About the Journal

ABOUT THE JOURNAL:

Olas y Letras is an open-access electronic publication affiliated with the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Valladolid. Its goal is to publish original research on language and literature related to the sea and navigation, as well as reviews of publications on these subjects in Spanish, Italian, English, Portuguese, and French.

The annual journal contains a miscellaneous section, in which research papers approved by the scientific committee and filtered by the Editorial Board will be published, as well as a review section.

With the approval of the Editorial Board, some issues may occasionally include a monographic section coordinated by an internal or external researcher from the University of Valladolid.

The journal has two committees: an Editorial Board and a Scientific Committee. The members of these committees are listed accordingly. The Editorial Board comprises researchers from the universities of Valladolid and Turin. The Scientific Committee comprises researchers from other study and research centers in Spain and abroad.

Topic areas:

The journal Olas y Letras accepts and evaluates articles from any area related to the Language and Literature of the sea and navigation

  • Linguistic Analysis of Texts
  • Linguistic anthropology
  • Spanish dialectology and varieties
  • Digitization of works related to the sea
  • Ecocriticism
  • Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies
  • Textual philology
  • Comparative lexicography of Spanish with other languages
  • Lexicology and lexicography
  • Corpus linguistics
  • Navigation News in the Media
  • Pragmatics
  • Semantics
  • Semiotics
  • Theory of Literature
  • Toponymy
  • Translation from Spanish and Italian into other languages
  • Use of Subject-Related Materials for Teaching and Acquiring Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE)
  • Use of Subject-Related Materials for Teaching and Acquiring Italian as Foreign Languages (ELE)

Institutional Affiliation

This journal is owned by the University of Valladolid (España), which hosts, maintains, and manages it through Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid (EdUVa) and the University's Information and Communication Technologies Service (STIC). The University guarantees open access to all journal contents. All published works are archived in the University of Valladolid’s Institutional Repository to ensure long-term preservation.

 Peer review process:

Submitted articles must present original research of scientific quality. Simultaneous submission to other journals or platforms is not allowed.

The Editorial Board may reject submissions for any of the following reasons, which may prevent them from advancing to the evaluation phase:

  • The text does not follow the magazine's style guidelines
  • The text does not conform to the journal's formatting template
  • The work does not align with the journal's thematic focus
  • Plagiarized text was detected

All submissions undergo double-blind peer review. Each article is evaluated by two experts selected from the Scientific Committee or, when necessary, from external reviewers.

If both reviewers reject the article, it is declined. If only one rejects it, a third reviewer is assigned, and their verdict will be final.

Evaluation criteria include:

  • Originality
  • Methodological quality
  • Contribution to the academic field

The anonymity of authors and reviewers is preserved throughout the evaluation process.

Authors will be informed of the final decision by the Editorial Board after the peer review is complete. All parties must adhere to the deadlines established for each phase.

Publication frequency

Olas y Letras  is published annually.

There is a fixed yearly deadline for article and review submissions. The submission window opens on January 1st and closes on a specific date announced each year in the “Announcements” section. Submissions outside this window will not be considered.

Code of ethics

The journal adheres to the Code of Ethics set out in the Good Practices Guide of Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid, which aligns with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

  1. Authors

Authors must conduct ethical and responsible research, comply with current legislation, and follow the guidelines in Section 1 of the Good Practices Guide. Submissions must be original, unpublished, and properly attributed. Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and redundant publication are strictly prohibited.

Sources must be clearly cited, and any fabrication, distortion, or manipulation of data is forbidden. Unauthorized use of private communications or debates is not allowed. Third-party images or graphics must have proper permissions and citations.

Submissions under evaluation elsewhere will be rejected. Once submitted to Olas y Letras , a manuscript may not be submitted elsewhere until the review process concludes.

  1. Editorial Board

The Editorial Board must ensure the quality of publications, promote good research practices, and avoid misconduct. It is responsible for managing the peer review process fairly and impartially, protecting authors’ rights, and maintaining confidentiality until publication.

