ISSN 0044-5967 printed version
ISSN 1809-4392 online version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

The mission of the Acta Amazonica is to publish original research results directly related to topics about Amazonia; the magazine publishes articles, scientific notes, revisions as well as letters from the reader.

SUBMISSION OF WORK

Work for publication should be submitted only in the electronic format to http://submission.scielo.br/index.php/aa/login. Archives containing text, tables and figures should be written on extension RTF (Rich Text Format) or DOC (Microsoft Word), observing the following:

• Maximum size of the file should be 3MB:

• A letter submitting the manuscript should declare that:

a) The research data are original and precise; b) all the authors participated substantially and are prepared to assume public responsibility for its content; c) the work presented to this magazine is not being published, in part or in whole, by any other magazine; nor d) is the work being submitted for publication in another magazine.

• The submission letter may be written in Portuguese, Spanish, or English, but the Editorial Commission encourages that manuscripts be written in English. It should be noted that the veracity of the information contained in the work is the exclusive responsibility of the authors.

• Maximum length of the manuscript is twenty-six pages for articles and revisions; six for notes; and five for other sections, including tables, figures and bibliography.

• Articles that conform to the norms of the magazine will be sent to (co-)Area Editors for a preliminary analysis of the work, taking into consideration the scientific relevance and intelligibility of the work. In this phase, works considered outside the scope of the magazine, or of little relevance, or lacking a minimum of quality will be disqualified by the (co-)area editors. Works selected will be sent to scientific referees, specialists of institutions not of the authors, for a more detailed analysis.

• Works will be considered “accepted for publication” on the positive opinions of at least two referees. Approval of manuscripts will be based on the scientific content and the adequate presentation according to the norms of the magazine.

• Manuscripts requiring corrections will be returned to the authors for making the modifications suggested by the referees. Once corrected, highlighting the modifications, the manuscript should be returned to the Editorial Commission within two weeks. If the suggestions made by the referees are unacceptable to the authors, they must justify their refusal in detail, but separately from the manuscript. The entire process is electronic, and should be accompanied on site http://sbmission.scielo.br/index.php/aa/login.

• The sequence of the scientific article should be in the following order: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion (or Results and Discussion), Conclusions (optional), Acknowledgements (optional), and Bibliography.

Scientific notes should be written in a single sequence, without separating into topics; however, they should contain Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and Discussion. Two figures and two tables are acceptable. The format of the first page and that of the Bibliography are the same as for the scientific article.

• Complete name(s) of the author(s), with the last name in capital letters. Complete address of the Institution(s), including telephone, fax, e-mail should be recorded on line upon submitting the work. This information should not appear in the body of the manuscript. However, it should be incorporated in the final version accepted for publication.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Manuscripts which do not conform to these instructions will NOT be accepted.

FORMAT AND STYLE

Manuscripts should be prepared in text editor (with DOC or RTF extension), utilizing the types “Times New Roman” or “Arial”, size 12 pt, double spaced, with 3cm margins. Pages and lines should be numbered. Tables, figures and bibliographic references should be included.

a) Title. Adjust to the left; capitalize first letter of sentence.

b) Abstract up to 250 words (150 for notes and revisions) containing, succinctly, the objective of the study or research, its basic procedures; analytical methods or of observation; principal discoveries or results and principal conclusions, emphasizing important observations or aspects of the study. Scientific names of species should be in italics, and other terms in Latin. Manuscripts in Portuguese or Spanish should include an Abstract.

OBS.: Works in Spanish or English should contain title, abstract and key-words in Portuguese.

c) Key-words. Should consist of three to five terms.  Works in Portuguese or Spanish should include Key- words.

d) Introduction. Should emphasize the purpose of the study and supply a brief summary of previous studies that are relevant, as well as specifying the progress intended by this research. Do NOT include the data or conclusions of the work in reference.

e) Material and Methods. Should contain, in clear and summarized form, sufficient information to explain the procedures undertaken, and to permit other researches to repeat the study.  Standard techniques need only be referenced. The measuring units and their abbreviations should follow the International System and, when necessary, should include a list of the abbreviations utilized.

Witness material (voucher) should be deposited in one or more scientific collections and informed in the manuscript.

Ethics and Legal Aspects: When describing experiments related to human themes, indicate the Ethics Committee which approved the work (accredited by and subordinated to the Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa-CONEP [the National Commission of Ethics in Research] of the Ministry of Health), and the protocol number of approval by the referenced Committee. Works whose nature demands other specific permissions of ethical or legal character (IBAMA, CNTBio, INCRA/FUNAI, EIA/RIMA, others) should be informed by the registration number of authorization, date of publication or protocol number.

f) Results. Indicate a concise description of the information discovered, with a minimum of personal judgment. Do not repeat in the text all the data contained in the tables and illustrations.

g) Discussion. Limit the discussion to significant results and their relation to existing information, preferably, the most recent. Only indispensible citations should be included. At the criterion of the authors, the results and discussion should be presented together.

h) Conclusion (optional Topic). Results obtained in the study may be emphasized separately in this topic or implicit in the discussion.

i) Acknowledgements (optional Topic). Should be brief and concise.

j) Bibliography. Place at the end of the work, and should be restricted to citations that appear in the text. In this section, the names of periodicals should be cited in full.

