Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín

Focus and Scope

The Journal Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín (RFNAM) is a publication of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Sede Medellín (National University of Colombia - Medellín Headquarters). It is aimed at professors, researchers, students, rural development agents, and all those professionals who generate knowledge and articulate science and technology to make the countryside more productive at the business level, thus improving the peasant economy.

The Journal aims to disseminate research results through original, unpublished and arbitrated articles (peer review) of a scientific nature that answers specific questions and that provide support and evidence to a hypothesis, in aspects related to Agronomic Sciences, Animal Production, Forestry, Agricultural, Food and other related Sciences that contribute to the solution of agricultural constraints at national, regional and international levels.

The Journal receives and publishes, free of APCs, research articles, short articles, reviews, criticism, letters to the editor, and editorials.

Peer Review Process

The Editorial Board, supported by a team of associate editors, will evaluate the scientific quality of the manuscript and then submit it for a double-blind peer-review process –the reviewers do not know the author’s identity and vice versa. Two reviewers specialized in the manuscript area, preferably one national and one international, will assess it through the format established by the Journal. The verdict after the peer-review process can be the following: accepted without modifications, accepted with minor changes, accepted after major modifications, or rejected. Finally, the Editorial Board has the right to accept or not a manuscript.

If the manuscript is accepted, it will be returned to the authors for performing the respective correction and modifications. The corrected document must be sent back to the Journal’s director in the next 30 days.

Open Access Policy

The Journal provides open access to its contents, for which users can search, read, link, download, copy, distribute, print, remix, transform and create from their articles under the following terms only:

Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

NonCommercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes

ShareAlike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

The Journal defines the following license to publish and use its articles:

Creative Commons publication license:

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en

Edition

The Journal reserves the right to make changes in the articles’ text in terms of wording, titles, Abstract/Resumen, tables, and figures; whenever possible, the Journal will inquire the authors about the changes introduced.

The Journal admits opinions that disagree with the terms expressed in the published material, accepts retractions of the authors, and will correct the typographical and other errors that may have been committed when publishing an article.

Publication Frequency

Since 2017, the Journal is a four-monthly publication at the national and international levels. Three issues are published per year in January, May, and September, with national and international circulation.

Ethics in Publishing and agreement on possible bad practices

The journal Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín follows the COPE, Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the International Standards for Editors and Authors, published by Committee on Publication Ethics. The journal puts forth the following criteria and recommendations for ethical scientific publications:

1. General criteria

1) Articles must contain sufficient details and references that allow the study to be replicable or refutable.
2) Fraudulent or deliberately inexact statements constitute unethical behavior.
3) If a study includes the use of chemical products, procedures, or equipment that presents an inherent risk, the author must state so in the article.
4) If the study involves the use of animals or human beings, the article must contain a clear statement that all of the procedures were carried out in strict compliance with laws and institutional directives.
5) The privacy of human beings must be respected.

2. Authorship

Criteria:
1) An "author" is a person that has made a significant intellectual contribution to an article; all the individuals that are named as authors must fulfill the requirements for authorship, and all of those individuals that do so must be explicitly named.
2) Three essential criteria must be met in order to be considered an author:
a. A substantial contribution to the study concept, design, and data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
b. Revision of the intellectual content.
c. Approval of the final version.
3) The order of the author list must be a joint decision of the coauthors.
4) The individuals that participate in a study but that do not meet the criteria for authorship must be listed as an "Assistant" or "recognized person."
5) There are three types of unacceptable authorship: "ghost" authors, who make a substantial contribution but are not recognized (often paid by commercial promoters); "guest" authors, who do not make a discernable contribution but are named in order to increase the probability of publication; and "honorary" authors, who only have a tenuous connection to the study.

Recommendations:
1) Before starting the research, establish the function of each researcher and the manner in which they will be recognized.
2) It is not necessary to mention an individual's participation in a study or publication, but if their contribution is substantial, then authorship would be justified, either as an author or assistant.
3) Authorship cannot be bestowed on an individual without their consent.
4) All of the individuals that are named as authors must meet the requirements for authorship, and all of those that meet the requirements must appear as authors or assistants.
5) Some groups list the authors alphabetically, sometimes with a notation that indicates that all of the authors contributed equally to the study and the publication.

3. Changes in the authorship

Criteria:
1) Additions to, removals from, and reorganization of the author names in accepted articles must be noted.
2) Petitions to add to, remove from, or reorganize the authors must be sent by the corresponding author of the accepted articles and must include:
a. The reason for the addition, elimination, or reorganization.
b. A written statement (e-mail) from all the authors that confirms their agreement with the addition, elimination, or reorganization. In the case of an addition or elimination, a confirmation is also required from the author to be added or removed.

