Authors' Guide

Bulletin of Marine and Coastal Research (title abbreviation: Bull. Mar. Coast. Res.) is an open-access, semi-annual, indexed publication, refereed under the single-blind modality. It is aimed at the scientific community and people related to environmental issues in coastal and marine areas, with particular emphasis on tropical America. It considers unedited works about research topics on the sea or coastal aquatic environments, undertaken in the tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas.

The journal is edited since 1967 by the “José Benito Vives de Andréis” Marine and Coastal Research Institute (INVEMAR). Until volume 8 it was called Mitteilungen aus dem Instituto Colombo-Alemán de Investigaciones Científicas Punta de Betín, and between volumes 9 and 24, it was called Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Since 2008, two issues are published per annual volume, a frequency that has been maintained to date. The first issue is published in June and the second in December.

Bulletin of Marine and Coastal Research only considers for publication original works, that is, those that include significant results that have not been published nor are being considered for publication in another journal. Research articles, scientific notes, and review articles are received that adequately compile and summarize work in a particular field and indicate lines of research to be followed. The journal is published in English and Spanish in PDF format. It has a digital version that can be consulted at www.invemar.org.co/boletin and a printed version that is distributed nationally and internationally through the exchange and donation system. The journal is indexed on Scopus since 1999 (Q4 Scimago Journal Ranking on "Animal Science and Zoology" category, since 2023) and on Publindex (category C). 

The Bulletin is an open-access journal, so there is no charge for reading or downloading information, based on the principle that providing free access to research helps to increase global knowledge exchange. Its distribution and dissemination are free, respecting each credit and authorship of the manuscripts. Authors do not pay for submitting or publishing a manuscript, except color prints as mentioned in this guide. Authors should follow the subsequent instructions:

Languages: Spanish and American English. The Bulletin receives articles in submissions written in both languages or in one language only. In the latter case, the abstract and keywords must be submitted originally in Spanish and American English. Scientific notes must be submitted in both languages. From 2021, the instructions on the translation of articles that successfully complete the editorial process will be reported through the Bulletin's website. Authors will not be able to withdraw their manuscript once it has been accepted.

Presentation: To submit your article, you must upload it together with the complementary files through the page. You must register here or enter with your user and password if you already have one. The file must be in a single file in Word format (.doc or .docx), with the tables and figures included (initially in low resolution). The letter of submission must be in PDF format, duly signed by, at least, the correspondence leader, according to the format available for download. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors will be asked to send the graphics in an editable format (.xml [excel], .eps or .pdf vectorial) and with the texts in Spanish and American English, as well as the photos in JPG or TIF format, with a resolution of at least 360 dpi. Colors must correspond to the CMYK scale.

FORMAT:

Type of font: Times New Roman, size 11, letter-size page setup, and double spaced.

Margins: Left and upper, 3 cm; right and lower, 2 cm.

Titles: Must be written in boldface type. The manuscript title must be written in uppercase and lowercase and centered. It should be given in both languages too. Main titles must be written in capital letters, centered (even scientific names), and must be one space before the first line of the text. Subtitles must be also centered but as lowercase letters and there, third titles must be written on the left side of the paper, as lower-case letters, and also with no space. 

Note: Special attention should be given to titles. The title should be attractive and no longer than 40 characters. Google, for example, does not take titles longer than 50-60 characters. Avoid the use of hyphens, exclamation, or interrogation marks.

All pages must be numbered consecutively.

Text: Manuscripts should be written in the third person singular (impersonal).

Articles must have a maximum of 6000 words including tables and figures but excluded literature cited, resumen, and abstract. Only in exceptional and justified cases, more extensive manuscripts will be accepted, for which the authors will have to send a new letter of submission containing such justification. The text must be structured as follows: title, author(s), OrcID, institutional affiliation, author's email, abstract, abstract in Spanish (resumen), introduction, study area, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions, acknowledgments, and literature cited.  This format can be modified depending on the type of work. Those institutions or companies that have a registered English name can use that English version.

Scientific notes format must have a maximum of 1500 words (excluding literature cited), without divisions and subtitles like the long manuscripts. Notes must be submitted in two languages: Spanish and American English and divided only in the abstract, abstract in Spanish (resumen), text, acknowledgments, and literature cited. 

Abstract: Must be one paragraph and should not exceed 200 words. Resumen should be an exact translation of the abstract, both must include at the end a maximum of five (5) keywords in lowercase letters. 

Note: Special attention should be paid to keywords. Remember the people can find your article on the internet through them. We recommend reviewing them in light of the Coastal Environmental Marine Thesaurus of the Invemar Documentation Center.

Tables: Must be processed using the Table tool as a text file, without vertical lines. Table legends must be above, in lowercase letters, and sufficiently explanatory. The decimals included in the table must be with a period, regardless of the language. Tables must be numbered and included as long as you mention them in the text. The information included in tables cannot be repeated in figures.

Figures: They include illustrations such as maps, schemes, pictures, photographs, and plates. Figure legends must be placed on the bottom, in lowercase letters, and present clearly the content. Letters and symbols on figures should have a suitable size so that if they get reduced they will not lose their shape and details. Moreover, they must be numbered and placed as they are first cited in the text.

The journal covers the costs of publishing black and white photographs. If there are color images in the manuscript, the authors will have to afford color page fees*. We suggest sending images for the first version in 72 dpi resolution, in RGB scale, so that files are not too heavy to charge in the platform.

