Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors’ guidelines of the Revista Criminalidad

In order to submit contributions to peer evaluation, the following instructions are to be followed:

1. Article submission

The article must be submitted in Word format along with the respective statement of originality in PDF format, through the Open Journal System (OJS) platform:

https://revistacriminalidad.policia.gov.co:8000/index.php/revcriminalidad/about/submissions  

2. Code of conduct and best practices

The article must be accompanied by the originality statement signed by the authors, in the format established for this purpose and which can be downloaded in https://revistacriminalidad.policia.gov.co:8000/index.php/revcriminalidad/formatos. In any case, the authors will apply the following code of conduct and best practices: 

1. The article to be submitted for possible publication in Revista Criminalidad must be original and unpublished, and in accordance with the ethical standards of our publication, in no way will the article or any part of it that has been previously published be accepted, nor will it be allowed to have been copied in whole or in part from any other work.
2. Contributions submitted for possible publication in the Revista Criminalidad may not be evaluated at the same time in another journal and/or book, national or international.
3. Authors must state whether there are any potential conflicts of interest or ethical responsibility for the proposed article.
4. Due to the number of investigations that are submitted to the Revista Criminalidad, articles by the same author will not be published in a minimum period of (01) one year, that is, after (01) one volume.
5. Articles with a maximum of five (05) authors will be considered. If there are more than five (05) authors, the role of each one in the research process must be specified, which will be taken into consideration by the editorial committee.
6. Once the article has been published in the Revista Criminalidad, the author must refrain from sending it for the same purpose to another journal.
7. In case of bad practices, the editorial committee of Revista Criminalidad will implement the code of conduct and the guidelines of best practices for journal editors, prepared by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
8. If the work is not accepted for publication, the author may submit it to other journals for the same purpose.

3. Article selection and evaluation process

1. The articles received will be submitted, without exception, to an evaluation process by academic peers.
2. The reception and evaluation of articles does not necessarily imply their publication.
3. The selection process begins, for collaborations that have the originality statement included, with the review, by the Editorial Committee, of compliance with these guidelines for the presentation of scientific works established by the American Psychological Association (APA with the edition that is in force at the time of submission of the article) and in accordance with the relevance of the manuscript for the editorial policy. The author will be informed of any observations that arise during this process.
4. If the contribution complies with the formal conditions for scientific articles and is in accordance with the themes of the journal, it will be sent for evaluation by academic peers, who will rule on the scientific and academic quality of the article, the evaluation process will be anonymous in two ways. Evaluators may make suggestions to the author.
5. If the results of the opinions are contradictory, the article will be sent to a third academic peer. However, the editorial committee reserves the final decision on the acceptance of the papers.
6. The author must make the adjustments suggested by the academic peers and the editorial committee.
7. Articles that have the favorable opinion of academic peers and the editorial committee will be published.
8. The duration of this process is approximately 12 weeks.

4. Article length

It should not be less than 5.000 words and should not exceed 10.000 words. It is important to note that, in the amount described above, references and translations of abstracts are not taken into account. 

5. Article Structure

Each article should include, on the first page, the author's information (identification form), and if possible, use the following structure:

1. Title: it should be clear, precise and concise, reflecting the topic of the article. Avoid using acronyms and abbreviations. The maximum length will be 20 words.

1. Name of the author(s): the works must contain an identification form of the author with the following data: name, professional title of higher degree, activity, institutional affiliation, city, country, email and ORCID. If there are several authors, define the order of publication and designate the author who will be responsible for sending and receiving the correspondence.
2. Abstract: it briefly introduces the content of the article, mentioning the objectives of the study, the methodology used, the results and the conclusions, without going into details. Its length should not exceed 250 words.
3. Keywords: include a list of five keywords that indicate the main aspects of the article, which should be searched for and selected from the thesauri of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization https://vocabularies.unesco.org/browser/thesaurus/es

or the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute http://unicri.eu/services/library_documentation/catalogue_thesaurus/thesaurus.php. If the words selected by the authors are not found in any of the thesauri mentioned above, they must be placed (source: author).

