General instructions
The main objective of this section is to guide the authors to reach a fast and successful submission process. Before submitting your manuscript, we invite you to read carefully all rules, format style, and other instructions. The first one is about the themes, which include all Forest Science subjects: Forest Ecology, Forest Management, Silviculture, and Technology of Forest Products.
We publish mainly Research Articles and Review Articles. The latter has more flexible rules, but both must be original work. The submitted manuscript must be typed in Microsoft Word for Windows processor.
The manuscripts are submitted electronically by Cerne's online submission system and only in English.
The authors should see also COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), guidelines in their endeavor to preserve and promote the integrity of the scholarly record through policies and practices that reflect the current best principles of transparency and integrity, by preventing plagiarism, malpractice, fraud, and possible ethical violations.
Once a manuscript is accepted and published, under no circumstances will the authors' names be modified, added, or replaced.
Warning: If any CERNE’s instruction is not followed by the Authors the manuscript will be denied immediately.
Types of Documents Accepted
- Original Research Articles
- Review Articles (exclusively at the request of the Editorial Committee)
- Preprints (previously deposited at the SciELO Preprints repository)
Attaching Files
The files that must be uploaded to our system are described below:
a) Author's affiliation
Information requested: a) full author’s name; b) working e-mail address; c) scientific institutional or similar affiliation [Example: Federal University of Viçosa, Campus of Viçosa, Department of Forest Engineering, Viçosa, MG, Brazil]; d) ORCID number. The ORCID is a non-profit organization supported by a global community of organizational members, including research organizations, publishers, funders, professional associations, and other stakeholders in the research ecosystem. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized. (see more: https://orcid.org/).
b) Authors' Contribution
Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception of the manuscript. The corresponding author must upload a file in the system with a short paragraph detailing the individual contributions of each author (this is a required field).
We encourage authors to describe the individual author contributions and credit roles: Project Idea (PI), Funding (F), Database (D), Processing (P), Analysis (A), Writing (W), and Review (R).
The Authorship should be credited with a set of role combinations for each author's name. Eg.: author1: PI, F, D, P, A, W, R; author2: P, PI, W, A; author3: P, D, F, etc.
c) Cover letter
Write a letter to provide additional information on your paper to be reviewed and published. The maximum number of characters allowed is 3,000.
d) Manuscript
Please, check the Author’s Guideline in the next sections before submitting. This upload file section will receive your original manuscript.
e) Potential of 5 Reviewers Suggestion
Please suggest potential reviewers for this submission. It is mandatory to submit the full contact details of four reviewers including email addresses. Two of the referees should preferably be from any one of the authors' countries of residence. Referees should be from institutions other than those of the authors.
Information requested: a) full reviewer’s name; b) working e-mail address; c) scientific institutional or similar affiliation.
f) Images and tables
High resolution and quality (with 300 dpi or 600 dpi resolution).
The maximum file upload size is 20 Mb per file.
g) Declaration stating that the research was approved by an institutional ethics committee
Manuscript that involves experimentation with living animals, genetically modified organisms, human beings, or LGPD-sensitive data must provide evidence that it was performed under local ethical guidelines
Manuscript Preparation and Digital Assets
We summarized the rules about format and style to prepare your manuscript:
a) Spacing of the text: double spacing.
b) Margins: 3 cm for the lateral, lower, and upper margins.
c) Indent of the first line of each paragraph: 12.5 mm.
d) Paper: A4 format.
e) Font: Arial, size 11.
f) Number of pages: up to 25 pages for Research Articles and up to 30 pages for Review Articles, including figures and tables numbered consecutively.
g) Tables: Tables should be part of the body of the paper and must be presented in Word or Excel. The title should be above the table. Vertical lines separating the columns should not appear.
h) Graphs/Figures/Photographs: should be presented in black and white or in color inserted in the text after citation and in a separate file saved in “tif” or “jpg” extension, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Graphs should also be presented in a separate Excel file. The title should be below the figure. The figure’s text must be clear and with contrast.
i) Symbols and mathematical equations: must be presented using a word processor that permits formatting and not inserted as a figure. We also suggest the MathType software to write all formulas.
j) Units: Whenever possible, should follow as closely as possible the guidelines presented in: the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations. The standardization of symbols in forest mensuration. Maine Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletin 15. 1965.
k) Review control: every line and page must be numbered consecutively.
Article Submission Format
The manuscript should be presented in the following sequence:
Title: containing no more than 20 words, in capital letters and bold.
Highlights: Highlights are short topics with the most relevant findings from your research. The structure of this announcement should cover only core results or conclusions with a maximum of 90 characters (including spaces) per highlight. Each manuscript submission must be accompanied by four highlights, included before the abstract section. Highlights will be displayed in your online paper.
Abstract: The text should be descriptive and consider three sections: a) Background, b) Results, and c) Conclusion. They must be informative ONLY ENGLISH VERSION and a maximum of 250 words.
Keywords: minimum of three and maximum of five. They should not repeat words that are already in the title. These may include short phrases as well as individual words, be separated by semicolons, and be ordered alphabetically.
Introduction: should present a concise vision of the current level of knowledge that has been achieved within the subject area that the paper will discuss. It should neither give an extensive review nor should it include details about the results and discussion. It should clearly indicate the objectives of the research that was carried out. This section may not be subdivided.
Material and Methods: this section can contain subdivisions, with subtitles in bold print.
