About the Journal

Focus and scope

a.- Editorial Line. Reasons and characteristics of the journal

In recent years, research work on the Accounting History in Spain and other non-Anglo-Saxon countries has increased considerably, making these countries relevant due to the number and quality of research carried out on this matter. As in these countries there are few doctrinal accounting journals, there is a difficulty for many papers to be published. In this way, there is a loss for the community of historians given the scarce knowledge and the lack of dissemination that a great part of the research reaches. This circumstance is especially regrettable in the current university situation, in which the professional career of university teachers depends largely on the publication of research in prestigious journals.

Therefore, and in order to facilitate that university professors from non-Anglo-Saxon countries, who dedicate their research activity to the Accounting History can find a way to develop their professional career, and can promote themselves without having to abandon their thematic preferences of research, the AECA Accounting History Commission took the initiative in 2004 to publish an Accounting History journal capable of publishing at least a part of the most important papers to be carried out in the future. For this reason, this journal accepts manuscripts written in the most important European languages.

Publishing a conventional paper-based Accounting History journal did not seem appropriate at the time, given the still relatively small number of those interested in the discipline. Having in mind that paper journals have a limited circulation, which increased their cost extraordinarily due to fixed printing costs, so it seemed that the only viable way to edit a journal of this discipline was to proceed to an electronic edition. As an essential requirement and a sine qua non condition for the journal to meet its objectives was its birth from the beginning with the purpose and ambition of constituting a serious and rigorous publication, ready to meet the most rigorous academic standards, and to accredit itself not only in the Spanish, but also in the international scientific accounting means, to be able to request their inclusion in the most prestigious databases of periodical publications.

For this, it was, and still is essential, to conceive and design it so that, from its inception, it met certain conditions, among which are mainly the following:

1. The existence of a formal anonymous evaluation system for papers submitted to the journal for publication, developed in a rigorous and systematic way, carried out by external referees with the periodic publication of the list of referees. The existence of this system is a guarantee of the quality of the articles and that the citations and their references are correct and complete.

2. The punctuality in the publication of the issues of the journal within the indicated deadlines. This is a requirement for journals to be included in the ISI database. The regular publication of the issues proves the existence of a sufficient collection of accepted papers. To adequately measure the punctuality of a journal, the evaluator needs to have at least the last three numbers.

3. It was also necessary for the journal to comply with international editorial standards. These rules refer to the title of the journal duly reporting its content, to the existence of titles and summaries of published articles that sufficiently describe its content, including keywords, to providing complete bibliographic information of all the cited references and that full information on the author and his address is provided.

4. Likewise, it is required that articles not written in English were accompanied by the translation into this language of their titles, abstracts, keywords, and information about the author(s).

5. The existence of renowned researchers, from inside and outside of Spain, in the Journal Editorial Board contributes to enhancing its reputation.

6. Equally, the presence of researchers of prestige, among the authors of published articles, should also contribute to the journal reputation.

7. The publication of papers in English, in addition to other languages, apart from the languages of the country where the journal is published is also a positive element.

8. Electronic journals are subject to the same evaluation rules and are being increasingly included in international databases. The Institute for Scientific Information included the first electronic journal in its ISI database in September 1994.

Based on these criteria, the journal has established from the beginning a system of blind evaluations, with at least two referees, to evaluate each of the manuscripts submitted to the journal. Likewise, it publishes annually the list of reviewers who have acted during the period.

The journal attaches the utmost importance to their issues are uploaded to the website on the scheduled date. Its periodicity is two issues a year, in June and December.

The journal title informs about the discipline to which it is devoted. Likewise, care is taken that the titles of the articles also adequately inform about their content. They are preceded by an abstract that describes it sufficiently, as well as the corresponding key words and a short biographical note about the author(s), with his/her address. It is also verified that the bibliographic references are correct and complete.

To encourage its international reading, the journal has a double subtitle, in Spanish with its translation into English: “De Computis. Revista Española de Historia de la Contabilidad (Spanish Journal of Accounting History)”. In any case, the abstracts, keywords, and the author(s)’ biographical note are also accompanied by their English translation.

From its beginning, the journal has been open, not only to the publication of articles in Spanish and the other Spanish languages, but also those written in other widely used languages, such as English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese.

Having in mind that some accounting history journals only publish papers written in English, the existence of this journal, that admits papers in different languages, enriches the bibliography about our discipline, and can disseminate it more widely internationally.

In addition to the Doctrinal Articles section, the journal also publishes, among others, News, Chronicles, Bibliographic Comments, Summaries of Doctoral Theses, News about Historical Archives, and Book Reviews.

b.- Editorial principles

1. According to its title, De Computis. Spanish Journal of Accounting History maintains a determined historical vocation since its birth, that is, it fundamentally proposes the presentation and exposition of historical events in the field of accounting, understood in a wide sense, whose knowledge has been gained from the research of the primary sources that correspond in each case.

2. In this context, historical facts should be understood not just events in the strict sense, but also the approaches, doctrines, techniques, norms, publications, people, organizations, etc., related to accounting.

3. It is considered that in the examination of the evolution of events, approaches, doctrines, techniques, etc., the study of the changes produced is of interest, as well as the study and interpretation of the causes that may have caused them.

4. In any case, the presentation and description of historical events must normally be accompanied by their explanation and interpretation, as well as their insertion in the context, indicating the set of interactions and cause-effect relationships that are establish among the different components of the set. Only in this way do historical facts take on their entire being and significance.

5. This does not mean, of course, that studies that limit themselves to presenting and exposing new historical facts are not valued, leaving the task of proceeding to formulate an explanation for later or for other papers.

6. In this sense, De Computis. Spanish Journal of Accounting History understands that the examination of historical facts in the archives, from primary sources, can be equally valid, without representing an antiquarian conception of history guided by a mere eagerness of erudition and collecting. This is not the case. As it has been said, the discovery and exposition of events of the past constitute, precisely, the foundation of history. Therefore, all work, carried out with seriousness and scientific rigor, exposing unknown facts by the group of historians is valuable. The history of Spanish accounting is especially aware of this circumstance, given the large number of historical-accounting facts hidden in the documentation kept in the archives, the study of which would expand their volume of knowledge and the possibilities of drawing valid conclusions.

7. On the other hand, it must be considered that, on occasions, there may be events of interest whose presentation is not susceptible to great interpretations, and without considering that all description and exposition of events always carry, even implicitly, certain doses of explanation and subjectivity.

8. In the same way, papers that without presenting new historical facts should limit themselves to giving new interpretations of already known facts, provided that these interpretations provide novelties that place these facts in a new and more informative light.

9. Thus, the statement made above that the presentation and exposition of the facts must normally be accompanied by an explanation of the facts and by their insertion in the corresponding context, must be understood as a statement of principles, in the meaning that it supports the idea that only when a conjunction of the said three elements occurs: 1. exposition, description and analysis of the facts; 2. explanation and interpretation of them; and 3. insertion of the set in the corresponding historical context with the study of the interactions and cause-effect relationships appreciated, it can be considered that a historical investigation has a full and complete character. But this idea does not mean, at all, that De Computis. Spanish Journal of Accounting History (Spanish Journal of Accounting History) renounces the publication of papers that do not contain all three elements at the same time.

10. It is considered that the most valid and adequate explanations and interpretations of the facts are those made expressly, that is, those that are derived from the facts themselves studied. It must be kept in mind that historical facts are unique, unrepeatable, and irreversible. This does not mean, of course, that the use of pre-established theories to explain the facts under investigation is not appreciated or encouraged. Furthermore, if there are explanatory theories of events of a similar nature to those investigated, their knowledge and application will be considered inexcusable.

11. In trying to explain and interpret the facts presented, and especially when using pre-established theories, it will be care not to fall into the vicious and current practice of presenteeism, that is, to evaluate and judge the facts of the past from the perspective of the present.

12. In the application of pre-established theories to explain the facts, the investigation should be avoided with the deliberate and preconceived purpose of using history as a simple instrument to verify them. It is theories that serve history, and not the opposite. To do otherwise, apart from denaturing the concept of history, would entail an additional risk of bias and lack of objectivity in the investigation, due to the unconscious propensity to give greater importance to the facts related to this verification.

13. Something similar can be said when an inquiry is undertaken with the purpose of exclusively using a determined theoretical approach to explain the facts under investigation. At best, this would imply unnecessary self-limitation that would not do justice to the complexity of the historical and real-life events being attempted to explain.

