Editorial Policy

Anti-Plagiarism Policy

VISUAL REVIEW uses iThenticate through the Crossref Similarity Check service to ensure the originality of submitted manuscripts, detect plagiarism and self-plagiarism, and ensure that sources are properly cited. Authors must explicitly cite all sources of data, figures, and information. Failure to comply with this requirement during the initial evaluation stage will result in the automatic rejection of the submission. If plagiarism or self-plagiarism is detected after publication, a retraction will be issued.

Peer Review Process

VISUAL REVIEW follows a rigorous external peer-review process to ensure the publication of research of the highest scientific quality. The review process relies on external reviewers who are independent of the publisher, and only original manuscripts are considered for publication.

The peer-review process is double-anonymous (also known as double-blind peer review), meaning that the identities of the reviewers are concealed from the authors and vice versa, thereby helping to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts of interest.

As a general rule, the editor sends each submitted manuscript to two reviewers. Where further assessment is required, the editor reserves the right to send the manuscript to a third reviewer, or to as many additional reviewers as deemed necessary to ensure the quality of the publication.

When evaluating articles, reviewers assess seven criteria clearly established by the journal's Editorial Board and complete the review form anonymously. Each criterion is scored from 0 to 5. Based on these scores (quantitative assessment) and on the reviewers' comments and arguments (qualitative assessment), the journal's Editorial Board decides whether to accept or reject the article, request that a revised version be resubmitted, or recommend that the article be submitted to another journal.

VISUAL REVIEW is a peer-reviewed journal and follows the ethical principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Gender Equality Editorial Policy

VISUAL REVIEW is committed to promoting greater visibility of women's participation in scientific research and its dissemination, thereby contributing, within the scope and objectives of an academic journal, to greater recognition of women's roles and responsibilities in research and academic management. VISUAL REVIEW implements this commitment through the following measures:

1. Participation on the Editorial Team

The VISUAL REVIEW Editorial Team currently comprises 65 members, 40% of whom are women.

2. Use of Inclusive Language

VISUAL REVIEW reviews submitted manuscripts with a view to ensuring the appropriate use of inclusive language in accordance with the Report of the Royal Spanish Academy on Inclusive Language.

3. Research, Review, and Publication

3.1. VISUAL REVIEW reviews submitted manuscripts to determine whether they adequately report whether sex has been taken into account in the research data, thereby enabling the identification of potential sex-based differences in accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission in Gender in Research.

3.2. VISUAL REVIEW publishes authors' full names on the first page of each article, on the journal's website, and in the table of contents of the complete issue.

Review Time

To ensure efficiency and quality throughout the editorial process, a maximum review period of 40 days per manuscript has been established. This timeframe allows reviewers to conduct a thorough assessment while maintaining a steady publication workflow. We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of our authors and reviewers in meeting this deadline.

Publication Frequency

Starting with Volume 19 (2027), VISUAL REVIEW will adopt a continuous publication model, whereby articles will be published individually as soon as they complete the editorial process. Under this model, the journal will no longer follow a periodic publication schedule. Instead, a single issue will remain open throughout the year, bringing together all articles published during that calendar year.

Once the publication capacity for the calendar year has been reached, any remaining articles that have been accepted and are ready for publication will appear in the Early Access section.

Content Access and Reuse Policy

In accordance with the principles of Open Science, and based on the understanding that making research freely available to the public fosters the global exchange of knowledge, this journal provides immediate and unrestricted open access to all its content. Readers and their institutions are not charged any fees, no registration is required, and no embargo period applies.

Unless otherwise stated, all content published in the electronic edition is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license:

CC BY-ND 4.0 — License Summary
CC BY-ND 4.0 — Legal Code

Where applicable, this licensing status must be expressly acknowledged.

Under this license, third parties may share and redistribute published material provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the article's first publication in this journal is acknowledged. If the material is remixed, transformed, or built upon, the modified material may not be distributed.

Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (for example, by depositing it in an institutional repository or including it in a book), provided that they clearly acknowledge that the work was first published in this journal. Preprint dissemination is also permitted.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to make their work available online (for example, on institutional or personal websites) after publication in the journal, provided that the journal is appropriately cited. Such dissemination may foster productive scholarly exchanges and contribute to the wider and more rapid circulation of published research (see The Effect of Open Access).