About the Journal

Focus and Scope

RELACult – Latin American Journal of Cultural and Social Studies. The main vehicle for scientific dissemination of the Latin American Center for Cultural Studies – CLAEC, it is a multidisciplinary publication dedicated to disseminating original articles, reviews of noteworthy books, interviews with leading figures in the academic–scientific–cultural field, translations of academically relevant articles, and, occasionally, special documents. Each issue is guided by proposals that critically debate reflections and studies on culture in Latin America. Texts written in Portuguese, Spanish, French, or English will be accepted and, occasionally, contributions in other languages.

Its mission is to disseminate knowledge and critical thought produced by academics and researchers whose work focuses on Latin America, with an emphasis on originality and innovation in concepts and proposals. Its main objectives are:

  • To encourage publications of academic work by students, faculty, and researchers working in the areas of Human Sciences, Social Sciences, and Language, Literature, and Arts.
  • To explore and unveil territorial and disciplinary frontiers in the production of knowledge that demonstrates the diversity of customs, ideas, and ways of life of citizens of Latin American countries.
  • To promote debate and the sharing of experiences related to cultural production, human rights and citizenship, education, Latin American cultural integration, sociocultural sustainability, public cultural policies, among other themes related to the journal’s areas of knowledge.

The editorial policy is governed by an Editorial Board composed of invited faculty and researchers holding a doctoral degree.

 

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to RELACult undergo a double-blind review workflow, ensuring impartiality and scientific rigor. The process occurs in three stages:

  1. Editorial Screening
    The editorial team preliminarily verifies the suitability of the topic to the journal’s scope, compliance with formatting guidelines, and ethical issues (plagiarism, authorization for image use, conflict of interest). Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria are returned to the author with guidance for adjustments.

  2. Review by Ad Hoc Referees
    Each manuscript approved in screening is sent, in blinded form (without author identification), to at least two ad hoc specialists.

    • If both reviews are favorable (“accepted without revisions” or “accepted with revisions”), the author receives the required edits and submits the final version for approval.

    • If one review is favorable and the other unfavorable, a third reviewer issues the decisive opinion.

    • If one review is “accepted with revisions” and the other “rejected,” the editorial office considers the manuscript rejected.

  3. Editorial Decision
    After the reviewers’ assessment, the final decision on acceptance or rejection lies exclusively with CLAEC’s Editorial Board. Authors are informed of the results and receive all evaluation reports, without reviewer identification. Rejected submissions are not subject to appeal and are not returned.

Special Issues (Thematic Dossiers)
For dossiers coordinated by invited researchers, the same double-blind workflow applies. Dossier coordinators may suggest up to three additional reviewers, but final appointments are made by the RELACult editorial team, ensuring independence and impartiality at all stages.

 

Publication Frequency

2023: Semiannual

2016–2022: Every four months

2015: Semiannual

 

Open Access Policy

All articles published in this journal are made available in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Authors retain the copyright to their works and grant irrevocable permission for third parties to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full text, use as data for software, or for any other lawful purpose, provided the original source is cited.

 

Journal History

RELACult | e-ISSN: 2525-7870 was created by the Sociocultural Connection Institute – Instituto Conex in the first half of 2015 under the title Conexões Culturais – Journal of Language, Arts and Cultural Studies | e-ISSN: 2447-018X, a multidisciplinary journal covering the areas of Linguistics, Literature, Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Its initial objective was to explore and unveil geographic and human borders in the production of knowledge, discovering the diversity of customs, ideas, and ways of life among inhabitants of Latin America, the Iberian and Mediterranean Europe, and Portuguese-speaking African countries.

In the second half of 2016, already under the responsibility of the Latin American Center for Cultural Studies – CLAEC, changes were made to its Editorial Board as well as to its main objective, assuming the responsibility of disseminating high-level academic productions related to cultural studies in Latin America and adopting the new title Latin American Journal of Cultural and Social Studies – RELACult | e-ISSN: 2525-7870.