ISSN 1665-6423
printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Editorial Policy

Problemas del Desarrollo, a Latin American Journal of Economics, constitutes an academic space for analyzing the theory of development. Since the publication of the first issue in October-December, 1969, the objective of the debate has been the problematic centering on economic development from a rigorous multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary point of view. This is a magazine that is critical of orthodox focuses where the problem of development is absent.

The magazine's objectives are:

a) To publish articles that reflect the relevance of paradigms aimed at explaining the causes of development and under-development, essentially in Latin America, and with this in mind, to promote the debate and diffusion of all theoretical focuses and currents of economic thought based on a rigorous methodological structure.

b) To make the magazine a participant in the national and international debate on economic theory related to matters relevant in studying the problems of development.

I. General questions

First. Problemas del Desarrollo, Revista Latinoamericana de Economía, is the leading organ of academic diffusion for the Mexican National Autonomous University's (UNAM) Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas (IIEc), with an autonomous publishing circle and a specific Editorial Committee.

Second. The Magazine's content includes the following sections:

• Articles. They refer to the theory of development within the orbits of economic theory, political economy, applied economics and economic policies.

• Comments and debates (permanent)

• Reviews

• Information (possible)

• Annual index

• Rules for receiving originals (permanent)

Third. The Articles published in Problemas del Desarrollo should be unpublished and essentially the product of research with results relevant to the study of problems of development and underdevelopment.

The materials published in this section will be submitted, without exception, to anonymous arbitration by at least three recognized specialists in the subject.

Once the article has been judged and accepted for publication, the author will be contacted so that via a written commitment he/she accepts that the work in question has not been published and is not awaiting publication in any other national or foreign organ of diffusion.

Fourth. The section Comments and debates will be based essentially on unpublished material and exceptionally on items whose relevance merits their partial republication.

In particular, this section will run first-rate material. Papers must not exceed a length greater than 20 (twenty) pages. Publication of essays will occur when the work has been submitted to the corresponding arbitration process and after having received approval ratings from two of the specialists in our team.

Fifth. The Reviews section will consist of comments and contributions of a critical nature referring to works of recent publication, as long as these comply with the spirit of the magazine.

Sixth. The annual index section will appear only in the final issue at the end of each year.

Seventh. Although the publication's official language is Spanish, contributions in English, French and Portuguese are equally acceptable. The Magazine reserves the right to translate into Spanish contributions which merit inclusion.

Eighth. The results of the arbitration process may be of three kinds:

a) Positive,
b) Conditional to modification, and
c) Negative

A study will be published only after it has received at least two positive reports. If a conditional report is received it must be the specialist making the report who decides anew whether this study should or should not be accepted after the corrections are made, in cases where the specialist states that they are indispensable for approval of the work.

Ninth. The originals must be posted to the director of the magazine, Dra. Alicia Girón, at the following address:

Problemas del Desarrollo
Revista Latinoamericana de Economía
Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas (IIEc), UNAM
Circuito Mario de la Cueva
Ciudad de la Investigation en Humanidades,
Ciudad Universitaria, C.P. 04510, México, D.F.
Telephone: (52) 56 23 01 05;
Voice and fax: (52) 5623-0097.
E-mail address: revprode@servidor.unam.mx

II. Specicificic aspects

First. The author must send in the original on letter-sized paper, with double-spacing, written in perfectly legible 12-point Times New Roman, in justified format, without corrections or markings. At the same time, it must include the corresponding file in a format compatible with standard text processing programs (Word or Word Perfect), using a PC platform (no other platform will be allowed). Second. The quarto page will have 27 lines, a maximum of 1,700 characters with double-line spacing, and the articles will not exceed the number of quarto pages shown below:

Third. On a separate sheet the author will indicate the section of the magazine to which her/his text corresponds (Articles, Comments and debates, Reviews), the title she/he wishes to appear in the Publication, including co-authors if there are any, their places of work, plus phone and fax numbers and e-mail address, and in general all the information that will make it possible to contact them in case some consultation is required –for this reason, the form "Author's academic data" must be filled in and returned by e-mail.

Fourth. Annexed to the article will be a résumé of 150 (one hundred and fifty) words (or ten lines) in the language in which the article is written, and a maximum of five keywords to facilitate its inclusion in the indices and bibliographical data bases. Problemas del Desarrollo is in charge of the translation of the résumé into English, French and Portuguese and will use this synthesis to advertise it on the World Wide Web (WWW).

Fifth. In the case of articles that use the logic of mathematical structure, the résumé should make explicit what economic problem the article is trying to resolve and what mathematical model is to be used for this. The assumptions and conclusions of the analysis must also be expressed in written words and not only mathematically.

Moreover, when formulae, equations or mathematical language are included, these must be sent in full. Otherwise, the corresponding files should be in electronic format, if this material is delivered by hand.

Sixth. Graphs, tables, figures, maps and photos (if they are used) in the studies submitted must be presented in electronic format and printed on separate sheets of laser or similar quality paper (in any case, they must be of a quality sufficient to permit their optimal reproduction), and must be numbered in line with their order of appearance in the text, and the place in which they will be inserted must be indicated. They must carry a title and a legend (the abbreviations used must be clarified in the legend). All graphic elements must be sent in this way and must be sent exactly as they were obtained from the program or the equipment with which they have been elaborated, created or captured, indicating the program used, for which it is obligatory that this be compatible with the standards employed in the elaboration of such materials (for the figures, maps and photos it is suggested that image files such as .gif, .jpg, .tiff be used, and that images not be imported from Word). At the same time, tables and graphs must be self-explanatory (i.e., it should be unnecessary to refer to the text for their comprehension), indicating the units and containing all the footnotes and full corresponding sources (for tables or charts it is suggested that the author use the tools or menu Tabla in the text processor programs).

Seventh. If the contribution includes textual citations, they must have the following characteristics: if they occupy five lines or less, they must be preceded by a colon and quotation marks; if they are longer they must be in a separate paragraph, indented, without quotation marks and with a space. Aggregates in any textual citation must be placed within brackets.

Eighth. All articles will contain a bibliography to be listed at the end in alphabetical order according to the surname of the author or, in the case of institutions, by the name of the institution. Bibliographical citations may be presented in two ways: a) at the foot of the page, or b) numbered in the text and listed together at the end of the article. For more information and some examples on the way different types of bibliographical citations can be presented, the following suggestions should be taken into account:

• If the bibliography used is set at the foot of the page, the citations must be numbered progressively; the authors must be identified by name and surname, in letters two points below the size used in the body of the text. This will be indicated only by a number, and at the foot of the page the 223 Editorial Policy corresponding details must be given in full, organized as indicated. For example, in the case of the reference to a book:

Alfredo Guerra-Borges, Globalización e Integración Latinoamericana, México, Siglo XXI, IIEc-UNAM, 2002, pp.11-17

• In the case of an article in a magazine, the bibliographical reference must be presented in the following way: a) author; b) the title of the article in quotation marks, not underlined; c) the name of the magazine, underlined (this is shown in cursive); d) the volume and issue of the same; e) place; f) publisher; g) date; and h) page numbers. For example:

Gastón Ángel Varesi, "La Argentina Posconvertibilidad: modelo de acumulation", en Problemas del Desarrollo, vol. 41, núm. 161, México, IIEc-UNAM, abril - junio de 2010, pp. 141-164.

• References within the text will be presented as follows: in parentheses, the surname of the author, the year of publication of the work and the number or numbers of the pages. For example:

(Astudillo Moya, 1999: 88-89)

• In the bibliography at the end of the study full details must be given. If two or more works by an author were published in the same year, they are to be distinguished by the following letters: a, b, c, etc. For example:

(Astudillo Moya, 1996a: 27)

• The bibliography of books will be presented in the following order: a) the author or authors will be listed by surname followed by first name, b) the title of the study in italics, c) the volume/book (if relevant), d) its place of publication, e) the publisher, f) the year of publication used and g) the year of original publication:

Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, United States, Prometheus Books, 1991 (1776).

• Book chapters will be presented as follows: a) the author or authors will be listed by surname, followed by first name, b) the title of the chapter in 224 Editorial Policy quotation marks, c) the author or authors of the book to be listed by surname followed by first name/s, d) the title of the book in italics, e) its place of publication, f) the publisher, g) year and h) page numbers:

Guerra-Borges, Alfredo, "Central American integration in the 1990s", in Guerra-Borges, Alfredo (coord.), End of an epoch: from traditional integration to strategic regionalism, Mexico, Siglo XXI, 2009, pp. 108-138.

• In the case of an article from a magazine, the bibliographical reference must be presented in the following way: a) author; b) the title of the article in quotation marks, not underlined; c) the name of the magazine, underlined (this is shown in italics); d) the volume and issue of the same; e) its place of publication; f) the publisher; g) date; and h) page numbers. For example:

Varesi, Gastón Ángel, "Argentina's Post-convertibility: a model of accumulation", in Problemas del Desarrollo, vol. 41, no. 161, Mexico, IIEc-UNAM, April – June, 2010, pp. 141-164.

• In the case of information downloaded from the Internet, this will be cited in the same way as for a book, an article from a book or magazine, or an article from a newspaper. It must include the date of publication stated on the Internet, with the date when the citation was consulted in parenthesis, as well as the URL enclosed by < >, preceded by the phrase "available at". For example:

IMF, "Declaration of an IMF technical working mission on Nicaragua", in Press Communiqué no. 07/93, May 11, 2007 (consulted August 8, 2007), available at: <http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2007/esl/pr0793s.htm>.

Ninth. The use of any other format for bibliographical references must be applied homogeneously throughout the text.

Tenth. If initials or abbreviations are used, the full expression must be given the first time it occurs, followed in parenthesis by the initials or abbreviation that will be used later on in the text.

Eleventh. To emphasize a word or phrase in the text, it is recommended that cursive letters or underlining be used, and that bold text and quotation marks be avoided.

Twelfth. Fulfillment of these rules is indispensable. Although contributions that are accepted will be submitted to a style check, it is generally recommended that authors send versions that have been given an initial style check. Publication will be subject to the availability of space in each issue. In no case will originals be returned to the author, nor does the magazine take responsibility for them.

Thirteenth. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to modify the titles of articles.

Note: Situations not covered by these publication rules will be resolved by the editorial committee.