Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín

Author Guidelines

The journal receives manuscripts permanently, which are published in strict order, according to the date of receipt and approval.

The author must carry out the following steps to submit a manuscript to the journal:

1) One of the authors must register or log in to the journal's website, using an author profile.

Note. The entire process of receiving and editing the manuscript will be carried out through a single author, identified as the corresponding author.

2) The author must send the following files through their account:

1. Full-text manuscript in .docx format (manuscripts in PDF format are not accepted). Figure and tables must be placed in the main text close to where they are first called out. The manuscript must comply with all the guidelines specified in the Guidelines for authors, in case of not complying with them, the manuscript will not start the editorial process. The authors are recommended to follow the Word template and all the style requirements.
2. Figures (graphs, maps, photographs, illustrations) and tables in separate and numbered files in the same way that they appear in the manuscript. These figures must be sent in their original format (.jpg, .png, .tiff, .xlsx- MS Excel®, etc.). Photographs or drawings must be submitted in original or digitized format, and in a digital compression JPG (or JPEG) format with a resolution of 600x600 dpi (minimum 300 dpi). Generally, tables and figures are only accepted in black and white.
3. Form 1. Editorial Criteria Checklist for Manuscript Submission. (Download)
4. Form 2. Manuscript Publishing Authorization signed by all the authors involved in the manuscript. (Download)
5. Form 3. Author's personal information (Each author must fill the form with their information). (Download)
6. Form 4. Suggestions of possible peer reviewers. (Fill the form by suggesting researchers that can evaluate your manuscript, please make an unbiased selection) (Download)
7. In research involving animals or the participation of human beings, the journal may require the endorsement given by the corresponding ethics committees to carry out experimental activities with these beings.

3) The corresponding author must register the other authors when entering the manuscript metadata; they must provide the following information:

1. First and last names.
2. Last professional title obtained.
3. Institutional affiliation (the institution in which they work).
4. Country and city of residence.
5. Email.
6. Unique author identifier ORCID.
7. Conflict of interest. The corresponding author should verify if the other co-authors have a conflict of interest and report it in the specified field for this information. For more information on this field, see Competing Interest Guidelines.

Note: We recommend consulting the Guide for the submission of articles, to have greater clarity in this process.

Guidelines for authors

Articles must be submitted according to the "Guidelines for authors." Those manuscripts that break the basic rules will not start the editorial process. The form "Manuscript Publishing Authorization and Assignment of Patrimonial Rights" must be filled and submitted; the journal will supply this form. Said document is explicit in mentioning that all authors are informed and in agreement with submitting the article to the journal, that there is no conflict of interest between them, and the content of the manuscript has not been and will not be submitted to another journal.

1) The editorial review process, peer review, editing, and publication of a manuscript is free of charge (no APCs). Similarly, the journal does not make any kind of financial contribution to the authors for the publications.

2) Manuscripts must be related to the disciplinary scope of the journal.

3) The manuscript reception does not imply the commitment of its publication since all manuscripts undergo an editorial review and peer review that defines if they are published or not.

Style

For your convenience, we encourage you to use our Word template. In the same way, we invite you to consult all the requirements for the elaboration of the manuscript's sections.

The manuscript must comply with the following items:

1) Be written in English. For non-English speakers, it is recommended to look for the aid of a translator or a professional in this language.

2) The journal has a procedure to prevent plagiarism; therefore, it is recommended to make ethical use of the data used in the research and preparation of the manuscript.

3) The manuscript must be of quality. This quality is judged through its originality, disciplinary scope, relevance, rigor, and scientific validity.

4) The manuscript's outline must follow the scheme IMRAD: a) an Introduction that explains the fundamentals of the work, clearly explains its objectives and description of the sources; b) Methods, materials, and equipment used; c) Results and Discussion; d) Conclusions. Appendices can be included if necessary.

5) The writing style must be impersonal, avoiding the conjugation of verbs in the first person of singular or plural. It should follow the past tense for the introduction, the procedures, and the results and present tense for the discussion.

6) The numbers from one to nine are written in words, except when they include units of measure, or several numbers are listed. Example: "eight treatments", "3,7, and 9 readings", "15 kg". Use zero before the decimal point and separate decimals digits with a period (.), thousands must be separated by a comma. Example: 0.5 (decimal digits), 54,457 (thousands). Use "to" and a hyphen for growing seasons to separate numbers in intervals of one to two years. Example: the period from 2002 to 2005, growing seasons 1999-2000, 2000-2001.

