Basic criteria

Compliance with the Code of Ethics

Authors submitting originals to the journal must subscribe to the international code of ethics for authors for conducting responsible scientific publications. In the event that any of the circumstances provided for in said code occur, as indicated in the "About" section, the authors must state this in the "Comments for the editor" field of the submission.

Favorable certification from the Research Ethics Committee of the reference institution

To comply with international standards of good research practice, in cases where the research carried out includes research with human beings and/or their personal data such as observational, psychological or behavioral research in humans, participation of students pending evaluation by any of the researchers in the project, use of personal data or similar, researchers must have favorable certification of good practice issued by the Research Ethics Committee, or similar body, of the institution or institutions where the study has been carried out.

Originality of the article

All submitted materials must be original (not published - not even in another language - nor in the process of review in other journals), and be written in Spanish, English or Portuguese. For these purposes, works previously published in conference proceedings or dissemination platforms will not be considered unpublished and will be rejected.

In the case of originals derived from academic works such as doctoral theses, authors should indicate this circumstance, for its assessment, in the "Comments for the editor" field of the submission process.

Currency of research

When research data obtained by any method of information collection is presented, it must be recent, discarding those studies that are more than two years old. This will not be applicable in replication studies.

Participation of authors

All signing authors of the article must have made a substantial participation in the development of the research according to the criterion established by CASRAI's CRediT, considering that:

Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; or to have drafted the work or made a substantial revision. Additionally, they must have approved the submission of the presented version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author's contribution to the study). They must also agree to be personally responsible for their own contributions and those of the authors and ensure that issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even in which the author was not personally involved, were properly investigated, resolved and the resolution was documented in the literature.

Consequently, authorship will correspond to one or several of the roles defined by the CASRAI CRediT project.

The order of signature will follow the SDC approach (Sequence Determines Credit) model, so that the first author is the one who has made the most relevant contributions to the research, and the rest appear successively to the right indicating decreasing contributions.

Time between publications and submissions

An author who has published in Virtualis Journal, regardless of their place in the list of authors, cannot publish again until at least two new volumes different from the one in which they published have been published. Thus, if for example they published in the volume corresponding to 2021, they cannot publish again until the 2024 volume. Texts received in shorter periods will not be sent for review.

More than one original cannot be submitted simultaneously for evaluation even if it is to different LTEs.

Language of submission and translation

The submission must be made in one of the following accepted languages: Spanish, English or Portuguese.

In the case that the article sent in Spanish or Portuguese is accepted for publication, once the final revision of the original text in the language sent has been made, the authors must send a translated version in English.

To guarantee the quality of the translation, according to the standards required in the international arena, it must be signed by a translator or company that has ISO 17100 standard or comparable recognition.

For this comparable recognition to be valid, it will be necessary to attach a document that accredits the translator's latest works, which must be linked to the scientific field. In the event that this requirement is not accredited, the article will remain pending publication.

Although Virtualis Journal does not perform or manage the translation, the following is a list of translation companies that have such certification, in case they are helpful to the authors: AGESTRAD, Tridiom, Start, Aje, Trágora.

Authors will have 15 days to deliver said translation once the final acceptance of the text is notified.

Author information

All authors must complete their profile in full in the three languages of the journal, including mandatory:

Current affiliation information (linked to the place where the research has been developed) following the scheme: Full name of the institution (Acronym), for example: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)

ORCID identifier, following the full URL scheme, for example: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1102-3144 

Bibliographic summary of about 100 words, following the recommended scheme: Full affiliation [position, name of group (if applicable), or department (if applicable), center or institute (full name and acronym, if it exists), institution on which it depends, postal address, city, and country. Contact email]. Main research line(s). Notable reference of projects and publications.

When belonging to an institution, the email provided in the profile should be the one you have at this institution.

Article metadata

All article metadata must be completed in the corresponding section of the submission, in the three languages (Spanish, English and Portuguese) following the indications established in the publication rules.

It is very important that during the submission phase this information is completed correctly, otherwise, the article will be returned and a new submission must be made.

In the case that the research has funding from a Support Agency or a private entity, it is mandatory to include the complete reference (Project title, Funding entity/ies, Program or call, Reference) within the "Support agencies" metadata section.

Likewise, in the case of research funded by an EU project that has an OpenAIRE ProjectID or is part of the Crossref Funding Data initiative, the reference must be included in the metadata section enabled for this purpose with the agency search engine that integrates the updated information in Funder Registry. In the case that the research has been self-funded, this metadata section should indicate "self-funded".

As a journal of international excellence, it is inspired by the ethical code of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), aimed at both editors and reviewers and authors.

Commitments of authors

Originality and plagiarism: Authors of manuscripts sent to "Virtualis" ensure that the work is original, that it does not contain parts from other authors or from other fragments of works already published by the authors. They also confirm the veracity of the data, that is, that the empirical data has not been altered to verify hypotheses.

