About the Journal

Focus and scope

Umática is a refereed scientific journal whose mission is to publish, disseminate and promote texts and essays on theory, art, aesthetics, and contemporary visual culture aimed at researchers in the field of image, sound, and visual culture, artists, creators, and professionals in the field of cultural studies.

Umática aims to encourage a dialogue between creators, researchers, and audiences who generate and participate in visual creation, as well as to provide a space for reflection where important aspects of artistic work as an expression and its relationship with other texts and contexts, the transmission and learning of techniques and knowledge, or the historical and cultural evolution of various aesthetic criteria and forms, among others, are addressed. With these purposes, Umática opens its space for scientific research and essays to unpublished works that, from different disciplinary perspectives and focused on contemporary visual culture, establish a unique space for encounter and creation.

The journal also accepts research works generated through artistic work. We can therefore consider works that take into account thinking with and through images, in a broad sense, and the creative experience; especially in subjects that make up the field of critical or poetic visual thought, using the possibilities of being a digital publication, and including experimentation with new formats and a variety of materials (images, audiovisuals, hypertextuality, etc.) when they are understood as an essential part of the scientific exposition of ideas.

Peer review process
Criteria for acceptance of papers

The factors on which the decision on the acceptance-rejection of papers by the editors of the Journal is based are as follows:

• The originality, novelty, and relevance of the research carried out are jointly assessed. In other words, an original and novel approach is not a sufficient condition for communicating the research carried out; it must also be of interest to the discipline.
• Significance of the research for scientific, social, and cultural advancement.
• Reliability and scientific validity of both the sources consulted and the methods used to carry out the research.
• Adequate drafting, logical organization, and material presentation of the manuscript.

Information on the refereeing system

The papers received will be reviewed by a minimum of two external referees of equal or higher academic rank than the author. In case of discrepancy between the results, the text will be sent to a third referee, whose decision will define its publication.

It will be taken into account that the reviewers do not belong to the same university as the author and have not supervised his/her doctoral thesis.

The review system will be double-blind, i.e. the identity of the authors and reviewers will be unknown on both sides.

The reviewers, in accordance with the guidelines for reviewers, will issue a report by filling in the evaluation form.

The selection of reviewers is the responsibility of the journal editors, who take into account their academic and scientific merit and professional experience, including specialists of both national and international origin. Reviewers may include members of the Scientific Committee.

Frequency of publication

The annual journal, one volume per year of a single issue.

Open access policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that providing the public with free access to research helps to increase the global exchange of knowledge.

Our journal follows the recommendations for the implementation of section 37 of Open Access Dissemination of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Act:

• Authors whose contributions are accepted for publication in this journal will retain the non-exclusive right to use their contributions for scholarly, research, and educational purposes, including self-archiving or depositing in open-access repositories of any kind.
• Preferably the use of the published version of the scientific contributions (publisher's post-print version) or, failing that, the author's post-print version already evaluated and accepted will be allowed, which will be accessible in open access as soon as possible, as the journal does not impose any period of embargo.

 

ARTICLE SUBMISSION AND PROCESSING FEES

This journal does not charge authors any costs for the submission or processing of articles

 

EDITORIAL PROCESS: STAGES AND TIMING

Stages of the editorial process

Originals submitted for publication will be subject to an editorial process that will take place in several stages until they become published articles.

1 Receipt and acknowledgment of receipt

An e-mail will be sent to the author as an acknowledgment of receipt.

2 Preliminary evaluation

The manuscript will be subject to a preliminary evaluation by the members of the Editorial Board, who will check that the rules of style are respected, and will determine whether its content fits in with the journal's themes.

3 Peer review: double-blind system

Once it has been established that the content of the manuscript meets the formal and thematic requirements, it will be sent to a minimum of two peers, who, in accordance with what is specified in the Guidelines for reviewers, will issue a report by filling in the Evaluation Form on this web platform.

4 Communication of results to the author

The author will be notified immediately of the results of the evaluation process, which will be final. In the same way, the author will be notified of any modifications that, if necessary, must be made in order to prepare the final version of the manuscript.

