Submissions

Subjects:

AU journal publishes original research results spanning territorial, urban, and architectural scales, and their relationships with design and the visual arts, within the fields of theory and history, planning, design, conservation, construction technologies, management, and training, among others.

AU pays special attention to issues of habitat, sustainability, the built environment, and the restoration of built heritage, particularly in developing countries, and is also interested in issues related to the training of professionals in architecture, urban planning, and design.

Audience:

Architects, urban planners, designers, art historians, whether researchers, teachers and professionals in general, who work in any of the branches of architecture, urban planning and other related specialties.

Creative Commons License:

All content in the journal Arquitectura y Urbanismo is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. This must be expressly stated where applicable.

Continuous Publication by Volume:

Starting in 2025, the journal adopted the Continuous Publication by Volume format, identified in the Volume title as Continuous Publication. This allows for faster visibility of articles, as each one will be published upon completion of the editorial process.

Online Submissions

The article must be sent to the Editorial Board via email: revistaau@tesla.cujae.edu.cu

The journal is currently preparing the OJS system to carry out this process.

The author for correspondence must submit, along with the article, the Cover Letter, which includes the Authors' Contribution Statement, using the CRediT Taxonomy.

All articles must comply with the Guidelines for authors and be submitted using the Journal's Template.

About the language

Architecture and Urbanism journal publishes in Spanish and English. It adheres to and promotes respect for the standards of the Spanish and English languages.

Copyright

Authors should not include information in their articles taken from other published or unpublished works without proper citation of the source. Authors should cite and give appropriate attribution to those publications that have influenced and determined the nature of the article to be published, in order to guide the reader toward previous works that will help them understand the published work.

If an article is accepted for publication, the author has the right to have it published.

The lead author has the right to withdraw their article from the review process at any time without affecting its consideration for future publication.

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

a. The authors retain copyright and agree that the article may be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which allows others to share the work with attribution and publication in this journal. They grant the journal the right to reproduce and publish the article in other works and media, maintaining credit to the authors.

b. Authors may separately enter into additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., by posting it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), with acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to make their work available electronically (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their own website) before and during the submission process, as this can lead to productive exchanges as well as earlier and greater citation of published work; see The Effect of Open Access

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (IDEIA)

The journal publishes scientific articles selected through a peer-review process without discrimination. It promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in research and the communication of scientific results.

The journal subscribes to the Declaration of Support for Open Science with IDEIA, Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. SciELO Network, September 25-29, 2023, São Paulo, Brazil.

Application of Article Processing Charges (APC)

The journal adheres to the principles of open access established in the Budapest Declaration, which is why it accepts the distribution of published works in open access, protecting copyright under a Creative Commons license.

The journal Arquitectura y Urbanismo does not charge fees for the submission, processing, or publication of articles. Editing, publishing, evaluating, and downloading articles are completely free for authors. Likewise, the peer-review process is carried out without any compensation for the reviewers.

No commercial or profit-making use is permitted in the journal, nor does it accept or host commercial advertising of any kind.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest is defined as a set of conditions under which professional opinion regarding a primary interest, such as the validity of research, may be affected by a secondary interest, such as financial gain. These interests may be personal, academic, research, political-religious, economic or financial, commercial, and related to employment, research funding, investments from the organization, payments for lectures, travel, consulting, or any other type of interest that provides a benefit and favors oneself or others. To support impartiality in the face of potential conflicts of interest, funders should not be involved in the design, data collection, analysis of results, or preparation of the manuscript.

They may manifest themselves in the planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing, and publication of the scientific work. All authors are requested to disclose, if any, in the Application for Publication, any actual or potential conflicts of interest with other individuals or organizations related to the work. They must also be declared, when necessary, by members of the editorial board, referees, advisors, or other professionals associated with the journal.

The authors' declaration of conflicts of interest is published at the end of the manuscript.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

The journal endorses the Recommendations of the World Association of Medical Editors: WAME Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Relation to Scholarly Publications. They recommend the Spanish-language PDF published in the journal Colombia Médica. 2023;54(3):e1015868: https://colombiamedica.univalle.edu.co/index.php/comedica/article/download/5868/5828/31631

They are also published by the Editorial Ciencias Médicas (Ecimed) de Cuba.

Paper Evaluation

- Article selection and review

Papers submitted for publication must be original and unpublished, and must not have been published elsewhere, except for preprints, which are accepted. The criteria for selecting articles will be based on their quality, and they will be subject to editorial evaluation and peer review.

The selection process begins with the authors submitting their work to the Editorial Committee. The article is initially evaluated by the Editorial Committee to verify its compliance with the Editorial Standards and its originality and the required level of review for the journal. It then goes through the review process, which lasts 30 days.