7) P of p-value must go in uppercase and italics. Example P<0.05.

8) There must be no space between numerical digits and mathematical symbols. Example: 5.18±0.03, <5 kg h^a-1, P<0.05, 3×10-3, >56 °C.

9) International System of Units (SI) and those specific units of greater use by the scientific community must be used. For combined units, use the power form. Example: kg ha^-1. There must be a space between the unit and numerical digits, except for percentage sign. Example: 5 °C, 10 kg ha^-1, 7 cm, 10 dS m^-1, 100%, 6%, etc.

10) Words with abbreviations must be written in full when they are first mentioned, then include only the abbreviation. Example: Cation exchange (EC)… EC can affect…

11) Use MS Word 2007 or later version to write the manuscript. It must be letter-size sheets, 3 cm upper margin, 2 cm lower margin, 2.5 cm on the left- and right side margins. 12-point Times New Roman font, line spacing double, continuous line number.

12) Tables and figures (i.e., graphics, drawings, diagrams, flowcharts, photographs, and maps) should be shown on separate sheets and numbered consecutively (Table 1 ..., Table n, Figure 1…Figure n, etc.).

13) It should not exceed the following maximum number of words depending on the type of article:

1. Editorial: the maximum length must be 1500 words.
2. Letters to the Editor: the maximum length must be 1500 words.
3. Research articles: the maximum length should be 5,200 words, excluding figures, tables, references, and appendices.
4. Review articles: the maximum length should be 6,000 words, excluding figures, tables, references, and appendices.

14) Citing in-text format

• Citations in the text should be in parenthesis and include the author's surname and year. Example: (Pérez 1995).
• If more than one date, they are separated by commas: Example: (Pérez 1995, 1998, 2001).
• If there are two authors, they will be separated by the conjunction and. Example: (Gil and Ortega 1993)
• If there are several works of an author published in the same year, they will be cited with a letter in alphabetical sequence of titles, adjacent to year. Example: (Gómez 2000a, 2000b, 2000c)
• For citations with three or more authors, it is necessary to mention in the text the surname of the first author and replace the others by the Latin expression "et al.", which means and others. All authors should be mentioned in the reference. Example: (García et al. 2004)
• When the author is referenced within the text, only the year is enclosed in parentheses. Example: (1) According to Castañeda (2000), ...; (2) Following the results of Poveda et al. (2018), ...
• When an indirect source is cited, the information of the cited authors and the citing authors are placed. Example: Magalhaes et al. (1979) state that ... (as cited in Gómez 2004).
• Organizations are cited by their initials; in case they do not have their full name is used. Example: (1) (FAO 2015), (2) (Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería 2019), (UN 2018).

Document sections

Title

The title should not include abbreviations, and its translation into Spanish is required. As far as possible, the title should not exceed 15 words and must accurately reflect the paper content. When the article contains scientific names of plants or animals, they should be written in italics in lower case, only the first letter of gender and classifier should be capital.

Authors

Write the authors' full name under the titles, without academic degrees or job positions, in a horizontal line according to the contribution to research and/or preparation of the article. As a footnote on the first page, write the author's institutional affiliation, country and city of residence, email, and unique author identifier ORCID.

ORCID is an alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies researchers and authors. Check: https://orcid.org

Abstract

It should not exceed 250 words written in a single paragraph. It must be written in English and Spanish. It should contain in brief the justification, aims, methods used, the most relevant results, and conclusions.

Keywords

It is required to accompany the abstract with a maximum of six keywords, translated into English, different from those used in the title. Single words, as well as compound terms of up to three words, are accepted as keywords. They must be written in lowercase, separated by commas.

They must be internationally recognized to facilitate indexing and retrieval of the article in information systems. It is recommended to use the following thesaurus for its assignation:

AGROVOC - Multilingual Thesaurus for Agriculture: http://aims.fao.org/en/agrovoc

DeCSS - Health Sciences Thesaurus: http://decses.bvsalud.org/E/homepagee.htm

Introduction

It defines the problem and reports on the state of the art on the main subject of the article, it also points out the reasons for the research and sets out its aims. It is required to accompany common names with the corresponding scientific name(s) name and abbreviation(s) of the classifier at the first mention in the text. Brands must not be mentioned but the generic or chemical name.

