About the Journal

Opinión Jurídica is an internationally-reaching publication sponsored by the University of Medellin (Colombia). It publishes original articles that address relevant and current issues in the field of law and related sciences and has undergone a rigorous peer review process to ensure their quality and scientific rigor. It also seeks to facilitate communication among legal scholars, professionals, and students and to promote the internationalization of legal knowledge by promoting the publication of works by authors from different countries, especially Latin America. Submissions in Spanish, English, and Portuguese were also accepted. Since 2020, the journal has been continuously published, and at the end of each semester in June and December, the editorial group prepares the respective number.

Articles were evaluated under a double-blind system and reviewed for plagiarism using anti-plagiarism software. All articles were published under an open-access policy, and the journal adhered to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Over the last three years (2021 to 2023), the average article acceptance rate was 19.7%, and the average rejection rate during the same period was 25.7%

Opinión Jurídica publishes unpublished scientific documents.
The author interested in publishing their articles in the Opinión Jurídica journal must submit their articles through the OJS platform. After evaluating their pertinence, the editor assesses the originality of these with the Turnitin software and later verifies the compliance of the articles with the formal requirements required by the journal; once the document passes those filters the editor proceed to select two peer reviewers, whom –just as the authors– must have a user for the journal’s OJS to develop its respective role in the platform; all the communication and submitting of reviewed material must be done through this platform. The journal uses the review process known as 'blind peer'. If one of the reviewers accepts and the other one rejects the articles, the tie is solved by a third evaluator. The editor is on in charge of sending the articles to the reviewers and analyzes their concepts. According to the evaluations then the process continues with the edition and later publishing of the articles, sending the article back to its author for corrections or the definitive rejection of the article. The editor communicates the decision to the author in the shortest notice possible, both via the OJS platform as to the e-mail submitted given by the author; in case of requiring modification, the author must return the corrected manuscript with the modification suggested in a timeframe of no more than 10 days. The next figures summarize the stages and times between the submitting of the articles and its eventual publishing:

*Whenever there is a tie in the evaluation, this phase extends from 15 to 20 additional workdays, due to the third evaluation process, which presupposes the search, invitation and waiting for the assessment of the invited evaluator (8 workdays for its answer).

The average time taken by the publishing process of an article is four months. The originality verification process made with Turnitin and the compliance with the formal requirements take a month. If the article is not original, there is any signal of plagiarism or does not meet the minimum quality requirements demanded by the journal, the text is rejected and sent back to its author immediately. The time between the search for peers, its acceptance and the reception of their concepts is a month. Once the editor receives both concepts, decides whether the article is approved or rejected and communicates it to its respective author.