Submissions

Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Specifications for the Contributions and Articles Submitted

Disertaciones is an online, open access, academic, and scientific journal that publishes original contributions of relevant content for the Social Communication field, particularly in the following areas: (i) Society and Information and Communication Technologies; (ii) Communication and Politics; (iii) Journalism; and (iv) Communication and Culture.

Each author, whether as the main author or co-author, may publish a maximum of two articles per year in Disertaciones.

The journal accepts articles written in Spanish, English, and Portuguese at no cost to the authors. Every article submitted to Disertaciones must be new, so no works already published, in print or digital formats, or currently undergoing a review process in a different journal will be accepted. We also ask you to add your ORCID code when creating your account on the journal's platform.

The journal’s content is divided into four sections: Studies, Advances, Essays, and Reviews:

Disertaciones focuses on the publication of original and new research articles, which results contribute to advances in scientific knowledge in the field of communication. These articles are edited in the sections Studies and Advances.

The Studies section, of a monographic nature, brings together specialized articles that contribute to the specific thematic dossier published for each issue of the journal.

The Advances section publishes open-topic research articles in communication that contribute to knowledge within the general thematic areas of the journal.

The Essays section publishes reflection papers arising out of research experiences or a thorough critical review of the relevant and current academic literature, thus making an original contribution to the theoretical or methodological debate on the central theme of each journal issue.

The journal also publishes critical reviews of recent outstanding books or academic events related to communication studies. These texts are edited in the Reviews section.

• Manuscripts submitted to Disertaciones, before being sent to peer reviewers, will undergo an initial review by the editorial board of the journal to ensure they effectively comply with the current author guidelines. In this process, the journal subjects the received manuscripts to software that checks the level of originality in the text and the proper handling of citations.

Article Submission Parameters (Studies, Advances, and Essays sections)

• Manuscripts must be submitted in Word format (.doc or.docx), written in Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1.5 line spacing, Letter-sized page, 2.5 cm margins, and page numbers in the upper right-hand-side corner. Footnotes, which will only be used to make pertinent clarifications and additional comments to the main text, are consecutively numbered and written in Times New Roman with 10-point font. Bibliographic references must be included at the end of the article, in alphabetical order, and following the latest version of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) style guide (sixth in English, third in Spanish translated from the sixth English version). 
• The length of articles (published in the Studies, Advances, and Essays sections) must be a minimum of 5,000 words and a maximum of 9,000 words, including the abstract, footnotes, and bibliographic references.
• The content of the article must exclude data or references identifying the authors of the submitted text. To record such data, another Word file must be attached, including the following information for each of the authors: name and last name, academic background, institutional affiliation, main research lines, and email address. In addition, this attachment must also contain information on the origin of the submitted work: the research project from which the article derives, as well as the corresponding credit to the institutions that supported project execution.
• Each article will be preceded by a title, which must concisely identify the focus and scope of the text, and an abstract summarizing the main elements of the work in one paragraph that should be between 150 and 200 words long. The Studies and Advances sections require compliance with the IMRD format: Introduction, Methodology, Results, and Discussion. Both the title and the abstract must be submitted in the original language of the study and translated into Spanish (or into English if the article is written in Spanish).
• Following the abstract, 3–5 keywords used to identify the content of the article must be included. In addition, these words must be in the original language of the article and translated into Spanish (keywords) or into English if the body is written in Spanish. 
• Research articles, published in the Studies and Advances sections, must be organized to accord with the general conventional structure of scientific works, particularly in the social sciences field: introduction, background or state of the art, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusions. The specific structure for each article is expected to be appropriate and consistent with the theoretical-methodological perspective of the study being conducted.
• All articles must include titled sections or subtitles that are based on the structure of the text. However, the introduction is not preceded by a title that designates it as such, given that it is assumed that the first part of the manuscript corresponds to the introduction. For the remaining sections and subsections of the article, title and subtitle levels will be used without letters or numbers, depending on the hierarchy of the information. Although most research article structures have up to three title levels, the journals use an adaptation of the APA heading style guide, which allows for up to five subordination levels in title format:

Table 1. Format for hierarchy of title and subtitle levels

Adapted from the APA Publication Manual, third Spanish edition translated from the sixth English version.

Only title levels that are necessary on the basis of the sections and subsections of the submitted text must be used. Therefore, the article may be structured only with section titles, for which only title level 1 should be used, or it may have up to five subsection levels and use the respective title levels for each of them.

• If the article includes figures and tables, they must be numbered using Arabic numbers, correlating to how they are mentioned in the text. Tables must be incorporated into the same file of the submitted article in Word table format. In addition, figures and photographs must be incorporated into the Word file and attached in JPG format. Each table incorporated into the article must include a descriptive title at the top, and figure legends must be sufficiently explanatory. Clarification notes are recorded at the foot of the table; so are credits to data sources. The use of vertical lines must be avoided in tables in order to present the data as clearly as possible to the reader. For more detailed recommendations for the submission of tables and figures, refer to Chapter 5 of the APA’s Publication Manual.
• For a detailed presentation of the data set and results of research, whether quantitative or qualitative, the use of supplementary online archives is recommended. If the author requires the use of special visualizations to present data, such as graphics, videos, or interactive tables, the journal will make the necessary arrangements to incorporate these formats.
• The journal suggests that its authors submit the raw research data set and the code book used in order to strengthen precision and communicability of the research contribution, enabling the replication and argumentation of the results by other researchers. This submission is optional.
• Article submissions to Disertaciones will be received through the online text receipt system for evaluation by the journal, available on the website: http://revistas.urosario.edu.co/index.php/disertaciones/

Style and Citation Guidelines 

Regarding style guidelines, citations, and bibliographic references, the articles submitted to the journal must follow the APA’s Publication Manual (in its sixth English version and third Spanish version, corresponding to the official translation of the sixth English version). 

Below is a general summary of the style and citation guidelines that are more commonly employed in research articles:

• Abbreviations referring to technical concepts and terms will only be used if strictly necessary. Abbreviated terms, as well as acronyms, must be written in full the first time they appear, immediately followed by their abbreviation in parenthesis.
• For statistical data reports, formulas must only be used when essential for the article or when a new mathematical or statistical expression is presented, not for the introduction of common-use statistical data. Preferably, equations must be submitted to the word processor in editable format and not as an image. With respect to the specific details on the presentation of statistical and mathematical material in the article, refer to Chapter 4 of the APA’s Style Guide.
• Textual quotes and paraphrases must be referred to in the body of the text, following APA rules (author, year, and quote page). Textual quotes not exceeding 40 words will be directly incorporated within the text between quotation marks, establishing the source in parenthesis after closing quotation marks. Textual quotes exceeding 40 words must be placed in a separate paragraph, with a left margin indentation of 2.5 cm and no quotation marks. The source must be referred to in parenthesis following the quote’s final punctuation mark.
• At the end of the article, under the heading of bibliographic references, an alphabetically ordered list containing only the references actually used and quoted in the body of the text must be included. APA rules must be followed for the citation and list of references, whether in the sixth English edition or the official translation into Spanish (third edition), depending on the language the article is written in.
• For specific queries about reference citation, authors are encouraged to refer to the English website of the APA style guide (apastyle.org), as well as to the aforementioned style manuals.

General Guidelines for the Submission of Book and Academic Event Reviews

• Reviews will have a maximum length of 1,500 words and will be submitted in a Word file, following the font, spacing, and margin format referred to in the article submission requirements of the journal. The same file must contain reviewer identification data: first name and last name, institutional affiliation, and research lines.
• In the case of a book review, the complete bibliographic data of the reviewed work must appear at the end of the text, that is, author, date, complete title, city, publishing house, and number of pages. Academic event reviews must contain the following details: name of event, organizing institutions, and place and date of event.
• The book subject to review must have been published within 2 years prior to submission of the review and constitute a clear contribution to communication research. In the case of an academic event review, this must have been carried out within 1 year prior to submission of the review and be an event of notable international relevance for communication studies. The reviewed book or event does not necessarily have to be directly related to the monograph of the journal issue to which the review is submitted.
• The person conducting the review submitted to the journal must not have participated as either the editor or co-author of the book reviewed or have been part of the academic committee of the event reviewed in the text. It is recommended that the reviewer have a recognized academic trajectory on the subject or specific area of the referred book or event.
• Book reviews submitted to the journal are expected to transcend the merely descriptive plan, offer a critical and constructive perspective that identifies the scopes and limitations of the work, and highlight the pertinence of the author’s contributions to the specific area within the field of communication studies.
• For direct quotations of the book reviewed, a reference to the relevant page’s citation will be provided in parenthesis. APA rules will apply for quotations of other works in the body of the review.

Authorship Statement – CRediT taxonomy

To strengthen the scientific integrity of research published by the journal, the CRediT taxonomy, established by CASRAI, will be adopted as of the second half of 2021. The article will include the description of the contributing roles of the authors who sign the publication. The level of contribution and type will be defined in accordance with the 14 contributor roles (https://casrai.org/credit/ ), with the possibility for a single author to simultaneously take on some of the following roles:

1. Conceptualization
2. Data curation
3. Formal analysis – statistical techniques and data analysis
4. Funding acquisition
5. Investigation – research process
6. Methodology – design and development
7. Project administration – management and coordination
8. Resources – supplying study materials
9. Software – programming, design, and implementation
10. Supervision and leadership role in planning
11. Validation – verification
12. Visualization – data presentation 
13. Writing – original draft
14. Writing – review & editing