Focus and Scope

Administración & Desarrollo is a peer-reviewed journal that has been published since 1962 by Escuela Superior de Administracion Publica (ESAP), directed from the Subdirección Nacional de Investigaciones, in the city of Bogotá, D.C. (Colombia). It is published every six months, with a first issue corresponding to the January-June period, and the second between July and December.

Administration & Desarrollo focuses primarily on publishing research and review articles in the field of Public Administration (PA). The journal's thematic areas are: Employment and Public Service, State Modernization, Open Government, Public Management and Administration, Public Innovation, Transparency, and Management of Public Organizations.

It is open to all Public Administration researchers and scholars worldwide and accepts articles originally written in Spanish and English.

OECD Classification:

Major Area: Social Sciences

Area: Political Science

Discipline: Public Administration

 ISSN: 0120-3754

e-ISSN: 2500-5227

Peer Review Process

To ensure the academic quality of the published articles, the journal adopts a double-blind peer review system. Once the article is reviewed by the Editor and scanned using the similarity detection software Turnitin, it is sent for peer review. Reviewers, following the journal’s guidelines, provide their evaluation based on both content and form.

Peer reviewers have 15 days to issue their decision, which may be: publishable, publishable with minor modifications, publishable with major modifications, or not publishable. Once the evaluations are received, the editorial team forwards the feedback to the authors so they can make the necessary corrections.

After the authors submit the revised version, the editorial board conducts a final review to ensure that all peer suggestions were properly addressed and to determine whether the article is approved for publication.

Throughout this process, the journal maintains constant communication with the authors to inform them of the article's status. The evaluation process may take between two and four months, depending on the availability of the reviewers.

Publication Frequency

Administración & Desarrollo is published every six months, that is to say, two issues will be published each year, the first corresponding to the period January-June, and the second to July-December.

In order to make knowledge circulate more quickly, the Journal will continuously publish the articles that have completed the editorial process.

Ethics Policy

The journal Administración & Desarrollo is committed to scientific integrity, transparency, and good editorial practices throughout all stages of the publication process. This policy publicly declares the principles, duties, and procedures governing the relationship between authors, reviewers, and the editorial team, including the mechanisms for the correction and retraction of published articles. It applies to authors, peer reviewers, the editorial board, and the journal's management team.

The journal exclusively publishes original research and review articles in public administration, employment and public service, state modernization, open government, public management and administration, public innovation, transparency, and public organization management.

Administración & Desarrollo adopts as its reference framework the flowcharts on handling ethical issues in publishing suggested by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing by COPE, and the ethics in publication guidelines from the Council of Science Editors (CSE).

The journal applies these guidelines to the management of allegations of misconduct, authorship, conflicts of interest, peer review, and its correction and retraction policies, which are detailed below.

Source: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). "Core Practices", https://publicationethics.org/core-practices. See also COPE & STM, "International Standards for Editors and Authors": https://publicationethics.org/international-standards-editors-and-authors; COPE Flowcharts: https://publicationethics.org/guidance?f%5B0%5D=type%3A16; and Publication Ethics by the Council of Science Editors (CSE): https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/recommendations-for-promoting-integrity-in-scientific-journal-publications.

Responsibilities of Authors

• Only original, unpublished articles that are not under simultaneous consideration by another publication outlet will be considered.

• Only individuals who contributed substantially to the conception, design, analysis, or drafting of the work, approved the final version, and accept responsibility for its content may be listed as authors. Any change in authorship requires the written consent of all authors.

• Any excerpt from a previously published text (whether the author's own work or that of others) must be appropriately cited; failure to do so is considered plagiarism and constitutes grounds for rejection or retraction.

• Authors must declare any conflicts of interest—whether financial, institutional, or personal relationships—that could influence the results, as well as the funding sources of the study.

• Authors must comply with all legal, ethical, financial, and institutional requirements regarding data collection, storage, confidentiality, and use, particularly concerning personal data.

Responsibilities of the Editor and Editorial Team

• They decide what is published based solely on academic merit, without discrimination of any kind.

• They guarantee process confidentiality and editorial independence from commercial or institutional interests.

• They verify that every submitted article is original and has not been submitted simultaneously to another publication, nor previously disseminated through any digital or print medium.

• They ensure the scientific quality of the content through review by qualified external peers.