It is the responsibility of the editorial committee to manage the evaluation process of submissions with fairness and impartiality, respecting the intellectual perspectives of the authors and ensuring their right to express disagreement with reviewers’ reports.

Members of the committee must uphold the confidentiality of the manuscripts and their contents until publication, and may not use any data from these works for their own research unless they have obtained the explicit consent of the authors.

The editorial committee may consider an author’s request to exclude certain reviewers, assessing whether the reasons provided are justified, but is not obliged to comply with such requests.

The committee will acknowledge the contributions of reviewers by issuing appropriate certifications to those who have fulfilled their duties satisfactorily.

The committee is also responsible for preventing research misconduct, including redundant publication, plagiarism or self-plagiarism, omission of cited sources, fabrication, falsification, manipulation, or unauthorized use of data. If minor instances of such misconduct are detected in a manuscript, the author will be invited to make the necessary corrections; however, if substantial portions are affected, the manuscript will be rejected.

Should any form of misconduct come to light after publication, the editorial committee will request clarification from the author and, after due consideration, will determine the appropriate course of action. If the issue is limited to a specific part of the work, it may be addressed through the publication of an erratum. If the misconduct affects a significant portion of the article, the work will be publicly disavowed in accordance with the procedure outlined in section 2.2 of the Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid’s Code of Good Practice.

Furthermore, the editorial committee will seek to resolve any potential conflicts of interest as described in section 2.4 of the aforementioned guide.

  1. Reviewers

Reviewers must decline to evaluate any work in which they have a conflict of interest, as outlined in Section 3 of the Good Practices Guide.

Reviewers’ work shall remain confidential throughout the evaluation process and after the publication of the assessed manuscript. They must not use the content under review for personal gain or for the benefit of others. Reviewers are expected to respect the intellectual positions of the authors, providing objective and impartial assessments supported by well-reasoned arguments. Their feedback should be respectful, constructively address any errors, and offer suggestions for improvement regarding content, formal presentation, writing style, and the use of bibliographic sources.

If reviewers identify any form of research misconduct during their evaluation, they are obliged to report it to the journal’s editorial committee, which will take the appropriate actions.

Reviewers must submit their reports within the agreed timeframe. Should they be unable to meet the deadline or feel unqualified to evaluate the manuscript, they must inform the editorial committee as soon as possible.

Plagiarism Detection Policy

Olas y Letras  is committed to upholding the principles of good research practice as outlined in the previously mentioned “Code of Ethical Conduct,” with the aim of preventing plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and multiple or redundant publication. Reviewers are requested to promptly notify the journal of any suspected instances of research misconduct. The editorial team has established clear procedures to address such cases should they arise. Furthermore, all submitted articles will be screened using a plagiarism detection tool provided by the el Servicio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (STIC) of the University of Valladolid. Appropriate actions will be taken in accordance with established protocols if any instances of misconduct are identified.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

If artificial intelligence tools were used in preparing the article, authors must disclose how and for what purpose.

Open Acces Policy and Copyright Notice

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, fostering global knowledge exchange.

All works in Olas y Letras  are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Published content reflects the authors’ views, not necessarily those of the journal’s editorial team.

DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and Digital Archiving Policy

All articles published will be assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). They will also be archived in the University of Valladolid’s Institutional Repository and in other databases, and preserved by the university’s ICT Service (STIC)

Funding and information policy on funding sources

The journal does not charge authors for submitting their articles or reviews, nor for publishing them, and is financed and managed through the resources of Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid.

If an article is related to research funded by public or private entities, this must be declared at the time of submission by filling out the appropriate section of the metadata. In cases of multiple authorship, each author must individually disclose all information regarding their sources of funding. This includes the name of the funding entity, the grant or project identification number, and a description of the funder’s role in the research. Following successful peer review, a footnote indicating whether the work received financial support or was conducted within the framework of a research project will be included after the article title.

Interoperability protocol

The journal has an OAI-PMH interface (Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) that enables databases or information services to access the metadata of published works. Path to obtain the metadata: https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/olasyletras/oai?verb=Identify.