ISSN 0123-3475
versión impresa

ISSN 1909-8758
versión online

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Statement of Ethics and Good Practice
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology only publishes original articles, mainly contributions from research and development (R&D) in biotechnology’s diverse areas, as well as technical articles not necessarily orientated towards proving hypotheses (i.e. technical descriptions of methods). Brief notes will also be accepted, such as reports concerning significant work having short-term objectives.

The editorial board of the Colombian Journal of Biotechnology is committed to high standards of ethics and good practice in the dissemination and knowledge transfer to ensure scientific rigor and quality. That is why it has taken as reference the Code of Conduct for editors of scientific journals, has established the Ethics Committee Publications (COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics) within which it stands:

General duties and responsibilities of Editors

Editors should be responsible for everything published in their journals. They should:

• Strive to meet the needs of readers and authors;
• Constantly improve the journal;
• Ensure the quality of the material they publish;
• Champion freedom of expression;
• Maintain the integrity of the academic record;
• Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual standards;
• Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Relations with readers

Readers should be informed about who has funded research and on the role of the funders in the research.

Relations with authors

The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology is committed to ensuring the quality of material published, reporting on the goals and standards of the journal. The decisions of publishers to accept or reject a paper for publication are based solely on the relevance of the work, originality and relevance of the study with regard to the editorial line of the journal.
The journal includes a description of the processes used in the peer evaluation of each job received. It has a guide authors in which information is presented. This guide is updated regularly and contains a link to this ethical statement. The right of authors to appeal editorial decisions.
Editors will not change its decision on accepting shipments, unless irregularities or extraordinary situations are detected. Any change in the members of the editorial team not affect decisions already made, except in special cases where serious circumstances converge.

Relations with reviewers

The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology offers evaluators guidance on what is expected of them. The identity of the evaluators is protected at all times, ensuring their anonymity.

The peer-review process
The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology ensuring that material submitted for publication will be considered privileged and confidential stuff while (double blind) is evaluated.

Complaints
The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology is committed to respond quickly to complaints received and ensure that dissatisfied applicants can handle all complaints. In any case, if stakeholders fail to meet their claims, it is considered that they have the right to raise their protests to other instances.

Encouraging academic integrity
Editors should ensure that research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.

Protecting individual data.

The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology guarantees the confidentiality of individual information (eg, teachers and / or students as collaborators or participants study subjects in the research presented).

Seguimiento de malas prácticas
The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology assumes its obligation to act accordingly in case of suspicion of malpractice or misconduct. This obligation extends both to documents published and non-published. The editors not only reject manuscripts that raise doubts about possible misconduct, but are considered ethically obliged to report suspected cases of misconduct. From the journal every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the work submitted for evaluation are rigorous and ethically appropriate.

Ensuring the integrity of the academic record
Editors have a duty to act if they suspect misconduct. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers.

Editors should not simply reject papers that raise concerns about possible misconduct. They are ethically obliged to pursue alleged cases.

Editors should first seek a response from those accused. If they are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the relevant employers or some appropriate body (perhaps a regulatory body) to investigate.

Relationships with owners and journals editors.
The relationship between editors, publishers and owners will be subject to the principle of editorial independence. The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology always ensures that articles are published based on their quality and suitability for readers, and not with a view to an economic or political gain. In this sense, the facts that the journal is not governed by economic interests and defend the ideal of free access to knowledge, universal and free, facilitates such independence.

Conflict of interest.
The Colombian Journal of Biotechnology establish the necessary mechanisms to prevent or resolve possible conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers and / or the editorial team itself.

Complaints / allegations.

Authors must follow the following instructions; articles not complying with them will be returned without being evaluated. Manuscripts must be submitted in triplicate, on letter-sized (21.6 x 27.5 cm), white paper; they must be single-spaced, with 3 cmmargins. Two copies must omit author details. An electronic copy of the work must also be submitted on diskette or CD. A copy can also be sent to the e-mail address given at the end of these instructions to speed-up the evaluation process. The articles must be processed using Word for Windows or a compatible application, written in Times New Roman, font-size 12.

The work must not exceed a maximum of 20 pages, including Figures, Tables and Bibliography. The language used must be clear and precise and the work must be written in the third person. The past tense must be used for the Introduction, Materials and Methods and Results sections.

Commercial names and brand-names must be avoided in the body of the text (or referred to in parenthesis). Commercial products must be referred to by the technical name or the main ingredient (initial letter capitalised). Only internationally accepted abbreviations must be used. In the case of little-known acronyms being used, they must be written in full the first time that they are used, followed by the acronym in parenthesis. All acronyms and abbreviations must be written without a full-stop following them. The metric decimal system must be used for all measurements and those abbreviations for common units of measurement: kilogram (kg), gram (g), milligram (mg), meter (m), etc. Avoid footnotes, except for information regarding authors of an article. Use a single letter size.

The article’s structure must follow the accepted steps used by Scientific Method, thus:

Title. It must be short but illustrative, without exceeding 15 words. This title must then be translated into Spanish and a short title for the pageheadings must also be included.

Authors. The complete names must be included when crediting the authors of any article. The authors must be listed in agreement with the importance of their contribution to the research or in the preparation of the article and not in alphabetical order, nor in terms of rank.

Their respective academic distinctions, the institution to which they belong and their complete mailing address (including e-mail) must be marked by an asterisk and given in a footnote.

Abstract in English. This must be concise and contain information concerning the research’s justification, objectives, methodology and concrete results. It must indicate the main conclusions, emphasising achievements. It must not exceed 250 words, these to be written in a single paragraph.

Key words in English. There must be a list containing a maximum of five key words from the article (different to those included in the title) facilitating the use of modern computerised cataloguing and information search systems.

Abstract in Spanish. This must be a technical translation of the abstract to the Spanish language.

Key words in Spanish. There must be a faithful translation of the key words to the Spanish language.

Introduction. This must describe the general purpose for writing on the subject, giving the necessary information precisely, referring only directly to that related literature considered indispensable for developing the subject, allowing the present state of the same to become known. It must clearly indicate the objective of the research’s hypothesis and its relationship with other relevant work (it must not include extensive reviews of the bibliography).

Materials and Methods. The techniques and the equipment used must be described in a sequence specifically and logically showing the research’s development so that they can be reproduced. The materials’ sources, their state of purity and the detailed description of equipment must only be included when these are very specific or novel. Procedures described by other authors must be avoided; but, if they have been modified, then the details of such modification must be included.

Results and Discussion (the Discussion can be given as a separate section). Experimental results must only appear in Tables and Figures when these are absolutely necessary; they must be succinctly but completely explained in the text. When results are sustained by statistical calculation, the origin of the data and the statistical method used must be mentioned. The Tables must be given a title and be identified by continuous Arabic numbers. The Figures (photographs, drawings, graphs and maps)must appear with a title and be identified by Arabic numbers. Figures processed by computer (when these are printed with high quality characteristics, preferably by laser printer) are accepted. Black and white photographs are accepted. If it is necessary to include colour photographs then the author must pay the printing costs. The discussion must be brief and limited to the work's significant aspects.

Conclusions. They must be based on the results obtained. If it is possible, they must offer a solution to the problem outlined in the Introduction.

Acknowledgements. If it is necessary to show gratitude to people or institutions making a significant contribution towards the work, these must be kept short and concrete.

Bibliographical references in the body of the Text. Only published references can be accepted, mention-ing the author's last name, followed by the year of publication in parenthesis, for example: Rodríguez (1997). When there are three or more authors, the Latin expression et al. must be used, for example: López et al. (1996). If the reference is made at the end of a phrase, author and date are given in parenthesis, for example: (Rodríguez 1997; López et al. 1996).

Bibliography. This must be presented in alphabetical order of first-named authors. Its presentation must be as follows.

For articles. Author(s), year, title of the article, journal, volume, number, page(s), i.e. Pérez, R.; Lalucat, J. 1980. Genes as assassins of free life. 44 (4): 38-45.

Books., Author (s), year of publication, title, place where printed, the publisher or organisation responsible for the publication, pages, i.e. Gómez A.; Posada, H. 1987. Chinchiná, Colombia: Cenicafé.p. 481.

A thesis must be referred to as if it were a book.

If any work has special characteristics and there-fore cannot fulfil all those specifications previously indicated, then it is recommended that at least title, au-thor(s), abstract, key words, translations of the abstractand key words, bibliographical appointments and con­clusions should be given.

Articles dealing with topic review

Topic review articles will only be accepted for publica­tion when requested by the Editorial Committee. Au­thors may however propose topics, indicating the purpose of such reviews and the reference sources and search methods to be used. The Editorial Committee will evaluate any such proposal and determine whether it should be developed and/or included in the journal.

According to Colciencias, review articles are documents resulting from research, analysing, systematis-ing and integrating the results of published and unpublished research in a scientific or technological field so as to take account of advances and trends in R&D. They must fulfil the following characteristics.

Reviews must be between 12 and 20 pages long. Contents: they must have a Summary emphasising the significance of recent findings; an Introduction; a sec-tion for Critical Analysis (presented under subtitles or in sections); Conclusions; and a Bibliography, including at least 50 references, the majority being recent (i.e. published within the last five years in the case of wellknown topics). Schemes, Figures and Tables should also be included, dynamising the text and facilitating under-standing. A review should integrate the compiled information and give a detailed explanation of the limitations and any incongruence found in published studies' results.

The Revista Colombiana de Biotecnología is a peer-reviewed publication. Those articles received are sent (without authors' names) to anonymous peer evaluators selected by the Editorial Committee. Their observations are then sent to authors so that they can make the corresponding modifications. The Edito­rial Committee takes the final decision whether to publish a particular article.

Address
Revista Colombiana de Biotecnología
Consejo Editorial
Universidad Nacional de Colombia,
Instituto de Biotecnología
Telephones: (571) 3165000 Ext. 16981 - 3165450
Fax: 3165415
A.A. 14490 de Bogotá (P.O. Box)
e-mail: revcbib_bog@unal.edu.co
http://www.rcb.unal.edu.co