About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Bibliographica is an academic journal published by the Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas (IIB) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); it publishes research on the study of manuscripts and printed books, editing and printing, from the first graphic manifestations to the new digital media, in Mexico and the world. Its purpose is to offer a platform for the study of documentary sources and the scholarly discussion about their past, present and future, including a discussion on its preservation in analogue or digital platforms.

The journal’s main research areas are bibliography, periodicals, book history, editing and printing, book studies, and topics related to manuscript production (paleography and codicology, archive formation, etc.), printed book production, the study of sources in written culture, and the inherent phenomena of its dissemination and reception, as well as all matters connected to its preservation in all formats. Bibliographica is a journal for researchers, specialists, professors, and graduate and postgraduate students. This is a forum to reflect on such topics from a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, from both national and international stand.

Bibliographica is a biannual journal sponsored by the Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, which has a long-standing tradition of propelling a wide range of research related to book studies. It is financed with the Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas annual budget, and it is published in digital and print format (short print-run). Every issue includes collaborations in Spanish with abstracts in English of exclusively original research. All contributions are subject to double-blind review; therefore the Scientific Committee decisions are final. This is an open access journal. All submissions are processed by Open Journal Systems.

Peer Review Process

All pre-prints (i. e. refereed texts) submitted to Bibliographica that meet the requirements established on the Submission guidelines will be subject twice to peer-review by a double-blind system.

The author will be notified within 5 business days that their text has been received for technical review by the editor. If the editor determines that it does not fulfill publication requirements, it will be send back with an explanatory note.

If the text meets all requirements, it will be revised by the Scientific Committee, which will appoint two scholarly referees (mostly external) to anonymously determine one of four possible outcomes: a) Accepted for publication without modifications, b) Accepted for publication with modifications subject to the author's discretion, c) Acceptance conditioned to include modifications, and d) Not accepted for publication. In the event of a controversy in the outcome of the two expert opinions, the text shall be sent to a third reviewer for resolution.

Results from peer-review are final, with no exceptions. Once the process is concluded, the author will be notified of the outcome of his submission within the next 4 months, which will include comments and suggested modifications. The Scientific Committee can request additional changes.

If the outcome is positive, the author will send a revised version of his text within the next 30 days. If no final version is submitted, nor a response is given by the author during that time, Bibliographica will consider the submission as retreated.

A post-print (i. e. final draft post-refereeing) of the text will be provided by the author. If the author decides to disregard any of the recommendations made by the referees, he should include a reasonable explanation about it in a document.

Once the final version has been received and revised, Bibliographica will issue the author a certificate of acceptance stating that the text has been peer-reviewed and awaits publication, which will not exceed a period of six months. At this stage, the journal will no longer grant any modifications requested by the author.

Bibliographica reserves the right to make all the alterations which it may deem necessary to any texts, notes and graphic materials in order to improve the quality of the contributions that it publishes.

Formato dicatamen académico

Publication Frequency

Bibliographica is a biannual journal (March-August; September-February).

Two issues are published each year (on March 7 and September 7).

Open Access Policy

Bibliographica conforms to the policies of open access in order to contribute to a greater network of global knowledge, and does not charge its authors for processing their contributions nor does have any other subscription charges for its readers.

This journal provides immediate and open access to its contents based on the principle that open access to research works contributes to a greater network of global knowledge, in accordance with the General Guidelines for Open Access Policy of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México ( act of September 10, 2015).

Ethical Code

Publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal is essential in the development and consolidation of a respectable and coherent net of knowledge. A published article is proof of the quality of the work of its author and the reputation of the institution they belong to. Peer-review is fundamental for the debate and dissemination of scholarly knowledge. Therefore it is relevant to set the rules of the ethic behavior expected from all parties involved in the publication of a scholarly article: authors, editors, reviewers and sponsors.

Code of Ethics

I. For the editorial director as head of the journal

The editorial director is responsible for the academic quality of all that is published in the journal.
The editorial director must guarantee freedom of speech and defend the autonomy of the journal against economic or corporate interests.
The editorial director is also responsible for decisions regarding publication, in complete accordance with the results of peer-review.
The editorial director must act under the fair play principle with all the authors, peer reviewers and before the Scientific Committee.
The editorial director has to maintain all peer-review processes confidential, as well as all the personal information of the authors, peer reviewers and members of the Scientific Committee.
When a conflict of interest between authors and reviews arises, the editorial director must reveal such matter in a pertinent way and act in consequence.
The editorial director is also responsible for solving any issues that may occur related to unacceptable behavior within academic publication.

