Rules of the Journal

The Journal of Public Law: Theory and Methods (hereafter, the Journal) aims to foster and widen research on Public Law.

The Journal of Public Law: Theory and Methods is a biannual publication addressed to the international community of scholars interested in Public Law.

In order to allow and guide the Journal’s external evaluation, the executive board, whose current membership is available in Annex I, has approved these Rules covering the structure and functioning of the Journal.

CHAPTER I
General provisions

Article 1. Name, identification and responsibility of edition

• The Journal’s acronym, RDP-TM is the Journal’s acronym, whose property is owned by Marcial Pons Ediciones Jurídicas y Sociales, which will publish the Journal.
• Under no circumstances shall the Journal be held liable for opinions conveyed by authors. All claims regarding said content should be submitted to its authors.

Article 2. Sponsoring organisations

• To support and endorse its activity, the Journal may count on the sponsorship of scientific and practitioner associations, universities, research bodies or any other institution of recognised academic standing on Public Law.
• A list including any existing sponsor organisation shall be published on the Journal’s website.

Article 3. Copyrights and publishing rights

• Any reproduction or translation of Journal’s articles must acknowledge the Journal as the original publisher.
• Authors retain copyright in the published paper and only license to the publisher a non-exclusive right to first publication and distribution of the published work. All the articles in the journal are published using the Creative Commons Attribution- 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits free third-party use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
• The Journal allows authors to deposit the final version of their articles in open access institutional or thematic repositories.
• Only authors shall be held liable for any copyright infringement that may result from quoting others’ content in their articles.

Article 4. Purposes

• The Journal has the following purposes:
  • The generation and dissemination of scientific knowledge on Public Law.
  • The promotion of reflection and discussions on Public Law, especially from a theoretical and methodological perspective.

Article 5. Periodicity and format

• The Journal shall be published online every six months.
• Nonetheless, one or two special issues may be published per year.

Article 6. Languages

• Articles originally written in English, Spanish and any others Spain’s official language might be published in the Journal. Articles written in other languages, especially German, French, Italian and Portuguese, may also be published when scientific reasons make it appropriate.

Article 7. Journal’s research interests and geographical scope

• The Journal publishes original and unpublished research articles on Public Law. It also publishes translations of articles originally published in another language, with respect to copyrights. The Journal’s geographical scope preferably focuses on Europe and Latin America.

Article 8. Intended readership

• The Journal is a scientific publication aimed at the international community of scholars interested in Public Law.

CHAPTER II
Organisation of the editorial team

Article 9. Organisation

• The Journal’s collegiate bodies are the executive board, the board of editors and the advisory board.
• The Journal shall have peer-reviewers, who are not members of the editorial team. Reviewers will assess the submitted articles.
• Likewise, the Journal will incorporate staff to manage the editing process. Said staff shall edit Journal issues and carry out tasks regarding layout, advertising, marketing, social networks, etc.
• The executive board, the board of editors and the advisory board can hold on-site and online joint meetings as well.

Article 10. Executive board

• The executive board comprises four members: one editor-in-chief and three other members.
• The executive board is chaired by the editor-in-chief, who will be elected by the board of editors from among university professors or researchers holding a doctorate degree in Law.
• The three other members of the board shall be appointed by the editor-in-chief from among university professors and researchers holding a doctorate degree in Law. Members of the executive board are also members of the board of editors.
• Members of the executive board shall serve for a term of two years since the date of establishment. Before the end of their term, the exiting editor-in-chief shall propose the appointment of a new editor-in-chief to the board of editors for the next term of two years. Once endorsed by the board of editors, the new appointed editor-in-chief shall appoint the other three members of the executive board.
• The responsibilities of the executive board are:
  • To draft guidelines on the evaluation of manuscripts as well as the appropriate forms.
  • To draft technical guidelines on the management of the editing process.
  • To draft technical guidelines for the Journal’s publication, which shall include all the necessary requirements to ensure the quality of the published information and to measure the Journal’s circulation and impact.
  • To draft the Journal’s code of ethics and good practices.
  • To establish Journal’s editorial lines.
  • To request contributions in order to increase the Journal’s impact and visibility.
  • To control the quality of external reviews.
  • To pre-approve manuscripts to be evaluated by external peer-reviewers according to their thematic field and scientific interest.
  • To provisionally approve articles when favourably evaluated by peer-reviewers.
  • To draft the contents of every Journal’s issue prior to the final approval by the board of editors.
  • To select comments submitted following the initial publication of every article (open first) which will be included in the final version of every issue.
  • To propose the publication of special issues to the board of editors.
• Executive board’s meetings shall preferably be held online.

Article 11. Editor-in-chief

• The responsibilities of the editor-in-chief are:
  • To represent the Journal.
  • To appoint and remove Journal’s peer-reviewers and collaborators.
  • To appoint and remove members of the board of editors and the advisory board.
  • To set the agenda, to call and to chair the meetings of the board of editors and the advisory board.
  • To take all the decisions that do not fall within other boards’ responsibilities according to these rules.

Article 12. Board of editors

• The board of editors shall comprise the editor-in-chief, acting as chairperson, the other three members of the executive board, whose youngest member shall serve as secretary of the board of editors, and seven other members eligible from among scholars with special standing and expertise in the field of Public Law.
• The maximum number of members of the board of editors affiliated to the same institution is three. At least one quarter of members of the board of editors must be affiliated to foreign institutions.
• The membership term in the board of editors can be either two or four years.
  • The two-year term applies to members of the board of editors who are also members of the executive board. The end of membership in the executive board entails the end of membership to the board of editors.
  • The four-year term applies to the other members of the board of editors.
  • Any vacancy in the board of editors shall be filled by decision of the editor-in-chief.
• The quorum requirement of board of editors’ meetings on second call is one third of its members, including its chairperson.
• The responsibilities of the board of editors are:
  • To approve guidelines on the evaluation of manuscripts and the appropriate forms.
  • To approve technical guidelines on the editing process management.
  • To approve technical guidelines on the Journal’s publication, which shall include all requirements in order to ensure information’s quality and to measure the Journal’s circulation and impact.
  • To approve the Journal’s code of ethics and good practices.
  • To approve the publication of special issues.
  • To approve definitively the articles included in every ordinary or extraordinary Journal’s issue.
• Board of directors’ meetings shall preferably be held online.

Article 13. Advisory Board

• The advisory board comprises a chairperson, a secretary and members eligible from among scholars of recognised standing in the field of Law. Members of the advisory board are appointed by the Journal’s editor-in-chief.
• The maximum number of members of the advisory board belonging to the same institution is three. At least a thirty per cent of members of the advisory board shall belong to foreign institutions.
• The responsibilities of the advisory board are:
  • To propose a course of action to improve Journal quality
  • To propose a course of action to improve Journal circulation.
  • To propose a course of action to increase the Journal’s impact.
  • To propose a course of action to ensure the proper functioning of the Journal.
  • To advise the board of editors on every issue on which its counsel is requested.
• Advisory board’s meetings shall preferably be held online.

Article 14. Technical support staff

• In performing its duties, the executive board shall count on the Marcial Pons Publishing House for technical and management support.

Article 15. External peer reviewers

• The Journal shall have a database of peer reviewers comprised by experts of recognised academic standing who are external to the Journal’s boards and the publishing house. Reviewers shall evaluate the originality, newness, relevance and methodological quality of submitted manuscripts in an anonymous and confidential way. Likewise, anonymity of authorship shall be ensured during the evaluation process (double blind).
• Reviewers must hold a doctorate degree and a position as university professor or fellow in a research institution.
• At least 20 per cent of Journal reviewers must be affiliated to foreign institutions.
• The list of reviewers shall be available on the Journal’s website.

CHAPTER III
Journal Structure

Article 16. Sections

• The Journal comprises two sections: studies and discussions.

Article 17. Studies section

• Studies are research articles containing original and unpublished academic contributions.
• Studies may extend to a maximum of 40 pages, according to the Jounal’s style guidelines.
• The studies section shall constitute at least the ninety per cent of the Journal’s contents.

Article 18. Discussions section

• In the discussions section readers may criticise and discuss articles by submitting their comments on provisionally published studies (open first).
• The submission of comments on provisionally accepted studies may take place between their preliminary publication on the Journal’s online platform and the closing date of the Journal’s issue.
• Comments may extent from a minimum of 1 page to a maximum of 5 pages.

CHAPTER IV
Editing process management

Article 19. Submission of studies

• Manuscripts shall be submitted to the Journal’s executive board through the established electronic means.
• Manuscripts shall be uploaded through the Journal’s online platform. Authors shall provide the required information in every field displayed through the form available on the online submission platform.
• The text of submitted studies shall omit the author’s name as well as any affiliation enabling to identify the author. Likewise, acknowledgements shall be omitted if they enable the author’s identification.
• Maximum text length is 40 pages. Authors must submit their texts as a Word file following any citation and style rules commonly accepted by the academic community. Nevertheless, after their acceptance for publication, texts must be adapted by authors according to the Journal’s style guidelines available on the website. Manuscripts will be written with inclusive language and avoiding all forms of unlawful discrimination.
• By submitting a manuscript, the author declares: his/her awareness and acceptance of the Journal’s ethics code, that the submitted text has neither been published previously nor is currently in publication process in any other journal or book.
• The submission message text must identify every manuscript’s author by providing his/her name, surname, email address, ORCID code, institutional affiliation and country of the institution.

Article 20. Reception of studies

• After studies are received, a receipt notice shall be sent to author/authors informing on the average length of the evaluation process.
• Under no circumstances will an attestation of evaluation be issued before final acceptance of a manuscript.

Article 21. Evaluation of studies

• Received studies shall be screened by the executive board to determine whether they meet the requirements set by the Journal’s rules and guidelines. If it be so, evaluation process shall start within 5 days since the reception of the study. If not, the executive board shall return studies to their authors informing on the reasons for its decisions.
• Duly anonymised selected studies shall be sent out for evaluation to two peer-reviewers appointed by the executive board. The identity of reviewers shall not be disclosed (double blind).
• External peer review shall value originality, current interest and newness, relevance and significance of studies for the advance of scientific knowledge, as well as aspects regarding scientific reliability and validity such as proven methodological quality, format, writing and consistency.
• Evaluations shall be forwarded through online established means to the executive board within fifteen days. The result of the evaluation may be: a) publishable; b) publishable with minor modifications; c) publishable with major modifications; d) not publishable.
• The results of the evaluation’s results shall be conveyed to studies’ authors through online established means together with a summary of the main issues addressed by the evaluation report. Reviewer’s identity shall be omitted in case modifications were required.

Article 22. Provisional acceptance of studies

• The executive board shall accept provisionally every manuscript having two favorable evaluations regardless of the requirement of modifications. In this case, articles shall be returned to their submitters so that authors can consider suggestions and comments within a maximum term of ten days.
• Articles with two negative evaluations or with one negative evaluation and an evaluation suggesting major modifications shall not be published.
• In case one of the evaluations proposes either the non-publication or the publication with major modifications, the executive committee may:                                                                                                                 a. Request a third report. If this new report is favorable, the executive committee will provisionally accept its publication; if the third report rejects the publication, or proposes new substantial modifications, the executive committee will decide not to publish it.                                                    b. Send the author the negative evaluation, so that he or she can consider the comments and resubmit a revised manuscript. Once the modified manuscript has been received, the executive committee will assess whether the new text has overcome the objections indicated in the reference report, which will be decisive for provisionally accepting or rejecting its publication.

Article 23. Final acceptance of studies

• The publication of every provisionally accepted study shall be endorsed by the board of editors. The board of editors must take a decision within a maximum term of 5 days after reception of the study.
• Decisions adopted in the editorial process are not reviewable.
• A study that has been finally accepted shall be returned to authors only in case of non-compliance with style guidelines so that authors can make final formal adaptations.
• The final version must include the names of the authors and their affiliation. Shall there be multiple authors, the name of the one with the greatest responsibility or dedication to the preparation of the article will go first. When appropriate, an initial foot note will specify the parts of the article that have been written by each author.
• The final version will also specify in an initial call, where appropriate, the sources of funding for the article. In the case of public aids, the corresponding code will be mentioned.

Article 24. Open access provisional publication

• Original studies that have been finally accepted shall be published on the Journal’s website. This initial publication shall include pagination and final online identification code following its order of appearance.

Article 25. Comments in discussions section

• After the provisional publication of every study, comments can be sent through the Journal’s online platform.
• Comments shall be published provisionally on the Journal’s website unless the executive board decides otherwise on the grounds that a comment infringes the Journal’s editorial policy, its ethics code or does not provide any useful contribution from a scientific point of view.

Article 26. Final composition of every issue

• Every Journal’s issue is comprised of:
  • Studies that have been accepted and provisionally published.
  • Comments on every study selected by the executive board at the end of every semester. The selection must be done considering comments’ the quality and scientific value of comments.
• The executive board shall take special care to ensure that every issue is comprised by a minimum 85% of studies authored by non-members of the board of editors or the advisory board. Likewise, scholars affiliated to foreign institutions shall author a 10% of published studies. To that end, once the aforementioned thresholds are met during the production of an issue, the executive board shall inform the editorial board and the advisory board that any following submitted article shall be evaluated and accepted for the next issue.

SOLE FINAL PROVISION
Entry into force

These rules shall entry into force after being approved by the Journal´s executive board.

Annex
Initial composition of the Journal´s boards

The first executive board, drafter of these rules, is formed by:

Francisco Velasco Caballero, Diana Santiago Iglesias, Gabriel Doménech Pascual y Rosario Leñero Bohórquez

Initial composition of the board of editors:

The first Journal’s board of editors is formed by:

Mercè Darnaculleta i Gardella, Gabriel Doménech Pascual, Rosario Leñero Bohórquez, Raúl Letelier Wattemberg, Elisenda Malaret i García, Alba Nogueira López, Diego Pardow Lorenzo, Matthias Ruffert, Héctor Santaella-Quintero, Claudia Tubertini, Diana Santiago Iglesias, Francisco Velasco Caballero