-Arbitration systems used for evaluating the papers

1. Double-blind Peer Review: Two (or more) high-level referees participate confidentially and anonymously, both from outside the organization where the authors work.

Double-blind means that the document received by the referees does not contain the names or any other information about the authors; they also do not know the identity of the referees. In the event of a discrepancy between the reports of both referees, the editor decides whether to use other reviewers.

2. Open Peer Review: Two (or more) high-level referees, external to the authors' organization, are involved.

This system promotes transparency in the editorial and scientific communication process. Authors have the opportunity to suggest potential referees for their articles and interact directly with the reviewers responsible for evaluating the work. This system will be applied provided that both authors and referees agree. The names of the reviewers who agreed to make their identities public and the editors involved are published on the first page of the articles. Reports of the results of open peer review of articles accepted for publication are made available as supplementary material linked to the article on the journal's website.

We recommend reading the document published by PLOS (Public Library of Science): Open Peer Review, text translated by Google and Open Peer Review, original text in English.

-Selection of the reviewers

Reviewers must be selected so that they have not shared authorship of any article or collaborated directly with the authors in the last 12 months.

-Evaluation process

Each referee will issue a report on the suitability or non-suitability of the article for publication. This report will be taken into consideration by the Editorial Committee regarding the publication or non-publication of the article.

The reviewers may recommend to the Editorial Committee that the article be:

- Accepted.

- Accepted with modifications. The author has 15 days to submit a new version with the proposed corrections. After this period, if the new version has not been received, the Editorial Committee will consider the article rejected.

- Rejected.

Essential aspects for acceptance of submitted papers:

-Article relevance to the journal's profile.

-Originality, novelty, and validity of the work.

-Relevance and clarity of the structure of the paper.

-Quality of the bibliographical research (state-of-the-art study).

-Relevance and reliability of the methods and procedures used.

-Validity of the results of the work, with evidence of contributions to the topic addressed.

-Quality of the presentation and writing of the manuscript.

-Relevance and reliability of the sources consulted.

The main reasons for rejecting a paper are:

-Lack of originality.

-Poor scientific strength.

-Deficient state-of-the-art study.

-The methods and procedures used are unreliable.

-Poor bibliographic references in terms of quantity, quality, value, and relevance.

-It is of little interest to the journal's audience.

Based on the reviewers' opinions, the editor will decide whether or not to publish the article. In case of disagreement, the editor may request the opinion of another expert.

-About the Reviewers' Work

The reviewer must objectively judge the quality of the manuscript on its own merits and respect the intellectual independence of the author(s). Personal criticism is not appropriate. The reviewer must express his or her opinions and judgments objectively, accurately, clearly, truthfully, and convincingly, particularly negative judgments, so that the editors and authors can understand the basis for his or her observations.

There must be no conflict of interest between the authors of the manuscript or the individuals involved (such as family relationships, colleagues, competitors, or collaborators among potential referees or editors) and the referees. If a manuscript submitted for review represents a potential conflict of interest or the referee has a personal opinion about it, they must return the manuscript without delay and without conducting the review.

The referee must note any substantial similarity between the article being reviewed and any other previously published article, or if they are aware of any similar article submitted to another publication, they must immediately inform the editor in either case.

If a referee has convincing evidence that an article includes plagiarized content or falsification of research data, or if they are aware that it has been published, they must immediately notify the journal's editors, who will take appropriate action.

The author should not submit changes to the content of their work after it has been accepted and resubmitted for the proposed corrections. If there is a compelling reason to make changes, the author must inform the Editorial Committee, who has the authority to approve or reject the proposed changes.

All content of an article submitted for review is the property of the authors and may not be used in any way by the referee or displayed in any other manner except with the author's consent and with appropriate attribution.

Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Editors

This document combines the original COPE Guidelines of 1999, the Code of Conduct developed in 2003, and the Best Practice Guidelines developed in 2007. This revision was developed after extensive consultation with COPE members and was approved by the COPE Council on March 7, 2011. Code of conduct and best practice guidelines for journal editors, COPE

The name of the editor of the work is included at the end of the paper.

Publication Ethics

The Editorial Committee of Arquitectura y Urbanismo, in accordance with the ethics and best practices of scientific publications, does not allow impunity for the following types of conduct: plagiarism, self-plagiarism, scientific fraud, fabrication and/or falsification of data, false or fictitious authorship, redundant publication, double submission, and any other type of invalid conduct in scientific research. Fragmented publication or salami articles are not permitted.

In the Cover Letter submitted to AU, the authors affirm that the data (those published on data servers, Open Science, may have been used) and results presented in the submitted work are original and have not been invented, distorted, or manipulated from other published works or other media.

The Editorial Committee reserves the right to disavow previously published works that are later determined to be unreliable, due to inadvertent errors, fraud, or improper scientific practices: fabrication, manipulation, or copying of data, plagiarism of texts and redundant or duplicate publication, omission of references to consulted sources, use of content without permission or justification. The objective of disavow is to correct previously published scientific production, ensuring its integrity.

