Guidelines for Authors

Submission Guidelines

1. Submission and Originality

All works must be submitted exclusively through the OJS platform: https://ojs.docentes20.com/. The corresponding author must guarantee that the manuscript is original, unpublished and is not under review in another journal. The journal uses anti-plagiarism software (Turnitin) to verify originality; the maximum allowed similarity is 15%, excluding the bibliography and properly referenced textual quotes, when applicable. If plagiarism or undue similarity is detected, the manuscript will be rejected according to the journal's ethical policies and COPE guidelines. Works must be related to the journal's areas of specialization: education, technology, computing, and social sciences.

2. Files for Review (Double-Blind Assurance)

To guarantee double-blind peer review, authors must upload two separate files:

• File 1 (Cover Page): Title (Spanish and English), full details of the authors (Name, detailed institutional affiliation: Department, University, City, Country), email address, and ORCID (mandatory and active).
• File 2 (Anonymous Manuscript): The full text of the article, without any reference that reveals the identity of the authors (remove names, personal acknowledgments, self-citations, or metadata from the Word or PDF file that allow inferring authorship).

3. Structure and Metadata

• Language: Works are accepted in Spanish and English.
• Title, Abstract, and Keywords: Must be presented obligatorily in both languages (Spanish and English).
• Abstract: maximum 250 words, structured (introduction, objective, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion).
• Keywords: 3 to 5 standardized terms, preferably extracted from recognized Thesauri (such as UNESCO, ERIC, or IEEE). They must not literally repeat the title.
• Metadata: Metadata must be fully completed in OJS (authors, affiliation, ORCID, abstract, and keywords).

4. Format and Length

• Article types: Original research, Systematic review, Theoretical essay, and Case study.
• Research: 6,000–8,000 words | Review: 6,000–9,000 words | Essay/Case study: 3,000–5,500 words.
• Typography: Times New Roman, 12 points, single spacing.
• Tables/Figures: Maximum 8 of each, editable, numbered, and cited in the text.
• References: strictly according to APA 7th edition standards. It is recommended to prioritize recent and relevant literature from the last 5 years. It is mandatory to include the active DOI link in all references that have one.

5. Ethical and Legal Declarations (Mandatory)

Authors must include a subsection titled "Ethical Considerations" at the end of the Methodology, describing compliance with the ethical and legal protocols of the research (informed consent, data protection, institutional committee approval, Declaration of Helsinki, and animal welfare regulations, when applicable). Likewise, conflicts of interest and funding sources must be declared. Authors must have an active ORCID and accept the journal's ethical, peer review, and open access policies prior to submission.

6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

The Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal (RTED) adheres to best practices on the use of AI (based on COPE and the Heredia Declaration 2023):

• Authorship: AI tools (such as ChatGPT) cannot be listed as authors.
• Declaration: Limited use is permitted for linguistic or technical support, provided the tool used and its purpose (e.g., translation, grammatical improvement) are explicitly declared in the methodology or acknowledgments.
• Responsibility: Authors assume full legal and ethical responsibility for AI-generated or AI-assisted content.

Structure

Articles and essays must be submitted to the Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal (RTED) following this structure:

Submission and Publication Conditions

1. Originality and Pre-evaluation

Only original, unpublished, and updated works that provide significant theoretical and practical elements to the field of educational technology are accepted. Before starting the peer review process, all manuscripts will be submitted to similarity detection software (anti-plagiarism). The receipt of the manuscript does not imply a commitment to publish.

2. Peer Review Process

All manuscripts that pass the initial editorial review undergo double-blind peer review, which evaluates: originality, relevance, methodological rigor, scientific quality, and ethical compliance. Reviewers must declare their conflicts of interest before accepting the evaluation. The final decision rests with the Editorial Committee, based on the reviewers' reports. In the event of a discrepancy between reviewers, a third evaluator will be assigned. Reviewers must maintain absolute confidentiality of the manuscript and may not use its information for their own benefit. The average acceptance/rejection rate is published annually in the editorial report. Process: double-blind, 2 external reviewers, average decision time: 16–20 weeks, and maximum editorial process time: 12 months.
[Link: View the peer review process.]

3. Open Access and Licensing

The Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal (RTED) publishes under the immediate Gold Open Access model, without embargo periods. This journal provides immediate free access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. According to the definition of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without prior permission from the publisher or the author, provided there are no commercial purposes and proper credit is given.

• License: Articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. This allows third parties to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format, provided appropriate credit is given, it is not used for commercial purposes, and no derivative works are distributed.

4. Article Processing Charges (APC)

The Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal (RTED) applies an APC solely and exclusively to manuscripts that have been ACCEPTED after passing peer review. This charge is intended to cover the editorial costs of copyediting, layout (PDF, HTML, XML-JATS), DOI assignment, digital preservation, and OJS system maintenance. There are no submission charges or fees for reviewing rejected articles. Partial or total waivers exist for institutions with current agreements.

• APC effective from MARCH-1-2026: 197 USD (1 author) – 347 USD (2 to 7 authors).

5. Editorial Independence Policy (Important Notice)

The decision to accept or reject a manuscript is based strictly on the scientific merit dictated by external evaluators, being a process completely independent of the author's ability to pay. Once the article is accepted and the author pays the APC to start the final production phase, the amount is non-refundable.

6. Timelines

The author has up to 5 months to address major corrections and up to 12 months to complete the entire editorial cycle. [Link: View updated fee table]

7. Copyright and Self-Archiving

Authors retain copyright over their work and grant the journal only the right of first publication. The published version is distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which regulates use by third parties without affecting the author's rights.

8. Ethics, Conflicts of Interest, and Funding

Transparency and scientific integrity are essential requirements for publication in RTED. Therefore, all authors must visibly and explicitly incorporate the following declarations in their manuscripts:

• Ethics Declaration: Every manuscript must obligatorily include a section declaring compliance with ethical principles (based on COPE and the Heredia Declaration), including ethics committee approval and informed consent when applicable.
• Conflicts of Interest: Authors must explicitly declare in the manuscript any financial or personal relationship that could bias the research.
• Funding: The funding source (institutional, public, or private) must be indicated, or "Self-funded" declared.

9. Digital Preservation Policy

The Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal guarantees the preservation and permanent access to its contents through reliable digital archiving systems, including the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) and LOCKSS/CLOCKSS services integrated into OJS. All articles have a DOI registered in Crossref and periodic backups on institutional servers, ensuring the integrity, availability, and long-term recovery of the published content.

10. Indexing and Repository Policy

The journal actively manages the submission of metadata to databases and directories (SciElo, Latindex, and others). However, the permanence and updating in such indices depend on the external policies of each evaluating entity and are not the direct responsibility of the journal.

11. Retraction Policy

The Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal (RTED) follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for managing retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern. A retraction will be published when serious errors, plagiarism, data manipulation, duplicate publication, or other ethical misconduct that invalidate the results or conclusions of the article are detected. Corrections (errata or corrigenda) will be issued when errors do not compromise the scientific validity of the work. In cases of reasonable suspicion while investigating potential misconduct, the journal may publish an expression of concern. Retractions and corrections will be published transparently, linked to the original article via DOI, clearly stating the editorial reasons and maintaining the academic record of the document. The final decision rests with the Editorial Committee, after hearing from the authors and, when necessary, the institutions involved.

12. Open Data Policy

The Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal promotes transparency and scientific reproducibility through open access to research data whenever possible and ethically viable. Authors are encouraged to deposit datasets, codes, instruments, or supplementary materials in recognized repositories (e.g., Zenodo, OSF, Figshare, or institutional repositories) and include the corresponding link or DOI in the manuscript. When legal, ethical, or confidentiality restrictions exist, authors must explicitly indicate them in the article. Data availability does not condition manuscript acceptance.

13. Preprint Policy

The Docentes 2.0 Technological-Educational Journal (RTED) accepts manuscripts previously deposited in open access preprint servers, provided the author explicitly declares it at the time of submission. The manuscript must not have been simultaneously submitted to another journal with an active peer review process. The existence of a preprint version will not affect the evaluation process or the editorial decision.