Regulations

Guidelines for Authors

The Editorial Board of the Revista Costarricense de Trabajo Social, the academic body of the Colegio de Trabajadores Sociales de Costa Rica, establishes the following rules for the publication of articles in the Revista Costarricense de Trabajo Social.

The management and Editorial Board of the Journal are not responsible for the content of the articles; this is the exclusive responsibility of their authors. The Editorial Board may request any requirements it deems appropriate during the editing process. Articles are received throughout the year; however, for each issue, a deadline for closing the edition is established.

 

I. The Revista Costarricense de Trabajo Social communicates to its authors and readers

Every publication must be submitted with the Letter of Acceptance of Copyright Conditions. This letter must authorize the Journal to:

  • Define the graphic design and style of the work.

  • Publish or reproduce the work in whole or in part, both in print and electronically: Internet or any other technology known or developed in the future.

  • Translate the document or parts of it into any language.

  • Adapt the work to reading, sound, voice, or any other technical representation or mechanism available to enable access for people with visual disabilities.

  • Publish and disseminate the work so that readers can access it from anywhere and at any time through physical or electronic means available.

In the same letter, authors must accept that the submitted article may be modified jointly with the Journal’s editorial team to adjust it to the Guidelines for Authors previously established and published on the Journal’s official website. They must also indicate whether their personal email address may be published.

The content of this site is protected by the Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike 4.0 International License (by-nc-sa), which allows non-commercial use of the original work or derivative works, and requires that distribution of such works be under the same license as the original. The graphic design, images, and texts generated by the Journal are the property of the Colegio de Trabajadores Sociales de Costa Rica and are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike 4.0 International.

The Journal admits the publication of works from all authors, social workers, even those not affiliated with this Professional Association.

All submitted documents must be original and unpublished.

 

II. Conditions accepted by authors publishing in the Journal

  • Authors retain their moral rights over the publication and transfer the economic rights mentioned in the Letter of Acceptance of Copyright in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which allows third parties to use the published work provided they mention the authorship and the first publication in the Journal.

Download the Letter of Acceptance of Copyright here.

If a letter is required for more than four authors, write to: revista@trabajosocial.or.cr

  • Authors may establish other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in the Journal (for example, including it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), provided they clearly indicate that the work was first published in this Journal.

This policy is established in accordance with Law 6638 on Copyright and Related Rights of the Republic of Costa Rica. Articles must be submitted through the OJS (Open Journal System) platform at: https://revista.trabajosocial.or.cr/index.php/revista/submission/wizard

Documents must be submitted in editable format, i.e., Word for Windows.

Articles will be subject to review and approval by the Editorial Board of the Journal, which reserves the right to accept or reject them. In addition, all works will undergo philological review by a specialist.

If plagiarism or insufficient references are detected during any stage of the publication process, the document will be immediately rejected.

 

Author Information

  • Full name of the author (including second surnames). The author’s name must appear justified to the right margin of the page.

  • Affiliation data: institution, location of the responsible author, along with a biographical summary of no more than four lines referring to their academic background.

  • Authors must indicate whether they wish their email address to be displayed in the Journal.

 

Copyright Notice

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal the right of first publication, allowing it to edit, reproduce, distribute, exhibit, and publicly communicate the work through technology from the Journal’s website. Authors also assume responsibility for any litigation or claims related to intellectual property rights, releasing the Revista Costarricense de Trabajo Social of the Colegio de Trabajadores Sociales de Costa Rica from liability. Furthermore, authors may establish other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this Journal (e.g., including it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), provided they clearly indicate that the work was first published in the Journal.

 

Submission Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to ensure that their submission complies with all the following elements. Submissions that do not meet these guidelines will be returned to the authors.

  • The submission has not been previously published nor submitted to another journal (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).

  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect format.

  • URLs are provided for references whenever possible.

  • The text is single-spaced; 12-point font size; italics are used instead of underlining (except for URLs); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at appropriate points rather than at the end.

  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements summarized in the Author Guidelines, available in About the Journal.

 

General Editing Guidelines

Publication requirements are as follows:

  • Title (no more than eight words), optional English translation, written in Arial 14 bold.

  • Include an abstract of no more than 250 words, containing:

    • The general objective of the work

    • The central theme

    • The most relevant conclusions

    • This abstract must be written in Spanish and English.

  • Provide a maximum of six descriptors (keywords) in Spanish and English.

  • Paragraphs must be written without indentation, separated by double spacing.

  • Titles and subtitles must be left-aligned, in the same font as the text, highlighted in bold.

  • All uppercase words must carry accents if required.

  • Titles of cited works and foreign words must be italicized.

  • Bibliographic references for quotations must be included within the text, in parentheses, and must contain: author’s surname and name, publication date, and page number. Internet citations must follow the same format (APA style). Footnotes are not allowed; references must be placed at the end of the document before the bibliography.

  • Short quotations (less than 40 words) are incorporated into the text in quotation marks, followed by parentheses with author’s surname, publication date, and page number.

  • Quotations longer than 40 words must be separated in a block, without quotation marks, indented five spaces from the left margin, and right-aligned. They must not be italicized.

  • Only original sources are accepted. Secondary or tertiary citations (“cited by…”) are not allowed.

  • Paraphrased citations must credit the author with surname and year of publication in parentheses.

  • If the citation has two authors, both must be cited.

  • Use “&” to join surnames when cited in parentheses; use “and” when cited outside parentheses.

  • If the citation has more than two authors, all surnames are listed the first time; subsequent references use the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” or “y otros.”

  • For more than six authors, “et al.” or “y otros” is used from the first mention.

  • Tables, diagrams, or images must not be included in the text. They must be submitted separately in JPG format, not scanned. The source must be indicated at the bottom; “own elaboration” is not accepted.

  • Tables, diagrams, and graphs must follow title rules: no final period, no word division, accents on uppercase letters.

  • Do not use 3D graphics; 2D graphics are clearer.

  • Categories in graphs must be ordered from largest to smallest if not naturally ordered.

  • Figures must be clear and legible, not overloaded.

  • If two examples share the same axis, combine them into one graph.

  • Label precisely and legibly.

  • Prefer histograms over pie charts.

  • Avoid indirect or confusing labels.

  • Numbers from zero to nine must be written in words, except in enumerations, tables, or diagrams.

  • Zero must always be written in words.

  • Numbers at the beginning of a sentence must be written in words.

  • Names indicating quantities have no grammatical plurals (e.g., “the nineties”).

  • Decimal fractions are separated by commas, not periods.

  • Do not mix numerals and words (e.g., “10 million”).

  • Hours are separated by a colon (e.g., 10:30).

  • Roman numerals are always uppercase.

  • Bibliographic references must be presented alphabetically by author’s surname and name. For electronic documents, follow the reference system used.

  • When referring to interviews, unpublished texts, or communications, they must be cited within the text but not included in the bibliographic references.

  • Annexes and appendices should be included only exceptionally to complement, expand, or illustrate the content of the document, and must not exceed three pages.