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As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.


ECOSISTEMAS it is an open-access scientific journal edited by the Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology (AEET) in which both publishing and reading are free. We publish research articles on all fields of ecology. ECOSISTEMAS publishes regular articles both in English and Spanish. Besides, ECOSISTEMAS publishes special issues or monographs on topics of interest specific, mostly in Spanish. In both cases, the abstracts and figure captions are published in English and Spanish. All articles are peer-reviewed and judged for quality.

Submission and Editorial Process

All contributions must be original and have not been previously published. Only scientific works that constitute an important contribution will be considered for publication. Contributions must conform to the journal standards

The initial submission consists of a single complete document with all materials included and may be accompanied by a cover letter. The Chief Editor will make an initial assessment of each manuscript received. If the topic and content are considered potentially suitable for the journal, the manuscript will be assigned to an Associate Editor who will supervise the review process carried out by at least two independent reviewers. The Associate Editor will recommend either the acceptance of the manuscript in its original version, its acceptance once the modifications suggested by the reviewers have been made, or its rejection. When the Associate Editor requests modifications, the author will have an adequate period to make them, subject to verification by the editor who requested them. The Editorial Board reserves the right not to publish those articles that, for any reason, do not conform to the objectives and standards of the journal.

All material must be sent through the submission portal on the journal's website. If the submission has been made correctly, you will receive an acknowledgment of receipt at your contact email address. If you need to send any additional correspondence, please contact the Managing Editor, Leyre Jiménez-Eguizábal (revistaecosistemas@aeet.org).

ECOSISTEMAS supports the following initiatives:

  • Open science: We publish in open access and under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Comercial 4.0 License, where the authors retain the copyright.
  • Reproducible science: We are working on following the TOP guidelines (https://www.cos.io/initiatives/top-guidelines), including the permanent deposition of data and code to ensure the reproducibility of results.
  • Fast science: We encourage the use of Pre-Prints on recognized servers before sending articles to ECOSISTEMAS, and we will positively value accepting articles previously reviewed on platforms such as PCI (https://ecology.peercommunityin.org/) after editorial scrutiny.
  • Integrated science: We are integrated with ORCID to uniquely attribute each article to its respective authors.

Ethic

ECOSISTEMAS wants to promote an ethical science. To do this, the manuscripts must meet the following requirements:

  • The corresponding author has the consent of all co-authors for the submission and publication of the article in the journal and is responsible for keeping them informed about the status of the article during the review process and the final editorial decision.
  • The corresponding author must ensure that the work is original, has not omitted any co-author responsible for the job, and all authors have contributed to the work substantially.
  • The data and code used to reproduce the results are public and citable with their own DOI (see list of suggested data repositories).
  • Detailed indication (e.g. in materials and methods) of permits obtained to conduct research in animals or in protected areas, where this is relevant.
  • Indication of any conflict of interest that could compromise the results, including a declaration of funding sources.

Types of contribution

All regular contributions can be written in either Spanish or English, except for eco-informatics notes, which will be written in Spanish.

The contributions to monographs will generally be in Spanish and will deal with a topic defined by the guest editors, who will make an open call to contribute and will personally invite potential authors. These contributions can be research articles, review articles, and data articles.

ECOSISTEMAS presents the following types of contributions:

