Submissions

Author Guidelines

Área Abierta. Revista de comunicación audiovisual y publicitaria

Área Abierta only considers original and unpublished papers written in Spanish, English or Portuguese. Articles are reviewed by experts in the field —external to Complutense University—following a double-blind review process. During the review period, both authors and reviewers remain anonymous. In case of conflicting reviews, the paper is sent to a third reviewer. In any case, the editor makes the final decision. Once the reviews are received, the Editorial Committee informs the authors whether their article has been accepted for publication or rejected usually within a  month. Along with the notification of this decision, authors are sent the peer reviewers’ reports. When the recommendation is to publish with minor or major revisions, the authors should resubmit a revised version of the paper within a month.

Authors must register on the journal website https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ARAB to submit their articles (.rtf, .odt or .docx file). Once registered, authors can send their papers using the “New submission” option. Communication between authors and editors takes place through this platform. It is also possible to contact the journal via e-mail at aabierta@ccinf.ucm.es

In a separate Word document, the author must include: full name; email address; current professional affiliation; statement that the article is original, unpublished and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

AUTHOR GUIDELINES

General rules

Articles must be between 5.000-8,000 words in length (references and tables included), formatted in Times New Roman 12, single space, justified.

Title. Both English and Spanish versions.

Abstract. Both English and Spanish versions. Up to 150 words. It should include a summary of the main results and conclusions and the methodology used.

Key words. Both English and Spanish versions. A list of 6 words that synthesizes the main topics of the article. They are the most significant or informative words with respect to the content of the article.

Body of the manuscript

- Insert blank lines before and after headings and subheadings.

- No blank lines between paragraphs.

- Within the text, paragraphs are indented 0,5 cm from the left margin.

Headings and subheadings

Headings must be numbered and written in bold, with no indentation. Subheading titles must be numbered and written in italics, also with no indentation.

1. Heading

1.1. First heading

1.1.1. Second heading

1.1.2. Third heading

Titles, headings and subheadings must not have a full stop at the end.

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly as an exception (newspaper articles, interviews, sources such as archives and websites, and other similar cases). They should follow a consecutive numbering scheme for the entire article and be written at the bottom of the page. Times New Roman 10.

Quotations

Quotations within the body of text must appear between double quotation marks (“ “), with the same font and size. For textual quotations, italics must not be used, unless they appear in the original source. When a quotation is contained within a quotation, single quotation marks (‘ ’) should be used.

Elided fragments within a quotation should be indicated with three points of ellipsis between square brackets […]. Square brackets should also be used for any clarification made by the author within a quotation.

The source reference, whether the quotation is literal or a paraphrasing, is indicated according to the Harvard model: (Zunzunegui, 2014: 56).

Quotations more than four lines long should be indented 0,5 cm without using quotations marks and written in Times New Roman 10.

Use of italics, bold text and underlining

Italics should be used for foreign words, special emphasis on certain words and titles of works (see the Bibliographical References section).

Bold text should be used only to headings and should never be used within the body of the text.

Underlining of any kind should never be used.

Use of dashes

The short dash (-) should be used in compound terms and to indicate the pages in the bibliography (two or more consecutive pages).

The long dash (—) should be used when it has a parenthetical function. It should be closed in all cases.

Citing films

The first time a film is cited the following must be indicated: English title (Original title [if applicable], Director, Year), e.g. The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena, Víctor Erice, 1973)

When the film has not been released with an English title, the original title is written in italics and the literal translation between square brackets, e.g. Mapa [Mapt] (León Siminiani, 2012).

For repeated references to a film that has been already mentioned, it is enough to put the title of the film as released in English in italics.

If the reference to a film is immediately preceded by information such as the director’s name and/or the year, there is no need to repeat this information in the parenthetical data.

The same system for citing films also applies to the footnotes.

Quotations of dialogue or voiceover from a film must be placed in double quotation marks  (“…”). If the source of the quotation is not clear within the text, it must be specified in a footnote.

- If the quotation is only one sentence or less, it should be included in the body of the text-
- If the quotation involves a dialogue between two or more characters, this will be indicated using the long dash (—).

 
Citing TV series

Title in English (Original title, TV channel, first year-last year)

Once the series is cited for the first time in the text, use it in the same way for all other references. Standard parentheses (not square brackets) should never be in italics.

If the English title and the original title are exactly the same, the first is omitted.

Acronyms should be in capital letters in most cases. If there is more than one acronym, they should be separated by forward slashes.

Always use a short dash between years except in miniseries, where the first year is the same as the last year, e. g. Cable girls (Las chicas del cable, Netflix, 2017-).

Model of citing an episode

Title in English (Original title, season number x episode number, TV channel, year)

e. g. Cable girls (Las chicas del cable, 02x01, Netflix, 2017-).

 
Bibliographical references

Journal article

Last name, Name. (Year). “Title of the article”. Title of the journal, vol., num., pages. DOI (if applicable)

Siguero Guerra, Manuel (2001). “Calidad sonora”. Área Abierta, vol. 1, núm. 1, 1-8.

Book

Last name, Name. (Year). Title. City: Publisher.

Cortázar, Julio. (1963). Rayuela. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana.

Book chapter

Last name, Name. (Year). “Chapter title”. In Name Last name (ed.), Book Title. City: Publisher, pages.

Mitchell, Philip. (2004). “Re-Appraising Antonio Mercero: Film Authorship and intuición popular”. In Antonio Lázaro and Andrew Willis (eds.), Spanish Popular Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 35-52.

Website

Last Name, Name. (Year). “Title of the content”. Recovered from www.example.com (Accessed: day/month/year).

Nieto, Rafael. (2012). “Miguel Delibes y el cine español”. Recovered from https://cinemanostrum.com (Accessed 25/01/2017).

Website with an unknown author

Institution or organization. (Year). “Title of the content”. Recovered from www.example.com (Accessed: day/month/year).

Tate Modern. (2016). “Monochrome”. Recovered from http://www.tate.org.uk (Accessed: 25/01/2017).

 Graphics, charts and images

 These elements have to be integrated in the text consecutively numbered [Graphic 1; Chart 1; Image 1] and followed by a caption in which it must be included the source in brackets. [Source:]. In the case of material created by the author, it also has to be specified [Source: Prepared by the author(s)…]. The maximum size for them is a full page. Furthermore, images must be uploaded separately, as additional files, with the same numeration. These files (jpg, tiff or vector file) must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and a minimum size of 210 mm x 148 mm. WAV and MP3 audio files can also be included.