Revista Colombiana de Química

Author Guidelines

1. Scope

The Revista Colombiana de Química - Colombian Journal of Chemistry (Rev. Colomb. Quim.) Is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. It currently publishes three volumes per year: January-April, May-August and September-December. All the content published by the Journal (available online) is under a Creative Commons attribution license type BY 4.0, that allows any person or entity in the world to freely access the content, share it, download it, adapt it or make derivative works without any restriction, provided that it adequately indicates the credit to the authors and to the Colombian Journal of Chemistry.

The Colombian Journal of Chemistry is indexed in the databases SCOPUS, PUBLINDEX, DOAJ, SCIELO, LATINDEX, REDALYC and REDIB. It has a Scientific and Editorial Committee composed of renowned researchers in their areas of expertise and accepts relevant contributions in the different fields of chemistry such as: analytical chemistry, biochemistry, organic, physical chemistry, food chemistry, inorganic, materials science, organometallic, chemistry teaching, among others. The target audience are professionals related to any area of chemistry.

Manuscripts sent to the Revista Colombiana de Química for possible publication must be original (not submitted at the same time to any other printed or digital journal). Authors are responsible for the opinions and ideas stated in the manuscript. The accuracy of the information in the manuscripts, including figures and tables, is the complete responsibility of the author or authors. Likewise, it is responsibility of the authors to have the prior authorization of the owner of the rights to reproduce content that is not their own (tables, figures, data, procedures, etc.), if it exists in the article. If a lawsuit concerning intellectual property is filed, all responsibility rests with the authors and not with the Revista Colombiana de Química nor the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

2. General submission requirements

1. The manuscripts will be received ONLY through the Journal's Open Journal System (OJS) platform. The main author must be registered in the website, otherwise he should register following the necessary steps. In addition, the submission must include the information of ALL authors.
2. Before starting, it is important that you verify that your submission complies scrupulously with all the requirements requested by the journal, otherwise they will be returned without being evaluated. In order to facilitate your work, the Journal has set up a template.
3. A cover letter of the article should be attached, including the most relevant aspects of the article and a list of four possible evaluators that are external to both the institution of the author and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (National University of Colombia), including all its branches, with Their respective contact details. This cover letter must be signed by all authors. This cover letter must be signed by all authors and must specify each author contribution of to the preparation of the manuscript. When signing, the authors declare that they are responsible for the preparation of the document, therefore, it will not be possible to eliminate authors throughout the editorial process. The addition of an additional author may be permitted provided that the reasons for their incorporation are adequately justified. The request for the addition of an author does not guarantee that their incorporation is accepted, each case will be evaluated by the editorial committee.
4. The version of the online document should not include any data of authorship or institutional affiliation, in order to guarantee an anonymous peer review. These data must be included in the submission form through the website and must also be attached in an additional document (it is uploaded as a supplementary file).
5. Both figures and tables should appear in the document in the appropriate order to facilitate the review process. However, since Word lowers the resolution of the images, it is necessary to also attach them in a separate file, in TIFF or JPEG format to the size at which they will be output, with 300 dpi resolution. If the graphics correspond to files worked in Excel or Word should be sent in such programs, but open, not as an image so that they can be edited.

3. Format

The document must be submitted in Word file .doc or .docx, letter size, 1.5 line spacing, with top and bottom margins of 2.54 cm and sides of 1.91 cm (Moderate margin setting), with Times New Roman font 12 , pages numbered from start to finish and text to double column. The document should contain line numbers to facilitate editing and peer evaluation. The title of the article must appear in Spanish, English and Portuguese. The next titles should be used: Resumen, palabras clave, Abstract, Keywords, Resumo, Palavras-Chave, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments (optional) and References. To facilitate your work, you can download the template in this link.

3.1 Language

Manuscripts are accepted in Spanish or English. However, always the title, summary and keywords must be presented in Spanish, English and Portuguese. As a strategy to increase the impact and visibility of the results, it is suggested to present the manuscripts in English. Manuscripts that do not comply with the format of the Journal will be returned without going through the evaluation process.

3.2 Units

Always define the statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols the first time they are used in the article. For the units of measurement the international system of units should be used. When not followed by units, whole numbers up to ten are written in words (one, two, ten) and greater than ten with numbers (11, 12, 102). When numbers are used, they should be followed by their units and a space between them should be maintained (100 m, 50 mL). If it is a percentage, do not leave space between the number and the unit (80%). Always state the type of percentage you are indicating (w/w, w/v, etc.) unless it is a dimensionless relation.
In manuscripts written in Spanish the decimal figures will be separated by comma (,) and in English by period (.).
It is indistinct if you use superscripts instead of hyphens (mg·L-1, instead of mg/L), however it must be consistent, if you chose to express it as a superscript, all the times the unit appears must be expressed in the same shape.
Use scientific notation, express your results accompanied by a power of ten: 1.85 x 10-2 instead of 1.85E-2.
If a device or procedure is protected by the use of Registered Sign (®) or Trade Mark (™), you must place the corresponding symbol. This applies mainly to equipment such as chromatographs, spectrophotometers, scales, etc.

3.3 Tables, Figures and Equations

The tables and figures must be in the body of the article, in the corresponding order of appearance. Both the tables and the figures must be self-contained (being able to be interpreted without having to resort to the body of the article). In the legend of the figure or in the title or foot of the table, the keys, abbreviations, and other explanations must be described. It is recommended to provide, in addition to the averages, standard deviations and other statistical information relevant to the data.

This format only supports tables and figures, avoid classifying images in a different way to "figures" (images, photos, diagrams, diagrams, maps, graphs, and any other graphic material). Figures that have been created in Excel or Word must be sent in those programs (editable). Avoid redundancy between tables, figures, and text. The labeling of each table must go to the head of the table, while in the figures it must be presented at the bottom. Avoid small isolated figures, instead group figures with related information in composite figures labeled with letters (Figure 1A, Figure 3B or Figures 1A-1F). If an article contains tables or figures reproduced (even from the same author), it is mandatory to declare the origin and count permission to use them. The figures must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and must appear in a size that allows them to be read. The Journal will not edit figures, that duty is author's responsibility.

The format of the Journal does not admit information, tables or supplementary figures. If the information is relevant, it must be included in the content of the article; if not relevant, it must be excluded from it. For equations use Eq. (1) instead of equation 1. All equations must be numbered and must be mentioned in the text. There must not appear equations that have not been described.
Example: The amount of 4-nitrophenol adsorbed at equilibrium qe (mmol·g-1) was calculated using Eq. (1):

3.4 Article section

Classify your work in one of the sections published by the Revista Colombiana de Química: Organic and Biochemistry, Applied and Analytical, Physical chemistry and Inorganic, Teaching of Chemistry. These sections appear in the list of options of the OJS platform. Only these sections are allowed, so when you do the submission, avoid using the "Article" section.

Appendix: institutional affiliation and acknowledgments

This information must be sent in a complementary file, not in the document, to guarantee an anonymous review. It is essential to attach the institutional affiliation, but acknowledgments are optional. The editorial team will include this annex in the article if the article approves the evaluation process.

3.5 Author’s information

• Full names and surnames.
• Last professional title.
• Work institution.
• Country and city of residence.
• Email (of each author).

In the filiation data the categorical order must be kept: Laboratory, institute, university, city, state, country, e-mail. Each affiliation must be listed with superscript numbers and referenced to each author.

3.6 Acknowledgments (optional)

The funding sources of the research projects and/or the support received for the study must be mentioned (scholarships, equipment, reagents, among others). Individuals who contributed to the study, without having a participation that merits granting authorship can be named describing the contribution carried out, for example, "technical support", "critical review of the writing", "sample collection".

4. Evaluation and publishing process

The manuscript will be returned to the authors without going through the evaluation process in any of the following cases:

• An initial review indicates that it is not within the scope of the Journal.
• Does not comply with the format established in this Guide for authors.
• The cover letter is not completely nor adequately filled.
• According to the editorial team, the manuscript presents problems of plagiarism or fraudulent activity (according to a similarity analysis using Turnitin).
• According to the editorial committee, the manuscript does not present sufficient quality to be considered a scientific article.

Only after the editorial team verifies that the manuscript meets the requirements, the article is sent to at least two external researchers (both the author's institution and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia). The number of referees may vary depending on the field of research.

The article then enters an evaluation stage that can be extended up to two months, depending on the time of acceptance of the evaluation. The evaluators have up to twenty (20) days to submit their concept. In some cases, depending on the availability of the evaluator this time is extended up to one (1) month.

4.1 Double blind system

To guarantee the quality, reliability and integrity of the evaluation, the Colombian Journal of Chemistry uses a double-blind type of peer review modality. This modality consists of maintaining the anonymity of both the authors and the reviewers throughout the editorial process.

Likewise, each referee is sent precise evaluation instructions, which contain the aspects to be reviewed (can be consulted at this link). It is the evaluator's decision to make notes within the article.

4.2 Publishing process description

The editorial process consists of the following steps:

1. Initial review by the Editorial Committee (writing, relevance, format, review of plagiarism).
2. Submission of the work to evaluators, may be those suggested by the authors, as long as there are no conflicts of interest.
3. Sending the comments of the evaluators to the authors, so that the pertinent adjustments can be made.
4. Remission of the work with the observations and suggestions of correction to the editorial team. The concepts that the evaluators can issue are: Accept with changes: Authors should send a new version to the journal, as well as a detailed list with the changes made. The referee's concept does not guarantee the Journal's acceptance. Rejected: The authors decide if they submit a new version to the journal, which will be treated as a new submission and will start the review process again.
5. Reception work corrected by the authors and review by the Editor, who considers whether the observations made by the evaluators themselves were taken in account and included in the new version of the article. If, at the discretion of the Editor or editorial board, the new version of the manuscript contains the requested changes in the evaluations, the manuscript is accepted.
6. Style revision: syntactic adjustments, review of the body of the article, verification of references. The version published will be the one determined by the Revista Colombiana de Química.
7. Layout: conversion to PDF, HTML and XML
8. Publication in the Journal's website
9. Publication in databases: SCOPUS, PUBLINDEX, DOAJ, SCIELO, LATINDEX, REDALYC and REDIB.

The whole process usually takes between 4 and 8 months.

5. Declaration of ethics

The Revista Colombiana de Química follows the declaration of ethics proposed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This is a code of ethical conduct for editors of scientific journals in which plagiarism and ghostwriting, duplication of results or any other type of fraudulent modification are sanctioned. In the same way, a peer evaluation system is promoted and applied where the anonymity of authors and evaluators is guaranteed.

The commitments that the authors acquire with the Revista Colombiana de Química are:

• Provide true information about the authorship.
• Present an original work, free of plagiarism or fraudulent results, which recognizes the sources and has an adequate citation.
• Have permission to reproduce material from other sources, if any.
• Avoid multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.
• Provide results that are the result of investigations that do not compromise animal or human health or do not contribute to environmental pollution.
• Report on the existence of conflicts of interest (if any).

On the other hand, the Revista Colombiana de Química is committed to providing the authors:

• Confidentiality
• Quality of the arbitration and the editorial process.
• Report on the existence of conflicts of interest (if any).
• Objectivity.
• Speed.

6. Conflict of interests

The Journal defines a conflict of interest as any issue that interferes with: complete and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or the publication of research articles submitted to the journal. The conflict of interest may be of a financial and nonfinancial nature, professional or personal, and may arise in relation to an organization or another person.