Article Submission

Submission Requirements

All submitted items must include:

Required Documentation

1. Cover letter including:

• Formal request for consideration of the article
• Statement of originality
• Confirmation of multiple authorship (when applicable)
• Declaration of non-concurrent submission

2. Manuscript in editable format that complies with:

• Format according to institutional template
• Maximum length of 8,000 words
• Structured abstract (maximum 250 words)
• Key words (3-5 terms)

3. Author data form including:

• Contact information
• Institutional affiliations
• ORCID of each author
• Specific contributions of each author

Submission Process

Authors must follow these steps:

• Registration in the OJS platform
• Online submission of the manuscript
• Upload of complementary documents
• Acceptance of publication conditions

Mandatory Statements at the End of the Manuscript

Every manuscript must close, after the text and before the reference list, with the following sections. They are published in full in the final article and are visible to readers.

1. Data Availability Statement. Mandatory in all articles, including those that generate no primary data. It must state which data support the results, where they are held and under what conditions they may be accessed; where they cannot be shared, it must explain why. Model wordings for each case are given in the Open Data Policy. A statement asserting that data are available without saying where or how will be considered incomplete and returned.

2. Author contributions. A statement drawn up using the CRediT taxonomy, assigning each signatory at least one of the fourteen roles. The roles and their definitions are set out in the Authorship and Contributions Policy.

3. Funding statement. The sources that supported the research, with project, grant or contract numbers, or an express statement that the work received no funding.

4. Conflict of interest statement. Financial, professional, personal or institutional relationships that could influence the interpretation of the results, or an express statement that no conflict exists.

5. Use of generative artificial intelligence. Only if used, under the terms of the Artificial Intelligence Use Policy. Acknowledgements are optional and, where included, belong in this same block.

Open Science Compliance Form

In addition to the manuscript, every submission must be accompanied by the Open Science Compliance Form, which brings together the declarations on preprints, data availability, CRediT contributions, peer review, funding, conflict of interest, ethical approval and use of artificial intelligence. It can be downloaded from the Forms and templates page and is uploaded to the platform as a separate file, using the "Other" component.

This form is not sent to peer reviewers, so it may contain the authors' details.

Reporting Sex and Gender

Where research involves people, animals or biological samples of human or animal origin, the manuscript must report the sex and, where relevant, the gender of the population studied, and present disaggregated results wherever the sample size allows. If the study was confined to a single sex or gender, this must be justified; if the variable was not collected, this must be declared as a limitation. The journal follows the SAGER guidelines, set out in the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy.

Tables, Figures and Other Digital Assets

Tables are inserted as editable tables, never as images, numbered consecutively, with the title above and a note below where appropriate, and cited in the text by number. Figures —charts, photographs, maps, diagrams— are supplied as separate files as well as embedded in the document, in PNG, JPG or TIFF format, at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at reproduction size, numbered and with the caption below.

Each figure must be accompanied by descriptive alternative text allowing its content to be understood by someone using a screen reader. Information may not be conveyed by colour alone, and the contrast between graphical elements must be sufficient to distinguish them in monochrome printing. Where a figure comes from another source, permission to reproduce it must be provided and the source cited.

Supplementary materials are uploaded to the platform during submission, preferably in open, non-proprietary formats —CSV rather than proprietary spreadsheets, TXT or PDF/A for documents— with a brief description of each file.

Anonymising the Manuscript

Review is double blind. The manuscript file must arrive without names, emails, ORCID, affiliation, acknowledgements or the statement on the origin of the work, and with self-citations masked as "Author (year)" in the text, in table notes and in the reference list. Clean the file properties too: in Word, File → Info → Check for Issues → Inspect Document. Your details are taken from what you register on the platform, at the "Contributors" step, and the removed sections are restored in full in the final version.

These requirements apply to manuscripts received from September 2026 onwards.