1. Introduction: it contextualizes the problem and includes a brief review of the relevant literature, mentioning the purpose of the article and its main objectives.
2. Methodology, methods and materials: it describes the method used for the study, participants and sampling, type of study and design, instruments or apparatus, procedure, ethical aspects, and data analysis. Likewise, the materials and equipment used in its realization must be mentioned. Likewise, it is required that authors must declare in this section, if necessary, the use of AI technologies, which will appear in the published work. Likewise, authors must provide a detailed description of how these tools were used in the process of writing their scientific article.
3. Results: this section presents the main results and findings of the research. Peripheral details should be omitted and the results shown in tables, figures, diagrams, and illustrations should not be repeated in the text. APA standards should be used for table design and statistical notation in results.
4. Discussion: a relevant interpretation of the study should be presented and the reader should be offered an explanation about it, contrasting the theoretical models, empirical findings and lines of research described in the introduction, analyzing the implications of the new results, their practical applications, the limitations of the work and the future lines of research.

1. Conclusions: they must be closely correlated with the objectives of the study, specifying the discoveries, or new concepts provided in relation to the research question or study objective.
2. References: it is a list, at the end of the article, that includes the original works or sources cited in the text. All references and sources cited must strictly follow APA standards with the edition in force at the time of submission of the article.
3. Appendices: these are used to clarify or supplement the information in the article.
4. Citations and references: they must be described in accordance with the provisions of the American Psychological Association (APA) standard with the edition in force at the time of submission of the article. The information of the authors and works cited in the text must be found in the respective list of references.
5. Footnotes: these are clarifications, and their respective calls should be identified with a superscript consecutively, at the bottom of the pages. The use of footnotes can be distracting to the reader, so it is recommended not to use them.
6. Tables, figures, tables, illustrations, etc: it is necessary that the minimum resolution of these is 600 dpi, their purpose will be to clarify, illustrate, complement or synthesize the information, it is recommended not to use a large number of figures. This artwork should be self-explanatory, to avoid replicating the information in the text. Each of these elements must be cited in the article and identified by consecutive numbering and their respective title. Likewise, they must specify the source and give credit to the authorship of it if necessary.

6. Classification of research articles

Revista Criminalidad publishes original research papers related to topics in criminology, criminality, legal and forensic psychology, victimology, forensic sciences, social sciences and criminal law, among others. In accordance with the provisions of Publindex – Minciencias, the following types apply to the Revista Criminalidad:

1. Scientific and technological research article: a document that presents, in detail, the original results of completed research projects. The generally used structure contains four important sections: introduction, method, results, and discussion.
2. Reflection article: document that presents the results of a completed research, from an analytical, interpretative or critical perspective of the author, on a specific topic, using original sources.
3. Review article: a document resulting from completed research, where the results of research, published or not, on a field in science or technology are analyzed, systematized and integrated, with the purpose of accounting for advances and development trends. It is characterized by a careful bibliographic review of at least 50 references. These articles may correspond to bibliometrics and systematic reviews (qualitative or meta-analyses).
4. Case report: a document that presents the results of a study on a particular situation, in order to present the technical and methodological experiences considered in a specific case. It includes an annotated systematic review of the literature on analogous cases.

7. Use of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies

In accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE, Revista Criminalidad does not restrict the use of technologies and tools assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) by authors, as long as they are used ethically and responsibly in the writing process before the submission of the article, but only to improve the language and readability of the article and not for the analysis and/or extraction of data or information as part of the article. research process, with a view to maintaining the standards of quality and scientific rigor of this publication.

In this sense, the authors will be responsible for the results generated by AI-assisted technologies and tools, by virtue of the journal's ethical policies and editorial guidelines for the submission of articles. Revista Criminalidad will remain harmless against any claim by third parties for any ethical violation of the publication, based on the use of AI tools used by the authors.

Likewise, with the firm conviction of supporting the transparency and trust of the academic community, the Revista Criminalidad requires that authors must declare in the section on methods or materials, if necessary, the use of AI technologies, which will appear in the published work. Likewise, authors must provide a detailed description of how these tools were used in the process of writing their scientific article. It is important to clarify that authors should not list AI-assisted technologies as authors or co-authors, nor cite AI as an author.

Revista Criminalidad will adjust this policy as appropriate, in accordance with international guidelines on the use and regulation of AI for scientific publications.