Submissions

Author Guidelines

This journal does not have any article processing charge (APC)

Characteristics of the articles
The submitted articles must be original contributions that have not been previously published or are not under submission at another journal or under consideration for publication in another form.

Extension and file format
Articles must have a maximum of 7,500 words and a minimum of 5,000, including the title, the abstract, the keywords and the references. They will be sent in OpenDocument (ODT) format. Some text processors that use this format are (free software): LibreOffice; Calligra. Both have versions for the Windows operating system and OS-X. In the case of book reviews, the extension will not be less than 600 words or more than 1,000 words.

Supplementary Files
RELATEC accepts the inclusion of supplementary files to accompany the original article with the aim of enriching and more fully documenting the research presented. These additional materials may include:

1. Supplementary data: datasets, additional tables, codifications, secondary results, among others.
2. Images: complementary figures, diagrams, or infographics that were not included in the main body of the article.
3. Videos: short recordings illustrating procedures, interviews, teaching experiences, presentations of results, or any other relevant research-related content.

Supplementary files must meet the following conditions:

Format:

• Data: .ods, .xlsx, .csv, .sav, .rda, among other open or widely used formats.
• Images: .jpg, .png, .tiff (minimum resolution: 300 dpi).
• Videos: .mp4, .mov (maximum resolution: 720p, web-optimized compression).
• Other: .pdf, .zip (if grouping several materials), always with a detailed description.

Maximum size:

• Each file must not exceed 20 MB.
• The total of all supplementary files per article must not exceed 100 MB.

Content:

• Each file must be clearly identified with a title and a brief description.
• The materials should complement the article, not duplicate information already contained in it.
• Authors must ensure that the materials comply with applicable ethical standards, privacy regulations, and copyright laws.

Submission:

• Files must be uploaded at the time of manuscript submission, identifying them as "Supplementary Material" in the platform.
• The main text of the article must include a clear reference to the supplementary material (e.g., see Supplementary Material 1).

RELATEC reserves the right to assess the relevance and quality of the submitted files and may request modifications or reject materials that do not comply with editorial requirements.

Languages

Articles can be written in Spanish, Portuguese or English.

If the article is accepted for publication and has been written in Spanish or Portuguese, the authors must send a complete and professional translation of the article into English within a maximum period of 15 days, at their own expense. No article will be published without a full translation into English. If the quality of the translation is considered deficient, the article will be returned to the authors and may be definitively rejected.

A "Certificate of English Editing" must be attached to the manuscript, certifying that the text of the article "was revised and edited for clear and precise English, including style, grammar, spelling and punctuation". This certificate must guarantee that your manuscript was revised and edited by expert English translators/editors. Non-certified translations will not be accepted.

Cover Letter
It is compulsory to send the "Cover Letter" file, which must be signed by all authors (preferably with digital certificate, otherwise scanned handwritten signature).

Authorship and Contributions Policy
RELATEC requires that, upon submission of a manuscript, authors clearly specify the order of authorship and the individual contribution of each author to the development of the work. The order of authors should reflect the level of responsibility and involvement in the research and writing of the article.

Additionally, a section titled "Authors’ Contributions" must be included at the end of the manuscript (before the acknowledgements or references), explicitly detailing each author's role in aspects such as: conceptualization, methodology, analysis, original draft writing, critical review, and final editing of the text, among others.

This policy aims to promote transparency and fair recognition of collaborative work in scientific production.

Author metadata
In the user profile of the platform (http://relatec.unex.es/user/profile) the following information must be included:

- Identity: Surname (The academic signature -name and surname- must be standardized according to international conventions to facilitate identification in the main databases. FECYT Document).
- Contact: Affiliation (Name of the University and Organization of the author) and Full postal address of professional character (Center / Department / Service / Organization).
- Public: ORCID Identifier (https://orcid.org/).

Funding and Acknowledgements Policy

RELATEC requires authors to clearly identify the sources of funding for the submitted work. Specifically, authors must indicate the agencies, institutions, or entities that have fully or partially funded the research, including the corresponding project codes.

This information must be included in two places:

In the acknowledgements section of the article, clearly stating the funding entity and the project code, if applicable.

In the metadata of the submission on the journal platform, using the appropriate field during the manuscript submission process.

