Editorial considerations
Guide for authors
The publications produced by the Publishing House must have the institutional endorsement given by the Editorial Committee of Ediciones Universidad de Boyacá. They guarantee the quality and the use of the institutional image. Likewise, they must have the ISBN or ISSN, the legal note, the table of contents, the bibliography and the bar code. In addition, the books must adhere to the following guidelines:
Author information: brief curriculum vitae of the authors, including full name, institutional affiliation, ORCID iD and e-mail.
Title: it must contain a maximum of 12 words and be self-explanatory, be innovative, concrete, pertinent and coherent with the topic.
Abstract: The editorial project and its chapters must include an analytical summary of no more than 300 words. The summary should provide a concise presentation, in both English and Spanish, of the introduction, objectives, methodology, main results, and conclusions.
Keywords: There must be a minimum of five keywords, selected from the UNESCO thesaurus or a discipline-specific thesaurus, provided in both English and Spanish.
Table of contents: it must include the titles of the chapters or points and sub-points that comprise the editorial project.
Introduction: it must include the titles of the chapters or points and sub-points that comprise the editorial project.
Introducción: it must present the general aspects of the project and establishes its connection to existing literature on the subject. It provides information on the purpose, scope, structure, and impact of the editorial project.
Chapters of the editorial project: The chapters represent the development of the thematic axes that form the main content of the book. Each chapter should consist of a minimum of 12 pages.
The complete book must have a minimum of 85 pages in total.
Bibliographic references:: It is mandatory to follow the APA 7th edition standard for bibliographic references, except for health sciences editorial projects which should use the Vancouver style.
Text presentation
Paper: Letter size (22 x 28 cm).
Font: Times New Roman or Courier, size 12 (sans serif fonts may be used for figures).
Margins: 2.5 cm (1 inch) on each side of the sheet.
Spacing: The entire document at 1.5 space (expanded spacing).
Indent: In each first line of a paragraph (it is recommended to use the computer's tab key).
Italics: Use whenever there is a word from another language, title of books, newspapers, genus or species, linguistic word or example, erroneous words, statistical symbols, test scores and scales, volume numbers and ranges of a scale.
Regarding scientific writing
The following aspects are key guidelines in the process of writing scientific articles, as their attention and follow-up contribute to optimizing the final results.
General characteristics
- Complete development of a topic in such a way that it appears as a cohesive unit within the work.
- Adequate theoretical-conceptual foundation regarding the topic covered, where a clear argumentation of ideas and statements is observed.
- Methodological treatment of the topic must be explicit, relevant, and clear.
- Contributions to the intellectual and conceptual field in the discipline and personal reflection of the researchers must be found.
- Pertinence and quality in the proper use of norms for text writing, citation of sources, and references to the used bibliography.
- Unpublished character, with which the author or authors will assume responsibility for what is written and for the particular study. All research products must go through the ethics committee and have informed consent.
Recommendations
- Impersonal style, avoiding the use of the first person. It is preferable to use the active voice.
- Clarity: the text should be easily readable and understandable. Use clear vocabulary.
- Accuracy: use unequivocal language, free of ambiguities, that conveys the message directly.
- Concreteness: strive for brevity without sacrificing clarity.
- Objectivity: use language that is free from subjective evaluations. Avoid elements of literary prose.
- Check syntax (sentence structure and word order), spelling, punctuation, logical flow, and coherence of the text.
Indications for presentation
- In the body of the text it is advisable not to use underlining or bold type, in the event that a word needs to be emphasized, italics should be used.
- Trade names and brands should be avoided, unless required in methodological explanations.
- Names with acronyms are given in full the first time they are cited, followed by the acronym in parentheses, written without a period. If it is necessary to mention them again, the acronym is presented.
- It is convenient to express the common units of measurement in their respective abbreviations: kilogram (kg), gram (g), milligram (mg), meter (m), foot/feet (ft), inches (in), pound/pounds (lb), miles per hour (mph), etc.
Source citation
Quotations
Quotations are a verbatim reproduction of another author's work, or of the author's own previously published work. It is important to give credit to the authors in order to avoid plagiarism. When quoting, the source from which the quotation was taken must always be referenced in the text, indicating the author (first surname only, with initial capital letter), year and specific page of the quotation. Example of direct quotation:
On the other hand, the same research states that "With respect to oral expression scores, the fact that students with visual impairment obtain lower values may be due to the fact that these students have a much more limited range of discursive skills" (Santana, 2003, p. 18).
At the end of the text, in the list of references, these data must appear complete and organized in alphabetical order.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing refers to an idea that is contained in another work, but is written in other words. Paraphrasing allows you to summarize the information.
Paraphrases are not expressed in quotation marks or in a separate block. The source of the quotation includes the author and the date, e.g., the date of the quotation:
According to Sanchez (1991), cement is one of the most popular materials in construction today.
Long quotation
A long quotation is considered to be verbatim when the material or text is literally copied as written by another author.
When a fragment of more than 40 words is quoted verbatim, the block is presented without quotation marks, starting on another line and indented by approximately 1.27 cm (0.5 in). If there are additional paragraphs within the quotations, the beginning of each line should be indented 1.27 cm (0.5 in). All quotations should be equally spaced (Expanded spacing). E.g.:
With reference to language cultivation:
The creation of an inner language from which literature emerges, the consolidation of a mental structure, the cultivation of abstract thought which is essentially language, the struggle to recreate continuously around the principles of truth, justice, freedom, beauty, generosity, all this marks the path of progress and coexistence. And this is, in turn, cultivation and culture of words, revision of the immense written legacy, which is nothing other than thinking with what is thought (Lledo, 1994, p. 11).
When quotation does not exceed 40 words, it is included on the same line, indicating it in quotation marks. E.g.:
The discussion around such learning processes has been maintained, referring to the concept of written culture. "With the concept of written culture, one refers to the whole set of interdisciplinary research that takes writing, its effects, its causes in the individual, in society, in learning, in all dimensions" (Cassany, 2000, p. 1). Therefore, its study must involve these dimensions.
Quotations with more than two authors
For a source with three or more authors, list the first author’s last name and summarize the other authors using the Latin phrase “et al.” for all quotation, including the first quotation. as follows:
Assuming the authors are: Sanchez, Ferreira, Hermosillo, Minyang and Velling.
Sanchez et al. (2018).
Peer review process
The publications are initially reviewed by the editor of the University of Boyacá, to verify compliance with the formal elements requested in the instructions to the authors. If the document does not meet the criteria, it will not proceed with the selection process and will be returned to the author with the necessary indications for revision.
Once the formal requirements are met, the document is sent to two external peer reviewers who are experts in the subject for evaluation. This process is carried out anonymously and confidentially, following the double-blind system, where the identities of the author and reviewer remain unknown to each other. The editor is responsible for managing the correspondence between them."
The peer reviewer issues the following concepts:
- a) Publish without comments
- b) Publishable with comments
- c) Not publishable
If the reviewer issues the concept of 'publishable with comments,' the editor sends the observations to the author for the necessary adjustments. The editor also explains the changes to be made as a result of the recommendations, and the document is reviewed again by the peer reviewer. If one reviewer gives a positive concept while another gives a negative concept, the document is sent to a third reviewer. Based on the concepts provided by the reviewers, the Editorial Committee decides whether to publish it or not. In either case, a letter containing the evaluators' concepts is sent to the author.
The evaluation process will take a minimum of one month and a maximum of six months.
Evaluation form
Link to the evaluation form for a research book.
Link to the evaluation form for an academic book.
Anti-plagiarism tool
Ediciones Universidad de Boyacá provides a plagiarism prevention service through the use of Turnitin software. This service examines the similarity percentage of editorial projects to analyze the originality of the text and prevent plagiarism.
In accordance with the above, the publisher hereby informs that editorial projects exceeding 20% similarity will not be considered for the editorial process and will be returned to the author. This measure ensures the quality and originality of the books and prevents practices such as duplicity, self-plagiarism, and plagiarism by authors. It allows for the rejection and non-publication of editorial projects."
License of use
Ediciones Universidad de Boyacá manages the usage license for the publication of editorial projects under the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/open access license.
