About the Journal
Estudios Eclesiásticos was founded in 1922 by the Society of Jesus as an organ of the Society's theological faculties in Spain.
Quarterly, it is a scientific journal whose aim is to disseminate research in the field of Theology and Canon Law, published by the Facultad de Teología of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas.
The articles of Estudios Eclesiásticos are indexed in the following databases: Scopus, IBZ Online, PASCAL, since 1993 in FRANCIS database of INIST-CNRS, L'Année philologique, Old Testament Abstracts Online, Atla Religion Database, DIALOG Information Services, since 1984 in the bibliographic publication Religion index one: Periodicals (RIO) ISSN 0149-8428, of American Theological Library Association de Chicago (USA), Index Theologicus since issue 52 (1977), Latindex (catalogue), DOAJ, REDIB y DIALNET.
The articles of Estudios Eclesiásticos are digitised and available for download on subscription, with a delay of approximately one year, from AtlaSerials. Subscriptions are managed through EBSCO database.
RIO is also avaible in Atla Religion Database and it is accessible through BRS (Bibliographic Retrieval Services), Latham, New York, and DIALOG Information Services, Palo Alto, California.
Focus and Scope
Estudios Eclesiásticos is a scientific journal whose objective is to spread the research in the field of Theology and Canon Law published by Facultad de Teología of Universidad Pontificia Comillas.
Estudios Eclesiásticos is theological and canonical research journal, whose aim is to publish research that provides something new and well-founded which contributes to the scientific progress of theology and canon law. It is not, therefore, its aim to disseminate or teach theology and canon law to a public not initiated in this discipline or interested in it in a particular way. Every theological tendency that has a right to exist in the Church may be expressed in the journal. It is committed to the quality and dissemination of this research. In order to achieve this, it carries out double-blind evaluation of articles (quality) and publishes its contents open through this web (dissemination).
Peer review
To provide authors with transparency and information, this is the review process for articles summitted to Estudios Eclesiásticos.
1. Receipt
Original theological or canonical articles can be received at any time of the year.
- Authors are informed of the receipt.
- Editors checks if it observes the guidelines: citation style, abstract and key words in Spanish and English, etc. If not, it is returned to the author for reworked copy.
2. First step. Editorial Board (About 15 days)
A member of the editorial board carries out an initial check to decide whether to initiate the formal evaluation. The author is informed of the decision, with justification if the result is negative. In this case, the review process is not continued and the article is rejected.
3. Second step. Peer review (About 4 weeks)
External peer review double blind process begins, reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers. The article is sent to two peer reviewers, at least.
If both accept, it will be published.
If both reject, it will be declined for publication.
In case both recommend improvements and further revision, the author is informed summarily and anonymously of the suggestions, and the process is restarted (2nd review round) after receiving the reworked copy with the same reviewers.
In the event of a significant discrepancy, a third opinion is requested.
The editor, with the advice of Editorial Board in cases of discrepancy, will make the final decision and inform the author of the result of the evaluation, indicating, even in the case of acceptance, possible suggestions for improvement.
When the final version is received, the author is informed of the issue number in which it will be published.
Reviewers receive an evaluation form to support them in their assessment.
4. Reviewers
Depending on the subject, the Editorial Board and the Editor will seek competent national and international external reviewers. The list of reviewers who have participated in review processes for one year will be published on the website.
All articles submitted by faculty members of Universidad Pontificia Comillas will be evaluated by external personnel throughout the process.
Open Access Policy
Estudios Eclesiásticos provides Diamond Open Access to its content, based on the principle of offering society open access to research contributes to the global exchange of knowledge.
Regulations
Estudios Eclesiásticos Regulations
The present regulations of the journal, approved by the Governing Board of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas on 25 June 2018, in compliance with the aforementioned decree, and amended on 18 July 2022, replace the regulations agreed in September 1945, subsequently amended in 1950 and 1970 with the approval of the Provincial Fathers of the Spanish provinces of the Society of Jesus, and the regulations approved by the Governing Board of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas on 23 July 2001.
Self-archiving permission
Authors are recommended to publish the post-print articles version (the editor's version) on the internet (for example, in institutional repositories or personal web pages) immediately after their publication to contribute to their wider dissemination, quoting appropriately the original source (including the full URL of the article’s DOI).
Article Processing Charges
Estudios Eclesiásticos is a diamond journal, there is no charge for submission articles. Nor by editing or publishing them in open access (APC).
Plagiarism Detection Software
Estudios Eclesiasticos uses the iThenticate tool to check that the articles received are original and there is no plagiarism.
Interoperability protocol
Estudios Eclesiásticos offers a metadata harvesting service to other research platforms through the OAI-PMH protocol found in the following URL https://revistas.comillas.edu/index.php/estudioseclesiasticos/oai
Metadata is provided in the following formats: Dublin Core, MARC, and MARC21.
