About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The journal Colombia Forestal publishes original manuscripts on topics related to forestry and various aspects of natural resources and the environment. These are categorised as research and review articles, with the stipulations of MINCIENCIAS for scientific publications. According to the classification of scientific areas of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the journal Colombia Forestal belongs to the category of Agricultural Sciences (4), sub-category Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (4A) and to the discipline Forestry (4A02).

Since its creation in 1978, the journal has been edited and published by the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, headquartered in Bogotá. The quality of the journal’s content has been strengthened by the collaboration of national and international external evaluators in a double blind arbitration system and dissemination has been extended by publishing manuscripts in a language other than Spanish and with inclusion in bibliographical databases such as Scopus, DOAJ, SciELO, Redalyc, EBSCO, CAB Abstracts, Forestry Abstracts, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, Latindex, Publindex. Likewise, it has academic profiles on Mendeley, Academia and ResearchGate.

The articles that are submitted to Colombia Forestal must be original and unpublished and not previously proposed to other journals.

Open Access Statement

Colombia Forestal is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without seeking prior permission from the publisher or the author. All of the above, in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access

Peer Review Process

Every article submitted is subject to scrutiny by the Editor-in-Chief, followed by evaluation by at least two national or international peers. Reviewers will have up to three weeks to assess the paper. Based on the responses received from at least two peer reviewers, the editor will issue a decision within five days. Authors should address the comments provided by the reviewers within a period not exceeding 15 days, via the feedback form to the editor. Corrected items will be returned to the editor for feedback. Once the article is accepted by the Editor-in-Chief, the corrected version will be proofread for English and Spanish usage, before undergoing the layout process and final edit. The authors must return final edit corrections within three working days. The author must approve style and language suggestions. Once the final edit is completed, the author may not make further amendments to the text. Reviewers should have recent international publications on the subject and hold an MSc or PhD degree, to be selected.

Publication Frequency

Colombia Forestal has been published twice a year since 2010.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, on the principle that making research freely available to the public encourages greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Colombia Forestal ensures that all of those involved (authors, reviewers and editors) strictly follow the international rules on ethics in the publication process.

Our journal follows the ethics published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in their COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the International Standards for Editors and Authors.

Manuscripts are checked with plagiarism detection software TURNITIN.

General duties and responsibilities of the editorial board

Having overall responsibility for the journal, the Colombia Forestal committee and editorial board are committed to:

  • Working together to meet the readers’ and authors’ needs.
  • Maintaining the continuous improvement of the journal.
  • Ensuring the quality of published material.
  • Ensuring freedom of expression.
  • Maintaining the academic integrity of their content.
  • Preventing commercial interests from compromising intellectual standards.
  • Posting corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when necessary.

Relations with readers

Readers will be informed about research funders and their role in the research.

Relations with authors

Colombia Forestal is committed to ensuring the quality of its published material, informing the goals and standards of the journal. The decision of the publisher to accept or reject a paper for publication is based solely on the relevance of the work and the originality and pertinence of the study following the journal’s editorial line.

The journal includes a description of the process for peer evaluation of each work received and provides a guide for authors with this information. The guide is regularly updated and contains a link to the code of ethics. The journal recognises the right of authors to appeal editorial decisions.

Publishers will not change their decision in accepting or rejecting articles unless extraordinary circumstances or irregularities are detected. Any change in the composition of the editorial board will not affect decisions already made, except in unusual cases where serious circumstances converge.

Relations with evaluators

Colombia Forestal makes available to reviewers a guide to what is expected from them. Reviewers’ identity is protected at all times, ensuring anonymity.

Peer-review process

Colombia Forestal ensures that material submitted for publication will be considered private and confidential while being reviewed (double blind).

Claims

Colombia Forestal is committed to responding quickly to complaints and ensuring a smooth process of resolution. Furthermore, if a claimant is still dissatisfied, the journal considers that they have the right to raise their protests to other instances.

Promoting academic integrity

Colombia Forestal ensures that its published material conforms to internationally-accepted ethical standards.

Protection of individual data

Colombia Forestal guarantees the confidentiality of individuals’ information (e.g. participant teachers and/or students as collaborators or subjects of study in the research presented).

Tracking malpractice

Colombia Forestal accepts the obligation to act appropriately in the event of suspected malpractice or misconduct. This obligation extends to both published and unpublished documents. The editors not only reject manuscripts where there are doubts about possible misconduct, but they are also considered ethically obliged to report suspected cases of misconduct. Every reasonable effort is made by the journal to ensure that works submitted for evaluation are rigorous in their methods and ethically appropriate.

Integrity and academic rigour

Whenever there is evidence that a published work contains significant misstatements, misleading or distorted statements, it must be corrected immediately.

In the event of fraudulent content being detected, the work will be removed as soon as that is known, and readers and indexing systems will be informed immediately.

Practices that are considered unacceptable will be reported, e.g. simultaneous sending of the same work to various journals, duplicate publication with irrelevant changes or paraphrasing of the same work, or the artificial fragmentation of a work into several articles.

Relations with owners and journal editors

The relation between editors, publishers and owners will be subject to the principle of editorial independence. Colombia Forestal will ensure that articles are published based on their quality and suitability for readers and not for an economic or political gain. In this sense, the fact that the journal is not governed by economic interests and defends the ideal of universal and free access to knowledge provides that independence.

