About the Journal

Sortuz: Oñati Journal of Emergent Socio-Legal Studies (ISSN 1988-0847) (http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/sortuz/index) is an Open Access journal of the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL), established by the Research Committee of Sociology of Law (RCSL) of the International Sociological Association (ISA), and the government of the Basque Country.

Sortuz seeks to create a virtual yet real space that strengthens the emerging community around the relations between law and society through the publication of quality research. This journal is especially aimed at emergent scholars and offers a valuable platform for them to publish their first research articles. In fact, Sortuz was created in 2007 by two IISL students, Iker Barbero and Libardo Ariza. At the same time, Sortuz is also conceived as a meeting place to broaden the reach of the Oñati community to those who have not previously been involved with the IISL, while remaining firmly committed to the wide and inclusive perspective of socio-legal studies promoted by the Institute.

Focus and Scope

Sortuz is an international peer-reviewed on-line journal which publishes work within the field of law and society. This is broadly defined to include work which makes a significant contribution to the understanding and analysis of law as a set of social institutions, processes, practices or techniques, using any methodologies and approaches from the social sciences and humanities.

Sortuz welcomes submissions on a wide range of socio-legal issues. We accept papers focused on specific jurisdictions or countries, but we particularly encourage submissions that offer broader insights or allow for the extrapolation of findings beyond a single context.

Articles should normally be of 5-8,000 words, including title, abstract, and references.  Although a title, abstract, and key words in English are mandatory for all papers, Sortuz accepts and encourages use of other languages as well – Spanish, Basque, French and Portuguese are the other four main languages.

- Articles: for non-published work in socio-legal research, including working papers, elaborated drafts, and academic papers that spring from tesinas. 

- Translations: articles with an established relevance in the socio-legal field can be considered for translation. This section is meant to increase the communication among different knowledge production spheres. Articles in this section are selected by the Editors, with the advice of the Editorial Board.

- Reviews. Especially welcome are reviews of documents that have recently become part of the IISL's Library Catalogue. The recommended length for book reviews is between 2,000 and 3,000 words. We also welcome reviews of particular issues of other socio-legal journals. These submissions are not sent out to peer review; instead, they are screened by the permanent editorial team, who may give comments to the author.

- Interviews. To socio-legal scholars from all over the world. These submissions are not sent out to peer review; instead, they are screened by the permanent editorial team, who may give comments to the author. As an effort to collaborate to the knowledge dissemination across different production spheres, the Translations section will present translations of already relevant socio-legal articles. 

Publication Frequency

Sortuz will publish one volume per year, with issues published biannually. Further special issues can be published.

Issues will be published in April and in November.

Ownership disclosure

Sortuz is owned and published by the Oñati IISL Foundation, a non-profit organization which was established jointly in 1988 by the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on the Sociology of Law (RCSL) and the Government of the Basque Country, which nowadays provides most of the funding.

To learn more, please read the IISL's Statutes: http://www.iisj.net/en/about-iisl/statutes-foundation-international-institute-sociology-law-o%C3%B1ati

Open Access Policy

Sortuz: Oñati Journal of Emergent Socio-Legal Studies is a Diamond Open Access publication and provides immediate open access to all its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Charges

In line with our open policy, Sortuz does not have article processing charges or submission charges of any kind.

Indexing services

Sortuz is included in the following Abstracting and Indexing services:

  • Scopus
  • Crossref
  • Dialnet
  • Google Scholar
  • ÍnDICEs CSIC (Discontinued index)
  • ISOC
  • Dulcinea
  • Latindex
  • MIAR

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in the journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Please read our Privacy Policy here. You may write to legal@iisj.es with any enquiries or to exercise your rights.

Interoperability protocols

This journal provides an interface OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) that allows other websites and information services to harvest the published content metadata.

Specifications:

Protocol: OAI-PMH Version 2.0
Metadata formats: Dublin Core Metadata: Dublin Core; MARC; MARC21; RFC1807

URL for harvesters: https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/sortuz/oai

Digital archive preservation policy and Technical infrastructure

This publication uses the Open Journal Systems (OJS) editorial management system, an open source platform developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP).

The contents are digitally preserved through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), based on the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system. The digital preservation manifesto is available here.

Web hosting, technical maintenance and platform updates are managed by CULTURAL HOSTING, a company specialized in services for academic publications.

In addition, this journal assigns persistent DOI (Digital Object Identifier) identifiers to its articles, through the agency Crossref, which guarantees their traceability and persistence over time.