Articles from periodicals:

Rodrigues, W.A. 1977. Novas espécies de Virola Aubl. (Myristicaceae) da Amazônia. Acta Amazonica, 7: 459-471.

Prance, G.T.; Rodrigues, W.A.; Silva, M.F. 1976. Inventário florestal de um hectare de mata de terra firme km 30 da Estrada Manaus-Itacoatiara. Acta Amazonica, 6: 9-35.

Dissertations and Theses:

Ribeiro, M.C.L.B. 1983. As migrações dos jaraquis (Pisces: Prochilodontidae) no rio Negro, Amazonas, Brasil. Dissertação de Mestrado, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia/Fundação Universidade do Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas. 192 pp.

Books:

Goulding, M. 1980. The fishes and the forest. Explorations in Amazonian natural history. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA. 280 pp.

Chapters of Books:

Absy, M.L. 1993. Mudanças da vegetação e clima da Amazônia durante o Quaternário, p. 3-10. In: Ferreira, E.J.G.; Santos, G.M.; Leão, E.L.M.; Oliveira, L.A. (Eds). Bases Científicas para Estratégias de Preservação e Desenvolvimento da Amazônia. Vol. 2. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas.

In the text, citations of bibliographic references will follow the order of authors and date, complying with the following standard:

One author:

Pereira (1995) ou (Pereira 1995).

With two athors:

Oliveira e Souza (2003) ou (Oliveira e Souza 2003).

Three or more authors:

Rezende et al. (2002) ou (Rezende et al. 2002).

Electronic Source:

CPTEC, 1999. Climanalise, 14: 1-2 (www.cptec.inpe.br/products/climanalise). Acesso: 19/05/99.

More than one reference:

Place in chronological and alphabetical order (for citations with same year), separated by period and comma.

 Fonseca et al. 1991; Ferreira et al. 2001 ou (Fonseca et al. 1991; Ferreira et al. 2001).

Figures

Photographs, drawings and graphics should have sharp definition, with high black and white contrast, numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals. The numbering and description of the figure should be in position inferior to the figure.

Figures should be limited to five (5) in articles, and two (2) in scientific notes, and should be self-explanatory.

Figures should be shaped to fit within the page dimensions of the periodical, namely, within a column (5cm) or the width of the entire page (17.5cm), and allowing space for captions.

The Editorial Commission reserves the right to shape illustrative material for economical reasons, as long as it does not compromise the presentation.

• Scales should e indicated by a line or bar in the figure and, if necessary, referenced in the caption (for example, bar = 1mm).

• Citations in the text, with initial letter capitalized, may be made directly or indirectly (in parenthesis). Ex: Figure 1 or (Figure 1). In the caption, followed by a hyphen before the title. Ex: “Figure 1 – Analysis…”  

• Figures that have been previously published should give information of their source and the permission to be reproduced.

• Photographs and illustrations (BITMAP) should be in the TIFF or JPEG format, with high resolution (preferably 300 dpi). For vector illustrations and graphics, use EPS, CDR, AI or WMF format.

• Photographs should be, in black and white, preferably. Colored photographs are acceptable; however, the extra printing cost will be at the expense of the author. As an alternative, without cost to the author, in the on line version, a figure can be colored (if this is indispensable), maintaining it in the black and white printed version.

Authors may be invited to submit a colored photograph to illustrate a magazine cover. In this case, the printing cost will be at the expense of the magazine.

Tables:

• Tables should have a sharp definition and numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals. A maximum of two tables is permitted for scientific notes. The numbering and the title (brief and descriptive) should be in the upper position to the table. A table may have footnotes.

• Tables should be produced in text editor (RTF or DOC), and should not be inserted in the text as a figure.

• Citations in the text may be made directly or indirectly (between parentheses), written out fully, with the initial letter capitalized. Ex: Table 1 or (Table 1). However, a citation in the caption should be made in full, followed by a hyphen before the title. Ex: “Table 1 – Analysis…”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Once a work has been accepted for publication, the authors should send:

• A file (digital) containing the complete text of the final version approved by the Editorial Commission, including tables and figures, processed in text editor (RTF or DOC). This file should also include the complete name(s) of the author(s), with last name(s) capitalized, with complete address of Institution(s), including telephone, fax, e-mail.

The Acta Amazonica reserves the right to make normative, orthographic, and grammatical alterations in the original manuscripts, to maintain cultural standards of the language, while at the same time respecting the style of the authors. Then, the final proofs will be sent to the authors for correcting, restricting themselves to errors in composition, and return the corrected final proofs within the date stipulated. No other changes on the original manuscript will be accepted at this stage.

• The first author will receive a PDF copy of the published article.

• The Acta Amazonica does not charge a tax for publication.

Additional information and explanations of eventual technical problems may be solicited on sites http://submission.scielo.br/index.php/aa/login and http://acta.inpa.gov.br, by e-mail acta@inpa.gov.br or by telephone (92) 3643 3030. If specifically about the work, the author should always report the process number in the magazine, title and authors.