Information For Authors

Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page, as well as the Author Guidelines below. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

 

Types of Submissions

1. Peer-reviewed Articles

Original articles between 7,000 and 10,000 words in total (including footnotes, tables, figures, and bibliography).

 

2. Dialogues

This new section aims to stimulate debate and discussion between scholars in Latin America and the Anglophone academy and between academia and social movements. These dialogues will take two forms: (a) interventions and testimonies from social movements in Latin America and (b) critical responses to articles published in the previous issues of the journal. These interventions will be shorter than the peer-reviewed articles (between 500 and 2000 words long) and will be designed to fan the flames of critical discussions, with the aim of furthering intellectual and political debates around the central political, economic, social, and ecological questions confronting Latin America today.

 

3. Translations

We welcome proposals to translate manuscripts and intellectual production produced in/from Latin America - Abya Yala from Spanish, Portugues or any native language to English. Please send your proposals before conducting the translation to Managing Editors (info@alternautas.net). 

 

4. Book reviews 

The Journal welcomes book reviews. The maximum length for book reviews is 2,500 words. Reviews are generally not sent for external peer review. They are, however, reviewed by managing editors, and the author may be asked to make changes if required. Once approved by the editor, they go through copyediting/proofreading before they are published. Contributors are encouraged to contact publishers for free book review copies. 

 

5. Commentaries

Opinion pieces or essays that provide perspective on issues relevant to the journal. With a maximum of 2,000 words, these contributions offer critical insights and reflections on contemporary debates about development in Latin America and the Caribbean, aiming to enrich the discourse with diverse viewpoints and foster intellectual engagement.

 

Format Free Submission

 

Alternautas will allow authors to submit manuscripts formatted in any style, so long as there is consistent formatting throughout and the submission includes everything necessary for review. Once accepted for publication, authors should reformat their manuscripts in conformity with the Alternautas journal style as outlined below.  

 

Author’s checklist

 

Before submitting please make sure that your article complies with the following requirements:



 

This is an original article and has not been submitted elsewhere. Alternautas may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
 

This article has been anonymized for the review process
 

The research leading to this article was acquired following the ethical guidelines of your research institutions or country
 

The author(s) have have all necessary permissions to use third-party content, such as tables, figures, or images.



Submission Guidelines

 

In order to avoid unnecessary delays in our response to your submission, please check if your intended contribution meets the following general criteria before submitting:

  • Contributions should be sent via our online OJS Portal: https://journals.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/alternautas/index
  • Articles should be between 7,000 and 10,000 words in total (including footnores, tables, figures and bibliography)
  • Footnotes should be used sparsely, and all key points of the discussion should be presented in the main text.
  • The text language should be English,  but articles may also be submitted in Spanish or Portuguese for peer review; if accepted for publication, the responsibility for translating articles rests with the author.
  • Articles should be submitted in one of the following formats: .doc, .docx, .odt  or .rtf.
  • We will do our best to review all our contributions and aim to send responses shortly after receiving them. Our aim is to make a first decision in less than 10 days (sent to review or desk rejected) and a final decision in less than 3 months. 
  • Authors are welcome to suggest reviewers for their submission in the Cover Letter. Suggested reviewers should not have either read the paper before, or substantively commented on its contents, prior to submission. Potential peer-reviewers with close connections to the author - e.g. PhD supervisors, current or former partners, people working in the same university Department – should also be avoided. 
  • All our content is published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License. This means, inter alia, that submissions to this site may be freely republished by others with due attribution, as long as it is not used for commercial use and is licensed in similar terms. More details are available here. There are no fees for authors or readers. Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions.
  • Author archiving policy: Authors may share and post on any website, including an institutional or subject repository, the Final Published PDF, the accepted version or the submitted version once the paper is accepted for publication. Reuse is restricted under the terms of the Creative Commons license attached to the article. Authors should include the DOI or URL to redirect readers to the original article published in Alternautas.

 

Documents to be submitted

 

Separate documents to be completed and uploaded with the manuscript at submission: (1) cover letter; (2) title page, including acknowledgments and explanation of any conflicts of interest; (3) main text file (manuscript without author identifiers) including an unstructured abstract, keywords, body of the text, references, figure legends; (4) figures; (5) tables.

 

Cover Letter
  • The cover letter should include essential information, including who the corresponding author will be and a statement signed by the corresponding author that written permission has been obtained from all persons named in the Acknowledgments and patient consent forms have been collected, if needed.

Title Page

These elements are in the following sequence and are typed double-spaced.


  • Running head of no more than 40 character spaces.
  • Title.
  • Author(s) full name(s) written as Last Name, First Name and highest academic degree(s).
  • The name(s) of the institution(s), section(s), division(s), and department(s) where the study was performed and the institutional affiliation(s) of the author(s) at the time of the study. An asterisk after an author’s name and a footnote may indicate a change in affiliation.
  • Acknowledgment of financial support, including grant numbers.
  • Explanation of any conflicts of interest.
  • Name, address, business telephone number, and e-mail address of corresponding author and the author from whom reprints can be obtained.
  • Email and ORCID for each author

Manuscript Body
  • Alternautas uses a double-blind peer-review process.  The blinded submission should be submitted in a word document and should begin with a title followed by the abstract and then the text and references.
  • Please refer to the “how to format the manuscript guidelines” for  further help.

