Gestión y Ambiente

Author Guidelines

The authors sending their work to Gestión y Ambiente are aware of the fact that the submission does not imply the acceptance of the manuscript. This decision will be notified in writing. The criteria initial followed to evaluate the articles are scientific rigor, methodological accuracy, originality, significance, conciseness and literary quality. The Editorial Committee may reject the work, suggest changes or even modify the texts (in this case, only the writing style will be modified; the scientific content will not be altered).

Additionally, Gestión y Ambiente seeks to comply with the guidelines for authors established by the COPE in terms of the ethical development of the articles, the presentation of honest and transparent results and the clear description of the methods (include annex and appendix if necessary), accepting a collective responsibility around the published articles and informing about financial sources and conflicts of interest that puts the validity of the presented results at risk. 

For dissemination and adoption of knowledge management practice, the authors of Gestión y Ambiente will use IraLIS or e-LIS tools to use the name of the citation, the ORCID identifier is required. In the case of Colombian researchers, the affiliation of the article must coincide with the CvLAC. 

Each volume of Gestión y Ambiente includes some of the following articles:

1. Editorial. Pieces written by the Editor or members Editorial Committee. The extension must not exceed 1000 words at 1.5 line spacing and no more than 10 references, if any.

2. Scientific and technological research. These works present results of research on environmental issues. They must not exceed 5.500 words at 1.5 line spacing, and no more than 12 explanatory items (tables and figures). The structure is usually: introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions, bibliography, and annex/appendix.

3. Case study or Diagnostic Imaging. It is a study, report or description of a particular case that has environmental importance. It has a demonstrative value, but it is not considered as a scientific test.

4. Reflection. These type of documents focus on specific environmental topics and present the results of a research from the author’s own analytical, interpretative or critical perspective. They must not exceed 6.000 words at 1.5 line spacing, with no more than 4 illustrative elements (tables and figures) and a maximum of 20 references. It is essential that the introduction presents a context of the problematic and the objective defines the scope of the writing. The thematic development should present the readers with an overall and updated view of the subject. The research proposal or hypothesis must develop a discourse of recognized bibliographic references (articles without references are not admissible). It is important that these pieces have suggestive and pertinent subtitles.

5. Review. They are based on a meticulous compilation of published or unpublished researches, diagnoses, reflections, cases of study and reports on a specific environmental matter, with the objective of presenting the progress and development trends of that particular topic. These articles have a detailed bibliographic review (at least 50 references) and must not exceed 6.000 words at 1.5 line spacing. These articles, besides justifying the needs covered by the review, describe the methodology for the search, collection, systematization and selection of the sources cited and found.

6. Brief communications. These pieces contain observations about the preliminary results of ongoing researches or journalistic. The text must not exceed 2.000 words, with no more than 4 illustrative elements (tables and figures) and a maximum of 10 references.

7. Comments. These are readers' letters addressed to the journal or author(s), usually about articles previously published and located in the digital version. It is a space that allows the exchange of opinions (debate) on approaches, positions, methodologies and environmental focal point.

8. Addendum. This piece is an additional to the article and explains the inconsistencies or other way of explaining the information exposed in the main work, especially if this type of problems were found to be too late to correct the work.

9. Retractions. The retraction of the article indicates that it, should not have been published and its data and conclusions need to be excluded from the basis of future research. The most common reasons for the retraction of articles are scientific misconduct, including plagiarism, serious errors and simultaneous / duplicate publication.

10. Errata. An erratum is the correction to a material mistake made in the printed manuscript that alludes to small errors in the text (for example, errors of writing, spelling or punctuation). It is not the same as an addendum or a retraction.

Presentation of the manuscript

The presentation of the manuscript must include a commitment letter (attach through step 4 of the online shipment) in which the authors express their wish to publish their work in Gestión y Ambiente (signature of all authors) and declare that the article has not been submitted and/or published (total or partially) in other journal, magazine, book, memoires or similar publications. Additional, describes conflicts of interest or competition, authorship contributions and funds from sponsors. If necessary, the authors must attach the authorizations to reproduce already published material (attach through step 4 of the online shipment).

The submission of manuscripts (with other files: graphics, photographs, maps, licenses) and commitment letters is made through the Portal of Journals of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, available under the following link:  www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/gestion/user/register

The article must be created in a word-processing system (e.g. Microsoft Word), at 1.5 line spacing, letter size and written in Arial 11 font, with the following margins: 3 cm left and top, and 2 cm right and bottom. The recommended structure of the manuscripts is:

-         Title: must be brief and concise, presented in Spanish and English. When necessary, it must include a complementing subtitle. Please avoid abbreviations and formulae.

