Normas de Colaboración
INSTRUCTIONS FOR
AUTHORS
Language
Before submitting your manuscript to the RBCS, we
recommended a professional edition of your paper, particularly if English is
not your native language. This is not mandatory but may ensure that the scientific
content is fully understood by the editors and reviewers. Even after approval,
the editors/reviewers may request, if necessary, a text revision by one of the
specialists indicated herein. Manuscripts with inappropriate English will have
its review process interrupted/rejected by the Editor or reviewer.
Exclusivity and originality
Manuscripts submitted or published, even partially, in
another journal are not accepted. The exclusivity must be declared in the cover
letter. Only manuscripts whose content has been published in the form of an
abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis/dissertation/monography are
accepted. Nonconformities of the manuscript regarding exclusivity and
originality will be the sole responsibility of the corresponding author.
Conflict of interest
In the cover letter, declare absence (or declare if
any) of conflict of interest associated with financial and personal support or
of any other nature which has influenced the manuscript content.
Authors
All authors must have an Open Researcher and
Contributor Identifier (ORCID iD - https://orcid.org/register), which will be
required during the submission to ScholarOneTM. The corresponding
author must declare in the cover letter that all authors are aware of and
approved the manuscript submission. The manifestation of unawareness or
disagreement with the submission by anyone of the authors will result in the
interruption of the manuscript. It is not allowed to change the corresponding
author. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the
authorship list should be made before the manuscript is accepted. The
contribution of each author to the proposal, implementation, data analysis, and
writing of the manuscript must also be declared in the title page.
Manuscript
Manuscripts must be in accordance with the standards
for scientific writing. The publication of an experiment in parts
(fractionation of the content) should be avoided, but if it proves necessary
the manuscripts should be submitted in sequence, and this fact must be informed
in their corresponding cover letters.
RBCS accepts the following manuscripts types:
Original research papers (Regular papers) – Should be based on an original scientific hypothesis, which was not yet
clarified. The hypothesis must be tested through experimentation and/or
theoretical models, based on the scientific method, with adequate statistical
planning and discussion. Priority will be given to manuscripts that contribute
to the understanding of processes and mechanisms occurring in the soil. Comparisons
of methods, varieties, types of management, etc. may, exceptionally, be
considered as a scientific article only when they provide a basis and/or logical
scientific reason; if they solve an important problem in the field; or if there
is a significant conceptual advance. The article structure must contain: title,
highlights, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion
(results and discussion cannot be presented together in the same section –
Results and Discussion), conclusions, references and may contain tables and figures.
Supplementary material is allowed (see Submission).
Short communication – Describes significant advances and innovative aspects of a technique or equipment/instrument;
a new species or observations; and data surveys limited to non-repeatable
experiments or other unique situations. It is not an article of inferior
quality and it has the same scientific value of an original research
publication. This type of manuscript is, in general, shorter than the
scientific article. It may not have the conventional structure required to original
research papers, but it must obey the same scientific rigor. Adding supplementary
material is also allowed.
Review articles – This type of manuscript may be submitted spontaneously or invited by
the Editor-in-chief, but both will undergo the same review process to be
approved. Besides reporting the state of knowledge on a specific topic, review articles
should be analytical and critical and present suggestions for future research.
Letter to the editor - It should contain relevant communication to the Soil Science community or
a critique on a manuscript published by RBCS. In the latter case, the right of
counter argument will be granted to the authors.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
All manuscripts must be submitted online through
ScholarOneTM, an online submission and paper management system, which
can be accessed using the following links:
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid=0100-0683&lng=en&nrm=iso
https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/rbcs-scielo.
The following files at submission must be uploaded: cover
letter, title page, and main document. Tables, figures, and supplemental file
are optional.
Formatting requirements
All documents should be created using a word
processing software, preferably the Microsoft Word. The text should be left
aligned, written with 12-point font, and with a 1.5 line spacing throughout the
entire document. Manuscripts should be prepared without line numbering, since
the online submission system will do it automatically when converting the submitted
files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process.
