Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Revista de divulgación científica iBIO only publishes popular science articles. Scientific dissemination is a form of scientific communication aimed at a general public (non-specialized public, which includes high school students and undergraduate students in the case of our magazine). This differs from research articles in that the latter focuses on communicating scientific advances to peers (specialized audiences).

Works written in Spanish or English. Only original and review articles are published, as long as their objective is dissemination of knowledge to an un-specialized public and they comply with the guidelines described below:

The works published in Revista de divulgación científica iBIO must follow the  Collaboration rules, which explain in detail the description of each item requested in the submissions. In summary, these must contain in the following order:

A. Cover letter. This should include the following points

1. Title of the manuscript (12 words max): Without technicalities or contractions*. In Spanish and English.
2. Author(s): Names and surnames of each author (if you use two surnames to identify your publications, place them joined by a hyphen) accompanied by their institutional affiliation. A maximum of 3 authors are accepted for long sections, and 2 for short sections**. Include the email address of the corresponding author.
3. Abstract: Up to 100 words. In Spanish and in English.
4. Keywords (3 to 5 keywords that describe the content of the manuscript). In Spanish and English.
5. Suggest the degree of specialization required by the audience to whom the manuscript is directed: Baccalaureate, Bachelor's Degree or Postgraduate.

B. Manuscript in Word format. This will be the document to be shared with the reviewers, so it must not contain information about the authors. The document must contain the following points:

1. Manuscript title (Up to 12 words): Without technicalities or contractions*. In Spanish and English.
2. Abstract: Up to 100 words. In Spanish and English.
3. Keywords (3 keywords that describe the content of the manuscript). In Spanish and English.
4. Suggest the degree of specialization required by the audience to whom the manuscript is directed: Baccalaureate, Bachelor's Degree, Postgraduate.
5. Text***: According to the available sections described below. Minimum 9,000 and maximum 10,000 total characters for long sections. Minimum 4,500 and maximum 5,000 total characters for short sections. Total character count includes spaces. The length of the text does not include references, titles, author information, keywords, abstract or figure captions. It must incorporate the tables and figures necessary for its understanding in the appropriate order. It must contain at least 1 image cited in the text, without copyright or referenced, that support the understanding of your manuscript. Tables must be accompanied by a title and figures by their corresponding figure captions. 
6. References: Minimum 3 and maximum 7 references. In-text citations should be placed with a number in square brackets, for example: [1]. At the end of the text, the bibliography must be written in a numbered list between brackets, in APA format and including the DOI identifier. More detailed examples for each type of source are given below in the section "References".

C. Figures. This includes the figures cited in the document, plus 1 additional image that can be used as the cover of the article once published. All of the above must be sent as separate files in PNG, JPG or JPEG format, minimum 300 ppi. 

*Revista de divulgación científica iBIO reserves the right to modify the title and subtitle of the submitted manuscripts in order to facilitate their understanding.

**During the review process it is not possible to add or remove authors from a manuscript. Any change with respect to the authors originally registered during the submission of the manuscript must be justified in a letter addressed to the editor, signed by all those involved, leaving acceptance of the change for their consideration. The editor will consider situations where a new author's contribution is absolutely necessary due to reviewer requests. Under no circumstances may the number of authors be greater than 3 for long sections and 2 for short sections.

***Revista de divulgación científica iBIO reserves the right to correct the style of the manuscripts received in order to facilitate their reading and understanding.

The works must be written following the ethics code. In addition, they must be written in simple language, with the target audience being high school and undergraduate students, both in scientific and non-scientific areas. It is suggested not to use technical terms and define in the text any concept that may be difficult for non-specialized audiences to understand (at least the first time it is mentioned in the text). The language and writing are intended to make scientific knowledge accessible to the non-specialized public. For this purpose, examples close to the reader can be used, for example anecdotes or daily actions, or inviting reflection by asking questions or debunking myths. Suggestions are not requirements to be published.

It is recommended not to use more than one font when writing the text. If you want to emphasize an idea, use bold, italics, and even underlined formats instead of using different fonts.

Authorship criteria

The author is considered to be the person who has contributed to the manuscript in the following ways:

1. Conception and design of content, bibliographic review, acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data.
2. Writing and critical review of the work.
3. Final approval of the content submitted to the magazine.
4. Take responsibility for ensuring that the work has been written with scientific rigor and integrity.

Any other person who has contributed to the submitted manuscript, but does not meet the four previous criteria, cannot be considered an author but must be acknowledged through the Acknowledgments section. This section is placed at the end of the body of the article and before the references.

The corresponding author is the one who assumes the main responsibility for communication with the journal during the editorial flow of his manuscript. Furthermore, he or she is responsible for verifying that all documentation is complete before sending the document, although its preparation and correction is the responsibility of all authors. The corresponding author must be available for contact throughout the processing time of his or her manuscript and must respond promptly to editorial inquiries. Likewise, the corresponding author must be available for any query regarding their article once published, both by the journal's editorial group and by the readers of their publication.

Plagarism and use of Artificial Intelligence

All manuscripts received will be submitted to an anti-plagiarism and anti-artificial intelligence reviewer (iThenticate). Plagiarism and writing articles through artificial intelligence are reasons for rejection of a manuscript, regardless of the stage of the editorial flow in which it is discovered. The use of artificial intelligence is only admissible to correct spelling and style or improve writing. The use of artificial intelligence for writing assistance should be reported in a section at the end of the manuscript with the title Statement on the use of artificial intelligence.

