Authors interested in publishing in Esfera Pública. Journal on Governance and Society must register on the journal’s platform and submit their manuscript through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform available on the journal’s official website.

Once a username and password have been created, each author may access their personal area and begin a new submission. The platform allows authors to follow the editorial process and communicate with the journal’s editorial team during the stages of review, peer review, correction and publication.

Only manuscripts submitted through this platform and complying with the journal’s editorial guidelines, author instructions, originality criteria, formal requirements and editorial policies will be considered for evaluation.

 

Submission and originality

By submitting a manuscript, authors declare that the text is original, unpublished and not simultaneously under consideration by another journal, book, peer-reviewed editorial repository or any other academic publication venue.

Authors undertake not to submit the same work to another publication while it is under editorial review by Esfera Pública. Journal on Governance and Society.

The journal accepts only works that correspond to its focus and scope, and reserves the right to reject at the preliminary review stage any manuscript that does not meet its thematic, formal, ethical or academic criteria.

 

Preliminary review

Before academic peer review, the editorial team will conduct a preliminary review to verify:

1. Relevance of the manuscript to the journal’s focus and scope.
2. Compliance with the author guidelines.
3. Originality and academic integrity of the text.
4. Clarity of the argumentative structure.
5. Adequacy of citations, references and critical apparatus.
6. Compliance with anonymisation requirements for double-blind peer review.
7. Inclusion of required statements, where applicable: funding, conflict of interest, use of artificial intelligence, data availability, authorship contributions and ethical considerations.

This preliminary review does not imply acceptance of the manuscript. Its purpose is to determine whether the text may be sent for academic peer review.

 

Anti-plagiarism policy and similarity review

Before peer review, all manuscripts may be checked through Turnitin, similarity review software used by the journal to identify textual matches, undeclared similarities, self-plagiarism, redundant publication and possible improper use of sources.

The similarity report will not be considered, by itself, automatic proof of plagiarism. The editorial team will analyse the detected matches by considering proper citation, references, paraphrasing, common phrases, bibliography, institutional names, methodological formulas and other elements that may generate legitimate similarities.

When evidence of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, redundant publication, improper use of sources, citation manipulation, data fabrication or falsification, or any other practice contrary to academic integrity is identified, the editorial team may request clarifications, suspend the editorial process, reject the manuscript or take the corresponding editorial measures.

 

Peer review

Research articles and academic essays will be evaluated through double-blind peer review. This means that the identity of the authors will not be disclosed to reviewers and the identity of reviewers will not be disclosed to authors during the review process.

Each manuscript approved in the preliminary review will be sent to two specialists in the field, preferably external to the publishing institution and to the journal’s editorial team. Reviewers will be selected according to their academic background, area of expertise and absence of conflict of interest.

Reviewers may recommend one of the following decisions:

1. Accept the manuscript without changes.
2. Accept the manuscript with changes.
3. Reject the manuscript.

In the case of substantial disagreement between the reviews, the text may be sent to a third reviewer. The final publication decision rests with the journal’s editorial team, based on the reviews received, the academic quality of the text, its thematic relevance and compliance with the journal’s editorial policies.

 

Communication of results

The result of the peer-review process will be communicated to authors through the OJS platform or by institutional email. When applicable, the communication will include the reviewers’ comments and the editorial instructions required to continue the process.

The journal will seek to communicate the result of peer review within a period not exceeding six months. This period may vary depending on the number of manuscripts under review, the availability of specialised reviewers, the complexity of the text or the need to request additional reviews.

 

Corrections and final acceptance

When the review result is favourable with changes, authors must submit the corrected version of the manuscript within the period indicated by the editorial team. Unless another deadline is established, the corrected version must be submitted within no more than fourteen calendar days from the editorial communication.

Together with the corrected version, authors must submit a response document clearly indicating the changes made and the way in which the comments of the reviewers and the editorial team were addressed.

The editorial team will review the corrected version and may request further adjustments before issuing final acceptance. Once the text has been accepted for publication, no substantive changes may be made without editorial authorisation.

 

Editing, correction and publication

The journal reserves the right to make style corrections, formatting adjustments, bibliographic normalisation, metadata review and editorial changes necessary to ensure the quality, clarity, consistency and formal adequacy of the published texts.

Acceptance of a manuscript does not imply immediate publication. The editorial team may organise the publication of accepted articles according to the planning of each issue, the availability of materials, editing times and the journal’s editorial needs.

 

Copyright and licence

Authors retain copyright over their works and grant Esfera Pública. Journal on Governance and Society the right of first publication.

Published contents are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), unless expressly stated otherwise. This licence allows users to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors, the original source of publication is cited and any changes made are indicated.

 

Editorial costs

Esfera Pública. Journal on Governance and Society does not charge fees for submission, editorial processing, peer review, correction, layout, publication, download or reading.

The journal does not apply article processing charges (APCs), submission fees, page charges, colour charges, withdrawal charges or publication fees.

 

Authors’ responsibility

The content of published contributions is the sole responsibility of their authors. The opinions, arguments, data, interpretations and conclusions expressed in the texts do not necessarily reflect the institutional position of El Colegio de Jalisco, A.C. or the journal’s editorial team.

For further information about the editorial process, author guidelines or the status of a submission, please write to: esferapublica@elcolegiodejalisco.edu.mx.