Cover letter
The cover letter must contain: 1) manuscript title; 2)
a statement that the paper is original and neither the manuscript nor any part
of its content was published previously in print form or electronically, and
are not under consideration by any other journal or electronic medium; 3) a
statement certifying that all authors approved the manuscript being submitted;
4) a statement that there is no conflict of interest (financial, personal or
institutional) associated with the information and results disclosed in the
manuscript; and 5) information about the manuscript relevance; the authors must
indicate the suitability of the manuscript within the scope of the RBCS, and
highlight the problem, hypothesis, objectives, and to emphasize the main
findings and why they are significant to increasing Soil Science knowledge.
Title page
The title page must contain the manuscript title,
authors names without abbreviation and without an academic degree. Present the current
authors’ affiliation addresses below the names, indicating without abbreviation
and translation the Institution (University, Institute, Research Center, etc.),
Department, Graduate Program, City, State, and Country. Link all affiliations
with their respective authors using a superscript number in parentheses
immediately after the author's name and in front of the institutional address. Present
a short and concise description of the individual contribution of each author to
conception and design of the study, the contribution should be linked to the
authors’ names using superscript letters in parentheses. The author contributions
will be published in the final manuscript. Acknowledgements to individuals who
provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing
assistance, or proof reading the article, etc.) and to public or private organizations/institutions
which provided financial or logistical support to conduct the study.
Main document
The main document must contain title, highlights,
abstract, introduction, material and methods, results, discussion, conclusions,
and references.
Title: Concise and informative, with no more than 20 words. Avoid symbols,
abbreviations, and formulae. Please consider that titles
are often used in information-retrieval systems.
Highlights: Provide
3-5 bullet points that convey the manuscript’s core findings. Each bullet point
must have a maximum of 85 characters, including spaces.
Abstract: The abstract must be
concise, factual, and informative, not exceeding 400 words. The abstract is an
independent section, often presented separately from the manuscript; therefore,
it must stand alone and supply the main information about the manuscript. The abstract must start with a brief sentence that clearly introduces the problem and the manuscript relevance. The
objective should be explicitly stated. It must present relevant information
about material and methods, the principal results and major conclusions. References,
symbols, and non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided. If essential
symbol or abbreviations be used, they must be defined at their first mention in
the abstract itself.
Keywords: Select up to five relevant keywords, which must differ from those words
used in the manuscript title. Prepositions and conjunctions (of, or,
and) must be avoided. Do not use terms composed of more
than three words. Only abbreviations firmly established may be eligible.
Introduction: The introduction must be clear and concise, but sufficient to present
the addressed problem and show any existing gap in knowledge. Bibliographic
citations should be specific, selected from the most relevant and recent
studies, preferably from journals with high impact factors. Thesis,
dissertation, newsletters, congress proceedings, and documents of difficult
access should be avoided. The hypothesis should be mentioned explicitly. A
hypothesis is a statement (therefore, written in the present tense) that establishes
a cause-effect relation and which should be supported or denied with
experimenting; it will be used to construct the conclusions. State the objectives
at the end of the introduction.
Materials and methods: This section can be subdivided by short headings referring to
methods/procedures adopted; the information should be organized in a logical
order to enable full understanding. Material and methods should provide
sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent
researcher. Field studies should contain the location with geographic
coordinates, climatic conditions, and soil classification. Manuscripts
describing research carried out in Brazil must have the soils classified according
to Brazilian Soil Classification System (SiBCS, edition 2018) and,
additionally, to present (parenthetically) equivalent classification consistent
with international systems (Soil Taxonomy or WRB). To classify the soils
according to the international systems, the authors should access the Table of Partial
Equivalence provided in this website or at J appendix of the SiBCS. Manuscripts
from foreign authors, whose soils were completely analyzed and classified based
on WRB or Soil Taxonomy, are not required to use the SiBCS. Methods that are well
known and already published should be indicated by a reference, and only
relevant modifications should be described. Reagents and equipment model and
brand should be cited only if this information is essential to reproduce the study.
The experimental design and the statistical methods used to analyze the data
should be described clearly. Software used in the statistical analysis should be informed only if
relevant.
