About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Actualidades Biológicas [Actual. Biol. ISSN 0304-3584, ISSNe 2145-7166] is an open access, peer-reviewed journal, specializing in the publication of high quality unpublished manuscripts, products of research in the biological sciences (Biotechnology; Genetics; Cell Biology; Molecular Biology; Ecology of populations, communities and ecosystems; Systematics of biotic diversity, among others). The journal receives manuscripts throughout the year and publishes two issues annually under continuous periodicity. Occasionally, it publishes a specialized supplement on a topic of current importance. The electronic publication is free of charge for authors.
The journal Actualidades Biológicas aims to disseminate the results of research work, both dometically and internationally. It provides an ideal communication channel to promote academic debate in the biological sciences, and to this end encourages the publication of the following types of materials: full research articles, short communications (short research articles), reviews, essays, letters to the editor, editorials and book reviews.
For the definitions of the types of articles, the criteria of the National Bibliographic Index Publindex of Colciencias, 2010, are followed: http://www.colciencias.gov.co/sites/default/files/upload/paginas/M304PR02G01-guiaserviciopermanente-indexacion.pdf.
The Journal is aimed at researchers, professionals and students who are related to or interested in the field of biological sciences.
Editorial Standards
Contributions may be written in Spanish or English and will be published in English officially, because the journal provides free translation of all accepted manuscripts, in order to increase their dissemination and visibility. Articles with Spanish versions will accompany the publication of articles in English, but without having an official layout, although preserving a quality presentation. Papers already published or submitted to another journal will not be accepted. Manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter signed by all authors stating that the manuscript is unpublished, and that they agree with all the content within.
The receipt of each manuscript will be acknowledged via e-mail and the manuscript will be initially reviewed by the Editorial Committee. Manuscripts that do not strictly conform to the journal's instructions will be returned without acknowledgement of receipt.
After the initial review, the manuscript will be evaluated by at least two experts in the field. The evaluation system is anonymous; the authors will not know the identity of the evaluators. However, if reviewers wish to be acknowledged and adhere to the open peer review system, they may do so by sending an e-mail to the General Editor. Authors are encouraged to include in the cover letter the name, affiliation, and e-mail address of four potential reviewers. Acceptance for publication will be based on relevance, scientific quality and strict adherence to the standards of Actualidades Biológicas.
All manuscript files should be uploaded to the online platform: https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/actbio. Prior to uploading the files, the corresponding author must register and log in. The submission process starts on the main page by clicking on Submissions. Subsequently, the system will guide you through each of the five consecutive steps to upload the text of the manuscript. The cover letter and appendices are added as complementary files.
Access and Reuse Policy
We adhere to the policies and principles of open access (https://es.unesco.org/open-access/). Users are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or use the information for any lawful purpose, without any financial, legal or technical barriers. We believe that universal and free access to information promotes a level playing field for the development of nations.
Therefore, our readers will be able to consult our contents under the Creative Commons license of attribution - non-commercial - share alike. In which you are free to:
Share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt, remix, transform and build from the material.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the terms of the license.
Under the following terms:
Attribution - You must give proper credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes have been made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in such a way as to suggest that you or your use is supported by the licensor.
NonCommercial - You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
ShareAlike - If you remix, transform or build upon the material, you must distribute your contribution under the same license as the original.
No additional restrictions - You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from making any use permitted by the license.
Regarding authors. The journal Actualidades Biológicas requests the assignment of the patrimonial rights to the authors, this means, the exploitation rights of the work (articles), so any republication or other related practice must be informed and agreed with the Journal. With respect to moral rights, the publication will always ensure that they are respected, and that the respective taxation is made to the authors as creators of the published articles.
Post-publication discussions, corrections or retractions
The journal Actualidades Biológicas uses the CrossMark editorial initiative to provide readers with a standard way of locating the current version of an article's content. By applying the CrossMark logo to the bibliographic masthead of each published article, the Journal is committed to maintain the content it publishes and alerting readers to any changes.
Clicking on the CrossMark logo of a document will indicate its current status and may also provide you with additional information about the publication record.
Correction and retraction
Actualidades Biológicas is committed to maintaining the integrity of the literature and will publish errata, expressions of concern or retraction notices depending on the situation and following the COPE Retraction Guidelines. In all cases, these notices will be linked to the original article.
Information on COPE's retraction guidelines can be found here: Retraction Guidelines
The Universidad de Antioquia, publisher of the Journal, has a protocol for authorship participation and retraction policy, which can be consulted by clicking here.
Plagiarism Detection
Contributing to the fulfillment of the best ethical conduct in editorial management and seeking to comply with the publication of original and high-quality articles, Actualidades Biológica uses the anti-plagiarism software crosscheck, which uses the iThenticate software to detect coincidences and similarities between the texts submitted for evaluation and those previously published in other sources, thus protecting the originality of the contents.
It is necessary to mention that the results obtained by the software are always checked and reviewed by the journal editor and shared with the authors.
Sources of Help
The journal Actualidades Biológicas gratefully acknowledges the financial and logistical support of:
The Institute of Biology, The University of Antioquia.
Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, The Universidad de Antioquia.
Committee for Research Development (CODI), The Universidad de Antioquia.
- Support fund for the publication of specialized journals of The Universidad de Antioquia.
- Support fund for the publication of indexed journals of The Universidad de Antioquia.
