Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submission Process

To submit a manuscript to Bibliographica, the author must register on the journal’s platform and create a user account, or log in if they already have one.

In the case of co-authored works, only one of the authors should complete the submission, after which the full information for all remaining authors must be provided.

From their account, the author may initiate a new submission and upload the manuscript, which will then be received by the journal’s editorial team to begin the editorial process. To learn more about each stage of the workflow, the complete editorial process may be consulted.

Before submitting the manuscript, it is essential that the author carefully reviews and complies with all editorial criteria of the journal, indicated below. Manuscripts that fail to meet any of these requirements will not be considered for possible publication.

EDITORIAL CRITERIA

Originality and exclusivity

The manuscript must be unpublished, not previously released, and not under review by another print or electronic journal.

Academic quality

The manuscript must represent an original contribution, developed with methodological rigor, clarity of exposition, and argumentative coherence, as well as thematic relevance and adequate order and structure. It must also include a suitable critical apparatus and conform to the journal’s scope and focus.

Format and presentation

The manuscript must be submitted according to the following format:

• Word document (letter size)
• Margins: 2.5 cm top and bottom, 3 cm left and right
• Times New Roman, 12 pt. font
• 5 line spacing
• The file must not contain tracked changes or comments

Articles must be between 45,000 and 50,000 characters (with spaces).

Book reviews must be between 8,000 and 12,000 characters (with spaces).

Two versions of the manuscript are required:

• Complete version, including all authorship identification details indicated below
• Fully anonymized version, prepared for peer review, in which all identifying information—such as personal details, self-citations, and references to previous work—must be omitted and replaced with the formula [omitted for blind review]

Identification data

On the first page of the manuscript, the following information must be included for each author:

• Full name
• Current affiliation (up to three levels; if unaffiliated with an academic institution, identify as an independent researcher)
• City, state, country
• Institutional or professional email address
• ORCID identifier (if not yet registered, one may be obtained here)

Title, abstract, and keywords

Both articles and reviews must include all of the following elements:

• Title in Spanish and English (maximum 80 characters with spaces each)
• Five keywords in Spanish and five keywords in English, separated by semicolons, following the UNESCO Thesaurus controlled vocabulary (consultable here)
• Abstract in Spanish and English, up to 880 characters with spaces, structured as follows: topic, objective, contributions, relevance, and conclusions (conclusions apply to articles only)
• Complete bibliographic details of the book reviewed, including ISBN and total number of pages (for reviews only)

Manuscript structure

To ensure scholarly rigor and scientific viability, it is recommended that articles follow this structure:

• Introduction: defines the object of study, outlines the problem addressed, and describes the method of analysis used
• Development: main sections analyzing the object of study, subdivided into sections and subsections as needed
• Conclusions: present the results of the research, highlight the article’s original contributions, and suggest new lines of inquiry
• References: alphabetical list of sources cited and consulted, including DOI and URL where applicable

References

The citation system of Bibliographica is based on the Chicago-Deusto manual, with adaptations specific to the journal. Before submitting, authors must consult the “Guía breve para la presentación de referencias” (Brief Guide for Preparing References) to ensure that their critical apparatus complies with the established criteria. Manuscripts not conforming to this model will be returned for correction.

Additionally, the following general guidelines should be observed.

Citations:

• All quotations must reference a specific source and page number.
• Long quotations (more than five lines in Word) should be placed in a separate paragraph, indented 1.25 cm on the left, without quotation marks.
• Footnote markers must be placed at the end of the quotation, after any punctuation mark.

References in footnotes:

• Include authors’ names, titles of chapters or articles, full book or journal titles, editors, coordinators, or translators (if applicable), and complete publication details.
• The first citation must be full (e.g., 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Evil Eye [Mexico: UNAM, 2024], 5), while subsequent citations may be shortened when not consecutive (e.g., 3 Hawthorne, The Evil Eye, 5).
• For consecutive references to the same source, use Ibid. (e.g., 8 Hawthorne, The Evil Eye, 5 → 9 Ibid., 17).

Reference list:

• The section must be titled “References.”
• Do not create subsections by type of source (e.g., bibliography, hemerography, primary sources, etc.).
• Only works cited in the footnotes should be included (this is a list of references, not a general bibliography).
• Entries are ordered alphabetically by author’s last name; works without an author should begin with the title, alphabetized by the first significant word.
• Authors’ names must be repeated in every entry (no dashes for repeated names).
• Page ranges must be provided for articles, book chapters, dictionary entries, and similar works.
• It is recommended to include the DOI for all works consulted.

Style and conventions

In addition to the above, authors must observe the following general guidelines:

• Paragraphs must begin with a 1.25 cm indentation on the first line, except for the opening paragraph and those following a subtitle.
• Italics should be used only for foreign terms (unless within quotation marks), not for emphasis.
• Bold type is reserved exclusively for differentiating title and subtitle hierarchies.
• Acronyms and centuries should appear in uppercase (UNESCO, FCE; XVII, XIX). Acronyms formed as proper nouns should use standard capitalization (Pemex, Conaculta).
• Technical or scientific terms, as well as acronyms, must be explained on first mention.
• Abbreviations are discouraged.

Figures, maps, tables, and graphs

All graphic material submitted with the manuscript must follow specific criteria according to its type.

Images such as covers, photographs, illustrations, or drawings are considered “figures.”

Data representations are classified as “graphs” (bar charts, diagrams, histograms, etc.), while tables are “tables” (cuadros), and maps retain their designation.

Graphs and tables must include a brief, descriptive title at the top, without captions, e.g.:

Table 1. Prohibited books in New Spain, 1659–1792, by diocese.

Figures and maps require a caption at the bottom, while a title is optional. For example:

Figure 1. Example of chained script in “Bill of sale of two enslaved men,” Archivo Nacional de la Nación (Peru), CAM, 3462, 862v, accessed at http://archidoc.agn.gob.pe:8080/

All material must clearly indicate its label, author credit, and full source, e.g.:

Map 1. Plan of New Spain, by José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez (1769). Centro de Estudios de Historia de México Carso, Fundación Carlos Slim. Photograph by Leonardo Hernández.

Since the print version is published in black and white (while the digital version is in color), authors must ensure that all elements remain legible in monochrome. It is recommended to:

• Use no more than three tones
• Ensure that grayscale scales remain clear and distinguishable

Graphic material must be submitted:

• In a separate folder
• With each file correctly labeled according to the corresponding figure, map, table, or graph number in the text
• Scanned at 300 dpi, in original size, without modifications
• With minimum dimensions of 5 × 5 cm
• Reproduced from original sources (images downloaded from the internet or digitized from other books are not acceptable)

If the manuscript is accepted after peer review, it will be the author’s responsibility to obtain reproduction permissions for all images and submit them along with the final version of the text.