  1. Research articles. ~6000 words and up to 6 figures and/or tables. Unpublished research articles that address relevant topics related to ecology or the environment. Research articles must follow the structure “Introduction - Methods - Results - Discussion” and they may contain supplementary material. The objectives, questions, and/or hypotheses must be stated concisely at the end of the introduction. The methodology has to be well-defined and appropriate to resolve the issues raised in the goals. 
  2. Review articles. ~8000 words and up to 8 figures and/or tables. Articles that review relevant topics related to research in ecology or the environment. The structure is flexible but systematic literature reviews that go beyond narrative reviews are encouraged. Reviews and meta-analyses must cite all of their data sources, and therefore there is no limit on the number of citations that can be included. We recommend that you use the PRISMA checklist for systematic reviewes to transparently report the why, how and what of your review. 
  3. Data articles. ~ 3000 words and up to 3 figures and/or tables. Articles that present one or more sets of data, describing in a detailed and structured way the content, the context in which they were generated, and their future use. Data of broad interest in ecology will be presented. The data must be publicly available at the time of submission in a stable online repository. They must include an "Extended summary - Material and methods - Records and data availability - Technical validation”. "Records and data availability” should document the formats (e.g. csv, xml, text), licenses, and the temporal, spatial, taxonomic, and any other type of coverage needed to define the database(s), as well as indicate where they are hosted. The “Technical validation” must provide information that justifies the reliability of the data, as well as possible sources of error, bias, or limitations for its reproducibility. See the list of suggested ecology data repositories here.
  4. Ecoinformatics notes. ~1500 words and 1 figure. Written in Spanish. Short notes aimed at introducing new methodological techniques within the field of ecoinformatics in the broad sense (statistics, programming, computing, reproducibility, data science). Further information: https://ecoinfaeet.github.io/website/notas-ecoinformaticas.html 
  5. Notes. ~ 1000 words. Descriptions of novel techniques, methodologies or technologies, reports of first citations of taxa, as well as of events, publications or scientific activities of general interest related to ecology or the environment. Depending on its relevance and novelty, the editorial team may accept or reject the submission of the note to Ecosistemas, or propose its submission to the outreach AEET blog.

Rules for preparation of manuscripts

Manuscripts will be sent for review in format .odt, .doc, .docx or .pdf. Tables and figures can be inserted throughout the text or after references, at the authors' discretion. Manuscripts sent for review must have Arial 10 font, 1.5 spacing, unjustified, page and line numbering to facilitate the review process. Articles that do not meet the criteria will be returned to the authors for modification before undergoing peer review.

Submitting the full text and figures in .PDF format and a list with potential reviewers in the cover letter to editors can speed up the review process.

ECOSISTEMAS offers authors two options for peer review: blind or double-blind. If the authors prefer a double-blind peer review, where both the authors' and the reviewers' identities are hidden from each other, they will upload two types of documents to the platform: one with the authors' information (Title page) and another with the text and complementary material (if any), without the authorship information. We make available to authors the ECOSISTEMAS Templates for research and data articles and according to the two different types of peer review available in the journal. In the case of authors of data articles who want double-blind review, and where the chosen repository does not allow confidential review, they can send the link to the repository in the letter to the editor and attach a copy of the data set as supplementary material (without authorship information) that allow the review of the article.

The general structure of articles submitted to ECOSISTEMAS must contain:

  • Title

It must be sent in Spanish and English. The editorial team can help with translation if necessary.

  • List of authors

In lower case, except the initials of proper names. For each author, the first name and then the last name must be indicated. Each author will be separated from the next by a comma. After the author's name, a number will be included as a superscript to indicate the corresponding affiliation. The order of authors recorded in the manuscript must match the order of the authorship data in the Metadata section of the article.

Example:

Andres Mateos1,2, Lucía López-Bravo2

  • Affiliation of the authors

The institution and complete postal address of each author must be indicated. A different paragraph will be used for each affiliation.

Example:

(1) Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain.

(2) Hunting Resources Research Institute, IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM). Ronda de Toledo s/n 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain.

  • Corresponding author

The name and email address of the corresponding author responsible for communication with the journal must be indicated.

Example:

Corresponding author: A. Martínez [a.martinez@csic.es]

  • Summary (maximum 250 words)

The summary must state the purpose of the article, a synthesis of the methodology used, and the most relevant results obtained and their implications. The presentation of the summary in English and Spanish is mandatory. The editorial team can help with translation if necessary. Notes are exempt from providing a summary 

  • Keywords

Between four and six words should be included that reflect the contents of the article. They will be arranged in alphabetical order and separated from each other by a semicolon (;). They must be sent in Spanish and English. The editorial team can help with translation if necessary. It is recommended that they include the region of study as well as the organisms studied if they are not in the title. Notes are keyword-free contributions.

  • Text body

Research articles will typically contain the following sections: “Introduction -Methods - Results - Discussion”. Review articles do not have to follow this structure. Data articles will necessarily contain an Extended summary, Material and methods, Data registration and availability, and Technical validation. The rest of the contributions normally do not require sections. Authors can create second-order sections within each section.

The references to figures and tables should be highlighted in bold and started with a capital letter. If they are explicitly cited, they will be spelled in full as “Figure” or “Table”, otherwise they will be cited in parentheses, and in the case of figures they will be abbreviated (Fig. X).

Sections should not be numbered. The name of a first-order section will appear on a separate line, in Arial 11 font and in bold. The name of a second-order section will go on a separate line, with Arial 10 font and bold.

Symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms must be defined the first time they are used. For units of measurement, the international system of units must be used.

Numerical expressions must be represented by numbers, avoiding the separation of thousands, millions, etc. Dates and thousand units should be written without space (e.g. 1967, 3000 m); Tens of thousands or more must be separated every three positions by a space (e.g. 27 000 kg, 3 276 000 ha). The point must be used, instead of the comma, to separate the integer part from the decimal part and the number of decimal values ​​will be limited to a maximum of 3 positions. This rule must be applied both in the main text and in the tables and legends of the attached figures (e.g. 0.426 mm).

The use of highlights and footnotes is not admitted.

  • Authors' contribution

The author's contribution to the work using the CRediT system must be included in the document. With this system, the various roles that authors can have in the final work are recognized, from the original idea to data collection, writing, financing, and analysis, making the information about their contribution more transparent.

The CRediT system is based on a taxonomy of 14 terms to which different authors can be assigned and which can be seen at http://credit.niso.org/. It is not necessary to use all the terms if it is not necessary and the same author can be assigned to several of these roles.

Example: 

Authors' contribution: Josefa González: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review and editing. Pablo Ruiz: Research, formal analysis, Writing – initial draft. María Pérez: Supervision, Data curation, Writing – Review and editing.

  •  Data availability

In its commitment to advance the transparency and reproducibility of science, ECOSISTEMAS demands a description of data access supporting the results presented in the contribution.

- We recommend the data be accessible in a public and stable data repository. Authors should provide the link to the repository where the data and code (when relevant) are deposited to reproduce the results. See list of repositories suggested.

- If data cannot be openly shared for justified reasons (privacy, or others), a brief explanation will be included.

  • Financing, required permits, potential conflicts of interest and acknowledgments

The source of funding for the submitted work should be included in this section, as well as the code of permissions required to carry out the research (when this is relevant) and the publication of any potential conflict of interest. You can add a thank you section.

  • Other

In the main text, references to works will be cited in parentheses, stating the last name of the author, or of the (two) authors, followed by the year of publication and without using a comma between them. If the work has more than two authors, the last name of the first author will be cited, followed by “et al.” (without italics) to refer to the rest of the authors. When there are several references for a single statement, they will be ordered chronologically first and then alphabetically separated by (;). When two works by the same authors and the same year of publication are cited, (a), (b), etc. will be added after the year of publication.

Examples:

(Acevedo and Delibes-Mateos 2013)

(Aldrich et al. 1997)

(Aldrich et al. 1997; Acevedo and Delibes-Mateos 2013; Behnke and Mortimore 2016a, 2016b)

For works in the process of publication, the expression “in press” will be used in parentheses, replacing the date of publication.

Articles, books, book chapters, data sets and documents may be cited with a permanent identifier (DOI, ISBN, URI, ELI, etc.). For computer software, in addition to the author and year of copyright, the version used and the URL should be cited. It is recommended that citations to websites or online resources without a permanent identifier be avoided as much as possible. In case of citing them, references should indicate, in addition to the URL, the date of consultation. If it is considered pertinent to cite sources that cannot be consulted, they should be accompanied by the expression “unpublished data” or “personal communication” in parentheses and their respective references should not be included in the bibliography”.

All works cited in the text must include their corresponding bibliographic reference in the list in the References section according to the criteria set forth below.

  • Bibliographic references

The list of bibliographic references will be incorporated at the end of the manuscript in the References section. References to works that have not been cited in the text cannot be included in the list.

The references will be ordered consecutively following the following criteria: 1) in alphabetical order of the first author, and, 2) in chronological order. 

