About the Journal
Presentation
BSAA arqueología is a scientific Prehistory and Archaeology journal published by the Prehistory and Archaeology departments of the University of Valladolid and edited by Valladolid University Editions. A continuation of the Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología (also known by its initials, BSAA; ISSN 0210-9573), founded in 1932 by professor Cayetano de Mergelina, the Boletín kept its usual heading until 2005 when, adapting to the demands of modern-day specialisation, its two habitual sections (Art and Archaeology) began to be published in independent volumes whilst maintaining their identical format and numbering. Consequently, with volume LXXI BSAA arqueología (ISSN 1888-976X) was born; in line with current editorial requirements, in 2017 (vol. LXXXIII; E-ISSN 2530-6367) it adopted its digital format.
BSAA arqueología is a yearly international scientific journal, published in open-access and free digital format. It accepts academic articles on conceptual, spatial and chronological issues relating to Prehistory and Archaeology issues, and is directed at the specialist scientific community and professionals connected with museums and heritage. Articles must be original and unedited and preferably written in Spanish, but also in English, French, Italian or Portuguese.
Institutional affiliation
This journal is owned by the University of Valladolid (Spain), which provides its digital hosting and is responsible for its maintenance and management through Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid (EdUVa) and the Servicio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones de la Universidad de Valladolid (STIC). The University of Valladolid guarantees open access to the contents of the journal. The works published in the journal will be included in the Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Valladolid, guaranteeing their long-term preservation.
Dissemination, indexing and categorisation
The abstracts of BSAA from its birth (Number 1, parts1, 2 and 3, 1932-1933) up to volume XLII, corresponding to 1976, can be found at Dialnet; afterwards, from volume XLIII (1977) up to volume LXIX-LXX, 2003-2004, complete texts are available at both Dialnet and UVaDOC, the Document Repository of the University of Valladolid. Following the separation of the two sections of the old Boletín in 2005, the digitalised contents of BSAA arqueología can be consulted in their complete versions at both Dialnet and UVaDOC.
The Boletín is also available in many prestigious national and international libraries, and it is systematically included in the following online databases and bibliographical resources: CARHUS Plus+ 2014, CIRC, DICE, ISOC-Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, LATINDEX, MIAR, REBIUN y RESH.
The Editorial Team
Two thirds of the Editorial Committee of BSAA arqueología are members of the University of Valladolid and the remaining third are accredited external specialists. The Scientific Committee is composed almost entirely of assessors unrelated to Valladolid University, with a team of prestigious national and international academics belonging to university institutions, museums and other centres of research; approximately half of these are foreigners. In both cases, an effort has been made to ensure that all of the journal’s thematic areas are covered. The Editorial Committee is responsible for close and continual monitoring of the editorial process. It has the support of the highly qualified members of the Scientific Committee and other experts from outside the Editorial Team whose task it is to draw up reports prior to acceptance of the originals presented for publication in BSAA arqueología.
The members of the Editorial Team can publish articles in the journal provided these have successfully undergone an anonymous assessment process. At least 75% of the articles published in BSAA arqueología are by authors not related to the Editorial Team.
The journal does not have either article submission charges or article processing charges, but it is up to the authors to deal with the arrangements and the cost of reproduction rights relating to the illustrations for their study.
Articles published in BSAA arqueología may be included in international and academic repositories as soon as they are published without any modification and with a clear indication of their source.
Peer assessment of the articles
Studies which do not conform to the format and editorial requirements established by the journal will be returned to their authors for modification. Those which do conform to both aspects will undergo a two-fold evaluation process. Firstly, the journal’s Editorial Committee will review the studies received, considering whether these fulfil the requirements expected by quality academic publications. Secondly, on successful completion of the first stage, the studies will be assessed by two experts from outside the Editorial Committee; these will be designated by the Committee on the strength of their specialist knowledge of the subject in question. Reviewing will be on the basis of “blind peer assessment”, that is, it will be anonymous in terms of both the authors’ identity as well as that of the assessors and the content of their reports. Should there be a clear discrepancy between both reports, a third opinion will be sought.
In order to maintain the anonymity of the articles’ authorship during peer evaluation, references or quotations which reveal such identity will be avoided.
The Editorial Committee will notify the authors of the reviewers’ evaluation and, where appropriate, their observations. Should modifications be required, the decision regarding publication will not be definitive until these have been incorporated in the study by the author, for which a period of one month excluding holidays will be allowed. On the basis of the final version of the study and the reports received, the Editorial Committee will make its decision regarding publication of the originals and will notify the authors of their decisions.
Frequency of publication
BSAA arqueología edits one volume yearly. It is recommended that authors send their articles in the first quarter of the year corresponding to publication and preferably during the last months of the previous one.
Regarding the editing process
The Editorial Committee reserves the right to suggest the correction of mechanical errors or ones relating to style, as well as to inform the authors about instructions deemed appropriate for enhancing the quality of the publication. At all events, the author may express, by well-reasoned justification, their opinion concerning such modifications prior to the article being considered definitive.
Declaration of privacy
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the purposes stated by this journal (namely, those relating the processing of manuscripts submitted for publication, their evaluating process, or the distribution of information concerning the published works) and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Under REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), users can exercise their rights to request access to, and to rectification and erasure (right to be forgotten) of their personal information, restriction of and/or objection to data processing and portability, as well as not to transfer and/ or share your information with third parties individually.
Policy of open access
The OJS, (Open Journal System) makes it possible, once BSAA arqueología has completed its editing process, for articles to be consulted and downloaded freely and as widely as possible.
Code of Conduct
The journal will comply with the ethical code established in the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines, which adheres to the principles proposed by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE). This guide establishes the ethical way of proceeding by authors, editorial committees and reviewers, the content of which is summarized below:
- Authors
Authors of articles must undertake to conduct their research in an ethical and responsible manner, in compliance with prevailing legislation and the aspects included in section 1 of the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines. Work shall be original and unpublished, and shall be duly attributed to those who have prepared it, avoiding plagiarism (misappropriation of others' work or ideas), self-plagiarism (taking advantage of ideas or previous works of one's own authorship without citing the source) and multiple or redundant publication of the same work. Clear reference should be made to the sources used and to previous papers on the same subject matter, explaining the origin of the data and ideas, of the literal quotations or of other resources (such as graphs, images, tables, etc.). Failure to comply with these aspects may lead to the public disavowal of the articles, as explained in section 2. 2 of the aforementioned guide.
Information from private conversations or discussions with others in academia or science may not be used without their explicit permission. If images or graphics that are not originally from the author are included in the work, they must have express permission to use them and cite the authorship appropriately.
Woks that are being evaluated in whole or in part by another publisher cannot be submitted. Once submitted to Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid, the originals cannot be sent to another journal or publisher until the evaluation process has been completed.
- Editorial committee
The members of the editorial committee must ensure the quality of the publications, promoting good practices in research, trying to avoid malpractice and trying to speed up the publication processes.
The evaluation process must be managed fairly and impartially, respecting the thinking of those who have written the work and guaranteeing them the right to disagree with the evaluation reports.
It is the responsibility of the editorial committee to manage the evaluation process of publications fairly and impartially, respecting the thinking of authors and guaranteeing them the right to disagree with the evaluation reports.
Members of the editorial committees must respect the confidentiality of the articles and their contents until the time of publication and may not use the data in the work for their own research, unless they have the express permission of the authors.
The editorial committees may consider the refusal of authors to have their work evaluated by certain persons, evaluating whether the reasons provided are justified, but they are not obliged to dispense with the use of these persons.
The editorial committees shall recognise the work of the reviewers, issuing, where appropriate, the corresponding accreditations to those who have adequately carried out their work.
The editorial committee must try to avoid malpractice in research (redundant publication, plagiarism or selfplagiarism, omission of cited sources, invented, misrepresented, manipulated or unauthorised use of data ...). Where instances of research malpractice are noted in manuscripts received, the author will be invited to correct them if the misuse affects a small part of the article, and the manuscript will be rejected if it affects a substantial part.
If malpractice is discovered after publication, the editorial committee will request clarifications from the author and, after evaluating their explanations, will make a decision on the matter. If only part of the work contains errors, this can be resolved by publishing an erratum. If the malpractice affects a substantial part of the article, it must be retracted, in accordance with the procedure described in section 2. 2 of the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines.
Likewise, the editorial committee will try to resolve any possible conflicts of interest described in section 2. 4 of the aforementioned guide.
- Reviewer/s
Reviewers must refrain from reviewing the works if they had any relationship with the authors that would advise against it, as explained in section 3 of the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines.
The work of reviewers must be confidential, both during the evaluation process and after the eventual publication of the evaluated work. Reviewers will not be able to use the evaluated content for their own personal benefit or that of other people, and they must respect the opinions and intellectual position of those who have written the articles, judging the work objectively and impartially, arguing their judgements appropriately, showing respect, constructively correcting possible errors and providing suggestions for improvement with regard to the contents, formal presentation, writing and bibliography used in the work.
In the event that any malpractice is detected in the work reviewed, reviewers must notify the editorial committees so that their members can take the corresponding decisions.
Reviewers are required to submit their reports within the agreed time. If they are unable to complete their task on time, or if they do not consider themselves capable of evaluating the work, they should inform the members of the editorial committees as soon as possible.
Regarding copyright
All of the studies published in the journal BSAA arqueología are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The authors retain ownership of their articles and may re-publish these in another medium without having to request authorisation, provided they indicate that the study was originally published in the journal BSAA arqueología.
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and preservation of digital files
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) will be assigned to the articles published in the journal. The articles will also be housed in the Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Valladolid and in other databases, and will be archived by the Servicio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones de la Universidad de Valladolid (STIC).
Plagiarism prevention tool
The journal has an plagiarism prevention tool provided by the Servicio de Tecnologias de la Información y las Comunicaciones de la Universidad de Valladolid (STIC).