Submissions

Author Guidelines

*See the downloadable template in the menu: About → Terra Australis Journal Template.

PUBLICATION GUIDELINES

1. Introduction

The editorial guidelines detailed below are intended to provide criteria that standardize the presentation of articles and abstracts to be published in the journal for dissemination to the scientific community. In this regard, adherence to the editorial guidelines will standardize structural parameters to improve the expression of ideas, making the writing and reading of each article more accessible.

II. Background

A. Originality of Articles

1. The article must be original and may consist of research syntheses, essays, studies, and/or works whose content relates to topics within the research area intended for dissemination.

2. The article must contribute to previous publications or to the scientific and technological subject matter it seeks to highlight.

3. If the article has been presented at a conference or seminar, or is derived from research that received financial support from an institution, this should be indicated, and details of the event and/or supporting agency should be provided.

4. All members of higher education institutions, students, active-duty or retired professionals or specialists, civilians and military personnel, those on assignment abroad, and any other person wishing to exchange information and experiences and who makes a significant or substantial contribution to the research may collaborate as authors, assuming sole responsibility for the content of the article.

B. Content

The content must allow any professional, researcher, or specialist in the field to replicate the research. The scientific method requires that results have scientific value only if they are reproducible; therefore, it is essential to provide detailed information that allows other researchers to repeat the experiments.

It is important to note that articles whose content refers in their text, maps, or figures to topics and/or border areas, geopolitics, or the sovereignty of Chilean territory must obtain an exemption resolution for circulation, which is issued by the National Directorate of Borders and State Limits of Chile (DIFROL) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; this resolution must be cited within the article itself (see point 7 of these guidelines for the application process with DIFROL).

III. Style

The article must be submitted (sent) in Word format (.docx), in letter size and written in the third person, with a maximum length (including tables, charts, and graphs) that must not exceed 10,000 words or 40,000 characters (including spaces) or have a minimum of 6,000 words. Additionally, margins must be justified, with the following dimensions: top and bottom margins of 3 cm, right margin of 1.7 cm, and left margin of 2.7 cm.

The guidelines for the structure of the article are presented below; a “downloadable template” is also available on the website.

A. Title Page

This section of the article constitutes its first page and shall contain:

1. Article title: in the original language of the text and its faithful translation into English (or vice versa, depending on the original language in which the article is submitted). It is recommended that this not exceed 60 characters in uppercase, using 12-point Arial font, bold, and centered alignment. The publisher reserves the right to make adjustments.

2. Authors: the information for each author of an article should follow the format in the example below; this background information must be included as footnotes on the first page (we suggest reviewing the downloadable article template for better understanding):

Academic title and institutional affiliation. For example, you may state that you are a “Ph.D. in Geography” and your current position as “Researcher at the Center for Research and Development of Aquatic Ecosystems, Bernardo O’Higgins University, Santiago, Chile.”

The name of a military author may be preceded by their rank in uppercase letters, abbreviated with a period.
If the academic degree of the author(s) is stated, it must be the degree actually obtained by the professional and not the status of being a candidate for such a degree; thus, for example, “Doctoral Candidates” or “Master’s Candidates” are not considered.

It is necessary to specify that the information in this section will not be forwarded to the journal’s reviewers (Scientific Committee); this is to comply with the double-blind review parameters required for this scientific publication.

3. Abstract: In this section, the problem as it stands today must be clearly identified; the most relevant studies must be briefly presented; and the contributions of other authors to the subject under study must be highlighted. The reasons for conducting the research, the methodology used, the formulated hypothesis, the objectives, the results, and the conclusions must be justified. It must not contain bibliographic citations. It should demonstrate the main achievements of the work and, thereby, the contribution of the research.

The abstract must be no longer than 250 words, written in a single column. Use Arial 10 font and single spacing (1.0), separating each section with a single space. Please note the following:

• “ABSTRACT” Section: presentation of the abstract in the original language of the article (if the article is written in Spanish, the abstract must also be in Spanish).
• “Keywords” Section: a maximum of six keywords must be provided, in the language of the article, separated by commas, preferably different from those used in the title. They are placed immediately after the abstract, separated from it by a single space.
• “ABSTRACT” Section: Presentation of the same abstract translated into English (provided the original language of the article is Spanish).
• “Keywords” Section: The same keywords translated into English (provided the original language of the article is Spanish).

Throughout the article, words authorized by the Royal Spanish Academy (www.rae.es) must be used.

B. The Article

The body of the article should be presented on a new page, as follows:

1. Use Arial 10 font with single spacing (1.0), written in a single column with justified paragraphs, taking into account:

1. The following structure is recommended for the article text, as appropriate:

• INTRODUCTION
• THEORETICAL
• FRAMEWORK
• MATERIALS AND METHODS
• RESULTS
• DISCUSSION
• CONCLUSIONS OR FINAL REFLECTIONS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• REFERENCES

A. Direct quotations: these must be enclosed in quotation marks, and neither bold nor italics should be used to highlight them. The use of italics is permitted to emphasize words or expressions within the direct quotation; in such cases, it must be indicated whether the emphasis is the author’s own or original.
C. Use of italics: this should be reserved for highlighting key concepts or ideas that the author wishes to emphasize. Under no circumstances should bold or underlining be used for this purpose. Italics should also be applied to any foreign-language terms the author uses in the text.
D. Abbreviations should be avoided; if necessary, they should be used according to the grammatical rules established by the Royal Spanish Academy. In the case of “etcétera,” it will be abbreviated as “etc.” provided it does not appear at the end of a paragraph, in which case the full word will be written.
E. Symbols: These are established through international, national, or private agreements and follow the conventions included therein. Cardinal directions, chemical elements, units of measurement in the International System, etc., are represented by symbols. They never take a period, unless it is appropriate to use a punctuation mark to indicate the end of a sentence.

They cannot be written by changing uppercase letters to lowercase and vice versa, as doing so would alter their meaning. They have no plural form and must remain unchanged regardless of the quantity preceding them. The abbreviation must be written in full the first time it is cited in the text and has no plural form. The abbreviation is written without periods or spaces, and is always preceded by the article corresponding to the main noun.

Some examples of symbols: m = meter; mm = millimeter; min = minute; % = percent.

2. Use of uppercase and lowercase letters

An uppercase initial letter is used in the following cases:

A. After a period or a new paragraph, or at the beginning of a text.
B. After question marks and exclamation points, as well as after ellipses, when such punctuation marks serve the function of a period.
C. In proper nouns.
D. In the case of nouns denoting institutions that must be distinguished from the same word with a different meaning, such as: Government/government, Church/church, State/state.

Titles designating political offices (minister, president, chief, secretary), military ranks (general, commander), noble titles (marquis, duke, count), academic titles (professor, engineer, bachelor’s degree holder, doctor), and ecclesiastical titles (bishop, archbishop, cardinal), as well as the names of the days of the week and the months of the year, shall be written with a lowercase letter.

3. Numbers

A. No paragraph shall begin with a number written in Arabic numerals.
B. Cardinal numbers used in enumerations shall be written in words.
C. Numbers referring to dates, ages, tables, charts, graphs, volumes, pages, units of measurement, and percentages shall be written in Arabic numerals.
D. Thousands and millions shall be written using both numbers and words, as follows: 150,000, 25,000,000, etc. The separation between thousands, regardless of the language used in the text, shall be indicated by a period, and decimals shall be indicated by a comma: 18,426.32.
E. Numbers with decimals must follow a consistent format throughout the text. For example, if a single decimal place is used, it must be used consistently throughout the text, within the same graph, table, or chart.
F. Ordinal numbers shall be written in words.

4. References (Bibliography and Citations)

A. The references must consist solely of bibliographic references cited in the text. It is essential to verify that there are no references cited in the text that are not included in the bibliographic references at the end of the text. Additionally, references must be complete.
B. Bibliographic references and citations must comply with the most current APA style.
C. In the bibliography, authors are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
D. Each work appears in a single-spaced paragraph and is separated by a single space.
E. If citing two or more works by the same author, order them by publication date, starting with the oldest.
F. If the author of the work is also its editor, indicate this in parentheses and in abbreviated form immediately following the title. If there are two or more cities of publication and/or two or more publishers, list them separated by a slash without spaces.

5. Graphic Elements

A. Any graphic element included in the articles (illustrations, maps, charts, tables, etc.) must include the necessary details to ensure its correct interpretation, being numbered and properly identified (title) and cited (source) (we suggest reviewing the template for article preparation, available on this website).
B. All illustrations must be explained or referenced in the text to justify their inclusion.
C. All figures must have a title and be clearly identified in the paragraph that refers to them, indicating the source of the data.
D. The description of these elements must be inserted below the illustrations, maps, charts, tables, etc., in justified format with single line spacing.

6. Illustrations and Photographs

Photos, illustrations, maps, or similar elements must be submitted separately from the text on the same platform, clearly identifiable within the article for subsequent final layout. They must meet the following requirements:

• A resolution of no less than 300 dpi (as indicated by image management software) at the actual size of the image.
• In uncompressed .tif format (if sent digitally) or in .jpg or .png format, provided the original meets the requirements of the previous point.

7. Maps

A. Submit maps that include only essential elements, avoiding overloading them with drawings or text.
B. Maps depicting or illustrating areas bordering Chilean territory must be authorized by the National Directorate of Borders and State Limits of Chile (DIFROL) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, citing within the article the exempt resolution authorizing their circulation.

In this regard, each author is instructed as follows:
- Visit the DIFROL website at the following link: https://www.difrol.cl/tramites/publicaciones/
- Click on “Go to Procedure.”
- Complete the form.
- Attach the full article.

8. Graphs and Diagrams

A. Graphs and diagrams must be of adequate original quality. It is recommended that a computer graphics program be used in all cases.
B. Graphs and diagrams should preferably be submitted in an editable format.
C. The titles of the X, Y, and Z axes, if any, must be clearly identified.
D. Legends must clearly identify the data series.
E. Flowcharts must be images and must not be inserted as objects.

9. Tables and Figures

A. Tables must be included in the text in editable format (not as images).
B. Figures may be included in the text in editable format; however, if they are incorporated into the article as images, they must comply with the parameters of point 6 of these guidelines.
C. Clearly define, in the case of tables and charts, the columns and rows where values are entered. Avoid errors resulting from repetitive actions—such as copy and paste.
D. If a table extends beyond the margins or the length of the page, it must be split into multiple pages. In such cases, the header must be repeated at the top of each page, and the text “continued” and “conclusion” must be included at the end of the table as appropriate.

10. Equations

A. Equations must be created using the word processor’s equation editor with Arial font size 10 for symbols and numerals. Equations in image format or scanned versions will not be accepted.
B. Numbering: No numbering.

11. Submission

The article must be uploaded to the platform in Word format.

The authors’ names must be included in a separate Word file from the article text and uploaded separately to the journal’s platform.

Additionally, the letter of originality, duly signed by all authors, must be uploaded.

* See the downloadable template in the menu: Submissions → Terra Australis Journal Format
Submissions -> Letter of Originality
**Subject to change