Publication Guidelines

Focus and Publication Model

  • Continuous Publication: To reduce waiting times and align with the preferences of indexing services such as SciELO, articles will be published individually as soon as they complete the editorial process.
  • Open Access: Hemiciclo will provide free and unrestricted access to all its content under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, allowing the sharing and adaptation of published works provided that appropriate credit is given. No Article Processing Charges (APCs) will be charged.

Editorial Management and Exogeneity

  • Prevention of Institutional Inbreeding: To ensure academic rigor, at least 75% of the members of the Editorial Council shall be affiliated with institutions other than the Instituto Superior de la Academia Legislativa (ISAL). Likewise, at least 60% of published articles shall be authored by individuals external to the publishing institution.
  • Peer-Review Process: Every original manuscript shall undergo a double-blind peer-review process. Transparency will be ensured by publishing the exact dates of submission and acceptance in each article.

Peer Reviewers (External Evaluators)

Nature and Profile

Peer reviewers constitute the external evaluation body of Hemiciclo. They are researchers and specialists of recognized standing, both national and international, with demonstrated expertise in the subject areas of the manuscripts they evaluate. To ensure the impartiality of the review process, reviewers must be independent of the publishing institution (ISAL) and the Editorial Committee.

Main Functions and Responsibilities

  • Impartial Scientific Evaluation (Double-Blind Peer Review): To assess the methodological rigor, originality, quality, and relevance of assigned articles under a double-blind peer-review system, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers remain anonymous, while maintaining strict confidentiality regarding unpublished manuscripts.
  • Issuance of Review Reports: To provide, within the established deadlines, a critical, objective, and constructive evaluation and submit a clear recommendation to the Editor regarding the final decision on the article: accept for publication, accept with revisions (minor or major), or reject.
  • Ethical Oversight and Plagiarism Detection: To act as guarantors of academic integrity. If a reviewer identifies indications of plagiarism, substantial copying, redundant publication, or data manipulation, they shall immediately alert the Editor and report their concerns, providing the relevant documentary evidence so that the appropriate Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) procedures and flowcharts may be initiated.
  • Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence: Responsibility for the judgment issued when recommending the acceptance or rejection of a scientific manuscript rests exclusively with the human reviewer, and interaction with Artificial Intelligence does not replace or diminish their accountability. If a reviewer uses AI tools as supplementary support in the evaluation process, this use shall be formally disclosed to the editorial team, specifying the name of the model, version, date of use, and the inputs or materials considered in preparing the final review comments.
  • Alignment with Open Science: In accordance with open science practices progressively promoted by SciELO, reviewers shall have the option, subject to their explicit consent, to disclose their identities and allow their review reports or comments to be published alongside the final article, thereby promoting a more transparent peer-review process.

 

 

 

 

Formal and Methodological Requirements

  • Structure and Metadata: Every original article or essay shall include the title, abstract, and keywords both in its original language (Spanish) and in English.
  • Author Identification: Authors are required to provide their full names, institutional affiliation in descending hierarchical order (e.g., University, Faculty, Institute), city, country, email address, and their ORCID digital identifier with an active link.
  • Author Contribution Statement: At the end of the article, the specific contribution of each author to the research shall be clearly and precisely stated, using a recognized taxonomy such as CRediT.
  • Citation System: Citations and bibliographic references shall strictly follow the Chicago Style (Notes and Bibliography), without variations. In addition, to facilitate international indexing, including in databases such as Web of Science, all bibliographic references shall be presented using the Latin alphabet.

Ethical Standards and Conflicts of Interest

  • Code of Ethics and Plagiarism: The journal shall adhere to internationally recognized ethical guidelines, including those established by COPE. All submitted manuscripts shall be screened using recognized text-similarity and plagiarism-detection systems or software.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Authors shall formally and explicitly declare in the manuscript whether any potential conflict of interest—financial, personal, or professional—exists in relation to the conduct or communication of their research.
  • Research Data: Authors shall be required to indicate the availability of the data underlying their research, including repositories, code, and cited regulatory or legal materials, and to cite them appropriately in order to promote transparency and reproducibility.

Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Based on COPE guidelines and the principles of the Heredia Declaration for responsible scholarly publishing, Hemiciclo establishes the following mandatory requirements:

  • Exclusive Human Authorship: Artificial Intelligence tools, including chatbots and generative language models, may not be credited or listed as authors of a manuscript, as they are unable to assume legal or ethical responsibility and accountability for the work.
  • Transparency and Mandatory Disclosure: If authors have used AI at any stage of the research, writing, translation, or data-analysis process, they shall include an “Artificial Intelligence Use Statement.” This statement shall specify:
    • the AI model used, its version, and the date on which it was accessed; and
    • how the tool was used within the research or publication process.
  • Validation and Bias Prevention: AI-generated responses and content shall not be assumed to be inherently accurate or true. Authors bear full responsibility for reviewing and verifying such information, ensuring its accuracy, and preventing the dissemination of misinformation, plagiarism, or bias.
  • Protection of Sensitive Data: It is strictly prohibited to enter personal, sensitive, or confidential research data—such as case files or non-anonymized interviews—into an AI model as part of a query or prompt without explicit and lawful authorization.