4. Conflict of interest

Criteria:
1) When a researcher or author has a financial/personal opinion or interest that could affect their objectivity or improperly influence their actions, there exists a possible conflict of interest. Conflicts can be actual or potential.
2) The most evident conflicts of interest are financial, such as
a. Direct: employment, stocks, scholarships, patents.
b. Indirect: assistantship to promoting organizations, investment funds, paid expert testimony.
3) Conflicts can also arise from personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion. For example, an author could have
a. Some personal interest in the results of the research.
b. Personal opinions that are in direct conflict with the research topic.

Recommendations:
1) Disclose all conflicts of interest, actual or potential, that inappropriately influence the findings or results of a study, including any that arise within the three (3) years after the start of said study if they could unduly (bias) influence the study.
2) Disclose the role of any promoter (or promoters) in the study, if any, in the design, in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, in the document review, or in the decision to present the document for publication.
3) The researchers must not enter into agreements that interfere with their access to all of the data or with their ability to independently analyze the data or to prepare and publish the manuscript.
4) The document must contain a statement (with the heading "Role of the financial source") in a section that is separate from the text and before the References section.
5) Some examples of conflicts of interest that must be revealed include: employment, consulting, stocks, honorariums, paid expert testimony, patent requests or registration, and subsidies or other financings.
6) All of the sources of financial support for the project must be revealed.
7) The role of any study sponsors must be described.

5. Duplicate publication

Criteria:
1) Authors have the obligation of proving that their article is based on original research (before published). The voluntary submission or resubmission of a manuscript for duplicate publication is considered a breach of editorial ethics.
2) A duplicate publication, or multiple publications, results when two or more articles, without any reference to each other, mostly share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, and/or conclusions. This can occur to different degrees: literal duplication, partial but substantial duplication, or paraphrase duplication.
3) One of the main reasons that duplicate publications are considered unethical is that they can result in the "inappropriate weighting or unwitting double counting" of results from just one study, which distorts the available evidence.

Recommendations:
1) Articles sent for publication must be original and not sent to other editors. When sent, the authors must reveal the details of related articles (even when in another language) and similar articles being printed or translated.
2) Even though a submitted article is being reviewed and the final decision is not known, wait to receive notification from the editors before contacting other journals and then only do so if the editors decline to publish the article.
3) Avoid submitting a previously published article to another journal.
4) Avoid submitting articles that essentially describe the same research to more than one journal. Always indicate previous submissions (including presentations and recorded results) that could be considered duplicate results.
5) Avoid writing about your research in two or more articles from different angles or on different aspects of the research without mentioning the original article.
6) Creating various publications based on the same research is considered a type of manipulation.
7) If an author wishes to send an article to a journal that is published in a different country or a different language, ask for permission from the editors first.
8) When submitting an article, indicate all of the details of the article that were presented in a different language along with the relevant translations.

6. Acknowledging sources

Criteria:
1) Authors must cite the publications that had an influence on the determination of the nature of the offered study.
2) The privately obtained information cannot be used without the express written consent of the source.
3) Republishing tables or figures requires the permission of the author or editor, who must be appropriately cited in the table or figure legend.
4) Information obtained through confidential services, such as arbitration articles or subsidy applications, cannot be used without the express written consent of the author of the work involved in said services.

7. Plagiarism

The Turnitin software will be used for the detection and prevention of plagiarism in the scientific publication

Criteria:
1) Plagiarism is one of the more common types of misconduct in publications; it occurs when an author passes the work of others off as their own without permission, citations, or acknowledgment. Plagiarism can occur in different forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing the work of another person, including data, ideas, concepts, paragraphs, and phrases.
2 Plagiarism has different degrees of severity; for example
a. The quantity of work taken from another person (various lines, paragraphs, pages, or the entire article).
b. What it is copied (results, methods, or introduction section).
3) Plagiarism, in all its forms, constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.
4) Literal copying is acceptable if the source is indicated, and the text is placed in quotation marks.

Recommendations:
1) Always remember that it is vital to recognize the work of others (including the work of your assistants or your previous studies).
2) Do not reproduce the work of others word for word, in totality or partially, without the permission and recognition of the original source.
3) Maintain a record of the sources that are used in the research and where they are used in the article.
4) Be sure to acknowledge and cite the original source in your article accurately.
5) Even when referencing the source, avoid using the work of others word by word unless it is placed in quotations.
6) Paraphrasing is only acceptable if the source is correctly indicated, and the source's intended meaning is not changed.
7) Use quotations and cite all the content that is taken from a previously published source even when using your own words.

