Author Guidelines

The Journal accepts all original contributions that have not previously been published elsewhere. We particularly welcome submissions proceeding from research projects, or other research, contributing to the discipline of municipal (local government) studies, and/ or the study of local and regional development. (In the case of sponsored or funded research projects, please supply start and completion dates, and identify the agency or agencies involved.)

Submission requirements

a) Articles submitted to the Journal should be original contributions that have not been published elsewhere, and have not been concurrently submitted to any other publication outlet. Versions submitted for peer review must be blinded, i.e. should not contain the names of (co)authors, nor any other material that allows them to be identified during the review process. Additional (co)authors cannot be incorporated once the review process has begun.

b) Articles submitted for review must be accompanied by a declaration disclosing any potential or actual competing interests, or conflicts of interest. This declaration of interest must be attached as a separate document.

c) Language: Submissions can be received and published in Spanish, Portuguese, or English.

d) Titles: Submitted articles must contain a title in two of the aforementioned languages, one of which must be English.

e) Article Length: Articles must be between 6,000 and 10,000 words in length (including an abstract, footnotes and any figures, tables and/or bibliography). Reviews should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words (including title and any references).

f) Format: Submissions should be sent as Word documents, in size 12 Times New Roman font, with 2.5cm margins and line spacing set at 1.15.

g) Any footnotes should appear in size 10 Times New Roman font, with line spacing set at 1.15.

h) Abstracts and keywords: Contributions must be accompanied by an abstract of up to 120 words, plus up to five keywords. Both must be supplied in two language versions (original language plus English). (For submissions whose original language is English, a second language version must be supplied in either Spanish or Portuguese).

i) All submissions must contain page numberings, in the lower right hand corner.

j) Citation: The Journal utilizes APA citation format (author surname, year: page number). All works cited in the article must be listed in the bibliography; and the bibliography should only list works directly consulted in the preparation of the article.

 

 

Formatting instructions for articles or reviews

a) Titles and Subtitles: text should be subdivided according to the following guidelines:

Main headings: in bold, centered and capitalized
Second-level subheadings: in italics, left justified, and capitalized
Third-level subheadings: in italics, left justified; lower case; no hard return
b) Alignment: text should be fully justified, except for direct quotes of 40 words or more (which should be indented).

c) Bold type is not used for emphasis. To add emphasis, italics may be used in the following circumstances:

Foreign language words or terms, including Latin.
Words, letters or phrases that are used as symbols or examples
Transcription of oral records
d) Paragraphing: As a guideline, paragraphs will usually consist of between three and eight sentences, to maximize readability. For similar reasons, no single sentence should normally exceed three lines in length.

e) Capitals or upper case: Capitalization is not used in any of the following situations:

To refer to authors in the body of the text
To refer to authors in the bibliography
For emphasis in the body of the text
f) Initials and Acronyms: should be preceded by the full form at first mention, followed by the acronym, in brackets. Thereafter, the acronym may be used alone.

g) Abbreviations: All abbreviations used in a text must be listed at the outset in a dedicated index or glossary. The first mention of any abbreviation in the body of the text should consist of the full form, followed by the abbreviation, in brackets. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be used alone.

h) Numbers and numerical expressions: numerals should be used in the following circumstances

For numbers of ten and above (e.g. 10 men).
For numbers below ten, where these are used in numerical expressions involving direct comparison with larger numbers (e.g. 5 of every 10 pupils)
In units of measurement (e.g. the size was 12 x 14)
In references to statistical functions or operations (e.g. the 1st quartile)
In numerical references to dates, sizes, time, quantities, percentages, currency etc. (e.g. 3 years, 2 weeks, 1h 30 min., March 30, 1994).
Numbers should be spelled out in the following circumstances

For numbers below ten (except as specified above) e.g. five essays, eight times.
For the numbers zero and one.
To open a sentence (e.g. fifteen sailors).
In fractions (e.g. a third of those surveyed).
In references to dates or historical events (September 18, the Ten Commandments).
i) Footnotes: Footnotes are only used to supply necessary explanatory information. Footnotes should be indicated by inserting superscript numerals immediately following the word or phrase requiring explanation. The text of the footnote should appear at the bottom of the same page. Sequential numbering is used, inn ascending order. Footnotes should not be used for bibliographic referencing or citation.

j) Tables, graphs, figures and illustrations:

All tables, graphs, figures and/or illustrations that appear in the body of the text must be indexed in a separate document.
Each table, graph, figure and/or illustration must be assigned a unique consecutive number, according to the order in which it appears in the text.
Each table, graph, figure and/or illustration must be preceded by a title that identifies its content. Any table, graph, figure and/or illustration that is not the property of the author or authors should be appropriately referenced.

