Guide for authors

The Revista Chapingo Serie Ciencias Forestales y del Ambiente (RCHSCFA) is a scientific journal that aims to raise awareness of high-quality research products related to forestry, arid, temperate and tropical environments in the world. Since its beginnings in 1994, the RCHSCFA has been oriented to be a space for scientific dissemination and discussion at a national and international level among academics, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, forestry managers, and public/private entities that are interested in the forest environment. This guide shows the format requirements for the submission of contributions.

Publication language

The RCHSCFA receives written contributions in Spanish and English for its publishing.

Types of contributions

Scientific articles

They are scientific and technological contributions, original, unpublished, developed with ethical practices, derived either from a rigorous experimental process or well-founded theoretical development. The particularity of this experience is that other researchers can repeat it. It includes: title, highlights, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion (together or as separate chapters), conclusions and references; the maximum length is 6,000 words.

Critical Review Articles

Written as a product of a profound, comprehensive and updated review on a recent topic of interest related to forest and arid, temperate and tropical environments. Based on a critical analysis, where the state-of-the-art is addressed and allows to glimpse current and future research trends and, where appropriate, technology transfer. It includes: title, highlights, abstract, keywords, introduction, methods and criteria used for the search and selection of references, critical literature review, discussion, conclusions, and references; its maximum length is 6,000 words.

Scientific or Technical Notes

Must be an original research paper. It has the same objective same as the scientific article, although this type of contributions are expressed in a brief form, and does not mean that it is less critical. It includes: title, highlights, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, conclusions and references; the maximum length is 4,000 words.

Methodologies

It is a report that explains in detail the development of a research methodology within the forestry, arid, temperate and tropical environments, the modification of some existing methodology, or the preliminary results of its application. It includes: title, highlights, abstract, keywords, introduction, critical literature review, discussion, conclusions, and references; the maximum length is 4,000 words.

Topics

The RCHSCFA considers those contributions for editorial and peer-review and then for subsequent publication, the texts that within their content contributes to the research of forest environments (arid, temperate and tropical), and that are related to one of the following subject matters:

Submission of manuscript

The submission process is carried out through the Editorial Manager® (EM) platform (http://www.editorialmanager.com/rchscfa/default.aspx). The monitoring of the review process will be done by the EM manager and follow-up should be strictly done by the corresponding author.

The documents required to start the reception process includes:

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  Identification sheet or FrontPage: It includes the title of the contribution, section to which the document corresponds, forms of author (names), institutional affiliation, country and ORCID number of all the authors. The corresponding requirements are described in the format section.
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  Submission letter, document in which the order of the authors and full name, institutional affiliation, address, telephone, email, ORCID number, and handwritten signature of each one must be clearly indicated. In this, the authors expressly state that their contribution is the product of original research, which is unpublished, that is not being simultaneously submitted to another journal and that has not been previously published in another journal, platform or another language. A contribution will be considered as "previously published" when it is published proceedings of a scientific or any other event, which has an ISSN or ISBN. Within this letter, the authors must indicate if there was a conflict of interest.
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  Text of the contribution: It contains all the characteristics indicated in the " Guide for Author’s," mentioned in the " Structure of contributions" section except for the forms of the author (names) and their institutional affiliation.
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  Transfer of Rights letter: this can be downloaded from the Journals website, and must be sent immediately, once the contribution has been accepted; the signature of all the authors must be included.

Reception notice of the manuscrip

Upon receiving the application form, the EM system sends a letter acknowledging its reception; then, the contribution will be reviewed according to the topic and based on the requirements described in this guide; likewise, the duplication level of its content will be verified with specialized computer packages. If all requirements are met, a password will be assigned and the peer review process will be initiated, which will be advised via email by the EM manager.

Structure of Manuscript

Title
It must be written in English and Spanish with a maximum of 140 characters, with the first letter in upper case and the rest in lower case, unless the grammar rules indicate otherwise. If biological organisms are mentioned in the title that is not common in the agronomic field, they must be written according to the scientific norm. If widely-known species are mentioned, the scientific name is written as additional keywords and not in the title.

Authors, affiliation and institutional address
The name (s) of the authors must be written after the title; if they are more than one, they must be separated by a comma (,). The name must start with the first name (s), followed by surnames, which in the case of two must be linked by a hyphen without spaces. The ORCID must be added in parentheses followed by their name. Academic degrees must not be mentioned. Following the author's names, their institutional affiliation and address are written for each author. The names should be written in the original language of the institution and with its full address. In the case of authors with a different affiliation, a numerical superscript after each name is used to identify their data. The corresponding author is identified by the superscript* and in parentheses (corresponding author), along with their email address and telephone number.

Highlights
This section consists of four short core ideas that indicate the importance of the contribution and encourage people to read more.

Abstract
It is a synthesis in a single paragraph with a maximum of 250 words in the case of critical reviews and articles; 150 words for reviews, scientific or technological notes, and methodologies. In this section, they should show the most critical aspects of the contribution. It includes: Introduction, objectives, materials and methods, results and discussion and conclusions. The abstract must be written in the original language of the contribution.

Keywords
It is a list of five simple or compound words written in English and Spanish that are not included in the title, indicating the topics to be addressed, in a general way, the content of the contribution. These must be in a separate paragraph and aligned to the left after the abstract. If the scientific name of the species (s) under study was not written in the title, it should be included at the beginning of this list. They must be written after the abstract, in the left margin, with lower case letters, separated by semicolons.

Graphic Abstract (optional)
This allows the reader to immediately visualize the general structure of the contribution, where the main scientific contributions obtained in the study stands out, visual aids will be preferred. The image format will correspond to the figures mentioned in this guide.

Introduction
It reflects the context and importance of the research problem, as well as the "state-of-the-art" of the topic in question. It includes a study background (with literature references), the relevance of the topic, the originality and the relevance of the contribution to generate a scientific discussion; It must also include the hypotheses of the study. The objectives are written at the end of this section, which must specify and clearly define the purpose and scope of the study carried out. They must be the same as those stated in the abstract and must be congruent with the conclusions.

Materials and methods
The most relevant and exclusive work are described, enabling other researchers to both understand how the research was conducted and, in turn, duplicate and corroborate it. It includes: study location and dates, factors and levels under study, treatment design, experimental unit and design, variables evaluated together with their units and measuring methods, materials, equipment (brand and model) and techniques employed, handling of the experiment, procedures and statistical analysis techniques. If the methodologies used require a lengthy description which can be found in a manual or specialized publication, the corresponding citation should be made. If changes are made to these generalized methods, they must be stated.

Results
They include the results obtained or facts observed, derived from the application the methodology, in an orderly, complete and concise manner. Tables and figures (drawings, graphics, photographs, among others) must be submitted; they must be understood on their own without having to refer to the text. They must be attached at the end of the text; where they should be inserted in the text must be indicated. It is necessary to incorporate the elements derived from the statistical analysis; therefore, reference needs to be made to the existence or lack thereof of statistical differences, and the extent of risk assumed by the researcher in making such statements. If appropriate and relevant, the interactions between factors under study must be construed coherently. In addition to measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion such as the coefficient of variation or standard error should be included when relevant. The reason for the results obtained and their relationship to the hypothesis and objectives must be explained, supported by the comparison of results and reflections present in the scientific literature related to the topic. Each relevant result will be related to a discussion. Do not repeat information concerning materials and methods and avoid a literature review-type approach. This section may be submitted in two separate parts; if so, avoid repetitions.

Conclusions
This section consists of statements derived from the discussion of the results obtained in the study itself, according to the formulated hypotheses and research objectives as well as with the methodology used. They must be written in a brief, concise and precise manner, the reason or explanation of said affirmation, should not exceed 150 words and they should not be a compilation of results, nor be a summary, nor exceed the scope of the investigation.

Acknowledgement
They are a way of recognizing individuals, institutions, funds and research grants, among others, that in some way have supported or contributed in a mayor way in the development of the study. They will be placed once the contribution has been accepted.

Conflicts of interest statement
This consists of the rapid signaling, indicating that if during the research process a conflict of interests had arisen, and if so, reference must be made to the established agreements.

References
The references used in the contribution should be presented both in the text and in the bibliographic references section according to APA ed. 7 format. For the correct structuring of the references APA References Guide, 7 is should to be used. They must all include their DOI (Data Object Identifier: www.doi.org), or in its absence, the electronic address where the original citation can be consulted. Theses, brochures, conference proceedings, and any other publication of limited circulation are not allowed as references. Internet citation is not permitted, except those related to statistics and yearbooks from official bodies.

