CIENCIAS MARINAS
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Ciencias Marinas is a peer-reviewed, quarterly bilingual journal that publishes original papers on research in all areas of marine
science. Four categories of contributions are accepted:
1. Research papers report findings of original research. Papers should be clear and concise. They should not exceed 25 pages
(21.5 × 28.0 cm), typed double-spaced in 12-point font (Times New Roman), including text, figures and tables. Longer articles
will be published on rare occasions. Systematic lists are not accepted.
2. Research notes report scientific results that are of particular importance and merit rapid publication. They should not be used
for preliminary results. Papers should not exceed 10 pages (typed double-spaced in 12-point font, Times New Roman) and must
contain sufficient data to establish that reliable and significant results have been obtained.
3. Review articles provide a comprehensive and novel assessment of an important region or particular discipline in marine
sciences. Strict criteria are applied to this contribution category regarding quality, importance, potential controversies, general
interest, and relevance for future research. Review articles must be submitted in English and are accepted for revision only after
prior consultation with the editor-in-chief.
4. Comments on a previously published paper. The author of the original paper will be given the opportunity to present a reply.
The comments and reply will then be published together. Papers are open for written discussion for up to one year following their
original publication.
Ciencias Marinas charges a publication fee of US$10.00 per final printed page.
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Authors should register (free of charge) at www.cienciasmarinas.com and submit their electronic manuscripts in portable
document format (PDF) following an easy five-step submission process in their newly created Author account. Authors must
attach an additional file containing the names and corresponding information (institution, address, phone number, and e-mail)
of five potential reviewers. These reviewers should not be associated to the author’s institution and at least two of these five
individuals must belong to an institution in a country different from that of the author’s institution.
All papers are published in Spanish and English and must be submitted in either or both of these languages (except review
articles). Once the manuscript has been accepted, translation into either language can be provided, if requested by the author, at a
cost of US$10.00 per double-spaced page. Authors will be charged for the editing of poor translations.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or
as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration elsewhere, that its publication is approved by
all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be
published elsewhere in the same form without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Presentation of the manuscript
• The manuscript must have line numbers in all its parts.
• Title page: should show the title, name(s) of author(s), affiliation(s) and full postal address(es), running title, and the name,
address, e-mail, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author. The running title should not exceed 60 characters and
should be as close as possible to the full title.
• Page one: should include the title of the contribution, abstract and a maximum of five key words. The abstract should be
concise, informative and should not exceed 300 words. Authors must also provide the abstract (resumen) and key words
(palabras clave) in Spanish even if they subsequently request to have the paper translated.
• Text: should be divided into sections (e.g., introduction, material and methods, results, discussion) and, if necessary,
subsections. The main conclusions can be presented in a short separate section or should be included and explicit in the
discussion. Words or letters to be printed in italics should be indicated. The International System (SI) of units and abbreviations
should be used. Footnotes should not be used in the body text. Information presented in tabular form in the text itself should be of
single column width; anything larger than this should be presented in the form of a table. All figures and tables must be cited in
numerical order in the text.
• Acknowledgements.
• References: care should be taken that all those quoted in the paper are included. The following examples may be used to cite
within the text: (Morales 2009a, b), (Morales and Pérez 2010), (Morales et al. 2009). Unpublished material should not be used as
references, though personal written communications may be acknowledged, in parentheses, in the text if necessary. The accuracy
of the references is the responsibility of the author. In the case of authors who use two surnames, both should be cited and, to
avoid confusion, they should be hyphenated when referred to in the text. Examples:
Hidalgo-González RM, �?lvarez-Borrego S. 2008. Water column structure and phytoplankton biomass profiles in the Gulf of
Mexico. Cienc. Mar. 34: 197–212.
MacGinitie GE, MacGinitie N. 1968. Natural History of Marine Animals. McGraw-Hill, New York, 523 pp.
Rice ME. 1980. Sipuncula and Echiura. In: Morris RH, Abbott DP, Haderlie EC (eds.), Intertidal Invertebrates of California.
Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, California, pp. 490–498.
• Appendices (if any).
• Tables: should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals; they should be presented on separate pages and given a concise
title. Vertical rules should be avoided. All text within the tables should be in English; only the captions will appear in both
languages.
• Figures and figure captions: for the peer-review process, illustrations should be saved as images and included in the same PDF
file as the text, tables, and figure captions. Figures should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and all the descriptive
text should be in English only. Once the manuscript has been accepted for publication, each figure file should be delivered
separately in digital editable format as a supplementary metafile (Windows Metafile, wmf). Original electronic versions of
figures in Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Excel and Sigma Plot are also accepted as final versions for publishing. By editable, we
mean that all figure elements (objects, lines, legends, axes, letters, numbers, etc.) should be independent to be modified
separately as required. Figures will be reduced to an approximate size of 15 × 15 cm, and care should be taken to ensure that the
size of the letters and thickness of the lines will still be legible after final reduction (once reduced, lettering should not be less
than 8 points). All figure files should indicate the figure number. Photographs should be provided with a resolution greater than
300 dpi and without any legend or symbol, together with a copy indicating the symbols required, such as scale-bars, arrows or
letters, and numbers. Color illustrations can be published when necessary at the author’s expense. Figure captions should be
typed on a separate page at the end of the text.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Manuscripts returned to authors should be revised and sent back to the editor within a period of two months.
After that, they will be treated as new manuscripts and the review process will begin again. Manuscripts and illustrations that do
not comply with these guidelines will be returned to the authors.
SENDING FINAL VERSION FOR PRINTING
Once accepted, authors should send, either via e-mail or the journal’s website, the electronic version of the manuscript (Spanish
and English, or indicate whether the translation will be required), in Microsoft Word or RTF, and the editable files of the figures.
The manuscript should be arranged as follows: title, author(s), affiliation(s) and address(es), running title, information of the
corresponding author (including e-mail), abstract (resumen) and key words (palabras clave) in both languages even if the
translation is requested, body text, acknowledgements, references, tables, figure captions and figures. Each page of the
manuscript should be numbered consecutively.
Once manuscripts have been accepted, they become the property of Ciencias Marinas and originals will not be returned.
Proofs and offprints
Authors will receive page proofs for correction via e-mail in PDF format. Corrections to the text other than typesetting errors
must be kept to a minimum. Major changes will be done at the author’s expense. Proofs should be returned promptly via e-mail.
Authors will be able to access and download a PDF copy of the final, published version of their article directly from the Ciencias
Marinas website (www.cienciasmarinas.com).
For queries or further information, please contact:
Luis Walter Daesslé-Heuser, editor Ciencias Marinas, Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanológicas, UABC, Apartado Postal 45,
Ensenada 22800, Baja California, México. Tel/Fax: +52 (646) 174-54-51. E-mail: cmarinas.journal@gmail.com