About the Journal
Statement on Publication Ethics and Misconduct
Sex and Gender Equity Guidelines
Focus and Scope
Dictatorships & Democracies (D&D) is an online open access journal published by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the Fundació Carles Pi i Sunyer. Its aim is to promote and disseminate research on contemporary societies that focuses on social and intellectual movements and democratization processes from a comparative and transnational perspective. D&D is therefore a space for academic dialogue and debate pertaining to any form of historical and cultural research, including studies that adopt political, social, economic, international, literary or artistic perspectives. The journal publishes original research only, and it submits all articles to double-blind review protocols overseen by a board of experts.
Publication Frequency
This journal publishes once a year, in December.
Peer Review Process
Blind Review Warranty | Phases of the evaluation process of an article
Dictatorships & Democracies publishes original articles only. It accepts submissions that are thematically aligned with the journal’s focus. Articles are subject to a process of double-blind peer review that is conducted by experts in relevant subject areas who have been selected by the Editorial Board. The journal has a network of reviewers that it expands when necessary using Publons, an international database of reviewers.
Blind Review Warranty
As is stated in the Submission Guidelines, before authors submit an article, they must remove all personal data (first and last names, ORCID ID, e-mail address, academic affiliation, postal address and short CV) from it. This information must be sent in a separate file.
The identities of the authors whose work is being reviewed and those of the reviewers are not disclosed at any point during the review process.
The review process also addresses methodological aspects.
Dictatorships & Democracies periodically reviews its review form and also monitors the quality of answers provided in the reviews that it has arranged.
Phases of the evaluation process of an article
Phase 1: The authors send the original article manuscript to the journal.
Phase 2: Two external reviewers who are experts in the relevant subject area conduct a double-blind peer review of the manuscript. The identities of the authors whose work is being reviewed and those of the reviewers are not disclosed at any point during the review process. The review process also addresses methodological aspects.
Phase 3: The reviewers send the journal’s Editor their reviews, which include their recommendations on whether the article should be published.
Phase 4: The authors are informed of the outcome of the review process, which will fall into one of these categories:
- Accepted: An article is approved for publication if both reviewers make this recommendation.
- Declined: An article is declined if the two reviewers make this recommendation.
- Accepted (subject to modifications): Substantial changes to the article’s content that have been specified by the reviewers must be made before the article can be given final approval for publication.
If there is major disagreement between the two reviews, further rounds of reviews conducted by two different reviewers from the corresponding subject area will take place until a majority decision is reached.
Dictatorships & Democracies will notify authors of its decision to accept or reject an article within three months of receiving the article.
Open Access Policy
Based on the principle that making research freely available to the public fosters the global exchange of knowledge, this journal provides immediate open access to its content.
Authors may deposit their works in open access repositories, whether before peer review (as pre-prints) or after it (as post-prints).
Archiving Policy
This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system for participating libraries, and it permits these libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and retrieval.
Statement on Publication Ethics and Misconduct
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) is committed to upholding the highest standards of quality and integrity in the publication of scientific articles, in accordance with the guidelines set out in its own Code of Ethics (in Catalan), the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, COPE), and CSE's White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications (Council of Science Editors, CSE). The UOC aims to satisfy the needs of authors and readers alike by ensuring the quality of articles published in its journals, protecting and respecting all rights pertaining to the content of articles and respecting the integrity of all submissions and published work.
The Editorial Board of Dictatorships & Democracies undertakes to publish any corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies as and when these are required. As part of its commitment to best practice, Dictatorships & Democracies makes the review system for submitted articles and the criteria applied in the external peer review process publicly available. Dictatorships & Democracies regularly updates these criteria, which are intended to ensure the scientific relevance, originality, clarity, and pertinence of published articles.
Dictatorships & Democracies maintains full confidentiality throughout the review process, protecting the anonymity of authors and external reviewers, the reviewed content, the reviewers’ reports and any other communications issued by the editorial, advisory and scientific boards, as required. Equally, it applies the strictest standards of confidentiality to any clarifications, appeals, or complaints that authors may wish to submit to any of the journal’s boards or to the external reviewers.
