Editorial policy – ethic and malpractice statement

de Signis, A publication of the Association Latino Americaine de Sémiotique, deSignis www.designisfels.net

  • Bilingual journal in spanish and portuguese with abstracts in english

  • Semiannual publication in digital and print formats

    First Semester: January to June

    Second Semester: July to December

The editorial policy of the deSignis Editorial Board is to disseminate original, high-quality articles in semiotics and communication and to promote their international diffusion, thereby advancing research in the Spanish and Portuguese languages.

Transparency in the evaluation process and editorial ethics

deSignis is committed to transparency in its evaluation systems to improve the quality of scholarly work in semiotics and communication and to facilitate ethical practices in scientific production in accordance with international standards.

deSignis adheres to an open-access code of ethics, accessible through its website. During the editorial process, submissions are sent for double-blind peer review by specialists selected from the Advisory Committee. The editorial process includes accountability for the quality of the evaluative feedback. The journal maintains a record of reviewers and uses a standardized blind review form. Submissions are categorized by thematic areas. An open-access annual reviewer file is compiled, and all reviews are archived at the Deputy Editorial Office.

In 2018, the rejection rate for submitted articles was 45% (5% rejected for not matching the issue’s theme, and 40% accepted with required format corrections and editorial compliance).

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

deSignis follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the prevailing ethical codes for scientific journals.

Authors, Reviewers, and Editors must commit to the following responsibilities:

  • Authors are responsible for their submitted work and must adhere to the ethics and standards of scientific research.
  • Any study involving direct research with human subjects must receive prior approval from an ethics committee, and such approval must be formally documented in the article submission.
  • All listed authors must be duly accredited. deSignis provides an acceptance form.
  • Conflicts of interest (personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial) must be declared to the editors, including those that may not be readily apparent but could influence authors’ judgment.
  • Any financial support for the research must be clearly disclosed.
  • Previous publications of the work (in progress or in another language) must be disclosed in a note at the end of the article. deSignis reserves the rights to the original article in Spanish.
  • All references and sources cited in the article must be correctly acknowledged.
  • Written or illustrative materials used must be accompanied by proper permissions from relevant sources.
  • Authors are committed to the accuracy of the data provided. Data falsification will be considered misconduct.
  • All judgments and conclusions issued by reviewers during peer review must be objective and free from conflicts of interest. Any relevant conflicts must be declared to the editors.
  • Manuscript evaluations are strictly confidential and may not be copied.
  • Reviewers must not use any data, arguments, or findings from the manuscript under review.
  • Invited reviewers must respond promptly, providing evaluations that are accurate, courteous, impartial, and justified. If unable to perform a review, the reviewer must notify the Editorial Committee immediately.
  • If reviewers suspect misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, duplicate submission, conflicts of interest), they should contact the Editorial Committee confidentially.
  • Reviewers should suggest relevant, uncited works to improve the manuscript.
  • deSignis will not publish any document found to contain plagiarism. Editors will first request clarification from the author.
  • The Editorial Committee is committed to publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.
  • All reports of potential misconduct will be investigated. Scholars and reviewers are encouraged to report inaccuracies or ethical misconduct via email.
  • Any allegations of research misconduct will be addressed promptly.
  • Editors will request clarification from authors in any suspected case of misconduct.
  • In severe cases, the editors will seek expert advice on ethical violations or proven misconduct.
  • If a complaint is substantiated, the Editorial Committee will take appropriate action, ranging from correction or removal of the article to a formal letter to the author’s affiliated institution.

Language policy

Articles are accepted in Spanish or Portuguese, with abstracts provided in both English and Spanish. Indexes and keywords are bilingual (Spanish-English).

Legal framework

3.1 Legal identification

deSignis is a publication of the Latin American Federation of Semiotics (FELS), recognized as a non-profit public-interest organization, registered as International Association No. 1405367K under French Law 1901. It is registered as an international journal in Barcelona, with ISSN 1578-4223. The name deSignis is registered under number 1405367K in the Official Bulletin of the French Republic (February 23, 2000), and unauthorized use of the name or similar identifiers is subject to legal action. Its legal headquarters are at 12, rue de Pontoise, Paris 75005, France. Any legal disputes will be resolved in the courts of origin. The journal adheres to the Berne Convention (1971) for the Protection of Artistic Works. Its ISSN and ISBN are registered with the National Library of France under reference CIF 18/0608M dated June 27, 2018.

3.2 Copyright and image use rights

deSignis allows authors to retain copyright over published articles and documents. Acceptance for publication implies the transfer of first publication rights to deSignis and deSignisonline, which are simultaneously governed by the Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA.

By submitting an article, authors declare themselves to be ethically and professionally qualified. Submitted originals, whether in print or digital format, will not be returned. Submission for blind peer review constitutes the author’s agreement to the processes of review, correction, adaptation, and open-access publication in deSignis. Submission also implies a declaration of originality and unpublished status and a commitment not to submit the article simultaneously to another publication.

The Editorial Committee is committed to data protection and the prevention of any fraudulent use of the materials in their possession.

3.3 Image use rights

Responsibility for securing image use permission lies entirely with the article authors. Authors must seek permission for any image protected by copyright. Image titles or credits must reiterate copyright declarations or license terms provided by the source. Full URLs with copyright information must be cited.

Articles published in deSignis are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Dissemination and information management policies

Aligned with its editorial policy, deSignis actively promotes the dissemination of its authors’ work in both print and digital formats. The journal regularly presents its full series at book fairs and academic conferences. An annual meeting is held to discuss and plan thematic issues and to update theoretical research perspectives.

Each article includes a Persistent Digital Identifier (DOI) on the title page, embedded in the metadata to ensure recognition and accurate indexing.

Authors are encouraged to distribute their published work through other online repositories, provided they attribute first publication rights to deSignis and respect the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

4.1 Indexing

deSignis requests authors to provide their identifiers from Redalyc, ORCID, or Google Scholar. This request is included in the Author Guidelines. The journal is indexed in directories such as LATINDEX, Dialnet, and Web of Science (ESCI). It aims to be listed in major global repositories like Redalyc, MIAR, and SCOPUS. Each article is assigned a dedicated webpage to facilitate DOI registration and metadata search engine indexing.

4.2 Citations on the web

To increase the academic visibility of its authors and articles, deSignis requests that citations follow this format: journal title, issue number, ISSN, author, and article title.

4.3 Community management

deSignis maintains a Community Management team and is active on Facebook. Authors are encouraged to submit promotional materials related to semiotics and communication directly to the Community Management team.

4.4 Digital Journal Management

deSignis has a Digital Journal Management team that regularly updates the journal’s positioning in academic databases. Statistical data is available via a dedicated link.

Funding and management

deSignis does not charge authors for article processing or publication in either print or online formats.

Budgetary management is overseen by a Financial Secretariat. Originally based in Barcelona, it is currently headquartered in Madrid (Spain). The journal issues invoices using a tax ID (NIF). It is funded through institutional grants listed in the journal’s staff directory (see «Editorial Project Sponsors»). deSignis supports co-publishing agreements. Currently, the digital version is produced by PandeMoldeStudio (Barcelona), and the print version is published by the Editorial Department of the National University of Rosario (Argentina), Faculty of Political Science and International Relations and the Communication Doctorate program.

Self-archiving policy

deSignis permits the self-archiving of post-prints (final versions following peer review) or editor/PDF versions after publication.

Evaluation

Selection and evaluation process

Double anonymous international peer review process.

Call for Papers

Articles published in deSignis result from two modes of solicitation: calls for papers announced on the official website of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS) and affiliated associations, as well as on the deSignis website; and direct invitations from issue coordinators.

Submitted articles are archived in a folder corresponding to the specific issue and are initially screened by the Editorial Committee to ensure adherence to editorial guidelines and relevance to the thematic scope.

Peer Review

This stage lasts one to two weeks. Preselected articles undergo double-blind external evaluation by accredited reviewers listed in the journal’s Reading Committee. The review is conducted using a blind review form.

Disputes

In the event of disagreement between reviewers, the final decision lies with the journal’s editorial leadership. Rejection decisions must be justified. In cases of conditional acceptance with specific formatting requirements, the Editorial Committee will contact the author, who must resubmit the revised version within 30 days.

Archiving and Data Protection

The Editorial Committee and Deputy Editorial Office archive all reviews by issue and provide authors with acceptance certification upon request, specifying the issue number and expected publication date. A Control Sheet is created for each issue.

Timeline

The average evaluation period is three months, depending on the number of submissions.

Rejection Rate

5% of submissions are rejected for not aligning with the issue’s theme; 45% are accepted with required formatting adjustments.

Circulation Frequency

Biannual. January–June and July–December. Issues are uploaded to the website during the first week of January and July.