About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences - UNNE, published by the Secretariat for Science and Knowledge Transfer of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, is an electronic publication devoted to disseminating research of relevance to the field of law, approached from legal, social, and political sciences perspectives (First level: Applied Social Sciences / Second level: Law, Political Science, Sociology).

Its primary purpose is to contribute to and critically reflect upon contemporary and significant legal issues, fostering dialogue among researchers, academics, and legal practitioners, with the ultimate aim of encouraging interdisciplinary exchange, scholarly debate, and the dissemination of the work of specialists from diverse fields.

The Journal publishes scholarly works that address law as an object of study, encompassing traditional areas such as public and private law, as well as local, regional, national, and international legal issues.

The Journal also promotes the dissemination of research findings in areas such as legal theory, philosophy of law, sociology of law, and legal history, as well as contributions derived from interdisciplinary approaches within the social and political sciences, provided that they concern and involve the study of law. Exceptionally, the Journal may consider works which, although not exclusively focused on legal matters, address social, political, or institutional issues of scientific relevance and provide substantive contributions to the analysis, understanding, or contextualization of legal phenomena.

The Journal is intended for researchers, professors, university students, members of governmental institutions, private organizations, and legal practitioners generally interested in developments arising from scientific research conducted with the highest standards of rigor at both the national and international levels, with the purpose of extending current legal-scientific knowledge to all areas of professional legal practice on national, regional, and global scales.

In its principal sections, the Journal receives and publishes original scientific articles subject to peer review. The editorial process includes a preliminary assessment conducted by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team regarding the relevance of the topic, the quality, and the presentation of submitted manuscripts. Subsequently, the content is evaluated through a double-blind peer review process. The review of galley proofs is conducted jointly by the author, the Editorial Team, and the Editor-in-Chief.

Section Policies

---Scientific Articles

Original and unpublished works demonstrating final results or significant advances in the research process. Contributions must provide valuable input for the development of legal, social, and political disciplines, demonstrating methodological coherence, the use of valid analytical and interpretative criteria, and updated and appropriate theoretical frameworks and contents.

The minimum length required for articles submitted to this section is 30,000 characters (including spaces), and the maximum length is 45,000 characters (including spaces).

---Research Mini-Articles

Original and unpublished short contributions that comply with the formatting and content requirements applicable to scientific articles, with a minimum length of 16,000 characters (including spaces) and a maximum length of 23,000 characters (including spaces).

---Critical Reviews of Judicial Decisions and Case Law

Analyses and commentaries on judicial decisions and case law deemed relevant due to their significant contributions or novel aspects for the scientific and academic field.

---Doctrinal Essays

Academic and scientific works prepared exclusively by researchers and professors with advanced academic training and recognized expertise in their respective disciplinary fields, addressing in depth a specific issue or problem within the field of law from legal, social, and political sciences perspectives.

---Book Reviews and Translations

Reviews of recent and innovative bibliographic works, as well as translations of academic or scientific articles previously published in other languages, relevant to law and the social and political sciences, published within the last four years. Authors may not review works authored or co-authored by themselves. Translations must be of high quality, faithful to the original text, and accompanied by the corresponding authorization from the author or the publishing house holding the rights to the original work.

Peer Review Process

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences - UNNE adopts a double-blind peer review system for original submissions received in the sections entitled Scientific Articles, Research Mini-Articles, and Doctrinal Essays. This evaluation process, conducted under reciprocal anonymity between authors and reviewers, includes the participation of external reviewers unaffiliated with the publishing institution, ensuring that reviewers do not belong to the same institution as the authors. This system guarantees an efficient and objective quality-control mechanism and ensures compliance with the highest standards of editorial transparency. The process is conducted as follows:

  1. Manuscripts are received and examined by the Editor-in-Chief, who verifies the relevance of the content in relation to the Journal’s thematic scope, while also assessing originality, academic quality, and scientific interest. The Editor-in-Chief shall decide on the acceptance or rejection of submitted manuscripts and communicate such decision to the authors within fifteen (15) business days from receipt. In the event of rejection, the author(s) may request reconsideration before the Editor-in-Chief within fifteen (15) business days.
  2. The Journal’s Editorial Coordination assists the Editor-in-Chief by verifying compliance with the author guidelines and the general stylistic and formatting standards applicable to manuscript submissions.
  3. The peer review process shall commence only if the submitted manuscripts comply with the Journal’s guidelines.
  4. Scientific articles, research mini-articles, and doctrinal essays shall be evaluated under the double-blind review modality. Manuscripts shall be submitted to two external reviewers, previously selected by the Editor-in-Chief and unaffiliated with the author’s institution, while preserving the anonymity of the authors. Likewise, the author(s) shall not be informed of the identity of the reviewers. The Editorial Coordination shall act as intermediary between authors, the Editor-in-Chief, and peer reviewers, ensuring the anonymity of all parties throughout the process. For such purposes, it is responsible for removing authors’ names and identifying references from the manuscript and associated files.
  5. Reviewers shall evaluate manuscripts in accordance with the established criteria and guidelines, maintaining confidentiality regarding their participation. Reviewers shall have a maximum period of fifteen (15) days from receipt of the manuscript to complete the requested evaluation.
  6. External reviewers shall issue one of the following recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief:
    a) Recommended for publication without modifications.
    b) Recommended for publication subject to revisions.
    c) Recommendation against publication.