• They enforce compliance with authorship criteria—including appropriate approvals of the manuscript version, author order, submission guidelines, and the journal's editorial policy.

• They address allegations of potential ethical misconduct in accordance with COPE guidelines and relevant institutional bodies, protecting the integrity of published works through corrections or retractions when necessary.

• They require authors to declare any potential conflicts of interest.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play a fundamental role in maintaining the quality and continuity of scientific publications, as the rigor of the published content depends on them. For this reason, they are tasked with the following responsibilities:

• Examine the research thoroughly, seriously, and honestly.

• Disclose any potential conflicts of interest and, should any arise, decline the invitation to review.

• Maintain strict confidentiality regarding both the study data and the anonymity of the process; decline the invitation if the article's topic falls outside their area of expertise.

• Act with objectivity, clarity, and technical rigor, always supporting their statements and feedback.

• Express observations respectfully, refraining from demanding that authors fulfill requirements unrelated to the research purpose.

• Alert the editor if they notice indications or find evidence that calls into question the integrity of the reviewed work, such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data manipulation, or research bias.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems

In accordance with COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/authorship-and-ai-tools) and the ethical guidelines of the Heredia Declaration, Administración & Desarrollo permits the use of AI tools under clear criteria of responsibility, transparency, and academic rigor. See: https://revistas.esap.edu.co/index.php/admindesarro/IA.

Handling Allegations of Misconduct

When faced with allegations of scientific misconduct (such as data fabrication or falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or fraudulent authorship), the journal conducts a preliminary evaluation, confidentially notifies the authors, provides them an opportunity to respond, investigates with the assistance of external reviewers or experts when necessary, and reaches a reasoned decision. This may result in manuscript rejection, a correction, an editorial expression of concern, or a retraction.

Correction Policy (Erratum / Corrigendum)

The journal publishes a correction when a minor error is identified post-publication that does not compromise the scientific validity of the work (such as typographical, affiliation, table, figure, or bibliographical errors). The correction is published as a standalone note linked to the original article, specifying the date and a description of the corrected error; the original article remains unaltered retroactively. If the error compromises the validity of the work, the case is referred to the retraction procedure.

Retraction Policy

Following COPE guidelines, the journal retracts an article when there is clear evidence that its findings are unreliable due to major error or misconduct, including data fabrication or falsification, plagiarism or self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, fraudulent authorship, serious breach of research ethics involving human subjects, failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest, or a reasoned request from the authors themselves.

The procedure includes:

1. Confidential notification to the authors and an opportunity to respond (a minimum of 15 business days).

2. Investigation by the editorial committee—with external support when necessary.

3. A reasoned, written decision.

4. Publication of an open-access retraction note stating the reason and date.

The retracted article remains available on the website, clearly marked as "RETRACTED" on the PDF and the article landing page, linked to the retraction note. Metadata will be updated accordingly, and the record will not be removed unless required by a court order or in cases of severe risk to public health or safety. If a serious allegation remains under investigation, the journal may publish an editorial expression of concern while the case is being resolved.

Complaints, Appeals, and Contact

Anyone who considers that an editorial decision did not comply with this policy may submit a reasoned complaint or appeal to: administracion_desarrollo@esap.edu.co.

Open Access Policy

The Journal provides open and free access to all its contents; without legal, economic or technological barriers, in this way it promotes the democratization and social appropriation of specialized knowledge and financed with public resources. Submission and publication of manuscripts are completely free. To facilitate the access and use of the content, the Journal defines the following license for the publication and use of the articles:

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Full text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es

The journal does not charge any processing charge (APC) for the submission, review or publication of articles.

Digital Preservation Policy

Administración & Desarrollo participates in the Public Knowledge Project Preservation Network (PKP PN) digital preservation network, which enables long-term digital preservation in the event that the journal is no longer online. The LOCKSS program allows for decentralized and distributed preservation of long-term access to authentic versions of manuscripts.

The files of Administración & Desarrollo are saved at the time of publication in their post-print version (version corrected by the author) on the OJS platform, developed by Public Knowledge Project (PKP).

Similarly, the journal allows authors to self-archive their article in institutional or thematic repositories or personal websites, as long as it is the version published by the School of Public Administration (ESAP).

View LOCKSS journal manifest.