Submissions

Author Guidelines

Instructions for Manuscript Preparation

The manuscript, written in Spanish or English, should not exceed 25 (twenty-five) pages of letter-size paper, double-spaced, including text, tables, figures, references, and appendices. If the manuscript is in English and the authors are Spanish-speaking, a certification of English writing quality must be provided, issued by a university language institute.

Template for Article Submission

On the first page of the manuscript, the title of the article, the full names of the author(s), and a footnote indicating the author's institutional affiliation (do not include faculty or research group names, etc.), city, country, email address (preferably institutional), and ORCID must be provided. The corresponding author should also be identified in the footnote. Do not include academic titles (Ph.D., M.Sc.) or institutional roles (teacher, professor, researcher, etc.). National authors must submit their updated CvLAC.

Following the article heading with the respective titles in Spanish and English (or English and Spanish in the case of an English manuscript), a short title, a summary in Spanish, and an abstract in English, no longer than 150 words each, should be provided. A minimum of three and a maximum of ten keywords and key words should also be included, preferably different from those in the title, reflecting the content of the manuscript and being appropriate for search engines. The keywords should be listed alphabetically, and the key words should correspond in order to the translation of the keywords. It is recommended to use natural science thesauruses in Agriculture, Biology, Forestry, and Environment.

To submit a manuscript, it is necessary to upload a letter of intent and originality as a supplementary file, which should clearly indicate:

1. Full name(s) of the author(s), institutional affiliation(s), and mailing address (an email address for direct communication must be provided).

2. Full manuscript title.

3. A list of at least six suggested reviewers (with their email addresses) who can evaluate the manuscript and meet the following requirements: 1. Academic doctorate title, 2. Expert in the topic of the article, 3. Published articles in indexed journals in the last 2 years, 4. Institutional affiliation unrelated to the publisher of the journal, 5. Institutional affiliation unrelated to the authors' institution (to avoid potential conflicts of interest).

The main content of the manuscript of a research article should include the following sections in sequential order: Introduction, Materials and Methods (including the study area), Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Conflict of Interest, Author Contributions, and References. These sections should not be numbered.

Title: Concisely presents the topic addressed in the research. It should not exceed 15 words and should avoid the use of periods and hyphens. If a subtitle is included, it should be separated from the main title by a colon (:). First, second and third level titles must have the format (font and size) indicated in the template for article submission. Scientific names in the titles should be written in lowercase italicized letters, and the scientific author's name should be written in regular lowercase letters (e.g., Podocarpus oleifolius D. Don ex Lamb).

Highlights: Five highlights should be included for each article, meaning five phrases with key ideas of the manuscript’s contribution, its impact, and the new aspects in the forestry field. Each phrase should have a maximum length of 85 characters.

Abstract: Should represent a synthesis of the work (maximum 150 words). It should briefly reference the research goal, the methodology used, the results, and the importance of the findings in that order. The key points from each section of the article should be reflected in the abstract. Abbreviations and citations should not be used in the abstract.

Introduction: The introduction should be limited to the object of study, the definition of the problem, the justification for the study, and the study's objectives. A brief theoretical framework may be provided, as long as it is directly related to the research problem.

Materials and Methods: This section should include information about the area where the research was carried out (location, climate information, etc.). It should also include the techniques and materials used for data collection, processing, and analysis, including any software resources used.

Results: This section should present the results obtained solely based on the methodology employed. The associated tables and figures should be consistent with the text and address the research objectives.

Discussion: This section should compare and discuss the study’s results with those reported in the academic literature by other researchers, covering the same analysis topic.

Conclusions: This section should present the main findings of the research, as well as the implications of the publication in the specific study field.

Author contributions:  The authors must be clear in the contribution of each one in the development of the article. Ex: O. V-B, U.D. they devised the investigation; O. V-B and P.H. conducted the investigation in the field; O. V-B. and M. P-D analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the discussion and commented on the drafts.

Acknowledgements: name the institutes that provided finance for the project along with the individuals who helped with the development of the study and the production of the paper.

References: The Colombia Forestal format is based on the APA 7th edition rules in Spanish, both for creating and standardizing citations and bibliographic references in manuscripts. In-text citations should be ordered chronologically and must fully correspond to the references in the References section. The separation between the author and the year should be made using a comma (,), and the separation between citations should be done with a semicolon (;). To ensure proper use of APA guidelines, we recommend visiting the following bibliography generator link: http://apareferencing.ukessays.com/

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 different articles by the same author in the same year. 

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

- Parrado-Rosselli et al. (2007, 2007a; López & Ferreira, 2008, 2008a).

References must be ordered alphabetically by the last name of the first author and chronologically for each author or combination of authors.

The names of all the authors must be written. The names of journals must not be abbreviated. Use the following format:

1. Journal Articles: Last name of the author, initial(s) of forename(s). (Year). Title of the article. Full name of the journal (in italics), volume (in italics) and number (in brackets), range of pages. DOI. When there are two or more authors, their names should be separated by a comma.