References

• Articles:

Reyes, A., López-Bueno, E., Sámano. R. A. (2023). Cómo citar para la Revista de divulgación científica iBIO. Citation format Journal 5(2), 24. https://doi.org/10.1016/ABCDE

• Book chapters:

Reyes, A., López-Bueno, E., Sámano. R. A. (2023). Cómo citar para la Revista de divulgación científica iBIO. En Cruz-Rueda, M. y Bautista, R. (eds.): Citando para las revistas científicas (pp. 65-78). Universal Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/ABCDE 

• Books:

Reyes, A., López-Bueno, E., Sámano. R. A. (2023). Cómo citar para la Revista de divulgación científica iBIO. Editorial Universal. https://doi.org/10.1016/ABCDE

• Thesis:

Sámano. R. A. (2023). Estudio de las citas de la Revista de divulgación científica iBIO. Tesis de Maestría en Ciencias en Biotecnología, Instituto Superior de Biotecnología, México.

• Internet:

Bautista, R. (2023). Escritura de citas en formato APA. Disponible desde: www.citasdesdeinternet.com/archive/2023 /ABCDE.html. Consultado: 24 de julio, 2024.

• Congress meeting:

López-Bueno, E. (2023). ¿Cómo citar trabajos científicos?. Presentación no. XV36. 12-16 de junio. Ciudad de México: Institute of Biotechnology Annual Meeting.

Article processing and publishing charges

The journal does not charge fees at any time from submission to publication of the manuscripts received. Nevertheless, any cash donation is received via electronic transfer or Paypal. For more information about how donations are used, visit https://revistaibio.com/ojs33/index.php/main/donations.

Phases of the manuscript review process

The entire process will be conducted in compliance with the ethics code published by Revista de divulgación científica iBIO. Once the manuscript is received, it will be subjected to a plagiarism analysis using the ithenticate software (www.ithenticate.com). If paragraphs are found identical to already published material, the manuscript will be rejected, although this does not prevent the authors from resubmitting their corrected manuscript. Once this first filter has been passed, a section editor will be assigned who will be in charge of conducting the academic peer review process. Once the reviewers' comments are received, the section editor will make a decision, which will be communicated to the corresponding author. If the manuscript requires major corrections, it will be subjected to a new peer review process. While when only minor corrections are required, the section editor will evaluate whether or not the manuscript satisfactorily complies with the requested changes. Authors will have a maximum of two weeks to send the corrected version of their work so that it will be considered for immediate publication. If the time exceeds these two weeks, the manuscript will be postponed to the next edition. The decision to reject a job is final and unappealable. If the manuscript is approved, galley proofs of the manuscript are prepared. The galleys will be sent to the authors for review, who will have a maximum period of 72 hours to send their response. Once the galley proofs have been corrected, the work will be published. Each volume of the magazine is put into circulation in the last 5 days of validity of the previous volume.

Peer review

Every manuscript submitted to the Revista de divulgación científica iBIO, with the exception of those in the "¿Y ahora qué?" section, will be peer reviewed, seeking at least two double-blind opinions on the material under consideration. The editor in charge of the manuscript in question will be responsible for selecting the reviewers, who must be external to the institution(s) of the author(s) of the manuscript. These reviewers will be consolidated experts in the field of knowledge of the manuscript and will have a maximum period of three weeks to submit their review.

The entire review process will be conducted in compliance with the ethics code published by Revista de divulgación científica iBIO.

The manuscripts of the section "¿Y ahora qué?" will be subject to internal review by members of the journal's editorial board.

Controversy cases 

Peer review is considered a suggestion and not a determining factor in the editorial decision process. That is, the opinions of the reviewers help the editorial committee make a decision about the manuscript. In the event that there are contradictory opinions among the reviewers, the section editor can discuss the case in the plenary session of the editorial committee to make a collegiate decision. This plenary session meets regularly to evaluate the performance of the journal's editorial work and resolve cases of controversy.

Possible results of the editorial process

After the evaluation process, the possible editorial decisions are as follows:

• Rejected manuscript.
• The manuscript requires major revisions.
• The manuscript requires minor revisions.
• The manuscript is acceptable for publication.

Post-publication debate, corrections, and retractions

• Corrections by the authors: If the authors detect inconsistencies, errors or inaccuracies of relevance to the understanding of the published work, they must notify the editor-in-chief. To proceed with the correction, the manuscript will be evaluated by the editorial committee and, if necessary, it will be sent for peer evaluation. The corrected work will be published at the end of the next issue of the journal and a link to this correction will be included at the end of the original publication.
• External comments to the authors: Any reader of the magazine can write to the editor-in-chief of the magazine discussing the assertions contained in published texts. In this case, the editorial board may carry out a peer review process and the authors will have the right of reply, which may also be subject to peer review.
• Retraction of a work: This case applies when for sufficiently justified reasons the editorial committee decides to withdraw a previously published work. This may occur as a result of a collegiate editorial decision, at the express request of the authors or as a result of the two previous points. If the work is removed, after written notification to the authors, the explanatory note will be published in the next issue of the journal and the corresponding file will be removed from the journal's page.

The sections available for publication in the journal are the following