Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico

Foreword 

The journal Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico (ISSN: 1134-1629 / ISSN-e 1988-2696) is a periodical scientific publication edited by the Departmental Unit of Journalistic Communication, attached to the Department of Journalism and Global Communication from the Faculty of Information Sciences.

It is a quarterly scientific journal whose aim is to promote research on means of expression, professional routines and the social functions of journalism and social communication. It publishes in Spanish although there are partnerships in other languages that are widespread such as English, French and Portuguese. It is split into three sections: Estudios, a monographic section, which does not appear in all issues and is dedicated to especially important topics proposed by the editorial board of the journal; Investigaciones y Documentos, a section for works which are aligned with the aims of the journal; and Reseñas, (Reviews) a section in which reviews on scientific works in the field which are especially valuable are allowed, but they may not appear in every issue.

The Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement in Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico endorses the combined efforts made by authors, editors and reviewers to produce a responsible research publication. This statement is based on some ethical principles which, generally, follow the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). These guidelines can be found by clicking on the following link: Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE)

1. Management bodies

The management bodies in charge of scientific coordination and editing the journal are the editorial board and the scientific board. All members of these boards promise to respect the principles of the Code of Ethics which are set for the scientific journals of Complutense University in Madrid.

1.1. Editorial Board: Structure and make up 

• The editorial board is made up of the editor, the editorial coordinator, the secretary and a total of seven to fourteen board members. The post of editor/s can be individual or joint and there can be joint editors with up to two people. The editor/s must be actively working as a professor hired by the UCM. At least a third of the components of the editorial board must belong to institutions other than Complutense University in Madrid.
• The Editorial Board will help the editor/s to carry out all their duties and especially to monitor all tasks (reception, evaluation, acceptance) and to define the contents and style the journal has (drafting the guidelines for presenting originals, creating and guiding the different sections, etc).
• The members of the editorial board are appointed by the Departmental Unit which edits the journal after submitting the proposals the members make to a vote and to the journal editor/s. At least a third of the board members of the editorial board must belong to foreign universities and at least 50% of them must belong to institutions other than Complutense University in Madrid.
• All members are chosen for a 5-year period and may just renew their presence in the editorial board for another 5 years.

 1.1.1. Duties of the Editor/s 

• The editor/s will be in charge of coordination and representing the journals, the relationship with the editorial board, the scientific board and with editions. Likewise, they will oversee relationships with other institutions concerning any journal-related matter.
• The posts of editorial coordinator and secretary to the editorial team will be directly designated by the journal editor.
• The editor/s will call the meetings for the editorial board.
• The editor/s must inform the Teaching Unit for Journalistic Communication attached to the Department of Journalism and Global Communication about how the journal is being run and what needs it has.
• The editor/s will be responsible for ensuring the highest scientific standards are upheld in the journal, as well as for its recognition and inclusion in national and international databases and its evaluation for gaining seals of quality. For this purpose, they can rely on the help given by the other members of the editorial board.
• The editor/s will organise the process for reviewing the originals received by the editorial board in order to decide which works will undergo evaluation and which will be returned, once they have shown they meet the requirements set by the journal.
• The editor/s is/are responsible for receiving the original texts and managing them throughout the evaluation and publication process.
• Once the decision to publish has been made about the originals, the editor/s is/are responsible for communicating their reasoned decision to the authors.
• The editor/s will have a casting vote in the event there is a draw when the editorial board is deliberating.
• The editor/s will be appointed by the Departmental Unit for Journalistic Communication. This will be ratified by the Board of Journalism and Global Communication for a 5-year period.

1.1.2. Duties of the Editorial Coordinator

• The Editorial Coordinator will be in charge of monitoring the entire editorial process for the journal issues (preparing and delivering the original texts, including the first pages and the statistics, layout process, sending tests to authors, reviewing the preprint version and communicating with the authors of the publication).
• The editorial coordinator will be responsible for ensuring the authors have followed the indications expressed by the reviewers in their evaluation reports.
• The editorial coordinator will be responsible for working with the editor on all the tasks required for improving quality, indexing and recognition for the journal.

1.1.3. Duties of the Secretary

• The secretary will help the editor to disseminate the journal, in relationships with institutions, exchanges and in managing the social networks of the journal.
• The secretary will help the editor and the editorial coordinator when the original articles are received and in managing them throughout the evaluation and publication process.
• The secretary will prepare meetings with the editor and write the minutes for the meetings for the editorial board. Likewise, the secretary will be responsible for taking care of the minutes and certifying the work carried out by the board members, the scientific assessors and the evaluators.

 1.1.4. Duties of the Members of the Editorial Board 

• The board members of the editorial board must attend the meetings either in person or online.
• The board members under the coordination of the editorial coordinator, will read the original manuscripts beforehand in order to decide which will undergo evaluation and which will be returned to the authors.
• The board members will help search for external evaluators for the works and, under no circumstances, will they be evaluators.
• The board members will assess and participate with the journal editors in any tasks deemed necessary for the journal to run smoothly. One such task will be to ensure punctuality and periodicity.

 1.2. Scientific Board 

• The scientific board is made up of renowned researchers and experts. Apart from printing the journal with rigour, they will be responsible for assessing the editorial policy, making the journal attractive both for authors and readers and disseminating it as far as possible, on all forums. Likewise, they will help in the evaluation and auditing processes.
• Some experts and researchers from institutions must be on the scientific board.
• The scientific board of the journals will be approved by the journal editors.
• The members of the scientific board may participate in the processes for evaluating the original texts as external peer reviews, bearing in mind that at least one of the evaluations will always be made by an evaluator who is not on the scientific board.

2. Featuresand how the journal is run

2.1. Periodicity 

• The journal will come out every three months (four issues a year). Apart from its extraordinary nature, the journal can propose Ediciones Complutense publish issues. Issues can be miscellaneous or monographic.

 2.2. Structure

• The journal has the following sections:
  • Estudios. A monographic section dedicated to an especially important topic which may be proposed by the editorial board of the journal. This is not a permanent section.
  • Investigaciones. This section is for research articles which meet the journal objectives described.
  • Reseñas. This section, which may not be in all issues, is dedicated to reviewing
    works of special scientific value in the field.

2.3. Publishing guidelines

You can see the publishing guidelines for the journal at: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ESMP/about/submissions