Peer review process

Texts submitted by contributors to the journal Humanidades – without author details – are received by the associate editor, who verifies their compliance with the established criteria and standards. If any doubts arise during this first part of the review process, the text is referred to the Editorial Board, which makes a final decision on the matter and communicates its resolution to the associate editor. When a text does not comply with the established standards or is not approved at any stage of the process, the associate editor informs the author or authors of the decision as soon as possible.

The text approved in the first stage undergoes anonymous and confidential arbitration – a double-blind method – carried out by at least two external reviewers. They are responsible for assessing the scientific and methodological quality of the text, which may be accepted, rejected or accepted with modifications. In the latter case, the associate editor returns the text with the modifications to the author, who may accept them or justify a partial disagreement.

When the associate editor receives the text back, they verify that the modifications suggested by the reviewers have been made or accept the author's disagreement. It is the associate editor who must confirm whether or not the text will move on to the final stage of the process, before being incorporated into the issue of the journal for which it is intended. The final decision is communicated to the author within a maximum of eight months from the date of receipt of the text. In some cases, the associate editor may consider whether it is appropriate for a reviewer to be given extra time to complete their analysis of the text.
If there is a significant discrepancy between the reviewers, the associate editor is authorised to request a new review under the same conditions as the first two; this third review will determine the judgement on the text.
All reviewers undertake to observe universally accepted ethical and scientific research standards. The journal Humanidades may specify these standards as appropriate.