Print version
 ISSN 0366-5232

Online version
 ISSN 2357-3759

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Originality, Authorship, And Conflict Of Interest Policies
• Ethics policy
• Paper Submission And Evaluation
• Sending of manuscripts

Caldasia publishes high impact contributions on the documentation, understanding, or conservation of biological diversity written in Spanish or English. The journal includes papers on botany, zoology, ecology, biodiversity, biogeography, taxonomy, systematics, conservation, anthropology, and related disciplines. The journal publishes full papers, reviews or short communications preferably. Caldasia do not have page charges but if the paper includes color images, collaboration from the authors is requested to cover these costs.

Content of papers (PDF) and instructions to authors appear in the web site (http://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/cal).

Caldasia publishes three types of contributions and the major differences between these are related to their length. Other parameters are applied to all of them.

Full papers. These are documents that report complete research. These contributions should include all the classic components of a research, such as: introduction, material and methods, results and discussion. Its length should not exceed 30 pages including figures and tables, and it should result of an efficient compilation of the sampling effort, complexity of the analyses and the research problem. In the case of taxonomic papers that exceed page limit, authors can previously consult the editorial board.

Review papers. These works describe and synthesize the state of the art of a specific topic, identifying critical areas and perspectives for future growth. The editorial board will invite leading experts to submit these contributions to the journal.  The paper length should not exceed 30 pages and should follow general author guidelines.

Short communications. These are contributions that do not exceed five pages and may not include all the components listed for a full paper. Sections will not be separated by titles. Short communications may refer to specific observations that bring interesting information to a wide audience. Distribution novelties are interesting for publication if these imply an important extension of the geographic range of a species.

The editorial board may accept letters or opinion notes about attractive topics on the journal scope. These contributions will not exceed three pages on submission.

Papers must be submitted with a presentation letter where authors highlight the value of their contribution, indicate corresponding author and list the suggested referees.

English written papers by non-english native authors need to be edited by a professional fluent in that language or by any professional editing service that provides this service.

The file should be written in Word for Windows. Type settings must be Times New Roman 12pt. Figures for paper evaluation should be in low resolution but clearly visible; these should be JPEG files, 72dpi, and 12 cm width. High resolution figures should be TIFF format without any compression process, 300 dpi, and 15 cm width and these should be send only after paper acceptance.

Pages should be set to letter size 25mm margins on all sides. Text, including figure legends and table headings, should be doubled space. Include page and line numbering using automatic set up. Please do not use foot notes. Please do not add author´s names for page heading. Use a fluent and direct style, avoid parentheses as possible.

Full papers and review letters should not exceed 30 papers including figures and tables. Short communications should not exceed five pages. Tables and figures that are not strictly required for paper understanding will be published as supplementary material at the journal´s webpage.

The first page must include in the following order: 1. Spanish and English title, 2. Name, institutional address, land address and e-mail from every author, 3. A short title no longer than 40 characters, and 4. Corresponding author indication. Authors that use two last names are encouraged to hyphen them and to abbreviate the second last name by the first word. This change will facilitate author retrieval by the bibliographic systems. For example: Rodríguez-J. for Rodríguez Jiménez.

The abstract should be analytical and should not exceed the 250 words. It must contain the following sections: 1. Identification of the problem under study and of its importance, 2. Main goal of the research, 3. A concise description of the methods, 4. A synthesis of the major results, and finally 5. A description of the impact of the work. The following distribution of words of the abstract is suggested 18-2-20-60-10. No references to literature, figures or tables should be included. An English version of the abstract should be provided.

Key words: between two and five key words should be included. Take in mind that these words are used by search engines to bring your work to a researcher who is compiling information about a topic, thus, key words should be significant in your area of research and should be different from these used in the title. A Spanish version of the key words is required.

The following order for paper sections is suggested: Introduction, methods, results, discussion, author contributions (only in multi-authored papers), Acknowledgements, and Cited literature. If preferred, authors may combine Results and Discussion into a single section. Subtitles within main sections may be included if needed. Please remember that the introduction is not a detailed review of literature but a list of arguments to support your case.

Author´s contribution: This section applies to multi authored papers. In should be an explicit statement of the participation of every author on several aspects of the paper such as: problem conception, research designing, data collection, analysis and paper writing. IN this case use the initials of an author as follows: Pedro Rafael Pérez-Aldana = PRPA. Example: PRPA concept and experimental design, JJLO and DDFE data gathering and analyses, PRPA and JJLO paper writing.

Nomenclature. Caldasia follows the policies of the Nomenclature Codes for the respective biological groups for taxon citation. Taxonomic authorship should be indicated the first time that a species is cited in the main text of the paper. For botanical species indicate the author and for zoological species author and description year should be indicated. Taxonomic authorship should not be indicated in following citations of the species neither in the title of the paper. Tables with large number of species should include taxonomic authorship. Latin names of species should be in italics. Do not use any other special font in the text. Remember that abbreviation such as sp., nov,. spp., etc., are not names and should not go in italics.

Metric Units. Use the decimal metric system for all measurements, except when textual citation of other works. Do not use period after unit abbreviations such as gr, mm, m, etc.; use the European system for date citations (i.e. 9 feb 1997). Integer numbers other than those related to measurement units are written in words up to fifteen (one, two, three, etc.). Decimal numbers should be separated by comma in Spanish written papers and by a point in English written papers. Geographic coordinates should follow the following format: 5º45’ North, 75º45’ West. Any abbreviation should be explained in full the first time used.

TABLES AND FIGURES
All tables and figures must be cited in the text. Avoid table, figure and text redundancy. Prefer figures over tables. Number tables and figures in the order these are being cited in the text. Tables and figures should go in separate pages at the end of the paper. Number and heading of every figure and table should be at the top left part of the page. Figure and table headings should not need any reference to the text. Table symbols should go at the bottom of the table. Use Excel for tables and keep them as simple as possible. Avoid color gradations. Use three horizontal lines only, at the top, at the bottom, and between the column titles and data, no not use vertical lines.

Line drawings, photos, maps, flowcharts and statistical graphs are classified as figures. Figures should be sharp and of excellent esthetic quality but remember that during the evaluation process figures should be in low resolution keeping sharpness. Once the paper is accepted, send the figures in TIFF format without any compression option, minimum 300 dpi, and 15 cm real width. No not send figures embedded in a Word or Excel file. Maps and structure illustrations should have a metric scale. Avoid using isolated figures, it is better group them into composite images of related topics. Label these images with under case letters (Fig. 3a, Fig. 5d, etc).

DESCRIPTION OF NEW SPECIES
In addition to the standard sections of a scientific paper such as introduction, methods, and discussion, species descriptions should contain the following sections and order: Name of the new species in accordance with internationally accepted nomenclature codes. Designated type specimen, holotype, with the collection data such as country, department or state, province, exact locality, geographic coordinates, altitude, date and collector´s number. Isotypes, allotypes and paratypes, is available, should be listed with their collection data and the museum depository. Diagnosis: should be included using the languages recommended by the respective nomenclatural codes; diagnosis should be the list of characters that differentiate this species from the more similar. Description: it should follow a logical order for characters; for animals from anterior to posterior area and from dorsal to ventral side; for plants from vegetative to reproductive regions. Etymology: explicit indication of the new name characteristics. Distribution and ecology: when available, provide this information. General comments: any comments about affinities, uses, etc. are welcomed.

Museum names and acronyms should follow any of the following sources: Index Herbariorum (Holmgren et al. 1990), Leviton et al. (1980) “Museum acronyms”, Herpetol. Rev. 11:93-102., or the arthropod museum list of the Bishop Museum: hbs.bishopmuseum.org/codens/codens-r-us.html. We strongly encourage authors to add catalogue codes for color description from a standard reference such as Ridgway 1912 or Smithe 1975, 1981.

SPECIMEN CITATION
To cite specimens in the taxonomic works, please use the following format:

Botanical samples: COUNTRY. Estate, Department or Province: Exact locality, geographic coordinates, elevation, date, Collector (s) and collection number (HERBARIUM). Example: COLOMBIA. Boyacá: Laguna de Tota, 3500 m, 25 ago 1967, R. Jaramillo et al. 2763 (COL).

Zoological samples: COUNTRY. Estate, Department or Province: number, sex, exact locality, geographic coordinates, elevation, date, Collector (s) and collection number, Museum acronym, and catalog number. Example: COLOMBIA. Risaralda: one male, adult, Mistrató, 1400 m, 12 dic. 1992, C. Meléndez 202. ICN 20539 (Insect).

If the paper includes catalogs, lists and inventories, please follow as close as possible this format: Family. Genus. Species. Author. Country. Estate/Department/Province. Municipality. Locality. Latitude. Longitude. Altitude. Collector and collection number.

LITERATURE REFERENCES AND CITED LITERATURE
Use only needed references. There should be strict correlation between cited literature and references in the text. Only published documents should be listed in the cited literature. Thesis and web page citation should follow requirements described below. Caldasia follows the guidelines of the Council of Scientific Editors https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/ using the “last name, year” version.  You can find the instructions at the following link: http://www.scientificstyleandformat.org/Tools/SSF-Citation-Quick-Guide.html

Please order references by date as follows: “...according to Chávez (1986) and Ramírez and Alpírez (1993)...” or “...as found by Ibañez (1978), Menéndez and Meléndez (1981), López (1983, 1985), Rodríguez et al. (1988)” or “... there are two species (Velázquez 1975, Juárez and Suárez 1980, 1983, Martínez et al. 1990)...” Please note comma use. For papers with thtree or more authors use et al. in italic font; use a, b, c, etc. in text citation to distinguish between papers published by the same author and same year. Unpublished or submitted works should be cited in the text only. These works should be cited as unpublished: (Pérez, unpublished). Avoid this type of references.

Cited literature references should be ordered by last name of first author and year. Write all author names, do not use et al. For metadata addition do not use any special font other than that indicated for the main text. Keep all the information of a single reference into a single paragraph. Separate each reference by a white line.

Journal abbreviation should follow oficial list. There are several databases with this information such as:
http://images.webofknowledge.com/images/help/WOS/A_abrvjt.html  
http://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa/#lettres

Papers in serial journals: Authors. Year. Title. Abbreviate Journal Name. volume (issue): pages. Doi.
Text citation: (Author year), Author1 and Author2 (year), Author1 et al. (year)

Examples:
- Hernández-N R. 1965. Análisis de redes ecológicas centrados en la especie invasora Menganius fulanii. Rev. Biol. Trop. 5:112−115.  doi:10.000002/rbt.230.7355.1222.
Text citation: (Hernández-N 1965) or Hernández-N (1965)

- Hernández-N R, Fernández-T G. 1992. Filogenia del género Menganius (Coleoptera: Menganiidae). Beetle J. 62(1): 6−8. doi:10.000002/rbt.230.7355.1244.
Text citation: (Hernández-N and Fernández-T 1992) or Hernández-N and Fernández-T (1992)

- Hernández-N R, Fernández-T G, Fernández-C F. 2012. Filogenia del género Menganius (Coleoptera: Menganiidae). Beetle J. 63(1-2): 15−81. doi:01.002/bj.210.7355.1222.
Texto citation:(Hernández-N et al. 2012) or Hernández-N et al. (2012)

- Hernández-N R, Fernández-T G, Fernández-C F. 2012a. Análisis de caracteres en el género Menganius (Coleoptera: Menganiidae). Beetle J. 63(1−2): 1−15. doi:01.002/bj.210.7355.1222.

- Hernández-N R, Fernández-T G, Fernández-C F. 2012b. Filogenia del género Menganius (Coleoptera: Menganiidae). Beetle J. 63(1−2): 15−81. doi:01.002/bj.210.7355.1278.
Text citation:(Hernández-N et al. 2012a,b) or Hernández-N et al. (2012a,b)

Books: Author. year. Title. Edition. City. (If needed, include country for clarity). Editorial company.

Full books:
Chivian E, Bernstein A, Annan K. 2008. Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Books authored by organizations
[ICZN] International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 1961. International code of zoological nomenclature. First Edition. London: International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature London.
Text citation: (ICZN 1961) or ICZN (1961)

Citation of full books developed by editors and different authors for chapters:
Fernández F and Sharkey MJ, editors. 2006. Introducción a los Hymenoptera de la Región Neotropical. Bogotá: Sociedad Colombiana de Entomología y Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Book chapters:
Magurran A. 2004. Measuring biological diversity. Malden: Blackwell Science Ltd. Chapter 2, The commonness, and rarity, of species; p.18−71. 

