Collaborate

The Journal Actualidad Jurídica Ambiental (AJA) is published on weekdays (Monday to Friday). The frequency of the compilation is monthly. Currently, at least 25 doctrinal articles and/or comments are published per year. Additionally, a yearbook has been published every year since 2011.

  1. Checklist
  2. Author guidelines
    1. Collaboration conditions
    2. Structure and format
  3. Editorial policy
    1. Copyright
    2. Assessment process
    3. Ethic code
    4. Privacy statement
    5. Digital preservation policy
  4. Statistics
  5. Assessment

1. CHECKLIST

  • The work is original and unpublished. It has not been published in any other way and has not been sent to another journal.
  • The documents are in .doc format or similar, and it complies with the structure presented in the author guidelines.
  • Bibliographic references follow ISO 690:2013
  • The title, abstract, keywords and index are in the original language of the work, in Spanish and in English.

2. AUTHOR GUIDELINES

2.1. Collaboration conditions

The process for sending originals is as follows:

1. The file name uses the following template:

Articles and comments template. Actualidad Jurídica Ambiental.

2. The article is sent to these two e-mail addresses:

aja@actualidadjuridicaambiental.com ; bibliotecacieda@ciemat.es

3. The Secretary of the Journal will send the authors a document to sign, as an affidavit of the originality of the publication. Once this is received, the assessment process will start.

External collaborations are accepted in the sections “Artículos” and “Comentarios”.

Doctrinal articles must be original and must discuss environmental law. They will include doctrinal analysis about environmental law and case-law, of any nature, with the aim of research. The length should be at least 20 pages.

Comments must be original and should analyse and reflect on environmental law topics on current affairs. They can also discuss any recently published norms, case-law, etc., that merit a comment of this kind. The aim is mainly informational. Comments should be at least 5 pages.

Doctrinal articles and comments will be accepted subject to previous acceptance by 2 reviewers, following a double-blind peer review. Comments will be subject to internal evaluation, while articles will also be sent to another external evaluator. A negative report may lead to the rejection of an article. The evaluation process is described in section 3.2.

2.2. Structure and format

Articles may be published in the following languages: Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician, German, English, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Articles and comments must follow the next structure:

– Title in the original language, Spanish and English.

– Author: full name and surname, occupation or position, institution, country, and ORCID iD, if possible. In case of multiple authors, the principal author must come first.

– Abstract in the original language, Spanish and English

– Keywords in the original language, Spanish and English and separated with by full stops.

– Index, in the original language, Spanish and English

– Content of the article

– Bibliographic references.

Where necessary, the funding source must be indicated with the name of the entity, project, or any relevant data.

All Works must be written in Garamond font, size 14, single spacing (1.0), fully justified and without indentation.

Footnotes should be in Garamond font, size 12, with the same parameters as the body.

Quotes should be on a separate line, in Garamond font, size 12, italic and with indentation of 1 cm on each side, and quotation marks.

Each chapter should be numbered using Arabic numbers, and up to a maximum of three levels (1, 1.1., 1.1.1.). Titles must be in bold and capital letters. If you wish to use further subdivisions, you may use a) b) c) … etc. or hyphens.

Tables and pictures should be used sparingly. If any, they must be accompanied by a title and a source.

The document must comply with the RD 1112/2018, regarding accessibility to people with disabilities. This means links on main text and footnotes must be integrated in the text (as hyperlinks) or hidden.

For instance, instead of:

You can find more information on this topic on the webpage of the journal https://www.actualidadjuridicaambiental.com/ in the “OPAM” section.

Consider:

You can find more information on this topic on the webpage of the journal in the “OPAM” section.

Web links or full URLs may only appear in the reference list, with the date accessed in brackets.

Bibliographic references must adhere to ISO 690:2013. They must indicate the author, title, place, publishing house and date. They must appear at the end of the article and be presented alphabetically. The basic pattern is:

  • Monographs: SURNAME, Name. Title. Place: Editorial, year.
  • Chapters of monographs: SURNAME, Name. Title of the chapter. In: SURNAME, Name. Title. Place: Editorial, year, pp. x-x.
  • Journal articles: SURNAME, Name. Title of the article. Journal title, vol. x, year, pp. x-x.

Digital documents must be added at the end of the reference:

Available in : www.URL.com (Date of access XX-XX-20XX).

In case of multiple authors, up to 3, they will be separated by semicolon “;”. If there are more, name the first three and then use “et al.”.