14. In any case, it must be clear to the reader what are the facts that the investigation presents, describes, and analyzes, and where the explanations and interpretations begin. In any case, although absolute objectivity does not exist in history, if the investigation has been carried out in a serious and rigorous way, the exposition of the facts must reach a reasonable degree of objectivity; their explanation and interpretation, on the contrary, have a subjective character. The reader, being able to distinguish between facts and interpretations, will be able to give them their own interpretation.

15. It will be considered important that the author explains at the beginning of his/her paper the object of the research, the review he/she has made of the existing literature, what is the contribution that in his/her opinion makes with respect to what has already been published and what lines of research open with it.

16. The inquiry must have the right cites and references, so that the reader can reconstruct and verify on their own the process followed by the researcher. Therefore, cites are important. When an author is cited in support of a piece of information, an approach or a hypothesis, efforts should be made to cite the first one who contributed this knowledge and not just anyone who collected it. It should not be cited for friendship, affinity, or flattery, nor to demonstrate one's knowledge. It should never be forgotten that the purpose of the citations is to facilitate the reader's verification of the correct development of the research.

17. De Computis, Spanish Journal of Accounting History will not pay excessive attention to criteria of opportunity and current thematic or methodological relevance when selecting the papers to be published, since it is not known which topics or approaches will be relevant in the future. The selection criteria will be based on the scientific seriousness and rigor with which the paper has been carried out.

Peer review process

De Computis uses the following peer review procedure:

1. When a paper is received, it is verified that it complies with the publication standards and the author is acknowledged, informing him/her that when it is evaluated, the evaluation results will be communicated to him/her.

2. Two or more referees are selected considering their knowledge on the topic analyzed by the paper, and where appropriate the territory it comprises. To do this, the journal requests the collaboration of external referees in the category of specialists in the topic of the paper to be reviewed, who become part of the internal list of referees if they wish.

3. Once the referees accept the review, the anonymous paper is sent to them and they are given a term of about six weeks.

- When the acceptance is received by the referee, he/she is responded thanking his/her disposal. If someone answered that he/she cannot, another referee is sought.

- An evaluation form is sent to the referees with detailed instructions for their revision: evaluation criteria of the originality, relevance, methodological rigor and formal presentation of the manuscripts as well as the way to carry out the revision.

- The evaluations are received. Acknowledgment of receipt and appreciation for the task done is communicated. It is also communicated that if he/she need it, it will be issued a certificate in the category of external referee of the journal.

- When a fortnight of the deadline for receiving the report passes, the pending task is remembered.

- Received the two evaluations, according to their results, it is decided:

• If the two are favorable, the paper is transferred to the publishable list.

The favorable editorial decision is communicated to the author(s), by means of a notification that includes the reasons why it has been accepted, as well as the opinions -original or adapted by the Editorial Staff-, issued by the referees.

• If one is favorable and the other negative, a third revision is requested, which is the one that allows deciding definitively. In these cases, the editorial decision that is communicated to the author(s) is: "Rectifications are needed and to revise again"

• If both are negative, or two of the three are negative, it is not accepted for publication. In these cases, the editorial decision that is communicated to the author(s) is: "Reject".

4. The author (s) who receive the favorable evaluations have about one month to submit the revised paper. He/she is also requested to communicate the modifications made by means of a letter addressed to the referees, detailing the changes made.

5. Once the revised paper is received, it is verified that the author (s) have modified the text according to the suggested changes. He/she is notified that the paper is accepted for publication and he/she is required for an Abstract in English.

6. To the author(s) who have requested is provided with a certificate of acceptance of his/her paper in the current open number at that time.

Open access policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that providing an open access to research helps to a greater global exchange of knowledge.

De Computis offers immediate open access to its content under the principle that offering the research to the public free of charge contributes to a greater exchange of global knowledge. No fees will be charged, either for sending, or for posting papers.

Preservation policy

The publisher, the AECA association, firmly believes in the importance of preserving academic research in the long term. In this sense, the De Computis journal is aware of and takes responsibility for the enormous effort invested by authors and reviewers to achieve publication, and so that it does not end up losing its content, in the hypothetical case that this journal ceases to be published. activity or any other problem that may affect the published works arises, establishes a series of measures to digitally preserve its content. Traditionally, university libraries have been responsible for preserving academic content. However, one of the challenges faced by 'Open Access' journals (regardless of the many advantages they have) is that someone must ensure the long-term preservation of their content. To achieve this end, De Computis is part of the 'Public Knowledge Project's Private LOCKSS Network' (PKP-PLN), which will automatically archive all content each time a new issue is published. The LOCKSS system is also used to create a file system distributed among collaborating libraries, with permanent files in case their restoration is necessary.

In addition, in order to digitally preserve all the documents it houses, the Computis journal has an action plan with a series of basic measures to protect and ensure the digital viability of its contents:

-Monthly Backups and periodic Backups

-Storage on external servers

-Deposit of files in easily readable formats (PDFs)

-Regular checks of the integrity of the files to avoid their corruption

-Use of DOIs in their new materials

Principles of ethics, negligence statement and plagiarism detection policy

1. Responsibilities or behavior of the editorial board and editorial committee

The description of the peer review processes is defined and made known by the Editorial Board and the Editorial Committee so that the authors know what the evaluation criteria is. Both editorial bodies will always be ready to settle any controversy that arises in the evaluation process.
The Editorial Board assumes the responsibility of duly informing the authors of the phase of the editorial process in which the paper is, as well as the resolutions of the opinion.

2. Responsibilities and behavior of publisher

The publisher is responsible for everything published in the Journal. They will strive to meet the needs of readers and authors, to constantly improve the quality and impact of the Journal, as well as to push academic and scientific standards.
The publisher is willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.
The decision of the publisher to accept or reject a paper for publication will be based only on the importance of the paper, the originality, clarity and relevance that the paper represents for the Journal.
The publisher undertakes to guarantee the confidentiality of the evaluation process.
After the review process, and while the paper is declared “publishable” by the referees, the editor is responsible for deciding which paper will be published in the Journal.
The publisher will evaluate the manuscripts and their scientific content without distinction of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, nationality, or the political philosophy of the authors.
The editor and the Editorial Board will not disclose any information about a manuscript sent to any person other than the author, referees, potential referees, or other editorial advisers.
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript will not be used in personal research by the publishers or members of the Editorial Board without the express written consent of the authors. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review will be confidential and not used for personal benefit. Editors will make fair and impartial decisions and ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process.

3. Responsibilities of the authors

1. Authors must guarantee that their manuscripts are the product of their original work and that the data has been ethically obtained. Furthermore, they must guarantee that their papers have not been previously published or that they are not being considered in another publication. A paper will be considered as previously published when any of the following situations occurs (these criteria refer to previous publications in printed or electronic form, and in any language) when:

The full paper has been published.

Extensive fragments of previously published materials are part of the paper sent to the Journal.

The paper submitted to the Journal is contained in reports published in extenso (30% or more of the paper content).

The paper has been published in another language and what the authors submit is a translation of it.

2. For the publication of their papers, the authors must follow the editorial norms for the publication of paper defined by the Editorial Committee.

3. The authors will send the Journal an original of the article without personal information (name, contact details, affiliation, etc.) and excluding their name from the bibliographic references in which it appears.

4. The authors of original research reports must present an accurate description of the work done, as well as an objective argument for its importance.

5. Each paper must contain enough information and references to allow others to use the paper. Fraudulent or deliberately inaccurate statements constitute an unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

6. Authors must ensure that they have written the original papers entirety, and if the authors have used a paper or words of others, it must be properly cited. Plagiarism, in all its forms, constitutes an unethical behavior and is unacceptable. Consequently, any manuscript that commits plagiarism will be rejected and not considered for publication.

7. An author should not publish manuscripts that describe essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical behavior and publication is unacceptable.

8. The sources used must be properly registered. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in the nature of the paper presented. Information obtained privately, through conversations, mails, or discussions with others, should not be used without explicit written permission from the author.

9. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. All those who have made significant contributions should appear as co-authors. The first authors should ensure that all co-authors are included in the paper and that all have approved the final version of the document and have agreed to submit it for publication.

10. Authors must reveal in their manuscript any financial or interest conflict that could influence the results or interpretation of their paper. Sources of financial support (or institutional sponsorship) received for the realization of the paper must be disclosed.

11. When an author finds a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her published article, it is his/her duty to immediately notify the Journal Editor and cooperate with the publisher to retract or correct the article.

4. Referees' responsibilities

This journal supports the principles of transparency and good practices determined by the Publishing Ethics Committee (COPE). It also underlines the following points:

1. The referees accept to report on any unethical behavior by the authors and to indicate all the information that justifies the rejection of publication of the papers. In addition, they must commit to keeping the information related to the papers they evaluate confidential.

2. For the review of the papers, the referees must have the necessary guidelines, provided by the Editorial Board, to do this task.

3. The selected referees must notify the Editorial Board, in the shortest possible time, if they are qualified to review the paper and if are able to do it.

4. Any manuscript received for revision must be treated as a confidential paper. It must not be revealed or discussed with other experts, except with the express authorization of the publisher.

5. Referees must behave themselves objectively. Any personal criticism to the authors is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly and with valid arguments.

6. Any inside information, or ideas, acquired from the revision process, must be kept confidential, and will not be used for any personal gain.

7. Referees should not evaluate manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.

5. Detection and action policies in case of plagiarism

The journal supports the anti-plagiarism principles determined by the International Committee of Ethics in Scientific Publication – COPE.

It also emphasizes that the papers with any trace of plagiarism will be checked for its possible degree of copying. In case of a copy, the author(s) submitting the paper will be sent evidence that prove plagiarism and will be asked for an immediate answer. If the plagiarism is verified De Computis:

1. Inform the author(s) of the plagiarized paper.

2. Inform the editor of the journal in which the original plagiarized article was published.

3. If it had been an article already published in De Computis, it will publish an official retraction of the article.

4. It will not publish any other article by the authors involved in the plagiarism for a period of five years.

5. Any ethical violation related to the article will be resolved using the protocols established by the International Committee of Ethics in Scientific Publication - COPE: http://publicationethics.org/files/All_Flowcharts_Spanish_0.pdf

Interoperability protocols - Information Services

1. Interoperability protocol used: OAI-PMH

The content of this journal is available in the main search engines (e.g., Google Scholar). De Computis uses free software OJS, and the journal's website is compatible with OAI-PMH requirements.

In this way, the metadata can be collected and updated by the services that use this protocol (e.g., BASE, OAIster ... etc.).

2. Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

DOI is a unique identifier that can be assigned to any type of content. It is used to create a URL (adding "https // doi.org / ...") and it will always be redirected to the original page where the corresponding metadata can be retrieved (such as information on the authors, publishers, year of publication, etc.).

For those publications that are under 'Open Access' (such as De Computis) the DOI identifier will redirect to a website showing the full article without restrictions. This is the case for this publication and when for any reason the web is not available, then the documents can be downloaded from those databases and indexes in which the journal is archived.

Crossref is the organization responsible for assigning DOIs to academic items (articles, books, databases, etc.). De Computis is a member of Crossref, and each time a new issue is published, DOIs are being deposited in Crossref databases in the same act.

3. Open Researcher & Contributor ID (ORCID)

ORCID is to researchers what DOI is to scientific production: a unique identifier that will accompany the researcher forever. The importance is such that it eliminates the possibility of confusion, especially in the cases of authors with similar names. Researchers are also given the possibility to automatically update all their scientific production published through a web page.

De Computis will require, for at least the main author, the corresponding ORCID number. All authors are recommended to supply this number: it is free and the benefits to be obtained are long-term. More information can be found by clicking here. As a Crossref member we are associating each article (DOI) with its corresponding authors through their ORCID accounts.

Editorial practices in Gender Equality

The journal will report on whether the source data of the research takes gender into account, and these are adequately reflected in order to allow the identification of possible differences.

The use of inclusive language is requested (Gabe, M. (2010). How do you say? Guide for communication with Gender Equality. https://www.mugarikgabe.org/), for example:

• Use real generics (ages, professions, social groups…): indigenous peoples instead of indigenous people.

• Use double forms, masculine and feminine, to stand out or make visible.

• Alternate the order, because it defines power, not invariably indicating boys and girls, but also girls and boys.

• Emphasize gender when dealing with themes/roles that are not usual for women or men.

• Use metonymic terms (a figure of speech that substitutes the generic masculine for the profession they carry out, the position they occupy, the place, etc.).

• Remove the article and determiner in neutral nouns to avoid masculinizing them: professionals in the sector, instead of professionals in the sector.

• Give the same treatment to women and men, without asymmetries. Avoiding referring to women only by their proper name or with diminutives if in the same context this is not done with men.

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