References
  • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness and all listed references should have been cited in the text.
  • Please refer to the reference guidelines for further help.

Figures and Tables
  • The journal accepts images which play a key role in illustrating or developing a point within the argument. Authors should not include images for the sake of adding colour or interest to a submission. 



How to Format your Manuscript

 

Font

Times New Roman in Size 12 with double-line spacing

Margins

Margins should be 2.5cm (1 inch)

Title

Use bold for your manuscript title, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns

Abstract

Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words. We encourage authors to provide abstracts in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The word limit applies to the language in which the manuscript is written.

Keywords

Please submit five or six keywords to help readers discover your article. Two-word terms, e.g. ‘social movements’, count as a single word. 

Abbreviations

All abbreviations must be defined on first mention in the body of the manuscript.  The abbreviations SD (standard deviation) and SE (standard error) require no definition in Archives.

Headings

Please follow this guide to show the level of the section headings in your article:

  1. First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  2. Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  3. Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  4. Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph. The text follows immediately after a full stop (full point) or other punctuation mark.
  5. Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph. The text follows immediately after a full stop (full point) or other punctuation mark.

Tables, Figures, and Images
  • Each is numbered with an Arabic numeral and cited in numeric sequence in the text.
  • Each table is provided in a separate document, headed by a title, and numbered in Arabic numerals.
  • Each figure is provided in a separate document
  • Figures should be submitted in PDF, JPG, EPS, or TIFF format.

Authors should clearly indicate where each table, figure, or image should appear. For example ‘Table one here’. 

All tables, figures, and images should be included in a separate document.

Spelling Style

The journal has no fixed preference for spelling style, e.g. English versus USA, however spelling should be consistent throughout the manuscript. 

 

Reference Guidelines

 

Bibliography 

All submissions must include a reference list. A reference list is a complete list of all the sources used when creating a piece of work. This list includes information about the sources like the author, date of publication, title of the source and more. The reference list for your submission must:

  • Be on a separate sheet at the end of the document
  • Be organised alphabetically by author, unless there is no author then it is ordered by the source title, excluding articles such as a, an or the
  • If there are multiple works by the same author these are ordered by date, if the works are in the same year they are ordered alphabetically by the title and are allocated a letter (a,b,c etc) after the date
  • Be double spaced: there should be a full, blank line of space between each line of text
  • Contain full references for all in-text references used
  • Not include any sources not referenced in the main body of your submission 

In-Text Citations

In-text references must be included following the use of a quote or paraphrase taken from another piece of work.

In-text references are references written within the main body of text and refer to a quote or paraphrase. They are much shorter than full references. The full reference of in-text citations appears in the reference list. In Harvard referencing, in-text citations contain the author(s)’s or editor(s)’s surname, year of publication and page number(s). Using an example author Maristella Svampa this takes the form:

Svampa (2005, p. 30) states.. Or (Svampa, 2005, p. 30)

When citing a single page, use p. When citing a range of pages, use pp.

Two or Three Authors

When citing a source with two or three authors, state all surnames:

Svampa, Auyero, and Seman (2000, p. 10) states… Or

(Svampa, Auyero, and Seman, p. 10)

Four or More Authors

In this case, the first author’s surname name should be stated followed by ‘et al’:

Svampa et al (2011, p19) states… or (Svampa et al, 2001, p19)

No Author

If possible, use the organisation responsible for the output in place of the author. If not, use the title in italics:

(A guide to citation, 2021, pp.20-24)

Multiple Works from the Same Author in the Same Year

If referencing multiple works from one author released in the same year, the works are allocated a letter (a, b, c etc) after the year. This allocation is done in the reference list so is done alphabetically according to the author's surname and source title:

(Svampa, 2019a, p. 115) or Svampa (2019b, p. 115)

Citing Multiple Works in One Parentheses

List the in-text citations in the normal way but with semicolons between different references:

(Svampa, 2011, p. 15; Temer, 2016, p200; Jaguaribe, 1989, pp. 55-91)

Citing Different Editions of the Same Work in One Parentheses

Include the author(s)’s name only once followed by all the appropriate dates separated by semicolons:

Svampa (2000; 2020) states… Or (Svampa, 2000; 2020)

Citing a Reference with No Date

In this case simply state ‘no date’ instead of the year: (Svampa, no date, p. 111)

Citing a Secondary Source

In this case, state the reference you used first followed by ‘cited in’ and the original author:

Medeiros (1991, cited in Svampa, 2011 p. 45) or (Medeiros, 1991, cited in Svampa, 2011, p.45)

How to Cite Different Source Types 

Alternautas uses Harvard style citations. In-text citations remain quite constant across source types. Unless mentioned explicitly below, you can assume that the in-text citation uses the rules stated above

How to Cite a Book

The basic format of referencing a book is:

Author surname(s), (Year Published).Title. Edition. Place of publication: publisher. 

For example:

Galeano, E., (2009) Open veins of Latin America: Five centuries of the pillage of a continent. 3rd Edition. Croydon: CPI Bookmarque.

How to Cite an Edited Book

For edited books, use the editor name instead of the author name, followed by (eds.) to distinguish them as an editor. The basic format is:

Editor surname(s), initial(s). (eds.) (Year Published). Title. Edition. Place of publication: publishers. 

For example:

Veltmeyer, H. and Bowles, P. (eds.), (2021). The essential guide to critical development studies. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.

How to Cite a Chapter in an Edited Book

To cite a chapter, you must add the chapter author and the title to the reference. The format for citation is:

Author names. (Year Published) ‘Title of Chapter’ in editor(s) surname, initial(s) (ed(s).) Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: publisher, page numbers. 

For example:

Munck, R. (2021) ‘Critical Development Theory: Results and Prospects’ in Veltmeyer, H. and Bowles, P. (eds.), The essential guide to critical development studies. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, pp. 23-30.

In-Text Citation of a Chapter in an Edited Book

Use the chapter author surname, not the editor surname. 

How to Cite an Ebook

To reference an e-book, information about its collection, location online and the date it was accessed are needed as well as author name, title and year of publishing:

Author surname(s), initial(s). (Year Published). Title. Edition. Name of E-book collection. [online]. Available at: URL or DOI. (Accessed: day month year). 

If the e-book is accessed via an e-book reader the reference format changes slightly:

Author surname(s), initial(s). (Year Published). Title. Edition. E-book format [e-book reader]. Available at URL or DOI (Accessed: day month year)

This includes information about the e-book format and reader, for instance this could be ‘Kindle e-book [e-book reader]’.

For example:

Mitchell, J.A., Thomson, M. and Coyne, R.P. (2017) A guide to citation. E-book library [online]. Available at: https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager (Accessed: 17 November 2021)

How to Cite a Journal Article

Author surname(s), initial(s), (Year Published) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, volume (issue/season), page numbers.

For example:

Mitchell, J.A. ‘How citation changed the research world’, The Mendeley, 62(9), p70-81.

Example of an online journal article: 

Mitchell, J.A. ‘How citation changed the research world’, The Mendeley, 62(9) [online]. Available at: https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager (Accessed: 15 November 2016)

How to Cite a Newspaper Article

Citing a newspaper article is similar to citing a journal article except, instead of the volume and issue number, the edition and date of publication are needed:

Author surname(s), initial(s). (Year Published) ‘Article Title’, Newspaper Title (edition where applicable), day month, page number(s).

For example: 

Torres, M.A. (2021) ‘Style guides for citation shape postcolonial history’, The Times of Abya Yala (Weekend edition), 21 September, pp.4-7.

How to Cite an Online Journal or Newspaper Article

When citing an online journal or newspaper article, the page numbers section from the print journal or newspaper reference is swapped with the URL or DOI the article can be accessed from and when it was accessed. So the reference for an online journal article is:

Author surname(s), initial(s). (Year Published) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, volume(issue/season) [online]. Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: day month year)

And the reference for an online newspaper article is:


Author surname(s), initial(s). (Year Published) ‘Article Title’, Newspaper Title (edition), day month [online]. Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: day month year)

Non-Print Material

How to Cite an Online Photograph

The basic format is as follows:

Photograph surname, initial. (Year Published) Title of photograph [online]. Available at: URL (Accessed: day month year)

For example:

Bowling, F. (1971) Dog Daze [online]. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bowling-dog-daze-l04355 (Accessed: 18 April 2020)

How to Cite a Film

Title of film (Year of distribution) Directed by director’s name [Format]. Place of distribution: Distribution Company. 

For example:

Orfeu Negro (1959) Directed by Marcel Camus. [Film]. France: Lopert Pictures. 

How to Cite a TV Programme

‘Title of episode’ (Year of transmission) Title of TV show, Series #, episode #. Name of channel or streaming service, day month of transmission. 

For example:

‘Fly’ (2010) Breaking Bad, Series 2, episode 10. AMC, 23 May 2010.

How to Cite Music 

Artist surname(s), initial(s) OR stage name (Year of Publication) Title of album. [format] Place of distribution: Distribution company. Available at: URL (Accessed: day month year) (only if the music was accessed online)

For example:

Seu Jorge (2004) Cru. (CD). France: Wrasse Records.

How to Cite a Website

The basic format is:

Author surname(s), initial(s). (Year of publishing) Title of page/site [Online[. Available at: URL (Accessed: day month year)

For example: 

Mitchell, J.A. (2017) How and when to reference [Online]. Available at: https://www.howandwhentoreference.com/  (Accessed: 27 May 2017)