* The charge for color figures will be subject to the quotation at the time of acceptance of the manuscript for publication. There may be no charge for this. For more information, write to boletin@invemar.org.co

Abbreviations: Abbreviations may be used and also common symbols, such as m, km, g, mg, %, or ºC, as long as they are next to numbers. Do not use period marks after symbols or abbreviations. All decimal numbers have to be separated by comma (Spanish version) and points (English version), except when they are included in tables. In those cases, the decimals must be with a period, regardless of the language.

Citation style: There are not accepted indirect references like Pérez 2007 (In: Fernández, 2008).

In the text, reference the bibliography as follows, avoiding the use of op. cit.:

"The species lives in rocky and coral substrates (Pérez, 1980; Darwin and Scott, 1991), although following García (1992), it prefers gravel substrate."

When the reference includes more than two authors, it has to be quoted as Castro et al. (1965) or (Castro et al., 1965), with et al. always written in italics.

Personal communications should not be used but they may be accepted by the editor depending on the specific case. If they are included, they should be presented as:

Complete name (period) Institution (period) City (comma) Country (period) Year (period) Pers. Comm. 

References: The literature cited must include all and just the references cited in the text, in alphabetical order, and in chronological order when there is more than one article by the same author(s). The symbol &, frequently used, should be changed for the word "and" or “y” according to the original language of the cited reference. The accuracy of the references is the sole responsibility of the authors. Citations of papers that have not been accepted for publication are not allowed.

Note: Considering international standards, please includes DOI in all references.

If a manuscript in press has to be cited, it should include information about the issue, year, and title of the journal of the future publication.

Journals must be cited in the next format:

Author (period) Year (period) Title (period) Journal's title (comma) Volumen (two points) Page rank (period).

i.e.: Blanco, J.A., J.C. Nárvaez and E.A. Viloria. 2007. ENSO and the rise and fall of a tilapia fishery in northern Colombia. Fish. Res., 88: 100-108.

When the reference included all pages of the journal, must be cited in the next format:

Author (period) Year (period) Title (period) Journal’s title (comma) Volume (comma) Total number of pages (p.).

i.e.: Pang, R.K. 1973. The systematics of some Jamaican excavating sponges. Postilla, 161, 75 p.

When the journal’s title has more than one word, it should be abbreviated following the information presented at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog (or at www.abbreviations.com, when the magazine is not found on the previous website). For no listed journals, use the complete title. 

For books, must follow next format:

Author (period) Year (period) Title (period) Publishing house (comma) City (period) Total number of pages (p.).

i.e.: Dahl, G. 1971. Los peces del norte de Colombia. Inderena, Bogotá. 391 p. 

For the chapter of books, must follow the next format:

Author (period) Year (period) Chapter name (period) Page rank (period). In: Editors’ name (period) (Ed.). Title of the book (period) Publishing house (comma) City (period) Total number of pages (p.).

i.e.: Álvarez-León, R. y J. Blanco. 1985. Composición de las comunidades ictiofaunísticas de los complejos lagunares estuarinos de la bahía de Cartagena, ciénaga de Tesca y Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, Caribe colombiano. 535-555. En: Yáñez-Arancibia, A. (Ed.). Fish community ecology in estuaries and coastal lagoons. UNAM, México D.F. 653 p. 

Memoirs of meetings and unpublished documents of limited circulation (theses and grey literature) will be cited only at the discretion of the editor of the manuscript.

Theses should be cited like books.

Author (period) Year (period) Title (period) Title (period) Tesis and Abbreviation of study program (comma) University (comma) City (period) Total number of pages (p.).

i.e.: Arboleda, E. 2002. Estado actual del conocimiento y riqueza de peces, crustáceos decápodos, moluscos, equinodermos y corales escleractíneos del océano Pacifico colombiano. Tesis Biol. Mar., Univ. Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá. 125 p.

Reports are quoted as follows:

Author (period) Year (period) Title (period) Informe final (comma) Organization (comma) City (period) Total number of pages (p.).

i.e.: Pedraza, R.A., S. Suárez y R. Julio. 1979. Evaluación de captura en la Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. Informe final, Inderena, Bogotá. 39 p.

Web documents vary constantly. Therefore, they should be avoided as references in the manuscripts if it is not really necessary. In special cases, it will be the editor's decision to accept it or not. Add DOI whether it is possible. If web documents are included, they should be cited as such:

Author (period) Year (period) Title (period) Complete URL (without a period) Consultation date [DD/MM/YYYY] (period).

i.e.: Hammer, O., D.A.T. Harper and P.D. Ryan. 2008. PAST - Palaentological Statistics, ver. 1.81. http://folk.uio.no/ohammer/past/past.pdf 08/06/2008.

Other dispositions:

- Use of footnotes in the text is strongly discouraged.

- Scientific names of genera and species must be written in italics type or underlined.  All of them must be subject to the zoological or botanical nomenclature.

- Taxonomic reports should be made following the international nomenclature code, for which the journal has a model with examples, available upon request. 

- Measurements have to be marked using the metric system. Salinity values have to be presented without symbols or units.

- When submitting their manuscript, authors should indicate their complete name, institutional affiliation, correspondence address, e-mail, and OrcID. If one does not have it, you can get it for free at https://orcid.org/

- The names of at least three evaluators should be suggested for the submitted manuscript, including the necessary contact information (institutional affiliation and e-mail). It should be clarified that the persons suggested will not necessarily be the evaluators of the manuscript; the suggestions are subject to review by the section editor.

- The manuscripts published since this number are going to have DOI, in electronic and printed version, therefore it must be referenced.