Submissions

Author Guidelines

Revista Científica is an international open-access scientific publication edited by the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. The Journal publishes research and innovation papers, reviews, and reflections in the areas of engineering, science, and education. Its objective is to disseminate original and relevant research in these fields of knowledge. Its articles are published in the Journal’s platform (https://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/index.php/revcie), and there is no cost associated with their submission, review, or publication, as the Journal is funded by the editing institution.

Article template

Copyright letter

Letter of originality

Only unpublished works are considered for publication, i.e., those that have not yet been published in any medium for science or divulgation. However, the Journal will publish articles previously disseminated in scientific events, as long as their full text has not been published in the event’s proceedings. In the same way, the Journal abstains from publishing any work that does not comply with the code of ethics, is offensive, or attacks people or businesses. When submitting an article, the authors guarantee that they are not infringing any copyright and that their work has not been published elsewhere or is being considered in other printed or electronic publication.

Given the high number of articles received for publication, the Journal reserves the right to decline an article without subjecting it to peer review or in the face of non-compliance with the author guidelines, as per a preliminary review by the Editorial Committee. It is important to point out that a translation is not regarded as an article, nor any review that does not innovate on the analyzed topic.

ON THE EDITORIAL PROCESS

The authors must submit their articles via the Journal’s OJS platform (https://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/index.php/revcie/submission), taking the following into account:

1. The articles must be submitted together with a letter of originality which states that the submitted manuscript has been approved by all authors.
2. Documents submitted for publication must be written in Spanish or English, and they must be communicable in terms of coherence, cohesion, clarity, conciseness, relevance, and centrality.
3. The reception of an article does not imply its publication, as it must first be subjected to review and evaluation. This process takes between six and twelve weeks, depending on the demand and the Journal’s editorial flow.
4. The Editorial Team will review the article and verify compliance with the Journal’s author guidelines. If these guidelines are not fulfilled, the article will be sent back to the authors. Similarly, in this review, the Editorial Team will also subject the document to an analysis with similarity software. If significant matches are found, the article will be declined.
5. If the article successfully completes the previous stage, it will be sent for review by at least two expert reviewers regarding the article’s topic. This, under the double-blind model. These peers will be selected by the Journal’s Editorial Team based on their research trajectory. The reviewers will issue their observations regarding the work’s originality and quality while considering the reviewer guidelines. The verdicts issued by peers may be:
   1. approved
   2. approved with changes.
   3. declined.
6. If the peer reviewers approve the article but suggest modifications (approved with changes), the Editor will notify the authors about the observations made by the peers. In the same way, he shall inform them about the deadline for submitting the corrected article, which will be subject to the suggested changes. The corrected article must be submitted by the established deadline, together with a document containing a response to each one of the observations made by the peers. The Committee will verify that the article responds to the reviewers’ comments. Otherwise, the article will be sent back to the authors. If the peers decline the article, it cannot be submitted to the Journal once again, unless it is approved by the Editor after a claim process, in accordance with the Journal’s policies (see this document’s CLAIMS section).
7. Approved articles will be subjected to a proofreading and layout design process. A final design will be sent to the authors for their approval or comments. Once the Editorial Team makes the modifications suggested by the authors, if any, the article will be assigned to an issue of the Journal according to its schedule.

The Editorial Committee of the Journal reserves the right not to publish works that do not comply with the aforementioned conditions or if the corrections suggested by the reviewers are not submitted in due time. Similarly, the Editorial Committee would like to state that, once a manuscript is submitted for evaluation, inclusion or exclusion of authors will NOT be allowed.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

On the article’s format

1. All articles must comply with the Journal’s publication rules. If an article has more than two authors, whoever sends it will be the correspondence link and will be responsible for keeping the other authors up to date regarding the editorial process. The other authors will express their agreement with the manuscript’s content.
2. The document must be submitted according to the template made available by the Journal, and in no case exceed 20 pages.
3. Author information must be omitted in the first version of the document, with the purpose of ensuring a review under the double-blind model. However, the submission letter must include the title in Spanish and English and the names and surnames of the authors, along with their ORCID, institutional affiliation (institution, city, and country), and institutional emails, as well as declarations regarding conflicts of interest and funding sources, as indicated below:
   • Article title (in Spanish and English):The title must be informative, clear, and accurate. If possible, avoid the use of acronyms or abbreviations. A maximum of 15 words is suggested.
   • Author(s): Include the information of all of the manuscript’s authors. Keep in mind that the article’s author order depends on the contributions made. Please include:
     1. The full names and surnames of the authors, previously registered in IRALIS (https://www.iralis.org/criterios-de-firma) and according to the criteria defined therein.
     2. The last academic degree obtained by each author (e.g., Master or PhD).

• The institutional affiliation of each author, together with the institution’s full name and location, i.e., city and country (avoid the use of acronyms).

1. Institutional emails, preferably of all authors (however, only the corresponding author’s email is essential).
2. The authors’ ORCID, with the aim to facilitate the retrieval of the works associated with them (ALL signers must have an active ORCID).

• Funding: Please include the name of the institution or organization that funded the study. If your funding comes from a national or international scholarship, you should only mention the call or the institution that granted the scholarship.

On the article’s content

Articles submitted for publication must contain the following sections:

1. An analytical abstract (in Spanish and English) between 200 and 300 words long which concisely and sequentially states the objectives, methods, results, and conclusions of the work. It must also explain the contributions of the research, the relevance of the results obtained, and the way in which they contribute to the subject. The structure of the article should not be mentioned.
2. Keywords (in Spanish and English): Between six and ten words that aid in the retrieval of the article in search engines (the use of thesauri such as IEEE and UNESCO is suggested).
3. An introduction that contextualizes the reader regarding the topics of the article, including its background, justification, and fundamental concepts.
4. A methodology section that describes the actions undertaken within the framework of the research. In this type of text, the elements and procedures employed are often recounted.
5. A results section that synthesizes the results obtained, interpreting and highlighting the relevance of what has been done.
6. Discussion and conclusions sections that thoroughly describe the analysis of the results obtained and the authors’ remarks about the development of the work reported in the document.
7. Author contributions: The contributions made by each one of the authors or co-authors must be presented. This, with the purpose of assessing their participation in the work. Please bear in mind that appearing as the author of an article implies a responsibility for the published works (for more clarity, please refer to the AUTHORSHIP ATTRIBUTION section of this document).
8. Acknowledgements: Please include only those who collaborated in the elaboration of the article or the project’s funding (e.g., translation reviewers, persistence, funders).
9. References: The goal of a reference is for the reader of an article to be able to correctly identify a source or consult it with the information provided by the author. Therefore, an incomplete or wrong reference could diminish the authority and the value of an article. Please use the citation norms defined by APA, seventh edition, and include the documents’ full DOI at the end of each reference (g., https://doi.org/10.0.322/doiasignado).

Similarly, the writing style of the document should be impersonal, concise, and technical. Avoiding the use of redundant terms is suggested, unless the nature of what you wish to express implies the use of synonyms. For the units of measurement, the International System must be used. All acronyms and abbreviations must be explained upon their first mention in the article.

If possible, the article should adhere to the proposed article structure, that is, IMRD (introduction, methodology, results, and discussion). The sections and their corresponding divisions in the body of the text must comply with the template’s format. If the article is submitted along with supplementary material, the instructions established in this document’s SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL section must be taken into account.

On the graphical material (figures, photograph, maps, tables)

Please consider the following aspects when submitting an article.

1. Apart from the tables, for all figures, photographs, or any other visual material presented in the text, the original files must be attached, preferably in TIFF or JPEG format, with a minimum resolution of 200 dpi.
2. Figures should be consecutively numbered in Arabic numerals and located as close as possible to their reference in the text, and their captions must clearly explain their content. All captions must be placed below the figures.
3. As for photographs of people or elements which contain registered trademarks, a consent to their use by the photographed person or brand must be attached. Another option is to avoid the identification of faces and brands.
4. On the other hand, tables must be numbered with Arabic numerals according to their order of appearance in the text, and they should be placed as close as possible to their reference. The title of the tables must be included above them, and, when necessary, the abbreviations employed should be described at the bottom.
5. Regarding the figures, photographs, tables, and elements from other publications, it is the authors’ responsibility to obtain the necessary authorizations for their translation, reproduction, or adaptation (into Spanish or English and in an electronic or physical format).
6. Separating decimal numbers only with a period is requested, both within the text and in the tables and figures.
7. Equations must be clear. We suggest using an equation editor and adopting the International Notation System for measures of size, distance, and weight, among others. Equations should be centered and labeled to the right with Arabic numerals between parentheses. They must be referenced in the body of the text as “(1)” or “Equation (1)”, for example:

In Equation (1), and example of their adequate placement is provided.

2jk ∂u/∂z = ∂2u/∂x2 + k2 u                 (1)

On the references

Every statement in the text of the article which stems from another document or publication must be acknowledged by means of a reference. Every reference included in the corresponding section must have been mentioned in the text. The Journal’s reference style is APA, seventh edition. Please do not place the references in footnotes.

For examples of these norms, you may consult the document available at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references. It is worth pointing out that the Editorial Committee of the Journal reserves the right to immediately decline works that do not comply with the requested reference style.

With the purpose of informing the authors interested in publishing in the Journal, the article rejection rate for 2022 was 42%.

On the supplementary material

Revista Científica accepts and encourages the submission of supplementary materials in electronic format which support a research work, clarifying that only those related with the content of the article will be considered for publication, and that their acceptance will be the Editor’s decision. Said material will be electronically published in the same format as it was received.

In light of the above, the Journal suggests submitting supplementary material in the following formats, according to the type of material:

1. Text in word-processing file formats (preferably Word, up to 2 MB)
2. Datasets in spreadsheets (preferably Excel, up to 2 MB)
3. Images in JPEG format (up to 10 MB)
4. Audio in MP3 format (up to 10 MB)
5. Videos in MPG format (up to 50 MB)

Authors should submit the supplementary material via the OJS together with the article, in addition to providing a concise and descriptive title for each file. In the same way, the submitted material must comply with the requirements and ethical responsibilities described in the Journal’s rules.