II. For the peer reviewers

Peer reviewers are responsible for contributing to the editorial decision-making and further publication of the text.
It is expected from reviewers that they meet both time-frames and guidelines for a prompt review process.
Peer reviewers must respect the confidentiality of the process.
Peer reviewers are expected to be fair, honest and unbiased in their evaluation.
Peer reviewers must acknowledge refereed sources in their evaluation.
Peer reviewers must inform any competing or conflicting interests that may arise during the review process.

III. For the authors

Authors are responsible for insuring their collaboration is an original and unpublished work, as well for contents and opinions expressed in it.
Authors must provide access to all data sources, in any given time of the editorial process, and they must be clearly identified and located.
Authors must avoid plagiarism; cite their sources with accuracy, since this constitutes the critical founding of their work.
Authors must avoid multiple-publishing, being redundant or recurrent with the product of their research.

IV. Unacceptable behavior

Any form of plagiarism.
Multiple publication of the same text, redundant or recurrent publication.
Data misinformation or alteration.

V. Measures to be taken in the event of unacceptable behavior

To clear an author of any suspicions regarding unacceptable behavior, such as plagiarism, multiple, redundant and recurrent publication, as well as data misinformation or alteration, all resources available will be enforced, including the systematic consultation of indexes and databases, the use of anti-plagiarism software and, given the case, direct communication with editors and other scholarly publications.

If unacceptable behavior is identified during the process of submission, revision, acceptance and edition of the materials sent to Bibliographica, the editors will follow the protocol established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

If unacceptable behavior is proven, the submitted research will be retreated and all the parties involved or affected by this situation will be notified.

If the author of a work published in Bibliographica incurs in unacceptable behavior, a notice of retread will be set instead of the original text in the electronic version, and a letter will be published in the next issue of the printed version, so that readers and general public be informed of such misconduct.

VI. Actions to avoid unacceptable behavior

All texts sent to Bibliographica are analyzed and revised for similarity with digital methods. The anti-plagiarism software is provided by Turnitin iThenticate.
Bibliographica follows the ethical and good practice academic code established by Conacyt (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología/National Council for Science and Technology) and COPE.

Fees

Bibliographica does not charge the authors any fee for sending and processing articles for publication.

Digital Preservation Policy

Bibliographica establishes five levels of protection and preservation for its electronic format:

1. Regarding metadata, it uses the Dublin Core standard for data structure and OAI-PMH for metadata exchange with other repositories. This also allows Bibliographica to be compatible with the institutional repository of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in order to be harvested as a journal and therefore abide by the regulation established within the University. (https://repositorio.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Políticas-del-RI-UNAM-20190819.pdf)

2. A backup of Bibliographica is regularly made and stored in a storage space separate from the journal’s server.

3. Bibliographica is on a high availability platform, which allows the journal to be accessed for query most of the time.

4. Bibliographica has specific software versions essential for its performance; therefore, software updates and the integration with the rest of its tools and functionality are verified. If applicable, the software is updated or migrated to another version.

Bibliographica is migrated to a more recent software version when it requires new and necessary functionality not provided by the current one or when the journal’s software support updates are no longer available from the developer.

5. Because of its legal status, Bibliographica complies with the Legal Deposit Law as established in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, where it states:

Decree by which editors and documental and bibliographic material providers are obliged to turn one copy of their work to the Biblioteca Nacional and the Biblioteca del Congreso de la Unión. In accordance with the ARTICLE THIRD SECTION B, where it establishes the requirement to provide “one copy of microfilms, slides, discs, diskettes, audio and video cassettes and other audiovisual and electronic materials which contain information as per the characteristics noted in the section above” (DOF, 1991). (https://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=4733347&fecha=23/07/1991)

Journal History

This new academic journal has great bibliographic and library study heritage, since the creation of the Instituto Bibliográfico Mexicano in 1899, to the current Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas (IIB) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). With the release of Bibliographica, the IIB –which has sustained an aged tradition of studies devoted to bibliography, periodicals and newspapers– fulfills its mission in projecting the research of bibliography, periodicals and topics related to its research areas in a digital platform, with interests that encompass them in its chronological and geographical diversity, and in its various formats.