Editorial Policies

Objectives

The main aim of the Small Business International Review journal is to publish research papers that offer innovative perspectives in the area of micro, small and medium-sized firms (MSMEs) and contain scientifically rigorous methodological and conceptual developments in order to contribute to:

1. The consolidation of MSMEs as an engine of economic development, highlighting its role as a generator of employment and wealth.
2. The dissemination and transfer of knowledge between the academic and private sector.
3. The implementation of regional studies focusing on the development and consolidation of MSMEs all over the world.
4. The development of empirical, theoretical and/or conceptual studies that support the understanding of the three major challenges facing the MSMEs today:
   1. Technological development.
   2. Market globalization.
   3. Economic uncertainty.
5. The development of studies on MSMEs operating foundations that underscore their problems in strategy and decision-making from the perspectives of (1) internal company policy for management and (2) national and international policies to help determine and set suitable action programs.
6. The development of research that contributes to the understanding and possible solution to the issues that hinder and limit the development of MSMEs in the areas of survival and competitiveness such as:
   1. Market globalization.
   2. Acceleration of technological change and the development of new information and communication systems.
   3. Scarce knowledge and human capital management practices.
   4. Difficulty in raising external long-term financing.
   5. Low qualification of employers and employees.
   6. Difficulties in location and infrastructure.
   7. Complexity to incorporate technological innovations.
   8. Improvement in corporate culture.

Visibility

The Small Business International Review journal is proposed to become a leading research publication in MSMEs by:

1. Formulating and implementing editorial quality policies accessible and visible for authors, readers and reviewers.
2. Increasing international visibility through inclusion of the publication in: (1) Online libraries from foundations, research institutes and universities, (2)Indices of scientific publications and (3) International databases. Specifically, it is scheduled the inclusion of the journal in the following databases: Thomson Gale, Informe Académico, Ebsco Host, Emerald, Jstor, Latindex, Redalyc, SciELO, Scopus.
3. Achieving high scores within the impact factor rankings, in particular: Thomson ISI (JCR Social Sciences Edition), SCImago Journal & Country Rank, IN-RECS, Indice de impacto de las Revistas Españolas de Ciencias Sociales, RESH, Revistas Españolas de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, SciELO, Journal Citation Report.

Target Audience

Small Business International Review journal is aimed at:

1. Professionals in management, economic and accounting sciences.
2. MSMEs managers and strategic staff.
3. Lecturers, researchers and university students interested in MSMEs research.
4. Government officials related to the management of public policy.

Scope and Publication Frequency

The Small Business International Review journal develops mainly in the fields of economic, management and accounting sciences. Its geographical scope is worldwide.
Small Business International Review journal is published in one yearly volume divided into two half-yearly issues (5 articles every issue). The first issue of every year is published within the first days of January and covers the months from January to June, and the second one is published the firs days of July and covers the months from July to December. The journal offers a permanent open call for papers.

Research Articles

A Research Article presents a complete conceptual argument or empirical study.

All articles will undergo a preliminary editorial evaluation by the Writing Board. This Board reserves the right to determine whether articles match Small Business International Review's editorial line and fulfill all necessary requirements of an academic material, as well as each and every editorial guideline hereby established.

The peer review process is double blind.

Documents that comply with the rules will be sent to two external anonymous reviewers selected by the Scientific Editorial Board for their recognized expertise. Peer reviewers will measure the item considering the following criteria:

1. Relevance of the article in the research topics of FAEDPYME.
2. Academic quality (research methodology and results).
3. Style and article writing.
4. Impact of the results for the development of the field of research and to SMEs.

Decisions regarding publication may be:

1. Approved with no changes ('Accept Submission')
2. Publication pending compulsory modifications and subject to re-submission ('Revisions Required')
3. Rejected ('Decline Submission')

If an article gets two positive decisions, it may be published if contents are compatible with the timing, editorial and topical guidelines of the Journal at the time. The acceptance of an accepted submission does not imply its immediate publication. Small Business International Review reserves the final decision for the publication, as well as the volume in which the accepted originals will be published.

If decisions deem it necessary for the article to be modified and re-sent, the authors must timely address observations, additions, corrections, expansions or clarifications suggested by reviewers. The authors have a maximum of thirty natural days as a limit to present the new version. Once the article is reworked following the recommendations, it will be re-submitted to reviewers, who will then decide if article is publishable.

Two negative decisions will cancel the possibility of publication of proposed material, considering it rejected.

When an article receives a negative review and a positive one, the article will turned to a third reviewer, whose decision will be determinant and not subject to appeal.

The resulting decision will be communicated to the authors in a maximum lapse of five working days after receiving the last review. Communication includes the commentaries, suggestions and observations of reviewers.

The content of each peer review is confidential, for use only by Small Business International Review and the authors.

The Writing Board is in charge of solving conflicts, complaints or nonconformities expressed by the authors vis-à-vis the results of the evaluation process.

Open access (OA) refers to online research outputs that are free of all restrictions on access (e.g. access tolls) and free of many restrictions on use (e.g. certain copyright and license restrictions). Open access can be applied to all forms of published research output, including peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed academic journal articles, conference papers, theses, book chapters, and monographs.The journal Small Business International Review 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.

Authors are not asked to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) for this journal in any case.

AECA and UPCT (publishing entities) believe in the importance of long-term preservation of scholarly content. This journal is also responsible for ensuring that the effort invested by its authors and reviewers is not lost in case of any unfortunate event causing the journal to cease publishing. University libraries were traditionally the ones responsible for preserving scholarly articles. However, one of the challenges that appeared with Open Access journals (regardless of their many other advantages), is that someone needs to ensure their long-term preservation. To this end, several archiving measures were established to take on this mission:

Website archiving

All of our electronic content (website, manuscripts, etc.) is stored on three different sources. Content on one server is online and accessible to the readers. The copy of the same content is kept as a backup on two other sources. In case of failure of one server, any one of the other sources can be made online and website expected to be accessible within less than 24-36 hours.

UPCT digital repository

The Digital repository of Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, is the tool that collects, manages, disseminates and preserves the scientific, educational and institutional production of the University. It also gathers digital documents that are part of or complement UPCT libraries collections. The UPCT digital repository shows an organized, open access and interoperable collection. All content of Small Business International Review, as part of UPCT, is kept and preserved at the UPCT repository.

Self-archiving

Authors may archive the final published version of their articles in personal or institutional repositories, as well in any social and academic network, immediately after publication.

The LOCKSS program

Small Business International Review is included in the Public Knowledge Project Private LOCKSS Network (PKP PLN), a distributed archiving system that creates permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More about LOCKSS and the PKP PLN.

The Journal Small Business International Review permits and encourages the authors to disseminate electronically pre-print versions (version before being evaluated and sent to the journal) and / or post-print (version reviewed and accepted for publication) of their works before publication, as it encourages its earliest circulation and diffusion and thus a possible increase in its citation and scope between the academic community. It can be deposited in:

• Personal web spaces (web, blog, social networks, scientific forums, etc.)
• Institutional open archives (university archives and repositories,...)
• Scientific social networks like (ResearchGate, Google Scholar, Academia.edu, Getcited.org).

The aforesaid publication must detail all bibliographical data of the publication, duly noting the Small Business International Review as original source of material, including the authorship, the year of publication, number of issue, and the pages on which the information appears, as well as the link to the Journal’s web page using its assigned DOI^® name.

The Small Business International Review is in its infancy at the moment and is naturally not indexed in any of the major scholarly article indexing services. It is however the intention of the publisher to start applying for the relevant indexes (e.g. DOAJ, Emerging Sources Citation Index, Scopus) after publishing enough articles (or for enough time) to qualify for indexing. We are taking all possible measures in accordance with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing to ensure that we are easily accepted for prominent indexes.

For the time being, different SEO measures were taken to ensure that journals content is discoverable through popular search engines (e.g. Google Scholar). It is also important to note that (being published using OJS) the journal’s website is OAI-compliant and its contents can be easily harvested by the relevant services (e.g. BASE, OAIster … etc.).

To date, the actions carried out have been as follows:

Indexes:

• EIRH PLUS (originally called the European Reference Index for the Humanities or ERIH) is an index containing bibliographic information on academic journals in the humanities and social sciences.

Catalogues:

• Latindex Catálogo 2.0: (Regional Cooperative Online Information System for Scholarly Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal) is a bibliographical information system available for free consultation.
• Dulcinea: Is a service to show the copyright and open access self-archiving policies of academic journals.
• REDIB (Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico): is a platform for aggregation of scientific content in electronic format produced in the Ibero-American context.
• BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is a multi-disciplinary search engine to scholarly internet resources, created by Bielefeld University Library in Bielefeld, Germany.
• DIALNET: A bibliographic database maintained by the University of La Rioja.
• REBIUN: Collective catalog of the University Libraries Network (REBIUN) gathers the bibliographic records of the 76 university libraries and of the CSIC that are part of this network.

Directories:

• DOAJ: The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a website that hosts a community-curated list of open access journals, maintained by Infrastructure Services for Open Access. The project defines open access journals as scientific and scholarly journals making all their content available for free, without delay or user-registration requirement, and meeting high quality standards, notably by exercising peer review or editorial quality control.
• MIAR (Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals): is a database, free and accessible by Internet, which serves to identify and evaluate the secondary dissemination of humanities and social sciences journals.
• ROAD (the Directory of Open Access scholarly Resources) synthesizes information about open access journals and is a subset of the ISSN register.

Repositories:

• UPCT (Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena - España)

Search Enginer and Academic Networks:

• Google Scholar: Is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.
• ResearchGate: Is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators.
• RePEc (Research Papers in Economics): A decentralized bibliographic database dedicated to Economics of working papers, journal articles, books, books chapters and software components.
• IDEAS: the largest bibliographic database dedicated to Economics and available freely on the Internet.
• Dimensions : New bibliographic database produced by Digital Science and launched in January 2018. Dimensions is a dynamic database that is open for the integration with any research publication outputs.
• Lens Scholarly Search : Lens serves almost 200 Million Scholarly records, compiled and harmonised from Microsoft Academic, PubMed and Crossref, enhanced with UnPaywall open access information, CORE full text and links to ORCID.
• ¹FINDR: An inclusive discovery platform aiming to index articles in all peer-reviewed journals, in all fields of research, in all languages and from all over the world.
• Microsoft Academic: is a free public web search engine for academic publications and literature, developed by Microsoft Research. Re-launched in 2016, the tool features an entirely new data structure and search engine using semantic search technologies.
• CORE: ("COnnecting REpositories") is a service provided by the Knowledge Media Institute, based at The Open University, United Kingdom. The goal of the project is to aggregate all open access content distributed across different systems, such as repositories and open access journals, enrich this content using text mining and data mining, and provide free access to it through a set of services.

Responsibilities or conduct of the Writing Board and of the Editorial Committee

1. Description of the peer review process is defined and made public by the Writing Board and the Editorial Committee of the Journal, so that authors know what evaluation criteria will be used. Both editorial bodies will readily solve any controversies that may arise in a given evaluation process.
2. The Writing Board takes full responsibility to duly inform the author(s) the editorial phase in which his/her/their piece is, as well as to communicate all decisions regarding their (submitted) work.

Responsibilities or conduct of the Editors

1. The editors are responsible for all materials published in the Journal. They will endeavor to satisfy the needs of the readership and of authors, to constantly enhance the quality and impact of the Journal, as well as to boost academic and scientific standards.
2. The editors are ready to publish amendments, clarifications, retractions and apologies whenever necessary.
3. The editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication will be solely based on the article’s relevance, originality, clarity and pertinence vis-à-vis the Journal’s profile.
4. The Editors are committed to guaranteeing confidentiality during the process of evaluation.
5. After peer-reviewing and as long as an article is deemed “publishable” by reviewers, the editors are in charge of deciding which articles will be included in the Journal.
6. The editors will review all materials and their contents disregarding the author(s)’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origins, nationality, or political philosophy.
7. The Editors and the Writing Board will not disclose any information regarding any text submitted to the Journal, to anyone except the author of the text, peer-reviewers, potential reviewers or other editorial advisors.
8. Unpublished materials submitted to the Journal will not be used in the personal scholarly work of the Editors or of members of the Writing Board except when there is explicit written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained via peer-reviewing will be confidential and not used for personal advantage. The editors will make fair and impartial decisions and will assure an appropriate and just peer-review process.

