Submissions

Author Guidelines

EDITING PROCESS

1. Papers (articles and short notes) may be submitted on the topics of the monographic issues with open call for papers (see Announcements), as well as papers (articles, short notes and book reviews) related to the areas of interest of the journal (see About the Journal). In any case, the deadlines set for each issue must be respected.

2. Upon receipt of the manuscript, the editorial team will make a preliminary assessment within four weeks to determine whether the topic of the article is relevant and appropriate for the journal, and whether it meets the minimum quality standards and the formal and stylistic requirements. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria will be rejected without further review. Those that can be corrected will be returned to the authors to make the necessary changes. If the necessary corrections are not made, the papers will not be further evaluated.

3. Upon completion of the preliminary review phase, the manuscript will be sent anonymously to two experts in the field of the paper selected by the Editorial Team. The reviewers are external to the editorial team of the journal and independent, and will assess the suitability of the paper for publication and suggest appropriate corrections if necessary. The review process is blind (anonymity of authors and reviewers), with a member of the Editorial Team responsible for liaising between the two parties. The manuscript and the review report are confidential and may not be distributed or discussed with anyone outside the review process.

4. Reviewers will have four weeks to evaluate the article assigned to them. In general, the following aspects will be taken into account:

• The paper presents a topic of interest, pertinence and relevance to the journal's field of study.
• It makes a significant contribution to scientific progress.
• The paper is written in an appropriate manner, with a coherent internal organisation and structure, and a clear and readable style.
• It complies with the journal's policy on Gender Equity.

5. The reviewers will write a report evaluating the originality, relevance, methodological rigour and bibliographical references of the paper according to the section to which it belongs. After evaluating the different sections proposed in the review form, the reviewers must choose one of the following options and justify their recommendation: Accept submission, Publishable with modifications, Resubmit for review, Resubmit to another publication or Not publishable.

6. The Editor is responsible for receiving the review reports and communicating the decision to the authors. By submitting their work, authors accept that they will be subject to the opinion of the reviewers and the editorial team and undertake to adapt the final text according to the comments received. They must make any changes they deem necessary and take into account, as far as possible, the suggestions made. If a resubmission is necessary, the author must send it within a maximum of three weeks.

7. Finally, the Editorial Team reserves the right to accept or reject articles after considering the reviewers' reports. In situations where there is a significant discrepancy between the reviewers, a third opinion may be sought. In all cases, the final decision will be communicated to the authors.

8. On receipt of notification of acceptance of the manuscript, authors must make a final revision of the paper, including: correction of any typographical errors, disclosure of authorship if anonymised, and inclusion of acknowledgements and references to research projects or funding, if applicable.

9. The journal and the editorial team do not necessarily share the opinions, assessments or conclusions expressed in the published articles and are not responsible for any consequences arising from the use by third parties of the information and value judgements contained in such works.

GENERAL RULES FOR SUBMISSION

1. Authors must register with the journal before publishing, or if they are already registered, they can simply log in and start the submission process.

2. Papers must be original and unpublished, not previously published in the same or any other language, or under consideration by any other journal.

3. Papers can be submitted in the following languages: English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. The journal's template will be used.

4. Anonymous peer review must be guaranteed, with the removal of any reference that facilitates the identification of authorship in the text of the document and in the file properties.

5. Papers must comply with the journal's policy on Gender Equity. Please remember the importance of including a gender perspective in research and using non-sexist and inclusive language.

6. In the submission form, two reviewers should be proposed to participate in the evaluation of the journal issue. To do so, the following information should be included in the ‘Comments for the Editor’ box: Name and surname of each person proposed, institution of origin and contact e-mail address.

7. The submitted document must be in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word or RTF format.

8. Authors' details (first name and surname, institution or workplace, email, ORCID, etc.) are provided in the submission platform. If the article has been prepared by several people, it is important to list all those who have made a significant contribution to the submission. The journal does not limit the number of authors, as long as this number is supported by the complexity of the study. The journal will not accept subsequent changes or the addition of new authors once the article has been submitted.

9. Garamond font should be used, 12 point size, 1.5 line spacing, with no extra space between paragraphs and justified text. The title should be centred and in size 14. Bold type should only be used in titles and paragraph headings. Italics should only be used for foreign words. Do not underline words or whole sentences.

10. The first page should contain:

• Title of the article in the original language and in English (if the original language is English, it must also be in another language accepted by the journal).
• Abstract (maximum 200 words) in the original language and in English (If the original language is English, it should also be in another language accepted by the journal). Wherever possible, it should follow the IMRD format (Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion).
• Between 4 and 6 keywords, in the original language and in English (if the original language is English, they must also be in another language accepted by the journal). It is recommended that they come from the Thesaurus.

11. Sections and subsections should be concise, in lower case and numbered in numerical order as follows 1. / 2. / 2.1. / 2.2. / 3. / 4. ...

12. Quotations of more than 40 words must be in 10 point font, indented and without quotation marks. The initial letter of the quotation and the punctuation marks may be altered to suit the syntax, provided that the alterations are indicated. If parts of the original text are omitted, use three ellipses separated by spaces. Clarifications and additional words may be added in square brackets to make the text easier to understand.

13. Notes, if any, should be placed at the bottom of the page, in 10 point type, numbered consecutively and single spaced. They should be reserved for providing additional or supplementary information that strengthens the argument of the text, but their excessive use should be avoided as they may distract the reader.

14. Any statistical or mathematical analysis should be integrated into the main text to facilitate the reader's understanding and maintain the coherence of the argument.

15. Illustrations, figures and tables used in the article must be original or protected by copyright for their use or adaptation, and/or their sources must be duly acknowledged. They should be titled and numbered at the top (Figure 1 / 2 ... / Table 1 / 2 ... / Figure 1 / 2 ...). The source should be cited at the bottom. They should be clearly located in the text of the article and also attached as separate files when submitting the article. These files should be of the best possible quality and in their original format (.xlsx, .jpg, .jpeg, .png).

16. Acknowledgements, references to research projects or funding received should be placed at the end of the text, just before the bibliographical reference section, as a separate section. Acknowledgements and references to research projects or funding will be added at the final stage of the editorial process, once the article has been accepted.

17. The manuscript will have a final section of bibliographical references, listing in alphabetical order all sources cited in the text. All references and citations must follow APA 7th edition (available at https://guiasbib.upo.es/APA_edicion_actualizada). Manuscripts that do not meet these editorial standards will be rejected at the preliminary review stage. All bibliographic references with a DOI code must include the DOI code without exception. It is recommended that bibliographic references include the full name of the cited author to make it clear whether the author is male or female.

SECTIONS OF THE JOURNAL

Papers should be submitted to one of the following sections. In addition to the general rules for submission of manuscripts, the following guidelines will be followed for each section: