ISSN 2256-201X online version
ISSN 0120-0739 printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

Colombia Forestal journal publishes original contributions in different topics of the forestry field and the renewable natural resources and the ones from the environment, with special emphasis in the Republic of Colombia. The journal is addressed to a wide public in the national and international fields, especially to professionals directly related to the management of the renewable resources. The acceptance of your manuscripts to publish will depend on the evaluations of the Editorial committee and from an evaluating peer specialist in the topic. The manuscripts which do not have any relation with the topics of the magazine or those ones which do not follow all the instructions for the authors will be given back without being evaluated.

The process of evaluation of a manuscript consists of a short listing and general revision for the Editorial Committee followed by a controlled usage evaluation asked to specialist peers. Once the evaluation is carried out by the peers, the authors will receive the following concepts: Approved, Approved with some minor modifications, Approved with mayor modifications or No Approved. In the cases in which the manuscript is Approved with some modifications the author will also received the suggestions and comments made by the evaluators. The authors will have a maximum of a month to do the corrections required counting from the day in which the manuscripts are returned with the concepts, and then send it corrected to the editor of the magazine within a letter explaining the adjustments done in the original manuscript. The Editorial Committee will verify the incorporation of the changes in the manuscript and if they consider it necessary they will send it again to the evaluator peer to generate a new concept. The final decision of the publication of the manuscript will be subject of the academic peer and the Editorial Committee with respect to the corrections made to the manuscript. If the document is approved to be published the authors will have to sign a declaration of originality and an authorization of the rights of publication and reproduction of their manuscript, as well as the inclusion of it in databases, web sites or any electronic pages national or international. Each author will receive 3 copies of the volume in which their article is published.

Types of Article

The contributions of the collaborators in the magazine Colombia Forestal will be able to include their articles if they correspond to any of the following five categories, which are based on the National Bibliographic Index Publindex from COLCIENCIAS.

Article of Scientific and Technologic Research
This is a manuscript that presents in a detailed way the original results of Research projects, following the scientific methodology and which also represents an important contribution to the forestry sciences or to the area of renewable natural resources.

Revision Article
This is a manuscript based on the result of a research in which the results of published or unpublished researches are analyzed, systematized and integrated to provide information related to the advances and the trends in the scientific and technologic development. The articles must include a careful bibliographic revision of at least 50 references. The articles of revision will preferably been required by the general editor of the magazine to a specialist in the topic.

Short Article
Short article that contains the original results preliminary or partial of a scientific or technologic research, which generally requires to be communicated as soon as possible.

Case Report
It is a document of technical-scientific interest, which is the result of the study of a particular situation that wants to show technical and methodological experiences for a specific case, related to the forestry sciences or the renewable natural resources, which also is of enough interest and depth. It also has to include a systematic revision of similar cases.

Article of Reflection
It is a document that presents the results of a research forma an analytic, interpretative or critical perspective of the author about a specific topic, based on original sources.

The magazine will also be able to include a section of Notes and Comments, which can include notes of technical interest about conferences seminaries, forums, research, extension or education programs, as well as comments about new books or magazines.

The manuscript cannot exceed 40 (forty) pages letter sized, written to double space including the text, tables, diagrams and attachments. The text must be written in fount Times New Roman, size 11. The writing of scientific names of plants or animals (gender and species) must be written in italics as well as the abbreviations e.g. i.e. et al. Do not use italics with the terms sp., cf. y aff., nor with the names of the authors.

The first page of the manuscript must indicate the title of the article, the full name of the author or authors with a foot note indicating the name of the institution to which the author is affiliated, post address and email. In the footnote the author of the correspondence must be indicated.

After the heading of the article with the corresponding titles in Spanish and English, the short title must be written, then a summary in Spanish and an abstract in English, up to 250 words for each one. A minimum of three and a maximum of ten key words must be included, it'd better if the key words are different from the ones shown in the title and which also reflect the content of the article and can be appropriate for searching engines.

The main content of all the manuscripts except the one from revision must have the following sections in a sequential way: Introduction, Materials and Methods (includes study field), Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements and Bibliographic References. In addition to this, the annexes, tables and diagrams must be included. In the Revision manuscripts it is not necessary to specify the section of objectives, materials, methods and results.

Summary: the summary must be short and a synthesis of the text. This includes a brief mention to the objective of the research, the methodology used, the results and the importance of the findings in the same order. The key points of each section must be reflected in the summary. Abbreviations and quotes must not be used.

Introduction: it has to be limited to the object of study, the definition of the problem, the justification of the study and the objectives of it. A brief theoretical framework can be given only if it is directly related to the research problem.

Scientific names: the complete name in Latin ( gender and epithet) must be completely written for each organism the first time it is mentioned in the text. (e.g. Protium heptaphyllum), after that the initial of the gender must be written in capital letter followed by the complete epithet (e.g. P. heptaphyllum).

Unites of measurement: the unites used must follow the following parameters: International System of Units: ha, km, m, cm, mm, h, min, s, kg, g.

Percentages and grades: use symbols (e.g. 15%, not 15 per cent).

