Ocula.it publishes articles and essays in semiotic research, with a particular eye on communication and culture; it is open to dialogue with other research fields and welcomes contributions from all the areas of the social and human sciences.

Ocula’s editing process is managed by the Editorial Board that appoints the Coordinator who acts as the Editor in Chief. The Editorial Board selects the Editors of the various thematic issues among its members and external experts in the themes of each issue (Guest Editors). The Board also manages the various editorial and cultural initiatives started and produced by Ocula. The International Scientific Committee guarantees the scientific quality of the review. Referees are chosen by the Editors among the experts of the theme to be treated in each issue.

For more information about Ocula organisation and property see Chi siamo (Who we are)


Ocula’s Sections

Ocula.it is divided into the following sections, each with a distinct selection procedure:

- Thematic Issues: double blind peer review. The Editors choose the Referees and are responsible for the evaluation and publishing process.
- Invited Thematic Issues: open peer review. The Editorial Board or the Editors invite acknowledged and reputed scholars to contribute. The texts are subject to an evaluation by the Editors or the Editorial Board.
- Flux Essays: double blind peer review. The Coordinator appoints the Referees and the Editorial Board is responsible for the evaluation and publishing process.
- Flux College: from 2000 to 2022 published texts of students derived from papers and dissertations. The section was closed in 2022 but the texts are still available
- Documents: texts collected end edited by the Editorial Board.
- Contrappunti (Conterpoints): reviews and highlights (the highlights were published until 2023). By the Editorial Board.
- Augenblick: blog reserved to the members of the Editorial Board and to Guest Bloggers.

The languages accepted by Ocula are: Italian, English, French and Spanish. The Editors of a thematic issue have the faculty to restrict the accepted languages further, as declared in the call for papers.


Reviewing Process and Ethical Code

The double blind peer review system adopted by Ocula follows scientific international norms. All the articles are subject to the evaluation of two experts, who do not know the Author's name and are not members of the Author's academic institution(s). The Author, in her/his turn, does not know the names of the Reviewers. The Reviewers can accept the article, or reject it or demand changes before publishing. If the evaluations are opposite and equivalent, the Editors will decide either to submit the contribution to a third referee, or umpire, with a different academic affiliation, or to ask the Author directly to make the changes required for publication. If the article’s language is other than Italian, it will undergo a linguistic quality evaluation. If changes are demanded they will be considered a necessary condition for the article to be published.
During the whole peer review process the Authors, Reviewers and Editors must abide by the norms included in the Codice Etico (Ethical Code) of the Review.

Unless otherwise indicated articles published after December 2009 in the Thematic Issues and Flux Articles have been evaluated by a double blind peer review.
All accepted contributions will be published within 52 weeks from the proposal.


Communication and Submission of Contributions for Thematic Issues

Planned thematic issues will be announced by a Call for Papers published on the Home Page and sent by e-mail to Ocula’s previous collaborators and to the Facebook page readers.
Abstracts and articles must be sent by e-mail to each of the issue Editors. The Author must communicate her/his address for further contact.


Communication and Submission of Contributions to Flux Essays

Authors may submit articles on topics other than those of the thematic issues. This kind of contribution must be sent to the Editorial Board (e-mail: redazione [at] ocula.it); it will be evaluated according to the double blind peer review criteria and included in the Flux Essays Section. Although it is not compulsory, for this section we would prefer to receive an abstract of the article, in order to evaluate the proposal’s consistency with Ocula’s publishing policies.


Norms of composition

Ocula is organized on a voluntary basis. So we ask the Authors to make the final version of their text the closest they can to the Ocula publishing format, in order to support the staff’s work.
To consult the editorial rules click here.


Pubblication Fees & APC

Ocula does not apply any author's submission fee, any article processing charge (APC). Ocula is therefore an Open Content Journal.


Donations

The editorial staff and collaborators volunteer to carry out a complex work of content management and metadata dissemination that has costs borne by the publisher (the Ocula Association). Small donations are therefore welcome to help us keep the service we offer completely free. Any donations from authors or aspiring authors have no effect on the evaluation process.


Originality and copyright

Ocula peer reviewed sections accept only unpublished and original texts.
Already published texts may be proposed directly to the Editorial Board, attaching the publication data and a statement waiving any existing copyright, with respect to both Author and Publisher, thus freeing Ocula from any obligation.

Ocula does not reserve any copyright and does not sign any publishing contract.
The Authors must abide by the Codice Etico (Ethical Code) of the Review.


Open Access Journal

Ocula is a Open Access journal, adheres to the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and allow readers to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of its articles and allow readers to use them for any other lawful purpose.

Unless otherwise indicated, Ocula’s contents are licensed under Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND)