Information For Librarians
Presentation
The Research and Special Projects Center (CIPE for its initials in Spanish) of the Finance, Government and International Relations Faculty at the Externado University of Colombia, invites academics, researchers, and specialists on issues of political science, government, public policy and public administration to publish their research developments in its Journal, OPERA, government and public administration. The Journal is attached to the Public Administration Policy, Implementation, and Results Observatory. OPERA has national and international circulation and it is targeted at students, researchers and professionals interested in this subject. It has been published annually since 2001 and twice a year since 2014.
The articles will be accessible for free on the website [www.uexternado.edu.co/opera] and in the following rankings and databases: Sistema Regional de Información en Línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal- (LATINDEX), Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal (Redalyc), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Cengage Learning, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Citas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (CLASE), Dialnet, Fuente Académica EBSCO, Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico (REDIB), Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and Open Journal System.
OPERA seeks to contribute to the production and socialization of academic knowledge in political sciences, with special emphasis on government, public policy and public administration, contributing to the contemporary academic and political debate. In this sense, the objective is the publication of scientific work from research and theoretical reflection. Work on issues that are in the research lines being carried out by the OPERA Research Group shall be given preference. The research lines are the following: 1) Public Administration, Public Policies and Governance; 2) Conflict, Peace, and Security; 3) Political and Electoral Processes, and 4) Sustainable and Territorial Development, and 5) Theory and History of Political Thought.
Article reception
Texts submitted to OPERA should be research, reflection or review articles.
Research articles present in detail the original results of research projects. The general structure has four sections: introduction, methodology, findings and conclusions. Between 6000 and 9000 words.
Reflection articles present results from original research produced over a period of time and analyzed by the author. Between 6000 and 9000 words.
Review articles systematize the recent literature and findings in a specific area of knowledge, and include at least 50 bibliographic references. 9000 words.
We also receive bibliographical reviews of recent books (no more than two years of publication). 2000 words.
The articles must be unpublished. They will be published in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese. They will be published with their respective abstracts and keywords in Spanish and English. If the article is not in Spanish, the author will be responsible for sending it to a proofreader in its original language, either before submitting it or at the moment the article is accepted for publication.
The presentation and publication of articles implies no cost whatsoever to the authors.
Call for papers
The journal will make calls for papers on thematic dossiers each semester. However, general theme articles are received according to the following schedule:
For the January - June edition: until June of the previous year.
For the July - December edition: until December of the previous year.
Documents submission
The articles must be sent through the OJS system in the journal's portal, following these steps:
- Create a user (https://revistas.uexternado.edu.co/index.php/opera/user/register)
- Use the "Send an article" button
- Review the shipping checklist
- Load the following documents into the system:
-A document in which the author must clearly state: a. if they agree with the Editorial Policy of OPERA Journal; b. if their article is unpublished or not; in case it is not, informing their reference bibliography; c. affirm that the article is not in the process of evaluation by another journal or editorial organism; and, d. Fill a license of use, This information can be contained in a single document or in several, which should be loaded as "Author Information" in the online system. Colombian authors must have a valid CVLAC.
-A file with the author's must include complete name, a brief résumé, institution to which the author is linked, address, e-mail, the work’s date and ORCID ID (if you do not have it yet, please create your profile (https://orcid.org/)). This information should be loaded as "Author Information" in the online system.
-A file in the .doc, .docx or .rtf formats with the full text of the article, without including the names or any other reference to the authors to ensure the anonymous evaluation. Review the properties of the document to ensure it does not contain personal data. Each article should include a summary in Spanish and English (maximum 150 words) and keywords in Spanish and English (from four to six). On the next page, the article preceded only by the title in Spanish and English will be started.
-Articles should have between 6000 and 9000 words, single space, in a Word compatible format, font Arial 12, top and bottom margins of 2.5 centimeters; left and right of 3.0 centimeters, including bibliography, notes, photographs and graphs, if the document requires them. Dissertations can be published with a maximum length of 9,000 words and proper authorization from the educational institution for their publication in the Journal. Reviews must have a maximum of 2000 words. The notes with clarifications or comments will be presented at the bottom of the page and in a standardized format.
-Optional: in case of containing tables, graphs or others, files with all the tables and graphs in modifiable formats must be attached. In the lower part of these should be recorded the sources or indicate if they are own elaborations.
Bibliography
The bibliography must appear at the end of the article and must contain a minimum of 17 references, separate from the notes, in case there are any, and shall be presented according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA:www.apastyle.org).
In-text citations: (author’s last name, comma, year of publication). If the author is mentioned, only the year of publication of the referenced text must be written.
When a work has two authors, both last names are always cited whenever the reference appears in the text.
When a work has three, four, or five authors, all authors are cited the first time the text is referenced. In subsequent citations of the same text only the last name of the first author is written, followed by the phrase “et al.” and the year of publication.
Bibliographic references have the following citation outline: Author’s last name and given name, year of publication, book title in italics, city, and editorial. Chapters of collected works must include: author’s last name and given name, year of publication, chapter title, book title in italics, city, editorial, and chapter pages. Journal articles must include: author’s last name and given name, year of publication, article title, journal name in italics, volume, number, and article pages.
Peer review
The Editorial Committee is committed to the general standards of academic quality. Once received, if they meet the minimum requirements, the articles are remitted to two external reviewers, – anonymous academic peers specialized in the field of research – who shall undertake the process of arbitration through a double-blind system, which will guarantee the anonymity of the reviewers and authors. The evaluation format can be downloaded here. The referees will not have conflict of interest with the authors and their works. They should acknowledge the understanding of the journal´s international standards of scientific publication, especially regarding the control of plagiarism and the process of peer review, and accept the privacy statement. In case of conflict between two reviews, the Editorial Committee will appoint a third referee to make the final decision.
Thereafter, the Editorial Committee reserves the right to select the material to be published and to keep the accepted articles for future publications, if necessary. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to make editorial changes. If deemed necessary, the introduction of substantial modifications to the text will be consulted with the authors.
The authors will be notified, in 3 months approx. about the decision of the article publication, be it positive or negative.
All proposals shall be considered without regard to theoretical position, the expressed point of view, or chosen methodology. The publication of articles does not imply that the directors of the Journal share the points of view expressed therein. The authors are directly responsible for the thesis or ideas expounded in them.
Copyright
The journal requires that the authors authorize, through a license, the editing, publication, reproduction, distribution, and public communication of the author’s work, both physically and digitally, for solely scientific, cultural, diffusion, and non-for-profit purposes. The authors retain copyrights and guarantee the Journal first publication rights, which will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The reproduction of the documents in other media, printed or electronic, must include recognition of the work’s author and its original publication, as is stipulated in the license. The authors may publish their work on any website or repository. Immediately after their publication, the articles must be sent on digital media to the various databases and indexation systems for the release of their content. The articles will also be accessible for free on the website [www.uexternado.edu.co/opera] and in the following rankings and databases: Sistema Regional de Información en Línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal- (LATINDEX), Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal (Redalyc), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Cengage Learning, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Citas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (CLASE), Dialnet, Fuente Académica EBSCO, Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico (REDIB), Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and Open Journal System.
The presentation and publication of articles implies no cost whatsoever to the authors.
International standards
The Journal is committed to international standards of scientific publication. For this, the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010 guidelines are followed: http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standard_editors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf
The guidelines for authors can be accessed at:
http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf
Articles and all correspondence related to the content of the Journal should be sent to:
Carolina Isaza
Editora Revista OPERA
Calle 12 n.º 1-17 este
Centro de Investigaciones y Proyectos Especiales
Universidad Externado de Colombia
Bogotá D.C., Colombia
[opera@uexternado.edu.co]
www.uexternado.edu.co/opera