Guide for Authors

 Guide for Authors

 Introduction

TECCIENCIA is a bi-annual journal concerned with the different problems that engineering and applied sciences are facing nowadays. This journal was created in 2006 as a tool to share some of these results with an increasing audience that is interested in finding out about the advances in engineering in Colombia. We are currently moving towards reaching a broader, international audience in order to make a deeper contribution to our scientific understanding of the world. This journal is intended as a medium for publishing highly innovative, high-impact results.

Types of Contributions

All contributions should be original, innovative and under no circumstances should be simultaneously published elsewhere. Manuscripts should be provided as simple as possible and as a single Word document. Math equations, figures and images should be submitted along the Word document in a .zip file. The manuscript must follow the guidelines included in the Preparation section below. The final format may be modified for the publication of the manuscript. Manuscripts falling into the following categories will be considered for publication and should be submitted via the Open Journal System (OJS).

• Original high-quality research papers. Preferably no more than 20 double line spaced manuscript pages, including tables and illustrations.

• Review papers. This type of document brings current advances in a specific field. There are no specific guidelines about length although it should include minimum 50 references according to the scope of the manuscript.Important: If the editors/reviewers feel the paper is longer than it needs to be the authors may be asked to reduce the length of the paper. Therefore authors are recommended to keep their paper as concise as possible to effectively present their research. Please also remember that the longer a paper is, the harder it is to get reviewers to agree to review it.

 Before you begin

Ethics in publishing

Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines are based on definitions and guidelines are based on those defined by ELSEVIER for their journals. More information is available in http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/journal-authors/ethics. The documents submitted to TECCIENCIA will be always analyzed against duplicate submission or plagiarism before double blind peer review

Conflict of interest

TECCIENCIA solves conflicts of interest following ELSEVIER guidelines available in http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest. Authors should reveal any conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationship with other people or organization.

Declaration of submission and verification

As a result of submitting a manuscript in TECCIENCIA, authors guarantee that work accomplishes the following characteristics. 1) Results shown in the manuscript have not been published in other journals or as book chapters; 2) Results shown in the manuscript are not under evaluation for publishing in other journals or as book chapters; 3) All authors have approved the submitted version of the manuscript; 4) Authors allow TECCIENCIA to analyze the manuscript using anti-plagiarism software.

Changes to authorship

This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Editor-in-chief or the Journal Director from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Editor-in-chief or General Director to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Editor-in-chief will inform the Editorial board of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue:  Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an paper published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

Copyright

Authors will have certain rights to reuse the work. Nevertheless, as stated before, they could not resend the manuscript to any other journal. If they use it, they should cite the published document in TECCIENCIA according to standardized styles

Role of funding agencies

TECCIENCIA We request authors to identify who provided financial support for the research and/or preparation for the manuscript and to briefly describe their role, if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Open access

This journal offers authors open access in publishing their research. This implies that published papers are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse. We do not ask for a publication fee.

Language (usage and editing services)

Although authors can submit the manuscript either in Spanish or English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these), we strongly encourage authors to write and proof-correct their manuscript in English publcación Presenting the manuscript in proof-corrected English results in a faster publishing process. Otherwise al TECCIENCIA translates approved manuscripts to English. Authors should be aware that this may result in longer publishing times.

Submission

Submissions to this journal are to be sent online using the Open Journal System After registering http://tecciencia.ecci.edu.co/index.php/TECCIENCIA/user/register, authors can start a new submission and follow instructions to upload the manuscript to the platform. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the corresponding author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

Referees

Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of 2 potential referees. One of these referees should be an internationally renowned expert in the field who has also published research papers in the relevant area in the past two years. Suggested referees should not be from the same institute and ideally should not be from the same country as the authors of the manuscript. Note that the journal editors retain the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are contacted for the peer review process.

 Preparing your Manuscript

Manuscript structure

Subdivision - numbered sections

Divide your manuscript into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, …), , ….), 1.2, etc. . (the abstract and references section are not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background that includes comprehensive references to previous work, avoiding a summary of the results. This section should also include an outline of the manuscript sections.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. This section can include calculations, but only in the case where they are original, and derivation steps should be as abbreviated as possible.

