Ethical policy

Publication and Authorship

Revista Criminalidad is a journal published and financially supported by the DIJIN, the National Police of Colombia’s Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol at Bogota, Colombia. It is composed by a Directive Committee consisting of a number of directors, an editor, an editorial assistant, a proofreader/copyeditor, translators, and technical support staff, Editorial and Scientific Committees in charge of ensuring the quality and relevance of the publication’s contents. The members of the Editorial and Scientific Committees are elected according to their own prestige and academic production.

Articles submitted to Revista Criminalidad must be original, unpublished, and guaranteed as not having been copied or plagiarized in full or in part. Besides, none shall simultaneously be undergoing an evaluation process in any other publication.

Every article sent to Revista Criminalidad must be accompanied by the originally statement signed by the author(s) in the format prepared for this purpose that can be unloaded from here or requested by electronic mail.

Responsibilities of the Authors

The author or authors of articles having been accepted shall authorize Revista Criminalidad to use their economic copyrights (reproduction, public communication, transformation, and distribution). This authorization is underpinned with the signature of the Statement or Declaration of Originality. In that document, authors will be confirming that the text belongs to their own authorship and that the intellectual property rights of third parties have been respected. All authors having written a joint article must have substantially contributed to both research and preparation thereof.

Authors of articles published in Revista Criminalidad subsequently wishing to include them in other publications may do so, but provided that the relevant journals, newspapers, books or compilations make clear reference to the source data (in this case Revista Criminalidad), with prior authorization of its publisher.

Contributions sent for potential publication in Revista Criminalidad shall not be undergoing evaluations aiming at being simultaneously published in another national of foreign journal, newspaper and/or book.

It will be necessary to note if the proposed article is likely to pose any potential conflict of interest or any other matter of ethical responsibility. In all cases, readers have to be advised with respect to the person (whether corporate or natural) having financed the article, and the role of suppliers of funds therefor.

Once the article has been published in Revista Criminalidad, the author shall abstain from sending it to another journal for the same purpose.

Although the Directive Committee is both responsible for approving the articles as based on certain quality and research-rigor criteria, and taking into account evaluations made by anonymous peers, all authors are wholly responsible of any ideas expressed as well as for it ethical suitability. In addition, they must attest that all data included in their articles are true, actual and genuine.

All articles submitted to Revista Criminalidad will be subject to evaluation, and those having been approved by the Directive Committee will be passed on to peer reviewers for their assessment. Evaluation will be an anonymous double-way process or double-blind peer review, which means that evaluators ignore the author’s name and origin, and their critical comments and suggestions will be received anonymously by the author.

Authors shall accept submitting their texts to external peers for evaluation and they agree to take their observations into account. Amendments shall be made within the period of time indicated by the journal's editor. Upon having received an article back as modified, its final approval will be communicated to the author.

If texts submitted to Revista Criminalidad are not accepted for publication, the editor shall send a written notice to the author whereby the reasons for that decision will be duly explained. During the evaluation and edition process, authors may be consulted in order to resolve doubts and concerns, and electronic mail is the preferred mean of communication.

The Directive Committee will have the last say with regard to the publication of any article and the issue in which it will appear. The journal reserves the right to make form and style corrections to the paper prior to its publication.

All authors are obliged to retract their views and correct errors if requested to do so.

Review and Revision by Peers/Responsibilities of Evaluators

At the time of receiving an article, the Directive Committee checks if it complies with the base conditions required by the journal. The Editorial Committee establishes the first filter and, for this process, aspects such as form, quality and relevance of the paper are taken into consideration. After this first review, and from comments and suggestions expressed by the members of the Editorial and Scientific Committees, articles selected to undergo peer review will be selected and this process, known as the arbitration system, will be initiated. In this case, texts are submitted to both the evaluation of anonymous academic peers and the opinion of the Directive Committee. The outcome shall be communicated to the author within a period of up to four months from reception of the article.

All articles having passed their first review will be subject to an arbitration process in charge of anonymous evaluators who are entitled to make suggestions/comments to the author and point out to significant references not having been included in the work. Most of these evaluators are external and it is sought that they have no conflicts of interest in regard with the subjects they have been requested to arbitrate. Should any doubt arise in this respect, it will be necessary to find another evaluator.

Revista Criminalidad has an evaluation form including questions with carefully defined criteria.

Evaluators are responsible for suggesting acceptance, rejection or approval with amendments of articles arbitrated by them.

Editorial Responsibilities

The Directive Committee, together with the Editorial and Scientific Committee, is responsible for defining the editorial policies aiming at compliance by Revista Criminalidad of all standards required to achieve its positioning as a well-recognized academic publication.

The Editor, as the person responsible for the material published in Revista Criminalidad, is committed to make the best efforts to meet readers’ needs and continuously improve the journal’s publications by ensuring and maintaining not only the quality of its contents but also freedom of expression and its academic integrity.

Taking into account that Revista Criminalidad is a public and open-access journal, it is committed to publish amendments, corrections, explanations and rectifications, and to give any justifications when circumstances deserve it.

The Directive Committee is responsible for the selection of the best articles destined for publication. This selection is based on the recommendations deriving from the evaluation process and the editorial review of the article, where quality, relevance, originality and contribution to its discipline. In the same sense, if an article is rejected, the justification given to the author must be oriented towards all of the aforementioned aspects.

The Directive Committee is responsible for monitoring the editorial process of all articles applying for publication in Revista Criminalidad, and undertakes everything possible to develop confidentiality mechanisms during the peer evaluation process until actual publication or rejection.

In the event of complaints of any nature whatsoever being received by Revista Criminalidad, its Directive Committee will reply in a timely manner according to the standards established by the journal. Should any claim deserve a prompt resolution, it shall first ensure that proper investigation leading to it is carried out. If any accuracy or error is detected in already published contents, the Editorial Committee shall be consulted and the amendments and/or explanations will be made on the journal’s web page.

As soon as an issue of Revista Criminalidad is published, the Directive Committee is responsible for its dissemination and distribution among its contributors, evaluators and entities having entered exchange agreements with it, as well as among the legal deposits and indexation both national and international. Likewise, the Directive Committee is in charge of mailing the journal to its domestic and foreign subscribers.

Ethical Responsibilities

In the event of having detected bad practice, Revista Criminalidad’s Editorial and Directive Committees will take into account the code of conduct and the best practice guidelines for journal editors prepared by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), consulted at: http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_ conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf 

Revista Criminalidad will always be willing to amend mistakes, give explanations, retract, and offer apologies whenever necessary.

In no way whatsoever will Revista Criminalidad let its ethical and intellectual standards be compromised by either internal o external pressures alien to the institution.

Revista Criminalidad has a good practices manual that can be consulted in detail here: 

As a way to prevent plagiarism and fraudulent data, Revista Criminalidad will not take into account neither translations of documents or transcriptions of other articles, short texts or works still undergoing research processes.