About the Journal

Focus and Scope

History of the Journal

Tecnoscienza was founded in 2010 by STS Italia, the Italian Society of Science and Technology Studies, acting as a publisher. Since April 2022, Tecnoscienza is published by AlmaDL Journals and promoted by the Dept. of Philosophy and Communication Studies at the University of Bologna, in partnership with STS Italia.

Section Policies

Essays

The journal section Essays consists of original research articles (The article should not exceed 8,000 words, encompassing all text, references, notes, and related content.). Please, carefully check the author guidelines (PDF) before drafting and submitting an essay. Once a manuscript is submitted for publication as a research article in form of an “essay”, it undergoes a preliminary assessment conducted by the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board evaluates the manuscript’s relevance, consistency with the journal’s framework, aims and mission as well as its compliance with research articles’ standards, and research ethics and integrity. Essays that pass this first assessment go through a double-blind peer review process involving 2 to 4 experts. Evaluation criteria include the manuscript’s relevance to journal topics, its innovativeness and originality for the current debates in STS and related fields (such as philosophy and history of science; anthropology; gender studies; organisation studies; political ecology; cultural studies), their adequacy respect to methodology and the coherence of theoretical approach adopted for discussing key results. The Editorial Board ensures that the first phase of the peer-review process will be carried out within 120 days from the submission.

For more information, please contact: redazione.tecnoscienza@gmail.com

Submissions welcome / Double-blind peer Reviewed

Crossing Boundaries (formerly known as “Conversations”)

The section Crossing Boundaries (CB) aims to foster interdisciplinary discussions among different authors on novel and relevant topics for STS and society at large. The section welcomes theoretical reflections or empirically supported contributions discussing a specific subject. The section consists of an introduction that briefly describes the content of the debate and clarifies its relevance for STS, and a maximum of 3 contributions with a length of 5000 words each including notes and references. The entire CB section should not exceed 15000 words, including references, notes and introduction. Proposals are encouraged, and once accepted the section coordinators will support an internally blinded review process. The corresponding author is responsible for suggesting proposing the subject and could be joined by a maximum of 2 co-authors to introduce the discussion.

For more information, please contact: redazione.tecnoscienza@gmail.com

Submissions welcome / Single-blind peer review

Scenarios (Formerly known as “Cartographies”)

The Scenarios section hosts state-of-the-art review articles (5000–6000 words). Scenarios shall be well-written manuscripts providing a comprehensive discussion on relevant debates in STS and related fields of inquiry. The peer-review process is conducted internally by the Editorial Board itself following a single-blind procedure.

For more information, please contact: redazione.tecnoscienza@gmail.com

Submissions welcome / Single-blind peer review

Book Reviews

In each issue, we publish between 4 and 8 book reviews (1000–2000 words) of books published in English, Italian, or any other language, within the last three years. Tecnoscienza welcomes reviews that summarise, critically assess, and provide context of topical and important books in the field of science and technology studies (STS) or that could be brought in conversation with STS.

For more information, please contact: bookreview@tecnoscienza.net

Submissions welcome / Not Peer Reviewed

Invited Lectures

Submission is by invitation from the Editorial Board of Tecnoscienza and/or Guest Editor(s) of a Special Issue. Distinguished scholars in Science and Technology Studies (STS) may be invited to contribute with papers presenting perspectives and concepts that are relevant to the Journal Issue and/or challenge the STS debates more broadly.

For more information, please contact: bookreview@tecnoscienza.net

Submissions by invitation only / Single-blind peer review

Special Issues

Special issues must fall within the scope of the journal. Once the Special Issue proposal is approved by the Editorial Board, the call will be circulated and advertised on the Journal’s website and through other suitable communication channels (e.g., mailing list). The Journal has a two steps acceptance procedure for contributions submitted within a Special Issue: the Editorial Board internally review contributions based on their abstracts and then review original essays. Original essays are evaluated through external double blind peer-review, while the guest editors and members of the editorial board internally review the contributions for the other sections (i.e. Scenario and Crossing Boundaries). Decisions on rejections and acceptances are made by the guest editors and Co-editors in Chief, relying on the assessments provided by external reviewers.

The Co-editors-in-Chief, in collaboraton with the Editorial Board,are ultimately responsible for the published content.

A special issue usually includes:

• an introduction from the guests editors;
• Invited Lectures by renown scholars
• between four and six peer reviewed essays;
• a contribution for the section scenarios (focussed on presenting the state of the art, looking at the topic through a specific lens);
• a contribution for the section crossing boundaries (multi-authored contributions on the topic, organised as debates).

If you want to submit a Proposal for a Special Issue, please write to redazione.tecnoscienza@gmail.com

Peer Review Process

Tecnoscienza is a peer reviewed scientific journal with a rigorous editorial screening and assessment process comprising several stages. Tecnoscienza welcomes original STS-based research articles within the journal’s scope. The Co-editors in Chief make decisions on submissions based on scientific rigor, regardless of novelty, methodological consistency, and theoretical relevance. All authors and reviewers are expected to promptly reply to journal queries and adhere to Tecnoscienza’s Code of Conduct for the Editorial Board Members. Should there be any concerns regarding the content of correspondence or reviews, please bring them to the attention of the journal's Editorial Board by emailing redazione.tecnoscienza@gmail.com

Stages of the Review Process

Manuscript submitted

The journal has received the submission and is conducting an initial editorial assessment.

Assignment of an internal editor

The Co-Editors in chief assign the paper to an internal editor among the members of the Editorial Board to handle the submission.

