ISSN 0188-6266 printed version
ISSN 2007-9621 on line version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Acta Universitaria is a multidisciplinary scientific journal with six printed and six electronic editions every year. Language of publication of the articles is English and Spanish, of original research topics on the following areas:

a) Health and Medicine
b) Social sciences, Arts y Humanities
c) Exact Sciences and Engineering
d) Biology, Agriculture and Environment

The first author must indicate in which of the four areas must be assessed your article, and suggest at least three potential referees who may be considered to review your work. The final selection of reviewers is the responsibility of the Area Editor.

EDITORIAL PROCEDURE

Articles will be proposed through the website of Acta Universitaria (www.actauniversitaria.ugto.mx). The author must register on the website of the journal to obtain a user name and password, which will be used to enter and upload your article; further, in this way you can monitor and receive email about the status of your article and, if necessary, the editorial process. If there are several authors, only data matching a first author will be registrated, who will be aware of the process. Articles will not be accepted by any other printed or electronic way. Articles received by Acta Universitaria undergo an initial evaluation by the Editorial Office to verify that they fulfill the guidelines established in the editorial policy. Once the article is verified, it is sent to the Area Editor who evaluates the article's profile. If it is approved the article is then sent to three thematic experts in the area in which it was submitted. Before submit articles, review if they have been met the journal editorial standards (consult them at www.actauniversitaria.ugto.mx). In the case where the first language is not English or Spanish, the work must first be reviewed by a specialist style checker to avoid being returned in the first evaluation to present errors related to writing the language.

Peer review

The names of the authors are not revealed to reviewers and vice versa. This anonymous evaluation protects both authors and reviewers from bias. Once the reviewers accept an invitation to participate, they perform a thorough examination of the manuscript and send their verdict, suggestions for amendments, or strong recommendation of whether the article should be published.

Presenting a manuscript implies:

• That the work is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

• That its publication has been approved by all coauthors and, where appropriate, by the responsible authorities —implicitly or explicitly— in the institution in which the research work has been developed. This is justified in the letter of assignment of rights by all participating authors, once the article has been accepted and is in the final stage prior to being published edition.

• It is important to explain that neither the Editor nor the journal Acta Universitaria, through the University of Guanajuato, will be considered legally responsible if a compensation claim is filed regarding the work being published. The first author, to whom correspondence is addressed, will be the sole responsible.

In case of an accepted article in which the evaluators made observations and suggestions, the author shall have a maximum period of two weeks to make the requested changes, and point by point to each observations and modifications must send an attached form with the answers to the original draft. If no response is received, the article will be canceled. Likewise, once sent the galley proofs the author shall have three (3) business days for review, sign and send a picture of a transfer letter signed by all the authors. If no response is received in the time specified, the article will be canceled. If the author or authors require more time for response at different stages of the process, they must submit an application to the Editor of the magazine.

FORMAT

The documents must adhere to the Publication Manual of the American Psychologycal Association (APA) 6ta. edition, and should be submitted in .doc (Word), with Times New Roman 12 pt, double spaced, on letter size (21.5 cm x 28 cm) with 2.5 cm margin on each side and left justified. All pages should be foliated, and with lines numbered consecutively from the first page. Paragraphs should be easily differentiated using an indentation of one centimeter.

It is strongly recommended that the text be written in impersonal style, including the acknowledgements.

Documents edited in latex format will also be accepted. In such case, the authors must adhere to the former recommendations when creating a PDF document.

PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT

The manuscript should include the following elements:

1) Title page

An informative and concise title, in English and Spanish. On the next line write the author's full name (first name followed by last name); if multiple authors must be submitted comma separated, and for the last author add the letter "y" (in Spanish) or "&" (in English). On the next line, record the affiliation/s, address/es of the author/s, email, telephone and fax of the author/s (if the authors are from different affiliations should be indicated with a superscript number after the surnames each author). The corresponding author should be identified by an asterisk at the beginning of the name.