-         Authors: the full names include name and last name(s) of each author, separated by a comma (please register in the IraLIS platform, or e-LIS). Use footnotes to present additional information such as institutional affiliation, city, country and ORCID. Only the email of the corresponding author must be included. In the case of Colombians, the above information must coincide with the CvLAC.

-         Abstract: must be concise and presented in Spanish and English. The maximum length is 250 words. It is recommended to check the spelling and the justification, objective, main results and conclusions of the research must be briefly presented. References and abbreviations should be avoided.

-         Keywords: must be written in Spanish and English and must not coincide with the words used in the title. They should easily relate to the topics approached by the article and should ideally be included in a Thesaurus (Agrovoc, CAB, UNESCO). A minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 keywords should be presented and located below the abstract language.

General presentation guidelines

Please number all the pages of the manuscript (including the references and annexes or appendices). For the articles research results, the sections are: summary, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusions. The sections of the articles (i.e. abstract, introduction, materials and methods, discussion, conclusions) must be sequentially organized with Arabic numbers. In each section use sequential numbering in Arabic numerals (from introduction to bibliography). In the numbering, identify the hierarchy of each title and discriminate sections or sub-sections of the writing. Maximum, use three levels of titles.

Introduction: must show the background of the work including previous research, a description and justification of the approached issue and the objective of the article (describes the limits of the research carried out). Include here the state of art and the conceptual framework of work. The bibliography presented should be as up to date as possible in the last 5 years.

Materials and methods: includes enough information so that the followed procedures can be replicated. The area of study, materials, equipment, methodologies (protocols, surveys, analysis matrices, secondary information sources) and data analysis procedures are also described in this section. Also, include permissions requested to carry out the study (for example, access permits to conservation sites, indigenous territories, collection of wild biological material, informed consent to interviewees) (attach through step 4 of the online shipment). It is suggested that the authors send a copy of the original databases (attach through step 4 of the online shipment) or have a mechanism of access after the publication of the article. Include the date and place of conducting the investigation.

Results: The main results of the research are presented and explained in a structured and coherent way, supported by figures and tables (include the statistics used). Please avoid repeating in the text the information contained in figures and tables (the explanatory text must be complementary). 

Discussion: the authors must base their arguments on previous studies and explain the obtained results through updated and specialized references, highlighting those that are novel and representative in advancing the frontiers of knowledge. The discursive construction of the analyzes proposed should support the position of the question or research thesis described in the introduction along with the points of the specialized literature, and point out similarities and discrepancies in comparison with other results. The scope and limitations of the used methodologies must also be mentioned in this section. 

Conclusions: the most solid contributions of the research are presented here, as well as hints and recommendations for future studies. No summary of results is made.

Acknowledgements: mention the different sources of funding, as well as collaborations, scholarships and other kinds of support (as the name of the project, sponsoring institutions, help, grant, agreement, call and identification code). In addition, the various specific collaborations of researchers or workers who did not meet the criteria for authorship established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Footnotes: must be used only for clarifications or additional information, not to present bibliographic references that in their entirety should be found in the bibliography.

Tables and figures: must be limited, numbered and located under the paragraph were they are mentioned for the first time. They must have a concise and explanatory name. The number and name of the tables must be placed on top, whereas in the figures this information must be in the bottom. The source (and the used statistical procedure, when necessary) must be mentioned in the bottom for both cases. In the text, they should be referred to as Table 1, Table 2…, and Figure 1, Figure 2. The tables and figures must be built in Word or Excel formats, in black and white (or grayscale). If the graphs include lines, please make sure that each one of them is easily distinguishable from the others. Avoid using vertical lines in the tables. Only editable formats are accepted (vector illustration), so please do not send images of tables and figures (attach through step 4 of the online shipment).

If the article includes maps and photographs, please send them separately in .jpg or .tiff formats (300 dpi resolution and 10 x15 cm size) and preferably in black and white. The author of the image/photograph must be mentioned or the authorization for its reproduction must be attached (attach through step 4 of the online shipment).

Cover image: a color image must be sent for the dissemination of the article in social media (it can be one of the images used in the document). It must be unpublished and the author should be mentioned. This image will be published in the digital version of Gestión y Ambiente (attach through step 4 of the online shipment).

References

The majority of the used references must be updated (i.e. produced at least in the last five years). All the references mentioned in the text must be included in the list at the end of the manuscript (and vice versa). If possible, avoid including unpublished results and personal communications. If a reference is “in press”, it means that it has been accepted for publication and DOI.

If two or more authors are referred to in the text, use “and” and include the year of publication: Montañez y Ramírez (2019) o (Montañez y Ramírez, 2019).

