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 COLCIENCIAS 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 Francisco José de Caldas District University, 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The articles that are submitted to Colombia Forestal must be original and unpublished and not previously proposed to other journals.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