Dictatorships & Democracies undertakes to respect the integrity of all published works. As such, Dictatorships & Democracies will be particularly vigilant in identifying and penalizing cases of plagiarism. Any manuscript that is found to plagiarize published work will be removed from the journal or barred from publication. The journal will act as swiftly as possible in all such cases. In agreeing to the terms of the journal, authors undertake to ensure that the articles they submit and all of the associated materials contain only original work and that they do not infringe on the rights of third parties. In the case of shared authorship, a clear statement must be made to the effect that all authors have agreed to the content of the manuscript and that the work has not been published previously in any other form.
Authorship
The authors of articles submitted for publication must ensure that the material they submit to Dictatorships & Democracies is original work and that it does not contain excerpts of work previously published either by themselves or by other authors. In submitting a manuscript, authors must also warrant the accuracy of the data presented therein, which must not have been altered to verify the hypotheses put forward.
Authors must ensure that the materials consulted during the preparation of their article are the most recent and pertinent in the relevant research field and that they have given due consideration to all current schools of thought on the subject matter.
Authors must clearly identify all individuals who have made a significant scientific contribution to the conceptual design and planning of the study, the interpretation of the results and the drafting of the article. The list of authors must be ordered hierarchically to reflect each author’s degree of responsibility and respective role in the study.
All authors accept responsibility for the content of their manuscripts.
Peer Review
Reviewers undertake to produce a critical, sincere, constructive and impartial review of submissions and to complete their review in the shortest time possible, to ensure that the deadlines of the review process are met.
Reviewers are only assigned to a manuscript if they have the necessary expertise in the relevant field and have no conflicts of interest.
Reviewers will submit a full and thorough report, complete with the necessary references, in compliance with the terms of the review process, particularly when rejecting a submission. In addition, reviewers must notify the Editorial Board of any part of the manuscript that has already been published or is under consideration for publication by another journal.
Reviewers must ensure that they have no conflicts of interest with regard to the research presented in the article, the authors or the sources of funding for the project.
Once the Editorial Board has verified that the article conforms to the standards on content and style indicated in the Submission Guidelines, it will send the article to two anonymous experts who are not affiliated to the authors’ home institution for a double-blind review.
Reviewers’ evaluations of the article will focus on its interest to the scientific community, the novelty of its contribution to existing knowledge of the subject matter, the accuracy of the relationships it establishes with other works, the critical judgement displayed, the bibliographic references used, the quality of the manuscript’s drafting and presentation, and other standard considerations. Where necessary, recommendations will be made as to how the manuscript can or should be improved.
The Editor of Dictatorships & Democracies will examine the reviewers’ reports and notify the authors of the outcome by sending an email to the address from which the manuscript was submitted. The reviewers’ comments and suggestions will be provided for consideration by the article’s first author.
If the manuscript has been deemed fit for publication with minor or major corrections, the authors must submit a revised version which addresses the external reviewers’ comments and suggestions. The authors may also attach a response letter for the Editorial Board in which they explain the specific changes made to the original submission.
The Editorial Board will determine whether the revised manuscript is fit for publication on the basis of the changes made and the degree to which they successfully address the reviewers’ comments and suggestions. The Editor will then notify the authors of the final decision.
Sex and Gender Equity Guidelines
We recommend that articles use inclusive and non-sexist language. For more information, please see this guide: https://www.uoc.edu/portal/en/servei-linguistic/convencions/tractament-generes/index.html
If the sex or gender of the people to whom the study applies is relevant, you should give details of this in the title of the article, the abstract and the design of the research. Where appropriate, please provide data disaggregated by sex or gender.
Publication Fees
Since the publication costs for Dictatorships & Democracies are covered by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s internal budget, authors do not need to pay an article-processing charge (APC), and no waivers are necessary.
Advertisement Policy
The journal only displays advertisements that are of relevance to its scope and will be of interest to its readership (e.g., upcoming conferences). All advertising space is provided free of charge. The Editor and the publisher have the right to decline or withdraw adverts at any point.
If you wish to propose an advert for publication, please contact the editorial team. All adverts are displayed in the right-hand column of the journal and need to fit within a width of 120 pixels. All images used in adverts will have to be provided to the publisher.
Facts and Figures
Sponsors
History
Publication of this journal began in December 2013 under the title Franquisme & Transició (ISSN 2014-511X). As a result of its strategy for internationalization, in 2017 the journal began a new phase in its history with a new title and ISSN: Dictatorships & Democracies (ISSN 2564-8829). Although the journal changed its title and ISSN, it has maintained its publication frequency of one issue a year (published in December) and continues to use its original issue numbering.