“URVIO, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad”, is a FLACSO- Ecuador’s biannual international electronic indexed journal. Founded in 2007, the journal comprises a space for critical reflection, debate, update, research, and a query tool on issues related to security, organized crime, intelligence and public policies on security in the region.

Focus and Scope

“URVIO, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad” is a FLACSO-Ecuador’s international indexed journal founded in 2007. The journal seeks to be a tool for debate, update, research, and query instrument to academics, policymakers, and public opinion makers from Ecuador, Latin America, and all the world.

URVIO is a biannual indexed journal. Each issue presents a central topic focused on a specific subject related to problems of violence and security in region. The other section (miscellaneous) develop different topics about security. 

URVIO is published in Spanish and its bibliographic standards are governed by the Chicago citation style (known as Chicago-Deusto in Spanish). The articles are received in Microsoft Word format and the journal is published in PDF, HTML and EPUB. All funding for the journal comes from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador (FLACSO Ecuador). 

Mission

URVIO is a space for the diffusion of scientific knowledge in the area of the social sciences, especially in the field of security studies, intelligence, crime, delinquency, and international relations. Its principles are pluralism, scientific rigor, and respect for the ethics with a perspective of transmitting the academic thinking of Latin America.

Section Policies 

Miscellaneous

Peer Review Process

 The Committee will not commit to maintaining correspondence over the articles received. The papers will be submitted to external evaluators to the publishing institution or to the country through the double-blind peer review system. The opinions and comments expressed in the papers are strictly the responsibility of their authors and do not reflect the line of thought of FLACSO-Ecuador. The articles published in URVIO are the exclusive property of FLACSO-Ecuador. The total or partial reproduction of the contents is authorized whenever that "URVIO, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad" is cited as a source.

Articles selection

Sent articles will be submitted to a review process which is executed in various stages:

1) Only articles which comply with formals requirements specified in magazine editorial rules will be given as received.

2) Articles received will be submitted to initial evaluation executed by the editor and an editorial council member, who will value thematic relevance, originality and text quality (one week).

3) If an article has been valued positively, it will enter into an arbitration process under double-blind peer review system. This process consists of review each article through a filter of at least two academic anonymous reviewers (two months).

For each article, readers with a fourth-level degree, whose publications show an extensive knowledge about topics addressed by paper, will be selected to review. Sometimes researchers without a fourth-level degree which have an investigation trajectory in the topic would be also selected.

For the paper's recommendation, readers will take into account the following features: article's quality in relation to its originality and contribution to the studied topic, theoretical solvency, critical or argumentative apparatus, methodology and information management, results or conclusions, bibliography, and expression clarity.

Based on the above, reviewers will determine if the article is:

a) publishable without modifications; b) a strong candidate for publication if certain corrections are made to the manuscripts; c) publishable if just deep corrections are made; d) no publishable.

4) In case of discrepancies in results, the article will be sent to a third reviewer, whose criterion will define if the paper can be published.

5) Arbitration process results will be irrevocable in all cases. 

6) After sending the feedback, the Journal's Editorial Committee will analyze whether the incorporations made by the authors are relevant following the suggestions of the reviewers. The Editorial Committee is responsible for the last filter of the edition, in order to preserve the quality standards.

Publication Frequency

 URVIO is a biannual journal (two publications per year), each number with a different topic. It’s published on June 30 and on December 30.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides open access to its content. It is based on the principle of offering free access to researchers to support the global exchange of knowledge.

URVIO does not charge any fee for sending or processing academic contributions to authors interested in publishing this magazine.

 Archiving

This journal employs the LOCKSS system to create a distributed storage system among participating libraries and allows the creation of permanent archives in the journal for conservation and restoration purposes. 

 URVIO is included in the following indexes, data bases and catalogues: 

• Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). Indexes Master Journal List de Thomson Reuters. 
• SciELO Ecuador. Biblioteca electrónica.
• Redalyc. Red de Revistas Cientificas de America Latina y el Caribe,España y Portugal.
• Actualidad Iberoamericana. International index of journals.
• CLASS, Latin American Appointments in Social Sciences and Humanities. Bibliographic database.
• LATINDEX Directory, Regional Online Information System for Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal.  
• DIALNET, University of La Rioja. Document resources and services platform.
• EBSCO. Research database.
• FLACSO-ANDES, Avant-garde digital center for social science research - Andean Region and Latin America - FLACSO, Ecuador. Platform and repository.
• REDIB, Ibero-American Network of Innovation and Scientific Knowledge. Platform.
• MIAR (Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals) .Database.
• LatAm Studies. Latin American Studies Database
• ERIH PLUS, European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences. 
• JournalTOCS. Database. 
• Google scholar. Researcher specialized in academic and scientific documentation.  
• Directory of Research Journals Indexing (DRJI). 
• LatinRev. Red Latinoamericana de Revistas en Ciencias Sociales. Platform.
• Journal Scholar Metrics. Bibliographic tool

Ethical code

URVIO, as a member of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), is committed to promoting ethical conduct as a scientific publication (https://www.flacso.edu.ec/portal/pnTemp/PageMaster/lu0e5rhzxgogyy044rl8ku4x711brc.pdf). It also takes as reference the principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (https://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct).

The Editorial Committee and the International Advisory Committee of URVIO, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad -Latin American Journal of Security Studies, will ensure that editors, peer reviewers, and authors respect ethical principles during all phases of the editorial process. Below are our standards for the entire academic community.

About authors and authorship:

• Articles that send to URVIO must be originals and unpublished.
• Refrain from repeated or multiple submission of articles to different editorials or publishers. This is a reprehensible conduct in the dissemination of academic research.
• Respect to original sources you use in your article. Bibliographical references must be correctly and completely indicated.
• Errors in released articles. When author recognizes an error or an inaccuracy in his or her work, must report to URVIO editorial team and should provide necessary information for corrections.
• The researcher commits to check the most actual and prominent academic literature on the researched topic.
• Order the signature of authorship according to the level of responsibility and implication in the article.

About peer reviewers:

• Report whether conflicts of interest exist. If an evaluator or reviewer has any personal or financial opinion or interest that might affect his or her objectivity in his or her evaluation, he must refrain from participating in the editorial process.
• Anonymity. Reviewers will never know the authors (only through the OJS code) and also will not have knowledge of the identity of the other blind pair.
• Confidentiality. Upon completion of the evaluative process, the reviewer will refrain to disclose the read to external agents to URVIO.
• Respect to times agreed with the journal. The reviewer is responsible for notifying publishers if there are any drawbacks to delivering the evaluation on time.

About editor’s responsibility:

• Honesty. To ensure transparency in the evaluation, editing, and publication processes of each issue.
• Confidentiality. The editorial team will maintain anonymity among reviewers and authors throughout the process.
• Answering concerns via email. Consultations and clarifications requested by authors, reviewers or anyone interested in URVIO will be answered promptly.
• Facilitate rectifications. Corrections or clarifications will be published through the website of the journal.
• Diffusion. The number published will be disseminated to repositories, databases and social networks.
• Publication process. Editors will select with critical appreciation the most capable reviewers.

Procedures for dealing with conflicts of interest. Transparency policy.

Our editorial process is governed by good faith. The Editorial Board of the journal relies on what the authors say and on the objectivity/impartiality of the peer reviewers. The authors, in turn, must rely on the integrity of the editors and reviewers.  

In case of inappropriate behaviors

• When identified, they could be communicated to the editor and to the Editorial Board of the journal, by any natural person.
• The complainant has the duty to provide sufficient evidence for a formal investigation. All the denouncement must have an open process until a decision is reached.

Investigative process.

• The Publisher must initiate an investigation and seek legal advice in the institution responsible for the journal.
• Collect the evidence and maintain anonymity at all times, to avoid leaks in the scientific field.  

  Minor infractions.

• It is possible to give a solution without the need for greater transcendence. The author will be able to respond to the accusations.

Major infractions.

• It will have as a first step, to notify the employers of the accused. In the second step, the author or reviewer will be notified by letter that an inappropriate behavior has been detected, hence a violation to review Ethic Code.

Consecuences

• Publication of an editorial in the journal in which inappropriate conduct is detailed.
• Formal removal of the publication of the journal.
• Official Embargo on the contributions of an individual/author for a defined period.  

Rejection rate of postulated articles

Arbitration form for publication

The intent of this arbitration is not only to serve the selection of texts for publication in URVIO but to provide the authors with recommendations that will allow them to improve their articles of being the case, for this reason, we ask you to be specific about their Comments and comments.

Article title:

Date:

Name of the evaluator:

Institutional or labor affiliation:

Academic degree:

1. The article is considered to be:

2. Elements of the recommendation:

3. General Analysis and remarks:

This section is important to understand the assessments made in the previous sections and that the author understands the decision taken regarding his text. Therefore, its analysis, critique, and observations must respond to an objective, impartial, constructive, and systematic evaluation. Please explain any criticism by using a respectful language and provide general clarifications and specific examples. Please range everything you think is necessary. 

Originality letter

URVIO. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad

Editorial Committee

E7174  La Pradera Ave. & Diego de Almagro St.

Quito-Ecuador

Dear Editorial Board URVIO,

I hereby record that ________(Full name)_______, who applied for URVIO, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad, for the publication of my article entitled _____(article’s name)_____, is in conditions to comply the requirements of the journal.

I repeat that I am in a position to confirm that the article submitted is not currently being evaluated or have previously been published in another journal and that, I am in accordance with the terms set out in the call for the application of Articles, which was duly read out at the time of applying. 

Yours sincerely,

______(Full name)_______

_____________(Signature) _____________________

_____________(Date)______________________