About the Journal

Docere is a biannual publication of the Department of Academic Training and Development (DEFAA) linked to the General Directorate of Undergraduate Education at the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes (UAA), aimed at upper secondary and higher education teachers. Since 2009, it has published articles that contribute to the development of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values in upper secondary and higher education teachers, enabling them to address the challenges of the current context in their practice, particularly those related to the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of teaching and learning, as well as educational practice itself.

General objective

The overall objective of the journal Docere is to enrich the knowledge of upper secondary and higher education teachers in the state, region, and country by publishing high-quality articles on topics related to the areas of training established in the Institutional Program for Teacher Training and Development (PIFOD): Institutional identity, Curriculum development, Teaching methodologies, Teaching resources and ICT applied to education, Educational assessment, Foreign languages, and Humanities training, and Tutoring.

Specific objectives

Therefore, the following specific objectives are proposed:

  1. To encourage written production by secondary and higher education teachers in the state, region, and country, providing a space for expression where they can share their experiences, analyses, and educational projects, among others, that promote ongoing teacher practice.
  2. To promote comprehensive training for teachers in the areas proposed in the PIFOD.
  3. To promote analytical and critical thinking among teachers and encourage ongoing reflection on their own practice.
  4. To strengthen good educational practices and guide towards educational innovation in order to achieve changes that support students' learning processes.
  5. To link the UAA with other upper secondary and higher education institutions in the state, region, and country by distributing the magazine in print and electronic formats.
  6. To disseminate the services and activities of DEFAA and the institution related to the work of teachers in today's education system.

Main distinctions

Docere has the reservation number for exclusive use of the title: 04-2018-041714054800-102, as well as ISSN 2007-6487 (print version) and ISSN 2683-2526 (electronic version); granted by the National Copyright Institute (INDAUTOR). In addition, the Journal is part of the UAA Academic Journal Network (RedRUAA); it is indexed in Dialnet and Latindex (Regional Online Information System for Scientific Journals in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal), catalog 2.0.

Interoperability protocols

This digital journal, hosted and published by Open Journal System (OJS), implements the OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) protocol, a harvesting protocol for metadata exchange based on the Dublin Core schema.

This can be verified using the OAI-MPH Validator (https://validator.oaipmh.com/), using the following URL:

OAI-PMH URL: https://revistas.uaa.mx/index.php/docere/oai

You can also check:

https://revistas.uaa.mx/index.php/docere/oai?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc

Digital preservation and archiving systems

Actions at the institutional level:

The content hosted on the Open Journal System (OJS) platform of the journal Docere is digitally preserved on the designated server in accordance with the processes established by the Editorial Department of the General Directorate of Dissemination and Outreach and the Networks and Telecommunications Department of the General Directorate of Planning and Development of the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes (UAA). In general, this process consists of the following:

- Editorial Department, General Directorate for Dissemination and Outreach:

  1. Frequent maintenance of the site and technical administration of the institutional OJS.
  2. Version updates.
  3. Automatic backup every 12 hours, with the possibility of historical access to previous backups; involving:
    1. OJS configuration files.
    2. The database.
    3. Backup log.
    4. Automated monitoring of backups, tracking storage space.

- Networks and Telecommunications Department, General Directorate of Planning and Development:

  1. Monthly backup of OJS, with implications similar to the constant backups of the Editorial Department, involving:
    1. Backup log.
    2. Automated monitoring of backups, tracking storage space.

Complementary strategies:

Upon being published in the Open Journal System (OJS) software from the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), Docere supports its publications in the archiving systems with which the platform is compatible, such as:

  1. Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (CLOCKSS): A system that guarantees the secure and permanent digital preservation of publications based on technology developed by Stanford University. It allows participating libraries to archive digital journals and their content by validating cache memories and restoring them in case of loss or corruption.
  2. Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (LOCKSS): This is an open source tool created by Stanford University Library that helps libraries preserve electronic journals by periodically collecting newly published content. The files are continuously verified with copies stored at other institutions, allowing any damaged or lost information to be restored. (See the Publishing Manifesto: https://revistas.uaa.mx/index.php/docere/gateway/lockss)
  3. PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN): Allows publishers using OJS to ensure the digital preservation of their content. In the event that a journal ceases operations or is no longer available online, continuous access to its articles and issues is guaranteed in the long term. To this end, PKP PN uses LOCKSS technology, which offers a distributed and decentralized preservation model supported by multiple institutions.

Likewise, through the services of Crossref, Docere supports the metadata of its articles by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to each one, which enables their persistent identification and facilitates their consultation.

Self-archiving is also encouraged for individuals who have contributed to any work published in previous issues, so that they can store their articles in personal repositories as an additional strategy for preserving information.

Open access policy

Docere is a non-profit academic publication that offers open access to its content: it is distributed free of charge, with no costs for authors, readers, or reviewers.

Currently it is published under the Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike, 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0,  according to which the authors agree to assign their copyright under this shared license, which allows anyone to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms:

  • Credit the author of the text by providing a link to the licence as well as indicating whether changes have been made.
  • Do not use the material from the Docere Journal for commercial purposes
  • In cases where the published material from the Docere Journal is adapted, transformed, or created, attribution to the rights corresponding to the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes must be given as the owner of the copyrighted material used.

In the event of a violation of the foregoing provisions, the reader and/or user shall be subject to the penalties established by applicable law. 

The authors grant this journal the right of first publication, but retain their copyright, so that they may enter into other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (e.g., including it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), provided that they clearly indicate that the work was first published in this journal.

Plagiarism prevention

The journal Docere uses a specialized tool to detect similarities with other published electronic texts, to which all participating articles are submitted: iThenticate, as a preventive measure to avoid plagiarism in any form.

Preparation of bibliographic references

The journal Docere uses the APA (American Psychological Association) format for citations and references.

Article arbitration system

In order to guarantee the quality of the content of the articles, the journal Docere will promote a peer review system consisting of a double-blind evaluation, preserving the anonymity of the authors and reviewers. To this end, DEFAA will carry out the following activities:

  1. Conduct an initial review of the articles, verifying that they comply with this call for papers.
  2. Verify the similarities between the submitted text and other published works using iThenticate, a tool specialized in detecting matches with other electronic publications, with the aim of preventing plagiarism.
  3. Propose two reviewers for the evaluation of the articles that received high scores in points 1 and 2.
  4. Communicate the results of the evaluation to the authors, in the following terms:
  • Favorable. No changes.
  • Favorable. Taking into account the observations.
  • Not favorable. The article requires significant changes.

In the event of a discrepancy between favorable and unfavorable opinions, or any situation not covered in this call for submissions, DEFAA, as the department responsible for publishing the journal Docere, will determine the final verdict, which will be final and binding.

Selection of evaluators

It is carried out by invitation to professors who, due to their professional profile, are able to evaluate the assigned text, based on a directory that is enriched with each call for applications.

Translation by: Adán Israel Vázquez Alba