ISSN 0120-2596
Printed version

ISSNe 2323-0622
Electronic version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Manuscript guidelines
• Editorial process
• Sending of manuscripts

Lecturas de Economía is committed to publishing articles that are relevant to the economics discipline. Therefore, the editorial committee grants priority to research papers. All manuscripts go through a rigorous double-blind peer review process as a rule.

Lecturas de Economía is a biannual publication, with issues published in January (issue January-June) and July (issue July-December); however, the editorial team receives manuscripts all year round.

• Submitted manuscripts must follow the journal's editorial rules, which appear below and in the webpage http://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/lecturasdeeconomia/about/submissions#authorGuidelines. The non-compliance of these will result in the non-consideration of the manuscript by the editorial committee.
• Submitting a manuscript entails commitment, on the part of the author, that the paper has not been submitted simultaneously –whether in part or as a whole– to other publication outlets. In case the manuscript has been previously released as a working paper, the cover page must include a note stating which institution published it and in what year, as well as the complete bibliographical reference of the publication. 
• Manuscripts must be submitted through the OJS editorial management system using the link http://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/lecturasdeeconomia/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions. Only in case of technical issues with the platform the submission of papers via e-mail will be allowed to the address revistalecturas@udea.edu.co.
• With the aim of facilitating its anonymous review, the body of the manuscript must contain neither the authors' names nor references to the origin of the paper (e.g., Master's thesis, PhD dissertation). Likewise, the body of the text must not feature acknowledgements, these should be included in the cover page (see guidelines below).  
• When the manuscript has been written by several authors, it must be pointed out who will be the corresponding author. This will be the only author in charge of communication with the editorial team; however, all the authors will receive a copy of the resultant correspondence throughout the editorial process.

A. Length

The manuscript is by no means to exceed 8,000 words, including footnotes, appendices, and bibliographical references. Only papers in Spanish and English are accepted.

B. Format

The manuscript must be submitted as a Word file for Windows, LaTeX or in Rich Text Format, 12pt-sized Garamond font and single line spacing. Also, tables and figures are to be sent in a separate Excel file. When the figures are produced using software other than Excel, a separate 600-dpi PNG or JPG file is requested. Figures must be black and white, without plots.

C. Cover page

All contributions must be preceded by a cover page clearly including the title of the paper, the author’s name(s), institutional affiliation (with the corresponding postal address), e-mail address, ORCID, analytical abstract in Spanish and English, keywords (minimum five), and the JEL codes (see http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/jel_class_system.php). When relevant, this page must also include the names of the persons to whom the authors acknowledge contributions of any sort, notes regarding funding for research or previous versions of the manuscript in the form of thesis, working paper, conference paper, etc. (A complete bibliographical reference of this version must be indicated).

D. Title

The title of the manuscript must be short and informative, pointing out the main conclusion of the paper. Preferably, it must not exceed 15 words; it must not include jargon or uncommon acronyms, and, if possible, it should include some keywords.

E. Abstract

The abstract must clearly and precisely reflect the content of the manuscript. In a maximum of 180 words, it should indicate the main purpose of the study or research, basic procedures (selection of the study subjects, methods of observation, and analysis), main findings (outlining specific information or data and their statistical significance, if possible), and conclusions (highlighting the relevance of the findings or the most novel aspects of the research). Also, it is recommended to include some keywords and to avoid uncommon acronyms and jargon.

F. Keywords

A minimum of five (5) keywords are to be included. For their selection it is recommended to take into consideration not only the terms used by the American Economic Association in its JEL classification, but also those featured in some reference thesauri such as the UNESCO Thesaurus (http://vocabularies.unesco.org/browser/thesaurus/es/?clang=en) and the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (http://zbw.eu/stw/version/latest/about.en.html).

G. Table of contents

The article will begin in the ensuing page, which is preceded by the title on the top and it is structured as follows (centered and bold font). Example:

–Introduction –I. Literature review –II. Model –III. Discussion of results –Conclusions –Appendices –References

The Introduction, Conclusions, Appendices, and References are not numbered. Second- and third-order headings are not included in the table of contents.

H. Headings

Each section’s headings are to be written in bold letters, centered, and Roman numbered. Second-order headings must be written in bold letters, aligned to the left, and preceded by capital letters. Third-order headings are in script letters, left aligned, and preceded by Arabic numbers.

Both second- and third-order headings are to be used in case of more than two thematic divisions within a section. All headings begin with its first letter capitalized (not sustained capital letters).

I. Statistical or graphical information

Statistical or graphical information is to be labeled as ''Table'' or ''Figure''. It must be numbered and referenced within the body of the manuscript, preferably in the preceding paragraph. Also, the corresponding sources of information must be cited at the bottom, even if these are the authors’ elaborations.
Statistical information contained in tables and figures is the sole responsibility of the author(s). When information is derived from the application of quantitative methods, the primary data used must be attached in an electronic file so that it can be examined by the referees. In the case of mathematical proofs, the complete proof must be attached.

J. Equations

Equations are to be consecutively numbered within parenthesis and right aligned. Variables must be indicated in script letters, while vectors and matrices in bold letters.

K. Footnotes

Footnotes must be of clarifying nature and should not include bibliographical references.

L. Citations

Both direct and indirect citations must include the source from which the information was extracted. In the case of direct citations, the reference must indicate the page of the mentioned source. In direct citations with less than 40 words, the use of quotation marks at the beginning and at the end of the cited fragment is compulsory; those citations exceeding this extent must be in a separate paragraph, single spaced, and without quotations marks.

Failure to meet these guidelines could be considered as plagiarism.

