Submissions

Author Guidelines

Manuscript submission

Manuscripts will be submitted through the JOURNAL PLATFORM and must:

• Be original;
• Not be under review by any other journal;
• Clearly indicate their contribution to the Integrated Coastal and Marine Zones Management;
• Present the updated emails and ORCID ID of all authors, indicating the corresponding author.

Manuscripts may be written in English, Portuguese or Spanish. Those submitted English must also submit the title, abstract and keywords in Spanish.

Documents for submission

a) Title page (with authorship): title, full name of all authors, their full professional affiliation, updated email address and ORCID ID, and corresponding author.

In addition, incorporate:

• Text of acknowledgments (if necessary);
• Declaration of contribution of authorship;
• Statement on conflicts of interest;
• Statement on ethics in scientific research (if necessary);
• Statement on the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies.

This information will be added in the final version of the manuscript that will be published.

b) Manuscript (without authorship): complete work, ANONYMOUS (without authors, professional affiliations, addresses or acknowledgements), with tables and figures located as the author wishes in the final version (publication).

The figures and tables should be presented as follows:

• The indication of the figure/table in the text must precede its graphic presentation;
• Numbered sequentially (Figure 1, Figure 2 etc., or Table 1, Table 2 etc.);
• The legend and data source must be present;
• The text used in the figures/tables should allow effortless reading;
• Figures must be in high resolution (minimum 300 ppi).

c) Supplementary Material (if necessary): additional content considered essential to improve the depth and transparency of the manuscript. Supplementary material may detail information presented in the work, scripts, databases, audio and/or video files, dynamic graphics, and images or maps that are not part of the main manuscript. Authors are requested to pay special attention to:

• The need to safeguard copyright and reproducibility permissions for the information that makes up the supplementary material;
• The complementary material is part of the submission and will be evaluated as presented; once the manuscript is published, the supplementary material cannot be changed. Before publication, a standard cover page will be added to the main document of the supplementary material (the content will remain unchanged);
• Ensure that all supplementary materials are presented clearly and objectively, and that their titles correspond with the references used in the main text;
• If the information in the supplementary material is directed to a cloud storage or similar, include a brief descriptive document to guide navigation and use of the data (for example, “readme.txt”);
• Use established file extensions, for example: CSV or XML for databases, TAR or ZIP for compressed files, TIF or JPG for images, PDF/A for texts and presentations, WAV and AVI for sound and video files etc.;
• Costas Journal will not be responsible for possible updates to links and/or emails that appear in the supplementary material.

d) Note/Cover Letter ("others"): addressed to the Scientific Editorial Board, which must indicate:

• Title of the manuscript and in which category it is presented (scientific article, technical article, review article or management report);
• Brief justification of its relevance to Integrated Coastal Management;
• If necessary, justification on the decision/need to use gray literature (theses, dissertations, reports etc.);
• Three potential reviewers for the manuscript (with indication of their names, institutional affiliations and contact emails).

Suggested instructions for the text

1. "DOC" or "DOCX" format;
2. Margins of 3cm;
3. Arial font, size 11;
4. Single spacing between lines and paragraphs;
5. Blank line before titles and captions;
6. Blank line before and after figures and tables, and their legends;
7. The text should be left-justified;
8. No indentation;
9. Pages and lines should be numbered sequentially;
10. The International System of Units (SI) should be used and there should be no space between the digits and the abbreviation of the units (e.g. 3mm).

Maximum word limit (excluding figures, tables and bibliography): 10,000 words.

The structure of the manuscript can be defined by the authors, with no mandatory sequence. However, the article should contain:

1. Title (english and spanish) - required;
2. Abstract (english and spanish) - required;
3. Keywords (english and spanish), maximum of three to five (should not be part of the title) - mandatory;
4. The purpose and proposal of the manuscript;
5. Materials and Methods/Methodology;
6. Findings;
7. Discussion;
8. Final conclusions/considerations;
9. Bibliographic References - mandatory;

Additional associated details on materials and methods, theoretical framework, annexes, appendices, among other contents, should be presented as Supplementary Material. This must be sent in PDF format.

The figures and tables should be inserted and referenced in the text, with captions and sources in the main language of the article and in English, duly numbered in ascending order according to their appearance in the text. The texts presented in the figures must be legible.

Instructions for title and institutional affiliation

The title should be concise and clearly express the subject of the manuscript. It should be presented centered, in bold and in Arial font, size 12. The spanish version of the title should also be italic and centered.

