Submissions

Author Guidelines

Focus and scope

The Cuban Journal of Digital Transformation is an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal. It has been published in an electronic version quarterly since 2020, with a continuous modality since 2022, by the Union of Informaticians of Cuba, a social, self-financed and non-profit organization. The magazine publishes articles in Spanish and English. It is registered in the National Registry of Serial Publications (RNPS N. 2487, Folio 230 and Volume III) with the ISSN (electronic): ISSN: 2708-3411.

The mission of the Cuban Journal of Digital Transformation is to publish results of theoretical or applied research, reflections and case studies that depict the digital transformation in Cuba and internationally.

Thematic coverage

The main thematic lines that the magazine addresses are:

• Technologies enabling digital transformation.
• digital government.
• Industrial digitization.
• Digital economy.
• Digital innovation.

Types of contributions

Authors can submit the following types of contributions for publication in the Cuban Magazine of Digital Transformation:

• Original articles: These are studies that show, in detail, the results of completed research or new speculations in the thematic lines of the journal. Its content includes an introduction, methodology, results and discussion, conclusions, acknowledgments and bibliographical references. They include a maximum of five figures and/or tables and up to 50 bibliographical references relevant to the subject of the study, preferably from the last five years. They are no longer than 15 pages, not including references.
• Brief communications: They are descriptive or retrospective studies that report preliminary or partial research results, which require rapid dissemination. Its scope and length are less than the original articles; but its content also includes a title, abstract, keywords, introduction, methodology, results and discussion, conclusions, acknowledgments and bibliographical references. They include a maximum of five figures and/or tables and up to 30 bibliographic references relevant to the subject of the study, preferably from the last five years. The maximum length of brief communications is 10 pages, not including references.
• Case studies: These contributions describe and analyze the behavior, results, and technical and methodological experiences observed in one or several cases of interest. Its content is made up of: title, abstract, keywords, introduction, methodology, development (with subtitles for each topic), conclusions, acknowledgments and bibliographical references. They include a maximum of five figures and/or tables and up to 50 bibliographical references relevant to the subject of the study, preferably from the last five years. They are no longer than 15 pages, not including references.
• Review Articles: They examine the state of the art or carry out a study of the situation of a particular subject, with the aim of analyzing the advances and development trends, as well as the insufficiently studied aspects. They comprise a title, abstract, keywords, introduction, methodology, development (with subtitles for each topic), conclusions, acknowledgments and references. They include a maximum of five figures and/or tables and must have no less than 35 relevant bibliographical references, preferably from the last ten years. They have an extension of no more than 20 pages, not including bibliographical references.
• Reflection Articles: This section publishes documents that present research results from an analytical, interpretive or critical perspective of the author, on a specific topic, using original sources. They are peer-reviewed.

Languages

Contributions are accepted in Spanish, English or Portuguese. Authors for whom English is not their native language are recommended to have their contribution professionally edited before submission.

Presentation and structure of contributions

Authors must create two files:

1. Presentation letter, which includes the title page of the work and the declarations of originality, authorship and conflict of interest, as well as compliance with the intellectual property policy (see cover letter format).
2. Handwritten, complying with the detailed rules of format and structure established for the different types of contributions.

Presentation letter

The cover information must be included in the first section of the cover letter:

1. Job title, in Spanish and English. If the work is written in Portuguese, the title in that language is also included. The title must clearly and precisely describe the content of the work and allow the reader to easily identify the subject. It must be concise (not to exceed 15 words); but without sacrificing clarity. Excessive use of prepositions and articles should be avoided.
2. Data of the authors: Only those people who have made an important scientific and intellectual contribution to carrying out the work should be included as authors, either in design and planning, data processing and analysis, interpretation of the results, writing of the manuscript and / or your review. You can consult the guidelines on authorship of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (see https://bit.ly/1ruKdnU), which are useful for researchers in all fields. The order of the authors will be presented according to their degree of responsibility and participation. The following data must be provided for all authors:

• Full names and surnames: authors are recommended to use a standardized academic signature (name) in accordance with international conventions, which facilitates their unequivocal identification in different databases.
• Academic degree.
• Institutional affiliation (work center): If it is required to indicate more than one structural unit in the affiliation, it is recommended that the first level institution be indicated first and then the second and third level institutions, separated by commas. Example: University of Informatics Sciences (UCI), Faculty of Computational Sciences and Technologies). Country.
• ORCID code: It is mandatory that the authors have registered in ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), https://orcid.org.