8. Scientific Fraud

Criteria:
1) Fraud in scientific publications refers to the presentation of false data or conclusions that were not obtained through a rigorous research process.
2) The following types of fraud exist for the publication of research results:
a. Fabricating data. Inventing research data and results for later dissemination.
b. Falsification of data. The manipulation of research material, images, data, equipment, or processes. Falsification includes the modification or omission of data or results in such a way that the research is not represented in a precise manner. A person may falsify data to obtain the desired results of a study.

Recommendations:
1) Never modify, change, or omit data intentionally. This includes research material, processes, equipment, tables, citations, and bibliographical references.
2) Fabricating and falsifying data constitute grave misconduct because of both results in scientific publications that do not precisely reflect the actual observations.
3) Authors must appropriately manage the data that supports the research, taking special care in the compilation, production, preservation, analysis, and presentation of the data.
4) Maintain precise records of the raw data, which must be assessable in case the editors request them after the article publication.

9. Fragmentation

Criteria:
1) Fragmentation occurs when a large study is divided or segmented into two or more publications.
2) As a general rule, as long as the "fragments" of a divided study share the same hypothesis, populations, and methods, this not considered an acceptable practice.
3) The same "fragment" can never be published more than one time. Fragmentation can result in distortion of the literature, creating the mistaken belief in readers that the data presented in each fragment (i.e., journal article) are derived from different subject samplings. This not only distorts the "scientific database," but creates repetition that results in a loss of time for editors and evaluators that must work on each article separately. Furthermore, the cited author receives an unfair increase in their number of references.

Recommendations:
1). Avoid inappropriately dividing the data of one study into two or more articles.
2) When presenting your work, be transparent. Send copies of the manuscripts that are strictly related to the manuscript in question, including published, recently submitted, and accepted manuscripts.

10. Human and animal rights

Criteria:
1) Animal welfare is defined as the physical and mental state of an animal concerning the conditions in which it lives and dies.
2) An animal is in a good state of well-being if it is healthy, comfortable, well-fed, safe, and can express natural forms of behavior.
3) The animals selected for a procedure should be of an appropriate species and quality and the minimum number required to obtain valid results.
4) Proper use of animals, including the avoidance or minimization of discomfort, distress, and pain when consistent with sound scientific practices, is imperative. Unless the contrary is established, investigators should consider that procedures that cause pain or distress in human beings may cause pain or distress in other animals.
5) All research involving human beings, must be performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Recommendations:
1) Authors must - in all situations as described above - include the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate.
2) Request ethical approval depending on the law and the national ethical guidelines of author’s country.
3) When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate what guidelines for the care and use of animals have been followed, and that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution.
4) Demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the aspects of the study.

11. Informed consent

Criteria:
1) Studies on patients and volunteers require the approval of the ethics committee.
2) The informed consent must be duly documented.
3) Permission and waivers must be obtained when an author wishes to include details of a case or other personal information or images of the patients or any other person.
4) Special care should be taken when obtaining the consent of children (especially when a child has special needs or learning disabilities) when their head or face is displayed or when reference is made to the name of an individual or other personal data.

Recommendations:
1) Request the necessary permissions from the research ethics committee of your institution or to the competent entity.
2) The individuals participating in the research must be informed about the treatment of their data.
3) Information such as photographs, names, or identifying elements of a person, can only be provided if they are relevant to the description of the research.

12. Retraction or concern manifestation of published articles
The retraction is a public instrument to register and/or correct problems of a published article or communicate its cancellation. It is an integral part of the scientific communication system, and it is the author's obligation to notify the Journal and cooperate in the verification process immediately. For its part, the expression of concern is a resource that can be used by the editor to record that there are doubts about an article published in the Journal, but that there is still not enough conclusive evidence for a retraction or other action to be taken. The expression of concern should be used whenever there are aspects of doubt in the conduct or integrity of the article. The expression of concern, as well as the retraction, will be published in the next issue of the Journal, and the original title and authorship will be included. The Journal applies the procedure of retraction and manifestation established by SciELO.

Data Sharing Policy

The journal encourages authors to share raw data, processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, methods, materials, and other artifacts supporting the results in their paper by archiving it in an public repository. However, this practice is not mandatory to publish an article in the journal. The authors are free to decide whether to share experimental data or not. The authors that share scientific data may provide the link to the repository they have used in the manuscript text.

Advertising policies

The journal Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín is a scientific dissemination body; in this context, it does not offer advertising services to external entities.

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Sponsors

• Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellín