Peer Review Process

The editorial review process lasts roughly five months, depending upon the availability of expert reviewers, the number of reviews required, and the VLC Arquitectura Research Journal editorial calendar.

Process comprises the following stages:

1_The editors of the journal will verify that the item meets the standards for style and contents indicated in the guidelines for authors (otherwise, it will be rejected). Afterwards, and according to the section to which it belongs, the article will be sent to two anonymous reviewers experts.

Reviewers will have an active academic profile in the field of research, and have previously been registered in the journal platform indicating the specific field of research (by keywords) and a brief description of their academic status. The reviewers will have different academic affiliations among themselves, they will also come from an institution different from the one of the author. The editors of the journal will select the reviewers.

Authors are also invited to propose a reviewer for their contributions, but the reviewer profile must follow this criteria:

• Reviewers must be affiliated with a research institution (university, institute, department…) and must be active at a postdoctoral level.

• The following persons cannot be considered: any co-authors of a publication (articles, books, conference proceedings, papers…), considering the last 3 years; any co-editor of a publication, considering the last 3 years; and any partners in a research cooperation, considering the last 3 years.

2_The valuation report of the reviewers will affect the interest of the article, its contribution to the knowledge of the topic, the developments made, right relations established, developed critical judgment, managed bibliographic references, the correct structure and wording, etc., indicating recommendations, if any, for possible improvement. The time to perform a review of the article is roughly one month.

3_Based on the recommendations of the reviewers, authors will receive an outcome of the evaluation, taking into consideration four options: unchanged publication, publication with minor corrections, publication with major corrections, and may not be suitable for publication. Also authors will be provided with observations and comments from the reviewers. In the event of a split decision, the manuscript may be sent to a third reviewer.

The editor will be responsible for determining if a revised manuscript meets the revisions requested. The editor may reject the revision or request additional revisions if determines that a revised manuscript fails to adhere to the revision requirements.

4_If the manuscript has been accepted with modifications, authors should resubmit a new version of the article, meeting the demands and suggestions of the referees within the deadlines imposed by the production schedule. If the author is unwilling or unable to revise the manuscript, it will not be published, and the author may withdraw the manuscript. If the article is not modified, and no activity is recorded in the item, during more than a year, the editor will archive the submission.

5_Given the degree of fulfillment of the requested changes, the Editorial Board will rule on whether or not publishing the article and the decision will be communicated to the author.

6_Once the article is accepted, the author(s) must sign a "Statement of work ownership and assignment of rights for the publication in VLC Arquitectura Research Journal", according to the attached model. The manuscript will be therefore scheduled for publication in an upcoming issue.

The whole process described will be conducted through the Open Journal System Platform (OJS) of the Universitat Politècnica de València, in the categories of author or reviewer user.

Authors already published in the VLC arquitectura Research Journal are strongly recommended to consider other journals for new submissions during the following year of their last publication.