CALL FOR PAPERS

Issue 59 / Open issue

Publication: June 2025

The journal Relaciones Internacionales has been published consecutively for the last 15 years. During this time, this electronic publication of the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), which is published three times a year, has become a reference in the current Spanish language literature on the theoretical and epistemological reflection on the discipline of International Relations. This is principally due to its efforts in promoting and strengthening critical and interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives on a range of phenomena, actors and topics in this field of study. The original orientation of its publications, added to the demanding standards placed upon the content and form of its articles, have contributed to the growing impact of the journal in recent years and to its placement in important indexes of quality and recognition. In addition, the journal has been accredited in 2019 with the FECYT certification (Spanish Foundation of Science and Technology), which distinguishes Relaciones Internacionales as one of the most important journals in the Spanish academic landscape.

The editorial team of the journal presents this call for papers as its annual open issue, corresponding to issue 59, and whose publication is scheduled for June 2025.

The objective of this issue will be to contribute to the global discussion from the perspective of critical theories, and through the interrogation of dominant academic thinking in the discipline of International Relations. Following the editorial line of the journal, critical and novel perspectives are prioritized, as well as the treatment of innovative themes and new approaches. This issue is, therefore, open to contributions both from the field of International Relations and other fields of research and social science disciplines (Political Science, History, Law, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology), or indeed interdisciplinary approaches- although they must take as a main axis, or have a bearing on, the international itself. Preference will be given to those contributions which offer novel and critical analysis, enabling advances in critical debates and displacing the focus of attention from those places privileged by prevailing discourses and approaches. That is, for instance, those which are fundamentally rationalist and centred on the figure of the state as principal -or even only- actor of International Relations. Some examples of novel approaches could be decolonial, ecofeminist, and ecological studies; in short, any critical analysis that tackles a perspective or theme which has been generally downplayed, neglected or silenced in the discipline.

The incorporation of critical theories, which allow for an exponential expansion in research agendas as well as the inclusion of new concepts and tools from other disciplines, fits in perfectly with the nature and objective of this open issue. Thus, the gazes, perspectives and concepts around which this issue shall be focussed are: 

• Reflections from other social science disciplines (Political Science, History, Law, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology) using plural and multidisciplinary perspectives, although emphasizing the international dimension;
• Analysis through a critical gaze of current social and political phenomena based on feminist debates, critical security studies, postcolonialism, constructivism, poststructuralism, ecologism…;
• Study of the social and international political reality giving a voice to different types of actors (state/non state), international organizations, minorities…) to achieve a broader vision through a critical gaze;
• Novel and innovative contributions that eschew the traditional and Western-centric approaches to International Relations in favour of greater theoretical openness;
• Contributions on relevant questions for International Relations like resistance, the environment, development, Global South, religion, mobility, borders, peace, security, justice, health…

All the articles sent for evaluation and possible publication must conform to the editing and style guidelines of the journal, which are detailed in the Style Manual. The publication will take place during the expected dates, and will be made available online and with open access.

The Editorial Team of the journal and the coordination of the issue have established the following important dates:

 

DUE DATE

SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES

The full document of the article must conform wholly and meticulously to the Style Manual of the journal. You can obtain our template for authors by clicking here (in Spanish). The submission stage ends on the 15th September, 2024 (up to and including).

The submission of the article will be made on the web-page of the journal through the management platform OJS (Open Journal System). It is essential that the authors —all of them in the event that there is more than one— are registered by completing the requested data on the platform registration page with the most up-to-date information:

https://revistas.uam.es/relacionesinternacionales

The platform OJS (Open Journal System) will allow for the tracking of all the administration processes and the state of the text.

COMMUNICATION OF ACCEPTANCE

The coordinators of the journal will analyse the articles sent to check if the authors’ proposals align with the lines of investigation defined in the present call for papers, and they will communicate by email the acceptance or rejection of the proposals on the 15th October, 2024.

EVALUATION process

Once the article is submitted correctly through the website, the double-blind evaluation process begins. The decision process will take between three and six months, depending on the case: this may include the return of the text to its author(s) for the revision or correction of changes and suggestions made by the anonymous reviewers. During the evaluation process, the reviewers will be responsible for certifying the quality of the work of the authors, as well as the appropriateness of the final texts for the topics proposed in the call for papers.

• PLEASE NOTE: suggestions by the authors of possible reviewers for the evaluation of their texts are permitted. With the text of your proposal, you can send us by email the names of academics with extensive knowledge of the aspects dealt with in your work, so that- if the coordination considers it appropriate- these people can be contacted as blind reviewers.

Throughout the evaluation process (between November and May), those authors whose text receives the complete approval of the assigned reviewers will be notified of the definitive acceptance of their article.

EDITING process

During the month of May 2025, the journal will proceed to the definitive editing of the text, to be published in June. The complete and careful compliance with the rules stated in the Style Manual of the journal is understood to be the responsibility of the authors, and this is a requirement for the final publication of the article in Issue 59.

PUBLICATION OF THE VOLUME

Throughout the month of June 2025 the 59^th edition of the journal Relaciones Internacionales, with the title “Open Issue,” will be published in digital format, online, open access and free. All the articles that have fulfilled the requirements of the stages indicated above will be included.

LANGUAGES

Proposals in Spanish, English, Portuguese, German and French will be accepted. However, the articles must be translated to Spanish for publication. It will be the authors themselves who send the translated articles in Spanish.

OTHER INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS:

It is fundamental that the authors consult the Style Manual to get to know in detail the editing and evaluation requirements for publication in the journal. Moreover, the OJS system of the journal website allows for online tracking of all the administration processes and the state of the text.

Notification of copyright: the authors who publish in Relaciones Internacionales accept the following terms:

• The authors retain copyright and guarantee the right of first publication of the work to the journal, which will be simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons License Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
• The authors will be able to make other non-exclusive licence agreements for the distribution of the published version of the work (e.g., deposited in an electronic institutional archive or published in a monographic volume) provided that the initial publication in this journal is indicated.
• It is permitted and recommended that the authors circulate their work through the internet (e.g., in electronic institutional archives or on their webpage) before and during the submission process, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase the citations of the published work.
• The authors are responsible for obtaining the appropriate permissions to reproduce material (text, images or graphs) from other publications and for citing their origins correctly.
• Relaciones Internacionales does not charge the authors any fees for the presentation, submission, or publication of the articles.

COORDINATION OF THE ISSUE

Laura CORRAL – laura_corral99@hotmail.com
Elena LEDO – elenaledomartinez@gmail.com