Editorial Policy (Focus & scope)

Bordon accepts scientific multidisciplinary works in the field of education. The presented works can use any scientific method accepted in our sciences. Bordon and the SEP protect non-empirical research (theoretical, philosophical and historical) if they stand for their scientific rigor in the treatment of the subject matter.

All works, regardless of its nature must include:

  • A significant and updated revision of the object of the study that embraces the international panorama (as an orientation and with the justified exceptions for the study theme, at least 30% of the references will be of the last five years. In addition, a significant percentage of the quotes will come from other scientific journals of international impact).
  • A precise description of the adopted methodology, such as specified in this editorial policy.
  • It should include the main findings, discuss the limitations of the study and provide a general interpretation of the results in the context of the research field.
  • The editorial board has decided to adopt the format IMR&D (Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion) because it allows you to standardize the abstracts of all the articles published at Bordon, adopting a multidisciplinary international format to communicate the research results. On the other hand, it favors enormously the capacity of citation of every specific article and of the journal in general. It finally responds to the recommendations of FECYT for the publications with a quality seal like Bordon.

The editorial board is aware that not all the methodologies adjust, by nature or tradition to this abstract format, therefore it is flexible about its use in specific cases. However, all research, beyond its methodology and epistemological approaches raises from a problem or some objectives to achieve some results that are not necessarily measurable but identifiable and to reflect this, some method might have been used (that does not necessarily correspond with the experimental method or with the statistical methods; for example, History, Philosophy, etc. have their own research methods).

Overall and applicable to any scientific area, The INTRODUCTION searches to identify the topic of the object of study, the objectives or questions that guide it. The METHOD, the methods, sources, instruments or procedures used to answer to the objectives. Empirical studies will always include in this section the size of the sample, the tools and the analysis techniques. The RESULTS will present the main findings that can attract the reading of the article to a research potential that is searching bibliography in databases. The DISCUSSION will confront the results or conclusions that have been reached with those obtained in other similar works, theories or positions, highlighting the strengths and own limits.

Bordon accepts empirical studies. Those works with quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches must clearly specify the used methodology. In the qualitative research this section should include a description of the research design, the used sample, its representative capacity and its selected criteria. The tools used to measure the variables objectively should also be identified providing the quality indicators (reliability and validity) when necessary. The method section should end with a description of the plan to analyze data, identifying the statistical used and the criteria to interpret them. In addition, whenever possible the size of the effect and the statistical significance data will be specified. Descriptive and correlative studies with a quantitative approach based on small samples, biased or local (for example, university students of one degree or university) will have less probabilities of being considered for publication. In any case they must include a sufficient justification about its contribution to the studied problem; otherwise they will be dismissed. Equally, those works that are mere replicas of existing works will also be dismissed if they do not conveniently justify their necessity and added value for the field of education. In qualitative works the sample and its capacity to generalize are replaced by a justification and description of the sources of information used, prioritizing triangulation. The gathering of information should be organised taking into account the content categories, that must be previously justified in the theoretical framework. It is recommended to use programs of textual analysis like ATLAS.Ti or similar to generate results in this type of research.

Historical, comparative or philosophical works will be accepted. Empirical studies will equally be considered as well as research and meta-analysis works regarding a problem or particular area:

  • Historical, comparative or philosophical works must show that they have been carried out systematically and with rigor according to the methodology of this type of studies.
  • Research works must adopt conventional standards with a repeatable systematic revision (PRISMA methodology or alike) as much as possible. Currently the journal receives an enormous amount of works with this methodology, but the work ends up being a bibliometric description with scarce analysis on educational issues. In any case, research studies must include:
    1. Justify the revision of the context about what it is known about the topic. Including any previous research.
    2. Raise explicitly the questions that should be answered. The research must be a relevant contribution to the educational field, prevailing the study of the relation between educational factors opposite to a mere bibliographic description.
    3. Described the used methodology: sources of information, (e.g., databases), eligibility requirements of the studies, search strategy, works finally included or dismissed specifying the reason, etc. The defect analysis between the variables through meta-analysis techniques is a methodological strategy of interest for the journal.
    4. The results should not only be a description of each work or of its bibliometric indicators, it is necessary to reflect to give an answer to research questions linked to relations between elements of educational elements.

Finally, theoretical works that propose a mere summary of the literature about a topic without specific objectives of inquiry or methodological precisions will be dismissed.