Under review

The handling editor has invited anonymous peer reviewers to evaluate the submission.

Required reviews complete

All assigned reviewers have submitted comments.

Decision in process

The handling editor with the Co-Editors in chief finalises a decision letter.

The decision letter offers a substantial motivation over the following assessment:
- Rewrite and Resubmit usually requires a wholesale reworking and rewriting of the paper;
- Major Revision usually requires reworking and rewriting whole sections, as well as adjusting elsewhere;
- Minor Revision usually requires a partial reworking and rewriting of certain sections and/or throughout the paper

Publication Frequency

Tecnoscienza is a biannual journal.

Open access policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

It releases its articles under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This license allows anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy the contributions. The works must be properly attributed to its author(s). It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author(s) or journal board, although you are kindly requested to inform the journal for every reuse of the papers.

Authors who publish on this journal maintain the copyrights.

Past issues, from Vol. 1 No. 1 (2010): Tecnoscienza Nr. 1 to Vol. 13 No. 2 (2022): Tecnoscienza Nr. 26, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License (full legal code), while at the time the copyright was transferred to the Journal.

Licensing History

Past issues, from Vol. 1 No. 1 (2010): Tecnoscienza Nr. 1 to Vol. 13 No. 2 (2022): Tecnoscienza Nr. 26, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License (full legal code), while the copyright was transferred to the Journal.

Publication Fees

The journal has neither article processing charges nor submission processing fees.

Code of Conduct

Duties for the Editorial Board

The Editorial Board takes all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material published in Tecnoscienza  and has a duty to act if they suspect misconduct or receive an allegation of misconduct. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers. The Editorial Board's decision to accept or reject a paper for publication in the journal is based on subject relevance and originality and is guided by the review of suitably qualified reviewers. The Editorial Board will ensure that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions. The Editorial Board strives to ensure that peer review at the journal is fair, unbiased and timely. The Editorial Board evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. A description of the peer review process is published, and the Editorial Board is ready to justify any important deviation from the described process. The Editorial Board’s decision may be constrained by such legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editorial Board provides guidance to authors that encourage accuracy, completeness and clarity of research reporting, including technical editing and the use of appropriate guidelines. The Editorial Board adopts a peer-review protocol to ensure that material submitted to the Journal remains confidential while under review. Confidentiality of individual information obtained in the course of research or professional interactions is guaranteed. The Editorial Board strives to ensure that articles are published in open access and freely available for all the interested readers. Permanent identification with DOI guarantees the monitoring and preservation of articles over time.

Duties for Authors

Authors are responsible for the articles they submit: they must assure the originality of their works, being aware of the consequences of misconduct. Authors should always acknowledge their sources and provide relevant citation details for all publications that have influenced their work. Authors are asked to provide the raw data associated with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication in order to provide access. Authors are asked to follow the Author’s Guidelines published by the Journal, therefore ensuring accuracy, completeness and clarity of research reporting, including technical editing.

Duties for Reviewers

Reviewers are provided with guidance on all expectations, including the need to handle submitted material confidentially. Reviewers are required to disclose any potential competing interests before agreeing to review a submission. Reviewers are encouraged to comment on the originality of submissions and to be alert to redundant publications and plagiarism. They will notify the Editorial Board regarding intellectual property issues and plagiarism, working to address potential breaches of intellectual property laws and conventions. Reviewers should help identifying relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.

Handling of errors and misconducts

Editors will promptly address proven or alleged errors and misconduct. If errors occur in articles or during the publication process, including fraudulent publication or plagiarism, appropriate actions will be taken, following the recommendations, guidelines and checklists from COPE. These actions may include the publication of an erratum (errors from the publication process), corrigendum (errors from the author(s)) or, in the most severe cases, the retraction of the affected work.

Data Policy

When relevant, authors are encouraged to follow Open Science and FAIR principles by publishing the research data associated to their articles in trusted data repositories, according to the international best practices and data management guidelines.

Detailed information is reported in the AlmaDL Journals Data Policy.

Authors who are affiliated to the University of Bologna can publish their data in AMSActa, the institutional research data repository.

Indexing and abstracting

Tecnoscienza is rated as a Class A scientific journal by the Italian academic research evaluation agency (ANVUR), for the following scientific areas:

• 14 C1 (Sociologia generale, giuridica e politica);

• 14 C2 (Sociologia dei processi culturali e comunicativi);

• 14 D1 (Sociologia dei processi economici, del lavoro, dell’ambiente e del territorio);

• 11 A5 (Scienze demoetnoantropologiche);

• 11 C2 (Logica, Storia e Filosofia della Scienza).

The Journal is indexed in the following databases and search engines:

• ACNP – Italian Catalogue of Serials
• BASE – Bielefield Academic Search Engine
• DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals
• ERIH PLUS – European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences
• Google Scholar – Academic search engine
• JournalTOCs – International aggregator of scientific articles TOCs
• ROAD – Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
• SCOPUS – The largest database of peer-reviewed literature
• Ulrich’s – Global Serials Directory
• Web of Science – Emerging Sources Citation Index
• Worldcat – The world’s largest library catalog

Archiving Policy

The University of Bologna has an archival arrangement with the National Central Libraries of Florence and Rome within the national project Magazzini Digitali.
https://www.depositolegale.it/editori-aderenti/

Publisher

Dipartimento di Filosofia – FILO
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna

Via Zamboni, 38
40126 - Bologna (Italy)

Partner

STS Italia – Società Italiana di Studi su Scienza e Tecnologia

Via Carducci 32,
20123 - Milano (Italy)
C.F. 92182800281