About the Journal

General information

The Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología (ISSN: 2594-2158) is an Open Access scientific journal with a double-blind peer-reviewed process, with continuous publication with four numbers per year (January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December). The RLH's main sources of funding are the Sociedad Herpetológica Mexicana, A.C. and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, with the support from the consortium of herpetological societies integrated by the Asociación Paraguaya de Herpetología, Asociación Red Chilena de Herpetología, Asociación Herpetológica Argentina, Sociedade Brasileira de Herpetologia, Asociación Colombiana de Herpetología, Asociación para la Investigación y Conservación de Anfibios y Reptiles A.C. from Mexico, Red Ecuatoriana de Herpetología, Asociación Herpetológica de Costa Rica and the Asociación Herpetológica del Perú. 

The RLH aims to “Disseminate original works whose main object of study are Amphibians and Reptiles, as well as themes related to those taxonomic groups within the American Continent”. The RLH's goal is to strengthen the ties of the Latin American community of herpetologists to through the publication of a solid journal with strong scientific rigor.

The RLH is also the main dissemination body of the Sociedad Herpetológica Mexicana A.C. (SHM), in which news concerning the SHM are published (contests, calls, announcements, among others) as well as the annual reports of the Board of Directors. It is worth emphasizing that advertisements from other herpetological societies will also be published.

The Sociedad Herpetológica Mexicana A.C. has funded three projects to disseminate herpetological knowledge. The Boletín de la Sociedad Herpetológica Mexicana (SHM Bulletin). The first issue of the SHM Bulletin was published in March 1989, and was printed on paper for more than 20 years. You can consult the archive here. In 2015 the Revista Mexicana de Herpetología (RMH) was created, it was published exclusively online. It had a short life span, remaining active for only two years; you can find the files here. In 2018, the Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología was created, with a frequency of two issues per year until 2021. In 2022 it was established a continuous publication with four issues per year.

All the Editorial Policies can be downloaded here.

Copyright 

The Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología (RLH) allows authors to retain their copyright. This means that the authors have full control over the published work including the right to reuse, distribute, disseminate, and share it on social media and other types of web resources.

The authors retain the copyright, but grant RLH the right of first publication of their work under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

However, by agreeing to publish their study in the RLH, the authors —through the corresponding author— are agreeing that the RLH has the following rights, that are both non-exclusive and irrevocable:

1. To reproduce, republish, transmit, distribute and otherwise use the published work in electronic and printed editions of the Journal and derivative works throughout the world, in all languages ​​and in all media known or subsequently developed.
2. To create and store electronic archival copies of the published work, including the right to deposit the published work in an open access digital format (i.e., permanent digital repositories).
3. To authorize others to reproduce, transmit and distribute the published work, provided that the Authors are properly cited.

Open Access Statement

All content published in the Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología is open access and freely available and under the Creative Commons Share-Alike license (see Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License).

Archiving System

All issues and numbers are available and filed through the CLOKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system and stored on the server of the Faculty of Sciences, UNAM. You can check them here.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered into the system of this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes established in it and will not be provided to third parties or for use for other purposes.

Declaration of Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The RLH is committed to the highest standards of  academic review, as well as professional editorial judgment by insisting on thorough peer review procedures combined with careful editorial judgment. That is why this statement of ethics is based on the COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, in a manner that complies with the aforementioned purposes and with the standards of ethical behavior expected from everyone involved in the publication process: the author(s), reviewer(s), editor(s) in charge, and journal editor(s). Please feel free to contact us at revista.latin.herpetologia@gmail.com for any questions or clarifications. 

Rights and Obligations of the Editors

Publishing decisions are made by the editors based on the opinions of the reviewers, thus ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and originality of each published article. They also have the right to be recognized for their work.

Publication decisions. The journal editors are responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the RLH should be published. The editors must be guided by the policies of the RLH's editorial board and will be limited by the applicable legal requirements regarding defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editors may consult with other editors or reviewers to make this decision.

Transparent actions. An editor will always evaluate manuscripts exclusively for their intellectual content regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, citizenship, political philosophy of the authors, or any other information unrelated to the content itself.

Confidentiality. The editor and editorial staff may only send information about a manuscript to the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the editor, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript should not be used in the publisher's research without the author's expressed written consent.

Rights and Obligations of the Reviewers

Reviewers should ensure that their comments on submitted manuscripts are unbiased and based on the scientific content presented. They also have the right to be recognized for their work, remaining anonymous unless otherwise indicated.

Contribution to editorial decisions. Peer review is essential in order to provide a basis for the publisher to make appropriate decisions and, through editorial communications with the author, help the author improve the document.

