General information

1. FOCUS AND SCOPE

ADVOCATUS (ISSN 0124-0102 - e-ISSN 2390-0202), established in 1995, is an open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal published semiannually by Universidad Libre de Colombia. It has a transdisciplinary character in Political and Social Sciences, with a focus on the various areas of Law and legal education (Class 5E, UNESCO / OECD).

The journal publishes original and unpublished research articles, promoting a comprehensive analysis of legal phenomena from an interdisciplinary perspective and fostering the understanding of law as a dynamic system interacting with social, political, economic, and cultural contexts.

The journal has both national and international reach and welcomes research manuscripts in Spanish and English addressed to legal scholars, researchers, academics, and professionals interested in the critical analysis of law, political sciences, and social sciences in local, regional, and international contexts.

2. MISSION AND VISION

ADVOCATUS promotes interdisciplinary research in the field of Law by encouraging dialogue among different disciplines and comparative analysis of legal systems. It seeks to contribute to the enrichment of academic debate and the development of critical thinking within the legal community.

ADVOCATUS aims to establish itself as an international forum for legal scholars interested in the various disciplines of law, offering a platform for the publication of innovative, high-quality research that contributes to the advancement of legal knowledge at the global level.

3. THEMATIC ORIENTATION AND TARGET AUDIENCE

The articles published in ADVOCATUS cover the different disciplines of Law and are organized into three main sections:

1) Public Law

2) Private Law

3) International Law

ADVOCATUS is an academic journal aimed at legal scholars and legal professionals interested in deepening their understanding of all disciplines of Law from an interdisciplinary and Latin American perspective. The journal fosters dialogue between legal theory and practice and seeks to contribute to the development of a regional legal perspective.

4. ARTICLE TYPES AND LANGUAGE

ADVOCATUS publishes only scientific and technological research articles in two languages (Spanish and English). These are defined by the Colombian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Minciencias) as original academic documents that present in detail the results derived from completed research or technological development projects, with a minimum of 30 cited bibliographic sources.

Occasionally, the Editorial Committee may select certain articles, based on their subject matter and relevance to readers, for translation into Spanish or English. This version in a language different from the original will be published simultaneously on the OJS platform with an explanatory note regarding its complementary relationship to the original article.

5. PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

ADVOCATUS is published semiannually and maintains a permanent open call for article submissions.

6. FUNDING

ADVOCATUS is a journal of Universidad Libre financed exclusively through institutional resources. This independence guarantees a rigorous and transparent editorial process without the need to charge submission, evaluation, or publication fees. As a result, authors may publish their work free of charge, thereby promoting the dissemination of legal knowledge.

7. OPEN ACCESS, COPYRIGHT, AND PUBLICATION LICENSE

ADVOCATUS promotes the unrestricted dissemination of legal knowledge. As a signatory of the Budapest Declaration, it guarantees free and open access to all content. Authors retain the moral rights to their works but transfer publication rights to Universidad Libre under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

8. CROSSREF POLICY

ADVOCATUS complies with the highest international publishing standards. Each published article is assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), and its metadata are shared with Crossref to facilitate indexing and citation.

9. CONTENT ARCHIVING

To ensure the long-term preservation of content, ADVOCATUS uses the LOCKSS system, a digital preservation initiative that creates multiple backup copies distributed across different locations. In addition, the journal respects authors’ rights and allows the self-archiving of articles in institutional or personal repositories. This policy promotes knowledge dissemination, increases the visibility of research, and guarantees long-term access to information.

10. RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONTENT

ADVOCATUS encourages enriching and diverse academic debate; however, responsibility for the content of published articles lies exclusively with the authors. The positions and statements presented are the result of academic and research work and do not necessarily represent the official position of Universidad Libre or the other participating institutions.

11. INDEXING

The journal Advocatus is included in the following Abstracting and Indexing Systems:

DOAJ
OpenAlex
Dialnet
BIBLAT
CLASE
EBSCO
Other bibliographic databases
vLex
Latindex
LatinREV

12. EDITORIAL TEAM

12.1 EDITORS

The editors of ADVOCATUS are selected by Universidad Libre from among distinguished academics with extensive experience in various areas of Law. This rigorous selection process guarantees the continuity of interdisciplinarity, quality, and objectivity in the journal’s contents. For the 2024–2028 term, the editors are as follows:

Jaime Camilo Bermejo Galán, PhD.
Universidad Libre – Barranquilla Branch, Colombia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0917-2506

Alejandro Luis Blanco Zúñiga, PhD.
Universidad Libre – Barranquilla Branch, Colombia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1579-8329

12.2 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

The Editorial Committee, composed of distinguished academics from various areas of Law, is responsible for ensuring the relevance, timeliness, and quality of the contents published in the JOURNAL. In alignment with the journal’s mission and vision, the Committee works to promote outstanding legal research and ensure compliance with the highest academic standards. For the 2024–2028 term, the members of the Editorial Committee are as follows: