ISSN 1852-0499
online version
ISSN 1666-1508
printed version

Instructions to authors

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

Policies and publication criteria

The “Articles” section is composed of original, unpublished works submitted to the magazine for publication. All submissions are initially assessed by the editorial board, which decides whether or not the article fits the scope of the journal and is suitable for peer review. Submissions recommended for review are assigned to two independent experts, who evaluate the article for clarity, sound methodology and contribution to existing scholarship. The peer review process is double blind, meaning that authors and reviewers remain anonymous throughout the review process. The reviewers will make a recommendation for rejection, revisions or acceptance. In case of a radical discrepancy the journal carries out a third evaluation. 

The ‘Readings section’ consists of an essay which analyzes two or more texts related to intellectual history. The editorial board evaluates the essays received for this section.

The "Reviews" section is composed of bibliographic analyses of recently published books, linked to intellectual history issues in a broad sense of the term (cultural history, history of ideas, history of mentalities, historiography, history of science, sociology of culture, etc.). The evaluation of the works received is carried out by the book review editors.

Peer Review Process

The “Articles” section is composed of original, unpublished works submitted to the magazine for publication. All submissions are initially assessed by the editorial board, which decides whether or not the article fits the scope of the journal and is suitable for peer review. Submissions recommended for review are assigned by the Editorial Board to two independent experts, who evaluate the article for clarity, sound methodology and contribution to existing scholarship. The Editorial Board ensures that the referees are distinct from the authors of the articles and that both authors’ and peer reviewers’ identities are protected.

The peer review process is double blind, meaning that authors and reviewers remain anonymous throughout the review process. The reviewers will make a recommendation for rejection, revisions or acceptance. In case of a radical discrepancy the journal carries out a third evaluation. 

The 'Dossier' section is evaluated by the external double-blind peer review system starting with volume 24.

The editorial board evaluates the essays received for the ‘Readings' section

The evaluation of the works received for the ‘Reviews’ section is carried out by the book review editors.

Ethic and Publication malpractice

Prismas is a peer-reviewed journal committedtoensuring the highest standards of publication ethics. All parties involved in the act of publishing (editors, authors, reviewers and the publisher) have to agree upon standards of ethical behavior. We subscribe to the principles of Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE (available at http://publicationethics.org/).

1. Purpose and scope of the journal

Prismas. Revista de historia intelectual is a once-yearly journal that has been published uninterruptedly since 1997 with the purpose of contributing to the formation of a focus for the elaboration of the discipline of intellectual history and of a nucleus of articulation within intellectual history. The journal has established itself as a major tool in the expansion of this area of knowledge in Latin America, convoking and adressing -on a regional scale- a public of specialists and those interested in the history of ideas, culture and intellectuals. As a result of the more general diagnosis of the weakness of the field of studies, the journal has given itself the triple task of: disseminating the production of Argentine and Latin American researchers who, beyond belonging or not to groups specialized in intellectual history, work on objects of study assimilable to this discipline and use methodologies that attend to their analytical procedures; disseminate the positions and conceptual debates generated in the course of the development of intellectual history at the international level; and disseminating academic and intellectual initiatives, carried out by various groups or institutions (including the Center for Intellectual History itself), aimed at the presentation and development of important problematic nuclei for intellectual history. This has been achieved with a flexible format for the journal through various sections (Articles, Arguments, Dossier, Readings), which allow it to carry out initiatives of translation, dissemination or construction of problems independently of the regular reception of articles.

The journal is organized through an International Advisory Committee, composed of prestigious figures in the discipline, a Board of Directors, composed of researchers from the Center, a rotating Editor, chosen every three years from among the members of the Board of Directors, two editorial secretaries and three review editors. Since 2010 Prismas appears, in addition to its classic paper version, in digital version in SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online); in Redalyc and can be consulted in open access on this site. Each paper issue of Prismas (hard-copy) corresponds to one volume of the digital version, which is divided into 2 issues.

2. Review Policy

Contributions to the Articles and Dossier sections receive two types of evaluations:

First, an internal evaluation by the Editorial Committee, whose members are aware of the identity of the authors.
Secondly, they receive an external evaluation by the mechanism of DOUBLE BLIND (the authors do not know the identity of the evaluator, and the evaluators also cannot know the identity of the authors). For this instance, recognized experts in the thematic area related to the article are selected. All evaluators of this type are external to the publishing institution.
Upon request, a certificate may be issued when the article or review has been approved for publication.

If the article successfully passes the internal review stage (according to the criteria explained below), at least two external reviewers are selected to examine the manuscript according to the parameters detailed below. After this instance, if the contribution is accepted by the reviewers, the author has up to three months to make the necessary corrections. After this period, if no response has been received from the author or justification for the delay, the article will be considered withdrawn.

Important: external peer reviews are used for the general evaluation process of the Editorial Committee, which makes the final decision on all submitted texts. In case of discrepancy between the evaluations, at least one additional referee may be required. If there is at least one opinion of rejection of the manuscript, the Editorial Committee may decide not to accept the text for publication.

The internal review of the Editorial Committee takes into account the following parameters: basic quality (clear writing, correct spelling and respect for editorial standards); disciplinary relevance; inclusion of abstracts in English and Spanish; final bibliography and keywords.

In the external review by peer reviewers, they are consulted on the aspects included in the following form:

Adequacy for Prismas

- Do you consider that the article is appropriate for publication in a journal dedicated to intellectual history, such as Prismas?

YES    /   NO

Originality

- The article presents an important advance in knowledge in its field of study.

- There are new results or new methods

- It presents a sophisticated analysis of its object of study.

- There is a relevant application or discussion of theories or methods.

YES    /   NO

Internal coherence

- The text has an adequate argumentative structure

- There are apparent errors of fact or logic

- The article is orthographically and grammatically correct.

- The abstract is representative of the content of the article. It presents it adequately.

YES    /   NO

Global Evaluation

- Acceptable for the journal

- With substantive modifications (as indicated in the observations)

- With modifications of form (as indicated in the observations)

YES    /   NO

- Observations:

Please make a brief justification of the ratings, expressing as clearly as possible why you consider that the paper should be accepted or rejected. Without an adequate explanation, the evaluation is not useful for the purposes of our journal.

The manuscripts in the Reviews section are evaluated by the Editorial Committee, which will decide in which issue it will publish them -provided they have fulfilled all the requirements- , and this decision will be communicated to the author.

3. Copyright policy

Those authors who publish in the journal accept the following terms:
- At the moment a work is accepted for publication, it is understood that the author grants Prismas Revista de Historia Intelectual the rights of reproduction, distribution of his/her article for its exploitation in all countries of the world in paper magazine format, as well as in any other magnetic, optical and digital support.
- Authors will retain their copyright and will guarantee the journal the right of first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to third parties being able to share the work as long as its author and its first publication in this journal are indicated.
- Authors are allowed and encouraged to disseminate their work through social networks, particularly those dedicated to exchanges within the scientific community with the aim of nurturing enriching academic discussions and increasing citation rates.

4. Repository Policy

All the documents contained in Revista Prismas are stored in the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes' own servers. Likewise, all manuscripts are stored in the RIDAA (https://ridaa.unq.edu.ar/) where they are assigned a permanent URL provided by Handle.

5. Privacy Statement

The names and e-mail addresses entered in this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes stated by this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other person.

6. Plagiarism Policy

All articles submitted to Prismas are checked by plagiarism detection software.
The following instances constitute plagiarism:

Direct plagiarism.
It is produced when authorship is omitted and what is taken is not indicated with quotation marks. Minimal changes are made in the text of another (sentence structure is modified, lowercase letters are replaced by capital letters or vice versa, synonyms are used, etc.) and it is presented as original.

Plagiarism by inadequate use of paraphrasing
This occurs when, although authorship is noted, plagiarism occurs because the original text is reproduced with a few changes that do not constitute paraphrases.

Complex plagiarism using a reference
It occurs when the original authorship reference is included, but the pages of the source are inaccurately indicated.
Paraphrasing in which long texts are summarized, but with little or no indication that they are paraphrases.
Absence of quotation marks in words and phrases of the original text that are reproduced verbatim.

Plagiarism with loose quotation marks
It is committed when a textual quotation continues to be reproduced once quotation marks have been closed or when it is omitted that the previous sentences correspond to the same quotation.

Paraphrasing as plagiarism. 
Occurs when paraphrasing and the reference to the original source is not noted.
Paraphrasing is continuous and extensive, no material is added that allows interaction or enriches the information, even though the source is mentioned.

Academic papers - which require original thoughts and critical reflections on other people's points of view - become texts that do not go beyond repetition.

Paraphrased passages are not clearly identified as such.

Paraphrasing is not considered plagiarism when:

It does not dominate the work of the writer.

It is used to allow the author to interact critically with the views of another person.

The argument of the original text is rewritten in different words.

Self-plagiarism" or recycling fraud

"Self-plagiarism" or recycling fraud is committed when:

A work is changed in appearance and presented as if it were a different work.

