Submissions

Author Guidelines

Sections

Ciudades is composed of three different sections:

1. Monographic section: it includes articles framed in the theme of the corresponding issue, based on the call for papers prepared and coordinated for this purpose by a member of the journal's Editorial Board or Scientific Advisory Board, or by any other invited expert. The title and text of the call for papers that is open at any time can be consulted in the Call for Papers section.
2. Miscellaneous section: it includes articles that are not related to the subject of the issue, but to the major thematic areas that the journal generally addresses.
3. Final section: it includes reviews of publications and other notes on urban planning (reviews of congresses, conferences, projects, activities, etc.).

As a preamble, the journal also includes the Editorial, which is a brief presentation of the theme of the Monographic section. If appropriate, it may also include an In Memoriam section, consisting of short texts in memory of personalities linked to the journal, the editor or, in general, to urban planning, who have passed away since the publication of the previous issue.

Submission of articles

In the Monographic and Miscellaneous sections, contributions written in Spanish, English, French, Italian or Portuguese may be accepted. In the Final Section, contributions written in Spanish or in a bilingual version (in one of the languages mentioned above, and in Spanish) may be accepted.

Authors interested in publishing their contributions in Ciudades should send them before September 30th of the year before their eventual publication. All submitted works must be original, not having been sent simultaneously to other publications or having been previously published in full or in part in other media.

Contributions must be sent through the platform of Revistas UVa, which requires previous registration through this link. Once the registration is done, the submission can be done through this other link, to login and after that select “New submission”.

The submission process comprises four steps. First step (1. Start) includes the acceptance of the copyright policy and the submission requirements, as well as the selection of the submission language and the section where the paper may be published. Second step (2. Submission Upload) consists of uploading the submission files: text (DOC/DOCX format) and figures (JPG, PNG, BMP or TIFF format). Third step (3. Enter Metadata) requires providing the metadata of the submission: title, abstract and key words, as well as the data of the author o authors. Finally, in fourth step (4. Confirmation) the submission is completed.

Should you have any doubts or difficulties with the submission process, it is advisable to consult the Author Guide (Spanish) that is available on the platform of Revistas UVa, while you can also send an enquiry to the journal's Editorial Office. 

Content, structure and style of articles

Articles, which are published in the Monographic or Miscellaneous sections, will have a maximum of 40,000 characters including spaces, and including all the contents of the text file (initial page with title, abstract, etc.; footnotes; figures/tables, which will be inserted in their corresponding place; bibliography, etc.).

Reviews/notes, which are published in the Final section, should be no longer than 10,000 characters including spaces, and including all the contents of the text file, although exceptionally longer extensions may be accepted (for example, reviews of two or three publications dealing with the same topic).

Regarding layout, styles and format, articles and reviews/notes must be written in accordance with the Template for articles and the Template for reviews/notes, which can be found on the journal's website and on the platform of Revistas UVa, respecting margins, spacing, fonts and typefaces, etc.

Articles must include a title (and, if appropriate, a subtitle, differentiating both), an abstract not exceeding 100 words (indicating objectives, methods or perspectives and conclusions of the article) and up to five keywords. The title, the abstract and the keywords will be presented in Spanish and English (and additionally in the language of the article, if it is neither of these), avoiding the use of acronyms, abbreviations and symbols. If applicable, the first page will also include the corresponding acknowledgements, identifying the people or institutions that have supported the work, provided some technical assistance or economic or material support.

The body of the article should be structured into sections and, where appropriate, sub-sections, which should never immediately follow the section heading. They should be numbered consecutively in Arabic characters (1, 1.1., 2, 2.1, 2.2.). It is recommended, as far as possible, to follow the IMRAD structure (Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion), and it is essential in all cases to include a section on conclusions. The use of capital letters or the emphatic use of quotation marks, bold or underlining should be avoided as far as possible, while italics should be used only for foreign words. Clarifications should be enclosed in parentheses or long dashes and, if they are of a certain length or are collateral to the speech, in footnotes, which should be numbered consecutively with superscript Arabic characters. Acronyms and abbreviations, except those of absolutely recognized use, should be avoided if possible, specifying their meaning in any case (by means of parentheses, after their first appearance in the text).

Tables and figures (illustrations, graphs, etc.) must be inserted in their corresponding place within the text, accompanied by a caption starting with the designation 'Table' or 'Figure', as appropriate, with sequential numbering in Arabic characters. The caption must contain all information necessary to understand the table or figure and the source (or that of the data used to compose it). Tables shall be drawn up in the same fonts and style as the text, adjusting the font size to ensure correct reading. Figures must be of enough quality, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. References to tables and figures within the text should be enclosed in parentheses.

Reviews/notes will first include the full details of the publication, event or project that is reviewed. They will be composed preferably in the form of a plain text (without sections), avoiding as far as possible the use of footnotes, citations and bibliography. 

Citations and bibliography

Ciudades will ensure the correct use of the citation systems and will not allow the attribution of conclusions or arguments drawn from other people's works without the corresponding mention of authorship. Therefore, any data or ideas taken from the works of other authors must be conveniently cited. Citations will be transcribed in the text of the article itself, in quotes and without italics. If the texts that are quoted are long (more than 35 words), they should be transcribed in a separate paragraph, with indentation and in a smaller font size, as shown in the template.

Authors must scrupulously respect the texts of other authors, even if they contain errors or misprints. Brackets may be used to interpolate comments, to highlight words or expressions considered irregular (using the word sic) or to indicate the omission of a part of the text (using suspension points, dispensing with the brackets if they are at the beginning or end of the quotation). When texts are quoted in a language other than that of the article being cited, the text must be transcribed in its original language. If deemed necessary, the translation can be added in a footnote. 

The method of citation will be the so-called "author-year system" or "Harvard style". The first surname of the author or authors of the work cited shall be indicated in parentheses, followed by the year of publication and, where appropriate, the page or pages cited. If applicable, a letter (a, b, c...) should be added after the year, to distinguish two documents by the same author and year. If the work cited corresponds to two authors, their surnames will be separated by &; if there are three authors, the first and second will be separated by a comma and the second and third by &, and if there are four or more authors, only the surname of the first will be indicated, followed by the expression et al. The author and the year will be separated by a comma, and the year and the page or pages cited (separated by a short dash), by a colon.

All references cited must be included in a final bibliography, separated from each other by a blank line and arranged in alphabetical order of surnames, in accordance with the following format:

• Books and Monographs: Last name, First name (Year), Title, Place of publication, Publisher.
• Multiple authors or chapters: Last name, First name (Year), “Chapter title”, in Last name, First name –ed.(s.), coord.(s.), dir.(s.)– Title, Place of publication, Publisher, pp. first-last.
• Journal articles: Last name, First name (Year), “Paper title”, Journal Title, vol., nº, pp. first-last.
• Conference proceedings: Last name, First name (Year), “Title of the contribution”, in Conference Title, Place, date, pp. first-last.
• Doctoral thesis: Last name, First name (Year of dissertation), Thesis Title. Doctoral Thesis, University where the dissertation took place.
• Citations from the Internet: Last name, First name (Year), “Title of the document”. Retrieved from: http://… (date of reference: dd-mm-yyyy).

It is necessary to indicate the DOI in all the works cited that have it. To check which of the works cited in the final bibliography have a DOI, the Simple Text Query tool can be used. If no DOI is available, any other identifier, such as Handle, should be included. If the cited work has no identifier, but it is available on a webpage, the URL will be included at the end of the reference, indicating the date of consultation in parentheses.

Examples of all types of references mentioned can be found in the Template for articles.