Submissions

Author Guidelines

General Guidelines

•Topics: The Journal of Latin American Communication Research (JLACR) publishes only scholarly articles related to communication research in Latin America or about Latin American communication processes. Topics may come from any field dealing with communications, or from an interdisciplinary perspective.

• Structure: Empirical studies should include a literature review, research questions or hypotheses, methodology, findings, and conclusion in this particular order. Please, include subtitles. Theoretical articles require an introduction, clear thesis, supporting arguments based on facts, in-depth analysis, and research developed by various sources (please, avoid opinion pieces). Include creative subtitles. Use APA 7 style.

•When to submit: Papers may be sent all year long, taking into account that each issue could have a special Call-for-Papers, in order to receive articles for specific topics.

•Languages: Manuscripts will be accepted in English, Spanish and Portuguese. However, papers accepted in Portuguese or Spanish will need to be translated to English by the authors before scheduled for publication.

•Copyright: The proposals submitted to JLACR must be original and shouldn’t be consider for publication in any other journal, book or conference proceedings. In case of partial previous publishing, author must consult Editors. 

Style Guide – Editors will not accept submissions that do not strictly comply with the writing standards.

1. Submission of manuscripts

1.1. Maximum length

Texts must not exceed 12/14 pages (25,000 characters, including spaces), including the title in Spanish, Portuguese, and English; summary/abstract/resumo in Spanish, Portuguese, and English; images, tables, notes, and references. The text must be submitted in A4 format (21 x 29.7 cm), and the text box must have a left margin of 3.25 and a right margin of 2.5 cm, and a top and bottom margin of 3.0 cm.

1.2. Paragraph and page format

Each paragraph must include a first-line indentation of 0.75 cm, with no blank spaces between paragraphs.

1.3. Typography

Arial 11 font, single-spaced, and without hyphenating words at the end of the line. The use of italics should be limited to emphasizing words, sentences, or passages; bold should not be used. Italics may be used to draw attention to significant terms when they are first introduced or for foreign words.

2. Languages used

JLACR publishes original texts in Spanish and Portuguese with English translation, and texts in English with Spanish translation.

3. Titles, subtitles, and punctuation

The first page of the article is intended to facilitate indexing in search engines and scientific repositories and to improve the reader’s experience. To this end, we expressly request, whenever possible, the repetition of some keywords in the title and abstract to ensure optimal indexing.

The first page must include:

1. Title of the article in Spanish, Portuguese, and English using lowercase letters (preferably fewer than 80 characters). Arial 12.
2. Name(s) of the author(s). Arial 12, and the ORCID number on the same line, separated by a space. Example: “Juan Pérez ORCID 0000-0000-0000-0000” (The ORCID number can be obtained at: https://orcid.org/register).
3. Summary in Spanish and Portuguese, and abstract in English (must not exceed 150 words), in Arial 11. (Example: “Abstract. This article…”. It must include hypothesis and conclusion or results. See APA 7 abstract guidelines).
4. Five keywords in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, separated by commas and ending with a period. They should correspond, whenever possible, to international thematic semantic descriptor indexes of Social Science journals (UNESCO and ERIC Thesauri). Prioritize: discipline, area, topic, problem, key author, geographical area. All in lowercase (except proper nouns), Arial 11. Include the terms “Palabras clave,” “Keywords,” and “Palavras-chave” as appropriate, in bold, followed by a colon (example: “Keywords: discourse, mediatization, image, semiotics, advertising.”).
5. Brief biographical note of each author (maximum 100 words). This summary begins with the author’s name, institution, current academic activity, and relevant publications. End with contact email. Arial 11.
6. Public or private funding of the work (if applicable).

The text begins on the second page—since the first functions as a cover—and must be divided into sections and subsections, which must be numbered and titled as follows according to hierarchy levels:

1. COMMUNICATION IN LATIN AMERICA (Arial 10, uppercase bold)

               1.1. Communication in Peru (Arial 11, lowercase bold)

                   1.1.1. Communication in Andean culture (Arial 11, lowercase italics)

All titles must include a 0.75 cm indentation.

Two spaces must be left between sections and one space between subsections. This criterion also applies to the separation (two spaces) between the end of the main text and the endnotes, as well as between the endnotes and the references.

4. Notes

The title NOTES must appear in Arial 10, uppercase bold. The text of the notes must be in Arial 10.

Notes must be placed at the end of the article and before the references. They may be numbered manually (using superscript in Word) or by inserting a section break after the end of the text and before the references (in Word: Layout > Breaks > Continuous) and then inserting them as endnotes.

Notes must be limited to the essential number and may be used to expand on a concept, but not as bibliographic notes. They must be numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3...) using superscript and placed at the end of the page. Notes are NOT bibliographic.

If a general clarification is necessary (e.g., references to research programs, support, acknowledgments, etc.), an asterisk () may be used at the end of the title and will appear as a footnote on the first page. In the case of translation, information about it must be indicated with a double asterisk (**), also as a footnote on the first page. If the article only includes a translation and no reference to research programs, then only a single asterisk () is used.

5. Citations

Citation format must follow the APA 7th edition Manual. Double quotation marks must be used for citations, and single quotation marks for a citation within a citation and for translations (cogito ‘I think’). En dashes “–” should preferably be used instead of parentheses. The short hyphen is used to separate numbers, years “1966-1968,” or pages “37-43.” All citations of books, images, recordings, films, videos, etc. must appear in the references following APA 7 guidelines.

Direct quotations:

• If the quotation is 3 lines or fewer, it must be included within the paragraph using double quotation marks.
• If the quotation exceeds 3 lines, it must be written separately from the text, with continuous left indentation (1.27 cm), in Arial 10, and without quotation marks (see section 6.7 for reference inclusion).

Any alteration to the original text must be indicated with three ellipsis points [...] in brackets.

Translations of citations:

• If necessary, the original language may be cited, followed by the translation in brackets, and its origin or authorship must be clarified in an endnote (e.g., “The translation is by the author of this article”).
• If only the translation is included (and not the original), this must be clarified after the reference, for example: “(Adorno, 1992, p. 41. The translation is by the author of this article).”

6. Reference citations

All direct citations must correspond to a bibliographic reference using the author-date-page system, including the author’s surname, year of publication, and page number, according to APA 7th edition. The APA Manual provides examples of parenthetical and narrative citations. Here are some examples of parenthetical citation:

1. Direct citation (Bohm, 1968, p. 140) or (Bohm, 1968, pp. 140–153).
2. Indirect citation: Bloomfield (1933) introduced the term […].
3. Multiple references by the same author: Eco developed his theory of codes in different stages (Eco, 1968, 1973a, 1973b, 1976, 1984b).
4. Citation of three or more authors: (e.g., Uexküll, Geiggens, and Herrmann, 1993) in APA format uses the first author’s name followed by “et al.” (Uexküll et al., 1993). All authors must be listed in the references (up to 20 authors; see section 7.c).
5. Citation of two authors and one of them with multiple entries (Bouissac, 1976a, 1976b, 1981; Eakins, 1976).
6. When citing a new edition of an old book, the citation includes the edition used (Gabelentz, 1972, p. 70). Since the original book dates from 1910, this is noted in the bibliography according to APA: after the publisher, include (Original work published in 1910).
7. Direct quotations:
   a. Up to 3 lines: the final period is placed before the parenthesis with author data. Arial 11.
   b. More than 3 lines: the final period is placed before the parenthesis with author data. Arial 10.

7. References

No source should be included in the reference list unless it is cited in the text using the author-date-page system. The reference list must follow APA 7th edition guidelines and be written in Arial 11.

•Authors must send an anonymous version of the manuscript. Remove author’s name or other identifying information on running heads, and on pages throughout the document to ensure a blind review. If an author’s work must be cited, use “author citation” both in the text and references (example: Author citation, 2014). Include a separate title page, with author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s). Articles that do not meet the guidelines will not be reviewed.

Instructions for Submitting

1. Go to the journal platform (http://www.alaic.net/journal) and access with your account. If you don’t have one, you have to register in the site and choose the roles you desire (author, reader, reviewer, etc.). To send a manuscript you have to log in as an “Author”.
2. Click on “New Submit” and follow the instructions on the screen, filling all the fields required.

Note: Figures and tables must be sent separately. The platform allows to upload text files, as well as other formats.