Examples: 

Mendoza, H. & Ramírez, B. (2001). Dicotiledóneas de La Planada, Colombia: Lista de especies. Biota Colombiana, 2, 123-126.

Dey, D., Royo, A., Brose, P., Hutchinson, T., Spetich, M., & Scott, S. (2010). An ecologically based approach to oak silviculture: a synthesis of 50 years of oak ecosystem research in North America. Colombia Forestal, 13(2), 201-222. https://doi.org/10.14483/udistrital.jour.colomb.for.2010.2.a02

2. Books. Last name of the author, author initial(s). (Year). Title of the book (in italics). Name of publisher. If it is an edited work but not a specific chapter, the name of the editor(s) is used as the name of the author followed by (ed.) or (eds.). When there are two or more authors, their names should be separated by a comma.

Examples:

Krebs, J. (1978). Ecological methodology. Harper & Row. 

Mahecha, G., Rosales, H., Ruiz, G., & Mota, P.(2008). Las propiedades mecánicas de la madera de tres especies forestales. Editorial Manrique. 

3. Chapter within a book. Last name and initial(s) of the author of the chapter. (Year). Title of the chapter. En Author(s)/Editor(s) of the book, followed by (ed(s)) if appropriate. Title of the book (in italics). (Page range).Name of publisher. When there are two or more authors or editors their names should be separated by a comma.

Examples:

Suárez, R.L. (1985). La familia Melastomataceae. En M.R. Téllez and L.J. Torres (eds). Los arboles de la Costa Atlántica (pp. 187-195). Editorial Pulido.

Prentice, I.C. (2001). The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. En J.T. Houghton, Y. Ding, D.J. Griggs, M. Noguer, P.J. van der Linden, X. Dai, K. Maskell and C.A. Johnson (eds.). Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis (pp. 135-237). Cambridge University Press.

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.

Place of publication: name of the institution or company publishing the document. URL. When there are two or more authors, their names should be separated by a comma

Examples:

González-M., R. (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 Amacayacú, Amazonas-Colombia [Trabajo grado, Ingeniería Forestal].  Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. 

Pitman, N. (2000). A large-scale inventory of two Amazonian tree communities (PhD. thesis).  Duke University, Department of Botany. 

5. Software. Author(s). (Year). Name of the software. Place of production: Name of the institution or organization that developed the software. ISBN. URL address of contact.

Example:

R Development Core Team. (2008). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. ISBN: 3-900051-07-0, recuperado de http://www.r-project.org

Maechler, M., Rousseeuw, P., Struyf, A., Hubert, M. & Hornik, K. (2013). Cluster: Cluster Analysis Basics and Extensions. R package version 1.14.4.

Figures and tables

Figures (photos, maps, illustrations and graphs) must include on the reverse side, the corresponding label numbered in sequential order that also explains content detail (font size 10). Graphs must include the title of the axis centred (with the initial in capital letter) together with the units of measurement. The font of all the graphs must be Calibri, at an appropriate size for printing. If in each illustration there is more than one panel, lower case (a, b, c) must be used to designate each one. Send the illustrations with colours in the following formats: .jpg or .tif with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and a maximum density of 1200 pixels (Do not send in ZIP or RAR format).

Tables must be included with the legend explaining in detail the content (font size 10) placed above. The table should be without vertical lines and with only three horizontal lines. The tables and illustrations must be quoted in the text and must be sent in a different file, one on each sheet, first all the tables and then all the illustrations.

Nomenclature, abbreviations, acronyms and scientific names of units: the name in Latin (genus and specific epithet) must be written completely for each organism the first time it is mentioned in the text (e.g. Protium heptaphyllum) and thereafter the initial of the genus must be written with a capital letter followed by the complete specific epithet (e.g. P. heptaphyllum). Names in Latin and authors should be corroborated by referring to specialist databases such as W3-Trópicos (http://mobot.mobot.org/) or the International Plant Names Index (http://www.ipni).

Abbreviations: The writing of scientific names of plants or animals (genus and species) must be written in italics as should abbreviations, for example i.e. and et al. Do not use italics with the terms sp., cf. or aff., nor with the names of authors. Acronyms should be written in full the first time they are mentioned in the text, for example, United Nations (UN), and thereafter, use just the acronym or initials.

Units of Measurement: follow the International System of Units: ha, km, m, cm, mm, h, min, s, kg, g. Decimals should be separated by a point (e.g. 0.5 and not 0,5), while units of a thousand should be separated by a space (e.g. 28 000 and not 28,000). For percentages and degrees utilise symbols rather than words (e.g. 15%, not 15 percent).

Geographic position: write north, south, east and west in lower case or use upper case when using abbreviations (i.e. N, S, E and W). Geographical coordinates should be written as degrees (º), minutes (') and seconds ('') latitude (north, south or N, S) followed by degrees (º), minutes (') and seconds ('') longitude (east, west or E, W), (example: 04°12′11.5″ north - 78°24′12″ west). Altitude should be stated in metres without using the abbreviation a.s.l.