Investigaciones Feministas (Feminist Research)

Introduction

The journal Investigaciones Feministas (ISSN-e 2171-6080) is a scientific periodical publication that aims to promote the development of research on issues related to Women’s Studies, Feminism and Gender. The Investigaciones Feministas journal is published by the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas, an interdisciplinary and inter-faculty scientific centre at the Complutense University of Madrid, dedicated to research and teaching on issues of Gender, Women’s Studies and Feminism.

1.  Management bodies

The management bodies responsible for the scientific coordination and publication of the journal will be the Editorial Board and the Advisory Board. All members of these boards undertake to respect the principles of the Code of Ethics of the journal Investigaciones Feministas that are based on that established for scientific journals by the Complutense University of Madrid.

1.1. Editorial Board: structure and composition

• 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 lecturer with a contractual relationship with the UCM. At least one third of its members must belong to institutions other than the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas and the Complutense University of Madrid.
• There will be twelve members. The following knowledge areas will be proportionally represented: Political Sciences and Sociology; Communication; Economics; Education; Philosophy; History; Language and Literature; Psychology; and other areas.
• The Editorial Board will assist the Director in all their functions and, especially, in the handling of the papers (receipt, review and acceptance) and in the definition of the contents and style of the journal (writing of guidelines for the submission of originals, creation and orientation of sections, etc.).
• The members will be elected by the Board of the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas in the Complutense University of Madrid
• 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 from the Editorial Board and another for the election of external members.
• The nominations for Management positions and internal Members must be submitted by the interested persons in the period of time between receiving the invitation to the meeting of the Board of the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas in which that election will take place and the day before the election.
• If there are no internal candidates, the vacancies will be filled by a draw from among the members of the Board of the Instituto de Investigaciones Feminista, or the number of external members will be temporarily increased. In the event of a tie between candidates, the person who has never served on the Editorial Board or who has been off it for the longest period of time will have priority.
• Proposals to fill vacancies for external Members (a minimum of four people) will be presented by the Editorial Board. They must be people of recognised national and international prestige. If there are more candidates than vacancies available, those with the most votes will be elected.
• All members will be elected for a period of four years and may only be re-elected to their position for a second period of four years. After two terms, there will be an exclusion period of four years before being able to stand for election again, unless during that time no other candidates apply to fill the vacant member positions.
• The position of Secretary will be directly appointed by the Director, as will that of Editorial Assistant.

1.1.1. Duties of the Director

• The Director will be responsible for the coordination and representation of the journal and for relations with the Editorial Board, Advisory Board and Ediciones Complutense. Similarly, they will be responsible for relations with other institutions for any matters related to the journal.
• The Director will appoint the Secretary.
• The Director will appoint the Editorial Assistant
• The Director will convene the meetings of the Editorial Board.
• The Director will be obliged to inform the Departmental Board about the operation of the journal, as well as its needs.
• The Director will be responsible for ensuring that the highest possible scientific quality of the journal is maintained, as well as for its recognition and inclusion in national and international databases and its evaluation to obtain quality seals, in which area they will have the support of the other members of the Editorial Board.
• The Director, working with the Secretary, will be in charge of controlling the entire publishing process for the journal’s issues and will notify the authors of the publication of their work.
• The Director will have a casting vote in the event of a tie in the deliberations of the Editorial Board.

1.1.2. Duties of the Secretary

• The Secretary will be responsible for receiving the originals and managing them throughout the review and publication process.
• The Secretary will be responsible for communicating with the authors, in which task they will have the collaboration of the Director and the Editorial Assistant.
• The Secretary will confirm the receipt of all papers received with the authors.
• The Secretary will organise the process for checking the originals received by the Editorial Board so that a decision can be made on which papers to review and which to return, once compliance with the journal’s requirements has been verified.
• The Secretary will be responsible for sending the originals to the reviewers along with an instruction document and review template.
• Once the decision on whether to publish the originals has been made, the Secretary will be responsible for sending notification of the decision to the authors, justifying the decision.
• The Secretary will prepare the meetings with the Director and draw up the minutes of the meetings of the Editorial Board. Similarly, they will be responsible for the safeguarding of the minutes and will certify the work carried out by the members, scientific advisers and reviewers.
• The Secretary will collaborate with the Director in the publicising of the journal, institutional relations, exchanges, indexing and any other tasks that result in an improvement in the quality and recognition of the journal.

1.1.3. Duties of the Members of the Editorial Board

• The members of the Editorial Board will be obliged to attend any meetings convened. If members reside in other provinces or other countries, or in exceptional circumstances, there will be the option to attend by videoconference, so that their participation in those meetings can be effective even if they are not physically present.
• The Members, under the coordination of the Secretary, will take part in the initial reading of the originals to allow a decision to be made about which will be reviewed and which will be returned to the authors.
• The Members will collaborate in the search for external reviewers for the papers, meeting the deadlines set by the Management, and will not under any circumstances be reviewers.
• The Members will advise and support the management of the journal, fulfilling all tasks required for its smooth running. Among these, they will ensure compliance with the frequency of the publication and that the deadlines in the processes to review the articles are met.

1.1.4. Editorial Assistant  

• The Editorial Assistant will be responsible, under the supervision of the Management, for the complete editorial supervision of the journal’s issues.
• The Editorial Assistant will be responsible for the editorial process of the biodata section.
• The Editorial Assistant will be responsible for preparing and sending out the corresponding certificates to the reviewers. These certificates will be signed by the Director.
• The Editorial Assistant will support the Management in any other tasks that improve the quality and recognition of the journal.

1.2. Advisory Board

• The Advisory Board will be made up of professionals and researchers of recognised prestige and soundness, with no institutional ties to the journal. In addition to bringing rigour to the journal, it will help establish the editorial policy, make the journal attractive to both authors and readers and publicise it, as far as possible, in all forums. Similarly, it will support the evaluation and audit processes.
• The Advisory Board must have members who are professionals and researchers in foreign institutions.
• The process for electing its members will be as follows: they will be proposed by the Editorial Board and approved by the Board of the Feminist Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas. If there are more candidates than vacancies available, those with the most votes will be elected.
• The members of the Advisory Board may participate in the processes for reviewing originals as external peers, taking into account that at least one of the reviews will always be issued by a reviewer who is not a member of the Advisory Board and, where necessary, they will review one article every three months.
• The members of the Advisory Board will be elected for a period of four years, and may be re-elected for another four-year period, after which an exclusion period equivalent to one term will be respected.