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Author Guidelines

Before submission of a manuscript to Revista de Biología Tropical it is highly recommended that you read about our scope and check that all format and style details of your document agree with the journal requirements. This will prevent unnecessary delays caused by format and style corrections requested by the journal at the beginning of the evaluation process.

Our journal publishes only in English and Spanish.

To prepare your paper we recommend downloading and carefully read the following documents:

• Format and style guide
• Figures guide
• Format sample

Once you submit you manuscript kindly consider the following time limits for every stage of the process:

 ❏ Allow five days to recive an email sying that your manuscript has been received. If you do not hear from us within five days, you must contact us immediately.

❏ Allow 10 days to receive our message explaining if our Editorial Board decided to send you manuscript to reviewes.

❏ Allow 30 days to receive reviewer's comments.

❏ Allow 10 days to process you manuscript comments.

❏ Allow 15 days to receive indications about the second draft.

❏ Allow 40 days to receive your acceptance/charges notification.

Any questions regarding a manuscript should be sent to  vnielsen.rbt@gmail.com o rbtap31@gmail.com

How much does it cost to publish a paper in RBT?

Our journal has struggled since 1953 to publish valuable paper without charge to the authors, a policy that continues to this day for manuscripts that  printed do not exced 10 pages and do not include color plates. Additional pages cost US$50 each. 

However, if you have the ability to help cover printing costs of your publication (for example, funds from any project), you will not only help disseminate he biological knowledge but also support other colleagues who, especially in less industrialized countries, have in our journal an affordable way to publicize its findings to the scientific world.

Any queries regarding payments and donations please send a message to biologia.tropical@ucr.ac.cr

Submission Preparation Checklist

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.

1. General instructions:

   ❏Follow the standard structure of a scientific paper (do not merge results with discussion) and include a note to the Editor to prepare a Spanish Abstract (Resumen) if you cannot provide one. 

   ❏Apply an automatic spell checker, and state the total number of words at the foot of the first page.

   ❏All text, tables and figures must be included within a single DOCX, DOC or RTF file. Send professional quality illustrations

   ❏Submit to revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt and attach a scanned letter signed by all coauthors stating: a- that the document is original and all coauthors agree with its publication; b- that you meet our ethical requirement, c- the importance of your study to tropical biology and conservation, d- that you aggree to pay excess page fee charges if required, and e- names and e-mail addresses of three possible reviewers. We confirm reception within five days; if no reply is received please contact us again to the same address.

    

2. Manuscript characteristics:

   ❏It presents original information on biology and/or conservation of tropical organisms

   ❏Detailed field study (typically, field studies, done for more than a year), or an in depth laboratory study

   ❏Page charges: There is no compulsory page fee for the first ten printed pages. Additional pages will be charged $50 each. A document that corresponds to the maximum length published free of charge typically has about 5 000 words, two figures and two small tables.

3. Introductory section:

   ❏Only the appropriate letters are capitalized. The title is short and includes in parentheses Order and Family (botanical papers: only Family).

   ❏Taxonomic authority (Author, year) for each taxon appears only the first time the taxon is mentioned in text (never in the title). Genera of binomials are written in full only the first time they are used, in the Abstract, main text, Resumen and key words.

   ❏The address for correspondence is short but complete; if there are several, they must be numbered. Include valid e-mails for all coauthors. Do not include phone/fax numbers.

   ❏The Abstract (350-450 words) must describe the importance of the problem being addressed, sample size, sampling dates, how the study was performed, the salient results and what the authors concluded. It must be a single paragraph.

   ❏Key words (five to seven) are separated by commas and are more general than title or abstract words

   ❏The Introduction summarizes recent findings and ends with the objective of the study

4. Material and Methods section:

   ❏Present only the information required to repeat the study. Previously published methods are referenced and briefly described.

   ❏Do not include a map for one location study area; instead, provide its geographic coordinates. A map is appropriate for studies with many sampling locations/ stations.

   ❏Voucher specimens should be deposited in at least one institution and the details given under Materials and Methods.

   ❏When they can affect the results, equipment specifications should include model number and manufacturer. Chemicals only manufacturer.

   ❏Mathematical formulas include a description of each component.

   ❏Acronyms are spelled in full the first time

   ❏Use the international System of Units (www.bipm.fr/en/si). and their abreviations, except that decimals are indicated with a period, thousands and millions with a space. eg. 12 523 235.15

   ❏When not followed by units, integers from zero to ten are written in full (one, two etc., not 1, 2 etc.).

5. Results:

   ❏Quantitative data are evaluated with appropriate statistical tests, which are cited only after each result and in parentheses. Example: “Height and speed were correlated (Spearman, p< 0.05)”.

   Tables and Figures

   ❏Isolated figures have been avoided by grouping related photographs and illustrations (See Figures Guide in our website). Symbols and scales appear as a caption in the figure (never as a footnote). Labels are at least 5mm from the image border. Labels: Helvetica 10 points.

   ❏ Very long or very short tables have been avoided (half a page is good size), and no vertical or horizontal lines have been used in them. All symbols and abbreviations appear only in the footnotes. No bold font, or words fully written in upper case are used.

6. Discussion:

   ❏ The section compares your results and with previously published data. No tables or figures are included here.

    

7. Acknowledgments:

   ❏ Only persons who gave very significant assistance are mentioned. “Dr.”, “Prof.”, “Mrs.”, among others, are not used, only names.

    

8. Resumen and Palabras clave:

   ❏ The Spanish Resumen starts with the Spanish title of the article. The Resumen contains the same information and sections as the Abstract.

   ❏ The Palabras clave include the same key words but written in Spanish

    

9. References

   ❏Present the list of references and citations within the text in APA 6th Edition format. We recommend free reference managers: zotero.org or mendeley.com

   ❏Only cited publications appear under References and vice versa. Unpublished papers are mentioned in the text as in this example: (J. Smith, unpublished).

    

Copyright Notice

Attribution (BY)  •  (BY) You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).