The indication that the work is being recycled is omitted.

The following procedures are followed in dealing with cases of plagiarism:

If plagiarism is detected, the journal editors are informed and asked for their comments.

Evidence of the detected plagiarism is sent to the author and a response will be requested.

If the response is not satisfactory, the manuscript will not be submitted for external evaluation and the journal will not receive any more articles from the author(s). In turn, if appropriate, the medium in which the original plagiarized article was published will be informed (whether it is self-plagiarism or copied from third parties).

7. Ethical standards

Prismas. adheres to ethical standards that ensure integrity in the publication of articles, promoting ethical conduct in all participants of the editorial process (readers, authors, reviewers, editors, etc.).

The selection of articles is carried out through an external review process under the mechanism of double-blind peer review, to assess the scientific quality of the articles. Therefore, it does not discriminate authors by academic or professional category, geographic origin or gender.

Prismas. understands that the editorial process must be transparent, thorough, unbiased and fair, for which it conforms to the following principles and policies to ensure an ethical and equitable conduct of all those involved in the publication process. These principles and policies are inspired by international standards, for example COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics - http://publicationethics.org/resources/international-standards).

8. Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest is understood to exist when there is a divergence between the personal interests of an individual and their responsibilities with respect to the scientific activities they carry out, whether as authors, reviewers and members of the editorial board, which may influence their critical judgment and the integrity of their actions. Conflicts of interest can be of an economic nature, when the participant in the publication process has received or expects to receive money for the activities related to the research and its dissemination. In this case, authors are obliged to declare, at the time of submitting the manuscript, that they will not receive any type of monetary compensation from the journal, but neither will they be charged any type of fee under any circumstances whatsoever, whether for refereeing, proofreading or editing tasks. There is also a conflict of academic interests when reviewers or editors adhere to a certain methodological or ideological tendency in such a way that they may be biased to evaluate the work of others who disagree with their tendencies, or delay publication on such grounds. In this case, authors may mention when submitting their manuscript whether there are certain reviewers who should not be involved in the review process. Although manuscripts are sent to the reviewer without authorship data, if reviewers detect the possible identity of the author(s), they should excuse themselves from intervening, whether they agree or disagree with their positions.

Finally, conflicts of interest due to personal or work relationships imply that the participants in the editorial process (authors/reviewers/editors) have some kind of friendship, enmity or work relationship. In relation to this point, authors should indicate the source of funding for the research, while editors should take special care to select reviewers who do not belong to the same institution or research team as the authors. On the other hand, editors will not become involved in the process of reviewing and editing manuscripts whose authors work at the same center, are relatives, or have had personal differences. In these cases, another editor will be delegated to manage the manuscript without allowing that member to influence either the reviewer selection process or the rest of the edition.

9. Ethics and study design

Scientific fraud is considered to be biased manipulation, misleading information, selective communication, invention, falsification, or the concealment or misrepresentation of data. If such a practice is detected, the article will be immediately withdrawn from the editorial process and the journal reserves the right to notify the authorities of the institution where the author works.

Likewise, when submitting their manuscripts, authors must declare that they have the permission of the archive or repository where the documents attached to the paper were obtained.

10. Ethical standards for review

All manuscripts are reviewed by a member of the editorial board and at least two external reviewers.

Reviewers are aware that the manuscript under review is privileged information and must treat it as confidential. They are not allowed to share it with any other colleague. Criticisms and comments on manuscripts will be kept strictly confidential during the review process by reviewers and editors, and none of them may make personal or professional use of them or the data contained therein. Reviewers who suspect the possibility of fraud will confidentially notify the editor and may not share it with others.

11. Originality of publications and plagiarism policy

Prismas accepts original works for publication, which have not been previously published and are not being considered at the same time by another publication in its totality or in any of its parts. Authors must make this declaration when submitting their manuscripts through the online system. Published abstracts of communications, papers or conferences presented at scientific meetings are not considered redundant publication, nor do they prevent their submission to the journal, but authors should note this circumstance in a footnote at the beginning of the article, or in the acknowledgements if there are any (for more details see Plagiarism Policy).

12. Processing fee policy

The journal does not charge any Article Processing Charges (APCs), whether for refereeing, proofreading, editing or translation. On the other hand, authors will not receive any type of monetary compensation from the journal. At the time of submitting the article, authors should check the checkboxes in accordance with these policies.

13. Call for papers

The call for papers is permanently open.

Once the papers have been accepted by external evaluations and by the Editorial Committee, the journal may issue a certificate of acceptance to those who request it.

