Paper Guidelines

Three documents will be required:

1. Title page file
2. Anonymous Manuscript
3. Full Manuscript
   Tables and figures, if necessary

Authors submitting their manuscripts are recommended to send tables and figures in separate files if possible (and if applicable to them). Tables should be in editable format, and figures should be in PNG format, with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch (ppi) and, if possible, a maximum of 2500 pixels and a maximum file size of 200-300 kb.

Title page file

A Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx) file, containing the following information:

• Title of paper
  It must be short and precise. It will be a single phrase without final point. No abbreviations or quotation marks will be used. The title should summarize the main idea of ​​the research in a clear and concise statement.

• Name and surname of all authors, academic or professional title, and academic institution (Faculty, Department, Centre, etc.). City and country.
  The names of academic institutions should be provided in English.

It is recommended to provide the ORCID of all authors (http://orcid.org/0000-0xxx-xxxx-xxxx). If the authors do not have an ORCID, it is recommended to sign in: https://orcid.org/signin

• Corresponding author
  Name, postal and e-mail address and phone number of the author responsible for correspondence on the manuscript.

• An abstract
  It must be a single paragraph with a maximum length of 300 words, containing all the basic and relevant information of the manuscript content.

• 3-5 keywords
  Frequent and descriptive terms of the paper presented will be used.

• Contribution of each author
  This must be submitted using the CRediT taxonomy, which will be explained later. Starting in 2025, it is mandatory to provide it in the submission.

Note: This file will not be provided to reviewers.

Main Document Archive (anonymous manuscript)

The document must be sent in Microsoft Word (.doc) or similar with a 2 cm. margin throughout the page and the line numbers to make the review process more efficient (click here to get more information on line numbers on Word). The recommended font is Times New Roman 12. All papers must be written in English.

Main body:

Abstract
It must be a single paragraph with a maximum length of 300 words, containing all the basic and relevant information of the manuscript content.

Introduction
Should be comprehensible to the general reader; give a clear statement of the purpose of the paper and provide relevant context to support the basis for the paper and the significance of the work; do not exhaustively review the literature.

Material and methods
In the Material & Methods section, give a clear description of the study and how it was carried out; specifically describe the procedures and materials used, so the study can be replicated; the subsections, with brief content descriptions, in order, are:

• Participants: describe the sample (how many participants, how they were recruited) and its characteristics.
• Design & Procedures: explain how the experiment was done and if the approval of a local ethics committee was required.
• Analysis: describe the analyses applied to the data. It is helpful if you arrange this section to be coherent with the hypotheses or goals.

Results
Results should be presented precisely and should not contain material that is appropriate in the discussion; units, quantities, and formulas should be expressed according to the International System (SI units); all measurements should be given in metric units.

• Tables: The title must appear at the top of the table, and notes must be included at the bottom. Tables should be part of the text.
• Figures:The title must appear at the bottom of the figures, and notes must be included just below the title. Figures should be also part of the text.

Discussion
Emphasize the new and important aspects derived from the study, comparing with previous studies and results.

Conclusions
They should reflect the most relevant aspects of the results obtained with the study presented.

Acknowledgements, fundings or conflicts of interests

• Regarding funding, starting in 2025, authors submitting manuscripts must include a paragraph stating whether or not their work received any funding or grant.
• Authors submitting manuscripts must clarify whether or not there are any conflicts of interest. Starting in 2025, this must be explicitly declared.
• Regarding acknowledgments, it is optional to include them. 

Contributions
They must be specified according to the CRediT taxonomy. Starting in 2025, they must be included in submissions, preferably on the title page.

References
All references must be in alphabetical order, by first author, and in APA style at the end of the article.

Specific formats for different source types:

1. Books:

Basic structure:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher.

Examples:

• Single author: Smith, J. (2023). The psychology of learning. Academic Press.

• Two authors: Garcia, L. M., & Lee, K. H. (2024). Understanding child development. Routledge.

• Three or more authors: Jones, R. B., Williams, C. D., Brown, E. F., & Davis, G. H. (2025). Advanced research methods. Sage Publications.

  • Note: For 3-20 authors, list all authors. For more than 20 authors, list the first 19, followed by an ellipsis (...), and then the last author.
     

• Edited book (with chapter cited): Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of chapter. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx-yyy). Publisher.

  Johnson, P., & Miller, S. (2022). The impact of technology on society. In R. Green & T. White (Eds.), Contemporary social issues (pp. 45-62). University Press.

• Authored book (with chapter cited): Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In Title of book (pp. xxx-yyy). Publisher.

  Chen, W. (2021). The early years of cognitive development. In Childhood psychology: A comprehensive guide (pp. 15-32). Pearson.

2. Journal articles:

Basic structure:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article: Capital letter also for subtitle. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), page numbers. https://doi.org/xxxx

Examples:

• With DOI (Digital Object Identifier): Anderson, L. K., & Thompson, M. J. (2024). The effects of mindfulness on stress reduction. Journal of Health Psychology, 29(2), 112-125. https://doi.org/10.1177/xxxxxxx

• Without DOI (if retrieved online and no DOI is available, provide the URL): Clark, S. R., & Wilson, P. Q. (2023). New approaches to teaching mathematics. Educational Innovations, 15(3), 78-92.  https://www.examplejournal.org/articles/xyzabc/xyzabc.pdf

3. Newspaper articles:

Basic structure:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Name of Newspaper, page number(s).

Examples:

• With author: Rodriguez, M. (2025, March 28). Local school board approves new funding. The Abc Times, A1, A4.

• Without author: New study reveals surprising health benefits of coffee. (2023, April 1). The Guardian, B3.

• Online Newspaper Article with URL: Lee, S. (2025, March 30). Tech company announces major expansion in United Kingdom. Newspaper A. Retrieved from https://www.newspaper.co/newspaper/....

4. Conference proceedings:

Basic structure:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of paper or presentation. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of published proceedings (pp. xxx-yyy). Publisher or Organization. https://doi.org/xxxx (if available)

Examples:

• Published in a book of proceedings: Kim, J., & Patel, R. (2024). Analyzing sentiment in social media data. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Computing and AI (pp. 150-158). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/xxxxx

• Published online (no editors or page numbers): Silva, F., & Oliveira, G. (2023). The impact of climate change on coffee production in Colombia. Abstracts of the Latin American Agricultural Conference. Retrieved from https://www.laac.org/abstracts/xxxx.pdf

• Presentation slides or poster session (less common to formally cite in the references list, but if you do): Author, A. A. (Year, Month). Title of presentation or poster. [Conference presentation or Poster session]. Name of Conference, Location. https://doi.org/xxxx (if available)

  Ramirez, L. (2025, May). The future of urban planning in Abc. [Conference presentation]. Xyz Urban Development Summit, Abc.

Key points to remember:

• Consistency: Maintain consistent formatting throughout your references list.
• Accuracy: Double-check all information (authors' names, dates, titles, journal/book titles, page numbers, DOIs, URLs).
• APA Manual: The 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the definitive guide. Consult it for more complex or less common source types.
• Citation generators: While citation generators can be helpful, always review the generated citations to ensure they adhere strictly to APA style.

By following these guidelines, you can create accurate and properly formatted references lists in APA style for your academic work. Remember to pay close attention to the specific details required for each type of source.

CRediT Taxonomy

CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) aims to differentiate and recognize the contribution of each author in a scientific article.

By detailing the role of each author in the research, it helps ensure that all authors receive fairer recognition for their personal contribution to the advancement of science, and is particularly vital for newer researchers. The use of this taxonomy provides several important and practical benefits to the research ecosystem in general, such as:

• It helps reduce the potential for disputes between authors.
• It supports adherence to authorship/contribution processes and policies.
• It allows for visibility and recognition of the diverse contributions of researchers, particularly in works published with multiple authors.
• It supports the identification of peer-reviewed work and specific expertise.
• It supports grantmaking, allowing funding bodies to more easily identify responsibility for specific research products, developments, or breakthroughs.
• It improves the ability to track the products and contributions of research specialists and grant recipients.
• It easily identifies potential collaborators and opportunities for research networking.
• It enables new indicators of research value, use and reuse, credit, and attribution.

In this way, CRediT is a high-level taxonomy, with 14 roles, representing the responsibilities of each contributor to the scholarly scientific output of a research product:

• Conceptualization: ideas; formulation or evolution of overall research objectives and goals.
• Data curation: management activities to annotate (produce metadata), clean data, and maintain research data (including software code, when necessary to interpret the data itself) for initial use and subsequent reuse.
• Formal analysis: application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize research data.
• Funding Acquisition: Acquiring financial support for the project leading to this publication.
• Research: Conducting research and the research process, specifically performing experiments or collecting data/evidence.
• Methodology: Developing or designing the methodology; creating models.
• Project Administration: Responsibility for managing and coordinating the planning and execution of the research activity.
• Resources: Providing study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analytical tools.
• Software: Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementing computer code and supporting algorithms; testing existing code components.
• Supervision: Supervisory and leadership responsibility for planning and executing research activities, including mentoring outside the core team.
• Validation: Verifying, either as part of the activity or separately, the overall replicability/reproduction of results/experiments and other research outputs.
• Visualization: Preparation, creation, and presentation of the published work, specifically data visualization and presentation.
• Writing – original draft: Preparation, creation, and presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
• Writing – review and editing: Preparation, creation, and presentation of the published work by members of the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary, or revision, including pre- and post-publication stages.