Editorial guidelines

Desde el Sur rules for article authors

Desde el Sur, a journal of the Innovation, Research and Development Directorate of the Scientific University of the South, is a peer-reviewed publication that appears three times per year. It features unpublished articles, preferably focused on Latin America, by social science researchers from around the world. The electronic and print versions of Desde el Sur are free of charge.

When submitting articles to the journal’s editorial staff, authors must consider the following formal criteria:

  1. The article must be written in Spanish, English, or Portuguese. Its research must be in human sciences and social sciences.
  2. The work must be completely original and unpublished. Even if it is written in another language, the author must not to submit the article simultaneously to another scientific journal. The journal does, however, accept articles previously shared on preprints platforms, such as Scielo preprints, org or SocArxviv. It also accepts texts derived from undergraduate or graduate theses provided the author guarantees originality.
  3. The article must be submitted through the Open Journal System (https://revistas.cientifica.edu.pe/index.php/desdeelsur/about/submissions).
  4. The text must be written in Microsoft Word for Windows 97/2000, XP, 7, 8 or 10. The font specification is Arial 12, and the spacing is single.
  5. Any graphics or figures must be in TIFF format at a resolution greater than 500 DPI. Figures are defined as drawings, maps, photographs or graphs, ordered with Arabic numerals. For conventional photographs or drawings, the number of each figure should be noted on the back of each, located above and to the right, together with the author’s name and the article title.
  6. Desde el Sur publishes the following:
    1. Research studies/articles.
    2. Essays
    3. Book reviews
    4. Letters to the editor

The submission must include (i) a sworn statement that the authors are each in agreement that the article be subject to the journal’s editorial process, (ii) the completed list of authors, and (iii) the article itself, drafted in accordance with these guidelines.

Article Processing Charge (APC)

Desde el Sur publishes all its articles free of charge and without APC.

Article structure

General standards

1. Regardless of which journal section the article belongs to, its first page must contain:

    1. The article title in Spanish and English. The title must be short, clear, and contain the main idea of the research.
    2. Author identification:
      1. The first and surnames of the author(s). For proper citation purposes, each author may also indicate the exact format they prefer for their name to appear in the publication. Otherwise, the presentation will default to first and surname.
      2. Affiliation: The author(s) will state the institution they belong to and its city and country.
      3. Profession and academic qualifications: The author(s) will state their profession and highest academic qualification.
      4. ORCID identification.
      5. Authorship contribution: Where there are multiple authors, the article must include information about the contribution of each.
      6. Funding sources: The author(s) must state whether the research was self-funded or funded by another party; in the latter case, it must name that party.
      7. Potential conflicts of interest: The author(s) must provide information about any relationship or circumstance, whether institutional or financial, that might affect the article’s objectiveness.
      8. The contact author must provide their email address and telephone number.

The author must indicate if the article has previously been presented at a scientific event or forms part of a thesis and, if so, provide relevant details.

1. The body of the article must include the following elements:

    1. Abstract and keywords in Spanish and English (see http://vocabularies.unesco.org/browser/thesaurus/es/). If the article is written in Portuguese, the abstract in that language must also be written in Spanish and English. An abstract is necessary for research studies and essays. The abstract has a limit of 150 words. It describes, in order, the introduction, the objective(s), the methodology, the results, and the conclusions.
    2. Main body. The length varies by section. See below.
    3. The bibliography (corresponding to direct citations) for essays, research studies, and literature reviews must be ordered alphabetically and come after the main body of the text. It must only include works cited in the text. The format must be that of the most recent edition of the American Psychological Association (APA, see: http://www.apastyle.org). The author(s) must ensure that each in-text citation text has its corresponding full reference in the bibliography.

Specific standards by article type.

  1. Articles. An article presents a solid logic arising from a systematic analysis of texts and fieldwork. It may consist of arguments with varying categories of interpretation. The maximum length is 8000 words (exclusive of the bibliography) spread over the following structure:
    1. An abstract in Spanish and English: If the article is written in Portuguese, the abstract in that language must also be written in Spanish and English and contain no more than 150 words, with between three and five keywords in each language. It must clearly state the objective of the research, the methodology, the results, and the main conclusions.
    2. An Introduction: The Introduction summarizes the current situation, the objective of the work, its theoretical basis (where applicable), and the general hypothesis (where applicable).
    3. Materials and methods: This section describes the characteristics of the problem under analysis and the study’s methodology. It includes a paragraph that explicitly states the ethical guidelines followed pursuant to the Declaration of  Helsinki standards and the Code of Conduct for Journal Editors (COPE).
    4. Results: This section clearly presents the findings.
    5. Discussion/Conclusions: This section interprets the results and outlines the author’s propositions or conclusions, comparing and contrasting them with the earlier findings of other authors.
    6. Bibliography: The bibliography must only contain those works cited in the text.
  1. Essays. An essay presents a reasoned preliminary approach to explain a text or cultural process. The maximum length is 6000 words (exclusive of the bibliography), with the following structure:
    1. Introduction
    2. Main text
    3. Conclusions
    4. Bibliography. The bibliography must only contain those works cited in the text.
  1. Book reviews: A book review provides reflective and dialogic comments as part of a solid academic critique of the text under review. The maximum length is 3000 words (including the bibliography).
  2. Letters to the editor: A letter to the editor is to the point and deals with a specific aspect of a topic, event, text, or academic congress. It can question articles and essays published in Desde el Sur or another publication. The journal prefers letters about current issues. The maximum length is 3000 words.

Table 1. Word count and other characteristics by article type

 

Abstract

Contents (words)

Peer review

(number)

 

 

Article

150

8000

Yes (2)

 

 

Essay

150

6000

Yes (2)

 

 

Book review

No

3000

No

 

 

Letter to the editor

No

3000

No

 

 

 Open access policies

The journal provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that giving the public free access to research aids greater global knowledge exchange.

Desde el Sur adheres to the Creative Commons license attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). The journal’s content may be copied and redistributed in any medium or format. Adaptations (transformation, building upon) are permissible provided the following conditions are met: (i) the appropriate credit is given (if possible, including the link to our journal), and (ii) any changes are indicated.