Materials and methods

In this section, materials (crops, livestock, agricultural or laboratory implements) used in the development of work should be clearly, concisely, and sequentially described. Aspects related to the location, preparation, and execution of experiments should also be mentioned. The selected design, the recorded variables, the changes made to data, the statistical models used, and the significance level used should be indicated. The authors must avoid detailing procedures previously published.

Results and Discussion

They must be written in a single section. There must be a coherent sequence in which the result is immediately discussed when presented in the text.

The results are the central part of the article and must be supported by appropriate statistical methods and analysis. They should be presented in a logical, objective, and a sequential way through texts, tables, and figures; the latter two supports should be easy to read, self- explanatory and always quoted in the text. The tables should be composed of a few columns and rows. Care should be taken to include the statistical significance level represented by lowercase letters of the beginning of the alphabet (a, b, c, d, ...), a single asterisk (*) for P<0.05, a double asterisk (**) for P<0.01 or triple asterisk (***) for P<0.001. Researches that do not follow a statistical design should descriptively display the information. Use subscripts to modifications, reserve superscripts for powers or footnotes in tables and figures.

The discussion must be presented along with the results. It refers to the analysis and objective interpretation of results, comparing them with those obtained in other research, or with known facts or theories on the subject. It explains the results, especially when they differ from the stated hypothesis. It emphasizes the practical or theoretical application of the obtained results and constraints encountered. The discussion also highlights contributions made in a knowledge area and the solution to the problem that justifies the research. Finally, it provides elements that allow making recommendations or launching new hypotheses. Statements that go beyond what the results may support should be avoided.

Tables and figures

Tables and figures (i.e., graphics, drawings, diagrams, flowcharts, photographs, and maps) should be shown on separate sheets and numbered consecutively (Table 1 ... Table n, Figure 1…Figure n, etc.). Texts and tables should be submitted in MS-Word® word processor. Original tables and diagrams of frequency (bar charts and pie charts) must be supplied in the manuscript file and its original MS-Excel®. Other figures, such as photographs on paper and drawings, can be sent in original or scanned and sent in digital format compression JPG (or JPEG), preferably with a resolution of 600 x 600 dpi (300 dpi at least); original photographs are suggested to be sent as slides. As a general rule, tables and figures are only accepted in black and white. Color figures will be exceptionally accepted when strictly necessary and under the discretion of the Editorial Board.

Conclusions

Conclusions are assertions arising from the obtained results. They should be consistent with the objectives stated and the methodology used. They should also express the contribution to knowledge in the studied subject area and propose guidelines for further researches.

Acknowledgments

If necessary, acknowledgments or recognitions to individuals, institutions, funding organizations and research grants that made important contributions in the design, financing, or carrying out of the research are included.

References

Only bibliographical references cited in-text are listed in the references section. Lecture notes, articles in preparation, or any other publication with limited circulation are not accepted.

To set the proper style of references, please follow these instructions:

If you use Mendeley Desktop,

Open Mendeley>View>Citation Style>More styles>Get more Styles>Download Style>Copy and paste this link https://csl.mendeley.com/styles/661909271/RFNA in the blank> clic on Download>Done.

If you use Reference Manager (Mendeley Cite)

Open Word>Mendeley Cite>Citation Settings>Change citation style>Add a custom style>Copy and paste this link https://csl.mendeley.com/styles/661909271/RFNA in the blank>Update citation style. 

• Excessive self-citation should be avoided. Bibliographic references are ordered alphabetically by the first author's surname, without numbering and with an indentation of 0.85 cm.
• To cite several publications by the same author, the increasing chronological order must be followed; if they are from the same year, the alphabetical order of the titles should be followed
• Increasing chronological order must be followed to cite several publications of the same author. The alphabetical order of titles must be followed in case they are from the same year.
• References should contain all the data allowing to its easy location. The titles of the papers, the author's surnames, and the journals' names must be referenced and cited in their original language.
• The usage of “et al” in references list will be accepted:
  Robinson A, Giménez Suarez MC, Houghton L et al (2019) Future of health insurance. N Engl J Med 965:325–329. https://doi.org/10.1007/s0010900740086

Examples:

• For books: Author(s) (year). Book title, Edition, Publisher, Place of publication. Pages consulted (pp. #-#) or total pages. Example:
  • Robinson A, Morrison J, Muehrcke P, Kimerling AJ and Guptill S (1995) Elements of cartography. Sixth edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. 674 p.
  • García Rodríguez JL, Giménez Suarez MC, Ortega Pérez E, Martín Ramos B, Calderón Guerrero C (2014) Operaciones auxiliares en repoblaciones e infraestructuras forestales. Ediciones Paraninfo SA, Madrid. 208 p.
    
