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Guidelines for Authors

Each essay submitted to Editorial Mar Caribe (EMC) must be written in Spanish, English, French, or Portuguese, cover important topics in all areas of knowledge, and must be original and unpublished. The required level of study for applicants for publication is the undergraduate major currently being completed. Authors must provide corresponding author information and specify the roles and functions they played in compiling the work they are applying for. EMC has the following publication categories, reviewed by external double-blind peers:

  • Literature books
  • Reference books
  • Artistic books
  • Popular books
  • Textbooks
  • Research books

The Declaration of Authorship for the publication of essays is delivered to the corresponding author for completion and must be signed by all co-authors and sent along with the essay within a period of no more than five (05) business days. With this statement, the author and his/her co-authors agree not to submit the draft subject to submission to another editor or any media outlet until its publication in the web repository.

On the first page you should write the following:

  • TITLE:  In the original language of the essay (Spanish), a short title of up to 18 words, normally spaced, size 16 font. Translate the titles into English and Portuguese using size 14 font.
  • IDENTIFICATION DATA  (author and co-authors): The full names, institutional affiliation, city, capital and country, profession and academic degree, as well as the email address of each author with their respective ORCID code must be included below the title in italics, size 11.  Restriction:  A maximum of seven (07) authors are accepted per essay to be reviewed.
  • PROLOGUE:  a short text in the essay’s original language, English, French and/or Portuguese, in 12-point font, containing the most important ideas of the research, containing a minimum of about a thousand words.
  • KEYWORDS (OPTIONAL):  in the original language of the essay, English and Portuguese; minimum three (03), maximum six (06), based on the  UNESCO Thesaurus .

Pay attention to the following stylistic criteria:

  • The text must be at least 70 pages long (approximately 24,000 words), not including the introduction, conclusion, and bibliography; spaced 1.15 inches, Times New Roman or Palatino Linotype font, size 12, A4 paper layout, and 2.54 cm margins on each side. The editorial committee may consider exceptions to this rule if and only if they are previously approved and justified by the Editor-in-Chief.
  • In the body of the text, the subheadings of each section, with their appropriate numbering, should be double-spaced, in 14-point font.
  • Documents must be written in editable Word format.
  • Figures that can be used include editable charts and tables.
  • Bibliographic references will include only those documents cited in the text and will be listed in alphabetical order. This section requires a font size 11, with 1.0 (single) line spacing.

From the quotes and references:

  • The essay’s references must be up-to-date, appropriate, provide necessary information, not omit references important to the research, and strictly comply with ethical and academic standards.
  • Citations and references should be prepared according to the APA (American Psychological Association) style standards, in the seventh edition (7th Ed .) of the APA Style Manual.
  • References should be included within the text, in parentheses, with the name of the author or institution, year of publication, and relevant page(s); for example: (Lugo, 2020: pp. 89). References in parentheses in the text should refer to the bibliography at the end of the document. This list should contain complete information about each source cited in the text.
  • Textual quotations must be included in the text as long as they do not exceed 250 characters with spaces and must be enclosed in Spanish quotation marks. If a text quotation exceeds 250 characters, it must be placed in a new paragraph, without quotation marks or indentation. If there is more than one paragraph in a quotation, each new paragraph, beginning with the second paragraph, must begin with an additional indentation on the first line. Textual quotations must be no more than 10% of the total written text.
  • In the case of non-textual quotations, these will be done just like textual quotations, indicating the pages the author is summarizing in his or her own words, except that quotation marks will not be used. It should be noted that paraphrases that make minor variations in relation to the quoted text will not be accepted, solely for the purpose of avoiding quotation marks. This is considered a form of plagiarism.
  • Non-textual citations have the same format as in-text citations, revealing the pages summarized by the author in his or her own words, except that quotation marks are not used. Excessive paraphrasing or paraphrasing using artificial intelligence software should be avoided.
  • In general, the format of references and citations are governed by the APA standards, seventh edition.

At the end of the essay, the sources cited in the text must be indicated: books, book chapters, articles, legal documents, press releases, case law, or regulations (sources from blogs, encyclopedias, or theses of any level are not accepted). The bibliography should only include sources cited in the text.