Results: this section can be subdivided into sections with concise, descriptive titles in bold print. The text should be descriptive and associated only with the results without speculation. We expected a logical sequence of concise results and fundamental arguments.
Discussion: this section can be subdivided into sections with concise, descriptive titles in bold print. We expect an excellent overview to define the answers to fill the hypothesis. Avoid mere speculation and irrelevant references.
Conclusions: One paragraph written with logical structure and related to your findings.
Acknowledgements: should be brief and concise and may highlight the funding agencies.
References: they should follow the citation norms presented below.
The items Abstract and keywords should be in the beginning of the left margin of the text and the other items must be centralized. The sub-items should initiate with capital letters and be positioned in the left margin of the text.
Citations and References
Citations follow the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) citation style. All citations and their correct information in the text are the responsibility of the author(s).
Author’s citations in the text should be made according to the following examples:
a) One author: Pereira (1995) or (Pereira, 1995)
b) Two authors: Oliveira and Souza (2003) or (Oliveira and Souza, 2003)
c) More than two authors: In the case of more than two authors, only the last name of the first one is mentioned, followed by et al. (no italic): Scolforo et al. (1981) or (Scolforo et al., 1981)
The references must be current and mainly from periodicals: at least 70% of the references must be 5 years old or newer and at least 70% must be from periodicals indexed on the database Scielo, Web of Science, or Scopus. They should be presented in the following way:
a) Research papers:
One author:
MBOOWA, D. A review of the traditional pulping methods and the recent improvements in the pulping processes. Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, v. 14, p. 1–12, 2024.
Up to three authors:
NAYAK, A.; BHUSHAN, B. An overview of the recent trends on the waste valorization techniques for food wastes. Journal of Environmental Management, v. 233, p. 352-370, 2019.
MORI, A. S.; LERTZMAN, K. P.; GUSTAFSSON, L. Biodiversity and ecosystem services in forest ecosystems: a research agenda for applied forest ecology. Journal of Applied Ecology, v.54, n.1, p. 12-27, 2017.
More than three authors:
OLIVEIRA, G. M. V.; MELLO, J. M.; LIMA, R. L.; et al. Size and shape of experimental plots for Eremanthus erythropappus. Cerne, v. 17, n. 3, p. 327-338, 2011.
ZANUNCIO, A. J. V.; CARVALHO, A. G.; SILVA, M. G. D.; et al. Importance of wood drying to the forest transport and pulp mill supply. Cerne, v. 23, n.2, p. 147-152, 2017.
b) Book:
BURKHART, H. E.; TOMÉ, M. Modeling Forest Trees and Stands. Springer, 2012. 457p.
c) Book chapter:
FLEURY, J. A. Análise ao nível de empresa dos impactos da automação sobre a organização da produção de trabalho. In: SOARES, R. M. S. M. Gestão da empresa. IPEA/IPLAN, 1980. p. 149-159.
d) Dissertation and Thesis:
Must not be cited.
e) Citation of papers published in Congress, conferences and similar proceedings
Must not be cited.
f) Electronic documents (only from renowned institutions and organizations):
PLANT RESOURCES OF TROPICAL AFRICA. Khaya ivorensis A.Chev. Available at: http://www.prota4u.info/downloads/Khaya+ivorensis/Khaya+ivorensis.pdf. Accessed in: April 10th 2015.
Supplementary Documents
The authors can insert supplementary documents, but this is a not required field. If the authors decided to insert supplementary documents, such as an open science compliance form, author agreement form, ethics agreement approval form, or any described supplementary material that the authors wish to publish online alongside the manuscript (figures, tables, video, spreadsheets, etc.), please indicate the name and title of each element as follows: Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc., and see the instructions to insert the supplementary documents are at the platform.
Financing Statement
The funding statement may include sources of support for the work, such as the names of sponsors and contract numbers (if applicable), along with brief explanations of their role in the research. This information should be included in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript.
Additional Information
Review papers may have a more flexible structure, but the section's material and methods, results and discussion, and conclusions are not mandatory. Only Review papers must have numbered sections.
To guarantee an anonymous peer review process for articles, do not insert author names or acknowledgements in the manuscript file. Please remove any authorship identification from the Word files before submission.
We publish yearly only 60 papers. All papers received are analyzed and judged by the Editorial Board. Manuscripts approved in the first stage are sent to scientific referees for evaluation, by at least two or three reviewers. Also, we only accept submissions in English.
The review phase is essential to guarantee the quality of every published paper. If your manuscript is returned after the reviewer’s suggestions stage, we request you to answer every question pointed. This new document should be attached with the name “answer to reviewers” in our system. The revised version of the manuscript should be prepared using another document with every change properly documented. Please, use red color font or the review option “Track Changes” to mark all changes in the text.
Only for research involving living animals, genetically modified organisms, human beings, or LGPD-sensitive data, do the authors need to declare ethical control information. This document should be attached in the “other” file section (see Ethics Committee, Ethics in Publication, and Attaching Files).
CERNE does not charge fees for publication, submission, or manuscript evaluation. Further information can be obtained by e-mail at cerne.dcf@ufla.br or on our website: https://cerne.ufla.br/site/index.php/CERNE
Contact
UFLA - Universidade Federal de Lavras
Departamento de Ciências Florestais
Trevo Rotatório Professor Edmir Sá Santos, s/n
Cx. P. 3037, 37203-202
Lavras, MG, Brasil
Tel.: (+55 35) 3829-1411
cerne.dcf@ufla.br