Format and Structure

General information The text must be written with MS Word 2016 text processor, with 1.5-line spacing; 2.5-cm margins on all four sides, every page must be numbered consecutively, in the bottom margin, use Arial, size 12-font and lines must be numbered continuously on the left margin throughout the text except for tables and figures.

Manuscript Length

• 6,000 words for scientific articles and critical review articles
• 4,000 words for methodologies, scientific and technological notes

Names The common names of elements, substances, plants, animals and things, should be written in lower case. The proper names must be written in lower case, except for of their initial(s). Product brands, should not be used, but rather their generic or chemical name.
Chemical names (those in which the chemical structure of a substance is established) should be written according to the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) nomenclature (http://www.iupac.org/). The scientific names will accompany, in parentheses, the common names of plants and animals the first time they are mentioned; then they must be omitted. They will be written with italics and will consist of a generic epithet (gender), specific epithet (species) and surname (s) of the (s), but not that of the classifier (s). They will be written in lowercase except for the initial of the genre, the surnames of the classifiers and the names of the cultivars that are annexed to the scientific name.

Mathematical formulas. The mathematical formulas must be elaborated with the Word equation editor in Arial, 10 - point font.

Tables and figures The title is written above the table, which should be short and precise, starting with the word "Table”, the initial letter in capital letters, followed by consecutive Arabic numeral that corresponds to its order of appearance in the text. The tables should only have three main horizontal lines: above or at the start of the table, below the column header and below the table itself; that is, at the bottom thereof, if it is required to separate another variable or statistics as minimum significant difference or coefficient of variation, dashed lines may be used. For no reason should vertical lines be inserted; its use is not allowed. The tables must be constructed in Word, without using tabs or lines made with the drawing tool.

The figures (graphics or images) must be attached separately with the following characteristics: 300 ppi resolution; 945 x 945-pixel size in JPG or TIFF format; if text is included use Arial, 8-point font, complete and legible. The authors are responsible for all the images used in the contribution and must have the corresponding licenses for their reuse.

It should be considered that figures can be reduced to half size. All figures must be grouped and must not contain letters, symbols, and lines placed with the drawing tool; if there is a need to do this, the objects should be grouped and saved as an image file at a minimum resolution of 300 ppi. The legend is placed at the bottom of the figure the word "Figure" in capital letters, followed by the Arabic numeral corresponding in the sequence and text containing the necessary information to understand by itself without having to refer to the text. If applicable, the species with which the study was conducted must be indicated. The title of the figure should be included as text and should not be part of the figure (they must be independent). The body of the figure includes the necessary numbers and symbols whose meaning must go in a box, in a corner, without overlapping other lines, areas or bars. Their standard errors must accompany Points, lines or bars representing means in the body of the graph. Also, it must have all the information necessary for a clear understanding of the figure’s purpose.

Graphical abstract

Authors whose contributions are accepted will be asked to submit a graphical abstract, which consists of a visual image that represents the central message described in the manuscript. 

The author should consider some criteria for the design of the graphical abstract, such as following a reading logic from top to bottom and from left to right with the inclusion of elements such as arrows, lines or color gradients that facilitate this visual tour.

During the style correction process of the article, the editorial team will request the graphical abstract from the authors, who should send it as a separate file with the following characteristics:

Image size: The dimensions should respect a minimum of 1366 x 768 pixels (width x height) with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. If the image sent is larger, it will be necessary to maintain a 5:2 ratio. 

Typography: We recommend using Arial with font size large enough to be read clearly on the screen.

File type: Suggested file types are PDF, EPS, MS Word or MS Power Point.

Publication fee

Contributions accepted for publication are subject to a recovery fee of $200 USD to cover part of the expenses of the publication process (administrative management, style correction, translation, design and metadata marking). Deposits are made to Banco Santander S. A., account 65501084813 in the name of the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (for national deposits CLABE: 014180655010848131 and SWIFT: 021000021, Beneficiary Bank: BMSXMXMM, for international deposits).

In certain cases, the Institutional Editorial Committee may waive the recovery fee -upon request and justification- for some contributions, especially from authors assigned to institutions in developing countries.

There is no charge for the submission of manuscripts.