The names of the authors should be presented below the title, after leaving a blank line, centered and in Arial font, size 10. Both the "First Names Last Names" format and the "Last Names, First Names" format can be used; however, only one of the formats should be used for all authors.

The affiliations of  the authors and the emails should be presented just below the authors, after leaving a blank line, justified to the left and in Arial font, size 10. The indication of affiliation must appear with a number next to the name of each author. In the case of several authors, the corresponding author must be indicated.

Keyword summary and instructions

Abstracts must have between 150 and 350 words and must be submitted in english and spanish (resumen). The abstract should summarize:

• General description of the topic/problem;
• Area of study;
• Goal;
• Methodological procedures;
• Main results;
• Final considerations/Most relevant contributions.

Select between three and five keywords, which should not be part of the title.

Citation instructions

Indirect quotes:

• An author: "Silva (2021)" or "(Silva, 2021)";
• Two authors: "Silva & Silva (2021)" or "(Silva & Silva, 2021)". It is recommended to use the symbol "&";
• Three or more authors: "Silva et al. (2021)"or" (Silva et al., 2021)".

It is recommended to use "et al.".

Direct quotes:

• Short (up to four lines): enclosed in double quotation marks, indicating the page number after the year, separated by a colon. E.g.: "according to Silva (2021: p.10) 'Lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum ipsum' or ''Lorem ipsum lorem ipsum ipsum' (Silva, 2021: p. 10)".
• Long (more than five lines): should be presented in a new paragraph with 4cm indentation, Arial font, size 10, single line spacing, justified alignment and without quotation marks.

Citation of citations (apud):

• Indirect: "López (1991, apud Silva, 2021)" or "(López, 1991, apud Silva, 2021)".
• Direct: "segundo López (1991:p.15, apud López, 2021: p. 10) 'Lorem ipsum lorem ipsum ipsum ipsum ipsum' " or "'Lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum (López 1991:p.15, apud López , 2021: p. 10)" or "according to López (1991: p. 15) 'Lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum (apud López,  2021: p  . 10)".

It is recommended to use "apud" in italic.

Don't add citations using footnotes, endnotes, or citations through numbers or codes.

Instructions for the authorship contribution statement

In the "Title page" document, add a specific topic titled "Statement on the author's contribution", and present each author's contribution to the manuscript as follows (indicate according to the contribution):

• Responsible for the design of the proposal;
• Responsible for the collection of or collected data;
• Responsible for data interpretation/analysis;
• Responsible for writing the manuscript;
• Responsible for reviewing and editing the manuscript.

Instructions for bibliographic references

The use of the American Psychological Association (APA) reference system is recommended. The essential information is:

• Authorship;
• Year;
• Title of the work;
• Editing (where relevant);
• Publisher and city, or periodical publication (with indication of number, volume and page);
• DOI (when available) or link to access/download.

It is noteworthy that, when it is not possible to access, prove the existence or veracity of a work or information derived from a work used in the manuscript, the Scientific Editorial Board may request the deletion/replacement of said work or, ultimately, decide on the publication or not of the manuscript.

Authors should avoid, as far as possible, the use of grey literature (theses, dissertations, reports etc.). When using them, for example, due to the limited availability of information on a particular topic, a justification or clarification about the decision should be included in the Note/Cover Letter sent to the Scientific Editorial Board when submitting the manuscript.

Instructions for declaring conflicts of interest

In the "Title page" document, add a specific topic titled "Conflict of Interest Statement" and state that there are no financial or other conflicts of interest that could influence the results or their interpretation. We emphasize that all sources of financial support must be disclosed.

Instructions for the statement of ethics in scientific research (if necessary)

In the document "Title page", add a specific topic entitled "Statement on ethics in scientific research", and inform that the consents, authorizations and releases related to ethics in scientific research (in the case of interviews, for example) were observed, requested and evaluated by the committee/institution responsible for these questions (specify and indicate the number of the process).

Instructions for the statement on the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies

In the "Title page" document, add a specific topic titled "Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies," and let us know if any generative AI and/or AI-assisted technologies or services or tools were used during the manuscript writing process (except basic tools such as grammar and spell checkers, e.g.).

If so, the authors should report: the services and/or tools used and the reasons that motivated their use in the work. In such cases, the authors assume full responsibility for the content of the publication.

We emphasize that the journal does not allow the use of generative AI and/or AI-assisted technologies to create or alter images used in the manuscript (this does not include basic tools for adjusting brightness or contrast, for example, as long as they are not used to improperly delete/hide information in the original file).

Accepted publication types

Manuscripts may be submitted in the following categories: