Authors

Authors

Author Guidelines

1. Types of manuscripts accepted

The International Journal of Open Science accepts original contributions that fit its thematic scope. Each section details its scope and its length and structure requirements in its own description:

  • Articles: original research, empirical or theoretical, structured under the IMRaD model (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion).
  • Systematic Reviews: systematic, scoping or integrative reviews that synthesize the state of knowledge, following PRISMA or an equivalent methodology.
  • Well-Grounded Essays: critical reflection and rigorous argumentation on open science issues, with a solid theoretical foundation and without requiring original empirical data.

2. Thematic relevance

Priority is given to works addressing topics such as:

  • Open access policies and new publishing models.
  • Responsible research assessment and alternative metrics.
  • Management, opening and reuse of research data.
  • Bibliometrics, scientometrics and the economics of scholarly publishing.
  • Library and information science within the open science ecosystem.
  • Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in scholarly communication.
  • Collaborative models, academic networks and knowledge governance.

3. Templates

Authors are encouraged to prepare their manuscript using the journal's official template, available in Word and LaTeX on the Templates page. No GitHub account or prior knowledge is required to download them.

4. Formal requirements

  • Language: Spanish or English.
  • Length: according to the section to which the manuscript is submitted (stated in its description).
  • File format: OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF or PDF.
  • Citation style: APA 7th edition, with links to the DOI where available.
  • Text: single spacing, 12-point font, italics rather than underlining (except in URLs); figures and tables placed at their appropriate point in the text.

5. Manuscript structure

  • Title: in the original language and its translation into English or Spanish, as appropriate.
  • Abstract: depending on the section (up to 200 or 250 words), with at least 4 keywords.
  • Main text: following the structure of its section. For Articles, the IMRaD model:
    • Introduction: problem, objectives and relevance of the study.
    • Methods: a clear, replicable description of the design, techniques and tools.
    • Results: an orderly presentation of the findings.
    • Discussion: critical interpretation in relation to the literature and the study's objectives.
  • Acknowledgements: if applicable.
  • References: complete and up to date, in APA 7.

6. Identifiers and authorship

  • Authors are identified with ORCID, and affiliations with ROR.
  • Contributions are specified using the CRediT taxonomy.
  • Authorship follows the criteria set out in the Editorial Ethics policy.

7. Review and editorial criteria

Manuscripts undergo double-blind peer review. They are assessed on their thematic relevance, originality and contribution to knowledge, methodological rigor and theoretical grounding, clarity of argument, and compliance with the journal's ethical and editorial principles.

8. Originality, ethics and artificial intelligence

  • The manuscript is unpublished and not under review by another publication.
  • Any conflict of interest is disclosed.
  • The use of artificial intelligence tools is disclosed in accordance with the journal's Artificial Intelligence Use policy. AI cannot be listed as an author.

9. Open data

Authors are encouraged to include a Data Availability statement and to deposit their datasets in trustworthy repositories, citing them with persistent identifiers such as the DOI. See the Open Data Management policy for further detail.

10. Submission

Manuscripts are submitted exclusively through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform. Authors must register and log in to begin the process.

11. Licensing and fees

The journal charges no submission, processing or publication fees (APC = 0). Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, and authors retain the rights to their work.

12. Contact

For questions, please write to the editorial team at the email published in the Contact section.