Online submissions

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS Submissions

The Editorial Team will accept articles whose themes are related to scientific research and reflections in the form of essays. Articles should not be signed by more than three authors. The rest of the participants should appear in the section DECLARATION OF CONTRIBUTION OF THE AUTHORS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, which should be included between the final text and the bibliographical references.

Structure and content of an article to be submitted to PUCARA

The format of the Word template is mandatory for authors interested in submitting their manuscripts to PUCARA. The Editorial Team reminds authors that failure to comply with all the rules stipulated below may result in immediate rejection of the manuscript..

PUCARA accepts TWO types of articles: research and reflection (essay). The type of article must be indicated at the top of the Word template. Research articles must follow the MRyD structure (Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion), and must also include a title, abstract, keywords, conclusions and bibliographical references to complete the article.

To assist authors, the content of each part of the research paper is briefly described below:

TITLE: The title should be a sentence containing the essential concepts and ideas of the article. It must be meaningful and concise, with a maximum of 14 words. It should contain the key terms of the article and should not be ambiguous, literary or based on song lyrics, etc. It should not include abbreviations or symbols, except in mathematical and chemical articles where their use may be unavoidable. It is recommended to elaborate the title based on the article’s objective, to guarantee discursive coherence and alignment with the main scientific result.

ABSTRACT: It is a synthesis of the article and highly important as it appears in bibliographic databases and influences whether readers continue reading or cite the article. Its content should include a brief address the importance of the study and the research context (Why was it carried out?), the objective of the research that led to the article (What was the purpose?), the methodology used (How was the study conducted?), and the main result obtained (What was its impact?). The abstract must be written in a single paragraph, condensing the essence of the paper without including citations. The abstract should not exceed 200 words.

KEY WORDS: Key words are typically three to five words or short phrases that capture the most important issues presented in the article. To select them, consider what terms a user might enter into a search engine to find your article. These words should be chosen according to the terminology commonly used in the professional and academic field. They must be in natural and frequently used vocabulary.

INTRODUCTION: This section presents the background and the current context that defines the problematic situation. It should include brief annotations on the state of the art, where the author must indicate whether he/she adopts an existing theoretical framework (citing the author(s) who support it), or if they construct a new theoretical perspective. It should also highlight the novelty or scientific contribution of the study, the objective that led to the article, and its significance. The introduction should be concise, with a maximum extension of 10% of the total length of the article. Only strictly relevant references should be cited. This section should not include data or conclusions.

METHODOLOGY: This section answers the question: “How was the problem studied?” In the case of a research article, the author should specify the type of research that served as the basis for the article, the paradigm it follows, and the design used (always referencing the source used for classification). The author must also indicate where the research was carried out, the population and sample size, the sampling type and technique, and the instruments used for data collection, analysis, and processing.

In addition, for any type of article, the methodology section should indicate how the study was conducted, what order, logic or procedure was followed, what methodology was used, according to what theoretical framework or support, with what materials, experiences, studies and methods. This is a very important section because it allows other researchers to replicate the study in different contexts.

For research articles, the following should be stated, as appropriate: the population, type of sampling,  and sample size (including how it was calculated), and the criteria justifying the type of sampling method (even if it is a non-probabilistic sampling method, such as convenience sampling). In cases where the research procedure does not involve sampling, a clear explanation must be provided in this regard.

Moreover, given that research articles may involve working directly with people, through interviews, behavioral observation, or similar methods, it is essential to comply with the Ethics research standards. Therefore, the METHODOLOGY section should include details about the process for obtaining informed consent from the research participants. This consent should confirm their agreement and authorization for the use of the information they provide, while also respecting the principles of confidentiality and anonymity as components of research Ethics in Social Sciences.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: This section should comprise approximately 70% of the article and contains the essence of the research article, that is: the main scientific result that was expressed in the study’s objective. It answers the questions: What was found? and What do these findings mean?

