About the Journal

Focus and scope

RES PUBLICA Notebooks in Law and Criminology is aimed at disseminating, making visible and transferring research results developed by researchers, teachers and professionals with an interest in the area of public law and criminological science, national and international, in favour of the discussion and debate on problems of concern to society.

RES PUBLICA Notebooks in Law and Criminology aims to serve as an international platform, as it accepts the publication of articles written in Spanish, Italian, English and Portuguese, promoting both nationally and internationally, the publication of academic works of general interest in the legal and criminological fields.

In each issue of RES PUBLICA Notebooks in Law and Criminology, up to 20% of the articles published may be guest authors with outstanding knowledge of the subject, both nationally and internationally, which will coexist in a miscellaneous character of articles dedicated to a monographic theme, with those of free theme that will be selected for publication.

Peer review process

All articles submitted to RES PUBLICA Notebooks in Law and Criminology a for peer review must be original and unpublished. The whole process of submission, evaluation and publication of the work will be carried out through the journal's electronic platform.

  1. Firstly, the proposals will be assessed by the journal's management, which will analyse their suitability for the journal's profile and the publication rules.
  2. Once this first filter has been passed, the papers will be submitted for evaluation by two anonymous reviewers who are specialists in the discipline in question, whether they belong to the journal's Scientific Committee or to its peer reviewers, following a review procedure using the "double blind peer review system"; the authors must therefore omit their name and affiliation in the article, although they must be included in the metadata of the submission.
  3. The assessment of each manuscript requires the report of two experts. In case of discrepancy, the journal management may request the review of a third reviewer. The judges' opinion will conclude with one of the following recommendations: a) It can be published as is; b) It can be published with corrections; c) It is not publishable. The modifications recommended by the reviewers will be reviewed by the editors involved in the first filter for final publication.

Open access policy

RES PUBLICA Notebooks on Law and Criminology does not charge for shipping, processing, or publication, as it is a completely free publication.

RES PUBLICA Notebooks on Law and Criminology provides immediate open access to its content, under the principle of making research freely available to the interested public, which encourages greater exchange and dissemination of knowledge.

The works published in Cuadernos de RES PUBLICA en derecho y criminología, up to its fourth issue published on 4 april 2024, were subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es. This license, considered suitable by the editorial committee at the time, has shown, with the publication of the various issues, the relevance of removing restrictions that conflict with free culture, as it did not allow third parties to use, remix, and build on the original work, even on a non-commercial basis, and also required that derivative works be licensed under the same terms.

Given this situation, the editorial decision to distribute issue 5 of the magazine, published on 25 January 2025, under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.es, is due to the need for any publication in Cuadernos de RES PUBLICA on law and criminology to have a flexible license, allowing third parties to develop the source material for non-commercial purposes, which guarantees maximum dissemination, reuse, and use of the works, without license restrictions for derivative works, in line with free culture and open access to scientific literature.

Frequency of publication

RES PUBLICA Notebooks in Law and Criminology is an electronic publication published twice a year, whose first annual issue is published between January and June and its second annual issue is published between July and December.

Liability disclaimer

RES PUBLICA Notebooks in Law and Criminology is not responsible for the credibility and authenticity of the works. The opinions and facts contained in each article are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Obligations and responsibilities of the editorial team

The management and editorial team of RES PUBLICA Notebooks in Law and Criminology commits itself to:

  • Advocate freedom of expression in its publications;
  • To meet the needs of the reading public as well as those of its authors;
  • To preserve the publication's academic record and peer review process in its entirety;
  • Be willing to make corrections and issue clarifications, retractions or apologies whenever necessary;
  • Strive for continuous improvement of the journal.