General considerations
Frontera Norte is an online, bilingual, continuously-published scientific journal edited by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte with the aim of disseminating research that addresses border issues in Mexico or other contexts.
All content in Frontera Norte is published under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Creative Commons license and may be used free of charge for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the authors and the Frontera Norte journal.
Frontera Norte welcomes research papers and critical notes in Spanish or English, although texts will be published in both languages. All submissions must be unpublished; the sending or submission of any work to this journal precludes authors from simultaneously submitting the same work for consideration by any other publication.
Text submission process
All authors must have registered on the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform at<http://fronteranorte.colef.mx>. Select “Register” and fill out the fields. Check the boxes for “Author”, “Reader”, and “Reviewer” (it is necessary to select “Reviewer” for future contributions as a reviewer for our journal).
Author information on the OJS platform must include the following: full name, highest academic degree, institutional affiliation, current position, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number; for co-authorships, all authors must register on the OJS platform. If you have an ORCID iD, we suggest you include it for each author; otherwise, it will be required once the paper is approved for publication.
The file you upload should not contain any information that may identify its author(s) or institutional affiliations. You are required to fill out the form with your details and those of your co-authors (if applicable) on the OJS platform. A brief résumé including the author’s current affiliation, lines of research, and e-mail address must be submitted along with the paper.
Papers submitted will be subject to a double-blind peer review (the names of authors and reviewers are omitted); critical notes will be peer-reviewed by an anonymous reviewer, who does not belong to the same institution as the author, on the basis of originality in their analysis, quality, and topical and thematic relevance.
Work published in Frontera Norte will be disseminated through any electronic means that El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, A.C. deems suitable, and the public distribution of such work is therefore authorized. Work may be republished wherever authors see fit, provided they inform our editorial board and give the corresponding credit with the caption: “This work was originally published in Frontera Norte, edited by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte” [along with the corresponding bibliographical record: Author/s (Year). Title of paper. Frontera Norte, volume (number), pp. doi: xxxx ].
For any questions regarding this process, please contact: <revista@colef.mx>.
Requirements for the submission of original manuscripts
Submission of texts:
I. Work submitted for possible publication in FN must be sent through the OJS interface in an electronic file in .doc or .docx format. We cannot accept submissions sent by any other means.
II.Registration information: available on the journal’s OJS interface, which requests specific information on the paper, author, and if applicable, co-authors.
III.Registration information: available on the journal’s OJS interface, which requests specific information on the paper, author, and if applicable, co-authors.
IV.Content and files. Attach a full, anonymous, final version of the paper, along with additional files. No changes will be accepted once the process has begun.
V.Use of IA. When submitting the manuscript, the authors must state if they used AI assisted technologies (large language model, chatbots or image generators) to produce text that is postulated for review. If that so, both cover letter and the work must include a description of the technologies used and what was produced with them.
Authors of the manuscripts are responsible of precision, integrity and originality of the work. Chatbots, Chat GPT or other AI assisted technologies cannot be included as authors.
Authors must be able to assert that there is no plagiarism of text or images in the produced materials by Chat GPT or any other model of AI. Authors must ensure that all the cited material is correctly attributed, including full citations.
The primary source material generated by Chat GPT or any other AI model is not acceptable.
The Editorial board and disseminators, will evaluate the relevance of the IA use in the postulated manuscripts of the Journal.
The first page should include, in Spanish and English, a (descriptive) title, abstract, and keywords (five, preferably three thematic and two geographical), and care should be taken not to exceed 150 words in the abstract in either language. Summaries should contain a) the study objectives, b) the design/methodology/approach, c) the main results and contributions, d) the study’s originality/value, e) the conclusions or findings, and f) the study’s limitations or implications.
a)Papers should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words and submitted in letter size (21.5 x 28 cm/8.5" x 11") and double-spaced 12-point Times New Roman font. This applies both to the body text, including direct quotes and transcriptions, and the footnotes. Papers should be left-aligned with margins of 2.54 cm/1" and must include an abstract, references, and supporting material.
b)Footnotes are for additional comments and should not include bibliographical references (except in work of a historical nature) or any kind of visuals. They should not exceed 6 lines, except in work of a historical nature, for which 10 lines are permitted.
c)Supporting material (photographs, tables, maps, graphs, figures, and illustrations) must be included within the text and also sent separately in editable files.
Figures, maps, illustrations, and photographs must be submitted in JPEG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tiff) format with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, in black and white and/or in color.
Graphs must present concise statistical information, be generated with Excel (except for information in specialized software such as ATLAS.ti), and include the image exported directly from the software, which must meet the specifications for supporting images.
Tables should be as concise as possible and presented in Excel or Word format, as appropriate.
d)Supporting material should be named using the type of object, its number (as ordered consecutively), and the page where it is located (graph02p13.jpg; map11p27.tif; fig08p32.png; table06p02.xls.) with a brief legend and the corresponding bibliographic record in the reference list.
e)In-text references should be presented in author-date format, i.e., by including in parentheses the last name of the author(s), the year of publication and, if relevant, the page(s) cited. Authors’ last names should be used as follows, depending on the number of authors:
One or two authors: (last name, year, pp.) / (last name & last name, year, pp.)
Three to five authors. Provide all the authors’ last names in the first citation, but use et al. in any subsequent references: (last name, last name,& last name, year, pp.) and (last name et al., year, pp.)
Six or more authors: (last name et al., year, pp.).
f)All work cited, whether in the body text, footnotes or supporting material, must be referenced in the bibliography, which should only include sources cited. Both in-text references and records in the reference list must follow American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines.
g)The list of references consulted must be ordered alphabetically using the Roman alphabet to give credit to each author/co-author, without exception. Examples:
1)Books:
James, H. (1937). The ambassadors. New York, NY: Scribner.
2)Periodical publications:
Jacoby, W. G. (1994). Public attitudes toward government spending. American Journal of Political Science, 38(2), 336-361.
3)Online material:
Cain, K. (2012, June 29). The negative effects of Facebook on communication. Social Media Today RSS. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com.
Once the paper has been approved for publication, the authors will be required to submit a signed proprietary rights assignment agreement, to be filled out with the author’s details. For papers with two or more authors, these details must be provided for each author.
Requirements for critical notes
Critical notes are reflections or research drafts that seek to open up a forum for debate on a relevant topic within the scope of the journal. They should not exceed 3,200, including complementary files, if considered necessary, and must follow the format specified and be authored by no more than 2 people.
Peer review process
Texts will be reviewed to ensure they meet the guidelines. If so, the content will be examined and, if necessary, the text will be sent for a pre-review by a member of the Editorial Committee who will assess its suitability for the journal.
Texts reviewed and accepted in the initial review will be anonymized (any references identifying the authors will be removed) and sent to two specialized academic referees who are external to the author’s own institution and will issue their decision within four weeks. A paper requires two positive decisions to be published. In the event of a disagreement between the two decisions regarding publication, the paper will be sent to a third referee.
The decision may be one of the following:
- Publishable as is.
- Publishable with minor changes.
- Publishable with major changes.
- Publication not recommended.
If major changes to the paper are required, the revised version of the paper will be reviewed by one of the referees who will issue a definitive decision on publication.
The final decision cannot be appealed.
