Acta Agronómica

Author Guidelines

Publication guidelines
For a document to be acceptable and susceptible to publication, it must arouse potential interest for the academic and scientific community, and 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. Synthetically, 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 is a key point because it exposes the value that the original research has within the framework of current knowledge and conditions for 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 the 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