Below we describe the correct way to reference, depending on the type of source:

  • Book with publisher:  Last name, NM (Ed.). (year). Title. Publisher.
  • Book, electronic version:  Last name, ST (year). Title. http://www.libro.com
  • Book with DOI:  Last name, OP (year) Title.  https://doi.org/10.XXXXX/1111
  • Book chapter:  Last name, QR (year). Chapter title. In ER Last name. (Ed.), Book title (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.
  • Journal article:  Last name, AB (year). Article title. Journal name, vol (issue), pp-pp.
  • Digital journal article:  Last name, JK (year). Article title. Journal name, vol. (issue), pp.-pp.  https://editorialmarcaribe.es
  • Journal articles with DOI:  Last name, ER (year). Article title. Journal name, vol. (issue), pp-pp.  https://doi.org/10.XXXXX/YYYY

From the essay format:

In general, it is suggested to follow the IMRYD model, which corresponds to the acronyms formed by the terms: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (in the case of a book chapter or research book). This is the suggested structure and the standard requested by Editorial Mar Caribe for accepting drafts reporting research results. The essay to be submitted is governed by APA standards, however; for qualitative methods and research in the humanities, philosophy, and social sciences, it can be written according to the researcher’s experience and the approval of the editorial committee. Authors are recommended to review the books published in the repositories; for more information, follow the Research Book Template posted online. For the rest of the book categories, the presentation format of the work is freely available. Editorial Mar Caribe requests that authors faithfully comply with the editorial policies when submitting their written text. Authors must disclose any grants received during the execution of the research, directly or indirectly, by completing and submitting, along with the essay, the  Declaration of Conflict of Interest and the Unpublished Essay Guarantee .

From submitting essays to the publisher:

Submissions must be original, that is, the written text, data, equations, tables, and graphs presented therein; and they must not have been published in any other medium for the dissemination of knowledge, physical or electronic, such that the essay’s similarity index must be less than or equal to 7% on average, excluding bibliographic references. All authors are guarantors of their contribution and responsible for the submission of the works; the corresponding author and their co-authors must sign the Unpublished Essay Guarantee. The submission will not be under simultaneous consideration by another publisher. EMC accepts essay submissions through the Submission Formor the platformOpen Monograph Press (OMP-PKP). Essays may not be submitted by any means other than those specified in the guidelines for authors. Authors are solely responsible for the references used and for any ethical aspects related to the research topic. We recommend using resources such as  BibTeX,  EndNote , and  Mendeley. Authors must be familiar with the  Proposal Evaluation Form, used by the Scientific Committee during the preliminary round of evaluation, and must comply with the guidelines of the Scientific Evaluation Rubric, used by the external peer review committee.

The authors’ proposals must meet the following criteria:

i) Be unpublished: they may not be simultaneously under review and/or arbitration by another publisher;

ii) The thematic content must be related to the authors’ professional areas;

iii) Present original, methodological and bibliographical results or support derived from research validated by research bodies of public or private universities, completed or in a significant state of progress;

iv) Contain a clear methodological development, consistent analysis of data and/or academic foundation;

v) Include a conceptual discussion and a relevant and updated bibliography on the subject.

Peer review process

During the evaluation of the essays received by Editorial Mar Caribe (EMC), the scientific assessment is carried out in (03) three stages:  (1. Preliminary round by the publisher’s scientific committee, 2. Double-blind external peer review by public universities, 3. Final opinion by the publisher’s ethics committee) . The participation of the ethics committee is crucial in case of discrepancies between experts on the assessment of the research content, maintaining complete anonymity during the exploration process of these, making the final decision based on linguistic quality, updated references, ease of following the logic of the written text and compliance with publication ethics. External peer reviewers are requested by the editorial committee of Editorial Mar Caribe, to the academic, research and/or publishing funds vice-rectorates of public universities in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela; based on inter-institutional cooperation agreements.

Stage 1:  The deadline for reading and notifying the author and co-authors of the acceptance or rejection of the essay in the preliminary round by the scientific committee is (10) ten business days from the date of receipt. In case of rejection, it is returned to the authors for adaptation according to the recommendations for improvement; and they are invited to resubmit the proposal for re-evaluation by the publisher. If the written text is accepted, it moves to the second stage (external refereeing committee). The authors must be aware of the  Proposal Evaluation Form , executed by the scientific committee during the process.

Stage 2:  The editorial committee will assign the essay to (02) two public universities (external refereeing committee), in charge of Academic Vice-Rectorates, Deans of Research and Postgraduate Studies, for review and suggestions for improvement, and to decide whether to accept or reject the essay. A positive review from both parties will be required for acceptance; the deadline for issuing a final decision on the revised text is (30) thirty calendar days. If the decision is not unanimous, a third review will be made. The final result will be the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. Authors are recommended to review the  Scientific Assessment Rubric  used at this stage.

