Revista d'Estudis Autonòmics i Federals -- Journal of Self-Government (REAF-JSG)

Objectives and content of REAF-JSG
The Revista d’Estudis Autonòmics i Federals – Journal of Self-Government (REAF–JSG) is a biannual publication, with one issue published in June and another in December.
The content of its articles, which are multidisciplinary in nature, is open to all fields of research related to self-government issues: political science, law, economics, linguistics, communication, cultural studies, etc. Articles may adopt either a theoretical and comparative public policy perspective or an applied research approach focused on specific cases from contemporary democracies.

Submission of manuscripts
The articles published in the REAF–JSG must be original and unpublished. Articles that are under review by another journal will not be accepted.
Articles may be submitted and published in the following languages: Catalan, Spanish, and English.
All manuscripts must be submitted as a digital file through Scholastica, the academic journal management platform.

Manuscript selection and review
All manuscripts received will undergo double-blind peer review by experts in the field. Therefore, they must not include any references (in text, footnotes, or bibliography) that could reveal the author’s identity.
If the reviews recommend revisions to the manuscript, the final acceptance of the article will be conditional on the author’s acceptance and implementation of the required revisions indicated in the evaluation reports.
The evaluation reports will take the following factors into account:
the methodological soundness and consistency
the originality and the new contributions made by the article in its field
the coherence and structure of the article
the argumentation supporting the claims put forward
the suitability and scope of the sources used

Formal submission requirements
Once an article has been reviewed and accepted, the IEA reserves the right to modify any formal aspects of the manuscript in order to ensure the journal’s overall consistency and to adapt the text to the editorial guidelines.
The author may also be asked to check the final proofs, with corrections limited to errors in the accepted original manuscript. The corrected proofs must be returned to the IEA within the deadline specified in each case.
In general, the formal requirements that articles published in the REAF–JSG must meet are those recommended by The Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition). Therefore, in case of doubt, authors may consult this manual.

Length and format
The length of the manuscript should be between 11,000 and 15,000 words, including footnotes and bibliography.
The text should be written using Arial or Times New Roman font, size 12, with 1.5 line spacing for the main text, and size 10 for footnotes.
Along with the article, authors must submit:
A CV of between 100 and 110 words, including their professional address, telephone number, email address, and ORCID.
An abstract of the article of between 170 and 200 words, both in the original language and in English. This abstract must include the specific subject matter of the article, the structure of its development, and the main conclusions.
A list of between four and eight keywords, also provided in the original language and in English. To ensure that these keywords belong to a controlled vocabulary system, authors may consult the ICPSR Thesaurus.

Title and structure of the text
The title must concisely indicate the content of the manuscript and may be supplemented with a subtitle providing additional information.
An English version of the title must also be included if the article is written in Catalan or Spanish.
The text must be structured into sections, with a maximum of two levels of headings.

Acronyms and emphasis conventions
When an acronym is used for the first time (always without full stops), its full meaning must be provided in parentheses.
The devices used to highlight words or expressions are italics and quotation marks. The use of uppercase letters, small caps, and bold type for this purpose should therefore be avoided.
Italics provide purely visual emphasis, without any semantic implications, to the highlighted text.
Quotation marks are the appropriate device for conveying connotations and must also always be used for direct quotations and for translations of words or phrases.

Tables and figures
Tables and figures must have the simplest possible design, with a title, independent numbering, and an explanatory caption, as well as the source and an indication of whether they are the author’s own work.

Quotations
Direct quotations within the text must be placed in quotation marks and never in italics (even when they are in a language other than that of the manuscript).
As a general rule, quotations longer than five lines must be set in a separate indented paragraph, without quotation marks.
Any changes introduced into the original text must be indicated in square brackets within the quotation.

Footnotes
All explanatory notes must appear as footnotes and be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals.
It is recommended that the length of these notes be kept to a minimum.
Footnote superscript numbers (within the text) must always be placed immediately after punctuation marks.
When notes include a bibliographic reference, this reference must be presented in a short format, in accordance with the source identification system described in The Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition), known as the “notes and bibliography” system.
Examples:
Doniger, Splitting the Difference, 23.
Schwartz, “Nationals and Nationalism”, 138.
Belizzi et al., “Consumer Perceptions”, 57–60.
Kurland and Lerner, Founders’ Constitution.

Cited bibliography
At the end of the manuscript, only the sources cited (not general bibliographies) should be listed in a single consolidated list (books, articles, legislation, websites, etc.), arranged alphabetically by authors’ surnames, following the format of the examples provided in the guidelines.

Artificial intelligence
With regard to content generated by a chatbot or similar tool, its use must be clearly indicated (in the text, in a preface, or in a similar section).
Likewise, whether quoted verbatim or paraphrased, such content must be referenced in the text or in a footnote.
If AI-generated text has been edited or adapted, this must also be stated.
As with personal communications and social media posts, conversations with chatbots are not included in the bibliography.

Permissions
The author is responsible for requesting and obtaining all the permissions required to reproduce both copyrighted material used for quotations (when necessary) and any illustrations, photographs, tables, etc., that are not their own original work.

Copyright
All articles published in REAF–JSG will be released under a Creative Commons “Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivatives” (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

Privacy statement
Personal data will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal’s publication process and will not be made available to third parties