Responsibilities of authors

1. Authors must guarantee their texts are product of their original effort and that data are obtained in an ethical manner. Further, they must assure their texts have not been previously published or are not being presently considered by another publication. An article will be deemed previously published in any of the following circumstances:
   1. When the full text has been published elsewhere.
   2. When extensive parts of previously published work are part of the text sent to the Journal.
   3. When the text submitted to the Journal is an in extenso part of the contents of records of Conferences or other such instances (40% or more of the submitted text contents).
   4. These criteria apply to previous publications both in electronic or written form, and in any language.
2. In order for their articles to be published, authors must strictly comply with the editorial norms of the Journal, as established by the Editorial Committee.
3. Authors will send the Journal a copy of the article excluding personal information (name, contact information, institutional affiliation, etc.), deleting their names from any bibliographical reference included.
4. The authors of original research reports must include a precise description of the work undertaken, as well as objectively argue its relevance.
5. Each document must include sufficient information and references to allow other persons’ use of the material. Fraudulent or deliberately imprecise statements are considered unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
6. Authors must guarantee that they have written the original papers in whole and, if and when the work or words of others have been used, these must be duly referenced. Plagiarism, in all its forms, constitutes an unethical editorial conduct, and is unacceptable. In consequence, any article incurring in plagiarism will be eliminated and not considered for publication.
7. In general terms, an author should not publish texts that basically describe the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submission of the same text to more than one journal is an unethical behavior and publishing becomes inadmissible.
8. Sources used must be adequately registered. Authors must cite all publications that have influenced the nature of the submitted work. Private information obtained through conversations, personal written exchange, or discussions with third parties, should not be used except with explicit written authorization by the source.
9. Authorship should be limited to those who have significantly contributed to the conception, design, implementation or interpretation of the subject matter. All who fall in this category should sign as co-authors. The main author(s) must assure all co-authors are included in the article, and that all have read and approved the paper’s final version, and have agreed to its submission for publication.
10. Authors must note, in their article, any conflict of funding or of interest that may have an influence upon results or interpretation of the research presented in the text. All sources of financial support (and/or of institutional backing) for the project’s implementation should be revealed.
11. When an author discovers an error or meaningful inaccuracy in his/her published piece, it is his/her duty to immediately notify the Journal’s Director and to collaborate with the editors to correct or rectify it.

Reviewers’ responsibilities

1. Reviewers agree to report any unethical conduct incurred by authors reviewed, and to note all information that justifies rejection of publication. Further, they must agree to maintain confidentiality regarding all information surrounding the materials they evaluate.
2. In order to proceed with the reviewing process, reviewers must follow guidelines provided by the Writing Board.
3. All selected reviewers must notify the Board, as soon as possible, if unqualified to review the research matter or text provided, or if he/she will not be available to perform said task.
4. Any document received for review must be treated confidentially. It must not be shown to other experts, nor discussed with them, except if under explicit authorization by the editors.
5. Reviewers must be objective. All personal criticism towards the author(s) is inadequate. Reviewers must express their points of view with clarity and by means of valid arguments.
6. All privileged information or ideas obtained through the reviewing process must be confidential and will not be used towards personal advancement.
7. Reviewers must not engage in the revision of texts in which they have a conflict of interests.

This Journal adheres to the principle of transparency and good practices set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

A DOI is a persistent identifier that can be assigned to any type of content. It can be used to create a URL (by adding “https://doi.org/…”) that would always resolve to the webpage that at least includes all of the object’s metadata (i.e. information like author, publisher, year of publication). For content that are published under an open license (e.g. Small Business International Review articles) the DOI would resolve to the page displaying the article’s full-text. That would naturally be this website or, in the unfortunate case of this website not being available, the website of the archiving service we are registered with. Crossref is the organization responsible for assigning DOIs to scholarly items (articles, datasets, etc.). Small Business International Review is a member of Crossref, and every time we publish a new issue we will deposit new DOIs at Crossref's databases.