14. Open access policy

Prismas is free in its electronic version, both for reading (downloading files) and for publication by the authors. The journal is non-profit, does not accept advertisements and all its resources are provided by the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. In this way, the journal assumes the open access policies (OJS) in accordance with the principles of free access to knowledge.

   15. Self-archiving policy

Prismas allows the self-archiving of articles published in their post-print version, in institutional repositories, thematic repositories, personal web pages or any other use with similar purposes.

Policy on plagiarism

Authors submitting their works to Prismas for publication as original articles confirm that the submitted works represent their own contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works without clearly citing the source. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authors must ensure that the manuscript has not been published elsewhere.

The following instances constitute plagiarism:

Direct plagiarism.
It is produced when authorship is omitted and what is taken is not indicated with quotation marks. Minimal changes are made in the text of another (sentence structure is modified, lowercase letters are replaced by capital letters or vice versa, synonyms are used, etc.) and it is presented as original.

Plagiarism by inadequate use of paraphrasing
This occurs when, although authorship is noted, plagiarism occurs because the original text is reproduced with a few changes that do not constitute paraphrases.

Complex plagiarism using a reference
It occurs when the original authorship reference is included, but the pages of the source are inaccurately indicated.
Paraphrasing in which long texts are summarized, but with little or no indication that they are paraphrases.
Absence of quotation marks in words and phrases of the original text that are reproduced verbatim.

Plagiarism with loose quotation marks
It is committed when a textual quotation continues to be reproduced once quotation marks have been closed or when it is omitted that the previous sentences correspond to the same quotation.

Paraphrasing as plagiarism. 
Occurs when paraphrasing and the reference to the original source is not noted.
Paraphrasing is continuous and extensive, no material is added that allows interaction or enriches the information, even though the source is mentioned.

Academic papers - which require original thoughts and critical reflections on other people's points of view - become texts that do not go beyond repetition.

Paraphrased passages are not clearly identified as such.

Paraphrasing is not considered plagiarism when:

It does not dominate the work of the writer.

It is used to allow the author to interact critically with the views of another person.

The argument of the original text is rewritten in different words.

Self-plagiarism" or recycling fraud

"Self-plagiarism" or recycling fraud is committed when:

A work is changed in appearance and presented as if it were a different work.

The indication that the work is being recycled is omitted.

The following procedures are followed in dealing with cases of plagiarism:

If plagiarism is detected, the journal editors are informed and asked for their comments.

Evidence of the detected plagiarism is sent to the author and a response will be requested.

If the response is not satisfactory, the manuscript will not be submitted for external evaluation and the journal will not receive any more articles from the authors. In turn, if appropriate, the medium in which the original plagiarized article was published will be informed (whether it is self-plagiarism or copied from third parties).

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The submitted article has not been previously published nor has it been submitted for consideration to any other journal (or an explanation has been provided in the comments to the editor).

• The file should be sent in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF or WordPerfect format.

• Whenever possible, URLs are provided for references.

• The text has simple line spacing; 12 font size points; italics are used instead of underlined (except for URL addresses); all illustrations, figures and tables are placed in the appropriate places of the text, not at the end. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements summarized below.

Guidelines for authors

Articles

• Articles may not exceed 70,000 characters with spaces, including notes, illustrations, tables, appendices and bibliography.

• They must include in the same article file a summary in Spanish and English of no more than 200 words; the title in English, and between three and five keywords in both languages. They will also record the author's institutional references, with the postal address, telephone number and email address.

• Bibliographic references must appear in footnotes numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Bold or capitalized entire words should not be used. The data of the work will be recorded separated by commas and following this order:

– Books
Names and surnames of the author(s) (in lower case), title of the book (in italics), place of publication, publisher, date of publication and reference pages when it is a textual quote.
Example:

Dominick LaCapra,  History in Transit. Experience, identity, critical theory , Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2006, p. 106.

– Chapters in books
Name(s) and surname(s) of the author(s) (lowercase), title of the article (in quotes), name(s) (abbreviated) and surname(s) of the person(s) responsible for the book ( even if the author of the article and the book coincide), type of responsibility (in parentheses and abbreviated), title of the book (in italics), place of publication, publisher, date of publication and page number(s) of the article (only when there are specific references to textual phrases or to parts that you want to indicate).

Example 1:

Hans R. Jauss, “The reader as an instance of a new history of literature”, in JA Mayoral (comp.),  Aesthetics of reception , Madrid, Arco/Libros, 1987, pp. 59-85.

Example 2:

Claude Lefort, "La question de la démocratie", in C. Lefort,  Essais sur le politique. XIX-XX Siècles , Paris, Seuil, 1986, p.17.