Compliance with this policy ensures transparency in research funding and allows for proper indexing of published articles.

Structure of articles

The articles must be written in accordance with the rules of the APA Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 6th edition).

The papers must include the following elements:

1. Title: must be informative, clear and direct. It must not contain more than 20 words (maximum 2 lines - 100 characters). Must be submitted in Spanish (or Portuguese) and English.
2. Abstract: it must present in a synthetic and precise way the basic information of the article. According to the IMRaD structure, you must present the justification of the article and its objectives, the methodology used, the most significant results and the most relevant conclusions. The minimum extension will be of 200 words and the maximum of 230 words. It will be written in two languages: Spanish (or Portuguese) and English.
3. Keywords: at least five keywords must be included in Spanish (or Portuguese) and English. The ERIC Thesaurus must be used for the selection of these keywords.
4. Introduction: a systematic review of the literature on the subject should be included to establish the contextualization, the rationale and the purpose of the article. This review must be directly related to the research to facilitate the discussion of the results.
5. Method: the design and development of the research must be described accurately. All the components that facilitate the understanding of the methodological approach, the sample, the research process (phases), the instruments used for the collection of information and the data analysis techniques used (quantitative and / or qualitative) must be included.
6. Results: accurate information on the analysis of the evidence found. Tables, graphs or figures must be included in the text and must show, without redundancies, the most significant results.
7. Conclusion-Discussion: a summary of the most significant findings should be included. It should also establish relations of the study with other theories or previous investigations, without introducing information already present in previous sections. The implications of the research, its limitations and a prospective future studies must be presented.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures must be integrated into the text and include a caption or subtitle that numbers the figure or table and briefly describes its content. Tables should never be incorporated as images.

Each of the figures must be sent in separate files, according to the following instructions: image files in TIFF format with a resolution of between 300-600 dpi and a size of no more than 10 Mb. Resolution below 300 dpi results in blurred, jagged or pixelated images. A resolution higher than 600 dpi may result in a resizing of the figure.

To facilitate these requirements, we recommend the use of the PACE (Picture Analysis & Conversion Engine) tool to convert the figures to the requested formats. Do not include author names, article title or figure number/title within the figure files. That information will go in your figure legend in the manuscript. When naming your figures, match the figure file name and title label to the corresponding citations in the manuscript text. Example: a figure file named "Fig1.tif" must match the citation "Fig 1" and the figure label "Fig 1". in the subtitle. 

Do not submit figures, photos, tables or other outside works unless you have and can provide written permission from the copyright holder to use that content.

Reference style
The reference style follows the American Psychological Association (APA) 6th edition, both in the text and in the final Reference section. All the cited references and only the cited references will be included in the Reference section. Some examples:

BOOKS
Valverde-Berrocoso, J. (Ed.). (2015). El proyecto de educación digital en un centro educativo. Síntesis.

BOOK CHAPTERS
Valverde-Berrocoso, J., & Fernández-Sánchez, M. R. (2018). Comunidad DIY/Maker de aprendizaje trialógico en un ecosistema digital. En J. B. Martínez Rodríguez & E. Fernández Rodríguez (Eds.), Ecologías del aprendizaje. Educación expandida en contextos múltiples (pp. 71-88). Morata.

JOURNAL ARTICLES
Valverde-Berrocoso, J., Garrido-Arroyo, M. del C., Burgos-Videla, C., & Morales-Cevallos, M. B. (2020). Trends in Educational Research about e-Learning: A Systematic Literature Review (2009–2018). Sustainability, 12, 5153. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125153

Fernández-Sánchez, M. R., & Valverde-Berrocoso, J. (2014). A Community of Practice: An Intervention Model based on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. Comunicar, 42, 97-105. https://doi.org/10.3916/C42-2014-0

ELECTRONIC MEDIA
Valverde-Berrocoso, J. (2013). El acceso abierto al conocimiento científico. Red Universitaria de Investigación Innovación Educativa (REUNI+D). http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/36335

Bibliography that has not been cited in the text should not be included in the section of references. Due to their relevance for the citation indexes and the calculations of the impact factors, the references must follow a correct citation according to the APA Standard 6. It is recommended the use of a bibliographic manager (eg. ZOTERO). All cites that have DOI (Digital Object Identifier System) must always be included in the references.