DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC DISSEMINATION AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION SUB-DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH Submission guidelines
Instructions for authors
“CienciAcierta” is a scientific, technological and humanistic publication edited by the Research and Postgraduate Department of the Autonomous University of Coahuila. It is a multidisciplinary electronic journal published quarterly (January-March, April-June, September-December). Its aim is to disseminate the advancement of knowledge in basic and applied sciences, culture, architecture and history, focusing mainly on subjects related to the following areas:
- Physics, Mathematics and Earth Sciences
- Biology and Chemistry
- Medicine and Health Sciences
- Humanities and Behavioral Sciences
- Social and Economic Sciences
- Biotechnology and Agricultural Sciences
- Engineering and Industry
The journal CienciAcierta publishes original bibliographic reviews, articles and scientific notes in Spanish and English, written by authors attached to national and international educational institutions or research centers, in open access electronic format.
All material/collaboration submitted must comply with the following rules:
1.- Articles must have a minimum length of 6 pages including images, tables and figures. The text should be sent as an electronic file in Word and PDF format. It is recommended to attach illustrative images, as well as at least one image for the cover of the article that refers to the content. These images may be sent as JPG, TIFF, PNG files with their respective reference data (source if not self-made), they must be duly referenced by adding caption and credit, as well as the URL address from which they were obtained.
All information should be contained in the text avoiding footnotes, annexes or appendices.
2.- The first page must include the area to which the content of the material corresponds, the title of the paper, which should be concise and reflect the subject of the article in Spanish as well as in English, the full names of the authors with their two surnames. The number of authors in the manuscript should be congruent with the quality and quantity of work done and presented. An unjustifiable excess of authors is cause of rejection. It is preferable that the authors of the manuscript are not all from the same institution (workplace / university) to avoid editorial inbreeding and not exceed the maximum allowed percentage of authors belonging to the same university.
In correlation with author´s names mediated by Arabic numbers, the list of the names of institutions to which they are affiliated with their full postal address and institutional e-mail address is annexed. The name of the corresponding authors must be provided, as well as their email address, phone number (mobile) with area code for the location, available ORCID ID.
3.- On the second page of the article, Abstract of the material in both Spanish and English, as well as keywords in both languages (minimum three) must be included.
4.- Articles must be accompanied by a letter/document specifying that the material is original and unpublished and that it has not been published or under review for publication elsewhere. As evidence of originality, a report of similarity analysis carried out by anti-plagiarism software (e.g. plagiarismdetector, DupliChecker, Tutnitin writechecker, Plagiarism Checker by Grammarly, etc.) must be attached.
In this letter the authors should make a declaration that there are no conflicts of interest in the study and published article that could influence the results presented in their manuscript, as well as the discussion of the results and the reached conclusions.
A conflict of interest may be associated with the funding received from the development of the study and may condition the publication and interpretation of the results obtained, whether positive or negative. A conflict of interest also appears when the author or co-authors have a problem in a work or personal relationship or with companies, institutions or groups that may be directly affected if the results are published.
The authors should suggest at least three possible reviewers including name, grade and e-mail address, who should not belong to the participating author´s institutions.
All material upon being received at CienciAcierta will be subjected to a review process in a similarity detection system and depending on the result, the author will be notified if the evaluation process continues or will be subject to correction by the author.
5.- Manuscripts should be sent to: carlos.robledo@uadec.edu.mx, divulgaciondip@uadec.edu.mx addressed to the editorial board of the journal CienciAcierta.
6.- Manuscript structure
– General Information
The manuscript should be written in New Times Roman 12-point font, doble spaced, on letter-sized sheets, numbered continuously, using Word processing format, with a margin of 2.5 centimeters on all four sides.
The manuscript should be written in an impersonally. It is important to add acknowledgements at the end of the text (before references) mentioning sources of funding and other support.
If figures, tables, images or photographs are included, they should be referenced in the text (in capital letters, e.g. Figure 1 or Table 1), preferably in color, and located in the text near the point where they are mentioned. Figure legends will be written independently and will be placed below each figure. Table captions are placed above the corresponding table.
If maps are used, they must specify coordinates, indicating the area or place of study, in the following format: 98°12´15´´W or 45°23´10´´N. In the case of a polygon, the extreme upper left and extreme lover right coordinates will be indicated. Altitudes above sea level shall be given in meters.
– Article and scientific notes structure
This type of contributions will include the sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion (may appear independently) Conclusions, Acknowledgements (if necessary) and References.
In the introduction, a brief review of the current scientific literature should justify the importance of the study carried out and conclude with the goals of the study.
The Materials and Methods section should describe sufficient information to allow the study to be repeated under similar conditions. This section should include the experimental design, statistical method, the main methods of analysis and reference the sources from which they were obtained or modified. If the text includes mention of laboratory equipment, its brand, model and origin (city and country) must be included.
The units of any scientific or laboratory data and their abbreviation should follow the international system described at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html.
In the case of studies in the health area, express mention should be made of the ethics committee that approved the research protocol and, in the case of studies involving human beings, explicit written informed consent shall be obtained from them. All procedures carried out on humans must comply with the ethical standards on human experimentation of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki.
In the case of assays with animals, the methods section should clearly state that appropriate measures were implemented to minimize their pain and discomfort. In case experimental animals are used, the methods section shall contain a statement identifying the ethics review committee that ensured the approval of the methodology of the work. If animals owned by individuals or clients are used in clinical trials, the informed consent of the owner must have been obtained.
Experiments and clinical assays must be conducted in accordance with the guidelines established by the National Institutes of Health (NHI) in the USA, and regarding the care and use of animals for experimental procedures, with the European Community Council Directives of November 24, 1986 (86/609/EEC), and in accordance with national and local laws and regulations.
Editors reserve the right to reject papers where there is any doubt as to whether proper permission has been obtained or appropriate procedures have been followed.
The research results and their discussion must be clearly presented and supported by recent scientific literature that demonstrates that the generated knowledge is new or innovative, so it is necessary that at least 40% of the citations are from the past five years.
The conclusions should highlight the main achievement(s) in a concrete and clear manner, avoiding repeating descriptions and discussions of presented results.
– Literature review structure
The text of the manuscript of this type of contribution must be supported by an extensive literature review that allows the reader to deepen their knowledge of the topic being described. This type of article must contain the Introduction that justifies the relevance of the updated review, concluding the text with the objective of the study. As a review it must be current, it is expected to include more than 40% articles published in the last five years. The content will be divided into sections in accordance with the developed topic. A conclusions section will be included before the references section. Abstract in both languages must be written, as well as keywords.
– References in the text
It is important to ensure that all citations that appear in the text of the manuscript are found in the bibliographical references section and vice versa, and that the names of the cited authors and the dates match the list of references. Authors are responsible for the correct wording of the references in their article or review.
The presentation of citations in the text includes the use of parentheses and the author’s surname, the year of publication, for example: (Aguilar, 2016) or in case of two authors (Aguilar and Rodríguez, 2017). To cite the papers with more than two authors, use Martinez et al. (2016) or (Martinez et al., 2016), as appropriate. In the case of more than one reference, they should be separated by a semicolon (Aguilar and Martinez, 2015; Martinez et al., 2016). In the case of two references from the same first author and the same year of publication, lowercase letters should be used, according to the alphabet (Rodriguez et al., 2016a; 2016b).
In case of citing a corporate author source, such as institutions or organizations, use the abbreviation and the meaning of the acronym the first time it appears in the text, e. g. “according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018)”, and subsequently only include the acronym (WHO, 2018)
The texts of legal materials are cited as follows: “The Mexican Constitution of the United Mexican States (2013), Article 12., states that “(cited text is presented in inverted commas).
Citing materials that are difficult to consult should be avoided.
– References: the cited bibliography should be attached at the end of the article based on the APA referencing system with the following specifications:
Scientific Articles
Moldovan, B., Luminiţa, D., Achim, M., Clichici, S. & Filip, A. (2016). A green approach to Phyto mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Sambucus nigra L. fruits extract and their antioxidant activity. Journal of Molecular Liquids. 221: 271–278. DOI: 23456.
Books:
Brown, T.L., LeMay, H. E. & Bursten, B.E. (2004). Química: La ciencia Central. (Quinta edición). México: Ed. Prentice-Hall Hispanoamerica S.A. 1152 Pp.
Newspaper articles:
Reuters (2018). “Trump acusa al FBI de politizar investigaciones”, el Milenio. February 2, 2018, D15.
Book Chapters:
Salazar, A., Carcavilla, L. & Diéz-Herrero, A. (2014). Geomorphological heritage and conservation in Spain. In F. Gutiérrez and M. Gutiérrez (Eds.), Landscapes and landforms of Spain (pp. 307-318). Madrid: Springer, Netherlands.
