About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Publishing ZARCH Journal of interdisciplinary studies in Architecture and Urbanism, requires a minimum of justification. At times when architecture and urbanism are experiencing substantial changes with the corresponding reconversion of the professional and research activity, the proliferation of academic publications, sometimes with traditional formats and standpoint, turns out to be a bit paradoxical.

It's obvious that research is one of the University's tasks and the diffusion of its results through magazines that seek recognition from evaluating institutions. And that each university or School of Architecture needs to generate contributions that must be adequately spread, as a means to get jobs way outs which create researchers and professionals, logically, following society's demands. But it's also obvious that overdose risks exist when some people recognize a growing confusion in the "society of disinformation and lack of awareness" (Daniel Innerarity).

Aware of this necessity and the risks that such an initiative entails, it's a pleasure to present ZARCH magazine, fruit of a collective effort, with collaborators from different areas of knowledge and geographical origin, led by our Department of Architecture, in the School of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Zaragoza, and connected to the PUPC's research group (Urban Landscapes and Contemporary Project).

ZARCH adopts a double perspective. Firstly, a global vision, that is international, although with its headquarters in our university and in the Spanish and European sphere, which implies coming to terms that most of the contributions are published in English, even though it seems compatible with a special attention to the Latin languages, not only in Spanish but also in French, Italian, Portuguese and others. Secondly, an interdisciplinary, transversal approximation with integrating visions, starting from the architectural field but open to other disciplines according with the changing limits and situations that today characterize the architecture field and urban studies. This leads us to the acceptance of close disciplines, from social sciences to technical visions, with logic condition of the scientific quality of contributions, previously evaluated by a rigorous system of arbitration. In any case, the Scientific Council's advice to the magazine, guarantees the rigour and the attention to the standpoints and methodologies more innovative in our fields.

The idea is to stimulate the debate and not just publishing for publishing sake. What moves us is the need to potentiate a tool that suits the interchange of ideas, experiences and information; that is, trying to advance toward a real platform of debate about the problems and opportunities that today are set out in the world of architecture and urbanism.

Section Policy

  • Editorial: Evaluated by the editorial board.
  • Featured texts: Evaluated by the editorial board.
  • Topic papers: Submitted manuscrips. Peer reviewed.
  • Conversations: Evaluated by the editorial board.
  • Miscellany: Submitted manuscrips. Peer reviewed.
  • Reseñas de libros: On demand.

Peer Review Process

To conduct the peer review process, the journal Editorial Committee, after having reviewed that the manuscript fulfills the style and content rules indicated to authors, will forward the manuscript to two leading experts in the field outside the Editorial Committee, following the double blind method.

The assessment of both referees will judge the significance of the manuscript, its contribution to knowledge in the field of study, the originality of the work, the validity of the discourse and the critical judgment, the use of bibliography and the referencing technique, etc., making recommendations of improvement, if necessary.

Based on the referees’ recommendations, the editor-in-chief will send a reasoned evaluation decision to the e-mail address provided by the corresponding author. The evaluation will include the recommendation result (publication as is / minor revision / major revision / reject), as well as the observations and comments made by the referees.

If the manuscript was accepted for publication subject to the authors making some changes, the authors must send a new version of the manuscript to the Editorial Committee, following the requirements and suggestions by the referees. They must also send a letter indicating the changes made to the manuscript. The Editorial Committee will verify the validity of the modifications made by the authors.

Depending on the degree of fulfillment of the requested changes, the Editorial Committee will take a decision regarding the publication or not of the paper. The decision will be communicated to the corresponding author by the editor-in-chief.

Open Access and Free Submission Policy

This journal provides immediate open access (without embargo period) to its content, at no cost or prior registration online. We abide by the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. For the same token, the submission, revision and publishing of texts is also free of charge to the authors.

The journal follows the OAI interoperability protocol (https://www.openarchives.org/) available at https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/zarch/oai.

Privacy policy

User registration online is possible through the OJS platform for the participation as author or to report the interest in participating as an external reviewer. The privacy policy of the journal is governed by the rules of data protection or Reglamento General de Protección de Datos (RGPD): user data will not be distributed without their explicit permission and, in the event that they become part of a mailing list, it will be exclusively for the communicating of information relating to the journal. Upon request by e-mail, a user's email address is removed from mailing lists. By the same procedure, all data held about the user will be made available to the user.

Ethics declaration

ZARCH is committed to guaranteeing the ethics and quality of its published papers. The journal uses the Code of Good Practice for editors of scientific journals defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as a reference.

In this way, the journal guarantees the appropriate response to readers and authors’ needs, ensures the quality of the published information, and protects and respects the papers content and their integrity. The Editorial Committee is committed to publishing corrections, explanations, withdrawals, and apologies, when necessary.

To fulfil the good practices code, ZARCH makes public its peer review system and the evaluation criteria to be applied by the referees. ZARCH keeps these criteria updated, which are exclusively based on the scientific relevance, originality, clarity and appropriateness of the submitted work.

The evaluation process is treated in the strictest confidence, remaining anonymous and confidential the information about the referees and authors, the evaluated content, the judgement by the referees, and any other form of communication expressed by the Editorial Committee, the Scientific Committee, or the Advisory Board. The potential explanations or complaints from authors to the journal committees or to the referees will also be treated in the strictest confidence.

ZARCH declares its commitment to integrity and respect for the published work. For this reason, plagiarism is strictly forbidden. The texts identified as plagiarism, or with fraudulent content, will be removed or will get unpublished. All the manuscripts submitted are verified by the Editorial Board, which analyses them for semantic coincidence using the Compilatio anti-plagiarism software. In these cases, the journal will act as quickly as possible. When accepting the terms and agreements expressed by our journal, the authors must guarantee that the paper and the materials associated to it are original and do not infringe authors’ right. In case of shared authorship, co-authors must justify full consensus and guarantee that the work has not been previously published in any other format.

Contents publication permissions

Our journal applies a CC BY NC ND license to its contents. This means that sharing, copying, and redistribution of material in any medium or format is permitted, under the following conditions: Attribution, you must properly acknowledge authorship, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes have been made, as long as acknowledgment is given; Non-commercial, you may not use the material for a commercial purpose; Without a derivative work, you cannot broadcast the material modified, remixed, transformed or created from the original. On the other hand, the publication allows the authors to maintain the copyright of their texts without restrictions and to retain the rights of publication.

Indexing

ZARCH is currently listed in the following databases and catalogs: Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, DOAJ, ERIH Plus, Dialnet, ISOC, Latindex, MIAR and Scopus.

More information: https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/zarch/indexacion

Publication Frequency

Journal issues will be published biannually.