Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria

FOCUS AND SCOPE

Memoria Americana – Cuadernos de Etnohistoria (MACE) is a publication edited by the Sección de Etnohistoria del Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas published by the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires. It is a scientific journal which publishes original research papers written by national and international authors in the fields of ethnohistory, historical anthropology and colonial history of Latin America, aiming to make the advances in these disciplinary fields widely available. Its contents are intended for specialists, undergraduate and graduate students and scientists in related fields.

The main purpose of this publication is to spread research papers written by specialists - trained and in training, national and international - regarding issues related to the object of study of our discipline. These issues include indigenous societies before and after the conquest of America; the changes, transformations and continuities in their diverse social, political and economic organization; the molding process of the colonial society in Spanish America; the conflicts, rebellions and disputes that social actors have confronted during different political and economic climates; the social, political, economic and religious institutions of the colonial world and the independent period, etc. These problems are addressed through theoretical and methodological approaches and case studies corresponding to different regions, areas or jurisdictions -like the colonial Tucuman, the Litoral, the Chaco, Pampa-Patagonia, the southern Andes- as well as different time periods, from the late 15th century to the 19th century and until the present. Relevant subject matters that cut across the above mentioned issues include mestizaje, border dynamics, the consolidation of power groups, as well as matters of family and matrimony in the indigenous and the hispano-criollo sector. The papers included in prior volumes combine perspectives of theoretical and methodological analysis that arise from both history and anthropology.

SECTION POLICIES

PRESENTATION

This section is for the internal use of the editorial team of MACE, responsible for the editorial processing of the submitted articles. It contains a current list of the authorities of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, and the members of the editorial team are also listed. It also includes the table of contents, in Spanish and in English, and a section of presentation or introduction in the case of thematic volumes.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

ARTICLES

Articles compose the main section of MACE and undergo peer review using the double blind system; for more details on the evaluation process please consult the section Peer review process on this same page. Manuscripts submitted to MACE should not be under simultaneous consideration by any other journal or have been published elsewhere. The submitted articles must be unpublished and original, resulting from a scientific investigation based on primary sources. The manuscript is not to exceed 25 pages -line spacing 1,5, A4, font Arial 12, upper and lower margins 2,5 cm, left and right margins 3 cm- and titles shiold not exceed 15 words.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

COMMENTS

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

BOOK REVIEWS

Submitted reviews are to be critical reviews of books thematically consonant with the profile of MACE that have been published during the two years previous to the publication of the issue and volume in question. MACE publishes reviews written by specialists and also encourages the participation of young researchers in this section. The book review must contain a complete bibliographic reference to the reviewed book in the document header and must not exceed 3 pages -line spacing 1,5, A4, font Arial 12, upper and lower margins 2,5 cm, left and right margins 3 cm. At the end, the review author's name and institutional belonging will be stated.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

The evaluation process consists of various stages and uses the double blind system, which requires that neither authors nor peer reviewers know each others’ identities.

First, any submitted manuscript is object to a preliminary evaluation by the Editorial Committee in charge of determining whether the article fulfils the thematic and formal requirements that the present instructions clarify. The author will be required to sign an originality and copyright statement. Once the paper is admitted, the responsible editor will send it to two external consulting peers who will decide whether the manuscript is a) accepted without modifications, b) accepted with minor modifications, c) accepted with substantial modifications, or d) rejected. In case of discrepancy of the opinions expressed by the two peer evaluators, the manuscript will be sent to a third external consultant to resolve the acceptance or rejection of the publication. The results of the process of academic evaluation are, in any case, unappealable.

Finally, after the author is provided with a deadline in order to incorporate the suggested modifications and only then, after verification that the requested modifications have been introduced, the Editorial Committee of MACE will issue the acceptance to the author or the authors with the consignment of corresponding certification.

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria is an on-line scientific journal that publishes its issues twice a year in the months of may (first semester) and november (second semester).

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

This journal provides Open Access to its contents, based ont he principle that offering the public free access to investigative research furthers the advancement of global exchange of knowledge.

