Comunicación is a biannual journal published at the Faculty of Social Communication-Journalism of Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín-Colombia. It was created in 1975 with the aim to present the reflections and research results in the field of Communication, Social Sciencies and Humanities as a contribution to the discussion and debate among its readers as well as the local, national and international academic communities. This journal is published and financed by the UPB and does not include advertising content.

 

Policies

• A letter should be addressed to the Journal Director in which the author guarantees the originality of the article. The letter should also state that the article has not been published in any means and it is not under revision in any other journal. Likewise, the author should give all the rights over the article to the Journal Comunicación, which would be able to publish it physically or digitally.
• Furthermore, the author must commit with the Journal not to withdraw the article once the peer review process has begun.
• The Journal Management will contact the author regarding the paper within a period of maximum three days.
• For clarity or transparency in the academic and editorial process, the Journal ensures the confidentiality of the information as well as quality control. It Will be careful to reject works that aren´t unpublished, original, that invent, forge or manipulate data, redundant publication, fictitious authorship, or improper fragmented publication, duplicated, auto-plagiarism, inflated, self-citation excess and not consulted references.
• The journal Comunicación will submit every single received paper to a preliminary assessment made by the Editorial Board, who will establish if it is appropriate to publish the article. Once approved by the members of the board, the article will be peer reviewed by two anonymous peers, who will establish whether the article should be published or not. In the case of the article being approved by one of the peers and rejected by the other, a third peer will be selected to settle the matter.
• Under any circumstances the Journal Management will forced the author to make a citation of the production of the Comunicación Journal of the Bolivarian Pontifical University. Nor will publish articles that present a conflict of interest or have problems with human ethical values derived from the scientific experimentation.
• In the case of an article that has already been published and present background errors detected by the author and that violates the scientific quality, the author may request the withdrawal or correction. But, if detected by a third part, plagiarism, prior publication, unethical conduct, or error, is obligation and responsibility of the author to retract publically, whereupon it will proceed immediately to remove or public correction. Public retraction or correction will be made in the next printed issue of the Magazine as well as in its digital version.
• Comunicación journal follows ethical standards presented in Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and International Standards for Editors and Authors published by Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE.
• It is vital for the Comunicación Journal to protect and guarantee copyright, set in the original and intellectual creation of articles. Consequently, this has colombian legislation on intellectual property and copyright issues. Also the Decision Andina 351 of 1993. In addition, it considers it essential to comply with the parameters established by the World Organization of the Intellectual Property - WIPO.

   

  Peer Review Process

  Comunicación UPB Journal will submit all the received articles to a preliminary evaluation by the editorial committee, which will determine the pertinence or not of the publication, according to the proposal of the Journal in relation to its focus, or editorial line, as well as the compliance of the Author Guidelines. When the members of the committee approve the article, it will be sent for an evaluation by external anonymous peers (double-blinded), who will decide if the text is able for publication. If one reviewer approves it and the other rejects it, a third reviewer will be appointed to decide about the publication.

   

  The results of the review or arbitration may be:

  - Accepted for publication.

  - Accepted, if the author applies the corrections suggested.

  - Rejected.

   

  In all cases, the authors will be notified about the decision reached regarding the evaluation of the text. It is expected that all the review process, both by the Editorial Committee, and the academic peers, will have an average duration of six months.

   

  Open Access Policy

  This journal grants free access to its contents under the principle of giving a free public access to the research, supporting a greater exchange of scientific knowledge.

  There is no charge for the postulation and later edition of the articles presented to Comunicación UPB Journal.

   

  Copyright Notice

  The authors who have publications with this journal, accept the following terms:

  The authors will keep their copyrights and guarantee the journal the right for the first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons 4.0 NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), that enables third parties to share the work as long as the author is mentioned and the material is not used for a commercial purpose.

  The authors may adopt other agreements for the non-exclusive license for the distribution of the version of the published work (Ex.: to deposit it in an institutional telecommunications file or to publish it in a monographic volume) as long as the initial publication in this journal is mentioned.

  It is permitted and recommended to authors to disseminate their work through the Internet (Ex.: in institutional telecommunication files or in their website before and during the delivery process, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase the references for the published work.

  The source must be stated for the total or partial reproduction of the articles.

  The names and e-mails introduced in this journal will be exclusively used for the purposes stated by the journal and will not be available for any other purpose or person.

   

  Archiving

  The digital preservation and restoration of the journal's archives is done automatically and the general rule of weekly copying is used; the copies are stored in an international cloud server. They are also available in the UPB Institutional Repository available at: https://repository.upb.edu.co  

  This journal uses the LOCKSS system to create a file distributed among the participating libraries, enabling such libraries to create permanent files of the journal for preservation and restoration purposes.  More information...

   

  Publication ethics

  The UPB Editorial and the Editorial Committee of Comunicación UPB Journal state an ethical commitment of all the members of the editorial processes.

  The directions stated are the result of the analysis of mechanisms and strategies consigned in the international policies established by the Committee of Publication Ethics – COPE- (s.f.a), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors –Icmje- (s.f.a), the Council of Science Editors (2012), among others. Also, by the World Organization of Intellectual Property (WOIP), the norms established by the Colombian Political Constitution, the National Direction of Author´s Rights, and the internal directions of Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (2015).