For published works where one of the aforementioned ethical breaches, primarily plagiarism, is revealed, a retraction letter will be published at the end of the work that remains published as an example of improper conduct by the authors. Further information is available at http://www.ithenticate.com/.

The journal uses the Plagiarisma app http://plagiarisma.net/ and Google as plagiarism detectors.

Arquitectura y Urbanismo adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)'s promotion of integrity in academic research and its publication. https://publicationethics.org/

Use of Preprint Articles

Preprint articles are preliminary versions of scientific manuscripts that researchers share by posting them on online platforms known as preprint servers, prior to peer review and publication in an academic journal.

Authors are responsible for the information contained in the final version of the document that will be published on the preprint server. Under no circumstances does the journal guarantee exact similarity with the version published after its peer-review process, nor does it guarantee that the preprint document complies with the policies set forth in its editorial guidelines and ethical precepts.

The approval or rejection of the document in the preprint repository is not binding; therefore, the journal reserves the right to approve or reject the document if the peer-review process so deems appropriate.

Manuscripts previously available on recognized preprint servers such as ArXiv and SciELO Preprints are accepted.

We recommend reading: Preprints, preguntas frecuentes de la editorial Ciencias Médicas (ECIMED).

Open Science. Open Research Data

Arquitectura y Urbanismo promotes the transparency, credibility, and reuse of research data (open research data) from published works, as long as the level of confidentiality allows. Authors are encouraged to share this data and any other materials used during the research that may constitute an important source for other research by storing them for use in other projects on these specialized servers: Xenodo, DataCite, SciELO Data.

Self-archiving and dissemination of data by authors in institutional repositories, social media, academic profiles, and preprint repositories is approved. Authors must maintain accurate backup records to allow the audience to understand, verify, and replicate new results. Authors must also provide access to the data and store it in an appropriate storage repository for others to share and use.

In compliance with the principles of Open Science, the author may publish their research data on any of the internationally available servers for this purpose, which guarantees compliance with the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) principles of search, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

The following servers are recommended: DataCite, The Dataverse Network, Zenodo, SciELO Data

Author Contributions

All authors of a manuscript must have significantly contributed to the development of the research, in all or most of its phases.

To protect the integrity of the authorship of the work, only professionals who have collaborated in the research or the project and preparation of the article will be listed as co-authors. The lead author attests to having included all co-authors of the work when submitting the publication application.

All co-authors must have reviewed the article, agree with the order of their names, the content and final form, and be in a position to publicly defend its content. By submitting the publication application, the Editorial Board assumes this has been fulfilled, under the moral responsibility of the submitting author.

Partial contributions to only some of the phases accredit the inclusion of their names in the Acknowledgments section, but do not justify co-authorship of the article.

In the Acknowledgments section, the authors should give due credit to all individuals and institutions that contributed to the research, including students. They should also acknowledge any sources of funding or logistical support that made their work possible.

Use of the CRediT Taxonomy

Authors of submitted papers to the journal must submit a Contribution Statement, which includes the contributions made by each author. The list of contributions must appear in the Cover letter.

This Contribution Statement for each author is prepared according to the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy, using the following concepts:

-Conceptualization: ideas; formulation or evolution of the overall goals and objectives of the research.

-Data curation: management activities to annotate (produce metadata), cleanse data, and maintain research data (including software code, when necessary to interpret the data itself) for initial use and subsequent reuse.

-Formal analysis: application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.

-Funding Acquisition: Acquiring financial support for the project that gives rise to this publication.

-Research: Carrying out a research process, specifically performing experiments or collecting data/evidence.

-Methodology: Developing or designing methodologies and creating models.

-Project Administration: Responsibility for directing and coordinating the planning and execution of the research activity.

-Resources: Providing study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analytical tools.

-Software: Programming, software development; design of computer programs; implementation of computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.

-Supervision: Oversight and leadership responsibility for the planning and execution of the research activity, including mentoring outside the core team.

-Validation: Verification, either as part of the activity or separately, of the overall replication/reproducibility of the results/experiments and other research outputs.

-Visualization: preparation, creation, and/or presentation of the published work, specifically data visualization/presentation.

-Writing - initial draft: preparation, creation, and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).

-Writing - review and editing: preparation, creation, and/or presentation of the published work by the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary, or revision, including pre- and post-publication stages.

We recommend reading A Look at the CRediT Taxonomy, published by Editorial Ciencias Médicas (Ecimed), and CRediT: it allows for differentiating the recognition of the contribution of each co-author in an academic document.

At the end of each author's contribution, the following must be added: “worked on the review and approval of the final version of the manuscript”. If an author fails to comply with the above, they are not considered as author of the work.

