Focus and scope
It publishes original and unpublished articles with a disciplinary and multidisciplinary approach in agricultural sciences, soil sciences, environment, and agribusiness.
Communicates research results developed by researchers, in national and international collaboration or cooperation, that consolidate knowledge and its applications in the declared thematic areas, under editorial criteria with international standards, including the double-blind peer review process and compliance with ethics and presentation guidelines.
Publication languages are English and Spanish.
Periodicity
Acta Agronomica has a quarterly periodicity: an annual volume of four issues.
Open access policy
Acta Agronómica promotes permanent, free, and unrestricted access to scientific and academic content to promote the accessibility, visibility, and impact of scientific research on topics related to the agricultural sector at a global level: agroecology, agroindustry, food science, agronomy, soil sciences, animal science, plant genetic improvement, plant genetic resources, genomics, biotechnology, genetics, plant health, and crop protection.
Copyright
Acta Agronomica journal was published, up to and including 2016, under the Creative Commons 4.0 license. Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Since January 2017, Acta Agronómica publishes under the Creative Commons 4.0 license
Attribution - Non-Commercial - No Derivation (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The works are published in the electronic edition of the magazine under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative Works license.
As long as a) the authorship and the original source of its publication (magazine, publisher and URL of the work) are cited; b) are not used for commercial purposes; c) the existence and specifications of this license of use are mentioned.
Article processing charges
Acta Agronómica journal does not have charges or fees for the processing of articles (Article Processing Charge [APC]) in any phase of the editorial process or for the publication of accepted articles.
Publication ethics
An article submitted to the journal cannot be published or in the editorial process in any other journal, format, or language.
The submission of an article for publication purposes must have the consent and knowledge of all authors; This will be verified as a requirement to start the editorial process
Articles must contain enough detail and references to allow the reproducibility of the study. Fraudulent or deliberately inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior. Privacy rights must be respected.
Authors must guarantee that their article is based on original research (never previously published). Intentionally submitting or resubmitting your work for duplicate publication is considered a breach of editorial ethics. It is recommended that while a submitted manuscript is in any phase of the editorial process, authors consult the committee about the status before contacting another journal.
Fraud in scientific publication refers to the presentation of false data or conclusions that were not generated through a rigorous research process.
Fragmentation consists of dividing or segmenting a large study into two or more publications. As a general rule, as long as fragments of a split study share the same hypotheses, population, and methods, it is not considered acceptable practice. It is recommended to avoid inappropriately dividing data from a single study into two or more papers.
Other forms of fraud may be considered by the editorial board.
Authorship criteria
An author is a person who has made a significant intellectual contribution to the research and the article, therefore, people listed as authors must meet the authorship requirements and all those who meet them must be explicitly mentioned. The order of authorship should be a joint decision of the co-authors. The journal will request that authors document the role and manner of how each researcher's authorship will be acknowledged. Authorship should not be assigned without proper consent.
Addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in an accepted article requires a request indicating a) the justification, b) written confirmation (E-mail) from all authors who agree with the addition, deletion, or rearrangement. In the case of author addition or removal, this includes confirmation that the author is added or removed.
Conflict of interest
You must fully and sincerely express the presence or absence of any type of conflict of interest, whether personal, intellectual, academic, commercial, or financial. This statement is included in the document cover letter.
Publication policy for the editorial board
The members of the editorial board will limit the publication of articles in the journal to one (1) document per volume when the editor is the first author of the article, and to two (2) when he is a secondary author within twelve (12) months. For the same institution or author, the limit will be one publication per volume, that is, a maximum of two publications per year. Publications for Universidad Nacional de Colombia affiliates will not exceed 30% per issue.
About plagiarism
The act of using or imitating the language or ideas of another author without giving the corresponding credits is unacceptable behavior and causes rejection of any type of document submitted for publication. It comes in different forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing of another person's work, including data, ideas, concepts, words, and phrases.
The editorial process of Acta Agronómica includes the review of the degree of similarity, originality, and authenticity, comparing it with documents published and indexed in electronic databases and any Internet resource.
Editorial process
Article submission: prior to submitting an article, make sure you comply with the presentation, structure, and standards of the document. Articles are only received through the website, after registration. It is recommended to use institutional email.
Cover letter and proof of content: it will be sent via email in order to request additional information from the group of authors and is a requirement to start the editorial process.
Basic criteria review: This is an initial review performed by one or two editors and may result in rejection or a request for adjustment. Includes originality review.
Peer review: double-blind review guarantees impartiality in the editorial process. There should be no conflict of interest and both authors and peer reviewers are verified. Peer evaluators have access to the complete document and evaluation format after accepting their participation. The evaluation format contains specific questions about each component of the article structure and its development, but also provides space for comments and recommendations. The suggested time to carry out the peer review is three weeks.
Peer reviewers are in charge of guaranteeing the thematic quality and issuing their opinion on the possibility of publication of the article. If the peer concept is contrasting, a third peer or editor is appointed to issue the final concept.
Article selection is based on the procedures and considerations of the editorial process flowchart (see Acta Agronómica editorial flowchart)
Once the article has been approved for publication by the reviewers and editors, it is returned to the author to make the suggested modifications or adjustments. Even in this instance, an article approved by evaluation may be rejected if the authors do not incorporate the requested changes or in the absence of a timely response. Authors are notified at all times of these procedures and deadlines.
Finally, the article is sent to the style correction and layout phase. Authors are asked to give their judgment regarding the first printing tests to detect layout inconsistencies. We proceed with the online publication of the corresponding issue.
Periodicity and editorial process
The journal is open-access and publishes quarterly in Spanish and English. Article submission is done respecting and adhering to the editorial policy, in this way, the editorial process will be streamlined. The corresponding author will be notified of all developments during the editorial process.
The editorial process has an estimated time of 3-6 months.
The peer review is double-blind with qualified international evaluators, to guarantee impartiality in the editorial process. When submitting the article, each author/co-author must provide a certification stating their knowledge and acceptance of its content.
During the review process, the authors must make the adjustments suggested by the evaluators to the document. Changes will not be accepted at the layout stage.
The journal does not charge either for publishing or processing articles/APC
Journal history
Acta Agronomica is an open-access journal with international circulation, financed and edited by Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Palmira since 1951; publishes original articles with a disciplinary and multidisciplinary approach in agricultural sciences, soil sciences, environment, and agribusiness
The content published in Acta Agronómica journal reflect the opinion of the authors and not that of the editorial staff of the journal or the institution.
Publication guidelines
For a document to be acceptable and susceptible to publication, it must arouse potential interest for the academic and scientific community, make a significant contribution in terms of the advancement of scientific knowledge or towards a better understanding of existing concepts.
Articles submitted for publication may not be submitted to another journal while the review process lasts. Spelling errors and omission of presentation standards and compliance with the editorial policy are grounds for rejection.
Scientific article: presents the results of scientific research based on theoretical or experimental hypotheses, which means an original contribution to knowledge in one of the sections of interest of the magazine. It tells how to define the research question, the way to test it (statistical analysis of the experiment, disciplinary protocols) and the comparison of the data generated with the current literature.
The acceptable range for the document configuration is 3500-5000 words, including title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and bibliographic references.
Review article: will be sent to the journal only by direct invitation of the editorial board. It contains the result of trajectories dedicated to research or frontier topics in the areas of interest of the magazine.
The maximum limits of the document are 10,000 words and 80 references, including title, summary, abstract, introduction, chapters and subchapters to develop the topic and references.
Document preparation and formatting
•Word/Microsoft Office software or compatible word processor, Arial font, size 12, line spacing 1.5, letter size sheet, margins 2.5 cm
•The five key words in your summary should be arranged alphabetically. Do not repeat words from the title. It is recommended to use standardized terms in the UNESCO thesauri, AGROVOC (http://aims.fao.org/es/agrovoc)
•Only use the table and figure designation. Present the figures (photos, maps, graphs, diagrams), trying to save as much space as possible. Figures must be 400 to 1000 kb and fit 6x10 cm in jpg format. Equations should also be numbered and cited in the text.
•References must be cited in the text and listed in alphabetical order, without numbering. Apply the style of the American Psychological Association (APA), seventh edition. All references must include DOI, always as a complete URL (https://doi.or/10.xxxx/xxxxx), without prefixing doi: or DOI:, do not use dx in the link domain. 60% of the references included must be publications from the last five years. In references, authors are separated with a semicolon (;).
•The magazine adopts the International System of Units (SI).