M. References

References must list all and only the bibliographical sources cited in the body of the manuscript. Its format should follow the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA). The following are examples of some citations:

Last name(s), initial(s) of the first name(s), year of publication (in parenthesis). Title and subtitle (in italics). Location: Publisher. Example:

Lora, E. & Ocampo, J. A. (coord.) (1991). Introducción a la macroeconomía colombiana, Bogotá, Tercer Mundo Editores.

Last name(s), initial(s) of the first name(s), year of publication (in parenthesis). Title and subtitle. Initials of the first name of the editor, compiler or translator, last name, and in parenthesis the abbreviation of the corresponding role (Ed. for editor(s), Comp. for compilers(s), Trans. for translator(s), Title of the book (in italics), pagination of the whole chapter (in parenthesis). Location, Publisher. Example:

Bonilla, M. G. (1992). Tendencias de la productividad en la industria manufacturera colombiana (1974-1989). In Garay, J. L. (Ed.), Estrategia industrial e inserción internacional (pp. 279-370). Bogotá: Fescol.

Last name(s), initial(s) of the first name(s), year of publication (in parenthesis). Title and subtitle, Title of the journal (in italics), volume (in italics) and issue (in parenthesis), pagination of the complete article. If the article has a doi, it must be included at the end. Example:

Gómez Pineda, J. (2016). La inflación bajo una perspectiva monetaria: Colombia, 1951-1963, Ensayos sobre Política Económica, 31(81), 229-241. doi: 10.1016/j.espe.2016.08.001.

Last name(s), initial(s) of the first name(s) or full name if an institution, year of publication (in parenthesis). Title and subtitle (in italics). “Retrieved from”: the accessed URL. Example:

The World Bank (2013). International Community Urged to Fulfill Commitments to Yemen. Recuperado de: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/06/19/international-community-urged-to-fulfill-commitments-to-yemen (Junio 18 de 2013).

Last name(s), initial(s) of the first name(s), year of publication (in parenthesis). Title and subtitle (in italics) followed by the name of the series or collection and the issue (in parenthesis). “Retrieved from” the name of the publishing institution: the accessed URL. Example:

Deming, D. & Dynarski, S. (2008). The lengthening of childhood (NBER Working Paper No. 14124). Retrieved from the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14124.

Last name (s) (in small caps), complete Name (s), year of edition (in parenthesis). Title and subtitle (in italics), Thesis for the degree of ..., School or Department, University, city, country. Example:

Martínez, C. K. (2015). Instituciones Políticas, Decisiones Fiscales y Resultados Económicos: el Caso de Argentina (Tesis doctoral, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina) Retrieved from http://repositoriodigital.uns.edu.ar/bitstream/123456789/2619/1/CINTIA%20MARTINEZ%20Tesis%20Doctoral%20en%20Econom%C3%ADa.pdf.

Last name(s), initial(s) of the first name(s), date of publication (year, month day). Title of the article. Title of the newspaper (in italics). Pagination of the complete article (pp. #-#). Example:

Medina, C. (2002, 8 de febrero). Montoya cambiará de canal. El Tiempo, 4A.

A. Reception and review

• Author(s) will receive a notification of reception of the manuscript once it is received. However, the reception of a manuscript does not imply its publication.
• Manuscripts will be initially reviewed by the Editor, who will consider the relevance of the topic and adherence to the guidelines described above. If considered inappropriate for publication, the editor will notify the authors about his/her rejection decision. In the opposite case, the editor will send the manuscript to anonymous referees.
• Each manuscript will be reviewed by at least two expert referees, who will have a time span of one month to submit their referee reports. In case of disagreement between the referees, the editor will send the manuscript to a third referee.
• Once the referees’ reports are received, the editorial committee will make a decision concerning acceptance, rejection or resubmission for review. In the latter case, authors will have at least three calendar weeks to revise and resubmit the manuscript. The resubmission must be accompanied by a letter addressed to the editor indicating which comments are considered in the revised version and explaining why the remaining ones are disregarded.
• The journal uses the plagiarism detection software CrossCheck (powered by iThenticate) to verify the originality of manuscripts.
• Based on the referees’ reports and the results of the plagiarism detection software, the editorial committee will make a final decision concerning approval or rejection of the manuscript for publication. Authors will be allowed to appeal a rejection decision by a communication addressed to the editor within one month following the decision.

B. Copy editing and layout

• Accepted manuscripts will be subjected to copy editing by a language professional. At the end of the copy-edited version, authors will find an editorial diagnosis with general observations and style suggestions. This is the last stage of the publication process in which changes in the content of the manuscripts are allowed.
• Authors will have approximately 10 days to revise the manuscript and send a style-corrected version. Along with this version, they are to send an independent, editable file with the tables and figures to be featured in the article, with the aim to facilitate the layout processing.
• During the layout process, authors will be sent a pre-print version of the article in PDF format. This version should be returned to the journal with all the layout suggestions authors deem appropriate not later than one week after its reception. At this stage, only layout (not content) adjustments are allowed.
• The final version of the article will be given to authors as soon as it is available.
• There are no article processing charges for publication at Lecturas de Economía

C. Publishing

• Lecturas de Economía will publish every issue online via its institutional webpage http://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/lecturasdeeconomia/index and in its printed version. Also, issues will be indexed in the bibliographical databases covering the journal.
• Every author will receive a courtesy copy of the issue in which his/her article is published.

Those authors who would like to get their papers published in Lecturas de Economía can register at the journal’s website through the link http://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/lecturasdeeconomia/about/submissions#authorGuidelines, and submit their manuscripts