The surnames of the authors must be written completely and in lowercase, followed by the initials of their given names. The year of publication will be detailed without delimiting it in parentheses, along with the title of the work, and the publishing entity. In the case of journal publications, the name of the journal will be cited in italics and without abbreviations. The volume, journal number, and page range must also be stated. In the case of references to books, book chapters, or reports, the publishing institution, city, and country must be indicated. If the reference corresponds to a book chapter, the range of pages that said chapter occupies in the referred volume must also be stated. Works with more than 7 authors must be cited mentioning the first 7 authors, followed by the expression et al. and the year of publication.

We recommend using a reference manager and the automatic citation styling available here:

http://editor.citationstyles.org/styleInfo/?styleId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zotero.org%2Fstyles%2Fecosistemas

It is recommended to consult the writing structure of the different types of bibliographic references in the following examples and/or consult any of the articles published in the latest available issue.

Examples:

Acevedo, P., Delibes-Mateos, M. 2013. Effects of changes in land use on game species in southern Spain: implications for management. Ecosistemas 22(2):33-39.

Bastin, J.F., Finegold, Y., Garcia, C., Mollicone, D., Rezende, M., Routh, D., et al. 2019. The global tree restoration potential. Science 365(6448), 76-79.

Behnke, R., Mortimore, M. (eds.) 2016a. The End of Desertification? Disputing Environmental Change in the Drylands. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany.

Behnke, R., Mortimore, M. 2016b. Introduction: The End of Desertification? En: Behnke, R., Mortimore, M. (Eds.), The End of Desertification? Disputing Environmental Change in the Drylands, pp. 1-34. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany.

Boehmer, F.J. 2011. Vulnerability of tropical montane rainforest Ecosistemas due to climate change. En: Brauch, H.G., Oswald Spring, U., Grin, J., Mesjasz, C., Kameri-Mbote, P., Nehera, N.C., Chourou, B., Krummenacher, H. (eds.), Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and Security, pp. 789-802. Springer, Heidelberg, Alemania.

Chaparro, J. 1994.Environmental consequences of reforestation through terracing in semi-arid environments. Doctoral Thesis, University of Murcia, Spain.

CONAFOR 2011. Community forestry. National Forestry Commission, Mexico City, Mexico. Available at: www.conafor.gob.mx/portal/index.php/temas-forestales/silvícola.

Spain 1989. Law 4/1989, of March 27, on the Conservation of Natural Spaces and Wild Flora and Fauna. [Repealed provision].State official newsletter, no. 74 of 28 March 1989, pp. 8262-8269.

ESRI 2009. ArcGIS Explorer. New York: ESRI. [used September 20, 2009]. Available at: http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer/index.html.

Moreira, X., Mooney, K.A., Zas, R., Sampedro, L. (en prensa). Bottom-up effects of host-plant species diversity and top-down effects of ants interactively increase plant performance. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. doi:10.10.1098/rspb.2012.0893.

  • Tables

Each table must provide its corresponding explanatory heading. For Research articles, review articles, and data articles headings will be provided both in Spanish and English. The editorial team can help with translation if necessary. It is important that they are simple and that they do not exceed the width of a vertical DIN A4 page. Once the article is accepted, the originals must be provided in text format (and not in image format) to allow its reproduction.

  • Figures

For Research, review, and data articles figure captions will be provided both in Spanish and English. The editorial team can help with translation if necessary. Figures must be clear, descriptive, and correctly cited in the text. They will be numbered as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc., in order of presentation, regardless of whether they are graphs, photographs, maps, or other graphic material. Once the article is accepted, the figures will be sent in independent files, with a minimum size of 19 cm (for two-column width reproduction) at a resolution of 300 dpi. The format of the figures must be *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.tiff or *.eps. It is important that, regardless of its resolution, all elements of the image can be clearly displayed. To ensure full accessibility and inclusion to the contribution results, it is recommended to design figures and maps taking into account the needs of people with color blindness, especially avoiding red in combination with green. See some tips and tools here. In the case of reproducing figures from other bibliographic sources, the authors will be responsible for obtaining the appropriate permission.