About the Journal

FOCUS AND SCOPE

 

Publishing and Funding.
The journal is published and funded by Colegio de Profesionales en Orientación.

 

Nature and format.
It is a peer-reviewed, open-access, scientific publication. Its format and publication are electronic and use the OJS system.

 

Purpose.
To contribute to disseminating and promoting knowledge developed in Guidance & Counseling to promote professional development and improvement.

 

Target audience.
It is aimed at counseling professionals, researchers, and university students at the national and international levels.

 

Journal sections.
Starting in the second half of 2025, the journal will be organized into four sections, which gather different types of contributions. Each section has specific content and evaluation criteria.

 

1. Articles (peer-reviewed section): The purpose of this section is to disseminate original and relevant knowledge derived from systematic processes of basic or applied research, theoretical analysis, or the systematization of experiences.
2. Essays (peer-reviewed section): The purpose of this section is to publish argumentative texts that develop a well-founded position on a relevant topic within the journal's disciplinary field. They are characterized by their originality, thoughtful depth, and bibliographic support.
3. Reviews (non-peer-reviewed section): This section discusses critical and analytical commentaries on recently published works (books, theses, reports, etc.) relevant to the journal's topics. Reviews are expected to highlight the contributions, limitations, and relevance of the assessed work.
4. Invited Voices (non-peer-reviewed section): This section is intended for national and international experts or leaders invited by the Editorial Committee to share their reflections, positions, or original contributions on key topics in the field.

 

Thematic coverage.

Includes articles related to:

1. Counseling interventions from different contexts: family, educational, community, indigenous peoples, prison, national employment system, organizational, or other.
2. The training and professional development processes of the counselor.
3. The theoretical and practical perspectives of the profession.
4. Disciplinary and professional identity.
5. Ethical responsibilities in the practice of counseling.
6. Construction and validation of instruments for counseling intervention processes.
7. Career development in educational, organizational, and community contexts.
8. Counseling and social justice.
9. Innovation, technologies, and digital tools for counseling.
10. Counseling in managing social policies, programs, and projects.
11. Other related topics.

 

Types of articles.

Original, unpublished manuscripts are accepted, provided they have not been simultaneously submitted to another journal or publishing entity. Article types include:

1. Scientific article derived from:

• Basic research.
• Applied research.
• Bibliographic review (Articles that merely summarize without specific objectives or methodology will be rejected.)
• Systematization of experiences.

 

2. Essay.

3. Review.

 

Language.

Articles are published in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

 

Publication formats.

Articles are published in the following formats: PDF, HTML, XML, and Audio (for the Spanish abstract).

 

 

CITATION AND REFERENCE MODEL.

The journal uses the seventh edition of APA in English.

 

 

SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION FREQUENCY.

Calls for papers are open year-round. The journal is published semiannually in January and July. Beginning in 2026, it will adopt a continuous publishing model, allowing articles to be published as soon as they complete the editorial process (editor review, single-blind peer review, corrections, editing, translation, and layout).

 

 

EVALUATION AND PUBLICATION DEADLINE.

The estimated time between application, evaluation, and publication is approximately 6 months.

 

 

OPEN ACCESS.

This is an open-access journal, which means that all content is available free of charge to users. It is available to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text, or use it for any other lawful purpose, without prior permission.

 

 

COSTS.
The journal does not charge for the reception, processing, or publication of articles.

 

 

PREPRINTS.
A preprint requires authors to submit their article (except for reviews) to a specialized preprint repository before submitting it to the Revista Costarricense de Orientación. We recommend using Zenodo or SciELO Preprints.

Submitting a preprint does not replace the editorial review or external peer review, nor does it prevent corrections requested by the journal.

If the journal accepts the manuscript, the postprint version will include the URL or DOI where the preprint is hosted, which must remain available.

 

 

EVALUATION PROCESS.

Before being submitted for external peer review, all manuscripts undergo a preliminary editorial review, which includes: detecting textual similarities using specialized software, verifying compliance with current publication standards, APA citation and referencing guidelines, and a general review of the content to assess its thematic relevance, argumentative clarity, and internal coherence. Failure to meet these criteria may result in the article being returned to the authors for correction or editorial rejection.

 

Editorial evaluation of non-refereed sections.

Manuscripts submitted to the Invited Voices and Review sections are not subject to external peer review. However, they are thoroughly evaluated by the editor and the Editorial Committee (see Preliminary Review Guidelines for the Editor and Review).

The Editorial Committee may adopt one of the following criteria:

• Approve the text for publication.
• Request adjustments to its form and content before acceptance.
• Reject the text if it does not meet the established editorial criteria.

 

External peer review.

All scientific articles and essays will be reviewed by two external peer reviewers through a single-blind process; only the identity of the reviewers will be concealed, even after publication. For this reason, reviewers are asked to declare any potential conflicts of interest that may affect their impartiality, as established in the journal's Code of Ethics. If a conflict is identified, the article will be reassigned to another reviewer to ensure the transparency and objectivity of the process.

Reviewers will be national and international professionals, independent of the publishing organization, selected based on their academic background and expertise in the article's subject matter.

 

Evaluation instruments.

The following support guides are provided for evaluation:

1. Preliminary review guide for the editor.

 

2. Scientific article:

Basic research.

Applied research.

Bibliographic review.

Systematization of experiences.

 

3. Essay.
4. Review.

 

Evaluation results.

The recommendations addressed to the Editorial Committee by the reviewers regarding the article may include:

• Publish the article.
• Publish the article once the authors make the requested corrections.
• Reject the article.

 

In the event of conflicting criteria, a third review will be requested, and the final decision rests with the Editorial Committee.

When the article requires corrections for publication, the authors must incorporate the requested adjustments within the deadline established by the Editorial Committee. The changes will be reviewed and, depending on the case, resubmitted to the reviewers for approval if the modification is significant.

If the authors do not submit the corrections by the established deadline, the delay will be their sole responsibility. If more than six months pass without the corrected document being submitted, the manuscript will be rejected.

 

Rejection criteria:

1. There is a lack of originality and impact on the field of study and the scientific community.
2. There is insufficient bibliographic support to back up the claims and arguments, which compromises credibility and academic integrity.
3. There are significant methodological errors that undermine the quality of the study.
4. The analysis of the information is superficial and merely descriptive.
5. The writing is poor and requires extensive rewriting of all or most of the article.
6. There are serious ethical issues, such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data manipulation, among others.

 

Appealing the result.

Those interested in appealing the outcome of the evaluation process must follow the procedures outlined in the journal's Code of Ethics.

 

 

ETHICS AND PLAGIARISM DETECTION.

The journal has a Code of Ethics, which upholds the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Additionally, there is a plagiarism policy for evaluating articles submitted to the journal. The American Psychological Association (2020) defines self-plagiarism and plagiarism as follows:

• Self-plagiarism: This is the presentation of one's own previously published work as if it were original; like plagiarism, self-plagiarism is unethical.
• Plagiarism: This is the act of presenting another's words, ideas, or images as if they were one's own; it denies the authors or creators of content the credit they deserve. Whether deliberate or unintentional, plagiarism violates ethical standards in research.

 

Therefore, the authors, editors, evaluators, and the Editorial Committee must promote academic integrity by ensuring that the content of the articles is original and complies with ethical standards in scientific dissemination.

The RCO uses the Similarity tool to identify similarities in the content of submitted articles with other sources (websites, theses, articles, books, etc.). This software will generate a report that will allow the editor to verify that:

• Paraphrased quotes should accurately reflect properly reformulated ideas, with the source indicated.
• Textual quotes should be transcribed precisely, with correct attribution of the author, year, and page or paragraph number.
• Do not present other people's ideas, words, or images as your own.
• Do not reuse substantial portions of previous works by the same authors without proper citation.
• The overall level of similarity should align with accepted academic writing practices.

 

The journal will request authors to correct the document when deemed appropriate, which will be mandatory, or it may reject the article if it determines that it does not meet the originality requirement.

If plagiarism is identified in previously published articles, the Editorial Committee will evaluate the situation and may issue an erratum or withdraw the articles from the journal (see Code of Ethics).

 

 

AUTHOR'S RIGHTS.

Retention of rights: Authors retain the rights to their articles and authorize the Revista Costarricense de Orientación to publish the work for the first time. This license allows for editing and dissemination under an open access license that guarantees appropriate attribution and regulates non-commercial use.

Publication license: Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Costa Rica license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 CR). This license permits copying, distribution, and public communication of the work, provided that the authorship and original source are acknowledged, that the work is not used for commercial purposes, and that no derivative works are created without authorization.

