REICE publishes unpublished and original papers that deal with advances in knowledge on Quality and Equity in Education, School Effectiveness and Improvement, Educational Leadership, School Effectiveness and Improvement, and Educational Innovation, Change and Reform, approached from diverse disciplines such as Pedagogy, Sociology, Political Science, Economics or Cultural Studies

PEER REVIEW PROCESS, TIMING AND PROOFREADING

1. The editorial process of REICE begins upon receipt of the manuscripts. The Director that receive the article will acknowledge its reception. Then, the Editor will develop a preliminary revision to ensure that the articles respond to the theme and interest of the Journal, and that they fulfill all the formal requirements in terms of publishing standards:

• Formal structure of the manuscript.
• Abstract / Resumen in Spanish/Portuguese and English with IMRD format.
• Keywords / Palabras Clave.
• Editing formats (tables, figures, ...) according to current APA regulations.
• Compliance with current APA regulations in citations and bibliographic references.

The estimated time to develop this initial assessment is 15 days.

2. The lack of adjustment of the manuscript with the norms of publication of the Journal will mean direct rejection. The decision will be communicated by the Editor to the authors allowing the possibility of adapting and modifying the manuscript, sending the original back to the Director of REICE. In this case, the evaluation process will be started from the beginning.

3. Blind peer review: The Editor will send the anonymous manuscript to two expert reviewers. For the selection of expert reviewers, at least 80% will be considered external to the editorial committee and the publishing entity.

The reviewers will have a maximum of one month to elaborate a report justifying if the manuscript can be published or not. The reviewers should fulfill a reviewer protocol provided by the Editor.

Expert reviewers will evaluate each manuscript based on the following criteria:

• Quality and rigor of the theoretical framework.
• Methodological adaptation.
• Implications of the results both in academic terms and for the development of educational policies.
• Quality of the writing and the adequacy of the structure of the manuscript.
• Contribution of new ideas, points of view or innovative themes.

The reviewers will finally recommend that the manuscript be:

• Published as is.
• Accepted with changes, the author/s should review their manuscript to adjust it to the recommendations of the reviewers.
• Rejected for publication in the REICE.

In case of discrepancy between the two reviewers, the manuscript will be sent to a third reviewer.

The estimated time will be 5 months to develop the blind peer review.

4. The Editor will notify the editorial decision to the authors including the anonymous evaluation reports prepared by the reviewers. In case the decision is to accept the manuscript with modifications, the authors will have a time of up to two months for correction. If necessary, the new version will be subjected to a new evaluation.

The estimated time will be up to 2 months to develop the modifications.

5. After reviewing the modified version of the manuscript, and its possible evaluation, the Editor will inform the author of the acceptance decision, request for a new revision or rejection of the manuscript. The notification will be made by email indicating the reasoned reasons for the editorial decision and the results of the evaluation process.

6. Once the review process has been completed and the final draft of the manuscript has been received, the Editor will carry out the final review of the style and the edition according to the format of the Journal. 

The estimated time will be up to 3 months to implement the editing and layout process.

7. Once the articles have been edited by the Editor, they will be published in the "in press" section of the journal to promote the dissemination of the research.

REICE is an open access journal operating under the "DIAMOND" model. This means that it does not charge subscription fees to readers or article processing (submissions, editing or publication) charges (APCs) to authors. Therefore, all articles published in REICE are freely accessible online, with no subscription costs or registration barriers. Clearly committed to the Open Science paradigm, the journal has signed the "Manifesto on Open Science as a Global Public Good: Non-Commercial Open Access" approved at the 2023 Toluca Summit.

REICE provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that offer the public free access to research support to a greater global exchange of knowledge.

REICE encourages authors to deposit supplementary material, at least the research data underlying their publications, in federated open access institutional or thematic repositories within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

REICE allows the dissemination of pre-print versions of published articles under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.

REICE only publishes original and unpublished manuscripts.

REICE adheres to the international code of ethics of the Committee on Publication Ethics-COPE Code of Conduct and the Best Practices Guidelines for Journals Editors. The authors are expected to comply with ethical research standards, including:

• While describing experiments that were developed with human beings, authors must indicate if the procedures were carried out according to the Committee of Human Experimentation Ethical Standards´ (in their institutional or regional version), and to the Helsinki Declaration dated 1975 and reviewed in 2000. Real names, initials or hospital numbers must never be used.
• Have permission to publish by the institution that funded the research.
• The authors are responsible for obtaining the corresponding permits to reproduce partial material (such as tables, texts or figures) from other publications and cite their source.
• REICE expects the authors to declare any commercial association that may induce a possible conflict in relation to the article.

The list of signing authors should only include people who have contributed intellectually to the paper. Those who have helped with data recollection or participated in any special process are not supposed to sign as authors. In general, in order to be included as such certain requirements should be taken into account:

• Participation in the conception and development of the work that resulted in the final manuscript.
• Participation in writing and revision processes of the manuscript.
• Approval of the final version that will be published.

Authors must attach to the manuscript the Letter of originality, conflict of interests and assignment of copyright provided by REICE fully completed with their data and signed.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the writing, editing, reviewing, and repurposing of content will be analyzed using Turnitin's iThenticate tool. If the system detects AI, authors will be notified and asked to review and rewrite the content.

REICE will not take any responsibility for published material. Neither REICE nor RINACE guarantee or support any product announced in the Journal, or the statements implied by the producer of the service or product. All judgments and opinions expressed in the articles and communications published by the Journal belong to the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Editorial Committee. 

Backup: In order to ensure a secure and permanent archive for the journal, the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Press makes a backup copy every 24 hours. This allows the content to be archived and preserved, safeguarding it from any eventuality. If the content of a journal is lost or corrupted, it will be deleted.

Digital Object Identifier: The journal assigns a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which is a persistent identifier managed by Crossref, which guarantees identification and prevents localization problems due to URL changes or other factors.

PKP Preservation Network (PN): The journal has, through OJS (Open Journal System), an archiving system that guarantees its digital preservation. The PKP Preservation Network provides free preservation services for any OJS journal that meets the basic criteria. In this regard, with a view to their digital preservation, REICE articles are archived in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), thus guaranteeing the journal a permanent and secure archive.

LOCKSS: Open Journal Systems, which hosts REICE, is compatible with the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system, which guarantees the journal a permanent and secure archive. Archived issues can be consulted in the LOCKSS Editorial Manifesto https://revistasUAM.ES/index.php/REICE/gateway/lockss . In this way, articles are progressively archived, thus ensuring that the stored digital information can remain and continue to be used in the future.

Database indexing: REICE is also fully and openly accessible in various databases, which guarantees identification and avoids location problems due to URL changes or similar.

PDF and EPUB versions: The journal publishes an EPUB version of each article, allowing it to be exported to formats other than PDF, whether currently available or likely to appear in the future.

With these digital preservation policies, REICE and the Scientific Journals Portal of the Autonomous University of Madrid ensure the long-term preservation of their content, guaranteeing its accessibility and usefulness for future generations of researchers and readers.

REICE has a Director, Editor, Executive Committee and Scientific Board for the organization, coordination, and edition of the Journal. 

Director of REICE shall assume the functions of Coordinator of the Iberoamerican School Effectiveness and Improvement Research Network (RINACE). His main responsibilities are:

• The general coordination of the Journal, the Executive Board, and the Scientific Committee.
• Hiring, supervising and evaluating the editors.
• Ensuring the quality of the Journal and its sustainability.