Results: Results must be clear and concise. They should be presented using
tables or, preferably, figures containing graphics, images, or schematic models.
Avoid using more than four tables and four figures. Avoid reproducing numeric
values that have already been presented in tables and figures. Tables and
figures should be presented along the text as “table 1” or “figure 2”, using a
lowercase letter; or highlighted in parenthesis (Table 1 or Figure 2).
Discussion: In this section, the authors should present the significance of the
results obtained, without repeating them. Arguments that support the acceptance
or rejection of the research hypothesis should be explored. The discussion
should support the conclusions. Avoid excessive citations, such as those used
to point out basic concepts or common knowledge.
Conclusions: Conclusions should be coherent with the hypothesis and objectives. Conclusions
should be a short, clear, and concise text, without further discussions, and results
should not be repeated here. This section must stand by itself, without
requiring going back to the results and discussion sections. Do not use
bulleted or numbered list to organize the conclusions.
References: Every reference cited along the text should be included
in the Reference list (and vice versa). Personal communication is not recommended
in the reference list. The Reference list should be organized first
alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary; more than
one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by
letters (‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc.), placed after the publication year. Do not
translate the references; they should be presented in their original language. It
is not necessary to use a specific reference style at submission, as long as
the style is consistent. The reference style adopted by the journal (Vancouver
style adapted) will be mandatory only to the accepted manuscripts. The formatting
requirements are shown below.
Citation in text
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Examples:
Ferguson (2016) or (Ferguson, 2016).
Manuscripts with two authors should be cited as: Author 1 and Author 2 (Year)
or (Author 1 and Author 2, Year). Examples: Silva and Smith (1975) or (Silva
and Smith, 1975).
Manuscripts with three or more authors should be cited
as first author’s last name followed by “et al.” and the year of publication.
Example: Roberts et al. (2015) or (Roberts et al., 2015).
Groups of references should be listed first
chronologically, then alphabetically. Examples: (Tanaka and Yano, 2005; Jackson
et al., 2008).
References from the same author(s) in the same year
must be identified by letters ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc., placed after the publication
year. Examples: Silva (1975a,b) or (Silva, 1975a,b).
Personal communication should be used only if absolutely necessary. In
this case, the citation should be made informing the communicator’s name
followed by the year, both in parentheses. Personal communication should not be
included in the Reference section, but it should be linked to a numbered
footnote, with the communicator’s name, the date when the information was
collected, and the state and country of her/his institutional address.
Reference to a journal publication
Author AA, Author BB. Title of the manuscript.
Abbreviated title of the journal. Year of publication; volume: beginning and
ending pages. DOI. Journal names should be abbreviated according to the https://www.library.caltech.edu/journal-title-abbreviations.
Examples:
Camargo
LA, Marques Júnior J, Pereira GT. Spatial variability of
physical properties of an Alfisol under different hillslope curvatures. Rev
Bras Cienc Solo. 2010;34:617-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0100-06832010000300003
Brown DJ,
Shepherd KD, Walsh MG, Mays MD, Reinsch TG. Global soil characterization with
VNIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Geoderma. 2006;132:273-90.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2005.04.025
Reference to a book
Author AA, Author BB. Title of book. Number of the edition (if not
first). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Examples:
Klug HP, Alexander LE. X-ray diflraction procedures for
polycrystalline and amorphous materials. 2nd
ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1974.
Ab’Sáber A. Os domínios de natureza no Brasil: potencialidades
paisagísticas. 7. ed. São
Paulo: Ateliê Editorial; 2012.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book
Author AA, Author BB. Title of the referenced part, followed by In: Editor
AA, Editor BB, editors. Title of the publication. Number of the edition. Place
of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Beginning and ending pages.
Examples:
Jackson ML. Chemical composition of soil. In: Bear FE, editor. Chemistry
of the soil. 2nd ed. New York: Reinhold; 1964. p. 71-141.
Sharpley AN, Rekolainen S. Phosphorus in agriculture and its
environmental implications. In: Tunney H, Carton OT, Brookes PC, Johnston AE,
editors. Phosphorus loss from soil to water. New York, CAB International; 1997.
p. 1-53.
Reference
to a Conference Proceedings
Author AA, Author BB. Title of conference paper. In: type of
publication, number, and title of the event [CD-ROM, when published in]; date
of the event (Year Month Date); City and Country where meeting was carried out.
City (of the Publisher): Publisher or Institution responsible for the
publication; year of the edition (not always the same as the event). Pages of
the study or the abstract. Examples:
Bailey
TB, Swan JB, Higgs RL, Paulson WH. Long-term tillage effects on continuous corn
yields. In: 8th Annual conference proceedings - Annual conference on applied
statistics in agriculture; 1996 Apr 28-30; Manhattan, Kansas. Manhattan: Kansas
State University Libraries; 1996. p. 17-32.
Reference
to an Electronic Source
Author AA, Author BB (use the Organization if no individual author or
editor is named). Title of referenced material. Place of publication: Publisher;
year [cited Year Month Day]. Available from: URL
Institute
for Reference Materials and Measurements - IRMM. Certified reference material
BCR - 142R. 2007 [cited 2016 Jan 18]. Available from:
http://www.lgcstandards.com/medias/sys_master/pdfs/pdfs/ha6/hc4/9208111169566/BCR-142R-ST-WB-CERT-1515931-1-1-1.pdf.
Reference
to a Thesis, Dissertation or Monography
Author AA. Title (include the subtitle if there is one) [academic degree].
City: Institution where it was defended; year. Example:
Brienza S
Jr. Biomass dynamics of fallow vegetation enriched with leguminous trees in the
Eastern Amazon of Brazil [thesis]. Göttingen: University of Göttingen; 1999.
Tables: Please
submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables should not be included in the main document and they should have portrait
(not landscape) orientation. They should be numbered sequentially with Arabic
numbers. Each table should be self-explanatory, containing the elements that
allow readers to understand the table's content without having to go back to
the text. The descriptive title above it should be brief, but with enough
information to describe the variables and their cause-effect relationships. Supplementary
information should be placed in footnotes. The footnotes should be indicated by
superscript numbers in parentheses (or asterisks for significance values and
other statistical data) and included beneath the table’s body. Horizontal lines
should only be used in header lines, to highlight variables, and in the last
line of the table. Units should
be placed in the body of the table, on the first line above the numerical
values (results). Vertical and horizontal lines should not appear in the body
of the table. Tables should be created using a table tool of the text editing
software, preferably from MS Word or MS Excel. Avoid tables which have only a
few rows and columns, try stating the findings in a few sentences. Information
in small tables can often be presented better in the text. Do not insert blank columns
or rows. Asterisks or letters next to values indicating statistical
significance should appear in the same cell as the value, not an adjacent cell
(i.e., they should not have their own column). Revisions, such as adjustments
of tables, may be requested after manuscript acceptance.
Figures: Figures encompass two- or
three-dimensional graphs, images, and schematic models. Do not include figures
in the main manuscript file. Figures should have portrait (not landscape)
orientation and be numbered sequentially with Arabic numbers. The title should
appear below the figure and should be brief but sufficiently detailed to stand
on its own. Notes below the figure can be used to present additional
information. For multipart figures, each part should be labeled (a), (b), (c),⋯,
sequentially. And each part should be described in the caption. Avoid using
figures with more than four sub-figures, and it is not allowed to insert graphs
as an image. For review (submission), figures may be submitted in EPS, TIFF,
and PDF formats (JPG and GIF formats are acceptable). However, editable figures
must be provided after manuscript acceptance. Photographs should be in tagged image (TIF) format with 500 dpi. Be
sure that the overall style in the figures follows the journal standards. For
example, if you use Mg ha-1 in the text, do not use Mg/ha in the
figures. Minor revisions in the figures may be requested after manuscript
acceptance.
Formulae and equations: They should be inserted as
editable text and not as image. Formulae and equations should be created using
the equation editor available in text editing software such as MS Word or any
other tool which allow to edit them. Equations
should be cited along the text as “equation 1”, using a lowercase letter; or
highlighted in parenthesis (Equation 1). Equations
should be numbered consecutively as Eq.1, Eq. 2, Eq. 3, etc. at the right-hand
side.
Supplementary File: The supplementary
material allows presenting a more concise and clearer manuscript. Supplementary
material encompasses tables, figures, schematic models, photographs, and
datasheet, which are additional or complementary to support the scientific paper.
Each supplementary material should contain a concise
and descriptive caption. The supplementary material should not be cited in the
main manuscript text. Supplementary material will be published as received from
the author, without any conversion, editing, or reformatting; therefore, it
should be clearly and succinctly presented, and its formatting style should
conform with that adopted for the whole paper. The link to the supplementary
material, if any, will be inserted after the Reference section
REVIEW PROCESS
This journal uses
double-blind review, which means the identities of the authors are concealed
from the reviewers, and vice versa. After concluding the corrections required
by editors and reviewers, the author should submit a revision.
To do so, the author should
access the Author Centre (at ScholarOne) and click on Create a Revision. In
step one, it is mandatory to prepare a text with general and specifics answers
to ALL questions raised and suggestions made by the reviewers and editorial
board, indicating in which lines changes were done; this text should be
inserted in a text box named “your response”. In the following steps, the
author will be required to upload the revised version of the manuscript (main
document). In this step, the author must provide a main document file with ALL
changes (removals and additions) made in the revision process. The corrections
must be highlighted (using a different color, or any other tool, like bold for
example) in the main document.
AFTER
ACCEPTANCE
After acceptance, the process will be conducted by e-mail
(autores@sbcs.org.br).
Procedures: If necessary, the corresponding author will be requested to: apply the
reference style adopted by the journal and to edit/format figures and tables. To
ensure correct spelling and formal style, the editor may request, if necessary,
a text revision by one of the specialists indicated in this guidance.
Graphical abstract: The graphical abstract is mandatory. The corresponding author should
send a graph, image or schematic model, which summarized the main findings or
relevant information of the manuscript. The graphical abstract should be
submitted in a separate editable file (saved directly from the original artwork
or plotting device) to allow reformatting the original editable drawing. The
graphical abstract will only be displayed in the online manuscript, at the
Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo's website.
Publication fees
Publication expenses – including those of the peer
review management, journal production, and online hosting and archiving – are
covered by charging a publication fee.
For Brazilian and foreign manuscripts in which the
first author and the corresponding author are members of the Sociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo
– SBCS (Brazilian Soil Science Society), the publication fee per page is R$
80.00 and $ 70.00, respectively. If the first author and the corresponding
author are not members of the SBCS, the publication fee is R$ 200.00 and $
100.00 for Brazilian and foreign manuscripts, respectively.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
General guidelines for manuscript enhancement will be
presented below. Some of them will not be mandatory in the peer-review phase
but may be requested after manuscript acceptance. Units should be adopted
according to the International System of Units (SI).
Some examples of data presentation
are shown below:
|
Incorrect |
Correct |
|
72 hours |
72 h |
|
5 minutes |
5 min |
|
3 seconds |
3 s |
|
10 liters |
10 L |
|
20 ml |
20 mL |
|
3 tons |
3 Mg |
|
25°C |
25 °C |
|
3 m × 3 m |
3 × 3 m |
|
5% |
5 % |
|
4%, 6%, and 12% |
4, 6, and 12 % |
|
5 m and 16 m |
5 and 16 m |
|
1 M HCl |
HCl 1 mol L-1 or 1 mol L-1
of HCl |
|
1 mM |
1 mmol L-1 |
|
grams per pot |
g per pot |
|
grams per plant |
g per plant |
|
tons per hectare per year |
Mg ha-1 yr-1 |
|
Do not express solute concentration as normality |
Use mol L-1 |
|
23°C to 27 °C |
23 to 27 ° or 23-27 °C |
|
Ca++ |
Ca2+ |
|
5YR |
5 YR |
|
4±0.2 |
4 ± 0.2 |
|
kg/ha, mol/L,
Mg/m-3, etc. |
kg ha-1, mol L-1, Mg m-3, etc. |
Revista de Acceso
Abierto