Instructions to authors

Form and preparation of manuscripts

I - Submitted manuscripts should be original, destined exclusively to Ambi-Agua (Revista Ambiente & Agua-An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Science).

II – Only submissions in English will be accepted.
All submissions have to be via system, after reading carefully all instructions and registering at: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/ambiagua-scielo

III - The manuscripts directed to this journal will be evaluated by the Editorial Committee and Peer Reviewers, according to their specialty, following the criteria:
a) International scientific interest;
b) Scientific technical content;
c) Scientific relevance;
d) Clarity and quality of the text;
e) Quality and adequacy of the theoretical content.

Please, be aware that will be considered not ethical withdraw a submission before final decision of the Editorial Committee.

IV - In each issue, the Editorial Committee will select, among the favorable manuscripts, those that will be published based on the above criteria. There is no commitment with submission sequence or time for an editorial decision. This depends on peer reviewer’s and author’s response and also on the administration tasks and limitations.

Formatting the Text:
The manuscript should be submitted in text format (MS Office), not restricted by password to allow edition. The final publication will be in pdf, epdf, html, and xml. The manuscript should be submitted with the following characteristics:

Language: Good English (American or British)
Page size: equivalent to the size of A4 sheet (210 x 297 mm);
Margins (superior, inferior, left and right): 2.5 cm;
Font type: Times New Roman, 12, single space among-lines, in a single column, paragraphs are left and right aligned;
Manuscript size: most important in the evaluation is the quality and science contribution of submission. Normally a manuscript is expected to have a minimum of 9 pages including Tables and Figures (maximum of five all together). The journal publication fee will be charged per page counted after the manuscript has been accepted for publication and the layout ready.
All manuscripts should also have a Portuguese version of the title, abstract, and keywords.
First page: should contain only the title of the manuscript, without the authors' name, institutional affiliation, nor e-mail, followed by abstract and keywords, separated by “colon” and a period at the end.

Tables and Figures: should be numbered with consecutive Arabic numbers, cited in the text just before it appears in the manuscript (first letter in capital). Therefore, they should appear in the text just like the final format of the published articles (please check previously published articles). Legend of figures should appear at the bottom with first capital letter, a space of a character, followed by order number, a period (a dot), and space (e.g. Figure 1. The dry soil … .). The titles of Tables should appear above it and preceded by the word Table (notice the first capital letter), a space, number order, a dot and space of a character (e.g. Table 1. Concentrations of pollutants … .). Whenever Figures and Tables have a reference source, the word “Source:” should appear in the inferior part, following by the source reference. Tables, Figures and Sources texts always finish with period (a dot). Figures can be colored, with good resolutions (300 dpi) however, authors should explore all possibilities to reduce the memory size of manuscript but preserving the quality of figures.

You can insert images in the article without increasing the file size, just follow the tips below:
Use image files in JPG, PNG or GIF formats. These files usually have good quality standards and do not consume too much disk space and memory;
To insert the figures in the text, do not use Copy / Paste (or Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V);
Save the images on your computer that you want to insert into the document;
Then, go to the menu option available for insertion of the image of your text editor (e.g. in MSWord, select Insert / Image / From File or "This device") and locate the image you want to insert into the document. Finally, insert the selected image in the text.
These tips will be useful to get the manuscript uploaded successfully.
It is essential that tables are text format, not as a figure or image. Ensure that they can be edited. Make sure that columns are edited as columns and not separated by space or tab. All columns should have a title. Send an additional copy of tables in Excel.
Figures must have readable texts, using upper/lower case as appropriate and high resolution. Do not use titles on top. Be sure that they allow editions.

Structure of manuscripts: manuscripts in ENGLISH should have the following sequence: TITLE in English, followed by an ABSTRACT (followed by three keywords, in alphabetical order, that do not replicate title’s words or appear in the abstract); Title of the manuscript in Portuguese; Abstract in Portuguese (followed by keywords, in alphabetical order, in Portuguese); 1. INTRODUCTION (including literature review); 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS; 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION; 4. CONCLUSIONS; 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (if it is the case, include only acknowledgment to funding agencies, including the number of the grant); and 6. REFERENCES (please use references of journals with high impact, do not use symposia proceedings, thesis and dissertations, unless absolutely essential and in limited number).

See the "Evaluation Form" (http://www.ambi-agua.net/seer/files/review_form.doc) to verify the expected content of each section. Check articles already published to see which texts should be in bold.

UNITS

Measure Units: use international units with a space after the number (e.g. 10 km h-1, not km/h, check text for consistency), except % (e.g. 10%) and degree (e.g. oC).
Check any Greek characters and figures carefully.
Spell out numbers one through nine, except when used in units.
Leave a single space between units: g L–1, and not g.L–1, nor gL–1.
Use the 24-h time system, with four digits for hours and minutes: 09h00; 18h30.

Titles (ABSTRACT, 1. INTRODUCTION, 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS, etc.): Use capital letters, 14, bold, aligned to the left.
Subtitles: if they are necessary, they will be written with initial capital letters, preceded of two Arabic numbers, separated and followed by a dot, 12, bold, aligned to the left.
Abstract: should contain objectives, methodology, results and conclusions, should be composed of a sequence of sentences in a single paragraph with maximum 250 words.
Citations: In the text, citations should follow the recommendations of ABNT-NBR 10520 with the following specificities:

Author's last name mentioned with just the first capital letter, following by the year between parentheses, when the author is part of the text. When the author is not part of the text, between parentheses, put the last name, following by the year separated by comma. When there is more than one author, their last names are separated by “and”. Cited references should be preferably published recently in the SciELO base (www.scielo.br or www.scielo.org) or in international journals of high impact. Preferably, do not cite more than 15 references.

Equations: Graphs and figures originated in MS Excel should be inserted as objects that can be edited. The same for the Equations (use Equation editor, preferably using MS Word 2010 or newer or use MathType) that must be inserted as object, not as an image and numbered within (parenthesis).
The authors should express the equations in the simplest possible way. They should just include only necessary equations, so an average reader can understand the technical basis of the manuscript. Manuscripts should not have excessive mathematical notation.
Important note for English Manuscripts: All manuscripts written are required to be submitted in English. Authors that don't have English as first language, should have their manuscripts revised by a professional with good English knowledge to review the text (vocabulary, grammar, and syntax). Submissions can be rejected based on inadequacy of the text without examination of its scientific merit.
Examples on how to cite references in the text: Jones (2015), Jones and Smith (2009) or (Jones, 2015; Jones and Smith, 2009), depending on the construction of the sentence. More than two authors: Jones et al. (2014) or (Jones et al., 2014). Personal Communications or not published reference should not be included in the list of references but rather in the text, between parentheses (Jones, personal communication, 2015).
List of References: It should follow ABNT-NBR 6023 recommendations, here exemplified:

Books:
FALKNER, E. Aerial Mapping: methods and applications. Boca Raton: Lewis Publishers, 1995. 322 p.
Notice that the city and publisher of publication are important!

Books chapters:
WEBB, H. Creation of digital terrain models using analytical photogrammetry and their use in civil engineering. In: Terrain Modelling in Surveying and Civil Engineering. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991. p. 73-84.

Scientific journals:
MEYER, M. P. Place of small-format aerial photography in resource surveys. Journal of Forestry, Washington, v. 80, n. 1, p. 15-17, 1982.

Manuscripts presented in events (Printed paper) These references should be avoided but if essential:
DAVIDSON, J. M.; RIZZO, D. M.; GARBELOTTO, M.; TJOSVOLD, S.; SLAUGHTER, G. W. Phytophthora ramorum and sudden oak death in California: II Transmission and survival. In: SYMPOSIUM ON OAK WOODLANDS: OAKS IN CALIFORNIA’S CHANGING LANDSCAPE, 5. 23-25 Oct. 2001, San Diego, Proceedings… Berkeley: USDA Forest Service, 2002. p. 741-749.

Manuscripts presented in events (electronically) – should be avoided, but if essential:
COOK, J. D.; FERDINAND, L. D. 2001. Geometric fidelity of Ikonos imagery. In: ANNUAL CONVENTION OF AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING, 23-27 Apr., St. Louis. Proceedings… St. Louis: ASPRS, 2001. 1 CD-ROM.

Thesis and Dissertations – should be avoided – instead cite the derived papers in scientific journals:
AFFONSO, A. G. Caracterização de fisionomias vegetais na Amazônia oriental através de videografia aerotransportada e imagens LANDSAT 7 ETM+, 2003, 120f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Sensoriamento Remoto) - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2003.

Sites in the Internet (only if absolutely essential):
These references should be avoided but if essential or referring to an electronically published journal:
WORLD WILD LIFE FUND. Ecoregions. 2004. Available in:
<http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/ecoregions.cfm>. Access in March 2016.

Please notice that all initials in the author’s name have a space between them.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The file submitted (uploaded) – the main file - should not contain any identification of the authors, therefore, without the authors' names, affiliation, or email.
The properties of the file that identifies the author should be removed. Tips for doing this:

Microsoft Word:
Under File (archive), click Information, Verifying problems, Inspect Document and in this window unclick Document Properties and Personal Information, Close, and Save.

All content of the articles is solely authors' exclusive responsibility.
Every issue published by Ambi-Agua features an image representative of an article published in that issue. Authors are invited to highlight in the cover letter that they would like to have a specific figure to be considered as scientifically interesting and visually appealing to be in the cover of the journal. Images should be high-resolution (300 dpi) and 17 by 17 cm in size. Images should be original, and authors grant Ambi-Agua the license to publish. Upload the image as an additional supplemental file. Author should hold the copyright for the submitted image.

In any case, authors grant Revista Ambiente & Agua the license to use any of the manuscript published image to be used as the issue cover unless expressly stated the contrary.

Sending Manuscripts

Before you begin submitting, have ready:

1) The final version of the manuscript according to author’s guidelines

2) The Cover Letter text following the model:
http://www.ambi-agua.net/seer/files/cover-letter.doc

3) The digital copy of the receipt of the payment of the submission fee described in:
http://www.ambi-agua.net/splash-seer/?access=fees

4) A list of four Reviewers (name, e-mail, expertise), according to the Cover Letter instructions

5) Log in: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/ambiagua-scielo.

Start new submission, following the instructions. See that help is available in a link (Resources).

Remember that you will not be able to complete the submission without all items above. Doubts? Write to ambi.agua@gmail.com after reading carefully all instructions.