This section may include data, interpretations, commentary, all of which must be clear and concise. Results can be presented using lists, tables, and figures, and all such data must be explained in the text. When the research involves comparing the author’s results with those of other researchers, the origin of the data compared must be clearly indicated. When statistical analysis is included, the results should clearly specify which variables presented a statistical difference.

In addition, the significance of the results should be discussed in the context of what is already known about the subject under investigation. The section should indicate whether the hypothesis, if one was formulated, was verified or rejected. It is also important to highlight any new and potentially significant findings that emerged from the study.

CONCLUSIONS: This section presents a synthesis of the main findings obtained through the research or study. The conclusions must be a direct consequence of the process and must be aligned with the objective state at the beginning of the article. Under no circumstances should the conclusions consist of general principles or previously established truths; they must emerge from the study itself.

DECLARATION OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Authors should declare that there is no conflict of interest (CoI), which may have influenced the results presented. To do so, they should refer to the corresponding guideline included in the Checklist for the preparation of submissions, available in the “Submit an article” section on the journal's website.

Authors must communicate in writing if there is any personal or financial relationship between them and any public or private individuals or entities that could potentially give rise to conflict of interest, and that may inappropriately influence the content of the work.

A potential conflict of interest (CoI) may arise from different types of relationships, past or present, such as: being employed by the organization referred to in the manuscript, consulting services in which the author was involved and through which the data were obtained, ownership of shares, remuneration, paid expert testimony, patent and grant applications/registrations or other types of funding. These situations may lead to unintentional bias in the author’s work.

Authors are reminded that they should make the CoI declaration at two different stages, and in two different sections of the manuscript submission process:

AUTHORS' CONTRIBUTION STATEMENT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: In the case of multiple authors, the full name of each author and his/her specific contribution to the scientific article must be stated. These contributions should be described based on the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), which recognizes the different roles involved in producing a scholarly work: from the original idea to data collection, writing, financing, analysis, and more. This taxonomy promotes transparency by clearly identifying each author’s role in the final work. The lead author is responsible for the accuracy of this information, which will be published in the final version of the article. More information can be found at http://credit.niso.org/.

STATEMENT OF ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL: In the case of research articles, in which the researcher(s) work with an institution, community, or group, and people are the subject of the research or the application of instruments, permission and approval must be obtained from the appropriate authorities and from the Ethics Committee of the institution responsible for the research. As evidence of compliance with the ethical standards in Social Science research, the following statement must be included in the manuscript:  “STATEMENT OF APPROVAL BY THE ETHICS COMMITTEE: The authors declare that the research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the institution responsible, insofar as it involved human beings”.

STATEMENT OF DATA AVAILABILITY: This journal recommends that authors deposit the data obtained from the research conducted for their article in reputable repositories, both discipline-specific and general, provided that personal and sensitive data are protected. The aim of this policy is to promote scientific development and ensure that research can be validated, replicated, and used in future studies. To achieve this, all data used should be available and free from access restrictions.

For now, regardless of the type of article, the author(s) are required to provide a Data Availability Statement, selected from the appropriate options detailed below:

  1. STATEMENT OF DATA AVAILABILITY: The author(s) declare that there is no data associated with the article.
  2. STATEMENT OF DATA AVAILABILITY: The author(s) declare that the data used in the study/research conducted are available in the content of the article.
  3. STATEMENT OF DATA AVAILABILITY: The author(s) declare that the data used in the study/research cannot be made publicly available for the following reasons: [write the reasons why the data are not public].
  4. STATEMENT OF DATA AVAILABILITY: The author(s) declare that the data used in the study/research performed are available without access restrictions for analysis by interested parties in the repository: [write the URL of the public repository].
  5. DECLARATION OF DATA AVAILABILITY: The author(s) declare that the data will be available on demand, for which the interested parties should indicate the procedure for requesting the data. The data are not public for the following reasons: [include the reasons why the data are not public].
  6. STATEMENT OF DATA AVAILABILITY: The author(s) declare that in the study/research conducted, the data were not generated by themselves, but obtained from the source: [the source must be properly cited], which can be contacted through: [indicate how to contact the owners of the information].

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES: The citations in the article must be listed in the References section at the end of the article; in other words, no work should appear in the Bibliographical References unless it has been cited in the text. The list of references must follow APA’s 7th Edition bibliographic style and standards. In-text citations should be formatted as follows (Author's last name, year, page or paragraph number). Example: (Pérez, 2023, p. 128) or (Pérez, 2023, pp.128-129) for citations spanning more than one page, or (Pérez, 2023, para. 5), for citations from web pages without numbers.

To make the work easier, you can use specific software that allows you to capture, store, sort, and export citations and bibliographies in the desired format. Among the most commonly used bibliography managers are: RefWorks, EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley. Citations are important elements that can increase the visibility of your article. If citations come from relatively important articles, those articles will appear indexed and will have “cited by” lists, which are frequently consulted. However, citing irrelevant articles can harm the author’s scientific reputation, so the articles to be consulted and cited must be chosen with great care.

It is reiterated that citations and references should preferably be taken from articles published in journals indexed in high-impact databases, such as Scopus, Web of Sciences (WoS), and ICI Journals Master List, ensuring that at least 50% are from the last five years. Regarding books, priority should be given to those considered classics in the subject area addressed.

Common rules for articles:

Manuscripts must adhere to the format of the Word template provided. Manuscripts not submitted in this template and failing to comply with all the rules described herein will be rejected by the Editorial Committee.