History of the Journal
Founded: June 1972.
Period I: June 1972 to June 1993. During this period, 19 volumes (67 issues) were published uninterruptedly. The main public were high school students and teachers.
Period II: January 1998 to December 2018. Publication continued from volume 20 to 40 (109 issues). The main audience was the scientific community of Colombia.
Period III: January 2019 to date. The digital era begins; the journal stops publishing on paper, adheres to open science policies and acquires a Creative Commons license: "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0". The main audience is the Colombian and international scientific community.
Period IV: November 2023 to date. Continued publication and electronic pagination begins.
Publishing Entity
The publisher of the journal Actualidades Biológicas is the Universidad de Antioquia, located in the city of Medellin, Colombia, with address at Calle 70 No. 52 - 21. To communicate with it in matters related to scientific journals, you can do it to the e-mail apoyorevistasudea@udea.edu.co gestionrevistasvi@udea.edu.co
interoperability Protocol
The journal Actualidades Biológicas uses the OAI-PMH interoperability protocol, which allows the transfer of its digital resources, in this case, its published articles, to other systems or platforms. The metadata schema used in the Journal is Dublin Core and this ensures a curation of the data that are linked in the fields or in the established metadata, for an adequate transfer and interoperability between platforms.
Digital Preservation
The journal Actualidades Biológicas has, through OJS (Open Journal System), an archiving system that guarantees its digital preservation. This system corresponds to the KPK Preservation Network, which provides a free preservation service for any journal hosted in the OJS and that meets certain minimum criteria.
Likewise, the Journal assigns a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which is a persistent identifier managed by Crossref, that guarantees identification and avoids localization problems due to URL changes or similar.
Peer Review System
All manuscripts submitted to Actualidades Biológicas must be original and unpublished and therefore, to guarantee their suitability and quality, they must undergo a peer review process by at least two experts in the field of biological sciences. The refereeing system carried out is as follows:
Initial review: the editor of Actualidades Biológicas performs an initial filtering of the manuscripts submitted to determine if they meet the quality requirements established by the Journal and if the subject matter and contents are adequate according to their objective. Articles that do not meet the minimum criteria will be returned to the authors within 1 week of receipt.
Peer review: the manuscripts that pass the initial filter made by the editor are sent for evaluation. Each manuscript is assigned at least two expert peers through a blind or single-blind peer review process, 92% of whom are external to the journal's publishing entity. The referees evaluate the manuscript based on its originality, relevance, scope, content, rigor, and quality. The evaluation process takes a maximum of one month.
Editorial decision: based on the referees' evaluations, the editor makes the final decision on the acceptance of the manuscript and the authors are informed of this decision. The final decision may be "Accept", "Accept, subject to minor corrections", "Suggest major corrections", "Reject". For a revised article that requires adjustments, the author has 15 days to return the corrections, or the official reply of the revision and the journal takes 1 week to validate if the article is finally approved and requires a new round of evaluation or must be rejected. Only articles with at least two peer reviews where the manuscript has been accepted for publication are accepted for publication. Otherwise, articles are rejected.
Mention of Periodicity
The periodicity of Actualidades Biológicas is continuous, which means that its editorial process shortens the publication times of the articles, favoring their visibility, since each article that arrives to the Journal is reviewed, corrected, diagrammed and published once it completes its rigorous editorial process. Each article, depending on the review process and the timely response of each of the actors involved in the editing process, takes approximately 6 months to be processed.
It is necessary to mention that the Journal does not establish time limits for the reception of articles, as these are received permanently through its editorial management platform (OJS).
Publication Formats and Added Value
The Journal publishes its contents in PDF, EPUB, XML and HTML to facilitate the reading of its contents, in addition, the publication of these allows to enhance their visibility. A graphic summary is also published, which is a complementary document that allows readers to quickly and easily understand the content of the articles, thus promoting the dissemination of its contents.
Advertising and marketing guidelines statement
The journal Actualidades Biológicas does not publish advertising guidelines, but it does have a solid marketing strategy that ranges from the recognized call for papers to the publication and dissemination of content on social networks. The strategies employed for this are stated below:
- Design of outreach graphic pieces: notes on articles, notes on scientific milestones, notes on scientific articles associated with biology, notes on the covers of each issue, reels associated with milestones, reels associated with articles in the journal.
- Published on: Facebook, X and Instagram
- Creation of the table of contents (in English and Spanish) of the published issues and the notes of the articles with publication in networks and mass mailing.
- Research, creation and publication of information capsules associated with other scientific articles, both in English and Spanish.
- Notification of new issues to all audiences with their associated articles and duly hyperlinked through mass mailings (mailerlite).
- Sending of graphical abstracts through mass mailings to all audiences (undergraduate and graduate students of the Institute of Biology), UdeA directors, database of other related universities, attendees to related events, database registered in Scielo, national and international researchers in the area of biology, among others.
- Publication of call for papers through social networks and mass mailings, in English and Spanish.
- Permanent call for consultation of the journal and reading of articles through social networks and mass mailings, in English and Spanish.
- Design and dissemination of scientific events sponsored by the journal.
- Update of the magazine's image in social networks (twice a year), this corresponds to banners in social networks.
Publication of articles in the following formats: PDF, EPUB, XML, HTML, making them easy to search, retrieve and read.