Conflict of interest

Colombia Forestal will establish the necessary mechanisms to avoid or resolve potential conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers and/or the editorial board itself.

Complaints/allegations

Any author, reader, reviewer or editor may refer their complaints to the competent authorities.

Article processing charges (APCs) and article submission charges

Colombia Forestal does not make a charge for the proposal, evaluation and publication of submitted articles.

Self-archive

The Journal uses the PKP Preservation Network self-archive system, which provides free preservation services for journals managed with the OJS that fulfill their basic criteria. In the same way, the Journal utilizes CLOKSS and Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas’s Institutional Repository in order to guarantee the availability and traceability of its information

Sponsors

Journal History

The journal was founded in 1968 with the publication of Bulletin No. 1 from the Faculty of Forestry Engineering at the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. At that time, the then dean and editor of the bulletin, Jorge Enrique Becerra Becerra (R.I.P.), was motivated to create a medium for disseminating and publishing research and thesis work developed at the faculty.

Subsequently, in 1978, the bulletin was transformed into Colombia Forestal journal and has since been edited and published by the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, based in Bogotá.

The main editors of the journal have been:

1968. Jorge Enrique Becerra Becerra, M.Sc. (R.I.P.)

With the Boletín de Ingeniería Forestal, the first version of a serial publication from the Faculty of Forestry Engineering was created. This issue included a list of approved thesis projects, research work, and thesis documents from the Forestry Engineering curriculum. It also presented the results of research conducted by Professor Becerra in Colombia’s Pacific region and formally invited the academic and scientific community to publish the ongoing research results.

1978 - 1979. Héctor Rojas León, I.F.

After the Boletín de Ingeniería Forestal was converted into Colombia Forestal, a numbering format was established, presenting the journal in August 1978 with Volume 1, Issue 1, pages 1-26. In this issue and subsequent ones, the publication began including monographs, technical notes, professional considerations, and other documents aimed at presenting to the academic and scientific community the current state of the forestry sector in the country, along with the research being developed within it.

1979 - 1989. Not published.

1989 - 1994. Jorge Enrique Becerra Becerra, M.Sc. (R.I.P.)

During this period, the journal was again edited by Professor Becerra, who, along with the editorial committee formed by faculty members Hugo Riveros Polanco, William Klinger, and Ernesto Martínez, introduced a new format for the publication. This marked the beginning of defining editorial content and the continuous improvement of the journal’s editorial and scientific quality. During this period, the first version of author guidelines was presented, and the types of contributions that would be published in the journal under the categories of scientific articles, research notes, technical communications, notes, and comments were delineated.

1995 - 1997. Miguel Cadena, I.F.

During this time, the journal, edited by Professor Cadena with the editorial committee composed of faculty members Yesid Navas, Oswaldo Ortegón, Jairo Silva, and José M. Orozco, continued its constant improvement in editorial and scientific quality. The focus was also on maintaining the journal’s publication frequency and consistency, which was vital for both the Francisco José de Caldas District University and the Colombian forestry sector.

1998 - 2009. Heliodoro Sánchez, I.F. (R.I.P.)

Since 1998, Professor Heliodoro Sánchez took over as editor of the journal. During his tenure, Colombia Forestal acquired the characteristics that now define it as the only serial publication of high scientific quality in the forestry sector in Colombia, disseminating original research results, presenting innovative topics, and discussing current issues related to forestry, renewable natural resources, and the environment. It was also during this period that the journal was indexed in Category C by Colciencias (2005) and later reclassified to Category B (2009). Additionally, it was included in bibliographic databases such as CABI Publishing, Forestry Abstracts, Forest Products Abstracts, Latindex, Ulrich’s, and the National Index of Serial Scientific and Technological Publications of Colombia (Colciencias Publindex).

2010. Olga Patricia Pinzón Florián, Ph.D., and Heliodoro Sánchez, I.F. (R.I.P.)

In this year, Dr. Pinzón, in collaboration with the editorial committee composed of faculty members Ángela Parrado, Heliodoro Sánchez, Rocío Cortés, and René López, published the special edition “Robledales” in Volumes 13, Issues 1 and 2. This edition featured national and international research results related to the current status and case studies of this important ecosystem in various regions of the world.

2011(I). Heliodoro Sánchez, I.F. (R.I.P.)

During this period, and continuing to the present, the journal aimed to enhance its editorial process with the goal of increasing the dissemination of its publications both nationally and internationally. To this end, the journal joined the Open Journal Systems (OJS) for the management and publication of serial journals and began new requests for indexing in national and international bibliographic databases.

2011(II)-2013(I). Olga Patricia Pinzón Florián, Ph.D.

During this period, Dr. Pinzón, in collaboration with the editorial committee, composed of faculty members Ángela Parrado-Rosselli, Rocío Cortés, and René López, published Volumes 14(2), 15(1), 15(2), and 16(1). Additionally, the process of indexing the journal in national and international bibliographic databases such as DOAJ, Ulrich’s Web, and CABI was initiated.

2013 (II) - Present. René López Camacho, Ph.D. (c)

Since this period, Colombia Forestal has achieved its classification in Category B by Publindex and has been indexed in recognized bibliographic databases such as Scopus, DOAJ, Redalyc, Scielo, EBSCO, and others. This process has been made possible thanks to the management and editorial work of Assistant Editor Camilo Andrés Angulo M. M.Sc. and the editorial committee.