About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Política y gobierno is a biannual publication which since its foundation in 1994 has been a space for the dissemination and critique of high quality academic work on the most relevant political issues for Mexico and Latin America at present. We publish works on political economy, political science and political sociology regarding formal and informal links between the State and society, the development and change of political regimes and their institutions, and the links between national and international spheres. We promote comparative and empirically robust research, with no privilege to any approach or method, as well as texts on philosophy and political theory, especially if they have clear practical implications. 

Política y gobierno is addressed to people interested in social sciences in general, and political science in particular. We publish relevant texts not only for researchers, graduate students and academicians in these areas, but also for journalists, analysts from the public and private sectors, and also for people with interest in reading systematic analyses of current and relevant political issues. 

Throughout the year, Política y gobierno receives and assesses original and unpublished research products comprised in this scope for possible publication. The texts received are first assessed by members of the editorial team, and additionally, some are sent to specialists who review the texts under the double blind system. We accept submissions in both Spanish and English languages. If a text in English is accepted for publication and the authors’ native language is not Spanish Política y gobierno will be in charge of the translation. Política y gobierno is published and printed in paper since its foundation, and as of 2014 it is published in electronic format available in open access. Política y gobierno does not charge any kind of fee for submissions or publication.  

Política y gobierno is funded and published by the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics and its Division of Political Studies (DEP). The current editor, Julio Ríos Figueroa, holds a doctorate in Political Science from the University of New York (NYU). He is a Research Professor in the Division of Political Studies, member of the National System of Researchers (Mexico) level III; he has also been a Hauser Research Scholar at the School of Law of the University of New York, visiting professor at Juan March Institute in Madrid, and Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies for the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) of Stanford University. National and international publications of Professor Ríos Figueroa are available at: http://www.investigadores.cide.edu/julio.rios/

Política y gobierno is a publication indexed in the Journal Citation Reports (Social Science Citation Index) - Web of Science (SSCI-JCR-WoS) as well as in Scopus-Elsevier. It is incorporated into the System of Classification of Mexican Journals of Science and Technology of CONACYT (Mexico) and it is included in Scielo Citation Index and Redalyc.

Open Access Policy

The authors who publish in Política y gobierno accept the following conditions:

In accordance with copyright laws, política y gobierno recognizes and respects the moral right of the author(s), as well as the ownership of property rights, which will be transferred to the journal for the article’s dissemination in open access.

Política y gobierno does not make any charge to the author(s) for submitting and processing articles for publication.

All texts published by Política y gobierno —with no exception— are distributed under a Creative Commons License 4.0 Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0 International) that allows third parties to use the published material providing they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this journal.

The authors can enter into other independent and additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in Política y gobierno (for example to include it into an institutional repository or disseminate it in other media, paper or electronic) as long as they clearly and explicitly state that the work was published for the first time in Política y gobierno.

For all of the above, the author(s) must submit the format of transfer of the ownership of first publishing rights duly completed and signed by al the authors. This form must be submitted in as a PDF to: politicaygobierno@cide.edu:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International.

Editorial review

The authors who submit an article for possible publication to Política y gobierno must send the documentation listed in the section requirements for the nomination of originals in its entirety and final version. Once the editor and the editorial team verify that the submission complies with all the requirements, the text will be sent to editorial review which comprises the following stages: 

  1. Accredit a possible revision under the tool approved by the Editorial Committee for plagiarism detection. The texts that undergo this review are chosen at the discretion of the editor and members of the Editorial Committee.
  2. We will verify that the text is relevant for the journal’s focus and scope. The editor and the editorial team assess according to its structure, length, style and approach to an issue, if the material belongs to any of the various sections of the journal.
  3. It will be revised that the text complies with each and every format indication identified in requirements for submission and delivery of manuscripts, as well as in guidelines for authors.
  4. A review of the literature will be carried out to find out whether it tis relevant and up-to-date, and that it is duly standardized according to APA style.
  5. According to the editorial policy guidelines approved by the Editorial Committee, the authors will be requested to deliver electronically managed bibliography with active hyperlinks to the corresponding DOI, where appropriate.

Once the submitted text accredits editorial review, the corresponding author will be formally notified about the registration and beginning of the process of academic review. It is at the discretion of the editor and members of the Editorial Committee whether a text goes on to academic review.

Academic review

The articles must successfully pass the process of academic review which will operate under the modality of double-blind peer review, in which the identity of both authors and reviewers will remain anonymous:

  1. The texts that accredit editorial review will be sent to academic experts in the same area of study and subject matter of the text. The reviewers will be selected from the panel of experts —which comprises specialists from national and international institutions— who will express their opinion on the relevance and academic quality of the submitted text and will decide on the feasibility of publishing the text in question.
  2. The reviewers will be in charge of reviewing and analyzing the originality of the argument, relevance of the subject and methodological quality (consistency, accuracy, clarity, rigor) as well as the academic relevance of the text. They will review, for example, the explicit presence of theoretical-methodological support, as well as its consistency regarding the field of study, consistency between the academic contribution and the relevance of the findings, as well as timeliness and up-to-dateness of the literature used.
  3. The texts will be sent to at least two experts—ascribed to an institution other than the authors’, who will produce their comments (with the exception of bibliographic essays, which will be sent to one expert at least). 
  4. In case of discrepancy in the opinions, the Editor together with the Editorial Team will evaluate if it is necessary to send the text to one or two reviewers more to help to produce an opinion on the text. 
  5. Finally, based on the reviewers’ recommendations, the decision of the editorial board of Política y gobierno will be:

a)     Recommend its publication in its present state.

b)    Recommend its publication with minor changes, and does not require a second review.

c)     Condition its publication on making significant changes, which in the opinion of the Editor is likely to require a new round of reviews by the original or other reviewers. This process can be repeated up to a maximum of two rounds, if at this point the document is still not recommended for publication, the article will be rejected without an option for a new submission. 

d)    Do not recommend its publication.

