Peer Review

Peer review protocol

The Editorial board of Teología, in order to improve the transparency of the evaluation process of articles and essays, believes it is necessary for authors and evaluators to know the steps that, from the arrival of the original to an eventual final acceptance, the submitted works go through.

Initial evaluation

The documents received will undergo a double initial review, one for content and the other for form or style. First, the original papers will be reviewed by the editors or other specialists of the Editorial Board. This review consists of discerning their originality, relevance and scientific interest, in order to decide whether or not to submit them for external review.

In order not to overload our external reviewers, Teología reserves the possibility of rejecting papers in advance, providing the reasons for the case. In the event that the Journal dispenses with external evaluation, the author will be notified within thirty days from the acknowledgement of receipt of the manuscript.

Second, in order to correct errors before reaching the external evaluation stage, the Editorial Secretariat makes a preliminary correction of styles. For this reason, authors may receive a revised version of the text or be consulted to solve doubts.

In all cases, only versions that have the author's approval will be sent for external review. Teología will only initiate the review process for papers that comply with the Guidelines for Authors.

The authors are responsible for the adaptation of the originals to the norms of the Journal.

External evaluation

If the initial review is positive, Teología will submit the manuscript to a "double-blind" external evaluation process. The aim is to maintain the anonymity of the referee and the author, and the results will be disclosed exclusively to the interested party.

Teología undertakes to keep confidential not only the identity of the author, but also the contents of the text under revision.

The evaluation of papers does not imply any commitment of acceptance.

Only after receiving the opinion of the external evaluation, Teología will make a decision on its eventual publication. The Journal does not publish papers that have not been approved by the review process. The external evaluation will rule on the submitted papers according to the following categories:

1) Accept submission.
2) Revisions are needed (modifications are suggested before publication).
3) Re-submit for review (reword the paper or make major changes and initiate a new round of review).
4) Forward to another site (the article is not suitable for our journal).
5) Reject the submission.

Teología urges its reviewers to review the manuscripts in a period of four to six weeks; this will allow for a final decision in less than three months from the communication to the authors of the submission for full review of the manuscript.

Once the evaluation process is completed, the authors will receive the final response from the Journal, accompanied by the anonymous comments made by the referees.

Acceptance and acceptance with recommendations

If the reviews by anonymous specialists are favorable, the manuscript will usually be accepted, conditional on the author considering the comments and doubts proposed in the reviews.

Only very occasionally is a manuscript accepted without requiring at least certain minimal revisions.

Conditional acceptance: If the anonymous peer reviewers' reviews require the author to incorporate the indicated corrections, the author should submit a corrected version before proceeding to a second round of external review. If the opinions of the reviewers regarding the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript diverge in the second round, the opinion of a third external reviewer will be sought.

Exchange between evaluator and author

In case authors and evaluators wish to contact each other, Teología will carry out the communication with the due protection of anonymity.

This exchange will only occur with the approval of both parties.

Proofreading of articles accepted for publication

Authors may be requested to correct proofs, which must be returned within 72 hours.

Substantial changes in the proofs will not be allowed, being limited to the correction of errors with respect to the accepted version.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in the articles and papers published in Teología are the sole responsibility of their respective authors.