The ESPecialist announces new features for 2025

In order to adapt our journal to the developments of the academic community and the guidelines of the Open Science Movement, aiming at scientific practice in a more collaborative, shared and public way, The ESPecialist journal announces some changes that will be made to our volumes from 2025 onwards.

1. Single volume in continuous flow
Starting in 2025, our journal will publish an annual volume (January-December) that will include articles evaluated during the year and published in a continuous flow. The exception will be the proposed dossiers, which will be published in separate volumes on our website once they have passed the entire evaluation and editing process.

2. Open peer review and publication of opinions
The ESPecialist will adopt an open review system, in which the author and reviewer will not be anonymous. Our journal understands that open review promotes the academic maturity of the area, believing that this transparent process helps to reestablish bonds of trust with the community and allows reviewers to be recognized and rewarded for the important work they do.
It is also worth mentioning that, if the article is accepted, the signed opinions will be published as part of the article, together with the responses of the author(s).

3. Making research data available
Making data available openly is essential for the transparency and replicability of scientific research. The ESPecialist adheres to the best practices recommended by the TOP Guide (Transparency and Openness in Publication), promoting access to the data used in published articles. By adopting these principles, we are concerned with promoting the integrity of research, enabling the verification of results and the construction of new knowledge based on previous work.

Therefore, from 2025 onwards, we encourage our authors to deposit their datasets in appropriate repositories. We suggest consulting the List of Recommended Repositories, available in the TOP Guide, to identify reliable platforms that follow recognized standards for data preservation and access. Therefore, in all articles in the continuous flow volume, it will be necessary to write a mandatory section in the text called “Data availability statement”, in which, in accordance with the principles of open science, the authors declare the availability of the data and the ways to access it. This section may also justify restricting access to data due to ethical or legal issues.

4. Indication of the roles of each author
In order to comply with the Vancouver Recommendations, we have adopted the criteria for defining authorship from this international convention. According to the regulations, an author or co-author is understood to be a person who:
• “Contributed substantially to the conception or planning of the work; or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data analyzed in the article;
• Wrote the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and gave final approval of the version to be published;
• Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are investigated and resolved appropriately.”

The ESPecialist expects that the co-authors of a work have actually worked on its production. We believe that simply being advising or supervising a master's, doctoral or postdoctoral degree does not automatically qualify an advisor as a co-author. The three criteria above must have been met for co-authorship to occur.

Therefore, according to the instructions contained in “Guidelines for authors” on our website, if accepted, the version for publishing must contain a section on the precise indication of the role of each of the authors in articles with multiple authorship, in order to comply with the authorship convention adopted by our journal.

After the manuscript has been approved by our reviewers, the authors will receive the Open Science Compliance Form to fill out and provide all the information above. It is important to emphasize that the publication of the article is subject to the return of the completed form with all the requested data.

We wish everyone a good year of work and research!