Information For Authors

All the authors that submit their works for publishing in the Opinión Jurídica journal must attach their manuscript to a statement of their authorship that states that the manuscript is unpublished and has not been proposed for publishing in any other journals simultaneously.  Additionally, the authors must be aware and confirm that the copyrights are yielded to Universidad de Medellín and they authorize it to broadcast their works through any medium, printed or digitally, internet included.

People interested in submitting an article for publishing at the journal must send their manuscript after registering as users in the webpage in the section Register. If they already have that credential they must Login and in the section 'Submissions' they will found the necessary steps for starting the submission process.

The journal publishes original and unpublished scientific articles that are not being evaluated in other publication platforms simultaneously and that engages with topics related to law specializations and connected disciplines as the following:

  • Environmental law and sustainable development
  • Constitutional law and human rights
  • Family law, children, and adolescents
  • Public and private international law
  • International Humanitarian Law (IHL)
  • Law and public policy
  • Philosophy and general theory of law
  • History of law and legal institutions
  • Law and technologies
  • Emerging human rights

The articles must be submitted taking into account the following formal guidelines:

  1. In a Word MS extension file, letter size, 3 cm margins on every side, Arial font in 12 points, with a 1,5 points line spacing, a before and after spacing of 0 points. A space between every paragraph must be placed without increased indent to the left at the beginning of every paragraph and with a total length of no more than 32 pages. In order to make the process easier, we encourage authors to download the articles template located in the right panel.
  2. The title must not exceed two lines, must preferably be appealing and must give an account in a clear manner of the articles proposal. We do not consider appealing those titles containing words such as 'approximation', 'an approach', 'preliminary' or similar terms, neither those referring to specific geographical points. If that last one is the case we encourage the authors to highlight that aspect in the introduction.
  3. The author(s) name(s) must be written after the title without being preceded by the word ‘by’. Under the name must be included the actual institutional affiliation of the author(s)m followed by the city and country in which the institution is circumscribed. Under this must be an e-mail – preferably institutional– of the author and after this the Orcid link. In case of not having one, this might be created in the Official website. In case of having two or more authors, the process must be repeated for each one of them in the same structure and disposition.
  4. The abstract must be a sole paragraph with no more than 200 words in which must be included the main objective of the article, the methodology employed, the results found and the main conclusion. It must not includes quotes or citations.
  5. The key words are terms related with the topics approached on the text and that will be used as metadata in the search engines of the virtual platforms in which the journal is indexed. Consider that those terms might be composed by more than one word, like 'transitional justice', those cases are considered as only one term. Words must be separated by a semicolon and must include between 5 and 8 pertinent keywords.
  6. The introduction must not have more than 3 pages. Initially, it must be stated whether the article is derived from an ongoing or finished research project, the title of the project, the institution that financed it and the quality in which the author was enrolled in the project and if the author is enrolled in a research group. In case of not being derived from a research project, it must be stated that the articles is derived from the academic or research activities, whichever be the case, of the author in its respective are with aims towards displaying the author's trajectory regarding the topic tackled in the article. In the introduction it is essential a presentation of the context (as a problem statement), clearly communicate the purpose of the article (main objective), the methodology employed and the steps taken for obtaining the results the text presents, as well as the article's structure. None of these parts have a subtitle, the writing must be fluent and in the said order. In casa of having used a well known methodology its mere mention is enough.
  7. The tables and graphics included must not be inserted images inside the document but editable objects that could be adjusted in the editing process after the approval of the article.
  8. In the lower part of the tables and graphics their source must be stated. If those belong to the authors must be stated as 'Source: prepared by the author(s)'.
  9. Subtitles must be enumerated. Introduction and list of references must be unnumbered.
  10. There must be a conclusions chapter in which the research question must be answered and the research goals compliance assessed and put on evidence regarding the information stated in the introduction.
  11. The bibliography must not contain bullets or classification. It must be a sole list in chronological and alphabetical order.
  12. It is indispensable that everything inside the bibliography is quoted in the body of text and that every quote in the texts has its correspondent entrance in the bibliography, including those references belonging to footnotes. There must be no surplus or missing sources neither in the text body nor in the list of references when compared. The quotation and the bibliography must be structured as in the APA standards.

Selection process for submitted articles

The process starts with a review by the editor of the submitted manuscript with the Turnitin software to determine its originality; it also verifies that de document observes the formal requirements of the journal; once the editor confirms the compliance with these requirements; he or she proceeds to assign two peer reviewers. The journal follows the reviewing systems know as "blind double peer". The editor is in charge of sending the article to the selected reviewers, analyze the concepts made by them, and determine the viability of its publishing. The editor can later approve the publication of the article, send it back to its author for modifications or reject the article itself. The decision taken will be communicated as soon as possible.

Open access policy

The journal Opinión Jurídica offers open and immediate access to its content under the principle of making researches available freely to encourage a greater share of knowledge globally. Besides its open access policy, the journal does not charge its authors for the evaluation, editing and publishing processes. Its contents can be shared through social networks and any other medium, digital or printed, as well as the due diligence with the published articles, as long as the journal is cited and the moral rights of the authors are observed, plagiarism is completely avoided as well as misrepresentation of arguments.

Crossmark Policy

The University of Medellin recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of academic and research data for researchers, libraries, and professionals. For this reason, it uses the CrossMark tool to ensure reliable content and inform readers of changes and updates that occur in articles published in scientific journals.

By clicking on the CrossMark logo included in each article, the system will display information about the modification history after publication and its current status. Changes will be made in circumstances that merit it. This includes errata, changes of importance such as incorrect data or information that generate understanding problems. The corrected version will replace the original and the corrections made will be indicated.

Following the recommendations of the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) for good practices in scientific and bibliographic publication, the change policy will be adjusted to the following circumstances:

  • Corrections to an article: Changes or corrections will be adjusted to significant errata discovered after publication that may mislead readers. This may be the result of an error by the authors or an error introduced during the editorial process of the journal.
  • Retraction: This action will be implemented in articles that are found to have serious deficiencies that may affect the data and results. These may include unintentional errors reported by the authors (e.g., in data, instruments, or analyses), as well as issues of non-compliance with good practices (data fabrication, plagiarism, unethical research, publication duplication or overlap, image falsification or manipulation, among others). For any retracted article, the reason that prompted the retraction will be clearly indicated in the retraction note that will be published alongside the retracted article. This note will appear with a watermark and will clearly indicate that it has been retracted.
  • Article removal:The removal of an article will be carried out when legal limitations are imposed, it is defamatory, or infringes the legal rights of third parties.

For more information, visit www.crossref.org/crossmark.