ISSN 0122-9761
printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

Potential contributors to the Bulletin of Marine and Coastal Research should follow the subsequent instructions: authors must submit original articles; that means those that have significant unpublished results, nor being considered for another journal. The Bulletin also accepts manuscripts on critical revisions that compile and analyze studies in particular fields and propose accurate research lines. We suggest the authors in any case, to check the presentation style in the last Bulletin’s issue to follow the exact structure.

Manuscripts are first reviewed by three experts in the relevant discipline. No longer than three months later, the editorial board will decide and notify if the article can be accepted to be published, if it is acceptable but need some corrections or if it is rejected. If it needs some corrections, the authors have to write a new version and send it no longer than two months later.

Potential contributors to the Bulletin of Marine and Coastal Research should follow the subsequent instructions: authors must submit original articles; that means those that have significant unpublished results, nor being considered for another journal. The Bulletin also accepts manuscripts on critical revisions that compile and analyze studies in particular fields and propose accurate research lines. We suggest the authors in any case, to check the presentation style in the last Bulletin’s issue to follow the exact structure.
Languages: Spanish or English, abstract in both languages.
Presentation: Attach digital complete text file and figures to an email and send it to boletin@invemar.org.co. Type of font: preferably times new roman, size 11 or its equivalent, double- spaced. Maximum 40 pages, including figures and tables. Only in exceptional cases we will accept papers longer than that. Margins: Left and upper, 3 cm; right and lower, 2 cm. All the titles must be written in boldface type. Manuscript title and main titles must be written as capital letters and in the middle and there must be a space line before the first line of the text; the subtitles must be written also in the middle but as lower-case letters and there must be none space before the first line of the text; and the third titles must be written on the left side of the paper, as lower-case letter and also none space. All pages must be numbered consecutively, including figures, tables and figures legend pages. Once the paper is accepted, the complete final file must be sent again as attachment to: boletin@invemar.org.co. The file must exact information that was accepted as the last version.
Text: The text must be structured as follows: Title, Author (s), Author’s address, Abstract, Abstract in Spanish, Introduction, Study area, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion (optional), Acknowledgements and Bibliography. This format can be modified depending on the type of work. The articles in the format of “Note” must be preferably of 5 pages long or shorter, without the divisions and subtitles like the long manuscripts (except the abstract in English when the text is written in Spanish or in Spanish, when the text is written in English, Acknowledgements, Bibliography and Author’s addresses). The Abstract must be one paragraph and should not exceed the 30 lines. Abstract in Spanish has to be an exact copy of the abstract in English, both must include at the end maximum five key words, which have to start with capital letter. The main title of the manuscript should be given in both languages.
Tables: Must be processed using the “table” tool as text file, double-spaced, and avoiding vertical lines, each one of them beginning in a different page. The title of the tables must be above them, in lower-case letters and well explained. The tables must be numerated consecutively and also cited so in the text, and presented together at the end of the text. The information included in tables should not be repeated in the figures
Figures: Figures include illustrations like maps, pictures, plates and schemes. They must be excluded from the text and presented on separated pages in which they have to be numbered. Figure titles must be presented together in another page. Drawings: letters and symbols on drawings should have a suitable size, so that if they get reduced they won’t loose their shape and details. We can accept digital drawings with hi resolution. Photographs: the journal covers the costs for publishing black and white photographs. If there are colored images in the manuscript, the authors will have to afford the color page fees. Photographs and images files should be saved as TIF files, with at least 360 dpi resolution and colors should correspond to CMYK scale. We suggest sending the images for the first version with 72 dpi resolution, in RGB scale, so that the file is not too heavy to be sent by email.
Abbreviations: Abbreviations may be used and also common symbols, such as m, km, g, mg, % or Cº as long as they are next to numbers. Don’t use dots after symbols or abbreviations. All the decimal numbers has to be separated by dots, not by commas.
References: In the text please reference the bibliography as in the following example, 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 the gravel substrate. When the reference includes more than two authors, it has to be referenced as: Castro et al. (1965) or (Castro et al., 1965), and “et al.” should always be written in italics. Personal communications should not be used but they will be accepted depending on the specific case and it will be the editor’s decision. If they are included they should be referenced as: Complete name. Institution. City, Country. Year. Pers. Comm.
Bibliography: The bibliography 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, has to be changed for the word “and”. The bibliography style can be checked in any article in former issues of the Bulletin and its accurateness is the author’s responsibility. Unpublished data or manuscripts are not supposed to be cited. If there is a manuscript in press cited, it should include information about the issue, the year and the title of the journal of the future publication.
Electronically resources: web documents vary constantly. Therefore it is preferable not to include them as references in the manuscripts if it is not really necessary. In case you need to do it, it will be the editor’s decision to accept it or not, depending on the specific case. These citations should follow the next format: Author. Date. Title. Complete URL.
Others: The use of footnotes in the text is strongly discouraged. The scientific names of genera and species must be written in italics type or underlined. The taxonomic reports have to be written following the international nomenclature code. In the Bulletin office we have some examples that you can ask for if you need. Measurements have to be marked using the metric system. Remember that salinity values have to be presented without symbols or units. You should suggest at least two possible reviewers’ names for the manuscript, including their contact information.

The manuscripts, digital files and communications should be sent to: Comité Editorial, Boletín de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras, INVEMAR, Cerro Punta de Betín, Santa Marta, Colombia (e-mail: boletin@invemar.org.co). Communications about results and correction suggestions should be preferably sent by email, so that it doesn’t take too long to process the final version.