Multiple and/or repetitive publications: The author should not publish articles in which the same results are repeated in more than one scientific journal. The simultaneous proposal of the same contribution to multiple scientific journals is considered ethically incorrect and reprehensible.

List of sources: The author must always provide the correct indication of the sources and contributions mentioned in the article.

Authorship: Regarding the authorship of the manuscript, the authors guarantee the inclusion of those people who have made a significant scientific and intellectual contribution in the conceptualization and planning of the work as well as in the interpretation of the results and in its writing. At the same time, the authors have been hierarchized according to their level of responsibility and involvement.

Access and retention: If the editors deem it appropriate, the authors of the articles should also make available the sources or data on which the research is based, which can be kept for a reasonable period of time after publication and possibly made accessible.

Conflict of interest and disclosure: All authors are obliged to explicitly declare that there are no conflicts of interest that may have influenced the results obtained or the interpretations proposed. Authors must also indicate any funding from agencies and/or projects from which the research article arises.

Errors in published articles: When an author identifies an important error or inaccuracy in their article, they should immediately inform the journal editors and provide them with all the necessary information to list the relevant corrections at the bottom of the same article.

Responsibility: all authors accept responsibility for what has been written. The authors also commit to having carried out a review of the most current and relevant scientific literature on the analyzed topic, keeping in mind the different currents of knowledge in a plural way.

Commitments of reviewers

Contribution to the editorial decision: Double-blind peer review is a procedure that helps editors make decisions about proposed articles and also allows the author to improve the contribution sent for publication. Reviewers assume the commitment to conduct a critical, honest, constructive, and unbiased review of both the scientific quality and the literary quality of the writing in the field of their knowledge and skills.

Respect for times: The reviewer who does not feel competent in the subject to be reviewed or who cannot finish the evaluation in the scheduled time will immediately notify the editors. Reviewers commit to evaluating the works in the shortest possible time to respect delivery deadlines, given that in "Virtualis" the limits for custody of manuscripts in waiting are limited and inflexible out of respect for the authors and their works.

Confidentiality: Each assigned manuscript must be considered confidential. Therefore, these texts should not be discussed with other people without the express consent of the editors.

Objectivity: Double-blind peer review will be conducted objectively. No personal judgment on the authors of the contributions is considered appropriate. Reviewers are obliged to give sufficient reasons for their assessments. Reviewers will deliver a complete critical report with appropriate references according to "Virtualis" review protocol and public guidelines for reviewers; especially if it is proposed that the work be rejected. They are obliged to warn editors if substantial parts of the work have already been published or are under review for another publication.

Text visualization: Reviewers commit to precisely indicating bibliographic references of fundamental works possibly overlooked by the author. The reviewer should also inform the editors of any similarity or overlap of the manuscript with other published works.

Conflict of interest and disclosure: Confidential information or information obtained during the double-blind peer review process must be considered confidential and cannot be used for personal purposes. Reviewers only review a manuscript if there are no conflicts of interest.

Commitments of editors

Publication decision: editors will ensure the selection of the most qualified and scientifically specialized reviewers to issue a critical and expert appreciation of the work, with the least possible bias. "Virtualis" opts to select between 6 and 15 reviewers for each work to ensure greater objectivity in the review process.

Honesty: editors evaluate articles submitted for publication only on the basis of the scientific merit of the contents, without discrimination of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, political opinion of the authors.

Confidentiality: editors and members of the working group commit to not disclosing information related to articles submitted for publication to persons other than authors, reviewers and editors. Editors and the Editorial Board commit to the confidentiality of manuscripts, their authors and reviewers, so that anonymity preserves the intellectual integrity of the entire process.

Conflict of interest and disclosure: editors commit to not using in their research content from articles submitted for publication without the written consent of the author.

Respect for times: editors are ultimately responsible for compliance with time limits for reviews and publication of accepted works, to ensure rapid dissemination of their results. They commit faithfully to meeting the published times (maximum of 30 days for estimation/rejection from receipt of the manuscript on the Review Platform) and maximum 100 days from the start of the scientific review process by experts). Likewise, accepted works will not remain unpublished on infinite waiting lists beyond the fair time for their edition in the next issue. Pools of works on waiting lists will therefore be avoided in "Virtualis".

The journal "Virtualis" adheres to the ethical standards of COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics: http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct

Authorship recognition policy

In order to adequately recognize the substantial participation that each author signing the article has made in the development of the research, Virtualis journal follows the criteria established by CASRAI's CRediT. To this end, in the declaration of authorships they must indicate, for each one, which are the roles that correspond to their participation, according to the model defined in the project.

Authors will be indicated with the following scheme: Name Surname: Role1, Role2. For example: Pedro García-Martínez: Conceptualization, Methodology. Carolina Gutiérrez: Research, Validation, Supervision. Etc.

The order of signature will follow the SDC approach (Sequence Determines Credit) model, so that the first author will be the one who has made the most relevant contributions to the research, and the rest appear successively indicating decreasing contributions.