Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The manuscript must be submitted with a cover letter (download the format below at INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS/EDITORIAL STANDARDS/Preparation and shipment of material), signed by all authors, stating that the manuscript is original and unpublished, that they agree with all the contents and that it is not submitted to another journal. In addition, the corresponding author is indicated. This cover letter is added as a complementary file.
  • All manuscript files must be prepared as Word files (in doc, docx or rtf format). The manuscript is written in "Normal" style, with "Times New Roman" font size 12 points, double spaced; on letter size paper (215 x 280 mm or 8.5 x 11 inches), with 3 cm margins on all sides. Tables and figures should be inserted within the text, with their respective titles and legends.
  • References should follow APA citation and referencing style, as described at: https://normasapa.in/.
  • All lines and pages of the manuscript should be numbered consecutively.
  • In each page's header, the surnames of the authors appear in the upper left corner (if there are three or more authors, the surnames of the first author are written, followed by et al.)
  • The title is written in Spanish and English. The first letter of the title is capitalized and the remaining letters, as long as they are not proper names, are lowercase.
  • The first and last names of all authors are written below the title (in the case of two last names per author, they are linked with a hyphen).
  • The e-mail address of each author is written below the names. Mark each author's affiliation with a superscript number. Mark the author for correspondence with an asterisk (*).
  • The abstract is written in Spanish and English. It should not exceed 250 words.
  • The keywords are written in Spanish and English and separated by commas. They are not more than 6 words. They are arranged in ascending alphabetical order.
  • The subtitles INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESEARCH DATA, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS, CONFLICT OF INTERESTS, and REFERENCES are written with capital letters, bold and justified to the left margin.
  • Secondary subtitles are justified to the left and in bold; in this case, only the first letter must be capitalized.
  • Tables and figures are mentioned in the text within parentheses, without abbreviating them and written with sustained lowercase letters; for example (table 1), (figure 1). They must go in ascending sequential order.
  • Abbreviations are defined the first time they are mentioned in the text.
  • Numbers up to ten are written in words (one, two, etc.); those over ten are written with the number.
  • Do not use the "End of section" or "Page break" commands.
  • Scientific names (genus and species) must be written in italics.
  • Geographic coordinates are written in degrees, minutes, and seconds.
  • The citations correspond to the cited text.
  • All citations are referenced in the references section and references are cited in the text.
  • The references are listed in ascending alphabetical order according to the authors' last names.
  • If citations are presented in a row, they are arranged in alphabetical order, separated by semicolons.
  • Works by the same author, with the same year of publication, are organized in ascending chronological order and identified with the letters a, b, c, etc.
  • At least two reviewers with expertise in the subject of the submitted manuscript should be suggested and added when submitting the manuscript.
  • Annexes and/or supplementary material should be organized in a separate Word file and should have their respective titles and/or captions.
  • It is suggested that authors deposit their research data in a specialized repository. Regarding the article, it is recommended that a section called RESEARCH DATA be included, which should reflect a contextualization of the data, its use and the link to the repository along with the assigned identifier.

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Actualidades Biológicas [Actual. Biol. ISSN 0304-3584, ISSNe 2145-7166] is an open access, peer-reviewed journal specialized in the publication of high quality unpublished manuscripts, products of research in biological sciences. The journal receives manuscripts throughout the year and publishes two issues online annually in July and December. Occasionally it publishes a specialized supplement on a topic of current importance. Electronic publication is free of charge for authors.

Once the manuscript is accepted and depending on its impact, the journal will translate it into English free of charge.

The following types of material are published: 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://goo.gl/zQFJwk

EDITORIAL STANDARDS

Preparation and shipment of material

Contributions may be written in Spanish or English and will be published in the language in which they are sent; and additionally in English. 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, they agree with all the content and it is not submitted to another journal and whose format must be downloaded here (no other format will be accepted) Cover Letter. 

The receipt of each manuscript will be notified via e-mail and 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, they will be evaluated by at least two experts in the field. The evaluation system is anonymous; the authors do not know the identity of the evaluators. However, if reviewers wish to be recognized and adhere to the open peer review system, they can express this by sending an e-mail to the General Editor.