Step 3 :  The publisher’s ethics committee ensures compliance with ethical standards to guarantee high-quality scientific publications, confidence in scientific findings, and that individuals receive credit for their ideas. The ethics committee demands high-quality scientific work that is of interest to the scientific community in Latin America and the Caribbean. Your book proposal is likely to be accepted if:

  • The content of the proposal is within the scope of the publisher;
  • The research topic is novel and describes an investigation that advances the scientific field;
  • Proposes a contribution to an active field of research;
  • The authors use clear and concise language when expressing research results; and
  • The authors are not subject to administrative penalties for unethical conduct in research.

The ethics committee’s deadline for issuing a final decision on the revised text is (10) calendar days; if the proposal is accepted, the authors are notified, as is the case if it is rejected. However, at this stage, a re-evaluation of the book’s content is not acceptable; the rejection communicated is final.

Evaluation criteria and quality control.

i. During the evaluation process, Editorial Mar Caribe relies on the professional capacity and potential of the reviewers, guaranteeing rigor, confidentiality, fairness, and honesty in the development of this management activity. EMC includes tools to detect plagiarism in text and various documents, using detection software: SmallSEOTools and DupliChecker.

ii. Regardless of the reviewers’ grades for the essay, they must be fully supported. The information provided by the reviewers will help the editorial board make the final decision to publish the book. However, a manuscript is still considered  «accepted»  if it has passed peer review and the author has made all suggested edits and changes. The accepted work is then sent for layout and typesetting. A draft version will be sent to the author for review and returned with a letter of acceptance and permission to publish. A work is considered  «in progress»  if the editor-in-chief has the minimum necessary requirements to publish the book.

iii. All essays, research products published by Editorial Mar Caribe, will be subject to rigorous peer review and a double-blind system based on the initial selection by the scientific committee in the preliminary round, the anonymity of the peer reviewers, and subsequent review by the authors of the essays, when appropriate.

All peer reviewers must comply with the following ethical principles:

  • They will only agree to review essays in which they have sufficient experience, and they agree to carry out the process within the established timeframes.
  • Reviews should be objective and constructive, without defamatory or degrading comments.
  • They will have to declare their potential conflicts of interest.
  • Evaluate each essay based on its rigor, focus, significance, bibliographic support, discursive topic, and coherence in the written text.
  • Maintain the confidentiality of the peer review process.
  • Provide appraisal reports that are constructive, comprehensive, well-founded, and contain substantial content.
  • Inform Editorial Mar Caribe of any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any published essay of which you are aware.

Of general interest:

i. Editorial Mar Caribe reserves the right to accept or reject proposals received and to request from the authors any modifications it deems necessary to comply with the requirements for publication of the written text and to standardize the book’s outline according to the publisher’s style.

ii. The review process will be blind, so the referees will not know who the author(s) of the essay are, nor will the authors know which expert was assigned to evaluate their essay.

iii. The evaluation is confidential, and the identity of the peer reviewers should not be disclosed. However, if the governing bodies of the science and technology system in the country of origin of the research request detailed information from those responsible for peer review, the publisher will be responsible for providing information on the peers who collaborated during the process.

iv. Editorial Mar Caribe ensures that the selection of reviewers participating in the scientific evaluation stages of the proposals will be defined according to the specialty or degree of the peer reviewer and  THEMA classifiers  of the written text .

v. The peer review process for proposals received by the publisher takes an average of 45 to 60 calendar days, the time required to ensure the quality of the written text before publication.

Peer review process flowchart:

Step 3 of the process occurs «if and only if» the authors’ proposal is approved in the preliminary round. Authors must attach supporting documents when submitting the essay to Editorial Mar Caribe (Step 1) .

Copyright Notice

Books published in EMC repositories are subject to the following guidelines:

  • Authors may authorize the general public to reuse their works for non-profit purposes only, readers may use a work to generate another work, as long as credit is given for the research, and they grant Editorial Mar Caribe the right to first publish their book under the terms of the  CC BY-NC 4.0-Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license .
  • Editorial Mar Caribe receives funding from associations, foundations, and non-governmental institutions. Therefore, authors are only allowed a voluntary donation to cover publication fees for the ISBN catalog and hosting of books in online repositories. There are no fees for publication, methodological advice, or content development; that is, authors benefit from the open access publishing system.
  • The CC BY-NC 4.0-Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license   may not grant you all the permissions you need for your intended use, provided the terms of the license are followed, provided that: the authorship and the original source of your publication (publisher, DOI, ARK, and/or book URL) are cited; the work is not used for commercial purposes; and the existence and specifications of this license are acknowledged.
  • Authors retain copyright and grant the publisher the right of first publication of the authorized work.
  • Authors are encouraged to electronically distribute post-publication versions (evaluated and accepted versions for publication) of their books, as this promotes the book’s dissemination and increases the authors’ H-index, in synergy with the publisher’s metrics regarding web traffic and citations.

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