Results and Discussion

Results should be clear and concise. This section should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusion

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of the Results and Discussion section.

References

Include the reference list according to the guidelines provided below. This section should not be numbered.

Essential title page information

• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address ….) Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author. An example is presented below:
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author. Indicate the corresponding author by using a superscript bullet (*) immediately after the corresponding author´s name.

Abstract

A concise and coherent abstract is required. If your submission is written in English, we kindly ask authors to provide a Spanish version of the abstract, if possible. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the main results and major conclusions.  An abstract is often presented separately from the manuscript, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, references should be avoided. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). As a general rule, use abbreviations sparingly: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be used in the final version of the paper. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Acknowledgements

Write acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the manuscript before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the manuscript, etc.).

Nomenclature and units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged to consult IUPAC - Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry http://www.iupac.org/ for further information.

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as PNG images with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Math equations and formulae should be generated using LaTeX or at a minimum should comply with LaTeX format standards. A number of free online LaTeX compilers are available and can be used for this purpose. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text). Be aware that using the Microsoft Word equation editor is strongly discouraged and may result in a significant delay in the publishing process

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the manuscript. Many word processors can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Otherwise, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and list the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the manuscript. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Figures

We encourage authors to send figures as PNG images with a minimum resolution of 500 dpi, or as EPS/PDF vector graphics, with all used fonts embedded. If your figures were created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format. Figure labels should have a size of at least 8 pt (not native, but with respect to the manuscript text).

Please do not:

• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors.
• Send figures in the JPG format or in other formats that use JPG compression.
• Supply figures that are too low in resolution
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Figure Caption

Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the figures themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Exceptions can be made for properly formatted, LaTeX-generated table PNG images with a minimum resolution of 500 dpi. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the manuscript, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the manuscript. Please avoid using vertical lines.

References

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and viceversa). ). Indicate references individually by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text, e.g. [1] [5] [31], without added colons or commas. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) should always be included.

References Section

Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:

[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientifi c article. J Sci Commun
2010;163:51–9.

Reference to a book:

[2] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 4th ed. New York: Longman; 2000.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

[3] Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith
RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc; 2009, p. 281–304.

Web Reference

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references should be included in the reference list.

Reference style (IEEE)

References should follow the IEEE reference style throughout the entire document. During publishing process, style and format may be modified according to the template used in TECCIENCIA.

 Publishing and reviewing process

TECCIENCIA follows a double blind peer review process. Before sending the manuscript to peer review, the document is checked for originality and analyzed in its original form by the editors. If the manuscript does not comply with TECCIENCIA originality or impact standards, it will be rejected after this initial revision. Even if the manuscript is initially accepted for peer review, editors may contact the authors requesting changes to the format or minor revisions to the manuscript. If the manuscript is approved for peer review, it is then sent to the referees, who are instructed to review it with three possible outcomes in mind: approved for publishing as it is, approved for publishing with corrections or rejected. Authors are then notified and if approved, the manuscript follows the internal publishing process. At any point in the process, the editors may contact the authors requesting additional information to ensure that TECCIENCIA standards are followed.

After acceptance

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. electrónicmos. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication docmento The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. Example of a correctly given DOI (in URL format; here an article in the journal Physics Letters B): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059 When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change..

Proof correction before publishing

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with the final, ready-to-publish version. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor-in-Chief. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. We will do everything in our power to get your manuscript published quickly and accurately.

Publishing and reviewing process

 TECCIENCIA follows a double blind peer review process. Before sending the manuscript to peer reviews, the document is anti-plagiarism checked and analyzed in the original form by members of the editorial board. They emit a concept that could be approved without corrections, approved with previous corrections or rejected. Regardless the answer, the authors are notified and instructions are provided. After manuscript is approved for peer review, it is sent to the reviewers who analyze it giving three concepts: approved for publishing as it is, approved for publishing with some corrections or denied. Then, the authors are notified and manuscript follows the internal publishing process.A summary of the process is described in the following flowchart.

Figure 1. Publishing and reviewing process flowchart.

After acceptance

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. Example of a correctly given DOI (in URL format; here an article in the journal Physics Letters B): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059 When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

Proof correction before publishing

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with the final document before publishing. The author can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.