The duly reasoned opinion shall be communicated to the author(s).

  1. Manuscripts recommended for publication subject to revisions shall only be published once the indicated modifications have been incorporated. Authors shall have fifteen (15) days to submit the revised version, informing the Journal of the changes made or justifying their omission. Reviewers shall verify the revisions within a period not exceeding fifteen (15) days.
  2. In the event of disagreement between reviewers’ reports, the Editor-in-Chief may appoint a third reviewer in order to establish a majority criterion.
  3. The Editor-in-Chief shall make the final decision regarding publication within a maximum period of four (4) months from receipt of the original manuscript.

Research Supporting Data

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences of the UNNE promotes Open Science practices and requires the deposit of research supporting data, provided that the nature of the study, ethical considerations, and applicable regulations permit it.

Authors publishing their work in the journal must submit the supporting research data, which shall be deposited, in accordance with Argentine Law No. 26,899 on Institutional Open Access Digital Repositories, in institutional digital repositories, whether proprietary or shared, ensuring their preservation, accessibility, and interoperability in compliance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable).

The journal recommends the use of open-access repositories recognized by the scientific community, such as Zenodo and Open Science Framework (OSF).

When research data are deposited in a repository, authors must include in the manuscript the corresponding data availability statement and the complete reference to the dataset used, including DOI, persistent URL, or any other access identifier.

Publication Frequency

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences –UNNE is a biannual electronic scientific publication issuing two numbers per calendar year: the first issue covers the January–June period and is published in July, while the second issue covers the July–December period and is published in December.

The Journal permanently accepts original submissions for its different sections. Approved manuscripts are published online in advance as soon as the editorial process is completed and are subsequently incorporated into the corresponding issue.

The number of articles included in each issue is determined according to the Journal’s editorial workflow, considering the number of manuscripts that have successfully completed the various stages of the editorial process, as well as editorial criteria for the appropriate composition of each volume.

Open Access Policy

The Journal maintains an open access policy, providing immediate and free access to its contents. All users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles free of charge, provided that proper attribution is given to the authorship of the work, to its publication in the Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences - UNNE, including the corresponding issue and page numbers, and provided that such use is non-commercial.

No fees are charged to authors for publication in the Journal:

  • The Journal does not charge submission fees.
  • The Journal does not charge article review fees.
  • The Journal does not charge publication fees.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Copyright Policy

Authors retain copyright ownership and grant, free of charge and on a non-exclusive basis, to the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, as the publishing entity, the rights of reproduction, distribution, and public communication necessary for the dissemination of their work in the Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences - UNNE, as well as through the University’s own portals and any other portals or repositories deemed appropriate by the institution. This authorization also includes the preparation of abstracts for the dissemination of such works and of the Journal as a whole.

In the case of authors maintaining permanent or temporary employment relationships with the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, economic rights over authorship shall belong to the University in the cases established by Articles 2, 3, and 4 of Resolution 641/98 C.S. UNNE. In all cases, authors retain moral rights over their creations.

Third parties are permitted to distribute, copy, and display the article provided that proper attribution is made to the author(s), to its publication in the Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences – UNNE, and to the corresponding issue and page numbers.

Archiving

This Journal uses the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among collaborating libraries, allowing them to create permanent archives of the Journal for preservation and restoration purposes.

Self-Archiving Policy

The Journal permits the self-archiving of published articles in institutional repositories, subject-specific repositories, and personal websites.

Persistent Identifiers

The Journal assigns Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to its articles through the membership of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste in PILA (Publishers International Linking Association, Inc.), through which the Crossref registration service is provided for DOI assignment.

Plagiarism Detection Policy

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal are screened using plagiarism-detection tools (PaperRater, Plagiarisma, and/or Grammarly’s Plagiarism Checker).

In cases where plagiarism or self-plagiarism is detected, the author(s) shall be notified accordingly. If the situation is not resolved within the period determined by the Editor-in-Chief, the manuscript shall be rejected for publication in the Journal.

Digital Preservation Policy

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences - UNNE forms part of the REVISTAS UNNE Scientific Periodicals Portal. The portal implements a digital preservation system based on digital data backup mechanisms provided by the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, ensuring continuous and unaltered access to published contents.

The ICT Department of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste is responsible for the institution’s technological infrastructure and, together with the University Central Library, establishes and coordinates the internal procedures for the electronic preservation of the Journal Portal contents, including digital objects and their associated data and metadata.

Ethical Standards and Journal Responsibility

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences - UNNE adheres to the ethical practices recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics regarding integrity in scientific publishing.

Submissions must be original and unpublished (including digital publications such as blogs, online proceedings, etc.) and must not be simultaneously under consideration by other journals.

Authors therefore guarantee that the submitted work constitutes an original creation, neither copied nor plagiarized in whole or in part from third-party works, nor previously published elsewhere. Authors also undertake not to submit the same manuscript to other journals or publishing bodies until the Journal’s evaluation process has concluded. If six months elapse from submission without formal acceptance for publication—or earlier if the Journal rejects the manuscript—the author may freely dispose of the work.

Authors further guarantee compliance with copyright regulations concerning texts, graphics, and all other materials included in manuscripts submitted to the Journal.

Under no circumstances shall submissions be rejected on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

The Journal disclaims responsibility for the content of published articles and for the opinions expressed therein by authors. Without prejudice to the authors’ own responsibility regarding the honesty, intellectual rigor, and authenticity of their work, the Editor-in-Chief, Academic Committee, Editorial Team, and reviewers shall ensure the integrity, quality, and originality of the publication.

Preprint Policy

The Journal establishes that manuscripts submitted for evaluation must be original and unpublished and must not have been previously published or disseminated through preprint servers, institutional repositories, academic platforms, or any other publicly accessible media.

Consequently, the Journal does not accept for evaluation works that have been publicly made available prior to the commencement of the editorial process.

For the purposes of this policy, a preprint is understood as any complete version of a scientific manuscript publicly disseminated prior to peer review and potential acceptance for publication.

Submission to the Journal implies the authors’ express declaration that the manuscript is not available as a preprint and has not been previously disseminated publicly. This policy aims to safeguard the originality of scientific contributions, the integrity of the academic review process, and the publication of the primary and official version of the work through the Journal.

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences -UNNE recognizes the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and AI-assisted technologies as support for research and scientific communication. Nevertheless, their use must strictly adhere to the principles of transparency, academic integrity, authorship responsibility, and scientific ethics.

---Authorship and Responsibility

Generative Artificial Intelligence tools (such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini) may not be considered authors of scientific works, since they lack the capacity to assume intellectual, ethical, and legal responsibility for the generated content.

Authors remain solely responsible for the entirety of their work, including the accuracy of data, legal analysis, interpretation of results, and the absence of plagiarism.

---Permitted Uses of AI Tools

The Journal permits the limited and responsible use of AI tools as technical support for tasks such as:

  • improvement of writing quality, grammatical, spelling, or stylistic correction, and text translation;
  • data processing, statistical analysis, or graph generation, provided that such use is clearly detailed in the Methodology section.

In all cases, the final content must be critically reviewed by the authors, who shall assume full responsibility for the submitted version.

---Prohibited Uses of AI Tools

The following uses are not permitted:

  • full generation of manuscripts;
  • development of central arguments, legal reasoning, or academic conclusions;
  • fabrication, alteration, or manipulation of data, citations, bibliographic references, case law, or research results;
  • production of false, non-existent, or unverifiable information.

Furthermore, bibliographic references and doctrinal, jurisprudential, and normative citations generated through AI tools must be thoroughly verified by the authors prior to manuscript submission.

---Mandatory Disclosure Regarding the Use of AI Tools

Authors who have used AI tools at any stage in the preparation of the manuscript must include, immediately before the references section, a statement entitled: “Declaration on the Use of Artificial Intelligence.”

This section must clearly specify:

  • the AI tool(s) used;
  • the purpose of such use;
  • confirmation that the generated content was reviewed and validated by the authors.

Example:
“In the preparation of this manuscript, the ChatGPT tool (OpenAI) was used for stylistic revision and language improvement purposes. The authors critically reviewed the generated content and assume full responsibility for the final version of the article.”

---Ethics in Peer Review

External reviewers may not upload manuscripts into generative AI tools involving content transfer, in order to preserve confidentiality, authors’ intellectual property rights, and the integrity of the scientific evaluation process.

---Non-Compliance with the AI Policy

Failure to comply with this policy may result in rejection of the manuscript or, if detected after publication, in its retraction and the adoption of the corresponding measures in accordance with the Journal’s ethical standards and Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines.

Translation Policy

Where a translation is submitted by the author of the original text, explicit acknowledgment must be made of the person responsible for the translation whenever such person differs from the author. The translator’s name must appear clearly, either in a footnote or in the acknowledgments section. Such acknowledgment is essential for the proper recognition of the intellectual work involved in translation and to ensure academic transparency.

Likewise, if the translation was carried out with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools (for example, ChatGPT, DeepL, or Google Translate), this must also be expressly disclosed. The statement must include the name of the tool used and, where applicable, indicate who performed the subsequent human review. Such information is indispensable for the proper evaluation of the linguistic and conceptual fidelity of the translated text and responds to ethical and transparency standards within the editorial process.

Article Processing Charges

The Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences - UNNE does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) for manuscripts submitted by authors. Likewise, no fees are charged for the peer review process.