5 Typesetting of galley proofs

On the basis of this final version, the galley proof will be compiled and sent to the author so that he/she can revise it for the last time.

6 Final publication

If the author does not make any changes to the galley proof, the article will be published on the journal's website.

Authors will be informed about the status of their manuscripts through notifications and emails generated by the OJS system throughout the editorial process.

 

Editorial process intervals and deadlines

The journal undertakes to carry out the different phases of the editorial process within the maximum deadlines detailed below:

• Acknowledgment of receipt of the manuscript: 3 days
• Peer review process: 1 month
• Notification to the author of the result of the peer review: 5 days after the journal receives the last report from the peer reviewers.
• Final publication on the journal's website: 1 month after the author sends the modified version of the text

 

GUIDE FOR PEER REVIEWERS

The main objective of the contents of this guide is to ensure that the peer review process carried out in the journal Umática is characterized by:

• Guarantee an independent review, and it conveys constructive appraisals to the authors in a respectful manner.
• Ensuring that manuscripts present a comprehensive, objective, and balanced overview of their respective subject matter.
• Check that up-to-date, scientifically available, and verifiable information is available.
• Check that the conclusions or arguments derived from the research are intelligible and relevant to the discipline.

 

INSTRUCTIONS ON CONFIDENTIALITY AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR:

Confidentiality

All manuscripts are privileged information and reviewers are requested to refrain from showing or discussing them with third parties unless to seek advice on a specific aspect.

Ethical behaviour

The journal Umática expects reviewers involved in its editorial process to:

• If a reviewer believes that there is someone else who is better able to assess the relevance of the material they should communicate this to the editorial team.
• If the reviewer believes that he/she will have difficulty in making an objective assessment of the material, he/she is requested to inform the editorial team immediately.
• If a current or past relationship between the reviewer and any institutions or individuals associated with the manuscript could give rise to a conflict of interest, the reviewer should reflect this fact on the Review Form.

Deadlines for review

Once the reviewer has accepted the commitment to review a manuscript, he/she should issue his/her report within one month.

 

Structure and style of review reports

The reviewers will issue their report by completing the Evaluation Form and respecting the following guidelines in all cases:

• The peer review process has a dual purpose; to advise the editorial team on the advisability of publishing the manuscript, and to communicate any improvements that can be made to the work.
• Therefore, the reviewer must be aware that his or her job is to advise as an expert on the work that another colleague has done, not to judge or decide. Therefore, the tone used in the reports will always be one of the utmost respect for people and institutions.
• All criticisms and appraisals should be objective and not mere differences of opinion or unargued personal assessments.
• Criticism should always be directed at the argumentation and consistency of the data presented, never at the authors.

Information on the aspects to be evaluated

General and specific aspects of the manuscript will be evaluated with the aim of finding out whether the research it describes:

1. Advances knowledge and is relevant to the discipline.
2. It has the level of argumentation, writing, and structure required for scientific communications.
3. It is of interest to the journal's target audience.

 

EVALUATION OF GENERAL ASPECTS

General comments will be justified by specific evidence from the manuscript or other published work, and should consider:

• The degree of originality of the work
• The importance of the work for the progress of the discipline and, if applicable, its social, cultural, or economic implications.

 

EVALUATION OF SPECIFIC ASPECTS

An evaluation of the specific aspects grouped in the following blocks will be carried out:

Presentation and writing

• The clarity and precision with which the manuscript has been written will be evaluated, both in the body of the text and in the titles, summaries and keywords. It is also of utmost importance that these elements unambiguously reflect the main theme of the research.

Length and structure

• This block assesses whether the text is structured in logical sections that convey the information efficiently; and whether any of these sections need to be expanded, reduced, or deleted.

Methodology and reproducibility

• This block assesses whether the methods and criteria are well chosen and whether the research process is described clearly enough so that the work can be repeated by another qualified researcher.

 Findings and conclusions

• The most important arguments and findings are clearly identified in the manuscript, and conclusions are drawn from the analysis of these.

Citations and references

• This section assesses that all citations and references used in the text are relevant and up to date.

Coincidences

• The reviewer should indicate whether he/she is aware of the existence of other works, published or to be published, whose content is identical or very similar to that of the manuscript being evaluated.

 

LEGAL NOTICE

By accessing and browsing the website, you expressly and fully accept each and every one of the conditions set out in this Legal Notice, as well as those of the Privacy Policy, relating to the purposes of the processing of the data you provide us with. We recommend that you read them carefully. Unless expressly indicated to the contrary, access to the information shown on the pages of this magazine is completely free of charge.

 

1. OWNERSHIP (Law 34/2002, of 11 July)

The UMÁTICA journal is the organ of expression of the UMÁTICA Project belonging to the University of Malaga.

For any questions or queries, you can contact us by telephone or email as specified in the contact details on our website.

Access to this website implies the User's express acceptance of the general conditions of use, which may be modified or replaced by the journal's Editorial Team at any time and without prior notice.

 

2. GENERAL CONDITIONS OF USE

The following General Conditions regulate the use of and access to the web portal of the UMÁTICA journal whose purpose is to publish, disseminate and promote texts and essays on theory, art, aesthetics, and contemporary visual culture aimed at researchers and thinkers of image and sound, artists, creators, cultural anthropologists and professionals in the field of cultural studies.

All users with access to this website must accept these General Conditions, all use of the website being understood as an acceptance of the same.

Likewise, in those pages, owned by third parties, which can be accessed through links and which present other general conditions, the user must accept them.

The User undertakes to make appropriate use of the contents, and services, which are accessible on this website, subject to the Law and these General Conditions of Use, respecting at all times the other Users of the same.

In the event of total or partial breach by the User of these General Conditions of Use, the UMÁTICA project and the University of Málaga reserve the right to deny access to this website without prior notice to the User.

Likewise, they will adopt all measures within their reach to prevent any type of conduct contrary to Spanish Law and will cooperate with the competent Authorities in the identification of those responsible for actions that may involve violations of the laws applicable to this website.

When you visit the site or communicate with us through the site or use any other form of electronic communication, such as e-mail and requests for information, you expressly accept the use and incorporation of your data into our management, monitoring, and promotion files for the purposes set out in the "Privacy Policy" document, as well as the terms and obligations set out in these General Conditions.

 

3. GENERAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE USER

By accepting these General Conditions of Use, the User expressly agrees to:

Not to carry out any action aimed at damaging, blocking, damaging, rendering useless, overloading, temporarily or permanently, the functionalities, tools, contents and/or infrastructure of the website, in such a way as to prevent its normal use.

Not to introduce or create slanderous or libellous content, both of other Users and of third-party companies outside the UMÁTICA project.

Not to use any of the materials and information contained in this Website for illicit purposes expressly prohibited in these General Conditions of Use, and which are contrary to the rights and interests of UMÁTICA, its users and/or third parties.

The User shall be liable for all damages of any nature that UMÁTICA or any third party may suffer as a consequence of the breach of any of the obligations to which he/she is subject by virtue of these "General Conditions of Use" or the law in relation to the access and/or use of the website https://revistas.uma.es/index.php/umatica/

 

4. CONDITIONS OF USE ACCESS TO THE PRIVATE AREA OF THIS WEBSITE

Access to the Private Area implies the user's express acceptance of these Particular Conditions, which may be modified by UMÁTICA at any time.

To access, the USER must enter the login and password obtained in his/her user registration. These access codes are PERSONAL and UNTRANSMISSIBLE, and the USER will be responsible for their safekeeping.

The user will have access to information, data and documents, information with respect to which there is an obligation to maintain secrecy and confidentiality.

That, specifically, the user authorised to access undertakes to:

• To treat the documents/reports/data with the utmost care in order to guarantee their confidentiality and integrity, adopting and complying with all the recommendations established by UMÁTICA, in order to avoid their alteration, loss or unauthorised access.

UMÁTICA reserves the right to deny or prevent access to this PRIVATE AREA to those USERS who make improper or unauthorised use of the access codes and the contents and materials contained therein.

 

Registration and Access

In order to access the Area it is necessary for the User to register, which will be carried out by means of a registration form.

The information and data to be provided will be truthful and accurate, and the User will in any case be responsible for any false or inaccurate statements made and for any possible damages that may be caused to UMÁTICA and other users as a result of the information provided.

To access, the User must enter the login and password. Said access codes are PERSONAL and UNTRANSMISSIBLE, and the User is responsible for their safekeeping and must keep them in the strictest and most absolute confidentiality.

The user acknowledges and accepts that any activity carried out on the Portal, using the login or password assigned to him/her, will be his/her exclusive responsibility for all purposes, provided that he/she has not previously informed UMÁTICA of the fact that the login and password used were no longer secure. Therefore, and except in the case of the previously foreseen communication, the User will be solely and exclusively responsible for the damages, costs of the use of the Service by third parties and consequences that may arise from the loss, theft, disclosure to third parties, or breach of the obligations of safekeeping and custody assumed by the User.

The data provided for User registration will be stored in a file owned by UMÁTICA. Specific information on the processing of personal data can be found in our Privacy Policy.

 

5. INTELLECTUAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

The UMÁTICA website is aligned with the Open Access Initiative, which means that all of its content is freely accessible without charge to the End-User or their institution. Readers of the journal are authorized to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text of the articles in this journal without prior permission from the publisher or author, under the terms of the Creative Commons 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

 

6. LINKS

Connections and links to third-party websites or pages are provided solely as a convenience to the User. UMÁTICA and the University of Málaga are in no way responsible for them or their content.

UMÁTICA and the University of Málaga assume no responsibility for the existence of links between the contents of this site and contents located outside this site or for any other mention of contents external to this site. Such links or mentions are for information purposes only and in no case imply support, approval, marketing or any relationship whatsoever between UMÁTICA and the persons or entities that are the authors and/or managers of such contents or owners of the sites where they are located.

 

7. RESPONSIBILITY

UMÁTICA and the University of Málaga do not assume any responsibility for damages, losses, claims or expenses caused by:

• Interferences, interruptions, failures, omissions, delays, blockages, or disconnections caused by errors in the telecommunications lines and networks or by any other cause beyond the control of UMÁTICA and the University of Málaga.
• Illegitimate intrusions through the use of malicious programmes of any kind and through any means of communication, such as computer viruses or any other;
• Improper or inappropriate use of the UMÁTICA magazine website.
• Security or browsing errors caused by a malfunction of the browser or by the use of non-updated versions.

 

8. JURISDICTION

In the event of any controversy or conflict that may arise from the interpretation or fulfillment of this Legal Notice, the same shall be resolved before the Courts and Tribunals of Malaga, Spain.

If any clause or section of these General Conditions, which is not of an essential nature for the existence of the same, is declared null and void or inapplicable, the validity of the remaining clauses will not be affected.

 

9. PLAGIARISM DETECTION POLICY

The journal Umática. Revista sobre creación y análisis de la imagen maintains an anti-plagiarism policy to guarantee the originality of all the contents through the use of specialised and specific tools to stop plagiarism such as Turnitin, Plagiarisma and Scanmyessay.

This policy allows us to ensure standards of originality in this journal and to detect coincidences and similarities between the texts submitted for evaluation and those previously published in other sources. If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript will not be published.

For detailed information on our authorship and originality policy, please see the "code of ethics" section: https://revistas.uma.es/index.php/umatica/ethics

 

Digital Preservation Policies

Umática Journal uses DOI that is a persistent identifier, so it ensures that the link is to be preserved, and DOAJ that is a community peer initiative, which maintains the project of the directory of journals in open access collaborated to identify principles of transparency and good practices of academic publications.

Preserved in CLOCKSS

Umática Journal uses the CLOCKSS archiving system to ensure the digital preservation of the archives.

Published by

Art and Architecture Departement

• Universidad de Málaga (España)