    
• For book chapters: Author(s) (year) Chapter title. pages consulted (pp. # - #). In: Surnames and names of the editors or publishers (eds.). book title. Edition. Publisher, place of publication. total pages (# p.). Example:
  • Bernal H (1996) Capítulo 6: Evapotranspiración. pp. 112-125. En: Agrios G. (ed.). Fitopatología. Segunda edición. Editorial Limusa, México D.F. 400 p. 
  • Bertoft E and Blennow A (2016) Chapter 3 - Structure of potato starch. pp 57-73. In: Singh J and Kaur L. (eds.). Advances in potato chemistry and technology. Second edition. Academic Press, London. 752 p.
    
    

• For journal articles: Author(s) (year) Article title. Journal's full name volume(number): initial page-final page. Example:
  • García S, Clinton W, Arreaza L and Thibaud R (2004) Inhibitory effect of flowering and early fruit growth on leaf photosynthesis in mango. Tree Physiology 24:387-399. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/24.4.387
    
    
• For online journal articles without doi: Author(s) (year) Article title. Journal’s full name volume(number): initial page-final page. URL. Example:
  • Bajpai A, Muthukumar M, Ahmad I, Ravishankar KV, Parthasarthy VA, Sthapit B, Rao R, Verma JP and Rajan S (2015) Molecular and morphological diversity in locally grown non-commercial (heirloom) mango varieties of North India. Journal of Environmental Biology 37:221-228. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/72749
    
    
• Journal Supplement:
  • Silva AM y Carrillo NN (2004) El manglar de piruja, Golfito, Costa Rica: un modelo para su manejo. Journal of Tropical Biology 52 Suppl. 2: 195-201. https://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-77442004000600015&lng=en&nrm=iso
    
    
• Presentations in Memoirs of Congresses, seminars and symposia:
  • García M (1998) La ingeniería geotécnica y la protección del medio ambiente. pp. 65-94. En: Memorias IX Congreso Colombiano de la Ciencia del Suelo. Sociedad Colombiana de la Ciencia del Suelo, Bogotá.
  • High R (2015) Plotting LSMEANS and Differences in Generalized Linear Models with GTL. In: 2015 Midwest SAS Users Group Conference Proceedings. Midwest SAS Users Group, Omaha. 9 p. https://www.mwsug.org/proceedings/2015/PH/MWSUG-2015-PH-06.pdf

• Theses and dissertations:
  •  
  • Gómez C (2004)  Autoecología del Mortiño (Vaccinium meriodinale Swartz Ericaceae) (Tesis de maestría). Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Medellín. Colombia. 78 p.
    
    
• Citation of a citation: List the secondary source in your reference list: Example:
  • Adam M (1992) The impact of the common agricultural policy on agriculture in Greece (Doctoral dissertation). Cambridge University. Cambridge, United Kingdom. 80 p. 
  • Gómez C. 2004. Autoecología del Mortiño Vaccinium meriodinale Swartz Ericaceae) (Tesis de maestría). Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Medellín, Colombia. 78 p.
    
    
• For internet citations: Author (s) (year) Article. In: electronic publishing Name (s), the web page, portal or page name and its URL, pages consulted (pp. # - #) or total pages (# p.), date of consultation. Example:
  • Arafat Y (1996) Siembra de olivos en el desierto palestino. En: Tropical Agriculture, http://agrotropical.edunet.es. 25 p.; accessed: November 2003.
    
    
• Patents: Author(s) (Year) Title. Patent country and number. Retrieved from. Example:
  • Glenn RW (1996) Liquid personal cleansing compositions which contain soluble oils and soluble synthetic surfactants. U.S. Patent No. 6194364. Retrieved from: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6194364B1/en
    
    

• When author is an organization: Initials – Name of the Organization. Year. Title … Example:

  • ICONTEC – Instituto Colombiano de Norma Técnica. Grasas y aceites vegetales y animales método de determinación índice de acidez. NTC 218. Colombia.

  • FAOSTAT (2016) Potato production. In: FAOSTAT http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC/visualize accessed: September 2016.