About the Journal
Focus and Scope
DECUMANUS is a biannual online journal affiliated to the Institute of Architecture, Design and Art of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. The journal is aimed at researchers, academics, undergraduate and graduate students, with the goal of serving as a platform for the dissemination of scientific knowledge, reflections, and findings from research projects related to urban studies across various disciplinary perspectives, thereby strengthening the production and sharing of knowledge in these fields at both national and international levels.
Submissions are accepted year-round and may include research articles and contemporary reflections.
This journal does not charge any fees for receiving, reviewing, editing, or publishing articles.
Editorial Process
All submissions undergo an editorial process consisting of the following stages:
Preliminary Review: Upon receipt, the editorial team reviews the document for compliance with editorial guidelines (originality, formatting and style, sections, bibliography, graphic support, etc.) available at: Author Guidelines. If minor observations are identified, the author will have up to two weeks to address them.
Review by the Editor-in-chief: The Editor-in-chief evaluates the document and determines whether its subject matter, originality, and scientific quality meet the standards required for publication. All articles are screened for plagiarism, duplicate publication, and related issues using the Turnitin system. An article may be rejected at this stage, and the corresponding author will be notified accordingly.
Invitation of Reviewers: The editorial team sends review invitations to subject-matter specialists. Reviewers with any conflict of interest are excluded from the process.
Peer Review: Each article is evaluated by two reviewers, who have 20 calendar days to complete their assessment. Throughout this process, the anonymity of both reviewers and authors is maintained (double-blind review). Reviewers critically assess the manuscript and issue a verdict: publishable without revisions, publishable with minor revisions, publishable with major revisions, subject to a second round of review, or not publishable. They may also provide suggestions to improve the quality of the article. All peer review outcomes are final and non-appealable.
Reviewers should consider the following criteria:
Style: Spelling, writing, or syntactical errors that detract from the written work.
Coherence: The text is well-structured and includes a clear introduction; the goals, methodology, or findings are clearly articulated.
Clarity and Relevance: The text is clearly written, makes appropriate use of language, and is relevant to the journal's scope.
Formatting: The submission complies with the formatting requirements outlined in Decumanus editorial guidelines.
Originality and Academic Contribution: The text is original and makes a meaningful contribution to the scientific community.
Additional Comments: Reviewers are encouraged to openly discuss the strengths and limitations of the article across any dimensions they consider relevant, and may include as many pages as needed.
Evaluation of Peer Review Outcomes: The editorial coordinator considers the peer review reports before issuing a final decision. In the event of a discrepancy between the two reviewers, the manuscript will be sent to a third reviewer whose decision will be final.
Communication of the Final Decision to the Author: The editorial team will notify the corresponding author of the outcome and share the review reports through the OJS platform. The author must respond to each comment individually and incorporate the corresponding revisions within a maximum of 20 calendar days. If no response is received within this period, the editorial committee reserves the right to withdraw the submission. If the decision is publishable with major revisions, the revised version will undergo a second round of peer review. The editorial team and the publications department of the publishing institution conduct a final review of grammar, style, and references in the manuscript's final version. Finally, the publications department handles the layout and design of the issue prior to publication.
While the duration of the editorial process varies by submission, the journal's standard timeline for completing the full process is three to six months.
For the purposes of blind peer review, submissions must not contain any information identifying the authors or their academic or professional affiliations. Author information and manuscript submissions must be provided exclusively through this platform.
Open Access Policy
DECUMANUS provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that freely available research fosters greater global knowledge exchange. The journal does not and will not charge readers any subscription fees, nor will it charge authors for submitting, processing, or publishing their work.
As a condition of publication, authors agree to release their copyright under a shared license — specifically, the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional
This license allows anyone to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms:
- Credit must be given to the original author
- The material may not be used for commercial purposes
- The material may not be transformed or modified
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. All works are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which permits third parties to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format, provided that original authorship is credited, the material is not used for commercial purposes, and it is distributed under the same license.
Journal Sponsors
Publisher Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Institute of Architecture, Design and Art. Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses submitted to this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes stated herein and will not be shared with third parties or used for any other purpose.
