Editorial Policy

 1. Scope and reach

RELIEVE (Revista Electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa [Electronic Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation]) stands tall as a pioneering electronic academic publication in Spain, since its inception in 1994, with an interdisciplinary approach towards educational research and evaluation in its broadest sense. The purpose of the journal is to offer an academic space that is rigorous, accessible and of the highest-quality for dissemination of scientific knowledge in the educational setting. It promotes the improvement and fine-tuning of teaching and learning systems through empirical research studies, theoretical reviews and internationally relevant methodological advancements.

The journal is targeted towards the global educational and scientific community, paying special attention to researchers, teachers and professionals who are committed to educational evaluation and pedagogical studies. RELIEVE is organized to provide a platform for academic exchange and critical reflection by performing in-depth analysis of contemporary challenges to education, at the same time as providing unrestricted access to quality research through an open and free-to-access model.

 2. Publication frequency

RELIEVE is a biannual journal publishing two issues per year (per volume). Nonetheless, the journal adopts a continuous publication model, which means that articles are published as soon as they are ready, with the corresponding issue being added in due course. Issues are finalized at the end of each calendar semester (January-June and July-December).

Unless otherwise indicated, article submission is open all year round, which means that manuscripts can be sent in at any time of the year.

It is important to highlight that receipt of the manuscript does not imply any commitment to its publication on behalf of the journal.r que la recepción de un manuscrito no implica un compromiso de publicación por parte de la revista.

 3. Journal section policy

Originality requirement: The journal is committed towards maintaining high standards of quality and originality in the works that it publishes. For this reason, work will only be accepted that is original and unpublished. All manuscripts must be submitted via the online management system (OJS) and strictly adhere to the guidelines for authors. These norms can be consulted in the “Submissions” section underneath “Norms for authors”.

Further, as a general rule, the same author will not be permitted to publish articles in consecutive issues of the journal, unless exceptional circumstances exist to justify this decision.

 4. Open access policy  

RELIEVE is committed to ensuring wide and accessible dissemination of published content in accordance with quality requirements laid out by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). With this aim in mind, the following dissemination strategies and principles are established.

1. Open access and availability

All articles published in RELIEVE are made available through open access, without any economic or technological restrictions, on the journal’s official webpage in order to help research reach the public domain and promote greater exchange of global knowledge. This policy reflects commitment to the democratization of knowledge and adherence to national and international norms for open science. Thus, RELIEVE follows recommendations laid out in article 37 of the Law for Science, Technology and Innovation regarding open access dissemination, in the sense that authors will retain the non-exclusive right to use their contributions for academic and educational ends, including self-archiving in open access repositories.

2. Repositories and databases

Content published in RELIEVE is diffused through its inclusion in institutional repositories and open access mediums and scientific databases such as DOAJ, Dialnet, REDALYC, REDIB, ERIH PLUS, Web of Science and Scopus, amongst others, promoting its internationalization, dissemination and accessibility.

3. Persistent identifiers and standardized metadata

Each published article counts with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which guarantees that it can be localized and cited over time. Further, international metadata standards (Dublin Core, OAI-PMH) are followed to enable inter-operability with other scientific information systems.

4. Dissemination via academic and social networks

RELIEVE actively promotes its publications through academic networks such as Google Scholar and ResearchGate, together with social networks and channels such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube with the aim of maximizing the impact of published research.

5. Visibility strategies and impact

• RELIEVE recommends the use of alternative impact metrics (ALTMETRICS) to evaluate the diffusion of articles via digital media. For example, RELIEVE gathers data on the number of downloads and PlumX as a tool for estimating the impact of publications and researchers.
• RELIEVE employs, for each published article, a PUBLICATION FACTS LABEL that presents data on the article and its compliance with academic standards, in this way, improving transparency and understanding of other values and metrics pertaining to the article within its research/dissemination context.
• Authors are requested to provide and authorize the use of personal identifiers such as ORCID to improve the tracking of publications.

 5. Article processing and submission costs

RELIEVE does not charge any fee for the submission or processing of articles received for consideration. We invite all academics to present their original works in the confidence that our journal provides a space that values idea exchange and scientific quality without financial cost.

 6. Peer review process

RELIEVE follows a double-blind peer review process in order to ensure the impartiality and confidentiality of all manuscripts. All received articles will be sent out to a minimum of two reviewers who will be selected ad hoc. These reviewers will be responsible for determining and assessing the originality, novelty, relevance and methodological quality of manuscripts. Research reports will be remitted to the journal’s Editorial Board in a specific template. At least 50% of reviewers will be external to the editorial team and the publishing body. Information for reviewers.

 7. Editorial process

1. Confirmation of receipt:Following reception of work, an email will be sent out to the author as confirmation of receipt.

2. Preliminary review:The manuscript will be submitted to an initial review conducted by the Editorial Board, who will verify that it meets journal guidelines and assess its relevance in relation to the journal’s scope. IN this way, a first assessment is made of the article.

3. Peer review:If the work meets basic requirements regarding format and originality, and is aligned with the journal scope, it is assigned to an editorial committee that takes charge of the peer review process (external scientific evaluators). These reviewers should emit their report within a time-frame of no more than two months.

4. Decision:Following receipt of evaluation reports, the editorial committee and/or writing board will assess conclusions and decide whether work is acceptable for publication and, in the case that work is accepted, the section in which it will appear.