2) Main document

a) Title in English and Spanish: The same title that appears in the title page (the author, institution of affiliation, and address should not appear in this section).

b) An abstract of less than 150 words, in English and Spanish. Each work must be preceded by an abstract, structured with introduction, objectives, methods, results, conclusions and discussion (implicitly), to give a complete idea of the study.

c) Keywords in English and Spanish. Below the abstract, list three to five words derived from the topic of the manuscript.

d) Abbreviations: Abbreviations must be defined the first time they are mentioned; if they were used in the abstract, they need to be defined once more in the main text and then use the acronym or abbreviation in the following expressions. Measurements and values should be presented using the International System of Units (SI).

e) Introduction: Here the purpose of the research must be clearly stated along with a brief relevant literature review. The main objective of the work will be clearly stated at the end of this section.

f) Materials and Methods: This section must follow the introduction and should include enough information to allow replication of the work under similar conditions.

g) Results: The results of the work must be clearly described. Data should be presented as concise as possible in the form of figures and/or tables. Large tables must be avoided.

h) Discussion: An interpretation about the results and their significance regarding the work of the authors needs to be presented.

i) Conclusions: Relevant aspects derived from the research.

j) Acknowledgements: Recognize, as short as possible, sponsoring the project. The total or partial sponsorship that requires the gratitude of the author must be mentioned.

k) Tables and figures: Should be submitted at the end of the text on separate sheets. It should be indicated in the text where the author considers to be included. The author should indicate where in the text figures and tables should be located. Figures need to be clear and easy to understand. In order to ensure the highest image quality possible, images need to be included in a resolution of 300 dpi and a minimum size of 16 cm per side. Authors should consider that the Acta Universitaria journal is printed in one ink, so the figures, graphs, diagrams, etc., must be submitted on grayscale. Color figures will only be published in electronic format, without charge.

Each figure needs to be numbered in Arabic numbers and followed by a footnote to the bottom of each one. Sources of figures should be recorded with precision, even when created by the authors.

Tables need to be smaller than 17 cm × 20 cm, must be listed in Arabic numbers and include an explanatory title heading. Abbreviations must be explained in case they were used. As in the ISSN 0188-6266 figures, sources of table should be included. Further, these must be sent in editable format.

Once the article is accepted for publication, each of the graphs and tables should be submitted in a separate file, and have been elaborated in programs that allow editing format. Authors will have to consider this point since the preparation of the manuscript.

QUOTES

For long quotes in a text (that exceed 40 words), the quote will be separated from the rest of the text, and the font will be reduced by one point. As well, the left margin will increase 1 cm and the reference used (author, year) will be placed immediately.

REFERENCES

Precision regarding references cited in the text is the exclusive responsibility of the authors. References in the Acta Universitaria journal must follow the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), for citation style.

References must follow the format of author and publication date between parentheses in the phrase.

Example: An analysis of over two hundred works revealed a correlation between teaching social skills, and an improvement in school performance (Viadero, 2007).

If the phrase includes the author's last name, only the date will be included in parenthesis.

Example: Viadero (2007) reports that an analysis of over two hundred publications reveals a correlation between teaching social skills and an improvement in school performance.

When a manuscript has between two and five authors, it will be referenced with all the authors' surnames and the year the first time it is mentioned. Subsequently, only the first author will be mentioned followed by et al. If the manuscript has six or more authors, only the last name of the first author will be used from the beginning, followed by et al. and the year.

The list of references must only include the works that are referenced in the text and that have been published. References must be presented alphabetically, without numbering or bullets, and if more than one reference of the same author/s shall be recorded chronologically. Avoid cite thesis, conference presentations and technical reports.

General considerations:

Reprints: the reprints are not delivered; authors shall only be entitled to receive three (3) copies of the printed version. The electronic version of the article can be downloaded, even before having the printed version in the website section "Online first Articles".

Costs: there are no costs for publication. In case you should require additional print magazines will be necessary to cover the cost of the requested number plus shipping. This measure also applies when you require color printed images.

Permits: it will be the responsibility of the author to obtain written permission from other authors to cite unpublished material (even if it is in thesis and technical reports).