About the Journal
Focus and Scope
The journal Pedagogia i Treball Social (PTS) is a scientific publication edited by the Department of Pedagogy of the University of Girona. Its first issue was launched in January 2011. It is published every six months (June and December). PTS accepts submissions in three languages: Spanish, Catalan and English and its subject matter is applied social sciences including social education, social work, pedagogy, psychology, anthropology, sociology and educational sciences. Although the editorial board gives preference to empirical research, whether qualitative or quantitative, it may accept theoretical review papers or essays (although these will preferably be commissioned from persons of renown and/or on relevant and innovative aspects of their corresponding disciplines).
Peer Review Process
Receipt of manuscripts
Authors will be informed as soon as possible of the correct reception of the article, always through the Open Journal System (OJS) platform.
First evaluation after receipt
The editorial secretariat will carry out a thorough first editorial analysis to verify that the article meets all the requirements of the rules for authors (formal aspects) and to determine whether the content of the article meets the editorial criteria on the focus of the journal. After this initial evaluation, the authors will be informed if the article is accepted for peer review. If not, they will be urged to modify the formal aspects until the basic criteria of the PTS journal are met or, on the contrary, they will be informed of the reasons (formal, methodological, thematic) why the manuscript is rejected in this part of the process.
Peer review
After the first evaluation by the editorial secretariat and the editor-in-chief, all manuscripts will undergo a rigorous process of double-blind and confidential peer review by a minimum of two reviewers with expertise in the topic in question. The reviewers, who will not have any type of conflict of interest and must confirm it, will receive the manuscript together with the instructions and the review procedure to be followed. The time frame for this phase of the review is usually one month from the receipt of the manuscript by the editors. The individual outcome of each reviewer will be: i) acceptance of the manuscript for publication, ii) acceptance of the manuscript after modification of minor changes, iii) modification of substantial changes to the manuscript for a second blind evaluation, or iv) rejection of the manuscript. When there is no agreement between reviewers or when the editor-in-chief considers it appropriate, there is the possibility of a third reviewer to evaluate the manuscript, with the consequent time of one month for review. The reviewers will act under the criteria of competence, confidentiality, impartiality and honesty, diligence, respect and courtesy.
First response to authors after peer review.
Once the result of the external reviewers' evaluation has been received, the editor will contact the authors, always through the OJS platform, and will inform them of the content of the evaluation and the final decision of the review. The editor's response after receiving the result of the peer review will not take more than two weeks.Open Access Policy
The PTS Journal is an open access journal (https://revistes.udg.edu/pedagogia_i_treball_social) and there are no costs associated with editing or publishing in any part of the process. The PTS journal subscribes to the Budapest Open Access Initiative and, for this reason, publishes its articles under a Creative Commons By (CC-by) license.
Quality indicators and indexing
The PTS journal is indexed in Dialnet, EBSCO and evaluated in Carhus Plus+ 2018 and Latindex.
Ethical Aspects in the Dissemination of Research Results
Statement of ethical aspects and bad practices
The journal Pedagogia i Treball Social is committed to maintaining ethical standards and good practices throughout the publication process of its articles. The journal's management and the rest of the sections that include it follow the recommendations of the Committee of Publication Ethics, (COPE, https://publicationethics.org) which provides orientations and guidelines with the purpose of improving the practices directed to the fulfillment of the ethical requirements of any scientific publication of ethical quality. The following is a brief summary of the key points of the COPE standards that are followed by the editorial, advisory, management and editorial boards, as well as the reviewers of the PTS journal:
Duties of editors
It is the responsibility of the editors to make decisions about publication with ethical commitment and fairness. In this sense, the responsible editor will be guided by the journal's management to make decisions responsibly and taking into account the decisions and contributions of external reviewers after the double-blind process. Fairness translates into transparency in decision-making, impartiality in the face of issues related to the race, origin or ethnicity of the authors, their gender or sexual orientation, their religious or spiritual beliefs, and their nationality or political ideas. Decisions to accept a paper should be based on the importance of the paper and its compliance with the journal's publication criteria (originality, clarity, validity and scope).
Confidentiality
The editors, editorial staff, and editorial secretariat will maintain confidentiality of manuscripts submitted to the journal, except in the case of communication with the authors, reviewers, or other members of the editorial staff. All content generated through peer review (privileged information or other insights gained during this process) is also confidential and should not be used for personal gain, as this would be a conflict of interest.
Conflict of interest
Editorial staff members should not use manuscripts or articles submitted to PTS as their own research material without the express consent of the authors. Thus, they will refrain from participating in manuscript processes in which there are conflicts of interest due to competition, collaboration or other types of relationships with the authors or the institutions with which they are affiliated. Editorial staff members will encourage all contributors of manuscripts to disclose relevant competing interests and to make corrections public, if applicable. In this regard, retractions or expressions of concern will be published if necessary.
