Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submissions to VMOA shall be made through the journal web page (https://veterinariamexico.fmvz.unam.mx/index.php/vet). Manuscripts sent by e-mail are not accepted. Users must create an Author account before they are able to submit a manuscript. For that purpose, first-time users are invited to register for free by accessing the “Register” link on the journal’s web page. The system will prompt a registration form and authors are requested to indicate whether they are willing to participate as reviewers for the journal (leave this field blank if not willing to act as a reviewer). After registration is completed, the system will open a new page where authors can start a new submission.

Manuscript submission checklist (downloadable checklist available here)

• The text shall be double-spaced and left-justify across the whole document, including references and figure legends.
• Use 12-point Arial font, US letter (8.5 x 11”) page portrait layout, and the same margins of 2.5 cm (top/bottom/left/right).
• Number pages and lines (continuous line numbering).
• Make sure statistical treatment of data, if applicable, is properly described in the methods section.
• Include a “Data availability” section. Provide here, if applicable, the accession numbers of data deposited in public repositories. Alternatively, indicate if all data derived from the research is included as supplementary information or available through a web page (provide the URL).
• Submissions must include a “Conflict of interest” (COI) declaration that discloses COI of any of the authors. Follow VMOA’s COI disclosure guidelines.
• Include an “Author contributions” section describing the role of each author. Please, use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT taxonomy) to describe each contribution.
• Provide the names of the funding bodies and grant identification numbers in the Acknowledgment section.
• For research involving animals, the methods section must include a statement identifying an institutional committee approval of the experiment. It should also cite the guidelines and/or regulations that were followed to perform the experiment.
• Supplemental material (text, tables, figures, etc.), if applicable, is combined in a single PDF file. Large data sets (*.xlsx), SVG (*.svg), and video (*.mp4) files may be uploaded separately. Do not include supplemental material in the main manuscript. Make sure all the information required to reproduce the experiment (i. e. accession numbers, primary data sets) is included in the main manuscript and not as supplementary information. Please, refer to VMOA’s supplemental material guidelines.
• Every submission must be accompanied by a cover letter directed to the editor in chief. This letter must address the following points:
• Signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors,
• Contains a brief description of the study and its main contribution to science,
• A statement of manuscript originality, warranting it has not previously been published and it is not currently submitted to any other journal. Please, mention if results from the manuscript were presented at scientific congresses or are derived from a thesis dissertation that is held in a university public repository,
• It must mention if the manuscript has been rejected previously by another journal on the basis of either scope or scientific grounds.
• It must indicate that all authors qualify for authorship (refer to recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: http://www.icmje.org/, have agreed to the submission, and that no authors have been omitted.

 Review process

Every submission is considered confidential. Submitted manuscripts are reviewed by members of the editorial board and qualified reviewers.

To ensure an expedite review process, authors must recommend at least three qualified reviewers that could not be considered to pose a conflict of interest that compromises the objectivity of the review process (i. e. must not be members of the same institution, have not collaborated with any of the authors in the past).

Every submission is given an identification number (ID) (i. e. VMOA-1056) and assigned to a member of the editorial board. Please, refer to this key in communications with the editor and the editorial office. The manuscripts are checked for plagiarism before they are subjected to a preliminary review by a member of the editorial board. If plagiarism is detected, the submission is immediately declined. Otherwise, a member of the editorial board conducts a preliminary review and, if deemed suitable to publish in VMOA, it is assigned to at least two qualified individuals for peer review. Please, notice the preliminary review and plagiarism check may take up to a week.

The reviewers are requested to follow VMOA’s reviewer guidelines. They are given one week to decide if they accept the review request and up to three weeks to file their reviews. A double-blind review is applied, whereby the identities of authors and reviewers are unknown to each other. The corresponding author is responsible of keeping the coauthors informed of the status of the manuscript all through the editorial process.

If the submission is declined at the preliminary review stage, the first editorial decision is notified to the corresponding author within 1-2 weeks after submission. For submissions that are sent to peer review, the first editorial decision (accept, reject, or require modifications) is notified within 4-6 weeks after submission. 

If the editor requests revisions, the corresponding author must either submit the revised version within one month or withdraw the manuscript. Please, include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

1. A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by reviewers. Please, upload this letter as separate file labeled with the text “Response to reviewers” followed by manuscript ID and the corresponding review round (e. g. Response to reviewers-VMOA-1056-R1.docx, Response to reviewers-VMOA-1056-R2.docx, etc.).
2. A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You may use the "track changes" tool of Microsoft Word. However, make sure your name does not appear as the author of the document, to ensure the blind review process. Moreover, do not include author names and their affiliations in this document. Since it will only be used for review, it should come with the title, followed by the abstract right away. Please, upload this document as a separate file labeled with the text "Revisedpaper trackedchanges”, followed by manuscript ID and the corresponding review round (i. e. Revisedpaper trackedchanges-VMOA-1056-R1.docx". Please, notice that failure to highlight changes may delay the editorial process and authors may be requested to resubmit a suitable revised version that allows an expedite assessment of revisions.
3. An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. Please, upload this document as a separate file labeled with the text “Revisedpaper”, followed by manuscript ID and the corresponding review round (i. e. Revisedpaper-VMOA-1056-R1.docx).