Interviews:
Nacif, B. (2018). Presidente of the Prerogatives Comission of the National Electoral Institute (INE) Ciudad de México, México.
E-Books Chapters:
Smith, K. (2013). Behaviorism. In B. T. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [On Line]. Available in: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/edu/. Date of consultation: October 12, 2014.
Articles from internet – only – e-journals:
González-Enríquez, C. (2012). La emigración desde España, una migración de retorno, en Revista ARI. [On-Line]. Disponible en: http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/ rielcano/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_es/zonas_es/ari4-2012. Date of consultation: Agosto 6, 2015.
Websites, Pages and e-books:
WHO, World Health Organization (2014). Report on global status on violence prevention Geneva, Switzerland, in WHO publications. [On-Line]. Available at: http://oig.cepal.org/sites/default/files/informe_sobre_la_situacion_mundial_de_la_prevencion_de_la_violencia.pdf. Date of consultation: February 5, 2018.
7.- The department of Dissemination and Digital Communication will acknowledge receipt of the material. In case of being accepted, the authors will be informed by email of the publication date.
8.- Evaluation process
The received manuscripts will be submitted to an evaluation process that is developed in stages. In a first stage, the manuscript will be submitted to a preliminary evaluation by the Technical Committee of the journal to verify that it meets the thematic and format requirements, and analyze the level of similarity.
Once the general considerations for publication have been met, the manuscript will be assigned to the area editor, who will determine the relevance of the manuscript (sometimes requiring a second review). The manuscripts approved for review will be referred by at least three external academic reviewers, experts in the subject of interest, who will determine the acceptance or rejection of the article, which will be based on the academic and scientific analysis of the material. In case of discrepancy in the results of the evaluation by different reviewers, the manuscript will be sent to another referee (previously suggested by the authors), whose decision will define the publication. Manuscripts are subjected to a double-blind evaluation process, in which the authors do not know the evaluators or vice versa. The result of the academic review process is final.
The authors will have 30 business days as established to attend the reviewer’s comments, depending on the requested changes; if the changes are not made in time, the manuscript will be rejected.
For manuscripts that are conditioned to make minor changes for acceptance, the author will have a maximum period of two weeks to attend to them, which must be marked in red. In addition, a letter must be sent to the reviewers with the answers to each of made observations and modifications, as well as the same document in Microsoft Word processor without notification of changes. If no response is received, the manuscript will be rejected.
In case the authors require more time for the answer in the different stages of the process, they must request it to the editor of the journal.
Authors must attend to each of the observations and suggestions that are indicated during the reviews, marking in red the changes made to the last manuscript (in the same word processor), sending the response for each of the reviewers motioning modifications made to the final manuscript. Corrected text without color must also be sent to Editor.
9.- Publishing Ethics
The authors will declare in writing to the journal CienciAcierta that their manuscript is unpublished and original, and that it represents the result of the intellectual work of the authors who authorize its publication in the CienciAcierta and undertake not to submit it for consideration in other journals while it is in evaluation process in the CienciAcierta, as well as when it is accepted and published.
All the members of the Editorial Board of the journal CienciAcierta agree with the principle of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). Plagiarism is neither accepted or tolerated. Therefore, all the papers submitted to the journal will be reviewed to reveal the level of similarity with previously published articles and thus avoid intentional or accidental plagiarism (which includes the use of copies of text or results from other sources without granting the corresponding credits), as well as self-plagiarism (reproduction of information from the same study previously published by the same authors, without showing the appropriate references).
If the manuscript is characterized by a relevant level of similarity to other published articles, it will be rejected, and the authors will be penalized with non-acceptance of future material to be considered as a publication in the journal
10.- Copyright
The authors will transfer the ownership of the copyright to the journal CienciAcierta, which allows their manuscript to be disclosed, published, edited by any means, for cultural and scientific purposes only, for dissemination and for non-profit purposes.
11.- Open-access policy
The journal CienciAcierta considers the open-access policy, it allows free download of the complete content of their contribution in digital format from its electronic portal. It also authorizes the authors to place the article in the format published by the journal on their personal website, or in an open access repository, to distribute copies of the published article in electronic or printed format to whom they deem convenient, and to reuse part of it or the entire article in his future articles or books, granting the corresponding credits.
Last Update december, 2021