About the Journal

General information

The Revista Lationoamericana de Herpetología (ISSN: 2594-2158) is an Open Access scientific journal with a double-blind peer-reviewed process and a continuous publishing model with four full issues published during a year (January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December). It is published by the consortium of different herpetological societies: 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. (México) and the Sociedad Herpetológica Mexicana A.C. 

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 of 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 Mexican Herpetological Society, in which news concerning the SHM are published (contests, calls, announcements, among others) as well as the annual reports of the Board of Directors.

The RLH has gone through tree major stages. It was born as the Boletín de la Sociedad Herpetológica Mexicana. The first issue of the SHM Bulletin was published in March from 1989. The Bulletin was printed on paper for more than 20 years. You can consult the archive here. In 2015 it was converted to the Revista Mexicana de Herpetología (RMH), published only online. It had a short life span, only 2 years active; you can find the files here. Finally, in July 2017 it becomes the Revista Lationoamericana de Herpetología.

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 (for example, they reserve the right to reuse, distribute, disseminate, post on social media and other types of web resources).

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

However, by agreeing to publish the study in the RLH, the authors through the corresponding author are agreeing that the RLH has the following rights:

1. An irrevocable (non-exclusive) right to reproduce, republish, transmit, distribute and otherwise use the 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. An irrevocable (non-exclusive) right to create and store electronic archival copies of the Work, including the right to deposit the Work in open access digital format: permanent digital repositories.
3. An irrevocable (non-exclusive) right to authorize others to reproduce, transmit and distribute the Work, provided that the Authors are properly cited.

Open Access Statement

All the content of 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 the numbers are available and filed through the CLOKSS 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 in 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 critical academic review, as well as professional editorial judgment. That is why this statement of ethics is based on the COPE's Best Practices Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics; https://publicationethics.org/), 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 editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the magazine should be published. The editor must be guided by the policies of the magazine's editorial board and will be limited by the applicable legal requirements regarding defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The publisher 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 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 attached parts. It should 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 in an objective and impartial manner. 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 related to the documents.

Rights and Obligations of the Authors

Authors must ensure that their submitted work does not contain any matter 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 of the manuscripts 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, they are unacceptable and can cause a manuscript rejection.

Data access. In some cases, authors may be required to provide evidence and raw data in relation to a document for editorial review, so they must be prepared to provide access to it. 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 in the appropriate way.

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 magazine editor will make every effort to process and evaluate submissions in a timely manner. If an author decides to send the manuscript to another journal, he must request the journal editor to withdraw 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 an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, they have an obligation to immediately notify the editor of the journal and cooperate to retract or correct the document.

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

Animal resarch

All research involving 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 or 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 an institution does not have an Ethical Committee, we recommend following the PREPARE guidelines before 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 needed for field work, please state this. Specimen collection must follow all international (CITES) and location-based regulations. All collected specimens should be deposited in a scientific collection, and the museum numbers must be clearly stated in the manuscript.

We stress that authors must prove they conducted all experiments and field research following the adequate procedures. Submitted studies that do not comply will be rejected. Studies that require the sacrifice of animals should do so responsibly using only sample sizes that are reasonable and necessary.

In the Acknowledgments section, the numbers of all collection or research permits required for the study location must be listed, as well as import and export permits needed to move specimens across country borders and the Institutional Animal Care and Ethical Committee approval for the care and study procedures used with animals.

 

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 will be provided.

Last update: November 2023