Sections of the article
Title
It must be concise and provide enough information for the reader to form an idea of the interest of the study and the scientific level. Because the title accurately identifies and describes the content of the document, do not use expressions such as "detailed study" or "preliminary study." It must be written in lower case and only the first letters or proper names capitalized. It should not contain terms that need clarification, abbreviations and formulas. It must include the scientific name of the species.
Remember that the title, abstract and keywords make your article retrievable in indexing and abstracting systems.
Do not include author information in the review version of the article. This information is requested in the submission process through the system and in the Cover Letter and Proof of Content format.
Abstract: It is a condensed version of the entire document. In a synthetic way, it must cover the most significant objective, methods and results; Use quantitative terms and refrain from citing references.
Introduction
What was the research question?
The introduction of an original scientific article should attract the reader's attention and explain why the researcher carried out the study. Therefore, it must provide testimony of the relevance of the original contribution, establishing the contextual framework of the problem to be solved or the research question. It should be written in the present tense and supported by appropriate scientific references in order to establish a discussion of works closely related to the proposed hypothesis.
The fundamental elements of the structure of an introduction are the rationale for the study, the research question, and the study design. The introduction ends by referring to the research question or hypothesis, which are a key point because they expose the value that the original research has within the framework of current knowledge and conditions the design of the study. It closes with the research objective.
Materials and methods
How do you study that question?
Presents the evaluated materials, experimental design and statistical analysis of the data. It is written in the past tense, carefully describing the biological, analytical and statistical methodology of the research so that other researchers can replicate it or so that readers can know the limits of interpretation of the data.
It must inform the spatial location of the experiment (geographic coordinates, edaphoclimatic characteristics, biogeographic provinces, life zones), indicate the origin of the biological materials or unusual reagents and make known the changes in the usual protocols. Relying on tables, the most relevant information obtained can be presented. If experiments are carried out, the corresponding statistical design must be stated with its treatments, experimental unit, repetitions, response variables and frequency of measurements. Incorrect or inappropriate use of statistical methods is unacceptable. Common statistical treatments should not be described. Reference must be included. Finally, the description of the statistical models and the experimental design must be carried out with specialized statistical software.
Results and discussion
What was found? What were the findings?
Presents the new knowledge that the original research revealed, providing the information in a clear, objective and impartial manner without interpretive elements. Include the results obtained in the research that respond to the objective set in the work. The most important results at a statistical level should be briefly described. Tables and figures can be included that expand the results without in any case duplicating or repeating the data and what is stated in the text.
Tables and figures
Present each table and figure numbered and correctly cited in the text. The title is placed at the bottom of the figure and at the head of the table, concisely describing the content while ensuring that it is explicit. Mark with a solid line the external and internal limits of all the boxes (grid table). Use the unit symbols of the International System of Weights and Measures. Do not separate numbers into thousands. Use the point for decimals.
Capitalize the "t" in "table" and the "f" in "figure" when referring to a specific table or figure in the text.
"Table 3 and 4" is incorrect because each table is a separate entity. If you refer to more than one table or figure at a time, pluralize the reference: "Tables 3 and 4" are correct.
Present the statistical parameters. The results that show statistical differences should be indicated by letters in exponent and defined at the bottom of the table by the level of statistical significance (P<0.05).
Use the figure to highlight important and specific points. Don't lock them in boxes. Use black, white (open), and thick hatched bars and symbols. Prefer black or white circles, squares and triangles as symbols.
Discussion
It is supported by the evidence found and its interpretation must be based on statistical results and scientific publications that deal with the topic. Do not include personal, subjective opinions or qualifiers. Additionally, future research can be pointed out that could be developed based on the findings obtained. At the end of this section the conclusions of the research should be included. Remember that it is a synthesis of what was found and what was discussed. It must agree with the stated objective.
Conclusions
What are the implications of the results obtained?
It gives an account of the steps followed and the protocols used to achieve the results. Do not repeat results or include references
Article submission
The submission of documents is the responsibility of the authors, it is done exclusively through the website and is managed with the Open Journal System. https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/acta_agronomica
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Acta Agronómica. Carlos Alberto Jaramillo Cruz - Editor Jefe - Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Palmira, Colombia - Cra. 32 No.12-00 - Teléfono: 57-2-2868888, ext. 35190 Fax: 57-2-2868841 - Correo-e: actagronomica_pal@unal.edu.co
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