Self-Archiving: Authors are permitted and encouraged to deposit both the preprint version (manuscript prior to peer review) and the final published version of their articles in institutional, thematic, or personal repositories, while respecting the terms of the aforementioned license.

Content Responsibility: The opinions and content expressed in the articles are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Colegio de Profesionales en Orientación or the journal.

 

 

AUTHORSHIP.

The journal adheres to the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors for recognizing authorship and contributions to articles submitted to it:

• The individual has made significant contributions to the conception or design of the article, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
• The individual took part in drafting the work or critically revising it for intellectual content.
• The individual has participated in approving the final version for publication.
• Be accountable for all aspects of the work to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are thoroughly investigated and resolved.

 

Additionally, the CRediT Taxonomy is implemented to recognize specific roles.

The responsibility for identifying compliance with the criteria, as well as determining the order of appearance in the credits, relies with the article applicants (see Code of Ethics).

 

 

DIGITAL IDENTIFIER FOR EACH PUBLICATION.
All articles have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that provides information about their description and location on the internet through metadata.

 

 

LICENSING AND INTELLECTUAL PROTECTION.

This publication is published under the Creative Commons License principles.

 

 

DIGITAL PRESERVATION.

Legal deposit of articles published in the National Library System is protected by Printing Law No. 32 and Copyright and Related Rights Law No. 6683. For more information, please visit the following link: Formulario-Deposito-legal-de-publicaciones-digitales (sinabi.go.cr)

The journal participates in the PKP-PN initiative, which allows the deposit and preservation of its articles in KEEPERS. For more information, please visit the following link: https://portal.issn.org/resource/ISSN/2215-6615

 

 

INTEROPERABILITY.

The OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative–Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) interoperability protocol is implemented, which is used to transmit metadata (Dublin Core) on the Internet.

 

 

BACKGROUND OF THE JOURNAL.

The Asociación Costarricense de Profesionales en Orientación (ACPO), which promoted the creation of the Colegio de Profesionales en Orientación, created the newsletter, “Actualizaciones en Orientación”, in the 1990s, which was distributed in print to the members of this group on a semiannual basis.

Over the years, this newsletter evolved into the journal Actualidades en Orientación (ISSN 1659-0406), which became the first specialized journal on guidance in the country. It published articles concerning the work of guidance professionals and reported on the Association's activities.

With the creation of the Colegio de Profesionales en Orientación in 2010, the Asociación Costarricense de Profesionales en Orientación was dissolved, and the publication of Actualidades en Orientación was discontinued.

During the First National Guidance Congress "50 Years of Guidance in Costa Rica: Achievements and Challenges" and the First International Congress of the Latin American Guidance Network "Guidance in Latin America: In Search of New Perspectives," held in 2014, the urgent need for adequate means for professional exchange and the dissemination of the work and research conducted by guidance professionals was discussed. The College's Board of Directors analyzed this issue on several occasions. Three strategies were proposed to achieve these objectives, one of which was the creation of an electronic journal.
Therefore, in the ordinary session number #11, held on May 23, 2019, the Board of Directors of the Colegio de Profesionales en Orientación established a commission composed of the following members to prepare the proposal for creating the CPO electronic journal: M.Sc. Gioconda Mora Monge, M.Sc. Jorge Ballestero Rojas, Lic. Pablo Sibaja Mojica, M.Sc. Osvaldo Murillo Aguilar, M.Ed. Carmen Frías Quesada, Lic. David Chavarría Venegas and M.Sc. Josué Jiménez Ulate.

The current Costa Rican Journal of Guidance & Counseling (Revista Costarricense de Orientación, RCO) emerged from the work of this commission, which was approved by the Board of Directors at the 30th ordinary session, held on November 21, 2019. However, it was not until November 2020 that the project officially commenced, resulting in the publication of its first issue in January 2022.

In August 2023, the RCO was indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Subsequently, in November 2024, it was incorporated into the SciELO database. In June 2025, the RCO was accepted into the Redalyc Scientific Information System, solidifying its position as a recognized open-access scientific publication throughout Latin America.

To access some copies of the newsletter and the journal Actualidades en Orientación, predecessors of the RCO, please visit the following link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1abIkNJxdzGSmPrOH3NsAX3ZYyAyLPYdD?usp=sharing