer review through double blind, all scientific articles that are received. The procedure includes:

• Verify that the work belongs to the areas declared by the journal.
• It conforms to the journal's publication standards ( CHICAGO).
• Sending by the editor-in-chief of the original manuscript to two external academic peers, who will carry out the evaluation under the double-blind modality. The reviewers must complete the evaluation form based on the declared criteria and conclude a) Accept the submission, b) Publishable with modifications, c) Re-evaluable; d) Recommend another journal and e) Not publishable.

Article evaluation criteria [Top]

• It has a title and abstract in English and Spanish.
• Expository coherence and clarity.
• Use of sources and bibliographic references.
• Methodological rigor.
• Scientific relevance.
• Fit to format and spelling.

With the evaluation delivered by the external reviewers, the editor-in-chief makes the decision according to the following categories:
a) Accept shipment
b) Publishable with modifications
c) Re-evaluable
d) Not publishable.

Articles with a b and c rating must submit a modified version within a period of two weeks. In cases where there is controversy between two evaluators, the editor-in-chief can request a third evaluation and rule in cases of discrepancies.

The papers are sent for evaluation to expert reviewers on the subject and to the entity of origin of the research and the publishing entity.
When one of the two reviewers disagrees on the recommendation, a third is assigned and a majority decides the determination.
The evaluators have 4 weeks to evaluate the articles and give a recommendation to the editor about the chances of the article being published. This decision is immediately communicated to the authors. If the authors have to make minor changes, they are given a period of 1 to 2 weeks to resubmit the corrections, otherwise the article would go through the editing and production process to be published. The process from when an article is sent to when it is published ranges from 1-3 months.
The papers use the Microsoft Word format to make the pertinent evaluations and the OJS through evaluation forms.

Review evaluation criteria [Top]

• Verify thematic membership
• Adjustment to publication standards
  

The document will be evaluated by two external peers in free format, in the table available on the OJS platform. As in the case of research articles, the reviewers evaluate globally according to the categories: a) Accept submission; b) Publishable with modifications; c) Re-evaluable and d) Not publishable.
Based on these considerations, the editor will finally decide between the acceptance or rejection of its publication.

For letters to the editor, thematic membership and adjustment to the journal's standards will be verified. These works will not be subjected to external evaluation and it will be the editor's decision whether or not to publish the works.

Open access policy [Top]

SciComm Report, (SCR) provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle declared by the university in its Rectory Resolution 103/2017 that Approves Criteria and Procedures for the creation of Scientific Journals of the Autonomous University of Chile and the institutional subscription to the policies of Open Access to the academic, scientific and general public communities.

This journal provides immediate free access to its content under the principle that making research available to the public free of charge supports a greater exchange of global knowledge. The publication are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The rights of the works published in this journal are property of the author and they are free to distribute and disseminate the same sources as long as he correctly cites the font of publication and these acts are not for commercial purposes.

Statement of ethics and negligence [Top]

SciComm Report, (SCR) bases its editorial processes on the ethical code of the Publications Ethics Committee (COPE). Therefore, it establishes the following commitments:

Responsibilities of the Editorial Committee [Top]
The peer review process carried out by the International Journal of Medical Surgical Science is carried out through double blindness and is declared by the Editorial Committee so that the authors know what the evaluation criteria are. The Editorial Committee will always be ready to explain and detail any controversy in the evaluation process.

Editors Responsibilities [Top]

• Guarantee the selection of highly qualified reviewers and with the least possible biases.
• Evaluate exclusively based on the scientific merit of the contents, without discrimination of any kind (ethnic, political, gender, economic, institutional, among others.
• Do not disclose information related to the articles received to people outside the editorial process.
• Maintain the confidentiality of the manuscripts, their authors and reviewers, guaranteeing the anonymity of the process.
• Do not use the contents of the articles for your own research without the express consent of the authors.
• Strictly comply with the published times for the editorial process (14 weeks maximum term) and a maximum number of lag between acceptance and publication, that is, no accepted article can remain as unpublished two numbers in a row.
• Editors will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of articles in which there have been cases of misconduct in the investigation.
• Editors never will encourage any improper conduct, or knowingly allow such improper conduct to occur.
• If editors of the journal become knows about any allegation of misconduct in the investigation, the editors will treat the allegations appropriately.
• Editors should always be willing to post corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.

Evaluators Responsibilities [Top]

• Carry out a critical, constructive and honest review of the scientific quality of the article received.
• Inform the Editor in case of conflicts of interest, refusing to carry out the review due to possible biases.
• Decline to carry out an evaluation if it does not correspond to your field of knowledge or specialization.
• Evaluate the works within the established term, immediately informing the Editor in case of impossibility of compliance at the time of receiving the request.
• Consider each assigned manuscript as confidential, and these texts cannot be discussed with other people without the express consent of the Editor.
• Evaluate objectively, without establishing personal judgments about the authors of the contributions.
• Justify their evaluations based on the guideline established by SCR (available on the journal's website).
• Advise editors if substantial parts of the work have already been published or are under review for another publication.
• Indicate with precision the bibliographic references of fundamental works possibly forgotten by the author.
• Inform the Editor of any similarities or overlaps of the manuscript with other published works.
• Consider the information obtained during the peer review process as confidential, not being able to use it for personal purposes.

Authors Responsibilities [Top]

• Submit an original work, which does not contain parts of other authors or other fragments of works without the corresponding reference.
• Present true and unaltered data.
• Do not publish articles in which the same results are repeated in more than one scientific journal, nor present a manuscript simultaneously in more than one journal.
• Provide a rigorous indication of the sources and contributions mentioned in the article.
• Include those people who have made a real contribution to the article, ranking the authors according to their level of responsibility and involvement in the document.
• Do not include other authors in the middle of the editorial process. It is not allowed by the editorial policy of the SCR.
• Make available sources or data on which the research was based, in case of a duly justified request by the Editor.
• Explicitly declare the non-existence of conflicts of interest that may have influenced the results obtained or the proposed interpretations and indicate any funding from agencies and / or projects from which the research article derives.
• All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of errors, in case of detection.

Plagiarism detection policy [Top]

SCR, has a policy of plagiarism detection, which aims to ensure that the authors comply with the ethical standards necessary to ensure a process of transparency in the publication process.
Editors of the journal carry out the plagiarism detection process through the Turnitin software, and it takes place in the first edition stage (once the article is received). When plagiarism is detected, it is rejected immediately and the authors are informed of the situation.
In the same way, the reviewers are asked, during the evaluation stage, to inform if they detect any form of plagiarism in the manuscript.

When investigating misconduct is detected, editors have the duty to inform the editorial committee so that the necessary measures are taken: retractions, corrections, apologies, clarifications. Editors should always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Policy for the preservation of digital archives [Top]

The specific preservation actions used for SCR digital resources will depend largely on the source and type of content, as well as existing technology, expertise, and ongoing support. Preservation actions based on current resources can be broken down as follows:

Subscription-based resources:

As these resources are not owned or directly controlled by the journal, journal staff cannot manage them. Instead, subscription-based digital resources are primarily managed by agreement with the publisher to use third-party preservation services (such as Portico and LOCKSS).

SCR will also continue its participation in Portico, LOCKSS, and HathiTrust, in support of third-party archiving arrangements of resources not owned by the journal. The value of participation in these and other such services will be regularly assessed.

Resources created by or for, and owned by the journal:

These resources will be comprehensively managed using the life cycle model. Expectation is that all SCR resource content and associated metadata will be developed according to current standards and best practices, and stored in a long-term repository within the journal infrastructure or in a consortium-based repository system (such as HathiTrust). 

DOI [Top]

The journal provides a DOI identifier for each paper published.