Section Policies

Articles (RESEARCH AREA)

UMATICA is an annual magazine focused on the study and critical analysis of artistic creation and audiovisual production, proposing a transversal approach from an interdisciplinary perspective.

In this sense, at discretion of the editorial team and review process, it proposes three types of submissions for publication:

 

ARTICLES

Research articles

Research articles are those that are the result of original research and whose results and conclusions represent an advance for the discipline in which they are proposed.

The articles submitted will have an extension from 5,000 to 7,500 words (not including abstract, keywords and references). Their structure will follow the this scheme:

  • Introduction: it states the research topic (What?), specifying its justification and scope from the point of view of its importance for the solution of problems or its contribution to the advancement of knowledge (Why?), plus clearly setting the objectives and purposes of the work (what for?). Likewise, it concisely describes the state of the matter. Thus, we will find answers to the following questions: What has been said before? What has been investigated in this field? how has it been done? What results have been achieved? It should be written in such a way that doubts about the novelty and originality of the subject are cleared up, the background established and the problem theoretically located.
  • Methodology: it aims to answer the question How has the research been carried out? It implies the detailed description of materials, criteria and procedures that have been used in the investigation. The purpose of this operation is to report on the research process carried out, so that it can be repeated by another researcher.
  • Results: the content of this section answers the question What have we found? It is important to identify and describe the findings in an intelligible and concise manner. Thence, whenever possible, tables, graphs or schemes that show the results at a glance will be used.
  • Discussion: this is the section where the results are analyzed and interpreted. By grouping, ordering, classifying and comparing data, findings can be clarified, hypotheses verified or refuted, consequences deduced, problems solved and/or new paths suggested. In short, this section will answer the following questions: What does what has been found mean? How does it relate to previous research? How does it fit into what is already known? What applications does it have? What is its main contribution? What demands does it make in the future?

 

Visual Essay (VISUAL ESSAY)

VISUAL ESSAY 

A visual essay focuses on any creative, social or political aspect of visual culture and can be a response to previous visual work, a comment against visual processes, ideas, etc. The visual element of the essay, rather than serving only as an example, illustration, or additional documentation of contents or ideas expressed, should be an intrinsic part of them. Images in visual essays can come from a variety of sources, for example:

  • An image collection that is already available: a curated collection or an image file.
  • Images that have been produced for the essay.
  • Images produced as research data.
  • Selected or produced images.

As long as it respects current copyright and intellectual property rights, the visual essay could be articulated with photographs, drawings, designs, illustrations, infographics, diagrams, graphs or other data visualization formulas, A visual essay can be a completely visual piece or it can combine images and text.The structure of the visual essay itself is made up of introduction, body of the visual essay, conclusions and references. All visual essay proposals sent to Umática will also have the sections detailed below: title (in Spanish and English), summary in Spanish (150- 200 words), keywords in Spanish (no more than 5 words), English translation of said summary (abstract). The visual essay extension will be between 10 and 25 pages adjusted to the template proposed (download the template here). If the essay is written in English, abstract and keywords must be translated into Spanish. In no case reference to the authorship of the visual essay will appear in the text of the proposal.

 

Creation Projects (CREATION ZONE)

ART CREATION AND INTERDISCIPLINARY CREATION PROJECTS

UMATICA’s Artistic Creation Projects section accepts the submission of artistic and interdisciplinary creation projects, with room for hybrid creation projects that represent a contribution in the field of artistic production. In this section, creative projects in a design stage (pre-production phase) and/or (not yet exhibited) produced projects can be submitted. It will be imperative in any case to accurately detail its status. Any submitted project must provide a detailed conceptual description that accompanies the production and visual exhibition of the project. The text extension of a Creation Project goes from 2,500 to 4,500 words (not including abstract, keywords and references), and will be organized according to the following structure:

  • Description and status of the project: this section specifies the current process of the project, its status, the stage presented, its relation to the creator's statement, context of the project, motivation and orientation of future lines of work.
  • Theoretical-conceptual framework: theoretical context of the project, its development and the connections with the theoretical apparatus of the project presented.
  • Production: this section presents in detail the main aspects that are part of the project (discipline, production, materials, formats, languages, themes, currents, etc.). It must describe its structure’s different phases.
  • Work and Results: it contemplates pre-produced or already produced projects, depending on the status of the project.Artistic and bibliographical references: of artists and documents used to carry out the project

The submitted dossier may be written in Spanish or other language, preferably English. In case the text is written in English or any language other than Spanish, the title, abstract and keywords will be provided in Spanish. In addition to the project dossier, a courtesy page will be sent in a separate document, including title of the project in Spanish and English, name of author(s), brief cv of up to 350 words, email and contact telephone numbers.  Instructions for sending images. Images must be digitized at 300 dpi. Those that do not meet these requirements will not be accepted. Umática reserves the right to remove illustrations that do not offer sufficient quality for printing. The image format may be TIF or JPG. Each image will be sent in an individual and duly numbered file. The images must be numbered according to the list including their captions at the end of the text. In the text, any call to an image must also be indicated appropriately (number between square brackets in bold. Example 1. In addition to each image in good resolution quality, it should also be included at the end of the text, with low resolution quality. The document with the text and the images inserted must not exceed 5 MB of capacity. By accepting its publication, the authors transfer the reproduction rights of the illustrations and those for their digital edition. The request for reproduction rights is the sole responsibility of the authors. 

Conversations (CONVERSATIONS)

This section offers a space for debate and constructive discussion in which interviews and collaborations carried out between creators, producers, agents, specialists, artists, etc., contribute or offer a transversal counterpoint to the approach proposed in each number. Conversations is a commitment to the collaboration of external researchers who wish to add materials of special interest to the scope of the journal. Those authors interested in making a contribution to the Conversations section should send a brief summary (200-300 words) to alo@uma.es so that the editorial team can assess its adequacy and relevance within the lines of research that encompasses Umatica. After the acceptance of the proposal, the editorial board will contact them to specify the form of collaboration in this section.