Submissions

Author Guidelines

The journal Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas publishes, in Spanish or English, the following types of contributions:

• Theoretical or empirical articles. Theoretical articles are original studies on ideas, concepts, authors or overarching matters of theoretical discussion on public affairs. Likewise, they may consist of a review of the current state of the art on a given subject, linked to a future research programme on the matter. Empirical articles are original studies that provide scientific evidence on the subject they analyse.
• Experiences and cases: this kind of studies cover specific practices or public policies that stand out on the basis of their singularity, their novelty, their exceptionality or their representativeness in relation to the majority of known cases.
• Research notes: these will be texts reporting the results of novel research projects or studies still in progress. They will usually focus on methodological aspects, findings related to new contributions to the discipline or contemporary debates within the journal's thematic area. Such articles combine analytical rigour with clear writing aimed at an audience of academics and practitioners. Like scientific articles, research notes follow the "double-blind" peer review process.
• Book reviews: these are short texts that critically engage with a recently published book or monograph on the research areas of public policy, public administration or public management.
• Interviews: these will be interesting and topical conversations with academics and experts. The interviews must be in line with the journal's scope, which aims to promote scientific analysis on public management and Administration, governance and State reform, and to disseminate best practices in Public Administration in Spain, Europe and Latin America.

Preparation for submission

• The submission shall always take place through the application.
• The text must be accompanied by a “joint text” in which the author shall: 1. briefly explain which is the scientific o professional contribution of the text; 2. reiterates the commitment on the originality of the text; and 3. states that the text has not been submitted to any other journal..
• Two versions of the text will be sent: a full version and an anonymised version. Even though the application requires some personal data on the submission’s author (such as their name, their institutional filiation, ORCID number (if available), email address, and a biographical note of no more than 60 words), it is crucial that the rest of the text be completely anonymised, so as to ensure the double blind review.

Features of the manuscripts

• To ensure that the second version is properly anonymised, the author shall remove (by covering them by the wording *anonymised*) any quote, expression of gratitude, reference or any other allusion that may allow a direct or indirect identification of the submission’s author(s) (except for the initial header data, AUTHOR, AFFILIATION, ORCID, EMAIL, BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE).
• The studies shall be submitted in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx) through the journal’s website. No other channel of submission shall be accepted, and neither will any type of correspondence be kept concerning manuscripts submitted through other means or in different formats.
• All articles shall include:
• Title, in English and Spanish. It should describe the content of the article in a specific, clear and concise way and, at the same time, allow the precise indexing of the content.
• An abstract of no more than 200 words in each version (Spanish and English). It should be structured and set out clearly and concisely, using bold headings, the objectives, methodology, results and conclusions of the work.
• Keywords: a maximum of 5 keywords in both Spanish and English (which shall be internationally accepted key terms in the disciplines of the social sciences, or frequent expressions in bibliometric classifications).
• Bibliographical references, including their relevant DOI numbers (if existent).
• When the articles are the result of research that has received public or private funding, especially in competitive processes, i.e.: European, national, regional research projects; contracts; institutional subsidies, grants, etc., the source of funding must be specified, preferably as a footnote on the first page or in the Acknowledgements section.
• Articles shall have a maximum length of 10,000 words, including the title, the abstracts, the keywords, footnotes, graphs, charts and bibliography.
• Articles shall follow the IMRD (introduction, methodology, results and discussion) structure, followed by the relevant bibliographical references.
• Research notes should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words in length, including notes and bibliographical references.
• Book reviews shall have a maximum length of 2,000 words, and will specify at their beginning the following information on the reviewed volume: author(s), title, city of publication, publisher, year of publication and number of pages. Likewise, the review’s author’s name, institutional affiliation and email address shall also be provided.
• Each interview must include:
• Title, in Spanish and English.
• Abstract of no more than 200 words in Spanish and English.
• Keywords: a maximum of five in Spanish and their translation into English (they must be internationally accepted terms in the scientific-social disciplines and/or common expressions of bibliometric classification).
• Introduction with a brief summary of the interviewee's professional profile and experience, the objectives of the interview, as well as a brief closing section or conclusion of the conversation.
• The interviewer can make comments, include his/her opinion, views, or an analysis of the interview data.
• They should contain an appendix with the interviewee's permission to publish their comments and opinions.
• Interviews will have a maximum length of 8000 words once transcribed and structured according to the journal's criteria.
• Non-textual elements (such as charts, tables, maps, graphs, drawings, etc.) that the article may content shall appear inserted in the relevant part of the text. In addition, the editable graphs shall also be rendered in a separate version in Microsoft Excel (xls) or OpenOffice Calc (ods) format; the maps, drawings or images shall also be separately rendered in jpeg or tif formats (300 ppp). All of them shall be numbered and titled, their origin shall be specified through footnotes, and they will be explicitly referred to in the body of the text.
• The format of the text shall observe the following rules:
• It shall have a 12 point size for the text and a 3cm one for the margins of the document.
• The text shall not incorporate indentation, unless it corresponds to quotes or list paragraphs.
• Footnotes shall be placed at the end of each page following their numeration, and not at the end of the text. It is suggested to use them as limitedly as possible and for their use to be linked to explanation, and never to bibliographical quoting.
• Pages shall be numbered below in the lower part of the page starting at the page of the abstract, which shall be page 1.
• The sections or subsections of the text shall be numerated (in ordinary numerals and separated by full stops) and shall be titled in minuscule and bold letters. The headings on Introduction, Conclusions and References shall preferably be non-numbered. The hierarchy of the heading of each section shall follow the following format:

  1.
  1.1.
  1.1.1.

In-text citations and references

VERY IMPORTANT. In order to improve the indexing of the journal and that of all the authors cited in it, in-text citations and references must be prepared in accordance with the format established by the APA in its version 7, as defined in its Style and grammar guidelines.

It is VERY IMPORTANT to include the DOI identifier of those references that have it. At the following address you will find a utility for searching for DOIs: http://search.crossref.org/references. Failure to include DOI identifiers in references may be grounds for rejection.

COMMON REFERENCE EXAMPLES

This information comes from the Common Reference Examples Guide, 7th edition, a comprehensive list of examples of the most common types of references in APA Style 7. We include here examples for journal articles, books and book chapters, the most common in scholarly communication. Extensive information on references and reference examples can be found in chapters 9 and 10 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020), in the Concise Guide to APA Style (7th ed.) and in the Reference Examples pages on the APA Style website.

For guidance, you can also download the Guía rápida de APA. 7.ª, produced by the Biblioteca de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, which contains a quick reference for in-text citations and references adapted to Spanish.

The examples appear in English, as defined by the APA manual, and in a Spanish-adapted version:

Journal Article / Artículo de revista

Edwards, A. A., Steacy, L. M., Siegelman, N., Rigobon, V. M., Kearns, D. M., Rueckl, J. G., & Compton, D. L. (2022). Unpacking the unique relationship between set for variability and word reading development: Examining word- and child-level predictors of performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(6), 1242–1256. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000696

Edwards, A. A., Steacy, L. M., Siegelman, N., Rigobon, V. M., Kearns, D. M., Rueckl, J. G. y Compton, D. L. (2022). Unpacking the unique relationship between set for variability and word reading development: Examining word- and child-level predictors of performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(6), 1242-1256. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000696

Authored Book / Libro

Kaufman, K. A., Glass, C. R., & Pineau, T. R. (2018). Mindful sport performance enhancement: Mental training for athletes and coaches. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000048-000

Kaufman, K. A., Glass, C. R. y Pineau, T. R. (2018). Mindful sport performance enhancement: Mental training for athletes and coaches. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000048-000

Edited Book Chapter / Capítulo de libro

Zeleke, W. A., Hughes, T. L., & Drozda, N. (2020). Home–school collaboration to promote mind–body health. In C. Maykel & M. A. Bray (Eds.), Promoting mind–body health in schools: Interventions for mental health professionals (pp. 11–26). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000157-002

Zeleke, W. A., Hughes, T. L. y Drozda, N. (2020). Home–school collaboration to promote mind–body health. En C. Maykel y M. A. Bray (eds.), Promoting mind–body health in schools: Interventions for mental health professionals (pp. 11-26). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000157-002

Peer review process

The journal guarantees that the maximum review time for an article is two months.

1. Authors must consult the guidelines for submissions before sending a publication proposal. The submission will be accompanied by a brief note highlighting the contribution that the text has made to the discipline and guaranteeing the originality of the article, as well as the fact that it is not under review in another journal.

2. If the text in case meets all the formal requirements, the author will be informed and the evaluation process will begin.