  • Footnotes should not be used; instead,any additional notes should be placed at the end of the article, after the BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES section.
  • Tables and figures in the manuscripts’ Word document must be simple, inserted as images in JPEG or PNG format with sufficient quality and referenced in the text close to their position. No more than 10 images (including tables and figures) will be accepted.
  • The maximum length of each manuscript should not exceed 8,000 words, and the minimum should be 4,000 words, including figures, tables, and bibliographic references. Manuscripts that do not fall within one of the three accepted formats or are less than 4,000 words will not be accepted. The Editorial Board will consider exceptional cases of manuscripts exceeding 8,000 words.
  • The maximum accepted file size for the manuscript, including all components (text and images) is 10 Mb.
  • Figures and tables must be inserted in the text at the location each author considers appropriate. It is mandatory that all tables and figures are referenced in the corresponding section of the text. In addition, authors must submit a single compressed folder containing all figures in JPG or PNG format. Each file must be easily identifiable (e.g., with the figure number in the filename) and of acceptable quality.
  • Once the article has been reviewed and approved by blind peer reviewers, it will be edited into PDF format. Before publication, each author will receive a proof in the final PDF format. The author must give their consent to the final version, and once authorized, it will be published.
  • Bibliographic citations must be included within the text in parentheses, following this format (author's last name, year, page or paragraph number). For example: (Pérez, 2023, p. 128) or (Pérez, 2023, pp.128-129), if the citation spans more than one page, or (Pérez, 2023, para. 5), if it refers to a citation on a web page without page number. The bibliography cited in the text must be listed at the end of the work, arranged alphabetically by author and chronologically (i.e., from oldest to most recent), when multiple works by the same author are cited. APA 7 standards must be followed for all bibliographic references at the end of the manuscript.
  • Bold type and underlining should not be used, either throughout the text or in bibliographic citations. Italics should be used in the following cases:
  1. For the first use of key terms or phrases, often accompanied by a definition.
  2. For titles of books, reports, web pages, and other independent works.
  3. For titles of journals and newspapers as well as their volume numbers.
  4. For letters (except Greek letters) used as statistical symbols or variables.
  5. For meanings on a scale (but not the associated number).
  6. For scientific names and words in another language, only when they do not appear in the dictionary of the language in which the article is writte Demonyms, proper names, and place names should not be italicized.
  • Initial capital letters must be used for proper names, geographical features, rivers, continents, countries, etc. The names of phases or periods, cultures, types, etc. shall also be written with an initial capital letter. Directional terms should only be capitalized when abbreviated (e.g., N, S, SE).
  • Numbers used in the text that refer to any material should be expressed in words if the number is between zero and nine. If the numbers are greater than nine, they should be written as numerals. Numbers with more than three digits should include a comma as the thousand separator (example: 3,000). Ordinal numbers are always written in words (e.g., first), except in the case of centuries, which should be written in Roman numerals (e.g., 4th century). Measurements must be expressed in Arabic numerals and in the abbreviated metric system, without a period and leaving a space between the number and the abbreviation (e.g., 20 cm).
  • Quotations of fewer than 40 words should be integrated into the paragraph and enclosed in double quotation marks (e.g., “”). Single quotation marks are only used to indicate a quotation within another quotation. At the end of the quotation, always indicate the source as follows: (author's last name, year, page or paragraph number). Example: (Pérez, 2023, p. 128) or (Pérez, 2023, pp.128-129) if the quotation spans more than one page, or (Pérez, 2023, para. 5) if it is from a web page with no page number. Square brackets should be used to indicate text added by the author within the quotation.
  • Quotations of 40 words or more must be placed in a separate paragraph, indented 1.27 cm on the left side of the paragraph, without quotation marks.
  • In-text references with more than three authors should be cited with the last name of the first author followed by et al. All sources cited in the text must be included in the list of BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES, which must follow APA 7th Edition style. In the case of figures and tables, the source must be declared only if it does not belong to the authors of the article. The BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES section must be organized alphabetically, and if multiple works by the same author are listed, they should be arranged chronologically. All visual elements, except tables, should be referred to as figures, without abbreviations (e.g., Figure 1). The caption (figure number and title) must be placed below the figure, and the source should be indicated above the figure using the label Source: (e.g., Source: Smith, 2020), only when the figure was not created by the authors of the article.
  • Checklist for preparing submissions
  • All submissions must meet the following requirements.
  • A folder containing all figures in JPG or PNG format, clearly identified by figure number in the file name (e.g., Figure 1.png), must be attached as a single compressed file. All images must be of acceptable quality.
  • The manuscript adheres to all stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, available in the About the Journal
  • There are no conflicts of interest (CoI) in the manuscript, or if there are any, they have been duly declared, following the CONCLUSIONS section.
  • The manuscript’s maximum size,including all components, does not exceed 10 Mb.
  • The manuscript is formatted in Times New Roman, size 12, single-spaced (1.0), with justified alignment throughout the document. .
  • The file format used is the Word template provided by the journal’s website. Figures/images are submitted in JPEG or PNG format.
  • The submission has not been previously published or submitted for consideration to another journal (or an explanation has been provided in the Comments to the editor).
  • The authors declare that the research that gave rise to the manuscript followed good ethical practices and that the necessary approvals from the Research Ethics Committees, where applicable, are described in the manuscript.
  • The format complies with all the standards indicated in the Word template provided.
  • The tables included must be in JPEG or PNG format with a minimum quality of 150 dpi.
  • inserted into the text where each author deems appropriate and are no more than 10 in number.
  • The manuscript is no less than 4,000 words and no more than 8,000 words (except in exceptional cases authorized by the Editorial Committee), including figures, tables, and bibliographic references (justified exceptions will be considered).
  • The DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT must be included in the manuscript.

SECTION POLICIES

PUCARA accepts original manuscripts on scientific research, reflection, essays, reviews, interviews, and literary texts (creative writing) written in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. By applying international standards for the review process of submitted articles and other documents, the journal's primary objective is to contribute to the free dissemination of knowledge worldwide, under the principles of respect, confidentiality of study participants, and transparency.