If the source has three authors or more, use “et al.”: Hortúa et al. (2018) o (Hortúa et al., 2018).

If the name of an institution is included in the manuscript, the full name must appear in the text followed by its acronym inside parenthesis. For subsequent uses, please use only the acronym.

Quotation marks should be used for literal quotations under 40 words. The exact page must be put in the reference: (Rodríguez, 2005, p. 20) or Rodríguez (2005, p. 20). For longer literal quotations, avoid the quotation marks, create a new paragraph and add a line indent of 5 spaces or 0,5 cm.

The list of references is located in the end of the manuscript and must be organized alphabetically. The references of the same author are organized chronologically (from the oldest to the more recent). If a reference has the same author and year, then the order is given by the second author’s last name or the first letter of the title (excluding articles like “The” or “A”). A lower case letter must be added to differentiate the references (Rodríguez, 2006a; Rodríguez, 2006b…). Please include the DOI whenever possible. If the publishing house of a reference is located in a capital city, only mention the country in the references.

Some illustrative examples are presented below:

Books: Authors (last name, initial of the name), year. Title of the book. Edition (if it is not the first). Publishing house, City, Country.

Ángel, A., 1996. El reto de la vida. Ecosistemas y cultura. Una introducción al estudio del medio ambiente. Ecofondo, Bogotá.

Book chapter: Author(s), year. Title of the chapter. In: editor or editors, Title of the book. Publishing house, City, Country. First and last page.

Mettam, G., Adams L., 2009. ¿Cómo preparar una versión electrónica de su artículo? In: Jones, B., Smith R. (Eds.), Introducción a la era electrónica. E-Publishing, New York, NY. pp. 281-304.

Thesis: Author(s), year. Title of the thesis. Academic degree. Faculty and/or Department, University or Educational Institution, City, Country.  

Coya-García, M., 2001. La ambientalización de la Universidad Santiago de Compostela. PhD Thesis. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Article: Author(s), year. Title of the article. Journal title abbreviation, volume (issue), first and last page. DOI.

Peiró, A., Ayllón, J., Peral, J., Doménech, X., 2001. TIO₂-photocatalyzed degradation of phenol and ortho-substituted phenolic compounds. Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 30, 359-373. DOI: 10.1016/S0926-3373(00)00248-4

Internet reference: Author(s), year. Title. Available at: Institution, URL; consulted: month and year.

Cárdenas, M., Ibánez, A., 2011. Guía de techos verdes en Bogotá. Available at: Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente – Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, http://oab2.ambientebogota.gov.co/apc-aa-files/57c59a889ca266ee6533c26f970cb14a/guia_de_techos_verdes_2011.pdf; consulted: November 2016.

Database: Corporate author, Year. Database name. Resource or item consulted. Available at: Complete URL; consulted: month and year.

FAO, 2019. FAOSTAT Forestry production and trade. Disponible en: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FO; consultado: marzo, 2019.

Norma and Laws: Estamento that issues it. Year. General identification and full name. Register. City, Country.

Congreso Nacional de Honduras, 2009. Decreto 181, Ley general de aguas. Gaceta No. 32088. Tegucigalpa.

Additional considerations

Manuscripts in Spanish and English are accepted by Gestión y Ambiente. The text must be narrated in active voice and, if possible, maintaining an impersonal style. In relation to verb tenses, the past tense may be used for the introduction, procedures and results, and the present tense for the discussion.

The International System of Units (SI) must be used, as well as the specific units frequently employed by the scientific community. Only use the forward slash (/) to connect units from the SI or other frequently used units.

The author(s) must always keep a copy of the work. Each manuscript will be evaluated by academic peers with expertise in environmental topics and related publications. The Editorial Committee has the final word regarding the publication of the manuscripts and may suggest changes when appropriate. The process will be as brief and effective as possible.

The Editor of Gestión y Ambiente represents the Editorial Committee and communicates with the corresponding author through the Portal of Journals of Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Through this system the Editor acknowledges the receipt of the manuscript and shares any related decision.  

The editorial team will try to avoid misprints in the final version of the journal; however, Gestión y Ambiente cannot be held accountable for the mistakes that may appear. If the author(s) detect any significant mistake, please contact the editorial team as soon as possible, so a corrigendum can be issued in the next volume.

The editorial team reserves the right to make small adjustments and modifications in the titles, abstracts (Spanish and English versions) and in the full texts as well. This proofreading will not interfere with the contents of the manuscripts. However, the regular policy of Gestión y Ambiente is contacting the authors when further clarifications are needed. 

For enquiries or additional information, please contact the editorial team: revgestion_bog@unal.edu.co; Telephone (57) 1-3165000 extension 10559.