Archiving
Estudios Eclesiásticos utilizes the LOCKSS system to store and distribute its content across participating libraries, ensuring long-term preservation and access https://revistas.comillas.edu/index.php/estudioseclesiasticos/gateway/lockss
History
The first issue of Estudios Eclesiásticos was published in 1922. Within the field of philosophy and religion, Estudios Eclesiásticos ranks third among the oldest magazines in Spain that continue to be published, after the Augustinian journal La Ciudad de Dios, founded in 1887, and the also Society of Jesus journal Razón y Fe, founded in 1901, (see the CSIC-CINDOC-MEC database at bddoc.csic.es)
The journal was born as an organ of expression of the ecclesiastical studies of the Society of Jesus in Spain. It had as its subtitle in those early years: “Revista trimestral escrita por padres de la Compañía de Jesús" (later "escrita" will be changed to "redactada"). It was born precisely from the feeling that there was a need to offer something that Razón y Fe, due to its more disseminating nature, could not give.The journal claimed to have the character of “scientific research, or at least of chosen popularization.” This was stated in that first issue:
«[...] there are so many religious, moral, social, pedagogical problems, etc., that are restless in our days; that it became increasingly difficult to satisfy a very natural desire of many readers of Razón y Fe: the desire to see theological and philosophical questions dealt with more scientifically.»
A few years later, in 1928, it will be repeated:
«Razón y Fe came to be a narrow and slender enclosure; it encompassed many other subjects, it had to deal with profane matters, ... modern studies, and exciting news ... That is why it seemed appropriate to divide it, to separate the purely ecclesiastical, that is, the proper and characteristic sciences of the priests, from the profane ... From there came Estudios Eclesiásticos, like ripe and seasoned fruit of the fruitful tree of Razón y Fe.»
It was about creating a journal that covered all the fields of theology and philosophy, called "ecclesiastical sciences", and that were specified in "Sacred Scripture, Patrology, speculative, moral and positive theology, Canon Law, Philosophy, Ecclesiastical Literature in its widest acceptance, on the main historical facts of the Church, on its organization and its institutions".
The profoundly Jesuit character of uniting science and religion is evident in the foundation of the journal through Studies that reflect their own research, Newsletters that give an account of the "special works of national and foreign writers", Notes and texts with information that "Without deserving an entire article, they are worthy of being consigned in a scientific ecclesiastical journal" and bibliographic bulletins.
At the same time, the journal felt that it was the spearhead of the Catholic Church, whose norms it promised to follow, and on whose Fathers and theologians it wanted to rely, especially Saint Thomas Aquinas. In theologically troubled times, the theological line could not be other than the defense of "our holy religion against the open and underhanded attacks of the heterodox and modernist novices." In addition to this apology of the Catholic Church and the refutation of its adversaries, the magazine also proposed to restore theology to its place in the whole of the human sciences:
«[...] also give a more favorable opportunity to the editors to show how much the secular sciences owe to the ecclesiastical, several of which had their roots and source or drank their life sap in them; to expose the judgments and opinions of the great theologians and scholastics, [...] and to undo and crush some [...] maxims such as that there have been no philosophers in Spain, that scholasticism is an ancient fossil destined for the pantheon of the dead, that ecclesiastical sciences are out of fashion and must be confined to the sacristies, that priests and religious are a hindrance and a barrier to the victorious and overwhelming advance of human scientific progress.» (EE 28 –1928- 6)
Although the journal was addressed primarily to the ecclesiastical world, to priests, it also thought of the laity, since anyone who had a relationship with morality, with legislation or ecclesiastical provisions, such as lawyers, judges, doctors, professors, merchants, could, by reading "strengthen and consolidate oneself in the faith."
Six years after its publication, there was a desire for a certain restructuring and a new enthusiasm. Thus, in 1928, a definitive independence with respect to Razón y Fe was established, and a closer collaboration of the maximum seminaries and colleges that the Society of Jesus had or directed in Comillas (Santander), Granada, Oña (Burgos) and Sarriá (Barcelona): "a relationship so intimate and essential that it makes the very life and organization of the Journal depend on the effective cooperation and collaboration of these Maximum Schools" (EE 28 - 1928 -10).
The journal has a very elaborate organization chart, where, together with the Director in Madrid, Fernando Fuster, there are two "editor-advisers", and a "diasporic editorial", made up of between two and ten professors from the theological faculties already mentioned. A group of permanent editors is in charge of each theological or philosophical section of the journal, and there are also stable collaborators in other parts of Spain, in Rome and Naples. At that time, the creation of a study place in Madrid was also planned, where priests, subscribers and others were offered the possibility of accessing national and foreign journals that were already being received in the editorial office, as well as a rich newly created theological library.
During these twenties and thirties, names of the stature of Lino Murillo, José M. Bover, Andrés Fernández, in biblical sciences; Juan de la C. Martínez Gómez in dogmatic theology; Juan de la C. Martínez Gómez in dogmatic theology, parade through the pages of the journal. Bautista Ferreres in Morals and Canon Law; José Madoz, in patrology; Fernando Palmés, E. Ugarte de Ercilla, José Hellín, in philosophy; Constantino Bayle, in missiology; Zacarías García Villada, Pedro Leturia, Antonio Pérez Goyena, José M. March , Bernardino Llorca, in various branches of scholarship and ecclesiastical history (EE 60 -1942- 6).
