Submissions

Author Guidelines

Guidelines for authors

These guidelines for authors are taken, with some changes due to the nature of our publishing house, from the excellent work done by the editors of the Editorial Management and Dissemination Department from the Faculty of Humanities and Learning Sciences of the National University of La Plata.

The purpose of these Guidelines is to unify formal criteria to give homogeneity to the editorial line defined for the different Books2bits book collections, and they are of strict compliance for all submitted proposals. The originals will not be accepted to begin the editing process until they comply with the requirements of these Guidelines. Failure to comply will result in the rejection of the proposal.

Originals must be accompanied by the contract, duly completed and signed, which has been delivered to the author at the time of notification of approval for publication of the original.

Presentation of the original

For the approved project to be published, the author must submit it in digital format, with the suggested modifications in the evaluation stage. The entire text must be submitted in a single file that must contain the following parts (marked with an asterisk those of obligatory presentation):

1. Title, subtitle, and CV of the author(s)*
2. Dedication
3. Epigraph
4. Acknowledgments
5. Foreword (Introduction, Preface, etc.).*
6. Complete Table of Contents*.
7. Chapters* (The introduction should be numbered as a chapter).
8. Conclusion (or Epilogue)
9. Appendix (or Annex)
10. Glossary
11. Notes (all notes should be at the end of the text, both in works by a single author and in compilations).
12. Bibliographical References* (all references should be at the end of the text, both in single-authored works and in compilations, in this case, unifying them).
13. Summary of the book and keywords*.
14. Folder with images, tables, and charts

Style

The content of the book must respect the following characteristics:

The text must be written in Word, RTF, or OpenDocument processor.

Page size: A4 (210x297 mm)

Paragraph alignment: left-aligned, no indentation or trailing spacing.

Font: Times New Roman

Font size for the main text: 12

Font size for side quotes, right margin: 12

Font size for footnotes: 10

Font size for editable graphics: 10

Line spacing: 1.5

Top and bottom margins: 2.5 cm (2.5 inches)

Left and right margins: 3 cm

The text should be written in "normal" or "round" font. It is recommended not to overuse highlights (bold, italics, underline, CAPITAL LETTERS).

File contents

1. Title and CV of the author(s)

On the cover page, the following must be specified:

Title: if there is no subtitle, maximum length of 40 characters with spaces.

Subtitle (optional): if it has a subtitle, the title will have 25 characters and the subtitle a maximum of 45.

First name and surname:

Figure:

Author: the one who individually writes the work.

Coordinator: the one who plans the contents of the work from its conception, commissions, selects, and systematizes a series of articles/chapters by several authors, with whom he/she is directly linked and approves the entire work.

Compiler: the one who gathers in a single body of work, parts, extracts, or texts from several other books or documents of various authors and gives them a particular order.

In the latter two cases, only the name of the compiler/coordinator shall be indicated on the cover.

The authors' names will be listed in the table of contents, under the title of each article/chapter, and at the end of the book, followed by a summary of their academic-professional data.

CV of authors/coordinators/compilers:

Maximum: 10 lines.

The following information should be included in the detailed order below:

Name(s) and surname(s).

Undergraduate and graduate degrees. Full name of the granting institution. Subjects or areas in which he/she specializes.

Teaching activity: indicate the name(s) of the subject(s) taught and the institution.

Professional activity: other relevant current data.

Publications: indicate a maximum of three titles and the year of publication. The author should include the books he/she considers most important.

Research - Extension: direction or participation in projects. Indicate only the subject and the institution in which they are developed.

Previous activities, received awards, other data of interest.

2. Dedication

The author may dedicate the work to a person or institution. The dedication should be a brief text, and it is suggested that it does not exceed 250 words.

3. Epigraph

This is generally a sentence of a recognized author, which refers to the content of the work. Indicate the name and surname of the author and the title of the work. Maximum: 500 characters with spaces.

It is written on the right margin. It is quoted without quotation marks; the font must be smaller than the one used in the work development (generally, size 10). The title of the work and the author must be indicated.

Genius is nothing more nor less

than childhood recaptured at will

Baudelaire

Where there is power, there is resistance

Michel Foucault

4. Acknowledgments

The author may thank any person or institution.

5. Prologue (Introduction, preface).

Prologue: written before the body of the work by the author, compiler, or coordinator. If it is a work by a single author, it does not bear a signature. If the work is compiled or coordinated, the name and surname, city, and year are indicated at the end of the text.

Presentation: by a person other than the author. At the end of the text, the name, and surname, position or maximum title, city and year should be indicated.

Textual quotations and bibliographical references are not used.

6. Complete table of contents

It is placed before the beginning of the work itself (Anglo-Saxon style).

It reflects the logical structure of the text and acts as an outline of the contents, insofar as it shows the order in which the titles and subtitles of the chapters, parts, etc., of the work, appear. It is recommended that only the main titles and subtitles of each chapter be included in the table of contents: the table of contents should be both indicative and concise to be a valuable tool for the reader.

7. Chapters

The title of the chapters must be indicated in body 16, without bold, in upper/lower case, separated by two spaces from the text or subtitle that follows: no full stop, underlining, or numbering. The structure of the chapters without numbering requires planning of the work that, without losing the specificity of content, distinguishes it from the model of monographic writing, whose rules depend on the formal demands of each discipline within its community.

Subtitles: body 14, without bold, separated by two spaces from the text that precedes them and by one space from the paragraph that follows. No period, underlining, or numbering.

It is suggested to use a maximum of three (3) levels of subtitles:

The first level (size 14 round)

Second-level (size 12 bold)

The third level (size 12 italics)

If it is a compilation, the author's name and surname should be written in italics under each title.

8. Conclusion (or Epilogue)

Must be written by the authors. It may make a "review" of the topics addressed throughout the work, reformulate the initial hypothesis, present new lines of analysis, etc. It is usually developed between five (5) and twenty (20) pages. In academic texts, it should contain a suggestion or proposal for public policy that can be carried out based on the information provided in the text.

9. Appendix (or Annex)

All documents that the authors consider relevant to complete the book's development can be included here: image files, audio, written documents, tables, articles by other authors that for planning reasons should not be included in the body of the work but represent a valuable reference, etc.

10. Glossary

Glossaries and other references that contribute to shed light on the content of the text may be included.

11. Notes

Notes should always be inserted at the end of the text.

Notes should be written in size 10, single-spaced, left-aligned.

Notes introduce complementary information to the exposition presented in the text:

• Personal comments
• Explanations
• Clarifications
• Examples or illustrative data
• Fragments quoted in the original language.
• Internal references to another part of the same work or external references to other works to reinforce what is argued in the body of the text or include some critical discussion.
• Notes should not be used to introduce bibliographical references; Books2bits books use the author-date citation style (American citation) to introduce such references.

It is recommended not to overuse footnotes.

In footnotes, the bulleted number is placed after the punctuation mark, except when the footnote refers only to the last word of the sentence (in that case, the period is placed after the bulleted number).

            Example:

Perhaps through a Cervantine parable by Borges, published in 1933 in an obscure bulletin of the Popular Library Azul, called “A sentence from Don Quixote.⁵

12. Bibliographical References

References should be included at the end of the book. In the case of a compilation work, the references of all the authors of the text should be unified. Books2bits books follow the citation style of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010).

Please read the Bibliographic References section of these Guidelines carefully.

13. Book abstract and keywords

Abstract: Minimum length of 700 characters with spaces and the maximum length of 1,000 characters with spaces.

It should be brief, accurate, and straightforward. Avoid redundancy and details. Discriminate the essential from the accessory.

It should mention the original idea, the main points of the development, and the conclusions.

It is convenient to write the text for an addressee who does not necessarily know about the subject developed in the book and avoid technicalities.

Keywords: At the end of the summary, suggest five (5) keywords. Do not use as keywords the ones in the title and subtitle of the book. The editorial team may modify them for better information retrieval.

14. Folder with images, tables, and charts.

It is forbidden to reproduce, without express written authorization, images published in other graphic or digital media (books, newspapers, Internet sites, etc.).

In the case of images delivered in digital format, for paper edition, the resolution must have a minimum of 150 dpi (preferably 300 dpi), and the file must be a JPG extension. The resolution must follow the same above said parameters, legible, not pixelated for the digital edition.