Promptness and honesty. Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or who knows that their prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor directly and honestly and excuse themselves from the review process.

Confidentiality. Any manuscript received for review should be treated as confidential, as should all its associate materials. It must not be displayed or discussed with others, except as authorized by the publisher and for the sole purpose of complying with the publication procedures, requirements, and standards.

Objectivity. Reviews must be conducted objectively and impartially. The reviewer's personal criticism is inappropriate. The reviewers must express their points of view clearly with supporting arguments only pertaining to the manuscript in question, without taking into account other publications or personal statements of the authors in question.

Source recognition. Reviewers should identify relevant published papers that have not been cited by the authors. A reviewer should also draw the editor's attention to any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published document of which he/she has personal knowledge.

Conflict of interests. Insider information or insights gained through peer review should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest as a result of competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the submitted manuscript.

Rights and Obligations of the Authors

Authors must ensure that their submitted work does not contain any material that may be considered construed as defamatory or in any way infringes on the copyright of another party. They are also entitled to receive an impartial review based solely on the scientific merits of the manuscript.

Writing. The authors must present an accurate description of the work done, as well as an objective discussion. The evidence and underlying data must be accurately represented in the document. A document must contain references sufficiently detailed to allow others to reconstruct its argument. Fraudulent or deliberately inaccurate statements constitute behavior that violates the code of ethics. Such practices are unacceptable and may result in rejection of the manuscript.

Data access. In some cases, authors may be required to provide evidence and raw data related to a manuscript for editorial review, so they must be prepared to provide access to them. The RLH will accept requests not to publish data that the authors are working on, understanding that after a reasonable period, these may be made public with prior notice to the authors.

Originality and plagiarism. Authors should ensure that they have written original works. When using the work and/or words of others, they should make sure that this has been cited appropriately.

Multiple or redundant publications. An author should not publish manuscripts that describe essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time constitutes behavior that is contrary to the code of ethics and is unacceptable. The RLH editors will make every effort to process and evaluate submissions in a timely manner. If an author decides to send the manuscript to another journal, she/he must request the journal editor for the withdrawal of the manuscript so that it is not considered for publication in the RLH.

Source recognition. All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial support or other conflicts of interest that may be interpreted to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support used to produce the manuscript must be explicitly disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works. When the authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, they are obligated to immediately notify the editor of the journal and cooperate to retract or correct the document.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) provides resources for journal editors, peer reviewers, and authors on the subject of professional publishing standards at publishingethics.org.

Animal research

All research involving live animals must have proper regard for conservation and animal welfare considerations. We are aware that each country and institution has different standards and requirements for studies involving animals in both field studies and in laboratories (including experiments). As such, it is important to highlight that authors are responsible for the legal and ethical acquisition and treatment of study animals. In case the author's affiliations or institutions do not have an Ethics Committee, we recommend following the PREPARE guidelines prior to conducting animal experiments and the ARRIVE guidelines for manuscript submission.

Field studies that involve collecting specimens (organisms or genetic samples, e.g., DNA) must have appropriate licenses and permits from the relevant jurisdiction or organization, and details of these should be given in the methods section of the manuscript, including details of the entity that granted them and relevant license and permit numbers. If no permission is required for fieldwork, it should be explicitly stated. Specimen collection must follow all international (CITES) and location-based regulations. All collected specimens should be deposited in a scientific collection, and the museum catalog numbers must be clearly stated in the manuscript.

We stress that authors must demonstrate that they conducted all experiments and field research following ethical and methodological standards. Submitted studies that do not comply with these requirements will be rejected. Studies that require the sacrifice of animals should do so responsibly using only the minimum sample sizes that are reasonable and necessary.

In the Acknowledgements section, authors must list the catalog numbers of all collected specimens, and research permits required for the study location must be listed, as well as import and export permits needed to move specimens across country borders. The Institutional Animal Care and Ethical Committee approval for the care and study procedures used with animals should also be stated.

Retractions, Errata and Corrigenda

Retractions. It is important to emphasize that the Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología reserves the right to withdraw manuscripts under review, in press, or already published that have breached the code of ethics. In such cases, the decision will be supported by reliable evidence.

Erratum. The Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología will facilitate the publication of any minor modifications required to a published manuscript. They are published electronically without pagination and without a DOI, but they will be linked to the manuscript in question.

Corrigendum. These are characterized as major modifications that may or may not alter the content of the original manuscript. They are published as part of a regular issue, with pagination and a DOI.

It is important to emphasize that the Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología reserves the right to withdraw manuscripts in process of publication or already published that have breached the code of ethics. In this case, support and reliable evidence should be provided.

 

Last update: February 2026