  1. The results of the process of academic review are unappealable in all cases.
  2. In case of receiving comments, the author will have a term of up to three months to send the editor the new version of the work. The manuscript might start a new review process, if this deadline is not met. Special cases have to be consulted directly with the Editor.
  3. The time for a document to be submitted to review will depend on the number of articles in waiting list. Upon reception of the article, the reviewers will have four weeks to complete the review and deliver the result. The process, from the moment a text is received and accepted for publication in Política y gobierno, takes on average five months; however, it may be longer or shorter depending on the case.
  4. Accepted documents will begin the edition process (proofreading, marking-up of metadata, formatting, layout, etc.), to be included in the corresponding issue, according to the decision of the editorial direction
  5. Once the editorial process is completed (proofreading, marking-up of metadata, formatting and layout), the preliminary version of the text will be sent to the author(s) for their final review and approval. The author(s) will have three calendar days to express their approval, if comments are not received within this period, the journal’s editorial coordination will assume that the authors have given their tacit approval.

Code of Ethics

The journal Política y gobierno adheres to the code of ethics for the performance of the actors involved in the process of publication of this journal (editors, editorial committee, authors and reviewers) established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available at publicationethics.org 

Plagiarism detection

In Política y gobierno specialized software is used for detecting plagiarism. The submitted texts, at the discretion of the Editorial Team, will undergo this check before being sent to editorial and academic reviews.

If possible plagiarism is detected or reported in a published text, the procedure to be followed is the one COPE summarizes in the following flowchart

Functions of the Editorial Board

In Política y gobierno specialized software is used for detecting plagiarism. The submitted texts, at the discretion of the Editorial Team, will undergo this check before being sent to editorial and academic reviews.

If possible plagiarism is detected or reported in a published text, the procedure to be followed is the one COPE summarizes in the following flowchart

Functions of the Editorial Board 

  • Promote the submission of articles for publication in the journal among the national and international academic community.
  • Suggest academic guidelines for the journal’s editorial policy.
  • Promote the dissemination of the journal in national and international academic media.
  • Participate as reviewers of manuscripts submitted for publication or recommend other experts as reviewers.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Editorial Committee

  • Promote among the national and international academic community the submission of articles for publication to the journal.
  • Support in the selection of reviewers for manuscripts received, and also discuss the best options of reviewers in the necessary cases.
  • Decide on the relevance of publishing the materials received, based on the opinion of experts.
  • Approve the content proposed for each issue of the journal.
  • Review and evaluate each published issue.
  • Collaborate with the appropriate authorities to maintain the publication periodicity.

Roles and responsibility of the Editor

  • Coordinate actions that lead to the fulfillment of the journal’s objectives.
  • Ensure high academic level in the content that is published.
  • Receive submissions for publication and ask for opinions.
  • Monitor the implementation of the reviewers’ recommendations.
  • Report to the authors about the stage of the editorial process in which their text is.
  • Inform the Editorial Committee on the review process of all materials received, ensuring confidentiality.
  • Discuss with the Editorial Committee the contents of each journal issue, on the basis of the texts that are corrected and approved at that time.
  • Plan and coordinate the journal’s editorial production process.
  • Monitor the technical processing of materials approved by the Editorial Committee, once they have met the academic requirements.
  • Supervise the journal’s proofreading and technical quality.
  • Collaborate to maintain the journals’ publication periodicity and verify that the dissemination and distribution of each number start during the first month of the corresponding period.

Responsibilities of the authors

  • Meet the journal’s publication requirements regarding: originality, unpublished quality of the text, relevance.
  • Present their results honestly and without falsehood, falsification or manipulation of data.
  • To assume collective responsibility, if such is the case, for the work presented and published.
  • Funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest must be stated in the article.
  • Cite the works of others with accuracy and only refer to publications used in the text.
  • Authors should inform the editors if the results have been published before, or if several reports or multiple analyzes of the same set of data are under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors must provide copies of the publications or related work submitted to other journals.

Responsibilities of the reviewers

  • Declare, from the start of the process, if there is a conflict of interest.[1] If any author’s identity is suspected, notify the journal if this poses any potential conflict of interest.
  • Deliver the review within the agreed deadline.
  • Deliver their review on the basis of originality, contribution of the article to the field, methodology used, relevance and up-to-dateness of the references reported; style, consistency and quality in the structure and drafting of the text.
  • Report to the journal if during the assessment they find or discover that they do not have the expertise to assess all aspects of the text.
  • Clearly define the approval, rejection or conditioning of the text.
  • Respect confidentiality during and after the review process.
  • Not use the content of the revised or in-review texts.
  • Communicate the journal if they detect similarity of the text with another that has been reviewed or if they identify any type of plagiarism.
  • They will not transfer the responsibility of reviewing to any other person, assistant or collaborator.

[1] Conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers and editors have non-manifest interests, which may influence their judgment on what is to be published. These can be personal, academic, economic, political, or religious. When these interests are important, they should be reported to editors.

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