About the Journal

Focus and scope

The journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica is a free and open access electronic journal of the Centro Centroamericano de Población in collaboration with the Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud (INISA), University of Costa Rica. The journal receives national and international articles in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

The journal's coverage is related to public health, demography, public health policies and other health determinants related to populations and their composition.

The primary objective of this publication is to disseminate the results of research in the different disciplines of knowledge based on population studies from the demographic perspective, i.e. the determinants and consequences of the dynamics of the size and composition of human populations. We also receive contributions based on public health research, where health is studied from a population perspective and subject to public policy interventions. Only original papers that have not yet been published will be accepted.

The target audience of this publication includes researchers, undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students, professionals in the thematic area of the journal and the interested general public.

As of 2024, its periodicity is biannual with continuous publication. The first issue opens on January 1st and covers the months from January to June, and the second issue opens on July 1st and covers the months from July to December. Articles are received throughout the year.

Mission: To contribute, through the publication of high-quality scientific papers, nationally and internationally, to:

-The disciplinary and scientific development of public and population health sciences and demography

-Progress in population health

-The dissemination of new knowledge in the area

-Decision-making on policy issues, public and population health and demography

-And the dissemination of research by professionals in the area

Vision: To be the scientific journal par excellence in public and population health sciences and demography for its quality, innovation and continuous improvement, nationally and internationally.

Values:

  • Leadership,
  • Innovation,
  • Quality,
  • Transparency,
  • Commitment,
  • Efficiency
Peer review process

The review process of the journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica is carried out through the peer review system with the double-blind modality, where the personal data of the reviewers are withheld in order to avoid conflicts with the authors.

It is estimated that the evaluation process will take approximately two months, using the peer review arbitration procedure in which two reviewers from outside the institution, experts in the subject of the article, evaluate it to determine its quality and validity according to the criteria established by the journal. The steps involved in the review of the article and its acceptance are as follows:

1. When an article is received for review, the editor performs a first review to determine whether it meets all the formal requirements for its type of article. If the article does not comply with the requirements, it will be immediately rejected.

2. Once the article passes this first filter, the Editorial Committee will select two specialists from outside the publishing institution, of the same rank as the author and from the subject area of the article, to send it for review. In this step, the article is sent anonymously and all data linking it to the author are removed to avoid conflicts of interest.

3. The specialists have a maximum of 4 weeks to analyze and review the article, evaluate it according to the parameters indicated by the journal and add specific observations. In this evaluation, the reviewers must issue one of the following recommendations:

-Recommended for publication

-Recommended for publication with the observations

-Not to publish

-Publication pending

You can see the evaluation form by clicking here.

Once this analysis is concluded, the article and its evaluation are sent to the editor.

If one of the reviewers does not agree with its publication, the article will be submitted to a third reviewer. This process may take another month.

4. After the analysis and review, and according to the observations and the reviewers' ratings, the journal will decide whether the article is approved. If so, the documents will be returned to the authors so that they can address the observations and recommendations made by the reviewers within the deadline established by the Editorial Committee. If the document is not submitted on time, its publication will be moved to the next issue.

The final decision on whether to publish or reject the manuscript will always be the responsibility of the journal's Editorial Committee; this also applies in case of disagreement between reviewers.

5. When the author submits the corrected article, it will be verified by the editor and the reviewers. If the document still does not meet the requested corrections and quality standards, it will be returned until it is ready according to the reviewers' criteria.

The Editorial Office of the electronic journal is responsible for the delivery and return of the papers, as well as for reviewing the use of citations and bibliographic references and the formal recommendations for the articles.

The time from the date of receipt of the document to the date of acceptance is approximately 4.5 months.

If you have any questions about the process, please write to: revista.ccp@ucr.ac.cr

Frequency of publication

The periodicity of the journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica is biannual with continuous publication. The first issue is published on January 1st and covers the months from January to June (it opens on January 1st and closes on June 30th), and the second issue is published on July 1st and covers the months from July to December (it opens on July 1st and closes on December 31st). Articles are received throughout the year and are assigned to an issue according to their arrival; they are published once they are ready.

NOTE: Starting with volume 22(1) in 2024, the continuous publication model is implemented.

Open access policy

Población y Salud en Mesoamérica is a scientific journal that follows the principles of the international Open Access movement established in Budapest (BOAI, 2002), Berlin (2003) and Bethesda (2003), so that the publications of this journal comply with these conditions:

  1. To guarantee the free, irrevocable, worldwide right to access the information, as well as to copy, use, distribute, transmit, display, make hard copies for personal use, make adaptations and derivative works and distribute them, with appropriate acknowledgement of authorship.
  2. To access a complete version of the document and its supplementary materials, with an indication of the permission for its use, in a standard electronic format, and its deposit in an appropriate digital repository supported by an academic institution, government, society or organization that follows open access standards, unrestricted distribution and interoperability mechanisms.

Open access

Licensing policy

License CC BY-NC-SA

Población y Salud en Mesoamérica registers its contributions under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license; this license allows others to remix, tweak and build upon the work on a non-commercial basis, as long as they give credit and license their new creations under the same terms.

APC policy (article processing charges)

Población y Salud en Mesoamérica does NOT make any charge related to the submission, evaluation, publication or assignment of the Open Access license.

Ethics and Good Editorial Practices Policy

Población y Salud en Mesoamérica makes available its Ethics and Good Editorial Practices Policy.

These guidelines were approved by the Editorial Board on August 31, 2016 and are based on the following documents:

International:

  • Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, 2015).
  • COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, by the Committee on Publication Ethics (2013).
  • Retraction Guidelines, by the Committee on Publication Ethics (2009).
  • Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (2015).
  • Ethics in Research & Publication, Elsevier (2014).
  • Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, COPE (2011).
  • Ética en revistas científicas [Ethics in scientific journals], Baiget (2010).