Reviewers' responsibilities
Peer review is an indispensable requirement of scientific publication. Thanks to this process, the editor-in-chief can make rigorous and impartial decisions regarding the publication of submitted manuscripts. These are the responsibility of the reviewers:
Confidentiality
All manuscripts should be treated as confidential documents, avoiding any kind of disclosure or discussion with others without the editor's approval.
Promptness
For the editorial process to be effective, it is necessary that the persons who agree to participate as reviewers do so within the time limits established by the journal's management. Otherwise, it is the responsibility of the reviewers to communicate any possible delays sufficiently in advance, in order to assess the possibility of extending the review deadline or, on the contrary, to consider withdrawing from the process
Objectivity
The contributions of the reviewers will be provided with objectivity, focusing on the contents and not on the authors or the institutions to which they are affiliated, considering any type of personal criticism as inadequate. The points of view of the reviewers will be expressed with clarity and the necessary argumentation to support their assertions and proposals.
Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers will proceed to identify published works not cited in the manuscripts submitted. Likewise, they will indicate if the arguments derived from the publications are cited in the text with their respective source and listed in the references section.
Overlapping or plagiarism
Reviewers will notify the editor if substantial similarities or overlaps with other articles already published have been identified.
Conflict of interest
Reviewers will refrain from participating in manuscript processes in which there are conflicts of interest due to competition, collaboration, or other types of relationships with the authors or the institutions with which they are affiliated. Under no circumstances will reviewers use the information resulting from the review process to obtain personal advantages.
Duties derived from authorship
Manuscript submission standards
The journal's standards for the presentation of original research will include a detailed and accurate description of the current knowledge of the area or areas to which the research belongs, the results obtained (including the underlying data that support them) as well as an objective discussion of their significance. Since it is a scientific research, it is necessary that the authors provide sufficient elements to make possible the replication of the study. Any fraudulent or deliberately inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Open access data
If the editorial board deems it appropriate, it may request the authors to provide the raw data of the study submitted for publication, so it is necessary and advisable that these data be kept for a reasonable time after publication.
Originality and plagiarism
The manuscript submitted must be an original document, and it is the responsibility of the authors to ensure this. If the authors have made use of any other work, it must be cited in its corresponding sections and correctly. Even so, the work should not replicate much of the information already presented in other publications, their own or those of other authors.
Concurrent or redundant publication
Following the criterion of total originality of the articles, authors should avoid publishing manuscripts describing the same results in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to two journals simultaneously constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable to PTS.
Acknowledgement of sources
Authorship of other authors whose work has been named in the manuscript should always be acknowledged. Authors should cite in the correct format the publications that have influenced in determining the nature of the submitted manuscript.
Authorship and correspondence
An author is a person who has made a significant contribution to the research for which publication is sought, whether in conception, design, execution, interpretation, or comprehensive review and analysis. Thus, all persons who have made a significant contribution should be included in the list of authorship. The participation of others who may have been involved in other aspects of the project (data collection, processing) should be acknowledged. For this purpose, there is an acknowledgement section where they can be acknowledged, describing their contributions. The person identified as corresponding author, in addition to providing the necessary data for subsequent contact with the editorial team and readers, should ensure that the other co-authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and that there is a common agreement for its publication before it is sent.
Research involving humans or animals
Any study involving human or animal subjects must scrupulously comply with institutional, local and national laws and requirements and confirm that the corresponding approval has been obtained from the responsible body in each case. The manuscript should include a section entitled "Ethical Considerations" describing how explicit permission was obtained from the study participants and how they were informed about the study. It is necessary to describe how the privacy of the subjects was protected in the research process, if at all, and to include which ethics committee authorized their research. Authors may be urged to make explicit in their manuscript that informed consent was obtained if the research involved the participation of subjects.
Declaration of conflict of interest
The authors should disclose any conflict of interest, including situations of economic or other types of interest that could influence the results or their interpretation. Any source of financial support related to the research, direct or indirect, should be made explicit in the corresponding section.
Errors and corrections in articles already published.
If an author discovers a relevant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published article, he/she should immediately notify the editor-in-chief of the journal through the ordinary channels. He or she must also cooperate in withdrawing, correcting or amending the content of the article to make it as truthful as possible at a later date. In the event that the editorial board discovers an important error or inaccuracy, the fact will be brought to the attention of the corresponding author who will have the obligation to correct the article in the same terms.
The content of the articles is the ultimate responsibility of the authors. In the event that the authors would like to make any changes, due to questions of form, minor errata or other changes that do not substantially affect the contents of the article once the article has been typeset (and the galley proofs have been accepted), it will be the authors themselves who will have to assume the costs of typesetting derived from its rectification.
Editorial confirmation
In the case of alleged or suspected misconduct on the part of the authors, expressed in their publication due to fraud or plagiarism, the editorial team will take all necessary measures to clarify the facts and amend the article in question. This includes the publication of an erratum or, in the most serious cases, the retraction and withdrawal of the entire article concerned.