The new momentum of the journal receives a certain setback with the expulsion of the Society of Jesus by the Spanish Republic in 1931. The journal, however, remains in Spain and Madrid, changing the subtitle, from which the reference falls to the Company: "Revista Trimestral de Investigación". During these years there will be some changes, within Madrid, in the location of the newsroom headquarters, which until then had been in Alberto Aguilera street.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, on July 27 the journal's offices were raided; the then director P. Fernando Fuster S.J. had to flee hastily, the collections of foreign magazines and the already large library being looted, as well as the files and the entire deposit of works printed by the journal's publisher: "piles of book covers testified that this rampage had been perpetrated, not with a desire for science and culture, but with the utilitarian aim of turning that literary wealth into paper pulp, which takes away the hope of being able to recover anything" (EE 16 -1942-6). Two of the most important contributors to the journal, Fr. Zacarías García Villada and Juan Bautista Ferreres, were assassinated in these first moments of the War.
During these years, between 1936 and 1941, its publication was interrupted. This was resumed in 1942, recovering the mention of the “Padres de la Compañía de Jesús” in the subtitle. In these post-war times the editorial staff moved to Salamanca, with the eminent historian P. Ricardo García Villoslada S. J.
From then on, the journal continues along paths of regularity and quality. From the spokesperson for the theological production of the Spanish Company, it became the organ of expression of the ecclesiastical faculties of the same. In 1946 the subtitle was modified to account for this new assignment: "Revista trimestral de investigación e información teológica, publicada por las facultades de teología de la Compañía de Jesús en España." The faculties in question are the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (first in Santander, from April 1968 in Madrid), Facultad de Teología de Granada, Facultad de Sarriá (Barcelona) (from October 1949 it will move to San Cugat del Vallés, and later it will change its name to Instituto de Teología Fundamental), and Facultad de Oña (Burgos) (as of April 1968, Facultad Teológica de Deusto —Bilbao). For a short time, Facultad de Chamartín de la Rosa (Madrid) also exists.
This subtitle is the same nowadays, with the precision, since 2001, that, even though it is the journal of all the faculties, it is now published by Universidad Comillas. The journal is one of nine published by the Universidad Pontificia Comillas.
In these post-war years, Pensamiento (1945) was born, with the consequence that Estudios Eclesiásticos left, among its fields of publication, the area of philosophy, dedicating itself exclusively to the field of theology and canon law. In 1947 the Estudios Eclesiásticos stopped publishing specific studies on spirituality, leaving this field to the Ignatian spirituality magazine MANRESA (founded in 1925).
As of October 1949, the headquarters of the editorial department returned to Madrid, this time to the Writers' House, on Pablo Aranda Street, where it had resided until 2001. Its director since 1947 is Fr. Manuel Quera, S. J. When Pope Pius XII died, in 1959, the editorial board signed: "Estudios Eclesiásticos renders its compliance with the norms and guidelines that come from Rome, and from now on declares that it will follow those of the one whom the Holy Spirit ends, to designate to rule the Church: John XXIII".
For ten years, Fr. Quera will direct the journal, until in 1967 Fr. Francisco de Borja Vizmanos, S.J. takes over the journal, with a brief address in 1967 from Fr. José F. Sagüés Iturralde. The course that the Pope followed, for many unexpected, together with the years of preparation and celebration of the II Vatican Council, gave new meaning to the aforementioned purposes of fidelity. The journal followed the process of theological updating and renewal, not always peaceful, that took place in the faculties of theology.
Death surprises Fr. Vizmanos when the first issue of 1975 is in press. During that year, Father Antonio Vargas Machuca, S.J. The following year, Father Rafael María Sanz de Diego, S.J., will serve as director until October 1980. After two years of Father Juan García Pérez as director, Fr. Vargas Macucha returns, this time for a longer period: ten years, from 1982 to 1993. The last directors have been Fr. Alfredo Verdoy Herranz, S.J. (1993-1998), Fr. José Ramón Busto Saiz, S.J. (1999-2004), Fr. Francisco Ramírez Fueyo, S.J. (2004-2010) and Fr. Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, S.J. (2010-2017). In February 2017, Father Gabino Uríbarri Bilbao, S.J.
In order to adapt the journal to the new demands for quality and transparency, the submission and evaluation articles began to be managed progressively through the OJS platform (June 2017). A decree of the Provincial Father of Spain of February 12, 2018 decides to hand over full responsibility for Estudios Eclesiásticos to the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, statutorily detaching it from the other study centers of the Society of Jesus in Spain. The Governing Board of Universidad Pontificia Comillas approves the appropriate modifications to the journal’s Regulations, in the session of June 25, 2018, to fulfil the requirements of international databases.
