Preamble
The journal Eikón Imago (e-ISSN: 2254-8718) is an annual scientific journal (formerly biannual) that operates under a Continuous Article Publication (CAP) model, and that is edited by the CAPIRE Research Group (Collective for the Multidisciplinary Analysis of European Religious Iconography), attached to the Department of History of the Art of the Faculty of Geography and History of the Complutense University of Madrid. The journal focuses on iconography in a broad sense, with a thematic coverage that covers the forms and meanings of images from any time, culture or country, as well as any thematic, typological or disciplinary variant of iconography: religious, mythological, political, musical, fantastic, animalistic or other. Its sections are Monographic issue, Miscellaneous articles, and Reviews. The journal accepts papers written in Spanish, English, French, Italian, and Portuguese.
I. Management bodies
The management bodies in charge of scientific coordination and editing of the journal are the Editorial Board and the Advisory Council. All the members of both Councils undertake to respect the principles of the Code of Ethics that the Complutense University of Madrid establishes in its case for scientific journals.
1. EDITORIAL BOARD
1. Members: The Editorial Board will be made up of the Director, the Secretary, and the Members. The position of Director must be filled by an active teacher with a full-time contractual relationship with the UCM. At least two-thirds of the members of the Editorial Board must be made up of renowned specialists from different scientific institutions of the Complutense University of Madrid.
The Editorial Board will assist the Director in all his functions and, especially, in the follow-up of the works (reception, evaluation, acceptance) and in the definition of the contents and style of the journal (original presentation rules). , creation and orientation of the sections, etc.).
1.2. The election of members: The members of the Editorial Board will be proposed by the CAPIRE Research Group. There will be three votes on the candidates proposed for each of the positions: one for the election of the Director, another for the election of the members of the institution, and another for the election of external members. The post of Secretary of the Editorial Board will be directly designated by the Director.
1.3. Duration of service: All Members will be elected for a period of four years and they can only renew their position for the second period of four years. The Director will be elected for four years, renewable for another four. After two terms, there will be a grace period of four years to re-apply, unless at that time no other candidates attend to fill the vacant service.
The Editorial Board will take its agreements by consensus or a simple majority.
1.1. Editor in Chief Functions
The Director will exercise the following functions:
a) Coordinate and represent the magazine, as well as take charge of relations with the Editorial Board, with the Advisory Council, with Ediciones Complutense and with other institutions for any matter related to the magazine.
b) Elect the Assistant Editor of the Editorial Board.
c) Convene the Editorial Board meetings.
d) Inform the CAPIRE Research Group about the operation of the magazine and its needs.
e) Ensure the maintenance of the highest scientific quality of the journal, as well as its recognition and inclusion in databases, directories and national and international evaluation agencies and its evaluation to obtain quality seals, for which it will have the help of the remaining members of the Editorial Board.
The Director will have a casting vote in the event of a tie in the deliberations of the Editorial Board.
1.2. Functions of the Assistant Editor of the Editorial Board
Corresponds to the Assistant Editor of the Editorial Board:
a) Take responsibility for the reception, custody and management of the originals throughout the evaluation and publication process.
b) To carry out the ordinary correspondence of the journal with authors, collaborators, and external evaluators, with the members of the Editorial Boards and Advisor, and with the Publications Service of the Complutense University of Madrid (or the publishing house).
c) Acknowledge receipt to the authors of all papers received.
d) Organize the review process of the originals received by the Editorial Board so that it is decided which papers are submitted for evaluation and which are returned, once compliance with the journal's requirements has been verified.
e) Send the originals to the evaluators together with an instruction document and an evaluation template.
f) Be in charge of sending the authors the reasoned communication of the decision to publish their originals.
g) Monitor the complete editorial process of the issues of the journal (preparation and delivery of originals –including the first pages and statistics–, layout process, sending proofs to the authors, revision of the pre-printing version, communication to the authors of the publication).
h) Prepare the meetings with the Director, prepare minutes of the Editorial Board meetings, take responsibility for the custody of the minutes and certify the work carried out by the members, the scientific advisers, and the evaluators.
i) Collaborate with the Director in the dissemination of the magazine, in institutional relations, exchanges, indexing and any other task that may lead to improving the quality and recognition of the magazine.
j) To be in charge of coordinating the Technical Secretaries in the exercise of their functions.
k) Issue the certifications corresponding to any mode of collaboration with the Magazine.
1.2.1. Functions of the Technical Secretaries
At the proposal of the Secretary of the Editorial Board, up to two Technical Secretaries may be appointed, who are not necessarily members of said Council.
The functions of the Technical Secretaries will be:
a) assist the Secretary of the Editorial Board in monitoring the editorial process and in communication with the authors and evaluators
b) oversee the layout process, proofreading, and magazine cover review;
c)collaborate in the dissemination of the magazine, in institutional relations, exchanges, indexing and any other task that improves the quality and recognition of the magazine.
1.3. Functions of the Members of the Editorial Board
Corresponds to the Members of the Editorial Board:
a) Compulsory participation in the meetings of the Editorial Board that are called.
b) Collaborate, under the coordination of the Secretary of the Editorial Board, in the prior reading of originals received to make the decision of which should be submitted for evaluation and which will be returned to the authors.
c) Collaborate in the search for external evaluators for the works. The Members cannot under any circumstances evaluate the articles presented.
d) Advise and collaborate with the management of the magazine in all the tasks deemed necessary for its proper operation, including ensuring compliance with the punctuality of publication and the periodicity of the magazine.
1.4. Permanent Commission
In order to streamline the operation of the magazine, the Editorial Board will have a Permanent Commission that will be responsible for dealing with and resolving minor issues that need urgent processing. The Permanent Commission will be made up of five members, of which the Director, who will preside over it, and the Secretary of the Editorial Board will be ex-officio members, and the other three will be appointed from among the remaining Members.
2. ADVISORY BOARD
The Advisory Council will be made up of national and international professionals and researchers of recognized prestige and solvency in the areas of knowledge to which the journal is dedicated, and which have no institutional connection to it. This Council should serve, apart from rigorously printing the magazine, to set editorial policy, make the magazine attractive to both authors and readers and disseminate it, to the extent possible, in international forums. It will also collaborate in the evaluation and audit processes.
Although in principle it will also include renowned national experts, the Advisory Council will preferably be made up of prestigious specialists from foreign institutions.
The members of the Advisory Council will be chosen by the Editorial Board from among the candidates proposed by the CAPIRE Research Group.
The members of the Advisory Council may participate in the original evaluation processes as external peers.
The members of the Advisory Council will collaborate with their experience and support in the recognition, dissemination, and consolidation of the journal in the academic, scientific and cultural field, both in Spain and abroad.
II. Characteristics and functioning of the Journal
2.1. Periodicity
The journal will be published on an annual basis under a continuous publication model, with an issue focused on a monographic topic. In addition, with extraordinary character, the journal may propose to Ediciones Complutense the publication of a special issue.
2.2. Structure
The magazine will consist of the following sections: 1. Monographic topic; 2. Miscellaneous articles; 3. Reviews.
Regardless of the last two Sections ("Miscellaneous Articles" and "Reviews"), each annual number of Eikón ImagoIt will be centered around a "Monographic Theme", which will be agreed by the Editorial Board among the various proposals of its Members. At call for papers, Open to all interested parties, the “Monographic Topic” Section will be specified with a specific title and a brief introduction indicating some of the possible research topics included in it, always leaving ample margin for the authors to present articles on collateral topics. or related to those indicated in the said introduction. The Editorial Board will be responsible for determining whether these articles are included in the “Monographic Topic” or “Miscellaneous Articles” Section.
2.3. Publication rules
Said editorial norms are published separately in the file "Norms for authors", where you will find precise information on format and guidelines of the document, modality of presentation of text, notes, sources and bibliographic references, sending, revision and evaluation of proposed texts, the publication of the accepted ones, etc., as well as a Template, to which the authors will adapt their articles.
Anti-plagiarism policy
To guarantee the originality of all submitted manuscripts, the journal Eikón Imagomaintains an anti-plagiarism policy by using Turnitin, specialized software for detecting plagiarism. This policy ensures standards of originality in this magazine and detects coincidences and similarities between the texts sent for publication and those previously published in other sources. In case of detecting a plagiarism practice, the manuscript will be automatically discarded for publication in Eikón Imago.
Code of Conduct and Best Practice
The journal Eikón Imago abides by the Code of Conduct and best practice established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Code of Conduct for Journals Publishers).
In compliance with this code, the journal shall ensure the scientific quality of the publications and that it responds adequately to the needs of readers and authors. The code is applicable to all parties involved in the administration and publication of scientific results in journals published by Ediciones Complutense on the Complutense Scientific Journals Website, viz. the editorial teams, authors, and reviewers. Works that do not comply with these ethical rules shall be rejected
Being more explicit:
1. Editorial teams of the journal Eikón Imago
The Editorial Team of Eikón Imago, comprising the Editor in Chief, the Assitant Editor, the Editorial Board and the Advisory Board, is responsible for the contents published in the journal, which obliges all its members to guarantee its scientific quality, to avoid bad practices in the publication of the results of the investigations, and to manage the edition of the received papers in a reasonable time. In this responsibility lies the requirement to observe the following principles:
1.1. Impartiality
The Editorial Team must be impartial in managing the works proposed for publication, also respecting the intellectual independence of their authors, who must be allowed the right of reply when their work has been negatively evaluated.
1.2. Confidentiality
The members of the Editorial Team must keep absolute confidentiality about each text received and its content until it has been accepted for publication. Only then will it be possible to disseminate its title and authorship. In addition, no member of the Editorial Team may use in any way for his own research any data, ideas, hypothesis, argument or interpretation contained in unpublished works by another author, except when expressly consented in writing.
1.3. Review of the papers
The Editorial Team will ensure that the research papers that will be published in the journal have been evaluated by at least two recognized experts in the field, and that such evaluation has been fair and impartial.
The method used in the blind peer review process will be made public, which preserves the anonymity of the authors of the work as well as that of its evaluators. When one of the two evaluations is negative and the other positive, a third will be requested to solve the tie.
The Editorial Team will take special care that the evaluators control the originality and the veracity of the works, to avoid plagiarism, falsification or manipulation of data.
The Editorial Team will appreciate the contribution of the evaluators of the works submitted to the journal, and will try to encourage the academic authorities to recognize their peer review activities as part of the scientific process. It will also dispense with those who carry out evaluations of low quality, incorrect, disrespectful or delivered outside the established deadlines.
1.4. Acceptance or rejection of manuscripts
The acceptance or rejection of an article for publication will be decided by the Editorial Team based on the reports of its evaluators. These reports will be based on the quality, relevance, originality and clarity of the articles.
The Editorial Team may directly reject a paper, without having to resort to external evaluation, if it considers it inappropriate for the journal due to lack of the necessary level of quality, to lack of adaptation to the scientific objectives of the journal, or to present evidences of scientific fraud.
1.5. Application of the rules of the Editorial Board
The Director of Eikón Imago is responsible for the members of the Editorial Board knowing and correctly applying the rules that regulate the functioning of this team. Such norms are: to attend the meetings of the Editorial Board; to promote and represent the journal in the different forums; to suggest and support possible improvements; to seek the collaboration of reference specialists in the field; review in a first evaluation the works that are received; to write for the journal editorials, reviews, comments, news, etc.
1.6. Editorial Guidelines
The Editorial Guidelines for the presentation of originals for Eikón Imago are published on the journal's homepage. These guidelines are accompanied by a template, to which the authors will adapt their work.
1.7. Conflict of interests
A conflict of interest arises when a text received in the journal is signed by a member of the Editorial Team, by one who has a direct personal or professional relationship with it, or is closely related to the past or present research of the person who is member of it. Whoever is in any of these cases will refrain from intervening in the evaluation of the proposed text.
2. About the authorship of contributions to Eikón Imago
Works submitted for publication must be the product of original and unpublished research, including any data that has been obtained and used, as well as the objective discussion of their results. The works must provide enough information so that any specialist can reproduce the research carried out by the author and confirm or refute the interpretations defended in the text.
Athors shall mention adequately, following the Editorial Guidelines of the journal, the origin of the ideas or literal quotations taken from other works already published.
Whenever images are included, the author shall explain how they were created or obtained, if such thing is necessary for their understanding. In case of using graphic material (figures, photos, maps, etc.) reproduced in other publications, the author must cite their origin, providing the journal's editors with the corresponding permission for their reproduction, if necessary.
Unnecessary fragmentation of articles should be avoided. If a submitted work is very extensive, it may be published in several parts or consecutive issues, so that each one develops a specific aspect of the general study. The different related contributions will be published in the same journal to facilitate their interpretation by readers.
2.2. Originality and plagiarism
The authors must ensure that the data and results presented in the contribution are original and have not been copied, invented, distorted or manipulated.
Plagiarism in all its forms, multiple or redundant publication, as well as the invention or manipulation of data constitute serious breaches of ethics and are considered scientific frauds.
Authors will not send original manuscripts to Eikón Imago that have previously been submitted for consideration in another journal, nor will they send that original to another journal until they receive notification of their rejection or voluntarily withdraw it. However, it is allowed to publish a work that extends or develops another already published as a brief note, communication or summary in the proceedings of a congress, provided that the text on which it is based is suitably cited and that the variants suppose a substantial modification of the one already published.
Secondary publications are also acceptable if they are addressed to totally different readers; for instance, if the article is published in different a language or if there is one version meant for specialists as opposed to another for the general public. These circumstances should be specified and the original publication cited appropriately.
2.3. Authorship of the contribution
Whoever is responsible for the contribution before the journal, in case of multiple authorship, must guarantee the recognition of those who have contributed significantly in the conception, planning, design, execution, data collection, interpretation and discussion of the results of the contribution. In any case, all people signing it share responsibility for the work presented. Likewise, who acts as a contact person must ensure that those who sign the text have reviewed and approved its final version and give their approval for its possible publication.
Contact author must ensure that none of the signatures responsible for the paper has been omitted and that it satisfies the aforementioned co-authorship criteria, thus avoiding fictitious or gifted authorship, which constitutes a bad scientific practice.
Likewise, the contribution of other collaborators who do not appear as signatories or are responsible for the final version of the contribution should be acknowledged in a note of the article, as a thank-you.
If the journal or the signatories of the article request it, in the published version, the individual contribution of each member of the group signing the collective work will be briefly described.
2.4. Information sources
In the text of the article, the authors must recognize the publications that have influenced their research, for which they will identify and quote in the bibliography the original sources on which the information contained in their work is based. However, they will not include irrelevant quotations for their work or refer to similar examples, and will avoid abusing mentions of works already established in the corpus of scientific knowledge.
Authors will refrain from using the information obtained privately through conversations, correspondence or discussions with colleagues in the field, unless they have explicit permission, in writing, from their source of information and this information has been received in a context of scientific advice.
2.5. Significant errors in published contributions
When an author discovers a serious error in his contribution, he must inform the journal as soon as possible, in order to modify his article, withdraw it, retract it or publish a correction or errata.
If the possible error is detected by any of the members of the Editorial Team, the author is required to prove that his text is correct.
2.6. Conflict of interests
The author must accompany the text of his article with an avowal, stating the existence of any commercial, financial or personal link that affects the results and conclusions of his work. Likewise, it will compulsorily indicate all the sources of financing granted for the study. This information will appear in the published version of the article.
3. The evaluation of contributions for scientific journals
The referees evaluators play an essential role in the process that guarantees the scientific quality of the journal. They assist the Editorial Team of Eikón Imago when making editorial decisions and help improve the quality of its articles.
3.1. Confidentiality
Whoever evaluates a paper should consider it a confidential document until its publication, during the evaluation process and after it.
In no case shall it disseminate or use the information, details, arguments or interpretations contained in the text under evaluation for its own benefit or that of others, or to harm third parties. Only in special cases can the assessor be consulted with other specialists in the field, a circumstance that should ibe nformed to the Director of the journal.
3.2. Objectivity
The evaluator must objectively judge the quality of the complete contribution to be evaluated, including the information on which the work hypothesis is based, the analysis and interpretation of the theoretical and experimental data, without neglecting the presentation and writing of the text.
He must base his criticisms accurately, and be impartial and constructive in his comments. He must adequately argue his judgments, without adopting hostile positions and always respecting the intellectual independence of the author of the paper.
The evaluator will advise the Director of any substantial similarity between the work submitted for evaluation and another article already published or in the process of evaluation in another journal (redundant or duplicate publication). Likewise, it will alert to texts or data that are plagiarized, falsified, invented or manipulated.
Sources consulted.
1. COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics): http://www.publicationethics.org/
2. Directrices EASE (European Association of Science Editors):
3. Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication: http://sjss.universia.net/codigo-etico.jsp
4. Código de bienas práscticas científicas del CSIC. Madrid, CSIC, 2011. Norma Reguladora de las Publicaciones del CSIC, 17 de septiembre de 2012:
http://editorial.csic.es/publicaciones/portal/la-editorial/normativa-general-de-publicaciones/c6321842-ae8a-49b2-b742-1f64e1e02bde