We recommend the following for in-text citations:

  • “El problema que se plantea en los tributos medioambientales es el riesgo del que nos hablan Carbajo Vasco y Herrera Molina (2004: p. 89) en…”
  • “Algunos autores (García, 2018: p. 94) sugieren la incorporación…”

Authors may choose to use the continuous numeric system, with the addition of footnotes that indicate the source, including at the end the list of references in alphabetical order.

For further information on ISO 690:2013, see the following guides:

3. EDITORIAL POLICY

By sending their papers, the authors accept the conditions of publication and the editorial policy of the journal.

The journal guarantees the protection of the moral and intellectual property rights of the author, in line with the following regulations:

– Convenio de Berna para la Protección de Obras Literarias y Artísticas. Paris Act  of the 24th of July 1971, amended on the 28th of September 1979.

– Real Decreto Legislativo 1/1996, de 12 de abril, por el que se aprueba el texto refundido de la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual, regularizando, aclarando y armonizando las disposiciones legales vigentes sobre la materia (BOE no.97, from the 22th of April 1996).

– Iniciativa de Budapest sobre Acceso Abierto, signed in Budapest on the 14th of February 2002.

3.1. Copyright

Without prejudice to current legislation concerning intellectual property, anyone who publishes in the journal Actualidad Jurídica Ambiental cedes freely, exclusively and with no time limit to Editorial CIEMAT the rights to spread, replicate, communicate or distribute in any format the original version (or a derived one) of the work. The copyright and intellectual property of the texts belong entirely to the authors.

Copyright is used to prevent plagiarism or intellectual theft.

Besides, articles are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NCD-ND license. This license allows users to download, spread, share, and distribute the content of the original work with other people, so long as they do not modify it, they acknowledge the source, and it is not used for commercial purposes.

Authors are not allowed to deposit pre-prints in repositories. However, they are allowed and are encouraged to deposit the definitive version, citing the original source.

CIEMAT, as editor of the journal Actualidad Jurídica Ambiental, is not responsible for the authors’ opinions.

3.2. Assessment process

The assessment process uses a double-blind peer review system. The anonymity of evaluators and authors will be preserved at all times before, during and after the process.

Firstly, documents may be rejected on receipt for the following reasons:

  1. Originality: already published or unoriginal articles, either partially or totally.
  2. Structure: documents that do not follow the given template.
  3. Topic: if considered not to have followed the editorial guidelines.
  4. Scope and character: studies that aren’t considered relevant to the scientific progress of society.

The assessment process consists of two parts:

Internal evaluation

Articles and comments will be assessed by an internal evaluation team. It is anonymous and carried out by at least three internal assessors. At least two of them must accept the article. They can suggest any modification before continuing.

External evaluation

In the case of doctrinal articles, once past the internal phase, they will be sent to a second level of assessment. The editorial team will contact an expert on the topic, and they will be invited to act as an evaluator.

This external evaluator must send the result within a maximum of two weeks, except for a few exceptional circumstances. They will receive a template with the parameters to be assessed. They will complete it, sign it, and communicate the result to the editorial team. The result will be one of the following: accepted, accepted with changes, or rejected.

The whole assessment process will last no more than two months, from receipt of the article to the acceptance or rejection.

3.3. Code of ethics of the journal

The journal’s code of ethics follows the guidelines of the Internal Protocol of Actuation, articulated by the Management Committee of AJA. It is based on the Core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Any point not specified in this protocol will be dealt with in line with the indications of the COPE.

  1. Misconduct: all attempts will be made to prevent negligence, but if editorial fraud is detected by the journal’s editorial team, legal action may be taken to combat cheating, plagiarism or any other form of misconduct.
  2. Transparency: the editorial team is committed to publishing all data necessary for the proper functioning of the journal, whilst respecting the right to privacy and confidentiality, as well as the protection of personal data.
  3. Open Access: the journal is part of the Open Access movement. It is free to everyone and there is no charge for the publication or evaluation of articles.
  4. Diversity: gender equality will be maintained regarding the genders of authors, as far as is reasonably possible. Special protection will be given to authors from minority groups or groups at risk of marginalisation, and to authors from less economically developed or developing countries.
  5. Inclusive language:language: any use of the masculine gender, in a general sense, that appears in this document will be understood, where appropriate, to also refer to the female gender. Sexist language will be avoided at all costs in the publications. In those works that use data with the factor “gender”, “sex”, or similar, we encourage the authors to remark the incidence of this in the results, to take into account the possible differences between both.