The diagrams (photos, maps, illustrations and graphs) must include in the inferior side the correspondent label numbered in sequential order which also explains in detail the content (fount size 10). In the case of the graphs these must include the title of the axis centered (with the initial in capital letter) and with the nits of measurement. The fount of all the graphs must be Times New Roman, in an appropriate size for printing. If in each illustration there is more than a panel, lower case (a, b, c) must be used to designate each one of the

panels. Don't use colors in the illustrations, remember the publication will be done in black and white. Send the illustrations in the following formats: .jpeg, .jpg or .tif with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and a maximum wide of 580 pixels.

The tables must be included with the label in the superior part explaining in detail their content (use fount size 10), without vertical lines and only three horizontal lines. The tables and illustrations must be quoted in the text and must be sent in a different file, one in each sheet, first all the tables and then all the illustrations.

The quotes in the text must be organized chronologically and must correspond to the references in the section Bibliographic references. Examples:

- According to Castro (1945) and González & Ruiz (1996),
- (Castro 1945, González & Ruiz 1996, Ramírez et al. 2009).

The letters a, b, c, d, etc. must be used to distinguish the different Works of the same author and year.

- As mentioned by Parrado-Rosselli et al. 2007, 2007a, 2007b.

The references in the section of Bibliographic References must be ordered alphabetically according to the last name of the first author and chronologically for each author or combination of authors.

In this section the name of all the authors must be written, without using et al. The names of serial publications must be written complete, not abbreviated. Follow this format:

1. Magazines Articles. Last name of the author, initial(s) of the name. Year. Title of the Article. Full name (not abbreviated) of the magazine, volume and number (in brackets): range of pages. When it is necessary to mention two or authors , after the last name and initial of the name of the first author, followed by a comma, it must be written the initial(s) with period of the name of the second author followed by the last name and so on, using commas to separate them.

Examples:

Páez, F. E. 1983. Un nuevo registro de planta para Colombia. Lozania 5: 32- 46.
Mendoza, H. & B. Ramírez. 2001. Dicotiledóneas de La Planada, Colombia: Lista de especies. Biota Colombiana 2: 123-126.
Dey, D., A. Royo, P. Brose, T. Hutchinson, M. Spetich & S. Scott. 2010. An ecologically based approach to oak silviculture: a synthesis of 50 years of oak ecosystem research in North America. Revista Colombia Forestal 13(2): 201-222.

2. Books. Last name of the author, initial(s) of the name(s) .Year. Title of the book. Name of the editorial house. City. Number of pages. If it is a collegiate book but not a specific chapter, the name of the editor (s) is used as the name of the author followed by (ed.) o (eds.). When it belongs to two or more authors , after the last name and initial of the name of the first author, followed by a comma, the initial(s) with period of the name of the second author is written, followed by the last name and so on, spearating then with commas.

Examples:

Krebs, J. 1978. Ecological methodology. Harpers & Row, Publisher. New York. 166 p.
Mahecha, G., H. Rosales, G. Ruiz & P. Mota. 2008. Las propiedades mecánicas de la madera de tres especies forestales. Editorial Manrique. Bogotá. 134 p.

3. Chapter within a book. Last name of the author of the chapter, initial(s) of the name(s). Year. Title of the chapter, number of pages. En: last name of the editor and initial(s) of the name(s) (ed). Name of the book. Name of the editorial house, City. When there are two or more authors or editors, after the last name and initial of the name of the first author, followed by a comma the initial(s) with period of the name of the second author must be written followed by the last name and so on, separating them with commas.

Examples:

Suárez, R. L. 1985. La familia Melastomataceae, pp.: 187 - 195. En: Téllez, M. R. & L. J. Torres (eds.). Los arboles de la Costa Atlántica. Editorial Pulido. Lima.
Prentice, I. C. 2001. The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, pp.: 135-237. En: Houghton, J. T., Y. Ding, D. J. Griggs, M. Noguer, P. J. van der Linden, X. Dai, K. Maskell & C.A. Johnson (eds.). Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Cambridge University Press. United Kingdom-New York.

4. Senior projects or unprecedented publications. Last name of the author, initial(s) of the name(s). Year. Title of the Senior Project or unprecedented publication. Type of publication. Name of the institution or filial that publishes the document. City. Numer of pages. When there are two or more authors, after the last name and initial of the name of the first author, followed by comma, it must be written the initial(s) of the name of the second author with period, followed by the last name and so on, separating them with commas.

Examples:

González, R. O. 2010. Cambios en la distribución espacial y abundancia de la palma Bombona (Iriartea deltoidea Ruiz & Pav., Arecaceae) en diferentes grados de intervención antropogénica de los bosques de tierra firme del Parque Nacional Natural Amacayac&úacute;, Amazonas-Colombia. Tesis de Pregrado. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. 90 p.
Burgos, S. & C. Salcedo. 1983. Los Scolytidae y Platypodidae de algunos municipios del norte del estado de Morelos. Tesis de pregrado, Universidad del Estado de Morelos. Morelos. 193 p.

5. Software. Author(s). Year. Name of the software. Name of the institution or organization that develops the software. City. ISBN . URL address of contact.

Example:

R Development Core Team. 2008. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Vienna. ISBN: 3-900051-07-0. URL: [http://www.R-project.org].

The author(s) must upload the manuscript to the following link: http://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/ojs/index.php/colfor/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions, before, he has to create his user and id as author and continue with the instructions on that link. The file must be sent in Word format or something compatible. The figures and diagrams must be upload in a different file with their corresponding labels. The original document with the illustrations will be required only when the document had been accepted for its publication.