CODE OF CONDUCT AND GOOD PRACTICE

Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria. does not have Article Processing Charges (APC) for neither authors nor readers and does not charge for the submission of articles either. The journal publishes original articles that have not been published elsewhere previously and are not under consideration for other publications either, completely or partially. To this effect, authors are required to sign and send in a statement pledging originality and good practice regarding their academic publications.

The journal subscribes to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines regarding the code of conduct and good practice that scientific publications must adhere to, specifically the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers. The journal protects its scientific quality by adhering to this code and, at the same time, these measures will also satisfy the readers and authors’ demands regarding quality standards.

The code applies to all parties involved in the process of managing and publishing the results of scientific research; namely, the Editorial Team, authors and peer reviewers. The papers that don’t follow the code’s ethical norms will be discarded. The basic requirements of a scientific paper are: correct interpretations of the results, critical revision of intelectual content and final approval of the version to be published; publication ethics apply to all these stages.

Within this code of conduct, the editors maintain fluent, respectful and discreet contact with the authors and peer reviewers throughout the entire editorial process, acting as mediators between both parties. They commit to keeping both parties anonymous throughout the entire process of revision and to avoid any conflict of interest between them.

Any text sent to Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria. will be evaluated solely regarding its intellectual content, with no regard to the ethnic or national identity of their authors, their gender, their sexual orientation, their religious beliefs, or their political positioning. To this effect, those evaluations that impose their personal position on the quality of an article will be discarded. Authors and peer evaluators are asked to declare any conflict of interest they might have; and these cases shall be taken into consideration.

Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria. requires peer reviewers to possess a doctoral title (or equivalent merits), awarded by national and/or international universities that form part of recognized scientific research institutions, and to have experience in the field and topic they are to evaluate in. They must complete evaluation within the time frame that the Editorial Team has established; this evaluation must be blind and confidential. The evaluation report the peer reviewers send in should be based on the evaluation form provided by the journal, which takes into account: the fulfillment of the objectives the author has expressed, the originality and relevance of the contribution to the discipline, the declaration of the methodological framework used, the pertinence of the sources and bibliography, the correct use of graphic and illustrative elements, and the coherence of the title, the abstract and the conclusions with the rest of the article.

The manuscripts are revised by Editorial Assistents in order to detect plagiarism and self-plagiarism -redundant publication-, for which special tools are used that are available on-line for free. The assigned editor will do the same and, during the double blind review process the peer reviewers also express their opinion regarding possible plagiarism. It is considered plagiarism if authorship is omitted or not cited sufficiently, and/or if minimal changes are made to a third party’s work and presented as one’s own. Self-plagiarism occurrs when the appearance of an article or manuscript is changed and it is presented as a different one, or if such changes are not declared. In case of a detection of plagiarism or self-plagiarism, the manuscript will be rejected and the related evidence will be remitted to the author.

ETHICAL NORMS FOR EDITORS, REVIEWERS AND AUTHORS

It is the editors’ responsibility: 1) to manage their tasks in a balanced, objective and fair manner, without discriminating the authors for their gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs or their ethnic background; 2) to adopt immediate and reasonable measures in case of ethical complaints or declarations of conflicts of interest, and 3) to concede to all authors the right to defend themselves in case of any accusations or complaints.

It is the reviewers’ responsibility: 1) to contribute to the decision-making process and to help improve the manuscript’s quality through an objective review within the established time frame; 2) to maintain confidentiality regarding the information obtained during the review process, and to abstain from retaining or copying the manuscript; 3) to alert the editor in case they suspect plagiarism or auto-plagiarism, and 4) to be conscious and inform the editors of any possible conflict of interest, and to abstain from participating in the review process if necessary.

It is the authors’ responsibility: 1) to maintain an precise register of all information related to the manuscript in question; 2) to confirm and ensure that the manuscript is not being considered nor has been accepted for publication by any other scientific journal, and 3) to facilitate the editor a copy of any manuscript or articles that might share notorious similarities with the manuscript in question.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Conflict of interest occurs when people involved in the publication or peer reviewing processes (that is: authors, reviewers or editors) share a relationship or fall under circumstances that might influence their judgement, may these be personal, academic, professional or ideological, specifically regarding ethnic and/or gender issues. Therefore, Memoria Americana. Cuadernos de Etnohistoria tries to prevent that possible conflicts undermine the advancing of scientific knowledge.