National:

  • Law No. 6683 on Copyright and Related Rights and its amendments in Law No. 7979, Republic of Costa Rica.
  • Research Regulations, University of Costa Rica (2016).

To read the Policy, click HERE.

Plagiarism detection policy

Plagiarism is a fraudulent act that consists of using bibliographic material produced by third parties without directly acknowledging their authorship, making it appear that the text presented is one's own, either partially or in its entirety.

In the journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica, the detection of plagiarism and self-plagiarism may compromise the publication of the submitted manuscript. For this purpose, the TURNITIN software is used, which facilitates the search for bibliographic matches.

If plagiarism is confirmed, the persons involved will be notified and, if the situation is not resolved, the manuscript will be rejected for publication in this journal.

Each case will be evaluated individually by the Editorial Committee to determine the most appropriate course of action in accordance with the journal's code of ethics and good editorial practices.

Digital preservation policy

The journal preserves its digital files (pdf) by means of a redundant storage system consisting of an array of hard disks designed to increase fault tolerance. The device is located in the facilities of the Centro Centroamericano de Población of the University of Costa Rica, and is kept under lock and key with controlled access.

It also has the digital backup provided by the institutional repository of the University of Costa Rica.

The LOCKSS system is used to create an archive that is distributed among the participating libraries, which create a backup that allows the articles to be harvested in case they need to be restored.

Policy for the use of non-sexist language in manuscripts

The journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica, in accordance with the policies of the University of Costa Rica, seeks to promote the use of non-sexist language in scientific publications. For this reason, the journal asks those who submit papers for publication to use forms that include both women and men in their texts. The use of non-sexist language is not a binding criterion for the rejection of a manuscript; however, authors must follow the recommendations that may arise during the editorial process to ensure that the text uses non-sexist language.

Other support guides (in Spanish):

Indexes and databases

Población y Salud en Mesoamérica is indexed and registered in:

Indexes:

  • Scopus
  • Emerging Sources Citation Index: database of emerging journals that are being evaluated for inclusion in the Web of Science Core Collection.
  • UCRIndex: index of scientific journals of the University of Costa Rica.
  • SciELO: electronic library and indexer of scientific journals on the Internet in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • SciELO Citation Index: cooperative platform between SciELO and Thomson Reuters for the promotion of articles published by SciELO journals and the counting of citations in Web of Science.
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS): ProQuest's online bibliographic index for social science and interdisciplinary research.
  • ERIH PLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences): web portal and index of scientific journals developed by the Standing Committee for the Humanities (SCH) of the European Science Foundation (ESF).
  • HAPI (Hispanic American Periodicals Index): web portal of Spanish-American and Caribbean transdisciplinary scientific journals.
  • LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature): virtual health library.
  • Free Medical Journals: promoting free access to medical journals.
  • Publons
  • COPAC: JISC
  • PKP Index

Catalogs:

  • LATINDEX: information system on scientific research, technical-professional, and scientific and cultural dissemination journals published in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal.
  • DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals.
  • RedALyC (Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal): international open access platform of scientific journals and scientific information services.
  • Sherpa/Romeo: database of publisher policies regarding the self-archiving of journal articles on the web and in open access repositories.
  • REDIB (Ibero-American Network for Innovation and Scientific Knowledge): platform for the aggregation of scientific and academic content in electronic format produced in the Ibero-American region.
  • DIALNET: bibliographic portal of Hispanic scientific literature of the University of La Rioja.
  • BIBLAT: portal specialized in scientific and academic journals published in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Periódica: bibliographic database of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) that includes scientific journals from Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • ACADÉMICA: interactive platform, promoted by TELMEX, which brings together educational content from prestigious higher education institutions and international research centers.
  • REBIUN: union catalog of the Spanish University Libraries Network (REBIUN), which brings together the bibliographic records of the 76 university and CSIC libraries that are part of this network.
  • MIAR: Information Matrix for Journal Analysis.
  • ROAD: Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources.
  • Georgetown University Library
  • Crossref
  • OAJI: Open Academic Journals Index.
  • CIRC: Integrated Classification of Scientific Journals.
  • Scilit
  • JournalTOCs
  • CORE

Directories:

  • DOAJ: online directory of quality open access scientific journals.
  • MIAR (Information Matrix for Journal Analysis): database that gathers key information for the identification and analysis of journals, generating correspondence matrices between journals, identified by their ISSN, and the databases and repertories that index or include them.
  • ROAD (Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources): a service offered by the ISSN International Centre with the support of the Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO.
  • Universia: the Universia Foundation's library of learning resources.
  • LANIC (Latin American Network Information Center): portal of Latin American web resources.
  • Free Medical Journals: web portal of free medical scientific journals.
  • Ulrich's Periodicals Directory: ProQuest's global directory of periodicals.
  • Academic Journals Database: disseminating quality-controlled scientific knowledge.

Repositories:

  • Biblioteca Virtual en Población y Salud: digital repository on health and population issues of the Centro Centroamericano de Población.
  • Kimuk: Costa Rica's national repository promoted by the National Council of Rectors (CONARE).
  • Kerwá: institutional repository of the University of Costa Rica.
  • LA Referencia: network of open access repositories for science.
  • Recolecta: open science harvester.
  • AMELICA: communication infrastructure for scholarly publishing and open science.

Search engines:

Awards

The journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica has received the following awards:

Global Media Awards 2004

GLOBAL MEDIA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN POPULATION REPORTING 2004

SALALM ENLACE Award 2007

SALALM ENLACE Award 2007

Article writing guides and manuals

The following guides are available in Spanish:

History of the journal

The journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica is a publication of the Centro Centroamericano de Población (CCP) and was created in 2003 at the University of Costa Rica.