   

  Ethics Policy in Publications

  The editorial production of Comunicación UPB Journal is followed by an academic and research process that states the transparency and honesty as indispensable principles for the pertinent management and projection of knowledge. The members of the editorial committee will pay attention not to admit contributions that are not exclusive or original; that fabricate, forge or manipulate data; fragmented, duplicated publications, self plagiarism, excess of self-quotations, and not consulted references, based on the good faith of the authors and these being responsible for the infringement of these obligations.

   

  General Criteria

  • Fraud and plagiarism, in any of its modalities, is considered as a violation of the integrity of scientific research, the intellectual property rights stated by the international norms, and the Colombian legislation regarding intellectual property.
  • There is a conflict of interest when the members of the editorial team of the Journal (Editorial Board or reviewers) have any relation to the contribution presented, and this may negatively influence their judgment capacity.
  • All authors must guarantee that the contribution presented to Comunicación UPB is not under course of evaluation nor has it been accepted or published in other journals and not to withdraw it until the process is over. For reasons of benefit to the research, a previously published contribution may be published again in another language or other countries, if:

  - The authors have the free consent of both editorial teams and they comply with the agreed-upon time intervals.

  - The second publication is be destined for a different group of readers.

  - The second publication includes a footnote with the credits for the first publication.

  • The author is always informed about the status of the article.
  • The author always has the moral and intellectual rights over the article published in the Comunicación UPB Journal.
  • The editorial team will use the Turnitin platform as a tool to detect plagiarism.

   

  Ethical Responsibilities of the Editorial Management Team

   

  Authors:

  - Authors of the Comunicación UPB journal undertake when submitting their manuscript that their manuscripts are original, result of research, with clear and adequate use of data, and that sources are free of any form of fraud or plagiarism. In addition, authors should authorize the journal to publish the submitted manuscript both in digital and print format.

  - Authors guarantee that their submitted manuscript is not simultaneously under evaluation in another journal, nor does it have editorial commitments in another publication. If this situation is detected, the manuscript will be withdrawn from the evaluation process and the parties will be notified in writing.

  - By submitting their manuscript, authors assign their economic rights and guarantee that the content is their own and that they safeguard the intellectual property rights of third parties.

  - Authors request permission to use, reproduce and print material that is not of their property or authorship (charts, graphs, maps, diagrams, photographs, etc.).

  - Accept responsibility in writing for the use of images, photographs and other materials accompanying the article or any other content published in the journal.

  - The authors authorise that the manuscripts submitted, in whole or in part, individually or collectively, may be included in future special editions of the Comunicación UPB journal or catalogues, databases, bibliographic, printed or digital indexes, whether these are freely accessible or subject to payment of royalties; as well as indexing in national and international indexes to which the journal is subscribed and in which it may be subscribed in the future. Finally, it may also be included in any educational product or material used by the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana.

  - The author must guarantee his timely availability for the tasks derived from the editing of the journal (arbitration, correction, and publication).

  - Declare all sources of funding for their research and the group or institution from which it is derived.

  - Recognize as authors all the participants in drafting the article and undertake not to include those who have not participated.

  - In case a previously published article shows depth errors detected by the author and that attempts against the scientific quality, the author can request its withdrawal or correction. If third party plagiarism, a previous publication, unethical conduct or error is detected, it is an obligation and responsibility of the author to apologize publicly, and with this, the withdrawal or public correction will proceed immediately, which will be done in the following edition of the Journal.

  - Comunicación UPB uses Turnitin software to detect cases of superposition and similar text in the presented contributions.

   

   Journal Editor:

  - To ensure a transparent arbitration to the author, defined by the clarity, originality, and pertinence of the submitted contribution.

  - To contact the author directly when he suspects or there is proof of inappropriate conducts against the ethics policy of the publication.

  - To guarantee a clear instruction for the authors, that enables the compliance of the scientific-editorial quality and the fulfilment of the ethical policy of the publication caring for the detection of plagiarism or inadequate manners for data management.

   

  Editorial Board Member:

  - It is a direct responsibility of the Editorial Board of the journal to choose and contact the peers for the evaluation of the contributions.

  - The Editorial Board must use the channels and assertive means for the communication with the authors.

  - All the members of the Editorial Board have the responsibility to comply with due confidentiality about the received contributions. They shall not use data, arguments, or interpretations without due authorization by the authors.

  - Any of the members of the Editorial Board must report to the editor any inappropriate conduct detected in the received contributions.

  - The Editorial Board shall have advisory functions on scientific aspects, dissemination, visibility and impact when requested to do so.

   

  Reviewers:

  - The evaluation by peers will be done with the double-blind methodology.

  - Every reviewer has the responsibility to review manuscripts only in areas and topics of their expertise and related to their research. If the submitted manuscript sent for review does not fall within the field of expertise of the reviewer, they are expected to inform of the situation to Journal Editor.

  - Inform the Editorial Team in case of identifying a personal or professional conflict of interest that could affect the decision on the article.

  - Inform the Editorial Team if they detect similarities between the peer-reviewed article and another article that is in the process of publication or has already been published.

  - Accept to review an article when they consider they have the academic strengths to issue a comprehensive concept about the contributions of the text and the aspects that need to be improved.

  - Undertake to evaluate the article in an impartial and respectful manner.

  - Based on their expertise, offer sufficient guidelines for the author to strengthen the text.

  - Agree not to use the contents of the article under evaluation for their own benefit or for the benefit of third parties until the text is published.

  - Notify any suspicion that the manuscript under evaluation is plagiarized or contains false data so that the Editorial Team can carry out the necessary verification.

  - By accepting to evaluate an article, commit to deliver a concept within the deadlines agreed with the Comunicación UPB Editorial Team.