Author guidelines
Instructions
Thank you for your interest in publication in the SYbIL, one of the publications of the Asociación Española de Profesores de Derecho Internacional y Relaciones Internacionales (AEPDIRI). Articles published in the Yearbook address issues of enduring interest for scholars and specialists in international law. Articles can cover any topic in public or private international law, and in international relations. Notes are foreseen for the analysis of Spanish diplomatic, legislative, judicial and other domestic practice with an incidence in international law. The Yearbook also publishes book reviews that are argumentative and innovative, normally grouping several books of similar or connected subjects.
1. Language editing
Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. However, good manuscripts written in a poor English will not be accepted for publication. Under no circumstance, the SYbIL will translate or correct your text from any language to English. Spelling should follow the Oxford English Dictionary or the Concise Oxford Dictionary for British English spellings.
We expect authors to use gender-neutral language.
2. Submissions
Please read these instructions carefully and follow them closely to ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as efficient and quick as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with these instructions. The SYbIL does not charge any kind of fee for the submission or publication of manuscripts.
The editors welcome ideas from prospective contributors to discuss ideas for articles, notes and book reviews before submission.
3. Editorial procedure for articles and notes
The sending of the originals for publication will be done through the procedure provided in the corresponding tab.
Authors should provide a short declaration that their work is unpublished and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, whether in print or through electronic media.
All contributions of sufficient standard are read independently by at least two reviewers, who will not be given the name of the author and whose names will not be disclosed to the author (double blind review). Normally, articles and notes are reviewed within a period of 4-8 weeks after submission. An indication will be given at that time of acceptability or otherwise for the Yearbook, and of any suggested changes.
Upon acceptance, a PDF of the article proofs will be sent to each author by e-mail to check carefully for factual and typographic errors. Authors are responsible for checking these proofs and are strongly urged to make use of the Comment & Markup toolbar in Acrobat Reader to note their corrections directly on the proofs. At this stage in the production process only minor corrections are allowed. Alterations to the original manuscript at this stage will result in considerable delay in publication and are not accepted unless charged to the author. Proofs must be returned within 7 days of receipt to the journal manager.
4. General Style
The SYbIL uses its own Style guide, available here and that may be forwarded under demand to any prospective author. Following the Style guide is compulsory. Papers not following that guide shall be rejected.
5. Manuscript format and structure
The manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, 12pt in the main text and 10pt in footnotes, with justified margins around all sides. The first page of the manuscript must give: title of paper, contributor name(s), and the full address (including email) of the author designated to receive proofs/correspondence, and total word count. The name of the author(s) should appear at the beginning immediately under the title, with an asterisked footnote giving the present position of the author(s) and an address (including email) for contact by readers, together with any desired acknowledgements. This first page must be sent to the EB in a separate sheet. The rest of the manuscript, without any reference to the author(s) or any indirect reference to its authorship will be sent in another separate document. Both will be sent to the Editorial Board through the procedure provided on the platform in Microsoft Office ‘word’ format (either ‘.doc’ or .docx’ but not ‘pdf’ files).
A template in MS Office word ‘dotx’ document can be downloaded here.
The Yearbook uses footnotes, not endnotes. Footnotes, indicated by superscript figures in the text, should be used for listing references and additional comments. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively, with the footnote number inserted after the relevant punctuation (comma, semicolon, full stop, etc.) in the text. Footnotes should be kept as brief as possible and used primarily for reference purposes. Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of all footnotes and references.
Authors have an obligation to link references in their manuscripts with the corresponding Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Authors are also encouraged to link references in other content types for which DOIs are deposited but are not currently required to do so.
Tables should be typed with double spacing, but minimizing redundant space, and each should be placed on a separate sheet. Each Table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals. Tables should also have a title above and an explanatory footnote below, if required.
6. Further notes for book reviews
The title refers to details of the book or books under review, including author, title, publisher, place, year, number of introductory pages (in roman numerals) and pages, as follows:
Los acuerdos internacionales de elección de foro. By Federico Garau Sobrino (Editorial COLEX, Madrid, 2008) 225 pp.
Details of the reviewer should appear at the end of the review.
References to the book under review are given in the main text rather than in footnotes. For example:
Garau provides a useful institutional perspective (113-115).
For reference to other sources, references should follow the suggested style for Yearbook articles as set out above.
Style guide
The instructions given in the SYbIL Style Guide are compulsory for any author wishing to submit any manuscript to the Board of Editors of the Spanish Yearbook of International Law (SYbIL). Papers not strictly following that guide shall be rejected.
SYbIL uses the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system for all the manuscripts published in the Yearbook and favors its use widely. In order for the DOI system to function efficiently and fairly to function efficiently and fairly, authors have an obligation to link references in their manuscripts. For more information on how to query for DOIs to include in your references please refer to the Associated Editor. One tip for simplifying the implementation of your reference linking is our Simple Text Query Form available at http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery/. This simple cut-and-paste form accepts references formatted in common bibliographic styles and will return the DOI for articles if one is found in CrossRef.
For downloading the SYbIL Style Guide, please click here