5. Communication of findings:Evaluation decisions will be communicated to authors, together with any modification suggested by reviewers for its publication. In the case that minor changes are suggested as a condition for publication, the assigned editorial committee will take charge of verifying that such changes have been made. In the case of major changes, second-round review processes will be initiated.

6. Publication proofs:Upon article acceptance, the journal’s Editorial office will contact authors to gather all complimentary information for the article, the translation and make style adjustments. Following this, authors will be sent at least one proof of the article in PDF format. Authors should return the proof with all corresponding corrections (where necessary).

7. Final publication:Once authors have corrected and returned the proofs, work will be published on the journal webpage within the corresponding issues. Authors will receive automatic notifications regarding the status of the manuscript through the system OJS throughout the entire publishing process.

* Authors will be informed about the status of their manuscript through notifications and emails generated  by the platform throughout the entire editorial process

 8. Antiplagiarism policy

In order to ensure the originality of published works, RELIEVE uses antiplagiarism software to analyze all received articles prior to initiating the peer review process.

Submitted articles must be original and not published in any other scientific journal. In the case of detecting plagiarism, the article will be excluded from the editorial process. The journal uses Turnitin to conduct similarity analyses of submitted texts.

Received works will be subjected to preliminary review on behalf of the Editorial Board, which will evaluate their importance in terms of the journal’s editorial focus, compliance with publication norms and absence of plagiarism (verified through Turnitin). Matches detected by the software will be reviewed by the journal’s management team and/or the editor-in-chief of the issue, with the aim of determining whether matches are meaningful or the result of a detection error due to software limitations (as may occur with topical concepts or common words).

Where matches with other words are detected (between 20% and 40%), authors will be given the opportunity to remove the problems identified and resend the article. Should more than 40% of matches be found, the manuscript will be rejected. Further, all submitted texts should comply with ethical research procedures and detail the way in which such procedures have been respected.

 9. Digital preservation policy

The review employees the following digital preservation strategies through the system OJS in collaboration with the University of Granada Press Team:

Daily security copy: The EUG makes security copies every 24 hours in order to preserve and archive content, enabling recovery in the case of data loss.
Digital object identifier (DOI): All articles are assigned a DOI that is administrated by Crossref, ensuring continuous identification and avoidance localization issues due to URL changes.
PKP preservation network (PN): Through OJS, the journal access the PKP preservation network, which digitally archives articles in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) to ensure their long-term retention.
LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): The journal is LOCKSS compatible to ensure a permanent record. Archived articles can be consulted in the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest. The journal is indexed in various databases, which guarantees retention of and permanent access to content.

 10. Interoperability protocols

OAI-PMH Interoperability Protocol: The journal implements the OIA-PMH Protocol to boost access and ease the transfer of content throught https://revistaug.ugr.es/index.php/RELIEVE/oai.

 11. Author rights and licenses

Authors retain their rights to their work, non-exclusively, and guarantee the journal’s right to be the first site of publication of the work. Further, articles are published under a CC BY-NC 4.0, which means that readers and other researchers can:

• Share: copy and redistribute material via any medium or in any format.
• Adapt: rehash, transform and construct the original material, always respecting conditions of the journal license.

Authors and users of content must comply with the following:

• Attribution: appropriate merit should be given to the original author, including the link to the license and indicating whether changes have been made to the material. This attribution must be made in a reasonable way and not in any way that suggests that the author or use is supported by the journal.
• Noncommercial: material may not be used for commercial gain.
• No additional restrictions: no technological measures or legal conditions are permitted that restrict the use permitted by this license.

Authors are free to make additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal. This includes, amongst other aspects, the possibility of archiving the work in an institutional repository or publish it in a book, taking care to acknowledge its original publication in this journal.

 12. Article retraction and correction policy

In the case of detecting significant mistakes or bad scientific practice, RELIEVE relies on an article retraction and correction procedure, in accordance with COPE guidelines to ensure editorial transparency and rigor.

 13. Self-archiving, self-publishing and repository deposit policy

RELIEVE enables authors to self-archive articles in institutional and personal repositories, respecting the final published version and ensuring compliance with established dissemination licenses. In this way, authors are encouraged to electronically disseminate the published version of their works (editor post-print version) or, where this is not possible, the author’s reviewed and accepted post-print version. This practice serves to facilitate productive exchanges and contributes to earlier and broader citing of published works.

No embargo period is imposed, allowing contributions to be accessed as soon as possible.

 14. Conflicts of interest

All authors must declare any conflict of interest when submitting their manuscript. This includes, but is not limited to, financial relationships, personal relationships and participation in other related studies. A statement must be included in the manuscript indicating that whether or not any conflict of interest exists.

Reviewers must also declare any conflict of interest prior to agreeing to review a manuscript. Should a reviewer have a conflict, they should reject the review.

The editorial board will assess conflict of interest statements and make decisions about continuing the review and publication process. Our journal is committed to building trust in peer review and the integrity of publication processes. Any situation that compromises this integrity will be managed in accordance with journal policy.

Absence of a conflict of interest statement may result in retraction of the article, once published, or termination of the review process should such an omission be discovered during the review process.

 15. Code of ethics

This journal adheres to rigorous ethical norms when publishing manuscripts and manifests its commitment towards the prevention of inappropriate behavior in all of its editorial activities. The code of ethics can be consulted via the following link: Code of ethics.