3. Articles received are subject to an initial review by the Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas Editorial Board, which will assess the quality and thematic adequacy of the work and may be directly rejected without undergoing an external review. For this first review, the Editorial Board may require the assistance of members of the Advisory Board, if deemed necessary.

4. If the article overcomes this first filter, a "double blind" review process begins, in which neither the authors nor the reviewers know the identity of the other party. Articles will be sent to two external reviewers, specialists in the field or line of research, together with the article review form. In the case that the evaluations differ, or for any other reason, the Editorial Board may send the text to a third reviewer

5. In view of the reports of the reviewers, the Editorial Board may adopt one of the following decisions that will be communicated to the author(s):

• Publishable as it is (or with minor revisions).
• Publishable after revision. In this case, publication will depend on the realization by the author(s) of all the changes required by the editors. The deadline for making these changes will be two months. The author must attach a brief report explaining the changes introduced and how they comply with the requirements of the Editorial Board. Among the proposed changes may be the adaptation of the article to another section.
• Not publishable, but with the possibility of rewriting and resending the article. In this case, the resubmission of a new version will not imply any guarantee of publication; rather, the evaluation process will start again from the beginning.
• Not publishable.

6. Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas will publish annually the list of all the people who have conducted anonymous evaluations. 

7. If it is led to discover any of them, Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas may make public any of the following scientific malpractices: plagiarism, falsification or invention of data, individual appropriation of collective authorship and duplicate publication.

Proofreading

When a submitted article is accepted for publication, galley proofs will have to be revised by the author within a maximum period of three working days.

Proofreading will preferably take place on the very same document submitted to the author by the journal, i.e. making notes and comments on that very PDF. Alternatively, it will be possible to make corrections by means of hand-written correction marks, preferably in red colour, and then submitting a scanned PDF with sufficient resolution for clear reading. In this latter case, corrections shall be legible and shall clearly point the exact location of the correction within the document. The original version of the work shall not be used for correction and, if the author wishes to include additional content, this will be notified by means of a separate document that contains only the additional content and its purported location within the document. The document submitted to the author for proofreading may contain red-coloured text with indications for revision.

Commitment to publish

DA undertakes to publish the papers approved in the peer review process within a maximum of 4 months from the date of the original submission.

Publication ethics

This Ethical Code was approved by the Publications Commission of the Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública in January 2023 and revised in July 2024. It is publicly available on the journals' website (https://revistasonline.inap.es/index.php/index/codigo_etico).

PUBLICATION ETHICS

All parties involved in the publication of scholarly journal articles—authors, editors, and reviewers—are expected to adhere to established standards of ethical behavior.

This statement is based on the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). COPE provides resources for editors, reviewers, and authors on professional publishing standards (see publicationethics.org). In addition to COPE, other organizations contribute to defining best practices in scholarly publishing, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

The Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública is committed to maintaining high standards of academic peer review and professional editorial judgment. Journals published by the Institute operate under the editorial direction of independent editors, who are solely responsible for all decisions regarding the content of each issue and ensure the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the published articles. The Institute supports editors in managing their journals ethically and transparently while upholding the editorial principles established in their respective academic disciplines.

Additional information for authors is available under the "Guidelines for Authors" section of each journal's main menu.

EDITORIAL ETHICS

Journal editors are responsible for selecting which manuscripts will be accepted for publication. In coordination with their editorial boards, editors establish each journal’s policies and guidelines in compliance with applicable legal requirements regarding plagiarism, defamation, and copyright infringement. Editors may seek assistance from other editors or reviewers in making editorial decisions.

Editors assess each manuscript based solely on its scholarly content, without regard to the author's gender, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or political philosophy. During the review process, editors are expected to respect the integrity of the original work and must not alter the manuscript or incorporate unpublished material without the explicit consent of the author.

PEER REVIEWER ETHICS

Each journal uses a peer review process to assist editors in evaluating the quality and suitability of submitted manuscripts. Editors may share reviewers’ feedback with authors to help them improve their manuscripts.

Reviewers must adhere to the following criteria when accepting or declining a manuscript review request:

• Expertise: Reviewers should accept assignments only if they consider themselves knowledgeable and competent in the subject matter.
• Availability: Reviewers must ensure they can complete the review within the stipulated timeframe and follow the journal’s guidelines. If unable to meet the deadline, they should promptly notify the editorial office.
• Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat the manuscript as confidential and refrain from sharing it with third parties without prior editor approval. If a reviewer consults another expert, confidentiality must be preserved and pre-approved by the editor. Editors and editorial staff are the only authorized contacts regarding the review process.

