About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The law is undergoing deep changes due to developments in information and communication technologies. Nevertheless, it is not possible to talk about a crisis of the law in itself but, rather, about a crisis of the state sovereignty. A recovery of the traditional truthful role of the law in the social sphere is hoped for, through the creation of a law science that would be able to dominate information technology.

In this regard, i-lex journal intends to attract the interest of researchers in legal informatics, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning and cognitive sciences applied to legal sciences, in continuous dialogue also with other sciences, applying an empirical and computational methodology.

Aspects relating to legal informatics can be investigated as criticism to the law or as a policy of law, while for in-depth studies of positive law we refer to the numerous valid journals on the subject, already present both online and printed.

History of the Journal

The i-lex journal has reached its third series of publication, with a continuity in the title and issues addressed. The transformations have mainly served to expand the structure and the Steering and Scientific Committees, accordingly to the required skills.

The first edition of the journal lasted from 2004 and 2015, on it was published on a quarterly basis.

In 2017, the journal has been relaunched with a new cultural project, focused on the deep changes in the law due to developments in information and communication technologies.

In 2020 the journal was issued with a third series, every six months, in continuity with the previous one, with a renewed editorial structure.

Starting from January 2022, i-lex is managed by the Department of Legal Sciences of the University of Bologna.

Peer Review Process

Acceptance of articles for publication is subject to double blind peer review. The two anonymous referents are chosen on the basis of their specific skills and research fields.

Articles are evaluated against several criteria listed in a “score form”, which meets international scientific standards for journals. By submitting an article, the author implicitly accepts the double blind peer review process. The Editorial Committee expresses an opinion both in case of approval and rejection of the article.

Publication Frequency

The publication frequency is six-monthly, with updates throughout the semester, which can be entered at any time. In addition to the ordinary issue, it is also possible to publish one or more six-monthly monographic issues.

Open access policy

Questo testo è standard, vi chiediamo di non modificarlo; lo elaboriamo sulla base della licenza indicata (qui la licenza più liberale e più raccomandata

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). Any derived work must be distributed under the same license. 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.

Authors are welcome to post pre-submission versions, the original submitted version of the manuscript (preprint) and the final draft post-refereeing (postprint) on a personal website, a collaborative wiki, departmental website, social media websites, institutional repository or non-commercial subject-based repositories.

Publication Fees

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

Code of Conduct

Duties for the Editorial Team

Editorial team takes all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material published in i-lex and has a duty to act if they suspect misconduct or if an allegation of misconduct is brought to them. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers. The decision of Editorial team as 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. Editorial team will ensure that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions. Editorial team strives to ensure that peer review at the journal is fair, unbiased and timely. Editorial team 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 peer review process is published, and Editorial team is ready to justify any important deviation from the described process. Editorial team’s decision may be constrained by such legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Editorial team provides guidance to authors that encourage accuracy, completeness and clarity of research reporting, including technical editing and the use of appropriate guidelines. Editorial team adopts a single blind 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. Editorial team 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 in connection 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 to such data. 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 guidance on everything that is expected of them including the need to handle submitted material in confidence. 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 alert Editorial team regarding intellectual property issues and plagiarism and work to handle 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 act in case of errors and misconducts, both proven and alleged. In case such as errors in articles or in the publication process, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, appropriate steps will be taken, following the recommendations, guidelines and checklists from COPE. These includes 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.

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.
http://www.depositolegale.it/editori-aderenti/

Publisher

Dipartimento di Scienza Giuridiche – DSG
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna

Via Zamboni 27/29,
40126 Bologna (BO)