I. Publishing policy

 Definition

The Cuban Magazine of Law (RCD, in Spanish language), founded in the year 1924, is a half-yearly publication (January - June / July - December) of scientific character, arbitrated in open access and aimed, mainly, to the national and international juridical community. It publishes unpublished results of juridical investigations in Spanish and English languages, under internationally normalized publication norms. It is published in printed format and, from 2021, in electronic version. It is inscribed into the National Record of Serial Publications (RNPS 0075) with the electronic ISSN: xxxx-xxxx and printed ISSN: 0864-165X. It is edited by the National Union of Lawyers of Cuba, social, self-financed and with no profit organization.

Structures

The RCD is provided with a Publishing Council, a Scientific Council and an Honorary Scientific Council.

The Publishing Council realizes the management of Magazine and it is integrated by the Director, the President of the Publishing Council, the Secretary of the Publishing Council and the Publishers of Section.

The Scientific Council constitutes the referee portfolio of Magazine and it is integrated by recognized national and international specialists of all the juridical disciplines.

The Honorary Scientific Council is the scientific consultancy organ of Magazine and it is integrated by outstanding lawyers, both national and foreign, whose works and professional trajectories are excellent in the development of the science of Law. On the Cuban part, the Honorary Scientific Council is integrated by the living lawyers who have been creditors of the National Award of Law “Carlos Manuel de Céspedes”. On the foreign part, the Honorary Scientific Council is integrated by the lawyers who are proposed by the Scientific Societies of National Union of Lawyers of Cuba and are approved by its Board of Directors.

Mission

The RCD has the mission to publish, in a legal and sure way, the unpublished results of investigations that, for its high value and scientific rigor, should contribute and should help the advance of the science of Law in the national and international ambience.

 Vision

The vision of RCD is being a periodic publication of consultancy and required reference in the field of the science of Law, this in order to achieve and to keep the highest norms of recognition and visibility at national and international level.

Aim

The general aim of the RCD is the spreading of unpublished investigated results, both of national and foreign authors, which high value and scientific rigor help to the advance of the science of Law in all its dimensions. Also, the RCD encourages the scientific investigation through calls aimed to the national and international juridical community.

As specific objective, the RCD tries to publish, spread and promote the exchange of unpublished results of investigations, case studies and good professional practices according to its thematic scope.

Topics and scope

The RCD offers a referee space to publish and to spread the original and unpublished results of scientific investigations realized in all the juridical or related specialties, as in the national as international ambience, with the intention of realizing significant contributions to the development of the science of Law, providing valid and useful criteria of analysis and interpretation for its readers.

Its receptors are, fundamentally, academicians, investigators, teachers and university students, members of public and private organisms, and juridical operators in general.

II. Policy of Sections

The RCD dedicates 80 % of its content to the scientific information, presenting the following permanent sections and types of contributions:

Studies: in this section original and unpublished papers are published, both of investigation and of review, which conclusions should turn out to be excellent as regards the state of the art of the institution or juridical problems that they tackle, being submitted to evaluation by blind pairs.

Comments: in this section are published critical comments referred as to judgments or jurisprudential tendencies, as to concrete juridical norms that are of interest in the national or international ambience, being submitted to evaluation by blind pairs.

Reviews: in this section are published critiques aimed to realize punctual comments about excellent juridical works, both national and foreign. The review of contributions contained in this section will be realized by the members of the Publishing Council designated by the President of the Publishing Council to such effects.

To the discretion of its Publishing Council, and as transitory sections, the RCD will publish bibliographical Notes that are of special interest by its level of systematization and actuality, Discourses, whenever its content affects directly the juridical environment and that for its importance they need to be spread, Interviews to personalities of the field of Law and Notes of juridical actuality that recount questions of general interest for the union. The review of the contributions contained in these sections will be realized by the members of the Publishing Council designated by the President of the Publishing Council to such effects.