Reviewers who feel unqualified or unable to provide a timely review must inform the editor promptly. Reviewers must remain impartial and avoid conflicts of interest with the manuscript's authors.

The journal follows a double-blind peer review model, in which neither authors nor reviewers are aware of each other’s identities. If a reviewer becomes aware of the author's identity, they must declare any potential conflict of interest and recuse themselves if necessary. Conflicts may include:

• Personal animosity toward the authors.
• Academic or personal proximity (e.g., same institution, department, research group, or co-authorship history).
• Any other professional or personal relationship that could bias judgment.

Reviewers must report any suspected conflict of interest to the editor.

All manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Sharing or discussing the manuscript with others is prohibited unless expressly authorized by the editor, who may require equivalent confidentiality from the third party.

Reviews must be conducted objectively, without personal criticism of the author. Reviewers must clearly express their evaluations and support their conclusions with appropriate reasoning.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. They must also inform the editor of any substantial similarities between the manuscript under review and other published work.

Peer review applies exclusively to original research articles. Other content—such as book reviews, editorials, or commentary—may not undergo peer review.

Further information on ethical review guidelines is available on the COPE website.

AUTHORSHIP ETHICS

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. All such contributors must be listed as co-authors. Others who have contributed meaningfully should be acknowledged as collaborators. The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript and have agreed to its submission.

Authors must disclose any financial or other conflicts of interest that may influence the results or interpretation of the manuscript. All sources of financial support must be properly acknowledged.

Manuscripts reporting original research must provide an accurate account of the work performed, along with an objective discussion of its significance. All supporting data and evidence should be presented truthfully. References should allow others to replicate the study. Submitting deliberately misleading or fabricated data is unethical and unacceptable.

Authors must ensure their work does not include defamatory content or infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. Proper citation of others' work is required.

Authors must provide, upon editor request, the data and evidence underpinning the article and be prepared to make this information available for editorial review and retain it for a reasonable period following publication.

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to multiple journals is considered unethical. Authors wishing to withdraw a manuscript under review must formally request withdrawal from the editor.

Authors must appropriately acknowledge the work of others and cite all sources that influenced their research.

Upon acceptance, authors are required to sign a copyright transfer agreement specific to the journal, which will be provided at the time of acceptance.

ETHICAL RESEARCH POLICIES FOR STUDIES INVOLVING HUMAN PARTICIPANT

Research in the social sciences and humanities often involves human participants and specific methodological tools (e.g., surveys, interviews, standardized tests, ethnographic observation, recordings, volunteer experiments, and, occasionally, physical interventions). Therefore, the ethical implications of chosen methodologies must be clearly outlined.

Research must comply with:

• Ethical principles.
• Applicable international, European Union, and national legislation.

This includes ensuring respect for human dignity, equitable distribution of the benefits and burdens of research, and the protection of participants’ values, rights, and interests.

Researchers must also obtain:

• All necessary ethical approvals (where applicable).
• Free and fully informed consent from research participants.

A risk assessment must be included, specifying potential types of harm (e.g., psychological, social, legal, economic, environmental), their likelihood, and the measures taken to mitigate them.

Research with more than minimal risk typically involves:

• Vulnerable populations or individuals unable to give informed consent.
• Sensitive or personal topics that may cause psychological stress or embarrassment.
• Deception.
• Risks to the safety of the researcher.
• Online recruitment (e.g., identifiable images or sensitive topics via social media).

Special consideration must be given to vulnerable groups, including children, patients, minorities, individuals facing discrimination, persons unable to give consent, dissenting voices, immigrants, and sex workers.

If children or others lacking decision-making capacity are involved, researchers must maintain active communication with their legal guardians or caregivers—not only obtaining consent but also allowing them to monitor the research.

Data must be stored securely, and publication—including online dissemination—must not violate agreed anonymity and confidentiality.

In rare cases, confidentiality agreements may be overridden, such as when they shield illegal behavior (e.g., drug trafficking or child abuse) discovered during research. In such instances, disclosure to relevant authorities must be carefully considered and, when feasible, communicated to participants or their guardians.