Authors should suggest at least two potential reviewers with their full name, institutional affiliation and e-mail. 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 home page by clicking on "Online 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 annexes are added as complementary files.

General guidelines for submission and preparation of the manuscript

For the style of the articles we recommend reviewing the latest issue published: https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/actbio.

All manuscript files should be prepared and saved as Word files (in doc, docx or rtf format), and should include tables and figures within the text with their respective titles and/or legends.

The entire manuscript must be written in "Normal" style, in "Times New Roman" font size 12 point, double spaced; on letter size paper (215 x 280 mm or 8.5 x 11 inches), with 3 cm margins on all sides. All lines and pages of the manuscript should be numbered consecutively. In the header of each page, the surnames of the authors should appear in the upper left corner (if there are three or more authors, write the surnames of the first author, followed by "et al."). If there are two surnames per author, write them joined by a hyphen.

Please keep in mind the following guidelines for editing the manuscript: 1) always use a single slash space between words, after commas, semicolons, colons, parentheses, periods, etc. (you should not use double slash spaces); 2) between paragraph and paragraph there should only be a return, i.e. an "enter", even after headings, without any blank lines; 3) do not use the commands "End of section" or "Page break"; 4) the typographical hyphen, long dash or dash (-) should be used to open dialogues and enclose explanatory sentences or incises; when using it there should be a space between the dash and the external text; 5) the dash used between words and numbers is the one on the keyboard. For example: Margalef-Ramirez, physicist-chemist, 1978-1998 (note that there is no space between the ranges); 6) when using italic or bold typeface, keep in mind that the punctuation marks that follow should be in the same typeface (for example: Keywords:, Cell cultures.).

When the submitted papers describe new species or vouchers were used, it is imperative that the name of the species, the name and number of the collection, the names of the collectors, the site where the type specimens are deposited (including geographic coordinates), and the collection site (including geographic coordinates) are clearly indicated.

The scientific names of species should be written in italics. The full scientific name (Genus species) together with the author's last name and the year, are written only when cited for the first time in the text (not in the Title or Abstract); thereafter it is abbreviated (G. species).

The style of presentation of the articles is described below.

Full research papers

Title: must be written in both Spanish and English. The first word should have initial capital letter; the remaining words, as long as they are not proper names, should be in lower case. Scientific names should be complete and in italics. After the species name, write the taxonomic family in parentheses. Do not add in the title the authors or the year of description of the species.

Authors and affiliation: on the first line write the first and last names of all authors (in the case of two last names per author, write them joined by a hyphen), indicating with a superscript the institutional affiliation of each one and with an asterisk (*) the author for correspondence. On the second line write the affiliation and the postal and e-mail address of each author.

Abstract: Must be written in Spanish and English, unstructured and cannot exceed 250 words.

Key words: write them in Spanish and English separated by commas; maximum six and organized in ascending alphabetical order. We suggest using specific or disciplinary thesauri according to the content of the subject of the manuscript.

Text: the subtitles INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESEARCH DATA, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION, CONFLICT OF INTERESTS and REFERENCES should be written in sustained capital letters and bold; in addition, they should be justified to the left margin. Secondary subtitles should be justified to the left margin and in bold; in this case, only the first letter should be capitalized. The Introduction should explain the research problem and the purpose of the work. The Materials and Methods should be written in sufficient detail so that researchers other than the authors can reproduce the work and the results. The text of the Results should not present repeated information in the tables and figures. The Discussion should not repeat the information detailed in the preceding sections. It is suggested that the Discussion ends with a paragraph describing the main conclusions of the work. In the Acknowledgements, the sources of financing of the work and the persons who supported it, but whose contribution does not justify their authorship, should be mentioned.

Note on research data: It is suggested that authors deposit their research data in a specialized repository. Regarding the article, it is recommended that a section called RESEARCH DATA be included, which should reflect a contextualization of the data, its use and the link to the repository along with the assigned identifier. You can consult the data policy here, and you can also access a template of the article by clicking here.