Chapters of a book whose authors are different from editors:
Olmi M. 2006. Familia Sclerogibbidae. In: Fernández F and Sharkey MJ, editors. 2006. Introducción a los Hymenoptera de la Región Neotropical. Bogotá: Sociedad Colombiana de Entomología y Universidad Nacional de Colombia. P. 393−396.

Thesis
Abuhatab YA. 2011. Actividad metabólica diaria del biofilm en el sector medio de un río de alta montaña (Río Tota, Boyacá - Colombia). [Thesis]. [Bogotá]: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Electronic documents, DVDs, CDs, or web pages
Yu DS, Achterberg K, Horstmann K. c2012. World Ichneumonoidea 2011. [DVD].
Text citation:(Yu et al. c2012) or Yu et al. (c2012)

Samuelson A, Evenhuis N, Nishida G. c2001. Insect and spider collections of the world web site. [last accessed: 27 Mar 2016]. http://www.bishopmuseum.org/bishop/ento/codens-r-us.html 

Text citation: (Samuelson et al. c2001) or Samuelson et al. (c2001)

Authors must agree with the originality, authorship and conflict of interest policies of Caldasia described below. Consequently, the respective format must be signed and submitted with the original version of the paper. The format can be downloaded from the format for authors section at the left side of the journal´s page (http://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/cal).

Originality. Papers submitted to Caldasia must be original and should not be under evaluation in another journal or publication of any type.

Authorship. In agreement with guidelines of organizations such as the Publication Ethics Committee (COPE) (publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org), Caldasia considers that listing an author in a paper is due to his/her significant contribution to the scientific content of the work. As a consequence, to be an author, he/she must have been participated significantly on the conception, design, data collecting, analyses or paper writing, agrees with the content of the submitted document and is responsible for the ideas present there. However, for efficiency, Caldasia will keep contact with the corresponding author only. Corresponding author must be indicated in the presentation letter.

Caldasia accepts that the order of authorship in a paper is the result of a mutual agreement, consequently, for multi-authored papers a final section of Author´s contribution as described below. Additionally, Caldasia assumes that no one that contributed significantly to the study have been left out of the authors list.

Competing interest. Caldasia assumes that the interpretation of the data and the objectivity of the analyses of the paper are impartial and follow the standards of the area. Thus, these must not be biased because economic or personal interests. The journal requests that the authors sign the declaration of originality, responsibility for authorship and conflict of interest

If required, authors must indicate in the Material and Methods section their agreement with regulatory laws regarding experiment ethics and collecting permits.

If voucher specimens are generated, collection repository must be indicated. DNA sequence access numbers and repository databases must be indicated.

Caldasia promotes excellence, transparency and objectivity criteria for paper evaluation. Submitted papers are first checked by the editorial board for compliance with the journal scope and instructions to author guidelines. All submitted papers are checked through the Turnitin writing system (turnitin.org). The scientific merit of the contributions, and hence the possibility to publication in the journal, depends on the concept of the referees. Papers that do not fit in the journal´s scope or that do not follow instructions to author guidelines are returned to authors without evaluation. Papers that comply with the requirements described above are formally accepted for evaluation and receive a reference code indicated in the acknowledgement upon receipt letter. A copy of this letter is send through e-mail to all the authors; however, following mail contact will be with the corresponding author exclusively. This stage of paper evaluation takes up to seven (7) days.

Papers accepted for evaluation are sent to at least two referees for peer-review. Authors may suggest in their presentation letter three referees giving their full names, e-mail address and web page if available. The editorial board selects referees from any academic institution worldwide if they comply with two criteria: 1. Number of publications related with the study that have appeared recently in high impact journals, and 2. Independence of these referees from the paper´s authors, author´s trajectory, or author´s institutional affiliation. Referees will have 20 days to send their evaluation concept to the editorial board.

The editorial board will take decision about the submitted paper for publication in Caldasia based on the synthesis of the concepts provided by the referees. Papers submitted to the journal may receive any of these concepts: 1. Acceptable as submitted, 2. Publishable with changes, 3. Require a second round of review, and 4. Not publishable.

Caldasia uses the Open Journal Systems (pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/) platform for the review process. To submit your paper, please create an author profile at http://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/cal. To do so choose the option “Mi perfil” that is located at the top left part of the page. Once the profile has been created, you can follow the instructions to upload your paper. The journal will not accept papers for evaluation sent directly to the contact address or any other mean.