Instructions for Authors
Isonomía does not require authors to follow the Journal’s Style Guide when submitting their manuscripts. However, all manuscripts accepted for publication will have to be formatted by the authors according to the Isonomía Style Guide (below).
I. General Considerations
II. General Style Rules and Formatting
III. Citations & Bibliography
I. General Considerations
Isonomía publishes high-level unpublished academic articles, displaying original research and knowledge. Isonomía promotes scholarship on general and applied legal theory and legal philosophy broadly understood and is committed to advance interdisciplinarity and critique in the theoretical study of law. As such, we welcome submissions both within the conceptual and analytic tradition of legal theory as well as from a plurality of disciplines and approaches such as critical legal theory, social theory of law, law and humanities, gender studies, law and religion, law and AI or law and psychology among others.
After registration, all submissions must be made online through our OJS platform. A submission checklist and full instructions are provided both in the online system and below.
Article Types
In addition to the Research Articles section, Isonomía has five additional sections for collaborations of another type: Essays, Book Reviews, Forum, Interviews, and Translations.
Research Articles are full-fledged academic original submissions. The Journal reviews manuscripts of up to 14,000 words (including notes and bibliography), although the ideal length falls between 9,000 and 12,000 words. Therefore, authors may be asked to collaborate with the Editors to trim their papers to fewer words.
The Essays section includes short research articles and essays, review essays, theoretical case notes and analyses of legislative developments. Submissions should be under 8,000 words (including notes and bibliography).
The Book Reviews section publishes critical analyses of recently published work. Isonomía accepts book reviews under 2,000 words. Longer review essays shall be published and subject to the requirements specified in the Essays section.
In Forum, we accept submissions of variable length engaging with previously published pieces in Isonomía or providing critical reactions to pressing legal issues. Forum submissions do not need to comply with the formal and substantive requirements of Research Articles and are expected to stimulate theoretical reflection on the issues addressed by the journal in a more flexible setting. Maximum length of submissions is 12,000 words.
Interviews offer another venue to make available less formal academic outputs. It comprises conversations with established authors on topics falling within the Journal’s scope.
Preparation of submission
Manuscripts do not necessarily have to comply with the editorial standards at the time of submission. However, in case of being accepted for publication, compliance with the editorial standards will be required for a manuscript to be sent for production.
Submissions must include:
a) A blind version of the manuscript without the author’s name and affiliation in the heading and without any identifiable reference in the body of the text to the authors’ previous work. Both the title and the abstract of the manuscript must be translated into English. Abstracts’ length is 200 words max. A list of between four and eight keywords must also be included, both in the original language of the manuscript and in English.
b) a signed and scanned PDF document, in which the author expresses the interest in publishing the manuscript in Isonomía and stating that it has not been previously published, sent for, or under review with any other publisher, journal or electronic publishing platform.
c) if applicable, a separate document with acknowledgments, which, in case the manuscript is accepted for publication, will appear as a separate paragraph at the end of it.
e) non-ordinary textual elements such as tables, graphs, formulas and images must be attached as PNG images. Follow the instructions here.
Metadata
The authors commit themselves to indicate all the required metadata, both in the original language of the manuscript and in English. It is suggested that you enter the metadata in all available languages. The Journal will be responsible for preparing the title, abstract and keywords in the remaining languages.
Even if in the published Pdf these data shall only appear in the original language and in English, metadata regarding abstracts and keywords in the remaining languages is essential for these contents to be accessible to those readers consulting the website in languages other than Spanish and English.
II. General Style Rules and Formatting
Document Settings
Texts must be submitted as a Word File. The entire document should appear in Times New Roman 12.
Page formatting: A4 (21 X 30cm)
Tabulations, paragraph breaks (separations are made using "space before and after the paragraph"), lists and bullets (for titles and enumerations) shall be avoided.
An English translation of the title of the article shall appear below the latter. The abstract and keywords of the article shall appear first in the original language and then in English.
Block Quotations (more than four lines)
Font size 10, normal, single spacing (1), left indentation one centimeter. No use of quotation marks unless in the body of the quotation if they appear in the original one. (…) shall be used to signal intentional omissions of material from the original quote.
Quotations
Follows the main text formatting rules. “These” quotations marks shall be employed. Whenever there are quotation marks within the quotation the original formatting shall be kept unless they match those used to start and end the quotation, case in which ‘these’ shall be used.
Reenvíos a las notas
Footnote numbers should follow punctuation and be placed after punctuation marks. For example: “Hamilton was proved wrong”.4
References and Footnotes
References follow the APA Style and should appear in the body of the text. For example: (see Alexy, 2020; Schauer, 1998, pp. 12-14).
References may appear in footnotes when they are related to ideas that are best developed outside of the body of the text.
Footnotes should be kept to a minimum.
Words and/or quotations in a language other than the language of the manuscript
The use of neologisms and words in a language other than the language of the manuscript shall be avoided. Authors should identify translations of quotations they themselves produce (“my translation”) or done by others (referring the translation together with the original work and quoting the year of publication of the latter).
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Acronym or abbreviations must be fully spelled out in their first occurrence in the text, with the acronym or abbreviation enclosed in parentheses.
First Page
Include (without paragraph breaks):
Title: 14 pt., centered, bold, no indentation, 1.5 spacing.
English title: 12 pt., centered, italics, no indentation, 1.5 spacing.
Author's name: 12 pt., bold, centered, no indentation, 1.5 spacing.
Professional affiliation, country: 12 pt., italics, centered, no indentation. For example: University of Girona, Spain
Email address: 12 pt., italics, centered, no indentation.
Abstract: Should appear as Abstract:, in bold. Followed, in the same line, by the text of the summary in 11 pt., normal, justified, single spacing.
Keywords: Same format as the abstract, lower case, separated by commas, with a full stop at the end.
Abstract in English: see Abstract above.
Keywords in English: see Keywords.
Epigraph: Quotations at the beginning of the manuscript should appear immediately before the first title
Titles
First Level: I. Capital roman number, 12 pt., bold, centered, no indentation
Second Level: A. Capital letter, 12 pt., bold, left justify, no indentation
Third Level: 1. Arabic number, 12 pt., italics, left justify
References: same formatting as second level without capital letter
Example:
I. First Level
A. Second Level
1. Third Level
Paragraphs
Normal: first line indentation 0.5 cm, 1.5 spacing.
First paragraph after title: no indentation, 1.5 spacing.
Tables, Graphs, Formulas, Pictures
These special textual elements have to be exported as PNG images with the following specifications in order to avoid formatting problems when producing the PDF file:
PNG, 75-150 DPI, max 250kb
Page Width: 16.5 cm Page Height: Max 25 cm.
III. Citations & Bibliography
Citations or references shall be made in the body of the text and must be enclosed in parentheses, indicating the last name of the author, the date of publication and the page number(s). Example: “This thesis has already been discarded (Habermas, 1987, pp. 361–363)”. If a general mention is made, only the last name of the author and the year of publication of the work should be stated. Example: “Such issues have been extensively discussed (Habermas, 1987; Alexy, 1994)”. Citations will be made in footnotes only when they are part of an explanatory note required by the argumentation of the body of the text. Example: “see, for a critical note on this thesis, Habermas, 1987, p. 8 ".
A full bibliography must be included at the end of the article containing solely the works cited (both in the body of the text and in the footnotes). References will be made as follows:
Books:
Levinson, Sanford (ed.), 1995: Responding to Imperfection. New Jersey, Princeton University Press.
Book chapters:
Schauer, Frederick, 1995: “Amending the Presuppositions of a Constitution”, in Levinson, Sanford (ed.), Responding to Imperfection. New Jersey, Princeton University Press, pp. 145-162.
Journal articles:
Siegel, Reva B., 2004: “Equality Talk: Antisubordination and Anticlassification Values in Constitutional Struggles Over Brown”. Harvard Law Review, Vol. 1, No. 117, pp. 1470-1547.
Other electronic sources:
Electronic sources such as online press articles, blog entries or similar outputs follow the format of journal articles. The URL and the date when the page was consulted should always be indicated.
Jurisprudence, reports and other publicly available documents:
These documents should be included in a separate list, respecting the common uses specific to each kind of source and indicating the URL if the documents are available online.
Translations:
Taruffo, Michele, 1992: La prova dei fatti giuridici. Nozioni Generali. Milan, Giuffré. Spanish translation quoted Ferrer Beltrán, Jordi: La prueba de los hechos. Madrid, Trotta, 2002. The same applies for journal articles and book chapters.
Note: the Spanish edition may be omitted when the original work was used and any textual quotations have been translated into Spanish (“my translation”).
Classics:
When quoting classics, please specify the date of the original publication and the edition consulted. For example: Austin, John 1954 [1832]: The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, ed. Hart H.L.A. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Multiple authors:
When there are multiple authors, cite only the first one followed by “et al.” in the text and/or footnotes. Include a full reference to all authors in the final bibliography, separating the authors with "and", if two authors, or with commas plus an “and” before the last author. From the second author onwards, provide the first name and then the surname.
Structure of the final bibliography or list of references:
When several works from the same author are quoted, after the second simply built a line (made of eight_), like this “________, 2020:. .....”
Order references from the most recent to the oldest.
The author should ensure consistency between the works cited in the body of the text and the final bibliography. Works by the same author shall be listed in descending order by publication date and using letters when there is more than one publication per year (2010, 2001,1997a, 1997b, etc.).