The primary author is responsible for completing the Contribution statement for the work.

About Archive Preservation

The journal uses an internal self-archiving policy that allows for the preservation and restoration of all published information by storing copies of the archives on the server, as well as on two computers and an external drive. The copies are updated weekly on the server and monthly externally.

Section Policies

As a rule, AU does not accept single-authored articles. Instead, we prioritize works that have been produced in collaboration between several institutions. The Editorial Board will determine any exceptions to this instruction.

Articles submitted to AU must explicitly state on the first page the section in which they wish to publish. and the type of article:

-Sections:

With Criteria (Con Criterio): Publishes original scientific and technical results within the field of architecture and urban planning, and their relationships with other branches of design and the visual arts. The article types considered are: research article, review article, and reflection article.

Of Kingdom of this World (Del Reino de este Mundo): Addresses various problems of professional interest within the field of architecture and urban planning, and their relationships with other branches of design and the visual arts. Includes the following types: short communication, interview, and review.

Academics (Académicas): Covers theoretical studies and practical experiences on the teaching of architecture, urban planning, and other branches of design and the visual arts. The article types considered are: research article, review article, reflection article, and short communication.

Editorial: An opinion piece, political statement, or general commentary on a relevant topic in the theory, practice, or teaching of architecture and urban planning, written by a member of the Editorial Board or a guest professional.

Article Types

A detailed description of each article type is provided in the Guidelines for Authors, but a summary of that information is provided below:

-Scientific and Technological Research Article. A document that presents a detailed report of original research in any field of knowledge and practice in architecture, urban planning, and other related fields.

Structure: Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions. Extension between 15 and 20 pages. Maximum of 10 figures, plus the minimum required tables. Use no fewer than 15 references; 50% must be from the last 5 years, and 70% must be articles published in online journals. Avoid excess; use only the necessary references.

-Review Article. This is a work that compares results published in research articles to examine them and provide a critical assessment, organizing and placing them in perspective to reach important conclusions or presenting current advances and development trends in a topic or field. It may review a topic, a field, or the work of a specific researcher or team of researchers. It must present a thorough and comprehensive bibliographic review of between 40 and 50 references, current and from reliable sources. The author determines its structure, but, Introduction and Conclusions must be included. The maximum extension is 20 pages.

-Reflection article. An article written in essay format that, based on solidly substantiated arguments, defends a specific position on a relevant topic. It is a relatively short text dedicated to a specific topic, which requires in-depth analysis, discernment, and synthesis, where the author expresses his or her idea or point of view based on objective information collected and presented. Extension: 10 to 12 pages, with 15 to 25 references, current and from reliable sources.

- Short communication (or short article). This type of article concisely presents the results of a research project or project with a well-argued theoretical and methodological basis. Its structure consists of: Introduction, Body of the article, and Conclusions. It should be 6 to 8 pages, with a maximum of 10 figures. References should be more than 10, current and from reliable sources.

Guidelines for Authors

The Guidelines for authors describe the specifications for writing texts. Authors are encouraged to use the Template, which is designed based on them. In general, articles are submitted in letter format, with 2.5 cm margins. Texts are written in Times New Roman 12, with 1.5 line spacing. The length depends on the type of article and does not include figures or tables. AU uses the Vancouver standard for bibliographic references, with numerical citations in ascending order, enclosed in brackets.

Authors must use the International System (SI) of units of measurement. After the SI quantity, the value and units in another system of units may be added in parentheses.

The author should not submit changes to the content of their work after it has been accepted and resubmitted for proposed corrections. If there is a compelling reason to make changes, the author must inform the Editorial Board, which has the authority to approve or reject the proposed changes.

To allow for replication of experiments, authors must make available information on the materials, data, standards, protocols, and references associated with their research.

Unique materials (algorithms or computer programs) must be made available to researchers upon request directly from the authors.

The author should not fragment his or her research work for publication. Authors who have conducted work on a system or group of related systems should organize their publication so that each article provides a complete description of a specific aspect of the overall study. It is unethical for an author to submit more than one paper describing the same research or project for publication. This unnecessary subdivision disperses the scientific information and hinders its subsequent compilation. Occasionally, there may be valid reasons for such fragmentation; if this is the case, the authors should justify, in a separate communication to the editor, the reasons supporting this.

The journal may correct errors detected after publication, if requested by the authors, as long as they do not alter the basic results or conclusions. If the errors are of a more serious nature, retractions or errata regarding errors that affect the validity of the results obtained may be published at the editors' discretion.

The editors may make any stylistic corrections they deem necessary in the final version of the work.

The rules must be strictly followed; submitted works that do not meet these requirements will not be accepted.

Download the Template, Guidelines for authors, and Cover letter required for article submissions from this link.