The following values will govern the editing, authorship and evaluation of the articles:

Editors

  1. Zero-discrimination: proposed articles will be reviewed anonymously, to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, country of origin, political orientation, etc.
  2. Confidentiality: the editorial team undertakes not to disclose information about the articles received to anyone other than the author and the reviewers. Equally, the anonymity of the reviewers and authors is guaranteed throughout the evaluation process.
  3. Acknowledgement of errors: the editorial team will amend and clarify any errors that may arise.
  4. Decisions on the publication of papers: the editorial team is responsible for the decision of whether to publish the studies that are submitted to the editorial office, pending evaluation. The editorial team undertakes to follow the same criteria to accept or reject all articles. Management will provide mechanisms for appealing editorial decisions to the editorial team. Even so, they will provide complete and updated guidelines on the responsibility of authors and the characteristics of the submitted studies.

Authors

  1. Authorship of the text: all papers submitted must explicitly state their author(s) and, where appropriate, mention all persons who have significantly collaborated in the preparation of the research. In the case of co-authorship, the author who submits the paper is responsible for obtaining the approval and consent of the other authors.
  2. Authors’ responsibility: authors take responsibility for the content of their paper, as well as for their personal opinions, as a manifestation of their right to freedom of expression.
  3. Plagiarism and originality: the authors declare that the work submitted to the journal is original and has not been published previously in other media or sent to other journals at the same time. They must also correctly cite all the sources used for the preparation of the study.
  4. Conflict of interest: authors must declare that there is no conflict of interest that may have affected the results of the research, or the interpretations given in the proposal. They must also indicate the sources of funding or the project that the study forms a part of, where applicable.
  5. Errors in articles: any typos or errors detected by the authors should be reported to the journal editors, providing the necessary information so that the appropriate corrections can be made.
  6. Collaboration with the editorial team: all persons who publish in the journal undertake to provide all data necessary for the publication of their study, as well as to collaborate with the journal’s editorial team so as to ensure the smooth running of the journal.

Assessors

  1. Peer review: the double-blind peer review system will be used. This system allows the editorial team to make decisions about the articles received in the journal, while at the same time allowing the author to improve their work.
  2. Respect for deadlines: once an article has been accepted for review, assessors undertake to respect the established deadlines. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, the evaluation period will be 15 days. If they are unable to complete the evaluation within this time frame, the assessors must inform the editorial team in plenty of time.
  3. Confidentiality: articles submitted for review are considered confidential documents and, as such, assessors may not discuss them with third parties unless permitted by the editorial board.
  4. Objectivity: the review shall be carried out in an objective manner, without personal prejudice, and opinions shall be conveyed in a justified and appropriate manner.
  5. Bibliographical information: in the event that the author has omitted to refer to any relevant work in the field of the study, the assessors undertake to provide precise bibliographical information on important works on the subject being assessed.
  6. Conflict of interest: information obtained in the evaluation process must not be used for personal purposes. The assessor may reject the review proposal if the study involves a conflict of interest due to collaborative or competitive relationships with the author or their institution.

3.4. Privacy statement

Personal data will be protected at all times by the Ley Orgánica 3/2018, de 5 de diciembre, de Protección de Datos Personales y garantía de los derechos digitales (BOE n. 294, from the 6th of December 2018).

Names, e-mails, phone numbers, and any other kind of personal data necessary for the management of the publication of the articles, facilitated by the authors, assessors, subscribers, etc., will be used exclusively for the objectives of the journal (publishing, assessments, diffusion, and divulgation, call for papers, information about seminars…) and shall not be available for any other purpose nor any other person. They will not be stored in any database.

3.5. Digital preservation policy

The journal favours the correct preservation of the documents via keeping updated the informatic systems and equipment necessary for the management of a digital journal. CIEMAT, as a Public Research Organism, assumes the edition of the journal and collaborates in the cohesion of this policy.

Every document in .pdf is stored and replicated in remote servers with the purpose of saving it adequately, keeping security copies and using strategies of Technology Surveillance to fight the obsolescence of the digital formats.

Every item is stored with the corresponding metadata to promote the addition of published articles in external repositories, as well as facilitating the description of the documents’ characteristics and requirements, for ease of retrieval.

Lastly, the journal uses persistent links, with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) as an unequivocal identifier of the published texts, ensuring their permanency.

4. STATISTICS

The updated statistics of the journal can be viewed at this link.

5. ASSESSMENT

In order to provide a service that aims to fully satisfy users’ needs, the Journal invites readers to participate in the evaluation questionnaire at any time.