Publication guidelines

Contents

1. Support and format

  • Word processor: Microsoft Word 2007 or higher.
  • Page size: Letter (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm).
  • Margins: 2.5 cm on all sides.
  • Font: Calibri 12.
  • Line spacing: 1.15 with 6 points of spacing after paragraphs.
  • Alignment: Justified text.

2. Official templates

It is required to use the official template available for each manuscript type:

3. Manuscript structure

3.1. Initial elements

Title: in Spanish and English, in sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns capitalized). It should be concise and accurately reflect the content. It should not exceed 15 words, written in Cambria 14 bold, centered; the English title is not presented in bold.

Authors: full first and last names as they appear in the ORCID registry, ORCID number, institutional affiliation (name of the institution, city, province, country), and corresponding email address.

Abstract/Resumen:

  • Original scientific report and Recapitulative study: structured, maximum 250 words. It must contain the labels "Introduction, Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions" written in bold followed by a colon. The English version (Abstract) must comply with this detail.
  • Brief communication: unstructured, a single paragraph of up to 150 words that synthesizes the objective, essential methodological aspects, main finding, and conclusion or implication.

Keywords/Palabras clave (3-6): in Spanish and English, selected from the UNESCO-IBE Education Thesaurus (http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/unesco-ibe-education-thesaurus), preferably using the descriptors that appear there in bold. All are written in lowercase and separated by commas. Do not add a final period. The keywords in Spanish will appear below the Spanish abstract and those in English (Keywords) will appear below the English abstract (Abstract).

3.2. Structure of scientific content (adapted IMRaD)

Introduction: contextualization of the problem, review of the state of the art, and objective of the article. It should not exceed two pages.

  • In the brief communication: one or two paragraphs that situate the problem, justify the need to disseminate the finding, and state the objective directly.

Methods:

  • Original scientific report: the research design (experimental/non-experimental), type of study, place and period of execution, universe/sample (selection criteria, type of sampling), variables or categories of analysis, empirical methods, instruments, analysis strategy (including statistical or content treatment), technological resources, and ethical considerations must be specified. The information must be sufficient to replicate the study. It is written in the past tense.
  • Recapitulative study: the type of review (systematic, scoping, critical, etc.), the databases and search engines used, search equations, selection criteria, the screening process, and the information analysis method must be specified. It is written in the past tense and must allow for the replication of the search and selection process.
  • Brief communication: a concise paragraph describing the design, participants or sources, instruments, and essential procedure, so that the validity of the finding can be understood. The level of detail of an original scientific report is not required, but it must allow for an assessment of methodological quality.

Results: clear and orderly presentation of findings, without interpretations. In qualitative or theoretical development studies, a first section on foundations is allowed.

  • Original scientific report: written in the past tense.
  • Recapitulative study: the results of the review (findings from other studies) are written in the present tense, as they are considered established facts in the literature. The search, selection, and analysis process (if described in this section) is written in the past tense.
  • Brief communication: results and discussion are integrated into a single section.

Discussion: comparison of results with previous literature (local, national, and international), explaining similarities, discrepancies, and possible explanations; identification of gaps and strengths of the study. Exceptionally, in qualitative studies it may be merged with Results under the title "Results and discussion." It is written in the present tense.

  • Brief communication: it is suggested to present in two or three paragraphs the central finding (with support of up to 2 editable tables or figures) and immediately the discussion, contrasting it succinctly with the most relevant literature and pointing out its implications.

Conclusions: generalizations derived from the study that respond to the objective and highlight the main contribution, without repeating the data. They should open new hypotheses or lines of work. They are written in the present tense.

  • Brief communication: a final paragraph that synthesizes the contribution, its novelty, and, if applicable, a hypothesis or future line of work. It should not repeat the results verbatim.

References: only the sources cited in the text, in strict APA 7th edition format. Each reference must include the DOI or URL that leads directly to the document (except for printed books). References to works in preparation, not formally published, or whose availability is not guaranteed will not be accepted. The cited sources will be ordered alphabetically and up to 20 authors will be listed; from 21 onwards, intermediate authors will be omitted using ellipsis points. Compound surnames joined by a hyphen (e.g.: Hernández-Campillo) are respected as a single surname.

4. Citations and references

Transformación uses the APA 7th edition style for citations and bibliographic references.

4.1. In-text citations

  • One author: Narrative citation: Surname (year) ... (p. xx). Parenthetical citation: (Surname, year, p. xx).
  • Two authors: Narrative citation: Surname and Surname (year) ... (p. xx). Parenthetical citation: (Surname & Surname, year, p. xx).
  • Three or more authors: Narrative citation: Surname, Surname, & Surname (year) ... (p. xx). Parenthetical citation: (Surname et al., year, p. xx).
  • Paraphrase: the page number should not be written in any of the variants.

4.2. Bibliographic references (examples)

Source type Format
Book Surname, I. N. (Year). Title. Publisher.
Book chapter Surname, I. N. (Year). Chapter title. In I. Surname (Ed.), Book title (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.
Journal article Surname, I. N. (Year). Title. Journal, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxx
Doctoral thesis Surname, I. (Year). Title [Unpublished doctoral thesis, University]. Repository. URL
Conference paper Surname, I. (Year). Title. In Conference name (pp. xx-xx). Institution. URL
Institutional document Organization (Year). Title. URL
Law Law name, official source, URL
Blog Surname, I. (full date). Title. Blog Name. URL

4.3. Recommendations on currency and quality of sources

  • It is expected that most references (ideally around 70%) correspond to publications from the last five years.
  • The use of references to studies published in journals indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, and SciELO will be positively valued.
  • In the case of brief communications, a maximum of 15 references is suggested.
  • References to works in preparation, non-retrievable personal communications, documents of limited distribution that do not have legal deposit or official registration, nor links to ResearchGate as the main source (the original publication must be referenced with DOI or permanent URL) will not be accepted.
  • The use of self-citations should be avoided; only those that guide the reader to a previous result of the author that is essential for understanding the new contribution will be accepted.
  • It is recommended to avoid citations to generic encyclopedias or non-institutional websites. Blogs will only be citable if they belong to recognized academics and contain original results.