Bibliography

Bibliography

1. Books
Author surname - with first letter only capitalized - comma, author’s first initial (and second, if applicable) separated by full stops. Multiple author listings should be separated with a comma, and the last name in the list should be preceded by “and”. Year of publication (in brackets), full stop. Italicized complete book title, full stop. Place of publication, colon, publisher or press.

Coulon, A. (1988). La etnometodología. Madrid: Cátedra

2. Edited book chapters or conference proceedings
Author(s) and year, as per guidelines above, chapter title, full stop. The term “In”, followed by the name(s) of the volume editor(s), in the following order: first initial(s), editor surname(s). The term (eds.), followed by the book’s title, in italics. Page range, in brackets, full stop. Place of publication, colon, publisher or press.

Singer, M. (1994). Discourse Inference Processes. In M. Gernsbacher (ed.), Handbook of Psycholinguistics (pp. 459-516). New York: Academic Press

3. Journal Articles
Author and year of publication, as per guidelines above. Title of article, full stop. Full title of the journal, in italics, followed by a comma. Volume number, in italics, followed immediately by issue number in brackets (without a space), comma, page range (separated by a hyphen), full stop.

Gutiérrez Calvo, M. and Eysenck, M.W. (1995). Sesgo interpretativo en la ansiedad de evaluación. Ansiedad y Stress, 1(1), 5-20.

4. Web References
• Journal article consulted in electronic version, but for which an identical print edition exists (usually applicable where the e-version is in PDF format):

Vandenbos, G., Knapp, S. and Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates [electronic version]. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123.

• Journal article consulted in electronic version, for which a similar but non-identical print edition exists:

Vandenbos, G., Knapp, S. and Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123. Consulted on October 13, 2001, http://jbr.org/ articles.html

• Article in an e-journal which has no print edition:

Fredrickson, B. L. (March 7, 2000). Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3, Artículo 0001a. Consulted November 20, 2000, at

http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/ pre0030001a.html

In this example, the first date is the date of online publication, and the second is the date on which the article was accessed by the reader.

• Documents without a single named author (use document title), and/or with no specified date of publication (use n.d.):

GVU's 8th WWW user survey (n.d.). Accessed August 8, 2000, at http:// www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/usersurveys/survey1997-10/

• Documents recovered from a university department website:

Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F. and Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. Accessed August 24, 2000, from Columbia University, website of the Institute for Learning Technologies: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/ publications/papers/newwine1.html

5. Theses

Mendoza, L.E. (1969). La orientación como técnica pedagógica. Su aplicación en Panamá. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Universidad Complutense, Faculty of Philosophy and Education (Facultad de Filosofía y Ciencias de la Educación), Madrid.

6. Dictionaries

Real Academia Española (1992). Diccionario de la lengua española (vols. I y II) (21st edition). Madrid: España

7. Encyclopaedias

Planeta (ed.) (1981). Nueva Enciclopedia Larousse (Vols. 1-10). Barcelona, España: Autor

8. Newspapers and Magazines

• Articles with a byline:

Sandoval, W. (November 28, 2003). Feria del Software en Venezuela. El Nacional, p. A 18

• Articles without a byline:

Via Crucis por la paz y la libertad. (April 10, 2004). El Nacional, p. C 8

• Editorials:

Una gran gesta ciudadana. [Editorial] (November 28, 2003). El Nacional, p. 1

9. Conference papers and proceedings, etc.

Pérez Gómez, Angel (1992). La formación del profesor como intelectual. International Symposium on Critical Theory and Action Research, Valladolid, April 1-4, (paper).