Tables and figures are mentioned in the text within parentheses, without abbreviations and written in lower case letters; for example (table 1), (figure 1). They should be in ascending sequential order. They should be within the text and it is suggested that they be inserted close to where they are mentioned. They should also contain the title and/or its respective legend. If the article is accepted, authors may be asked to send them in image format (jpg, tiff, among others) or in Excel for tables.

Abbreviations, symbols and statistical terms infrequently used in the biological literature should be defined the first time they are mentioned in the text; for example, "NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather satellites". The metric system should be used for units of measurement, except in textual quotations. Whole numbers up to ten, when not followed by units, are written with the word and those greater than ten with the number. Numbers followed by a symbol should be separated by a space (100 m, 50 mL). Symbols or abbreviations are written in lower case; except K for Kelvin unit of temperature; A for unit of electric current and ampere; M for molar concentration and L for liter. Do not use periods after any common abbreviations (g, mm, m, km, ha, L), except for etcetera (etc.). No symbol should be expressed as plural (kg, m, etc.). For "p" values of statistical significance, the letter p in lower case and italics should be used. Geographical coordinates are written in degrees, minutes and seconds: (e.g., 4°46'52" N and 75°24'0" W); N is the symbol for north and W for west. The abbreviation m a.s.l. is used to express altitude.

In manuscripts written in Spanish, thousands should be separated by a period and decimals by a comma; in English it should be the other way around: separate thousands by a comma and decimals by a period. In numbers less than 10,000, thousands are not separated (for example: 2018, 9999.99).

Tables: they should be inserted within the text and with their respective numbering (in bold) and title located at the top of the Table. After the number is the title separated by a period followed by a period (Table 1. Environmental characteristics of humid forests).

Each table should be prepared in "Normal" style and following the format of the manuscript. If there is more than one table, they should be numbered according to their order in the text. Each table should be cited with its respective number (e.g., table #). Tables submitted in PowerPoint or image formats will not be accepted. However, once the article has been accepted, authors may be asked to provide tables in Excel format for layout.

Figures: (include drawings, photographs and graphs). They should be presented within the main text of the article and preferably inserted after having been cited within the text. The size of the figures should be approximately equal to the size in which they will be published (figures larger than 21.5 x 28 cm are not accepted). Generally, the original size of published figures is reduced between 6 and 16 cm wide. All labels, numbers, symbols and letters within the figures must be understandable and legible when reduced for publication; we suggest that they be written in "Arial", "Times", or "Helvetica" type. Figures in "PowerPoint", "Excel", or equivalent formats are not accepted. All figure legends should be at the bottom of the figure and in the following format: Figure 1. Rainforests. Once the article has been accepted, authors may be asked to provide figures in image format for layout.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from any person (omitting personal titles) who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be mentioned, with the contributor's permission, in this section. The entities that financially supported the study and, when applicable, the code of the funded project should also be indicated.

Author contribution

Authors should include a paragraph clearly mentioning the contributions of each of the authors, in terms of the conception of the study, the performance of the experiments, the analysis of the results, and the writing and approval of the manuscript.

Conflicts of interest

Authors should include a paragraph stating whether or not there are conflicts of interest. Actualidades Biológicas follows the recommendations of the ICMJE and adopts the form for declaration of potential conflicts of interest, which we recommend that it be filled out individually by each author and sent together with the cover letter. The electronic form is available at: http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/

Short Communications and Reviews

The same guidelines are required as for full research articles, although for short communications it is preferable not to use subheadings in the sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. In the case of reviews the use of sections is optional.

All should include, in Spanish and English: Title, Abstract, Keywords and, in the language in which the manuscript is written: Acknowledgements, Conflicts of Interest and References.

Bibliographic references

The journal Actualidades Biológicas adopted the APA 7th edition citation and referencing style, as described in the following two manuals:

https://normas-apa.org/wp-content/uploads/Guia-Normas-APA-7ma-edicion.pdf

https://www.revista.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/3_Normas-APA-7-ed-2019-11-6.pdf

On this page you will find a complete guide to in-text citation and reference listing, according to APA format. To cite articles in-text and build a reference list, we strongly recommend using reference managers such as EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc.

