Editorial Policy
Ciencia Cognitiva (CC) is devoted to make accesible findings in the cognitive sciences both to the general public as well as to experts in other disciplines, helping them to keep up to date.
Ciencia Cognitiva (CC) publishes several kinds of papers:
- Noticias – News (max. 300 words) about events, the journal itself, or anything relevant to the cognitive sciences.
- Actualidad – Current Research (max. 1000 words), short papers based on recent studies, always published in the best international peer-revieweed journals.
- Clásicos – Classic Research (max. 1000 words), short papers based on classic studies in cognitive science.
- Entrevistas – Interviews with well-known researchers in cognitive science.
- Opinión – Opinion (max. 1000 words), short papers providing a critical analysis and discussion on varied topics always relevant to cognitive science.
- Comentarios – Comments (max. 500 words) on papers previously published in CC.
The papers in Current Research and Classic Research constitute the core of this journal. They describe important findings for the understanding of the mind (biological or artificial) and its relation with the physical, neural, social, cultural, and evolutive domains. Each paper in CC is based on a single or a small and compact set of papers previously published in prestigious international peer-reviewed specialized journals. The topic is presented in an accesible and clear way, and it may also include a critical analysis.
CC promotes a strategy of science popularization in which the researchers 1) publish their findings in high-impact specialized journals, thereby securing their communication to the community of specialists; and 2) complement it with short papers addressed to a wide audience in CC, which broaden their reach to experts in other disciplines and to the general public.
Multilingual articles
CC was born as a science popularization journal directed to the world-wide Spanish speaking public, and the Spanish language remains at its core. As of November 7th, 2015, CC started publishing multilingual articles: articles published simultaneously in two or more languages. The goal of multilingual articles is threefold: 1) to open CC to authors who are not Spanish speakers; 2) to broaden even more the potential audience of papers published in CC; and 3) to foster multilingualim in our readers.
A multilingual paper can be initially written in either English or Spanish. The manuscript then undergoes review. After being accepted for publication, it is translated into the other language/s of choice, by either the journal staff or by the author. Finally, the different versions of the paper are published side by side in CC.
If the author does not speak Spanish, she may write initially in English, and the journal will translate the paper into Spanish. If the author speaks Spanish, she may choose to write initially in English or Spanish, and to carry out the translation herself or leave it to the journal. If the author would like to reach also audiences who speak other languages, she will need to provide the journal with the translations into those other languages. In sum, CC editorial office is able to review manuscripts in either English or Spanish, and is able to translate accepted manuscripts into Spanish. Translations into other languages will be the responsibility of the author.
Publication and subscription costs
CC is completely free, both for readers and authors.
Manuscript preparation
Submitted manuscripts must be written in either Spanish or English, using a clear style intended to maximize the target audience, without trivializing the topic and findings. We believe it is possible to explain complex things clearly.
Because of the small word limit, headings must be used sparingly and subheadings should be avoided.
It is possible (and actually recommended) to include charts and pictures, but always avoiding copyright infringement. Therefore, if an image has copyright, obtaining written permission from the copyright holder will be necessary. If this is not possible, it is often possible to generate new charts from the same results (usually reported in tables or appendices).
The document must be submitted as an attached file to the following email address: divulga@cienciacognitiva.org, using this form. The file must be in one of these formats: OpenDocument (.odt), or Word (.doc) in versions prior to the .docx format. We encourage the use of non-propietary file formats.
As shown in the submission form, the manuscript must have the following sections:
- Title.
- Full name of the author/s.
- Filiation (if any).
- Contact email (this will not be published together with the paper, and will not be revealed to third parties).
- Article type (Noticias, Actualidad, Clásicos, Entrevistas, Opinión, Comentarios).
- Disciplines with which the manuscript is related.
- Between 3 and 5 labels.
- Abstract (max. 100 words).
- Text (max. depending on article type).
Citations and references follow APA format.
Review process
Every candidate manuscript (with the exception of News) will be reviewed by the editorial board, using the following criteria:
- Relevance to the cognitive sciences.
- Importance and timeliness of the topic and the described research.
- Quality of the described research, which must have been already published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and books.
- Quality of communication to a general audience.
- Lack of improductive overlap with other papers already published in the journal.
The review process has three stages: first, the editors provide a pre-review aimed at checking the adequacy of the topic, format and style. Second, it is sent to a first reviewer, who is an expert in the same discipline as the topic of the manuscript. This reviewer secures the scientific rigor and quality of the manuscript. Finally, the manuscript is sent to a second reviewer, who is an expert in a different discipline, and who checks whether everything is easily comprehensible for an outsider. The three stages are sequential, such that the author/s receive comments and can make changes after each stage. In some cases (e.g., invited papers), some of these stages can be void, although we always gather at least the opinion of an «outsider» reviewer.
Even though it may look complex, most papers complete the review process in about one month.
News will be reviewed only by the editors and published only online (not paginated) and without appearing in the table of contents.
All communication between the author and CC will be through email.
Feel free to contact the editors with any questions.