 Policy of review

Evaluation for pairs

The contributions sent to the permanent sections Studies and Comments are submitted to a review process by academic pairs, by means of a system of double blind, which guarantees the anonymity between authors and reviewers, it avoids the interests’ conflicts and it assures the impartiality of the assessor’s report.

The contributions sent to the transitory sections are submitted to a process of publishing review by one of the members of the Publishing Council designated by its President.

 Publishing process

The publishing process of the RCD is realized in an average temporary frame of between five and seven months and is from the beginning of the manuscript evaluation up to its publication. The decisions will be informed by the Secretary of the Publishing Council to the corresponding authors.

The publishing process consists of the following stages:

1. Publishing evaluation.
2. Academic evaluation.
3. Final evaluation.

From the evaluation process three possible decisions are derived:

      1. To accept the manuscript for its publication without modifications.

      2. To accept the manuscript for its publication with modifications (minimal, moderate or complex).

      3. To reject the manuscript.

Publishing evaluation

It is the first stage of the review process, with a maximum duration of 20 working days. It is realized by the Secretary of the Publishing Council with the objective to verify that the manuscript fulfills with the presentation norms demanded by the RCD in the Instructions for authors and that the content that it exhibits is related with its thematic line.

The evaluation criteria in this stage are the following:

1. Correspondence of the manuscript content with the thematic lines of the Magazine.
2. The sending includes all required presentation information like metadata:

            -    Title in Spanish and English languages.

            -    Information of authors: names and surnames, institution, country, e-mail, curricular synthesis and record ORCID.

            -    Abstract in Spanish and English languages.

            -    Keywords in Spanish and English languages.

            -    The format, structure and extension of the manuscript corresponds to the norms of presentation demanded by the RCD in the Instructions for authors.

3. Correct use of citations and bibliographical references, in correspondence with the adopted norms by the RCD.
4. In the specific case of the comments of judgments, there is demanded also the distinguished consignment of the following aspects:

            -     Number and date of the judgment

            -     Tribunal or Court that pronounced the sentence

            -     Deponent

            -     Committed for trial ends

            -     Sit-in doctrine

            -     Applied legal texts.

            -     Judgment

            -     Concise relation of factual essentials

            -     Analysis of essentials of Law

5. The sending contains, like complementary file, the letter of introduction properly completed and signed by all the authors of the paper, which includes the declarations of originality, authorship and of conflict of interests.

The publishing evaluation concludes with three possible decisions:

Decision 1: to reject completely the sending in case of not fulfilling with the demand contained in the point 1.

Decision 2: to reject the sending in order to complete of ideal form the requirements contained in the points 2, 3, 4 and 5. The author will have a term of 15 working days to realize the procedures that are indicated him. Of not doing in this term the sending it will be rejected.

Decision 3: to accept the sending without modifications and to submit it to the phase of academic evaluation.

Academic evaluation

The academic evaluation of the original and unpublished papers, both of investigation and of review, and of the comments, will be realized by means of the review method by pairs to blind double and in complete anonymity. For this process are used 2 integral referee of the Scientific Council of the RCD. In case contradiction exists in the decision contained in the reports of the same ones, the manuscript will be evaluated by a third referee designated to such effects by the President of the Publishing Council. The report of this third referee will be definitive.

Selection of reviewers

The RCD possesses a wide Scientific Council integrated by national and international specialists, classified by academic category and distributed by disciplinary areas and institutions, which allows the Publishing Council to assure that the designated referees for every manuscript should be external to the publishing entity and to the institution of origin of authors.

The members of the Scientific Council, at the moment of being designated like referees, are instructed so that they fulfill with the Code of Ethics for the evaluation for pairs of the Committee on Publication Ethics (CORNER), https://publicationethics.org/files/Ethical_Guidelines_For_Peer_Reviewers_2.pdf.

 Deadline of academic review realized by the referees of the Scientific Council of RCD

The received contributions can be evaluated up to a maximum of 3 times, this in dependency on the complexity of issued suggestions by the referees. For the first academic review, the reviewers will have a maximum of 30 working days to realize the evaluation. In necessary case, two more evaluation rounds will be realized with a maximum period of 20 working days each one. The academic review must not overcome 90 working days.

As soon as the described procedure was realized, and the Secretary of the Publishing Council verifies the existence of divergent decisions in the reports issued by 2 referees designated in the first instance, he will notify about the situation to the President of the Publishing Council, so that in the course of 5 working days, he designates a third referee that expresses a definitive report, for whose achievement will have a term of 20 working days.

Evaluation criteria in the academic review

-     Originality, actuality and innovation

-     Methodological quality, reliability and scientific validity

-     Relevancy and scientific contribution of results

-     Organization and exposition coherence

In all the cases, the academic evaluation also includes the verification of ethical aspects with the aim to avoid such conducts as the redundant or duplicated publication, the plagiarism, the manipulation and/or invention of information and the conflicts of non declared interests.

For the academic evaluation, the pairs will have an evaluation form where they will exhibit the evaluation of paper, as well as the recommendations for authors and publishers.

Decisions of the academic review:

The referees can take three types of decisions:

       Decision 1. To reject flatly the manuscript if exist the following assumptions:

1. It is not provided with scientific innovation.
2. There is no correspondence between the investigation aim, the used methods and the obtained results.
3. The exhibition of results and its discussion is insufficient.
4. The existence of non ethical conducts is demonstrated during the investigation and/or publication (duplicated publication, plagiarism, false and/or manipulated information, conflict of non declared interests, etc.). In this case, it will have to add the demonstrative materials that correspond.                                                                                                                                                                Decision 2. To accept the manuscript with modifications, that can be minimal, moderate or complex:

       Minimal modifications

1. To arrange bibliographical references.
2. Incorrect writing.

In these cases, the authors will have a term of 5 working days to correct and to send again the manuscript.

       Moderate modifications

1. To explain correctly the used methods
2. Structural reorganization.
3. To redo the introduction (to clarify innovation, importance and contribution).
4. To synthesize the results.

In these cases, the authors will have a term of up to 15 working days to correct and to send again the manuscript.

       Complex modifications

1. To clarify the correspondence between the variables declared in the introduction, the methods, the results and the conclusions.
2. To optimize the exhibition of the development.
3. To optimize the exhibition of results, in accordance with the established aims.
4. To optimize the discussion of results.
5. To update the bibliography.

In these cases, the authors will have a term of up to 20 working days to correct and to send again the manuscript.

        Decision 3. To accept the manuscript without modifications

The referees will receive the corresponding certificate that credits their management.

If the manuscript is rejected, the claims on the part of authors will not proceed.

Final Evaluation

It is the last review process stage, with a maximum duration of 5 working days. It is realized by the President of the Publishing Council or, in his absence, the Secretary, taking in consideration the results expressed by the referees in the academic evaluations. The decisions in this stage are:

1. To accept the sending

1. To publish with modifications
2. Reassess
3. No to publish

 III. Policy of detection of plagiarisms and non ethical conducts

The publication of scientific researches results demands to the publishing world a strict control on the ethics of the above mentioned researches and of entities that intervene in the publication process of these results in the specializing magazines. In this stage, the RCD is provided with a Publishing Council that guarantees, before the national and international academic community, the fulfillment of norms and parameters oriented by the Committee of Ethics in the Publications (COPE), implementing a policy of detection of plagiarisms and non ethical conducts in the researches and in the processes of scientific publication.

The RCD identifies as non ethical conducts the fictitious responsibility, non declaration of conflicts of interests, the redundant or duplicated publications, the plagiarism and the slant of the assessors, in addition to any other class of violations of the ethics of the research and the scientific publication. Any manuscript that incurs some of these facts will be rejected for its publication. The RCD reserves the right to make public this behavior to the scientific community.

The Publishing Council of the RCD establishes the procedures for the detection of the conducts earlier mentioned, it uses the anti-plagiarism tool Dupli Checker and it accepts the flows of decision recommended by the Committee of Ethics of Publications (COPE).

In the work of the RCD, the members of the Honorary Scientific and Publishing, Scientific Councils and the authors, have very well definite responsibilities, tending to make to fulfill the ethical norms that govern the publishing flow, from the sending to the manuscript publication.

The authors who send their contributions to the RCD must sign the letters of originality and of conflicts of interests that correspond. The same way, they are responsible for results and opinions expressed in the manuscripts of their responsibility, as well as for the infractions of the ethical norms of investigation which they could incur. The manuscripts must be unpublished, not be submitted to the consideration of other publications and to assure the real responsibility of their subscribers.

The referees are forced to declare the ethical infractions and the conflicts of interests that could affect the review of the contribution. The evaluations will be realized by a definitely objective character, expressing solid and constructive arguments, avoiding the personal criticism and the offensive or hostile comments. They will abstain from using the non published works for proper investigations without the previous consent of authors.

The members of the Honorary Scientific and Publishing, Scientific Councils of the RCD, they will look over the values and criteria that guarantee the ethical reliability of the whole publishing process and will assure the protection norms of information and intellectual property. The members of the Publishing Council will abstain from publishing the results of their investigations in the Magazine.

The Secretary of the Publishing Council will be in charge of supporting and preserving the papers relative to the contributions, the carried out reviews and the final product of each of the numbers of the RCD. In the same direction, he will watch for the fulfillment of norms of publication and established publishing procedures, using in all the cases, reasonable procedures before assumptions of denunciations of ethical character or of conflicts of interests.

 All received manuscripts for the RCD are checked by academic, external and anonymous pairs. The evaluations have an objective character, using a guide and report of evaluation that assure the scientific relevancy, the originality and the thematic pertinence of contributions that should be published.

IV. Policy of digital preservation

The RCD implements a politics of preservation and computer safety to support the integrity, authenticity, reliability and legibility of the carrying files of the original contents. It realizes regularly copies of backup of its files in accordance with the best current practices and uses systems of local preservation in proper servers. It is edited by the free software Open Journal System (PKP/OJS, for its initials in English) and uses the system LOCKSS to free protect the contents of magazines in OJS, being created a system of file distributed between collaborating libraries, to which it allows to create permanent files with aims of conservation and restoration.

V. Policy of Open Access

The diffusion of the scientific results is a vital phase of the investigative process and with the precise intention of spreading the knowledge by free, accessible and available, it arises and is developed the movement of Open Access, distinguished also, for being economically sustainable for the institutions and to provide visibility, legibility and impact to the authors

The RCD, in full congruity with this movement, offers to all the interested public free and immediate availability of its scientific content allowing to the readership inscribed or not in the Magazine, to read, to discharge, to copy, to distribute, to print, to look or to use the published works for investigative or academic purposes, without any financial, legal or technical barrier, whenever they are used without non-profit or non-commercial purposes and guaranteeing the copyright to be recognized correctly and to quoted.

The authors who publish in the RCD keep the rights of their contributions use, with full freedom to spread them in personal web sites and/or in digital repositories of open access with the only express condition that they refer to the original publication.

 Charges or cost for authors

The RCD does not charge to the authors quotas for sending, processing and/or publication of manuscripts.

 VI. Policy of intellectual property

Copyright

1. The authors will preserve the moral rights on the published contributions, as well as on the patents, commercial marks and other rights of intellectual property; what it authorizes to them for:

           -   To publish their contribution in Internet or to authorize to their institution (or to any other appropriate organization), to do the proper thing, of immediate form from the date of publication in the Magazine, already is inside the closed network of the institution, in institutional repositories of public access or organized repositories of centralized form; whenever the version published by the RCD is used and includes a link to its web site.

         -   To reproduce their contribution, whole or partially, and to spread its content, in printed or electronic format, like part of a teaching content or like compilation, for its use in the academic field or of investigation of the institution to which it belongs to the author.

        -   To transfer to their institution (or to any other appropriate organization) the authorization to reproduce their contribution (postprint) in order to avoid its deterioration or, if the original was in an obsolete format or the technology to use it was not available, in order to assure that it should keep on being free for teaching intentions or of investigation.

       -   To present their contribution in meetings or academic conferences and to distribute its copies to the assistants to the event.

       -   To assign to the final users of the author´s institution (or of any other appropriate organization) the authorization to copy, to use, to transmit and to present the work in public and to create and to distribute derivative works.

2. The authors will assure to have obtained permission for the use of material protected by copyright of other sources, including Internet, and to credit the sources of its contributions.
3. The Author transfers to the RCD the patrimonial rights of the published works, what authorizes it for:

         -     To reproduce the contribution, as well as its translated, adapted or summarized, entire or partial version and to put it at the disposal of the public in printed or electronic form, combined or not with works of third, with access on line or out of line.

         -     To translate the contribution into other languages and to spread the translation to the public.

         -     To create adaptations, summaries or extracts and other works derived from the contribution, as well as to exercise all its rights on the above mentioned adaptations, summaries, extracts and works derived for any intention, even commercially.

        -     To reproduce the contribution by means of reprography, without detriment to the legal limitations.

4. The RCD will have also the right to provide the contribution in all the forms and means so that the same one could be used by the last technology, even after the publication. As well as the authority to assert the rights of the contribution, on behalf of the author, against third, for example, in case of plagiarism or infraction of copyright.
5. The RCD is obliged to respect the moral rights of the author and, consequently, to keep the integrity of the information, safeguarding it of mutilations or modifications different from the necessary for the electronic publication of the work, which generate inaccuracies or which damage the image of the Magazine or of the author.
6. The conflicts related to the protection of the intellectual property to which the present refers, will be submitted to the will of the competent Cuban authority by virtue of the current legislation in the Republic of Cuba.
7. Those authors who send their contributions to be published in this Magazine, accept the following general clauses:

        -  The authors will guarantee to the Magazine the right of the first publication of their contribution, which will be simultaneously subject to not exclusive license of rights used in the publishing platform.

       - The authors can adopt other agreements of not exclusive license of distribution of the published version of the contribution on personal use, internal institutional use and shared use of academicians.

       - It be allowed and recommended to the authors to spread through Internet the evaluated and recognized version (postprint) of the works before its publication, since it favors its circulation and earlier diffusion, it can produce interesting exchanges and with it a possible increase in its quote and scope between the academic community.

      - To protect the diffusion of the contents openly and to prevent a lucrative development, the authors sign or accept in electronic the corresponding formats or conditions to transfer the rights of the distribution and reproduction of the materials to third.

Licenses of use and re-use

All the contents of the Magazine are distributed under the license of open access that allows to the final users of the work to copy, distribute, and communicate publicly the work and do works derived under the following conditions: recognition and quote of the original author not use of the work for commercial purposes. These conditions correspond with internationally recognized in the License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

The manuscripts sending for its publication in the Magazine involves the acceptance, on the part of the authors, the conditions related under control of the rights of development and the definite use and re-use permissions in its intellectual property policy.

Statement of Privacy

The RCD guarantees the protection of the personal information of all their collaborators, are accepted or not their contributions. The names and e-mail will not be shared by other public or private institutions in any moment of the arbitration process, they will be in public knowledge only when they are published in the Magazine or that have by the express consent of the collaborator, or it exists an express and founded legal decision that demands the delivery of this information.

During the review process, the manuscripts will not be used for any other purpose, and they will become publics at the moment of its publication. The rejected manuscripts will be filed in the historical record of the publishing management system used by the Magazine, and they could not be used for a different purpose from the one that motivated its sending.