Tropicultura
Open Access
ISSN 0771-3312 eISSN 2295-8010
Instructions to authors
Publication languages
Tropicultura publishes articles in English, Spanish, French and Dutch. Summaries are published in English and French (Spanish or Dutch, if the manuscripts are submitted in these languages).
Content of manuscripts
Priority is given to articles that focus on the widest possible range of original subjects. In other words, their content concentrates mainly on methodological aspects, which can be applied to many different environments and regions of the world.
Major emphasis is placed on the reliability of any information that is published, such as the number of test repetitions, in terms of time and space, which form the basis of the data obtained from the results of experiments.
Manuscripts must have not been previously published or simultaneously submitted to another scientific journal for publication.
Submission procedure
Manuscripts must be sent to the editor-in-chief by post, in triplicate, in the form of a paper document, or preferably directly to the electronic mail address of the editorial office as file attachments.
If possible, after the article is approved for publication, the author must provide his final proofread and revised version in electronic format. It is recommended that Word is used, but ASCII or RTF files are also acceptable.
Style
Manuscripts must be printed on single sides, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 11), with a 2.5 cm margin around the printed area. They should include a maximum of twenty pages of text (not including the cover page).
The cover page must include the title, short title (maximum of 55 characters), the authors’ full names, together with their qualifications, position, nationalities, full work/e-mail addresses and any acknowledgements. The corresponding author’s name must be marked with a "*" and his address should include a telephone number.
The pages following the cover page must comprise:
(i) the summaries (max. 200 words) in the language of the manuscript and in English, preceded by a translation of the title and followed by a maximum of six key words in each of the two languages;
(ii) the body of the text;
(iii) the bibliography;
(iv) tables, which should be numbered using Arabic numerals;
(v) illustrations, which must be clearly marked with a number on the reverse, if they are not sent electronically;
(vi) table headings and illustrations.
All pages must be numbered consecutively.
The text must be divided into longer chapters (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions), but must not be subdivided into more than two levels (one single level following the chapters). The chapter headings and paragraph subtitles must be very concise and should never be underlined.
The references must be quoted in the text, using numbers between brackets. If several references are quoted, their numbers should be indicated in increasing order.
Images must be of a professional standard. Photographs must be unmounted, with clear contrast on glossy paper. Photos provided as .jpg files must be of good quality, with a minimum of 300 pixels per inch (dpi).
Excel files must be provided, containing the relevant table and chart data, when the manuscript is submitted.
Bibliographical references must be listed in alphabetical order, according to the authors’ names and in chronological order for individual authors.
They must be numbered consecutively, beginning with “1”.
Bibliographical references must be quoted in the text in the form of numbers.
The number of bibliographical references must not exceed fifty.
In the case of periodical articles, references must include the authors’ surnames, followed by their initials, year of publication, full title of the article in its original language, the name of the periodical, with the volume number underlined and the first and last page numbers separated by a hyphen
Example: Poste G., 1972, Mechanisms of virus induced cell fusion. Int. Rev. Cytol. 33, 157-222.
For monographs, the following details are essential: the authors’ names followed by their initials, year of publication, full title of the monograph, the editor’s name, place of publication, first and last page of the chapter quoted and total number of pages.
Conference minutes should be treated in the same way as monographs. In addition, the location, date of the meeting and scientific editor(s) should be mentioned.
Example: Korbach M.M. & Ziger R.S., 1972, Heterozygote detection in Tay-Sachs disease: a prototype community screening program for the prevention of recessive genetic disorders pp 613-632, in: B.W. Volks & S.M. Aronson (Editors), Sphingolipids and allied disorders, Plenum, New York, 205 p.
Permission rights
By submitting their articles, the relevant authors grant Tropicultura non‐exclusive permission to publish their work with open access. The author retains the copyright.
Permission for publication
In order to ensure that the manuscript is original and the supervisory organisations of the authors have agreed to its publication, the main author is asked to sign a sworn declaration (declaration available here).
Contribution to publishing costs
According to the chosen payment term, authors are required to contribute 200, 300 or 500 Euros towards the cost of publishing their articles. When articles are submitted, the relevant author must agree to these costs (declaration available here). This contribution must be paid when the manuscript is accepted for publication.
Plagiarism detector
All manuscripts are subjected to a plagiarism test before they are sent to readers.
Review process and double blind peer review
The Tropicultura reading committee is made up of volunteer reviewers from the international scientific community, who specialise in all fields linked to rural development and sustainable management of the environment in other countries.
Authors must propose three internationally renowned reviewers when they submit an article.
Articles are submitted to one or more reviewers selected by the editorial committee.
These reviewers remain anonymous to the authors. The authors also remain anonymous to the reviewers.
The editorial committee reserves the right to reject any article that fails to meet the review criteria.
32% of articles submitted to Tropicultura between 2010 and 2015 were accepted.
Assistance with editing
The editorial office may advise authors how to improve their manuscripts. If readers so wish, the editorial office can put them in contact with the authors whose manuscript they are reviewing.
