Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit their work to our journal. All submissions will be reviewed by an editor to assess whether they align with the journal's objectives and scope. Those that are deemed suitable will undergo peer review to decide if they will be accepted or rejected.

Before submitting an article, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any materials included in their submission, such as photos, documents, and data sets. All authors listed in the submission must provide their consent to be identified as authors. Additionally, when applicable, the research must be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the country where the study was conducted.

Editors may reject a submission if it does not meet the minimum quality standards. Before submitting, make sure that the layout and argument of your paper are structured and articulated correctly. The title should be concise, and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This should improve the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to assess your article. After confirming your submission adheres to these standards, please proceed to the checklist below for final preparation.

Downloadable Documents:

• Author Guidelines
• Declaration of Originality and Transfer of Rights
• Template for Article Submission

I. TEXT TYPOLOGY

The journal Innovación Universitaria (RIU) accepts a variety of texts, such as original research (both research papers and review articles), scientific essays, literature reviews, clinical case reports, reports on systematized experiences, and opinion pieces. To be considered, all texts should follow the IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methodology, Results, and Discussion). Innovación Universitaria has three sections: (1) Editorial, (2) Artículos, and (3) Intercambio, and each section focuses on publishing specific kinds of manuscripts.

All manuscripts will undergo a blind peer-review process, apart from opinion articles published in the 'Editorial' section, which are exempt from this evaluation system. The textual typologies considered for Innovación Universitaria are further detailed below.

II. GUIDELINES FOR ARTICLE SUBMISSION

**Minimum requirements for ALL manuscripts **

All submissions, regardless of their textual type, must be original and unpublished. They should not contain any instances of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or fragmentation. Additionally, submissions must not have been previously published or submitted to another medium for publication in either print or electronic form, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

• Fonts: Calibri or Arial
• Size 12 pts.
• Spacing 1.5 pts.
• Top and bottom margins 2.5 cm.
• Left and right margins 2,5 cm.

Section – Editorial

This section encompasses essays and opinion articles. Submissions should be formatted as Word documents and must not include tables, images, or other graphic elements. Adherence to the IMRaD structure is encouraged, specifically incorporating a clear main idea and supporting arguments. Due to the nature of the editorials, submissions in this section will not undergo a refereeing process.

Section – Articles

This section includes the following types of texts: scientific articles, review articles, scientific essays, book reviews, and clinical case reports. As this section is peer-reviewed, all manuscripts submitted will undergo a thorough peer-review process.

Manuscripts should be submitted in an editable format, preferably as a Word document, and divided into two parts. One document should contain only the text of the full article, while the other document should include the personal details of the author(s): full name, academic degree, affiliation, country, personal or institutional email, ORCID code (if available), and a contact telephone number. Manuscripts submitted in this section must adhere to the following general formatting requirements:

• Use the IMRaD structure (required).
• The file should be submitted in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or a compatible format.
• The maximum length should be 8,000–10,000 words, including tables, figures, references, and annexes (if necessary).
• The manuscript should be written in Calibri or Arial font, 12 pt size, with all margins (top, bottom, right, and left) set to 2.5 cm and 1.5 pt spacing.
• The title should be provided in both Spanish and English, centered and bold.
• The abstract should have a maximum of 250 words, written in a single paragraph, along with 5 keywords in both Spanish and English (the use of a thesaurus, such as UNESCO, is recommended). It should indicate the objective of the research, the main theoretical and methodological aspects, and the most relevant results and conclusions.
• The first version of the submission should omit the author's personal data or any information in the text and metadata that could compromise the anonymity of the author.
• A cover sheet should be attached, indicating the names of the authors, their institutional affiliation, and email addresses.
• Attach a PDF file of the assignment of rights, signed by all authors, to the original document.
• Once the article has been approved for publication, the final version should include the author's full name, email address, and institutional affiliation with the full name (e.g., International University of the Americas instead of UIA).
• (See the template for article submission, available for download on the journal's webpage, or request it by emailing revistainnovacionu@uia.ac.cr).

Scientific essays or reflective articles, should include an argumentation and a statement of interests. In the case of reviews, it is recommended that they incorporate the following elements: identification data of the work or technical details, a presentation of the work reviewed, an annotated summary of the work, and a critical reflection.

The key elements to include in a clinical case report presentation are the case presentation itself and a discussion of the ethical considerations, such as informed consent.

Section - Intercambio

This section includes systematizations of experiences. Papers submitted for this section will undergo a peer-review process and must adhere to the IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methodology, Results, and Discussion). Manuscripts should be submitted in an editable format, preferably as a Word document containing only the article's content. A separate document should include the full names of the authors, their affiliations, countries, personal or institutional email addresses, and a contact telephone number. Additionally, submissions must comply with the general formatting requirements outlined in the previous section.

In the systematization of experiences, authors should include a description of the context, the objective of the systematization, the object-experience to be systematized, the axes of the systematization, the analysis of the experience, and the lessons learned, in addition to the requirements of the IMRaD structure.

RIU will publish systematizations of experiences in the “Intercambio” section, as long as they align with the journal's scope and conform to the IMRaD structure. It is essential that manuscripts submitted to this section include all required elements relevant to the specific type of text.

III. REFERENCING AND CITATION STYLES

The referencing and citation style should conform to the standards outlined in the APA Manual 7; this applies to all manuscripts. Below are some examples taken from this manual for illustration purposes. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the APA Manual, 7th edition.

IV. USE OF INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE

Innovación Universitaria welcomes manuscripts that employ inclusive language, provided it is used consistently throughout the whole manuscript. Authors who choose to use inclusive language must ensure that it is applied uniformly across all sections, paragraphs, and sentences of the manuscript. This journal places no restrictions on the use of inclusive language, nor does it advocate for its mandatory adoption; such decisions will remain entirely at the author’s discretion.

IMPORTANT!

Please remember to download the article submission template, which outlines the required presentation for manuscripts in their final version (after peer review). To submit your manuscript, first send it in two parts: one document should contain only the text of the article, while the other should include your personal data, affiliation, and contact information.