It is not necessary to be exhaustive in the citations, but it is important that these are quality citations; that is, that they correspond precisely to the cited text. It is important to check that all citations appearing in the text are listed in the REFERENCES section.

If possible, avoid citing abstracts presented at conferences and events, except when they are full-length papers published in supplements of indexed journals. Also avoid citing "personal communications", unless it is essential information not found in formal publications. If the "personal communication" does not come from one of the authors of the article, a communication (it can be by e-mail) should be sent from that person in which he/she accepts the inclusion of his/her information in the text. Report the person's last name and the date on which the communication was made; e.g., "In a conversation with Watson AB (Assoc. Prof., Inst. of Biology, University of Pittsburgh, PA, April 2019) ..."  This citation is not included in the reference listing.

Errata and Retractions

CrossMark is an editorial initiative to provide readers with a standard way to locate the current version of an article's content. Actualidades Biológicas applies the CrossMark logo and is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and alerting readers to any changes.

Clicking on the CrossMark logo on a document will indicate its current status and may also provide you with additional information about the registration or versions of the publication.

Actualidades Biológicas is committed to maintain the integrity of its articles and will publish errata, expressions of concern or retraction notices depending on the situation and following COPE's 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

Address for correspondence:

Please send correspondence to:

Publisher,

Actualidades Biológicas Magazine

Institute of Biology, Block 7.

University of Antioquia

Calle 70 No. 52-21 | Apartado Aéreo 1226

Medellín (Antioquia), Colombia

revistabiologia@udea.edu.co

https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/actbio

 

General presentation of the journal

Actualidades Biológicas [Actual. Biol. ISSN 0304-3584, ISSNe 2145-7166] is a peer-reviewed open access journal specialized in the publication of unpublished, high quality manuscripts resulting from research in biological sciences.

Full articles

Document that presents, in a detailed manner, the original results of finished research projects. The generally used structure  contains four important sections: introduction, methodology, results and conclusions.

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is a single-blind peer review.

Review articles

Document resulting from finished research where the results of published or unpublished research, in a field of science or technology, are analyzed, systematized and integrated in order to account for its advances and development trends. It is characterized by presenting a painstaking bibliographic review of at least 50 references.

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is single-blind peer review.

Short communications

Short document that presents preliminary or partial original results of scientific or technological research, which generally require prompt dissemination.

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is single-blind peer review.

Essays

Scientific manuscript that presents an author's documented opinion about a specific topic or a topic of current interest.

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is single-blind peer review.

Letters to the Editor

Critical, analytical or interpretative positions about the documents published in the Journal, which, in the opinion of the Editorial Committee, constitute an important contribution to the discussion of the topic of the scientific community of reference.

It will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify that it adjusts to the rules of the Journal; it will not be peer-reviewed.

Summaries

Summaries of presentations at events (congresses, seminars, workshops, etc.), or of theses.

It will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify that it adjusts to the rules of the Journal; it will not be peer-reviewed.

Special section: Coastal Lotic Ecosystems

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is single-blind peer review.

Biotechnology

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is single-blind peer review.

Genetics, Cellular and Molecular Biology

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is single-blind peer review.

Systematics and Biotic Diversity

All articles sent to this area will be reviewed by a thematic editor to verify they adjust to the rules of the Journal. After this review, they will be sent to expert peers that will make recommendations about the publication; the evaluation process is single-blind peer review.

Copyright Notice

The authors exclusively authorize the Actualidades Biológicas journal to edit and publish the submitted manuscript if its publication is recommended and accepted, without this representing any cost to the Journal or the University of Antioquia.

All the ideas and opinions contained in the articles are sole responsibility of the authors. The total content of the issues or supplements of the journal is protected under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, so they cannot be used for commercial purposes, but for educational purposes. However, please mention the Actualidades Biológicas journal as a source and send a copy of the publication in which the content was reproduced.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes stated by this journal and will not be available for any other purpose or person.