Open Researcher & Contributor ID (ORCID)

ORCID serves a purpose for researchers similar to that of DOI for articles. It is especially important as a unique identifier because it eliminates the confusion that can result from authors with similar names. It also provides researchers with a webpage that can be automatically updated once any of their articles are published. Small Business International Review requires that at least the corresponding author should have an ORCID account. We encourage all authors to create them. They are free and have many benefits. More information can be found here. As a member of Crossref we are linking each unique article (DOI) with its corresponding authors through their ORCID numbers.

In June 2012, the first issue of the journal Faedpyme International Review (FIR) (ISSN 2255-078X), was published. The idea to create FIR was promoted by the Fundación para el Análisis Estratégico de la Pyme (FAEDPYME) which, dependent on the Spanish Universities of Cantabria and Murcia and the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, aims to establish and consolidate a network of researchers in micro, small and medium business (SMEs) in the Hispanic-American field. With the creation of FIR, FAEDPYME wanted to consolidate its work, which started in 2009, to promote research on SMEs in Spain and Latin America focused on topics such as innovation, human resources, information and communication technologies (ICT), financing and entrepreneurship. Five years after its creation (2012-2016), FIR had been indexed and included in databases such as Latindex, Dialnet, Cengage Learning, ResearchGate, Doaj, EconBib and Redib.

In parallel, the Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association (AECA), an institution with extensive experience and penetration in the scientific and professional fields in Spain as well as in Latin America, promoted and published, between 2008 and 2012, the International Journal of the Small and Medium Enterprise (RIPYME) (ISSN 1989-1725). RIPYME was set up with the aim of becoming a multidisciplinary meeting and discussion space on economic and business aspects of SMEs, based on academic research and aimed at improving both a theoretical and a practical understanding of the management of SMEs.

Due to the similar objectives and means of diffusion of both institutions, AECA y FAEDPYME agreed in 2017 to merge both journals, in order to give a new impetus to the dissemination and scope of research on SMEs in the international context. The new resulting journal, Small Business International Review (e-ISSN 2531-0046), integrates the history of FIR and RIPYME and builds on the reputation and experience of both editorial committees. It was created with the intention of improving the recognition, positioning and dissemination of works published in the sphere of SMEs. The publishing entities of this new journal is now the Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association (AECA) and the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), with FAEDPYME now acting as a collaborating entity.

The editors-in-chief of Small Business International Review, will be Professors Antonio Aragón Sánchez and Gregorio Sánchez Marín of the University of Murcia, Spain, both experienced and accredited researchers in the areas of Business Management and particularly in the field of SMEs, and who have until now been responsible for the FIR journal. For its part, the new editorial committee will be composed of renowned and recognized researchers who were members of the editorial committees of the preceding journals.

Regarding the evaluation and editorial process, Small Business International Review will continue to receive papers in Spanish and/or English, although authors will be invited to submit their research in English. Likewise, it will continue with the good practice of double anonymous revision ('Peer Review') for the articles submitted, with the purpose of objectifying evaluations and optimizing scientific feedback, in order to contribute to the publication of high-quality research which represents significant advances in the field of SMEs.

We hope that these changes will contribute towards improving the impact and reputation of the new journal, and we are confident that the authors will continue to place their trust in Small Business International Review to disseminate the results of their research. Although we aware that, as in anything involving a change of this nature, there may be some minor initial inconveniences, we are sure that, before long, Small Business International Review will attain high levels of recognition and dissemination which make it increasingly attractive for researchers and professionals.

Publishers

		Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association AECA
		Address: C/ Rafael Bergamín, 16-B. 28043 - MADRID Phones: +34 91 547 37 56 - 91 547 44 65 E-mail: info@aeca.es
		Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena UPCT
		Address: Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena C/ Real, 3 30201 Cartagena (Murcia) España Phones: +34 968 32 59 16 E-mail: sbir@upct.es

Source of Support

		Fundación para el análisis estratégico y desarrollo de la Pyme FAEDPYME
		Address: Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena C/ Real, 3 30201 Cartagena (Murcia) España Phones: +34 968 32 59 16 E-mail: faedpyme@upct.es