About the Journal
REIJ Aims, Scope and Objectives
The Revista Especializada en Investigación Jurídica (REIJ) is an electronic, semiannual, continuous-publication, indexed, peer-reviewed, open-access scientific and academic journal published by the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez.
Its objective is to disseminate original research findings and contribute to the analysis, discussion, and development of legal knowledge through the publication of high-quality academic works related to the various fields of Legal Sciences at both the national and international levels.
The thematic scope of REIJ encompasses the study of legal phenomena from theoretical, doctrinal, methodological, comparative, interdisciplinary, and applied perspectives, including, among others, the fields of public law, private law, international law, constitutional law, criminal law, labor law, administrative law, tax law, environmental law, digital law, human rights law, and related disciplines within the Legal Sciences.
The journal is intended for researchers, academics, undergraduate and graduate students, legal practitioners, members of public and private institutions, legal professionals, and, in general, the academic community interested in legal research.
REIJ publishes research articles, review articles, case law commentaries, legislative studies, and book reviews, provided that they constitute original works and comply with the scientific, methodological, and ethical standards established by the journal.
In order to strengthen academic diversity and the internationalization of knowledge, the journal welcomes contributions from both national and international authors and gives priority to manuscripts originating from institutions other than the publishing institution.
REIJ has adopted a Code of Ethics based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), uses technological tools to detect textual similarity through Turnitin, and has an Artificial Intelligence Use Policy applicable to authors, reviewers, and members of the editorial team.
The journal publishes its content under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
ISSN: 2448-8739
Institutional DOI: https://doi.org/10.20983/reij
Publication Frequency Statement
The Revista Especializada en Investigación Jurídica (REIJ) is a semiannual publication that operates under a continuous publication model.
The journal publishes two issues per year, organized into the following semiannual periods:
- January–June
- July–December
Each issue remains open throughout the corresponding semester, and articles are published individually on a continuous basis as soon as they successfully complete the editorial process, which includes external double-blind peer review, editorial approval, copyediting, layout design, and final proof review.
At the end of each semester, REIJ closes the corresponding issue and opens the next issue for the continued submission and publication of contributions.
This model allows for the immediate dissemination of research results, reduces the time between acceptance and publication, and ensures the continuous updating of published content.
Open Science Practices
The Revista Especializada en Investigación Jurídica promotes the principles of open science as a mechanism to strengthen the transparency, accessibility, integrity, visibility, and preservation of scientific knowledge.
Open Access
All content published by REIJ is available through immediate, permanent, and free open access, without restrictions on consultation, downloading, reading, distribution, or use, in accordance with the terms of the journal’s publishing license.
The journal does not charge fees for manuscript submission, processing, peer review, or publication. Consequently, REIJ does not apply article processing charges (APCs), submission fees, subscription fees, or access fees. Likewise, the journal does not provide financial compensation to authors, reviewers, or members of its editorial bodies for their participation in the editorial process.
Publication activities are institutionally funded by the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, thereby guaranteeing the journal’s editorial independence and its commitment to a scholarly communication model based on knowledge as a public good.
License of Use
The journal publishes its content under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which allows users to share, copy, redistribute, adapt, transform, and reuse published materials for non-commercial purposes, provided that proper credit is given to the authors and original source, an appropriate link to the license is included, and any modifications are clearly indicated.
Self-Archiving and Open Repositories
Authors retain the economic rights to their works and may freely deposit preprint, postprint, and final published versions of their manuscripts in institutional, disciplinary, or multidisciplinary repositories, preprint servers, personal websites, academic social networks, and other open-access platforms without embargo periods.
As part of its commitment to the open dissemination of scientific knowledge, REIJ utilizes the Institutional Repository of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (RIUACJ) to enhance the visibility, accessibility, preservation, and circulation of legal scholarship.
The journal’s self-archiving policy allows authors to disseminate their contributions before, during, and after the editorial process, provided that the original publication in REIJ is properly acknowledged once the article has been accepted and published.
Preprints
REIJ accepts the submission and evaluation of manuscripts previously disseminated as preprints in recognized academic servers. The existence of a preprint version shall not be considered prior publication and shall not prevent the editorial evaluation of the manuscript.
Authors must disclose, at the time of submission, the existence of any preprint versions and provide the corresponding link.
Continuous Publication
REIJ operates under a continuous publication model. Accepted articles are published individually as soon as the stages of copyediting, editing, layout, and final proof review have been successfully completed, without waiting for the closure of the corresponding semiannual issue.
Authorship and Contribution Transparency
The Specialized Journal of Legal Research promotes transparency in the attribution of academic contributions through the explicit identification of the functions performed by each participant in the research and manuscript preparation process.
Beginning with Issue 19, the journal adopts criteria compatible with the international CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) and incorporates a specific section in its author template where individual contributions must be declared. These contributions may include conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, drafting of the original manuscript, review and editing, supervision, project administration, and other relevant academic functions.
The information provided aims to strengthen transparency, accountability, and the proper recognition of intellectual contributions in the research and scientific publishing process.
Authorship or co-authorship requires a substantial academic contribution to the submitted work, in accordance with the ethical principles and editorial best practices adopted by REIJ.
Funding and Conflict of Interest Transparency
The journal promotes transparency regarding research funding sources and the identification of potential conflicts of interest that may influence the design, development, results, or conclusions of submitted works.
To this end, the journal includes a specific section in its author template where funding sources, institutional support, grants, research projects, and any other resources contributing to the development of the research must be disclosed.
Authors must also declare the existence or absence of conflicts of interest of a financial, professional, institutional, academic, personal, or any other nature that could affect, or be perceived as affecting, the objectivity, independence, or impartiality of the research.
Where no external funding or conflicts of interest exist, authors must expressly declare this circumstance.
Research Data and Materials
REIJ encourages authors to share, whenever the nature of the research permits and no legal, ethical, or confidentiality restrictions exist, the data, materials, instruments, documentary sources, or resources used in the research through open or institutional repositories.
When data cannot be made publicly available, authors must indicate the reasons justifying such restriction.
Digital Preservation
The journal promotes the use of international digital preservation standards to ensure the visibility, retrieval, accessibility, and long-term preservation of published scientific content.
Digital preservation measures include:
a) Open Journal Systems (OJS). REIJ uses the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform for the comprehensive management of the editorial process, content storage, and maintenance of its historical archive.
b) Persistent Identifiers. Every published article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), ensuring permanent identification, facilitating retrieval, and contributing to preservation efforts.
c) Permanent Access to the Historical Archive. REIJ maintains access to all published issues and articles, facilitating consultation, download, retrieval, and long-term preservation.
d) Complementary Digital Preservation Systems. The journal participates in specialized preservation services and networks such as the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) and LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) to strengthen the long-term preservation of its content.
Peer Review
REIJ currently employs a double-blind peer review model.
Without prejudice to this practice, the journal maintains a policy of continuous improvement and follows international open science developments to evaluate the progressive incorporation of additional mechanisms for editorial transparency.
Artificial Intelligence and Open Science
The use of artificial intelligence tools in the preparation, evaluation, and publication of manuscripts must comply with the provisions established in the Artificial Intelligence Use Policy of the Specialized Journal of Legal Research.
Authors, reviewers, and members of the editorial team must observe the principles of transparency, human oversight, academic responsibility, and verifiability regarding the results generated through the use of such tools.
Institutional Commitment
REIJ reaffirms its commitment to the democratization of knowledge, transparency in editorial processes, the open circulation of research results, and the progressive adoption of international open science best practices, in accordance with the evolving academic, technological, and editorial standards applicable to legal scholarly publications.
Metadata Policy
The Specialized Journal of Legal Research (REIJ) recognizes the importance of metadata as essential elements for the identification, description, retrieval, interoperability, visibility, and preservation of published scientific content.
To ensure proper management of scholarly information, REIJ generates, manages, and disseminates structured and standardized metadata for all published documents in accordance with national and international standards applicable to electronic scientific publications.
The metadata associated with each contribution include:
a) Title of the work in the original language and in a second language.
b) Full names of the authors.
c) Persistent author identifiers (ORCID).
d) Institutional affiliations.
e) Email addresses.
f) Abstract.
g) Keywords.
h) Type of contribution (research article, review article, case law commentary, legislative study, or book review).
i) Editorial dates corresponding to receipt, acceptance, and publication.
j) Persistent document identifiers (DOI).
k) Information regarding issue number, publication year, and page range or electronic locator.
l) Copyright and publication license information.
m) Funding and conflict-of-interest disclosures, where applicable.
REIJ seeks to ensure that metadata are complete, consistent, accurate, and up to date in order to facilitate indexing in databases, information systems, academic search engines, institutional repositories, and other scholarly dissemination platforms.
Furthermore, the journal promotes the use of international standards for interoperability and metadata communication that facilitate the harvesting, exchange, retrieval, and preservation of published scientific information.
Authors are responsible for providing accurate, complete, and up-to-date information during the manuscript submission process, as well as for verifying the accuracy of the metadata recorded in the editorial platform prior to the final publication of their work.
The metadata management practices of REIJ are intended to strengthen the visibility, accessibility, discoverability, citation, digital preservation, and academic impact of published works.
