Submissions

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS TO MATERIALES DE CONSTRUCCIÓN

Download HERE the Good Practice Code in PDF
Download HERE the Authorship Form in PDF

1. Submission and acceptance for consideration. Papers submitted for publication in Materiales de Construcción must meet the requirements set out below. Non-compliant manuscripts will be returned.
   
   
2. Author contributions: In order to improve the quality and transparency of the journal, we ask authors to submit the following information:
   
   
   • Individual contributions of each author to the article using the following functions, according to the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing.
   • ORCID number of individual authors
   • Authorship, good publication practice and copyright transfer statement, properly filled out and signed by all authors.
     
     
3. Originals: Originals must be submitted in English. All originals received will be reviewed by two referees in accordance with criteria of scientific quality. Final decisions on the publication of manuscripts will be made by the Editorial Board based on the referee’s evaluations. Journal reviewing is simple-blinded. Referee’s suggestions will be forwarded to the authors for amendment of their papers as appropriate. Only original manuscripts not previously published in other journals will be accepted. Originals may not be over 10 single-spaced pages long, in Times New Roman 11pt.
   
   
4. Wording and presentation. The text should be worded as clearly and concisely as possible. Papers will be published in English. If necessary, you can use this Microsoft Word Template.
   
   
5. Article structure. The paper should be divided into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be also numbered. Any section or subsection may be given a brief heading. Each article should consist of the following sections:
   
   

   a. Essential title page information

   • Title. Paper titles should be explicit and precise and clearly reflect their content. They should be followed by the author´s(s’) name(s), surname(s), position(s), affiliation(s) as appropriate and date of submission. The title must be written both in English and Spanish.
   • Author names and affiliations. Authors are requested to specify whether they use compound or otherwise ambiguous family names. Authors’ affiliations (centers where the research was actually conducted) should be placed underneath the names. Authors will be identified with their respective affiliations by means of a lower-case superscript letter placed immediately after the author’s name and before the name and address of the institution. Full postal addresses must be provided for each affiliation, including the country name and the author’s e-mail address, as appropriate.
   • Corresponding author. The author who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, as well as during post-publication, must be specified, along with the respective e-mail address and complete postal address.
   • Abstract. Articles are to be preceded by an abstract in English and Spanish (maximum 150 words in each language), clearly indicating objectives, approach and conclusions.
   • Keywords. No more than five keywords may be listed from the list provided at the end of this page. Keyword must be written both in English and Spanish.
   
   

   b. Introduction
   The introduction must clearly define the objectives of the research, and include a review of the state of the art.

   c. Material and methods
   Descriptions must be given in sufficient detail for all trials to be reproduced.

   d. Results
   Results should be set out clearly and concisely.

   e. Discussion
   The significance of the results, as well as their importance for knowledge advancement, must be analyzed. The results and discussion sections may be combined.

   f. Conclusions
   The main conclusions of the study should be briefly presented.

   g. References
   References should be limited to publications directly related to the paper submitted. Lengthy comments on the publications cited should be avoided. References are to be cited in the text by number, between parentheses ( ), and listed at the end of the paper in consecutive order. Entries should use the following format:

   Example for periodicals journals:
   Ghorab, H.Y.; Kenawi, I.M.; Abdell All, Z.G. (2012) Interaction between cements with different composition and superplasticizers. Mater. Construcc. 62 [307], 359- 380. http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/mc.2012.63610.

   Example for books:
   Taylor, H. F. W. (1990) Cement Chemistry, Academia Press, Inc. New York, (1990).

   DOI.: https://doi.org references should be included.

6. Tables, figures and photographs. Tables and figures should be included with restraint. Each graph or figure must be numbered and cited in the text accordingly. The approximate position for figures in the text should be specified. Only photographs that are genuinely useful, reproductively clear and representative should be submitted. Once the manuscript has been accepted, all figures and photographs are to be submitted on a single ZIP or RAR compressed file.
   
   
7. Mathematical expressions and formulas. Maximum clarity and legibility should be pursued, using the notation that takes up the least possible space. Formulas are to be cited in the text between square brackets [ ].
   
   
8. Proofs. Authors will be provided galleys for proofing, which must be returned with any corrections, within one week. No new material corrections will be allowed on proofs.
   
   
9. Research data policy

   We recommend authors depositing data obtained from the research developed for the preparation of their article in repositories of recognized prestige, specific to the discipline or of a generalist nature. In any case, it must be a FAIR repository (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), preferably in open access.

   There are several repositories destined to conserve and disseminate concrete data such as results of surveys, observations, interviews, simulations, automatically collected data, samples, models ... If necessary, authors can consult the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data taking into account that each repository has its own deposit rules.

   Those CSIC authors who would like to deposit their datasets in Digital.CSIC may do so by following these guidelines. They can use the Servicio de Archivo Delegado made available by the Technical Office of DIGITAL.CSIC and the Red de Bibliotecas CSIC.

   DIGITAL.CSIC generates DOIs for datasets and associated software and is certified as data repository in re3data and Repository Finder. More information at Política de datos en Digital.CSIC.

   If the author has deposited datasets in a repository, he should mention it in the article providing a brief description of the type of data deposited, the name and URL of the repository, the identification code and the data of the license for use and distribution. This information must be included at the end of the article, immediately before the bibliographic listing, under the heading "Data availability".