The images must be delivered separately, numbered. The number should be indicated in the Word document in an easily identifiable manner.

Graphics should be presented as images.

Tables and charts should be editable: they should not be included as images.

If special typographies are used (such as Greek or some type of symbol or formula), the typeface family must be digitized.

In the body of the text, the title, the correlative numbering (in Arabic numerals), and the font should be indicated.

Do not insert titles and fonts in images.

Important:

2. Keep in mind that images taken from the Internet are usually of shallow resolution; therefore, even if you visualize them well on your screen, they will not be helpful at the time of processing for the book design. It is always convenient to scan the originals in the indicated resolution quality or download the images from a bank that handles high resolutions.
3. Keep in mind that in order to reproduce an image, you must have the author's authorization and the complete reference of the image (as in the case of quoting texts). If you plan to download images from the Internet, before doing so, make sure that they are free to download. Carefully read the terms of use of the download sites to avoid making mistakes that may cause legal problems.

Citations and references

Textual citations and bibliographical references

Up to 1,000 (one thousand) words of a work may be quoted in the entire book.

If this amount is exceeded, the author must obtain the express written authorization of whoever has the rights over the work to be reproduced (author and publisher).

It is recommended not to abuse this type of quotation. They should not constitute more than 20 percent of the total text.

Verify their relevance, their original author, and the inclusion of the complete bibliographic reference.

Author-date punctuation style

The punctuation mark is placed after the closing parenthesis of the citation.

Example:

Macedonio Fernández practiced it in his narrative with an inaugural radicality that Borges later formulated in La muralla y los libros. We read in that text: "Music, states of happiness, mythology, faces worked by time, certain twilights and certain places, want to tell us something, or they said something that we should not have missed, or they are about to say something; this imminence of a revelation that does not occur, is, perhaps, the aesthetic fact" (Borges, 1994: 13).

Follow the Guide for citations and references FaHCE Publications.

For references to legal documents, we recommend consulting: Manual de Estilo de la Procuraduría del Tesoro de la Nación.

For other documentary sources, consult The Basics of APA Style. Tutorial.

Orthotypographic use

Use of italics

Titles of books, magazines, newspapers, publications, musical works, plays, operas, radio and television programs, paintings, and sculptures. This criterion will be maintained for bibliographies.

Proper names of ships, trains, and airplanes, scientific names of animals and plants.

Academic dictionaries do not accept foreign words or Latin expressions.

Highlighting a word, phrase, or sentence.

Terms used in an ironic or figurative sense were invented or misspelled on purpose.

Nicknames, aliases, nicknames, or pseudonyms.

Use of bold type

To highlight a word or expression and facilitate the identification of contents.

It is recommended not to abuse this typographic resource. It is also recommended to avoid highlighting long texts and their eventual use (if this resource is adopted, its use should be systematic throughout the book).

Use of capital letters

They are written with initial capital letters:

The names of institutions: universities, academic units, institutes, ministries, undersecretaries, directorates, departments, public and private agencies, etcetera. For example, Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences, Supreme Court of Justice, San Juan de Dios Hospital.

The names of institutional areas, congresses, meetings, academic, cultural, social, and sports activities: XV Research Seminars. Center for Geographic Research and Department of Geography, First Conference on Argentine and American History (CHAyA).

Names of social, educational, & health programs: (Universal Child Allowance), Assisted Fertilization Program of the Province.

Abbreviations

There are a few common trends in abbreviation that you should follow when using APA, though there are always exceptions to these rules. When abbreviating a term, use the full term the first time you use it, followed immediately by the abbreviation in parentheses.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), abbreviations are best used only when they allow for clear communication with the audience.

Exceptions: Standard abbreviations like units of measurement and states do not need to be written out. APA also allows abbreviations that appear as words in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary to be used without explanation (IQ, HIV, RNA, CIA, UNESCO).

Do not use periods or spaces in abbreviations of all capital letters unless it is a proper name or refers to participants using identity-concealing labels: 

R. R. Martin, J. K. Rowling, F. Scott Fitzgerald, P. T. Barnum, F.I.M., SWF.

MA, FBI, CD, URL, HTML, RSS, APA

Exceptions: Use a period when abbreviating the United States as an adjective (US Air Force or US President)

Use a period if the abbreviation is a Latin abbreviation or a reference abbreviation:

etc., et al., e.g., a.m.

Vol. 1, p. 68, 3rd ed.

Do not use periods when abbreviating measurements: mm, ft, lb, mi, min, kg, l

Exception: Use a period when abbreviating inch (in.) to avoid confusion.

Units of measurement and statistical abbreviations should only be abbreviated when accompanied by numerical values:15 mg, 250 mi, M = 5.7 measured in milligrams, several miles after the exit, the means were determined.

Only specific units of time should be abbreviated.

Do not abbreviate day, week, month, year.

Do abbreviate: hr, min, ms, ns, s

To form the plural of abbreviations, add s alone without apostrophe or italicization.

Kgs., CDs, Eds.

Exception: To avoid confusion, do not add s to pluralize units of measurement (i.e., use "12 m" to signify "twelve meters," not "12 ms").

ABBREVIATIONS IN CITATIONS

Citations should be as condensed as possible, so you should know the basic rules of abbreviation endorsed by the APA to provide your readers with reference information.

Always abbreviate the first and middle names of authors, editors, etc.

White, E. B., Chomsky, N.

Not to be confused with abbreviations. These are abbreviations of a scientific or technical nature, consisting of non-alphabetizable signs or letters.

Some alphabetizable symbols

Cm3: cubic centimeter and not c.c.

G: gram

Ha: hectare

Kg: kilogram

Km: kilometer

Mm: millimeter

Ne: northeast

S: second [of time] and not sg

Some non-alphabetizable symbols

&: et (Latin: and)

• : paragraph

¶: supplementary information (philology)

%: percent

%0: per thousand

Oc: degree celsius

©: copyright

They are always written without a period. They cannot be pluralized.  Some are written with a lower case and others with a capital letter.

The number and the symbol should not occupy different lines. If necessary, the space between them should be eliminated: 200mm.

For the correct spelling of symbols, it is recommended to consult the dictionary, which has a complete list of usage.

Numbers

The numbers from one to nine are written with letters, except in sums of money or percentages, where it is preferable to write the digit: 3 thousand pesos, 3% or 3 percent. At the beginning of a sentence, it is recommended to write the amounts with letters. When figures are listed, it is preferable to write them all in numbers. For millions, the word "million" is used: 2 million or two million. If the amount is not a "round" number, it is written with digits: 3,174 pesos. The sign to be used in these cases is the period. Decimals are written with commas: 13.3ºC.

The time is written with a period: at 9.30 a.m. . It is not necessary to add the symbol "h" or the word "hours." When the time is exact, it is written without decimals: At midnight, at 15 o'clock.

Years (1810), addresses (380 7th Street), and vehicle license plate numbers and letters (XPG249) are written without periods.

For the writing of legal document numbers, we suggest consulting the APA Publication Manual 2010 (third edition translated from the sixth edition in English) and the Manual de Estilo de la Procuración del Tesoro de la Nación (2015).

The following sources have been consulted in the preparation of these Terms and Conditions for the Presentation of Originals:

APA (American Psychological Association) (2010). Manual de Publicaciones (Tercera edición traducida de la sexta en inglés).

APA (American Psychological Association). The Basics of APA Style. Tutorial. Recuperado de http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx

Ediunc (Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo) (2013). Manual de estilo de Originales. Recuperado de: http://www.ediunc.uncu.edu.ar/public/paginas/index/como-publicar.

García Negroni, M.M. (coord.), Pérgola, L. y Stern, M. (2004). El arte de escribir bien en español. Manual de corrección de estilo. Buenos Aires: Santiago Arcos.

Procuraduría del Tesoro de la Nación (2015). Manual de Estilo. Recuperado de https://www.ptn.gob.ar/images/files/Manual%20de%20estilo%20PTN%202015.pdf

Real Academia Española (2013). DPD (Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas). Recuperado de http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-panhispanico-de-dudas.

Wikilengua. Ortotipografía en arte. Recuperado de http://www.wikilengua.org/index.php/Ortotipograf%C3%ADa_en_arte#Pinturas. [Recomendado por Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas. RAE].