3. Summary, in Spanish and English. If the paper is written in Portuguese, the abstract in that language is also included. Its maximum length is 250 words. It must contain the rationale and objectives of the work, the methodology used, the main results achieved, as well as a comment regarding the meaning of the results or a small conclusion. It is written in an impersonal way and should not include references, abbreviations or equations. The use of automatic translators is not recommended.
4. Keywords, in Spanish and English. If the work is written in Portuguese, the keywords in that language are also included. Between 3 and 5 terms or phrases must be indicated that identify the area of ​​knowledge and respond to the theme of the work. The use of specific or disciplinary thesauri is recommended, in correspondence with the theme of the work. They must be separated by "semicolons" and ordered alphabetically.

In the second section of the cover letter, the authors endorse their commitment in relation to the following aspects:

1. The contribution is an original contribution (statement of originality).
2. The contribution has not been sent to other journals for publication in other journals.
3. Declaration of authorship.
4. Acceptance for formal changes to be made to the manuscript in accordance with the standards, if necessary.
5. Control of exploitation rights and conditions of use and reuse.
6. Declaration of conflict of interest.

The cover letter must be signed by all the authors and uploaded as an additional file during step 4 of the online submission process, through the platform used for the management and publication of the journal.

Manuscript

The manuscript containing the text of the paper must be submitted in Word format (2003-2016) using the templates designed by the editorial team of the journal for the different types of contributions, on letter-size pages, with 2.5 cm margins on all four sides. , spaced 1.5 lines and in Times New Roman 12 normal font. The title and headings of the different sections will be highlighted in bold. The extension limits must also be respected, as well as the number of tables and figures established for each case.

The manuscript in Word should not include any data from the authors to ensure blind review. The author's data is incorporated only in the cover letter and in the form during step 3 of the online submission process. To ensure that all data that may indicate authorship identity is removed from the file and not compromise the review process, authors must anonymize the metadata (authorship, modification dates, comments, reviews, versions, annotations) of the file ( see https://bit.ly/2BdwDpX).

The templates created for each type of article will help the authors to write their contribution with the corresponding format, complying with the APA 6th edition standard for each type of article:

• Original articles
• Brief communications
• Case studies
• Review Articles
• Reflection Articles

Editorial process

The Cuban Journal of Digital Transformation sends an acknowledgment of receipt of the contributions sent by the authors immediately that all steps of the online submission process have been satisfactorily completed. In the same way, we keep our authors informed (by email and through our editorial management platform) about the progress of the evaluation process, the estimate (or rejection), and the acceptance (or rejection) of their contribution, as well as of the edition and publication of the accepted manuscripts.

All the instructions and regulations that authors must comply with are available on the journal's website, as well as a detailed description of the evaluation process and the instructions and formats to be used by external peers in the academic evaluation of papers.

The evaluation process consists of the following phases:

• Editorial evaluation.
• Academic evaluation.
• Final evaluation.

As a result of the evaluation process, the following decisions can be made:

• Accept the manuscript for publication without modifications.
• Accept the manuscript for publication with modifications (basic, moderate or complex).
• Reject the manuscript.

The estimated time for the evaluation process of the contributions and their subsequent publication ranges from six to eight months.

Within 15 days of receipt of the contribution, the executive editor will notify its authors if the work is rejected or preliminarily estimated for academic evaluation. The causes for the rejection of the manuscript can be its non-correspondence with the thematic lines of the journal, the absence of novelty, the non-compliance with the originality requirement, as well as formal deficiencies. In the latter case, depending on its magnitude, the work may be rejected or returned to the authors to solve the problems detected and return it within a maximum period of seven days.

The academic evaluation of original articles, short communications, review articles and case studies is carried out using the double-blind peer review method and in strict anonymity. Two reviewers are used for this process and if there is a contradiction in their decision, the manuscript will be evaluated by a third referee.

The Cuban Journal of Digital Transformation has a database of national and international referees, classified by academic category, distributed by disciplinary areas and institutions. In this way, the Editorial Board of the journal guarantees that the referees are external to the publishing entity and the entity of the authors who send their contributions. Referees are instructed to comply with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Ethics for Peer Review,https://bit.ly/2xZcZrk.

The criteria on which the academic evaluation focuses and which affect the acceptance or rejection of the work are the following:

• Actuality and novelty.
• Methodological quality, reliability and scientific validity of the work.
• Relevance and scientific or practical contribution of the results.
• Organization and coherence.

In all cases, the academic evaluation also includes the verification of ethical aspects in order to avoid behaviors such as: redundant or duplicate publication, plagiarism, manipulation and/or invention of data, and undeclared conflicts of interest.

A contribution can be evaluated up to 3 times maximum, according to the complexity of the changes and the suggestions of the referees. In a first academic review, the referees will make and issue a first opinion in a maximum period of 4 weeks. If necessary, they will carry out two more rounds of evaluation. The time available for the delivery of the second and third academic report is 2 weeks maximum for each case. The total time of the academic review will not exceed 4 months.

All authors will receive the scientific evaluation reports anonymously, so that they can make (if any) the appropriate improvements or replicas.

Online preparation and sending

The submission of contributions to the Cuban Magazine of Digital Transformation is only done online, through our editorial management platform. Those interested in submitting contributions must register as authors in it and complete the information requested in all steps of the submission process. Please take into account the following recommendations:

1. Before submitting, make sure that the cover letter is duly completed and signed by all the authors and that the manuscript file is in the proper format, using the template provided by the editorial team of the journal and complies with all the requirements set forth in the Instructions for Authors.
2. Make sure that all authors have read our intellectual property policy and agree to the terms set out in it regarding the control of exploitation rights and the conditions of use and reuse of published works.
3. If you are submitting your contribution to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, please ensure that the instructions for anonymizing your manuscript and ensuring blind review have been followed.
4. In step 3 of the submission process, be sure to fill in the data for each of the authors (name, surname, highest academic rank, affiliation, city, country, ORCID code, and email address of institutional preference). You must also specify who will be the author responsible for the correspondence.
5. In step 4 of the submission process, you must upload the file containing the Cover Letter, duly completed and signed.

Conflicts of interest

Our journal is committed to minimizing bias, as much as possible, in published research results. To do this, editors, authors, and reviewers must identify and declare all competing interests during the review process.

Any matter that interferes, or could be perceived as an interference, in the complete and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of contributions submitted to the journal is considered a conflict of interest. Conflicts of interest can be financial and non-financial, professional or personal, and related to an organization or another person.

It is because of that:

• Authors must declare all relevant conflicting interests for consideration during the review process.
• Editors and reviewers must declare their own conflicts of interest and, if necessary, request that they not participate in the evaluation of a manuscript.

Ethical issues

The editorial team of Revista Cubana de Transformación Digital is committed to its community of users in guaranteeing the integrity and quality of the articles published in it. The articles are evaluated by anonymous external peers with criteria based on scientific relevance, originality, and the relevance of the papers 'presented in it, guaranteeing the confidentiality of the evaluation process and the anonymity of the evaluators and authors.

The authors are responsible for the opinions they express in their work and must guarantee that the articles are original and that they have not been submitted for consideration by other publications. In the same way, they assume the responsibility that only those people who have made an intellectually important contribution to the development of the work appear in the signing authors.

The journal has a procedure to detect and avoid scientific malpractice and fraudulent conduct, in accordance with the Code of Conduct for Editors and the Good Practice Guidelines defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). In this way, compliance with the quality standards and transparency principles of the publication is guaranteed, as well as the original and unpublished nature of the published results.

The Cuban Journal of Digital Transformation uses the anti-plagiarism tool in the manuscript review process Double Checker for the detection of bad practices in order to guarantee compliance with the quality standards of the publication, and to maintain the original and unpublished nature of the published results.

In order to facilitate the decision-making process in cases in which unethical behavior is detected or observed, the Editorial Board of the Cuban Magazine of Digital Transformation follows the decision flows recommended by COPE for the following cases:

• Suspected redundant or duplicate publication.
• suspected of plagiarism.
• Suspicion of invented and/or manipulated data.
• Authorship changes.
• Suspected undeclared conflict of interest.
• Violation of research rules.
• Evaluator bias.

Charges or cost to authors

Publication in the Revista Cubana de Transformación Digital is totally free, which means that the journal does not charge authors fees for sending, processing and/or publishing the manuscripts.