The technical aspects of data collection and storage must also be considered. Special attention should be given to electronic recording tools (e.g., digital recorders or cameras).

CORRECTIONS IN PUBLISHED WORKS

When an author identifies a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their responsibility to notify the journal editor and cooperate in retracting or correcting the article.

If the editor determines that a correction is warranted—particularly in cases of plagiarism, data fabrication, duplicate publication, or undeclared conflicts of interest—the editor will review the situation and decide on a resolution in consultation with the Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública.

Originality Check

Authors are responsible for guaranteeing that the information contained in their work is original and has not been copied, invented, distorted or manipulated, as well as the consensus in the case of shared authorship.  Plagiarism in any form is considered unethical and will be grounds for initial rejection or immediate withdrawal of those published texts in which it is detected.

Texts received may be subjected to a similarity check using the Turnitin application in order to guarantee their originality.

Rejection on the grounds of originality will be communicated to the authors together with the Turnitin report. There is no maximum percentage of similarity, the editors will decide on possible rejections in the light of the analysis of the report.

Only those papers that are finally published will be deposited in the Turnitin database to allow other editors to analyse the originality of their texts under evaluation. Submission of an article to the journal implies acceptance of the deposit when it is published.

Funding and publication charges (APCs)

Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública journals are funded exclusively by the budget of the Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, which is part of the Ministerio de Hacienda y Función Pública of the Government of Spain.

Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública does not charge authors any fee for publishing or for processing articles.

Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública does not charge readers any fees for access to published content.

Reccomendations for authors in order to improve the dissemination of articles

We recommend:

• Be extremely careful when drafting the titles of articles, abstracts, keywords and their respective versions in Spanish.
• Always sign articles addressed to the journal in the same way.
• Follow the guidelines for the elaboration of the reference list according to APA format.

On the other hand, global growth of scientific editorial production makes it ever more necessary to accomplish efficient dissemination efforts in order to secure the visibility of academic articles. This should benefit both the authors, by means of improving the research curriculum, and the standing of the journals in which their work is published.

Therefore, it is crucial to coordinate efforts in order to optimize the effect of dissemination tools, especially those linked to new technologies, such as scientific and ordinary social media, databases, author profiles, normalized identifiers, etc.

Even though the journal itself takes in charge the task of indexing its contents in several repositories, abstract-based and quote-based databases, and search engines, as well as the management of articles, authors and references, authors may also contribute to the dissemination of their texts by undertaking any of the following steps:

• Including the article in public researcher profiles of the author, such as ORCID or ResearcherID. It is suggested to those authors that do not still hold an ORCID identifier to get one. In she or he holds one, the journal shall publish it together with the article, and shall provide a direct link to the information about his or her academic production, as well as a biographical note next to the article.
• Not duplicating the DOI identifier. The journal assigns to each article a single persistent digital object identifier (DOI). In order to avoid any duplicities concerning the calculation of quotes, and thus undermining an appropriate count, authors should use the number provided by the journal, and avoid generating a new one.
• Submitting the article to a repository of their institutions of affiliation and/or to a thematic repository linked to the subject matter of the article, such as SocArxiv or any similar ones. In the absence of any such institutional or thematic repository, the article may be deposited at Zenodo, the repository of the European Commission. This helps making the article much more accessible to many researchers.
• Getting in touch with the relevant department of their university or research institution, in order for them to contribute to the dissemination of the accomplished research.
• The journal announces its publications through its social media profiles in sites such as Academia.edu and Mendeley, referencing the authors when they hold a profile in such social media websites. Authors may also announce advertise the publication themselves through personal profiles in sites such as ResearchGate and LinkedId, including, when doing so, at least a reference to the abstract and the DOI identifier.
• Distributing copies of the published study to the main quoted authors, inasmuch as, perhaps, the results of the research may be of interest to the their own on-going investigations; likewise, inserting the reference to the article in the email by means of which the publication has been announced, so as to make it possible to addressees to click on it.
• Using ordinary social media with an academic purpose, in order to write posts that deal with the article at stake; selecting headings and linking the articles by means of the DOI; including images, drawings and videos; tagging the relevant people and using hashtags.
• Referencing the article in the author’s eventual blog, explaining the attained results and their academic relevance. Addressing it to the general audience. Making it visually attractive by means of inserting images and video footage.