Editorial process

EDITORIAL PROCESS

The Nexus journal publishes two issues per year in july and december through a continuous editing process, which means that upon receiving a manuscript, it initiates its editorial process regardless of the total number of documents received. Nexus accepts works that have been published on pre-print platforms. Following the regular double-blind peer review process and approval by the editorial team, they will be published in the journal.Authors are required to submit their original manuscript to the Nexus journal after registering on the OJS platform. The article must be accompanied by the Conflict of Interest Declaration Form and must comply with all the requirements of the Submission Preparation Checklist. When submitting the manuscript, OJS will generate a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that will identify the article once it is published.

Since the editorial management team and the editor of a journal are ultimately responsible for the selection of its content, they may reject an article at any time before its publication—even after acceptance—if concerns arise regarding the integrity of the work, conflicts of interest, or suspicions related to plagiarism, authorship issues, and data rigor.

The editorial management team conducts a preliminary review of the manuscripts to verify if they contain complete information, authenticate their originality, and assess if they meet the minimum quality conditions of an academic and scientific article (guidelines for the formal presentation of articles: citation standards, graphic titles, etc.). Following the preliminary review, authors are informed whether the manuscript is accepted for peer review or rejected.

Documents submitted for publication in Nexus must fall into one of the following categories:

Research Article

An academic document presenting the results of an original study or experiment conducted by the authors. It generally follows a formal structure that includes the following elements:

- Title: A brief and accurate summary of the article's content.
- Abstract: A brief overview providing an outline of the study, the methods used, and the results obtained.
- Introduction: Presents the research problem, the addressed question, the study's context, and objectives.
- Literature Review: A summary of previous research related to the study's topic.
- Methodology: Detailed description of the methods and procedures used to conduct the study. This includes information on the study design, participant selection, data collection, and statistical analysis.
- Results: Presentation of the research findings, often through tables, graphs, or statistics.
- Discussion: Interpretation of the results, comparison with previous research, and discussion of the study's implications and limitations.
- Conclusions: Summary of the main study conclusions.
- References: List of all sources cited in the article, following a specific citation format.

 

Reflection Article

Characterized by the expression of the author's opinions, ideas, and personal evaluations regarding a particular topic or issue. Although it may be based on existing literature, the main purpose of a reflection article is not to present new empirical data but to explore concepts, theories, or experiences from the author's perspective.

Reflection articles typically have a more flexible structure than research articles and may include elements such as:

- Introduction: Presentation of the topic or issue to be reflected upon.
- Context: Establishment of the context and theoretical framework in which the reflection is situated.
- Development: Presentation of the author's ideas, opinions, and reflections on the topic. It may include critical analysis, practical examples, personal anecdotes, or other elements contributing to reflection.
- Conclusion: Synthesis of the main ideas and summary of the conclusions reached through reflection.
- References: Bibliographic citations, if references to previous works are made.

 

Review Article

Provide readers with a panoramic view of a topic, identify trends, discuss controversies, and help integrate and understand the current state of knowledge in a particular area. There are different types of review articles, including:

- Narrative Review: Organizes and summarizes literature narratively, often highlighting historical developments and changes in perspectives over time.
- Systematic Review: Applies a systematic and rigorous approach to the selection and evaluation of relevant studies, using explicit and reproducible methods.
- Meta-analysis: A specific type of systematic review that uses statistical methods to combine and analyze quantitative data from multiple studies.

The structure of a review article may vary, but typically includes:

- Introduction: Presentation of the topic and justification for conducting the review.
- Objectives or Research Questions: Clear specification of the review objectives or questions to be addressed.
- Methods: Description of the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of reviewed studies, as well as the methods used to search, select, and evaluate the literature.
- Results: Presentation and discussion of the findings of the reviewed studies.
- Conclusion: Summary of the results and discussion of the implications for future research.
- References: List of sources cited in the article.

 

Graphic Section

Nexus also accepts visual contributions for its graphic section: photographs, illustrations, or drawings shared in this category to disseminate artistic production that invites reflection and discussion through visuality.

Regardless of the type of article submitted for publication in Nexus, there is no extension limit for the documents.

 

EVALUATION PROCESS

Nexus employs a double-blind evaluation system for its publications. The double-blind evaluation system involves an evaluation by two expert reviewers in the research area of the articles. The double-blind system also means that the experts do not know the identity of the author, and the author is unaware of the identity of the reviewer or reviewers.

The Editorial Team of the Nexus journal tracks reviewers through academic and scientific databases, considering the central axis addressed in the article. Furthermore, it prioritizes that at least 80% of the number of article reviewers per year be external to the publishing entity: the Universidad del Valle. The reviewer search process also involves prioritizing experts in the subject who have at least a master's degree in the knowledge area of the article proposed to the journal.

Once it is determined that all mentioned aspects are met, reviewers are contacted via email, and once they accept to conduct the review, the manuscript is sent to them, removing the author's name and personal information that could identify them: institutional affiliation or authorship notes. Reviewers are also sent a form in which they can rate aspects such as the relevance of the manuscript and the quality of the research. From the moment the documents are submitted, reviewers have one month to provide their assessment.

In case of significant disparity in the peer review evaluations, the manuscript will be referred to a third reviewer. If the disparity persists, the editor will make a final decision.

Upon receiving the reviews, the Editorial Management Team will inform the authors whether their manuscript has been accepted for publication or rejected. Attached to this decision, the authors will receive the reviewers' reports.

When there are recommendations for publication with minor adjustments, authors will receive a revised version of their manuscript, and no later than two weeks later, they must communicate whether they accept and subscribe to the modifications. If the manuscript requires major revisions, authors are free to decide whether to continue with the process or not. If they decide to continue with the publication process, they must submit a new adjusted version no later than one month later, including—if necessary—new references, figures, and tables. This version will be reviewed by the Editorial Management Team, which will decide its publication after comparing it with the recommendations and observations made by the peer reviewers to the original manuscript.

In some cases, the revised manuscript will include a letter with point-by-point comments from the reviewers and an explanation of how the manuscript has been modified.

The entire editorial process, from manuscript submission to publication, can take approximately 12 weeks.

Note: In 2023, the rejection rate of articles submitted to the Nexus journal was 39%.