Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission must be an original manuscript.
  • Manuscript must be submitted in a document file format compatible with Microsoft Word.
  • The submitted manuscript must be fully anonymised: all identifying information (authors’ names, emails, affiliations) must be removed from both the text and the file properties.
  • Submitted articles should be between 6000 and 9000 words (all-inclusive) and conform to the journal’s structure and formatting.
  • References must follow APA citation style, both in the text and in the reference list at the end of the manuscript.
  • A Cover Letter addressed to the Editors must be uploaded as a separate Word document at the submission stage. It must include i) the article’s relevance and originality, ii) a declaration of AI usage.
  • Supplementary material (e.g., survey or interview questions, datasets, codebooks, images, or other research instruments) must be submitted for empirical articles.
  • Authors must comply with the journal’s requirements regarding ethical standards, and need to have read and agreed to the journal’s Publication Ethics.
  • Authors must have read and agreed to the journal's Review Process.

Author Guidelines

  1. STANDARDS FOR ARTICLES

We recommend using the structure ILMRDC for research articles (Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions). Particular attention should be given to the Methods section, which must be fully transparent, rigorously justified, and described in sufficient detail. For theoretical contributions based on literature review, as well as in other justified cases, alternative article structures may be adopted.

Before submitting an article, each Author should make sure that the text adheres to the following format standards for publication:

Language – The journal accepts manuscripts in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French. 

Size – Articles should be between 6000 and 9000 words (including abstract, tables/figures with captions, footnotes, references). 

Font – 1.5 line spacing; 9-point Tahoma font; bold and italics rather than underlining (except in URLs).

Title – 11-point tahoma font, bold, concise and informative. 

Abstract – Single-space 8-point tahoma; no more than 250 words. If your text is written in a language other than English, please submit both an original and an english version of your abstract, title, and keywords. 

Keywords – 3 to 6 keywords.

Tables/Figures – Insert them directly within the text at the appropriate locations, rather than at the end of the document. Number all tables and figures consecutively (e.g., Table 1, Figure 1) and provide descriptive captions. Ensure that all tables, figures, and images are of high quality, clear, and legible.

References – Follow the APA styleguide. 

URL – All URLs for online references must be provided and should be clickable, e.g.: http://pkp.sfu.ca.

Supplementary material – For empirical articles, survey or interview questions, datasets, codebooks, images, or other relevant research instruments must be submitted as supplementary material for review purposes. Authors are also encouraged to make their study data publicly available in a trusted repository to promote transparency, reproducibility, and future research.

Permissions – Authors are required to obtain permissions to reproduce previously copyrighted materials from other sources in both print and electronic form. 

Please note that the manuscript MUST BE ANONYMOUS. This journal uses double-blind review process, in which both author and reviewer identities are concealed. Authors must ensure that their manuscripts are fully anonymised before submission (no authors’ names, no emails, no affiliations, etc.).

Important: is the author’s responsibility to guarantee that the manuscript is linguistically sound. This means that all authors must have their article proofread by a proficient/native speaker.

 

  1. COVER LETTER

A Cover Letter addressed to the Editors must be uploaded as a separate Word document at the submission stage.

The Cover Letter must include: 

  1. i) a brief explanation of the relevance and originality of the article, clearly distinguishing it from any related previously published work by the same authors (e.g., doctoral dissertation); 
  2. ii) a declaration of AI usage according to our AI Usage Policy available here.

 

  1. START YOUR ONLINE SUBMISSION

You will need to be registered as an Author on the Observatorio (OBS*) website before you can start an online submission.

  • If you are NOT yet registered, please go to REGISTER. 
  • If you are already registered, please LOGIN using your username and password. 

Once logged in, START AN ONLINE SUBMISSION, and follow the submission process below, entering all required details to complete your submission.

Step 1: Start 

  • Tick the submission checklist.
  • Select the appropriate journal section: Article or Special Issue (if available).
  • Enter any comments for the Editors (optional).
  • At the bottom, click the “Save and continue” button.

Step 2: Upload Submission

  • Upload your manuscript file 
  • Upload a Cover Letter addressed to the Editors.
  • Upload supplementary files if applicable.
  • Click “Save and Continue”.

Step 3: Enter Metadata

  • Enter your manuscript’s title, abstract, and keywords in English.
  • Complete your personal information (edit contributor);
  • Add all co-authors manually to the List of Contributors;
  • Complete your co-authors personal information (name, contact, country, Orcid, affiliation, reviewing interests, and biography).
  • Click “Save and Continue”.

Step 4: Confirmation 

  • Review the submission summary;
  • Click “Finish Submission” to notify the journal of your submission.

 

  1. UPDATING YOUR AUTHOR PROFILE

Each Author is responsible for ensuring that their profile is complete and up to date. 

In a co-authored article, the author responsible for the submission must ensure that the profiles of all co-authors are complete and up to date in the List of Contributors.

Each author profile must contain information in all available fields:

  • Full name;
  • Contact (email);
  • Country;
  • Institutional affiliation;
  • ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX);
  • Reviewing interests (research areas);
  • Short biography (around 100 words).

This author information is compulsory and will be publicly available on the OBS* webpage hosting the article, making it accessible to readers.

 

  1. CITATION GUIDE

The manuscript must adhere to the APA style and provide the DOI or URL whenever available.

In-text citations examples:

  • For direct quotation povide the author’s last name, year of publication, and page number(s) in parentheses, separated by commas, e.g.: (Dahlberg, 2007, p.48). 
  • For paraphrased content or references to ideas rather than exact wording, include only the author’s last name(s) and year of publication, e.g.: (Dahlberg, 2007).
  • For other in-text citations follow these guidelines.

References examples:

At the end of the manuscript, include a complete list of all cited sources under the heading “References”

Copyright Notice

Authors retain copyright of their work. By submitting to this journal, authors grant the journal the right of first publication. The published version of the article will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License, which permits others to use, share and adapt the work, provided appropriate credit is given to the original authors and the journal. 

After the article has been published in this journal, authors are encouraged to share the published version (e.g., in institutional repositories, on social media or on personal websites) to maximize visibility and impact, provided that the original publication in this journal is acknowledged.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.