Good practices in gender equality
The LEGAL Aldizkaria Journal is committed to gender equality policies that seek real and effective equality between men and women. This commitment is embodied in the following practices:
Editorial gender balance
There is a minimum of 40 % of women in the composition of the editorial teams (management, editorial team, editorial board and advisory board), taken overall.
Women account for at least 40% of the reviewers of the papers submitted to the journal.
Use of inclusive language
The editorial policy recommends the use of inclusive language in all the proposed scientific articles. Consulting the Basque Parliament’s Inclusive Language Guide is therefore recommended.
Gender equality in research
LEGAL Aldizkaria will give particular importance to those papers that take the gender variable into account in order to allow possible differences to be identified, as well as to those papers whose content, objectives and methodology foster a critical analysis of gender relations.
The journal includes the full name in the authorship of the articles it publishes.
Authors are encouraged to disaggregate and analyse research source data in those papers where such data may be subject to gender analysis.
Code of Ethics and Good Practices
Undertakings of the LEGAL Journal
The Basque Parliament guarantees the commitment to ethical integrity and the quality of the articles published in in the Legal Journal, in accordance with the Core Practices) of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This Code of Ethics applies to all stakeholders involved in the editorial process: authors, the editorial and advisory boards, peer reviewers, and the Basque Parliament as the publisher.
Any situation not addressed in the Code will be settled in accordance with COPE guidelines, which will act as a supplementary code.
Editorial and Advisory Board Commitments
The LEGAL Journal is governed by the following fundamental principles:
a) Impartiality.
b) Decision to Publish and Transparency.
c) Honesty.
d) Confidentiality.
e) Conflict of Interest.
f) Publication Frequency.
g) Open Access and Free Publication.
h) Copyright.
i) Digital Preservation.
j) Mechanisms Against Plagiarism and Other Irregularities.
k) Commitment to the Fostering of Research in the Basque Language.
Specific Standards:
a) Impartiality: The Editorial Board will guarantee that qualified external reviewers will be selected, but the Board will not act as a reviewer. The review process will be rigorously documented and transparent.
b) Decision to Publish: After the peer review, the Journal will send the authors a reasoned publication decision and, where applicable any required changes.
c) Honesty: Articles are assessed solely on the basis of the academic merit of the content, with no discrimination based on race, gender, language, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or ideology.
d) Confidentiality: The Editorial Board undertakes to treat the articles submitted for peer review as confidential and to safeguard the integrity of the process.
e) Conflict of Interest: No member of the Editorial Board may use information obtained from the submitted article without the consent of the author.
f) Publication Frequency: The LEGAL Aldizkaria is published annually on a rolling basis. Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis, meaning the articles are published once their review and approval process is completed. They are all subsequently added to the full issue that is published annually.
g) Open Access and Free of Charge: The Journal is Open Access and free of charge for authors, reviewers and readers.
h) Copyright: Articles are published under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence, which allows the distribution of the work with attribution and no modifications. Users may reuse the content as per the terms and conditions of this licence, provided that 1) the authorship and original source of its publication is cited, 2) it is not used for commercial purposes, 3) there is no derivative works and 4) the existence of specifications of this licence for use are mentioned.
i) Digital Preservation: The LEGAL Aldizkaria follows the OAI-PMH guidelines to allow access to all its articles from different directories and other information sources to allow the articles to be indexed.
The PKP Preservation Network provides free preservation services for any OJS journals that meet the basic criteria. Accordingly, the articles of the LEGAL journal are archived in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), thus ensuring a permanent and secure archive, and their digital preservation.
j) Mechanisms Against Plagiarism and Other Irregularities: The LEGAL Journal hereby declares its commitment to the respect and integrity of the published articles. Therefore, plagiarism is strictly forbidden and any text identified as plagiarism or whose content is fraudulent will be excluded from the assessment process, following a procedure in which both sides are heard.
The Editorial Board will act diligently where plagiarism or any other possible irregularity is suspected. The parties concerned will be heard prior to any measures being adopted to address the possible irregularities, including the retraction or exclusion of an article. Any articles including content detected as being plagiarised will not be published in the Journal and it will be excluded should it have already been published. The decision regarding the exclusion of articles containing plagiarism or other fraudulent practices rests with the Editorial Board.
In order to ensure originality standards, all the articles sent to the LEGAL journal are assessed using Similarity Check, the Crossref anti-plagiarism system, that allows similarities and coincidences between the submissions to be detected.
k) Commitment to the Fostering of Research in the Basque Language
The LEGAL ALdizkaria Journal is actively committed to fostering and mainstreaming the use of the Basque Language in the legal and academic spheres. Accordingly, the submission of original texts in the Basque Language is encouraged and their equal treatment in the review and publication process is guaranteed. Furthermore, reviewers with certified Basque language proficiency are encouraged to participate, particularly for submissions in that language.
This commitment is in line with the institutional calling of the Basque Parliament to contribute to promote the use of the Basque language in academia and to the development of a Basque-speaking research community in the legal and political spheres.
Undertakings of the authors
Authors must guarantee that:
• Their papers are original and have not been previously published or simultaneously submitted to other journals.
• All the sources used are correctly cited.
• There are no conflicts of interest that may influence the content of the article.
• The methodology must specify if artificial intelligence (AI) has been used for the writing, translation or data analysis.
The following will be considered as malpractice:
• Plagiarism: Reproducing texts without the relevant citation will be considered to be plagiarism.
• Identity plagiarism: Structural copy of another’s work without reproducing the exact working.
• Overuse of quotations: Paraphrasing and summarising is recommended and quoting excessive fragments should be avoided.
Undertakings of the reviewers
Peer review
The articles will undergo double-blind peer review, ensuring the anonymity of authors and reviewers alike.
It is guaranteed that the reviewers will be from outside the authors’ institutions and be specialised in the subject matter of the article.
The reviewers must:
• Issue objective and reasoned reports.
• Abide by the confidentiality of the review process.
• Respect the review deadlines.
• Assess the articles based on the relevance of the subject, structure, methodology soundness and appropriateness of the references used.
• Report any similarities with other papers and guarantee the integrity the process.
• Report any possible cases of plagiarism or similarities with other papers.
• Refrain from reviewing if a conflict of interest with the author exists.
Review Procedure:
a.The Journal confirms receipt of the manuscript.
b.The Editorial Board assigns anonymous external reviewers.
c.The articles are reviewed based on the relevance of the subject, structure, methodology soundness and appropriateness of the references used.
d.During the review process, any similarities with other papers will be reported and the integrity of the process will be guaranteed.
e.The authors will be informed of the publication decision, along with any modifications required, if applicable.
f.In case of significant discrepancy between the reviewers, a third review report will be requested.
g.Furthermore, the reviewers undertake to respect the review times, indicate important bibliographic references that may have been omitted and to avoid any conflict of interest.
Digital Preservation and Anti-Plagiarism
The LEGAL Aldizkaria Journal uses the following strategies to guarantee the integrity and continuity of its content:
• DigitalPreservation: LOCKSS and CLOCKSS are use to archive and protect the articles.
• Plagiarism Detection: All articles are run through the Crossref Similarity Check system.
If plagiarism or other malpractice is detected, the Editorial Board may withdraw the article and ban future contributions from the author.
Conflict Resolution
Any dispute or ethical conflict no envisaged in this code will be settled according to the COPE guidelines.