Focus and Scope

Nova Acta Científica Compostelana (Bioloxía) is an annually published journal which publishes original and unpublished research works, in the form of articles and notes, in animal and vegetal biodiversity and ecology. An article is understood here as a scientific work whose length exceeds three journal pages and which is structured in sections. Notes are works which are not structured in sections, with a length shorter than four pages (including illustrations).

Furthermore, the journal publishes, in the corresponding sections, popularisation works, book recensions and all the scientific news which the Editorial Committee thinks of interest. The popularisation works do not necessarily have to stick to the aforementioned scientific fields; they can also fall under other scientific specialties, preferably related to the scope of biology.

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts presented to Nova Acta Científica Compostelana (Bioloxía) will be confidentially evaluated by two anonymous referees (double, author/referee, blind system) designated by the Editorial Committee, which can also decide to choose referees who have been suggested by the author. In the event of dissenting reports, a third referee will be consulted. Finally, the decision on accpetance of the work will correspond to the Editorial Committee.

In case of rejection, the manuscript will be returned to the author, together with the referees’ reports. In any case, manuscripts which do not strictly adhere to the instructions below will be returned to authors for their correction before being sent to referees.

Publication Frequency

Annual. Individual articles are published online as soon as they are ready for publication, by adding them to the "current" volume's Table of Contents.

Open Access Policy

NACC has open access to its full-text content.

There are no processing charges.

Indexed/abstracted in

The journal, of annual periodicity, is indexed in Agris, Biosis Preview, Zoological Records, ESCI, Algology Mycology and Protozoology Abstracts (Microbiology C) (Selectivo), Biological Sciences (Selectivo), Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management (Selectivo), Water Resources Abstracts (Online) (Selectivo), Inter. Inform. System for the Agricult. Sciences and Techonology (Italia), Fuente Academica Premier, TOC Premier, ICYT, DIALNET, COMPLUDOC, REDIB.

Disclaimer and exclusion of liability

NACC is not responsible for the contents of any article, and the fact of its sponsoring the spreading of an article does not necessarily entail its agreement on the theses exposed in the article.  The editor, in any case, is free of any responsibility resulting from the author’s eventual violation of intellectual property rights.

Review form

Review form

Ethical Guidelines

The publication of scientific articles involves several actors, including the publisher, the editors in chief, the reviewers and the authors. It is expected that each of these agents have an ethical behaviour referred to ethical principles partially inspired in those provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines.

Publisher:

The publisher provides technical assistance and support to the journal editors in the use of the web platform, and maintains the software updated and able to facilitate the submission, evaluation and publication process of scientific works. The publisher also collaborates with the editors in chief indexing the papers, providing information about the databases requirements and, so, contributing to the Journal positioning in the usual rankings. Broadly, the publisher should helps to increase the editorial quality of the Journal, contributing to its visibility, internationalization and impact.

Editors in chief:

Editors in chief ensures that manuscripts submitted are evaluated based exclusively on its intellectual content, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, political affiliation or philosophical trend of the authors. They guarantee the confidentiality of the work, not revealing the identity of the authors to other agents except to those authorized by the publisher, the potential reviewers, the actual reviewers or the editorial board of the journal. Editors can refuse a job if it not satisfy the formal requirements or approach a subject not belonging to the scope of the journal. Editors communicate within the deadlines, once they see the referees and heard the editorial board, the acceptance or rejection of the submitted papers.

Reviewers:

Reviewers should refuse to refer a paper if they do not feel qualified in the subject approached or if they can not take the evaluation within the deadline suggested by the Journal. The referee report should be objective and written in a clearly and reasoned style. Reviewers should avoid ad hominem references and offensive or demeaning comments; their suggestions should focus mainly on the improvement work. Reviewers should treat manuscripts as confidential documents, and their contents is not used in their own works. Reviewers should reject referee papers if they show a conflict of interest, for example a past or present relationship with the paper's authors or the institutions they depend.

Authors:

Authors should submit papers containing original research on a clearly identifiable and not previously published subject. They should not send articles including a substantial part of others papers or books already published. Papers should be written so that they can be understood or replicated by reviewers. If ideas of others are used, they should be clearly referenced; plagiarism is an unacceptable behaviour and its detection involves cancel the submission or remove it from the platform if it was already published. In case of co-authorship, all people that significantly contribute to the paper are considered its author; each author should be able to identify which parts of the work are own and which parts are from others authors, and must maintain confidentiality of the all contents until the article is published. Simultaneous paper sending to other Journals is a sufficient condition for archiving it. If in the process of the paper edition the authors find errors or improprieties, they should communicate to the editors in chief as soon as possible and cooperate in their correction. Authors should communicate the potential conflict of interest between the paper findings and the financial support.

These guidelines are consistent with the ethical code of the University of Santiago de Compostela, institution to which this Journal belongs.

https://www.usc.es/gl/goberno/valedor/codigoetico/CodigoEtico.html

Digital preservation policy

This journal develops various processes in order to preserve permanent access to digital objects hosted on its own servers:

- Backups.
- Monitoring of the technological environment to foresee possible migrations of obsolete formats or software.
- Digital preservation metadata.
- Use of DOI.

The files published on this website are available in easily reproducible formats (PDF)

Interoperability protocols

NACC provides an interface OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) that allows other websites and information services to harvest the published content metadata.

Specifications:

OAI-PMH Protocol Version 2.0
Dublin Core Metadata 1.1

URL for harvesters:
https://revistas.usc.gal/index.php/nacc/oai

Journal History

Nova Acta Científica Compostelana (NACC) is a journal of the University of Santiago de Compostela resulting from the renewal of the old journal Acta Científica Compostelana (1964-1986), dedicated to the major scientific areas of exact science and biological sciences.

The progressive growth of the University of Santiago has made Nova Acta Científica Compostelana increasingly diversify, welcoming the most diverse research specialties in Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Pharmacy, Medicine and Physics. Such diversification made the journal’s renewal advisable in 1986, a renewal aimed at a new structure based on a division into sections for the said scientific areas. Thus, after a three-year break (1987-1989), the first volume of Nova Acta Científica Compostelana (Bioloxía) appeared, a “merger” journal, considering the broad area of Biological Sciences from the old Acta Científica Compostelana but also including another journal from the University of Santiago, in the same scientific field, Trabajos compostelanos de Biología (1971-1986). This journal, directed in its last period by professor Jesús Izco Sevillano, had been born with the specific aim of spreading the research done by the departments of the USC Faculties of Sciences and Pharmacy.

For more than 20 years (1990-2011), annually and with no break, thanks to the direction, determination and dedication of professor José Luis Pérez-Cirera López-Niño and the different editorial boards, Nova Acta Científica Compostelana (Bioloxía) has been a vehicle for spreading and a source of information for the researchers in the different subfields of knowledge belonging to the field of Biology. Now in 2012, as it previously happened with the old Acta Científica Compostelana, a renewal is required, and a similar one, that is to say, delimiting again the specialties which will constitute its thematic areas. The directors, considering its most recent scope, have decided to place its focus upon research in the areas of Animal and Vegetal Biodiversity and Ecology. Furthermore, honouring the tradition of the now defunct Acta Científica Compostelana, we want to recover its old science popularisation function, as we are convinced that it is to scientists above all to whom this task primarily corresponds.

All this is happening in difficult circumstances for the editorial world, and just at a moment at which our University, in consonance with the economic difficulties and the new editorial trends, has decidedly supported the digital format and the philosophy of open access to knowledge. We are convinced that this is a safe bet and believe that our journal will keep on carrying out its important function for many years, to which the editorial board, which now assumes this responsibility, will spare no effort.