Peer review process

During the evaluation of the essays received by Editorial Mar Caribe (EMC), the scientific assessment is carried out in (03) three stages:(1. Preliminary round by the publisher’s scientific committee, 2. Double-blind peer review by public universities, 3. Final opinion by the publisher’s ethics committee)The participation of the ethics committee is crucial in the event of discrepancies among experts regarding the assessment of research content. Complete anonymity is maintained throughout the review process. The final decision is based on linguistic quality, up-to-date references, ease of following the written text’s logic, and compliance with publication ethics. External peer reviewers are requested by the editorial committee of Editorial Mar Caribe, from the academic, research, and/or publishing fund vice-rectorates of public universities in Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela, based on inter-institutional cooperation agreements.

Stage No. 1: The deadline for reading and notifying the author and co-authors of the acceptance or rejection of the essay in the preliminary round by the scientific committee is (10) ten business days from the date of receipt. In case of rejection, it is returned to the authors for adaptation according to the recommendations for improvement; and they are invited to resubmit the proposal for re-evaluation by the publisher. If the written text is accepted, it goes to the second stage (external refereeing committee). The authors must be aware of the Proposal evaluation format, carried out by the scientific committee during the process.

Stage 2: The editorial committee will assign the essay to (02) two public universities (external refereeing committee), in charge of Academic Vice-Rectorates, Deans of Research and Postgraduate Studies, to review it and make suggestions for improvement, and decide whether to accept or reject the essay. A positive review from both parties will be required for acceptance; the deadline for issuing a final decision on the revised text is (30) thirty calendar days. If the decision is not unanimous, a third review will be made. The final result will be the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. Authors are recommended to review the Scientific assessment rubric employed at this stage.

Step 3 : The publisher’s ethics committee ensures compliance with ethical standards to guarantee high-quality scientific publications, confidence in scientific findings, and that individuals receive credit for their ideas. The ethics committee demands high-quality scientific work that is of interest to the scientific community in Latin America and the Caribbean. Your book proposal is likely to be accepted if:

The content of the proposal is within the scope of the publisher;
The research topic is novel and describes an investigation that advances the scientific field;
Proposes a contribution to an active field of research;
The authors use clear and concise language when expressing research results; and
The authors are not subject to administrative penalties for unethical conduct in research.

The ethics committee’s deadline for issuing a final decision on the revised text is (10) calendar days; if the proposal is accepted, the authors are notified, as is the case if it is rejected. However, at this stage, a re-evaluation of the book’s content is not acceptable; the rejection communicated is final.

Processing time from book proposal to publication.

i. The peer review period for a book proposal ranges from 45 to 60 calendar days. This period depends on three stages:

Preliminary round: 10 business days ≈ 15 calendar days.
Double-blind external peer review: 30 calendar days.
Ethics committee opinion: 10 calendar days.

ii. Once the book proposal has been approved for publication, the editing and layout process, which includes syntax correction and translation, takes a maximum of 30 calendar days.

iii. These times are always subject to the publishing schedule of the publisher, which publishes continuously, and to the number of books processed.

iv.The publication time of a book in Editorial Mar Caribe, from the preliminary round to the publication in the publisher’s catalog, is (90) ninety days on average.

Evaluation criteria and quality control.

i. During the evaluation process, Editorial Mar Caribe relies on the professional capacity and potential of the reviewers, ensuring rigor, confidentiality, fairness, and honesty in the development of this management activity. EMC includes tools to detect plagiarism in text and various documents, using detection software: SmallSEOTools and DupliChecker.

ii.Regardless of the reviewers’ grades for the essay, they must be fully supported. The information provided by the reviewers will help the editorial board make the final decision on whether to publish the book. However, a manuscript still has «accepted» status if it has passed peer review and the author has made all suggested edits and changes. The accepted work is then sent for layout and typesetting. A draft version will be sent to the author for review and returned with a letter of acceptance and permission to publish. A work is considered «in progress» if the editor-in-chief has the minimum necessary requirements to publish the book.

iii.All essays, research products published by Editorial Mar Caribe, will be subject to rigorous peer review and a double-blind system based on initial selection by the scientific committee in the preliminary round, the anonymity of the peer reviewers, and subsequent review by the authors of the essays, when appropriate.

All peer reviewers must comply with the following ethical principles:

They will only agree to review essays in which they have sufficient experience, and they agree to carry out the process within the established timeframes.
Reviews should be objective and constructive, without defamatory or degrading comments.
They will have to declare their potential conflicts of interest.
Evaluate each essay based on its rigor, focus, significance, bibliographic support, discursive topic, and coherence in the written text.
Maintain the confidentiality of the peer review process.
Provide appraisal reports that are constructive, comprehensive, well-founded, and contain substantial content.
Inform Editorial Mar Caribe of any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any published essay of which you are aware.

Of general interest:

i. Editorial Mar Caribe reserves the right to accept or reject proposals received and to request from authors any modifications it deems necessary to meet the publication requirements of the written text and standardize the book’s outline according to the publisher’s style.

ii. The review process will be blinded, so the referees will not know who the author(s) of the essay are, nor will the authors know which expert was assigned to evaluate their essay.

iii.The evaluation is confidential, and the identity of the peer reviewers should not be disclosed. However, if the governing bodies of the science and technology system in the country of origin of the research request detailed information from those responsible for peer review, the publisher will be responsible for providing information on the peers who collaborated during the process.

iv.Editorial Mar Caribe ensures that the selection of reviewers who participate in the scientific evaluation stages of the proposals will be defined according to the specialty or degree of the peer reviewer and THEMA classifiers of the written text .

v.The peer review process for proposals received by the publisher takes an average of 45 to 60 calendar days, the time required to ensure the quality of the written text before publication.

Peer review process flowchart:

Step 3 of the process occurs «if and only if» the authors’ proposal is approved in the preliminary round. Authors must attach supporting documents when submitting the essay to Editorial Mar Caribe (Step 1):

Declaration of conflict of interest

Guarantee of unpublished essay

Research Book Template

Please download the Portable Document Format for the Peer Review Process .

***Process approved and updated by the editorial committee in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay on November 27, 2024***