– Articles in journals
Name(s) and surname(s) of the author(s) (in lowercase), title of the article (in quotes), title of the magazine (in italics), volume, number, date of publication and number(s) of page of the article (only when there are specific references to textual phrases or parts that you want to indicate).
Example 1:

Eric MacPhail, “The Plot of History from Antiquity to the Renaissance,”  Journal of the History of Ideas , vol. 62, no. 1, January 2001, pp. 1-16.

Example 2:

Rosana Guber, "The hands of memory",  Economic Development , vol. 36, no. 141, April-June 1996, p. 427.

setecentista”, Master's thesis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 1995.

– Presentations at conferences

Name(s) and surname(s) of the author(s) (lowercase), title of the presentation (in quotes), name of the conference, organizing institution, place of holding, date of holding.
Example:

Juan Manuel Viana, “Uses of Jean Jaurès's thought in Argentina: the question of 'ethical socialism' in Juan B. Justo and Alejandro Korn”, V Conference on the History of the Left, CeDInCI, Buenos Aires, 11, 12 and 13 November 2009.

– Unpublished theses
Name and surname of the author (in lowercase), title of the thesis (in quotes), type of thesis, university where the thesis was filed, year of defense of the thesis.
Example:

Anita Correia Lima de Almeida, “A Republic of Letters in the court of Portuguese America: a reform of Minor Studies in Rio de Janeiro

• When a book or article is cited one or more consecutive times,  ibid should be used .
Example:

5 Sérgio Buarque de Holland,  Attempts at mythology , San Pablo, Perspectiva, 1979, p. 30. 6  Ibid ., p. 40.

• When a book or article is cited one or more non-consecutive times, the references must include only the author's last name, the title summarized in its first word(s) and the page number (only in the case that some verbatim phrase has been reproduced in quotation marks or express mention has been made of some part of the text).

– Book  (of the full title exemplified above):
Example:

LaCapra,  History in Transit , p. 106.

– Book chapter  (of the full title exemplified above):
Example:

Jauss, “The Reader”, p. 84.

– Magazine article  (from the full title exemplified above):
Example:

MacPhail, “The Plot,” p. 13.

• The articles will include at the end of the text the complete bibliography used, following the alphabetical order of authors and putting the last name first, according to the following format:

Example:

Correia Lima de Almeida, Anita, “A República das Letras na corte da América Portuguesa: a reforma dos Estudos Menores no Rio de Janeiro setecentista”, Master's thesis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 1995.

Jauss, Hans R., “The reader as an instance of a new history of literature”, in JA Mayoral (comp.),  Aesthetics of reception , Madrid, Arco/Libros, 1987, pp. 59-85.

LaCapra, Dominick,  History in Transit. Experience, identity, critical theory , Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2006.

MacPhail, Eric, “The Plot of History from Antiquity to the Renaissance,”  Journal of the History of Ideas , vol. 62, no. 1, January 2001, pp. 1-16.

 Viana, Juan Manuel, “Uses of Jean Jaurès' thought in Argentina: the question of 'ethical socialism' in Juan B. Justo and Alejandro Korn”, V Conference on the History of the Left, CeDInCI, Buenos Aires, 11, 12 and 13 November 2009.

• When textual quotations are made from other languages, they must be translated into Spanish in the body of the text, and in the original language in the footnote. Only in the case of poetic texts, the quotes will be in the original language in the body of the text and the translation into Spanish in the footnote.

Readings

The “Readings” section is made up of works that address the analysis of a set of two or more texts capable of illuminating a problem relevant to intellectual history. The evaluation of the works received is carried out by the Board of Directors.

The "Readings" must observe the following instructions:

• They may not exceed 35,000 characters with spaces.

• They can have notes at the bottom, for which the indications made in the previous point apply.

• They must include the author's institutional references, with the postal address, telephone number and email address.

Reviews

The “Reviews” section is made up of bibliographical analyzes of recently published books, linked to topics of intellectual history in a broad sense of the term (cultural history, ideas, mentalities, historiography, history of science, sociology of culture, etc etc.). The evaluation of the works received is carried out by the section editors.

"Reviews" must observe the following instructions:

• They will be headed with the complete data of the book analyzed, in the following order: Author, Title, City of publication, Publisher, year, number of pages, translator (if applicable).

• They may not exceed 12,000 characters with spaces.

• They may have footnotes, for which the same citation indications as in the previous sections apply.

• They must include the author's institutional references, with the postal address, telephone number and email address.

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