KEYWORDS

MATERIALES DE CONSTRUCCIÓN

A. MATERIALS

Portland cement
Concrete
Composite
Brick
Mortar
Gypsum
Hemhydrate
Ceramic
Glass-ceramic
Limestone
Sandstone
Granite
Calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H)
Hydration products
Interstitial Zone
Ettringite
Active addition
Organic Admixture
Aggregate
Alkali-activated cement
Alkali
Blended cement
Calcium aluminate cement
Ferrite phase
Lime
Bicalcium silicate
Tricalcium silicate
Portlandite
Calcium sulphoaluminate
Calcium carbonate
Cement paste
Chloride Clinker
Thaumasite
Filler
Fly ash
Fluoride
Fluxes
Blast furnace slag
Heavy metals
Superplasticizers
Hydrogranate
Metakaolin
MgO
Mineralizers
Monosulphoaluminate
Nitrate
Organic acids
Organic material
Polymer
Pozzolane

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Below you will find instructions for the following procedures:

- How to register with Materiales de Construcción

- How to send an original manuscript to Materiales de Construcción

- How to check a revision report and submit a revised version of a manuscript

How to register with Materiales de Construcción

1.- On the journal's website, press the ‘Register’ button:

2.- Fill in all the fields on the page that opens (the ‘Family name’ field is optional but highly recommended) using lower case only for your username and password. If you agree to the terms of our Privacy Statement, allow us to collect and store your personal data and then use the Captcha to confirm you are not a robot. Consent to being notified of new publications and other announcements is optional.

3.- The email you will receive at the address you provided will contain a link and instructions on how to activate your account. After proceeding to do so, you will be able to log in with the credentials you yourself specified.

How to submit an original manuscript to Materiales de Construcción

1.- Click the ‘Login’ link on the journal’s homepage:

2.- The first time you login, after you enter your username and password you will see the journal’s homepage, where you may then press the ‘Make a Submission’ button:

The page subsequently displayed will invite you to review the ‘Submission Preparation Checklist’ and read the ‘Author Guidelines’, the ‘Copyright Notice’ and the ‘Privacy Statement’ before submitting your article. When you have all the mandatory documents ready, press the button ‘Make a new submission’.

In subsequent logins, you will be taken to your user dashboard. There press the ‘New Submission’ button to submit a new article. You will be shown any articles received and in process under the ‘My Queue’ tab):

3.- As you will see on the new submissions page, submitting a manuscript is a four-stage process, in addition to a final section with information on follow-up.

3.1.- "1. Start"

Here you specify the language the article is written in and the journal section you deem it would be most apt for. You will also confirm that you have prepared all the items on the ‘Submission requirements’ list and may send comments to the editor if you wish to do so. Compliance with the terms of the Copyright Statement is mandatory, as is your permission to collect and store your personal data as the author of the article under the terms of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas’ (CSIC) Privacy Statement.

When all the fields have been completed, press the ‘Save and continue’ button.

3.2.- "2. Upload submission"

This is the stage where you will upload the files comprising the article and any additional documentation.

The file upload process consists in three steps. In the first, you specify the article component from the pulldown list and upload the respective file. Then press the ‘Continue’ button. In the second step the file metadata are displayed and an ‘edit’ option is provided but should not be used here. Simply press ‘Continue’.

In the third step, under the ‘Confirm’ tab, press the ‘Add Another File’ button, which carries you back to step 1. Ignore the first box (‘If you are uploading…’)  and select the new ‘Article Component’ from the aforementioned pulldown and then ‘Continue’ to step 3, ‘Confirm’. Repeat this process until you have uploaded all the files you are submitting and then press the ‘Complete’ button.

If you later realise that you have forgotten to upload a file, click to open the ‘Upload File’ option at the upper right-hand corner of the ‘2. Upload Submission’ page:

When you have uploaded all your materials, press the ‘Save and continue’ button.

3.3.- "3. Enter Metadata"

Here enter the metadata for the article further to the journal guidelines, as follows.Template_Mater_Construcc.docx

- Title in English in the first field and in Spanish in the second. If the article is written in any other language, write in the title in the original language in the first field and in English in the second.

- Summary or abstract in the languages specified in the preceding item.

- List of contributors. Although not necessary to register as a journal user, here you must specify your ORCID identifier and affiliation. Additional authors’ information can be added from the ‘Add Contributor’ link:

- Keywords. Insert the article’s keywords in both languages. Terms must be entered one at a time, pressing the ‘enter’ key after each.

- Funding. Specify all the organisations providing funding for the research published in the article. Click the ‘Add funder’ link and fill in the funder’s name in the space provided. The internal search triggered will return the institution’s standardised name and DOI. Institutions lacking a DOI cannot be entered in this field. Fill in the ‘Grant numbers’ field and click ‘Save’.

The system then displays all the metadata entered. If correct, press the ‘Save and continue’ button.

3.4.- ‘4. Confirmation’ and ‘5. Next steps’

The ‘Confirmation’ page allows you to return to any of the preceding stages to review the information and files uploaded. When you are satisfied they are all correct, press the ‘Finish Submission’ button.

When you press the ‘Finish Submission’ button, your article is conveyed to Materiales de Construcción. As indicated on the ‘Next  Steps’ page, you will be sent an email acknowledging your submission with a link to monitor the review process.

How to monitor reviews and submit a revised version of your manuscript

When clicking on the aforementioned link and logging in, you will be taken to the ‘Submissions’ page of your dashboard, where you will see a listing of any manuscripts you have under review. You will also see whether the editorial staff has requested amendments or revisions:

Click the title of your article to access the respective workflow page. There open the ‘Review’ tab to see all the information on the review status, including any notifications from the editorial staff and reviewer attachments. Where appropriate, you may also submit a revised version of the manuscript as per the reviewers’ and editor’s suggestions by pressing the ‘Upload File’ button: