ISSN 0120-4157
printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts
• Checklist

Biomédica is the quarterly journal of the Instituto Nacional de Salud of Colombia [Colombia´s National Institute of Health]. Its main purpose is to publish the results of original research that may contribute to expand knowledge in biomedicine.

Editorial policy

Biomédica accepts and subscribes the guidelines established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (www.icmje.org), by the Equator Network (http://www.equator-net-work.org/) and by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://publicationethics.org/) in order to guarantee the quality of scientific publications, their transparency, integrity and full compliance with the ethical principles applicable to biomedical research.

Biomédica´s policy on authorship adheres to the ICMJE guidelines, which state in this regard that:

"Authorship should be based solely on the following:

1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;

2) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

3) final approval of the version to be published, and

4) responsibility for all aspects of the manuscript to ensure that matters concerning accuracy and completeness of any of its sections have been appropriately investigated and solved.

All authors should meet these four conditions. Fund raising, data collection or general supervision of the research group do not justify authorship."

Biomédica will not accept the inclusion or withdrawal of any author from the original list once the manuscript has started the editorial process. In exceptional, applicable cases, it will be mandatory to obtain written consent of the author(s) whose name(s) are to be removed from or added to the manuscript.

Besides, written consent should be sent stating that all authors meet authorship criteria, and that there are no other authors who meet these criteria and are not mentioned. The document should also describe in detail the contribution of each participant to the research work and to the article.

Clinical trials registration

Biomédica subscribes the policies of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) regarding clinical trials registration. Therefore, it will accept for publication only those manuscripts on clinical research exhibiting the identification number from one of the clinical trial registries validated according to the criteria established by WHO and the ICMJE. The identification number and place of registry should be mentioned after the Abstract.

Copyright notice

No national or foreign publication may reproduce or translate articles or abstracts from Biomédica without previous written authorization by the Editorial Board.

Privacy statement

The names and e-mail addresses provided to Biomédica will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Editorial process

All manuscripts submitted for publication to Biomédica will be reviewed by the Editorial Board and sent for peer review to at least two experts. To facilitate this process, authors must suggest and send via the journal on-line platform the names, institutional affiliation and e-mail addresses of four national and four international reviewers whose names should not be included in the manuscript.

Once the authors receive the reviewers´ comments, they must address each comment, in addition to incorporating the corresponding modifications in the text. The authors must reply to the reviewer comments within two weeks after receiving them; if Biomédica has not received the authors´ reply during the following four weeks, the paper will be withdrawn.

Once the paper has been accepted for publication, the Editorial Board will not accept modifications in its content, and it will request a copyright transfer statement signed by all authors. Additionally, authors should certify the quality of the English language in the manuscript or in the abstract on a document signed by an expert and sent to the journal before two weeks.

The original manuscripts of articles accepted to be published will remain in the journal files for a minimum of one year after publication. Once the paper has been accepted for publication, and after editing and style correction, authors will receive the galley proofs, which must be carefully reviewed and returned to the editors within 48 hours after receipt by the authors.

Once the paper has been published, the corresponding author will receive five free copies of the journal issue.

Biomédica is an open access journal and it includes citation metadata for all references in published articles, all of which are deposited in CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/).

Biomédica will publish scientific papers written in Spanish or English, in the following categories:

Original articles: Unpublished manuscripts resulting from biomedical research which present new information about specific aspects and provides a relevant contribution to scientific knowledge.

Short communication: Report of partial or final results of research whose rapid disclosure is of great importance.

Technical note: Detailed description of a new laboratory technique or of modifications done to an established technique, emphasizing the advantages that the process has, or the importance of the innovation developed.

Essay: A philosophical, literary, or scientific manuscript that presents an author´s documented opinion about a specific topic or a topic of current interest.

Commentary: A manuscript about an article published in the journal.

History: A manuscript that places emphasis on historical personalities or facts, and their contributions to the development of biomedical sciences or health policies.

Topic review: the current state of the art on a specific topic; it includes two categories:

1) Requested by the Editorial Board to experts on a topic.

2) Presented by professionals interested in a particular topic. For this option, authors must send a proposal indicating why the topic selected is relevant to the readers of Biomédica including a brief description, some key references, publications by the authors on the topic that are to be cited (mandatory), unpublished data by the authors that are to be included (mandatory), the probable size of the manuscript and the approximate number of illustrations.

In both categories, authors should include the following elements:

- An abstract with emphasis on the significance of recent findings;

- a pointed introduction to the topic showing past landmarks and present developments;

- appropriate subtitles to facilitate a better under - standing of the manuscript;

- the development of the topic is left to the discretion of the authors, but they are advised to include tables, graphics and figures to provide a clearer understanding of the text. In case figures are taken partially or totally from other publications, authors must attach the permission from the copyright holder for their reproduction in Biomédica.

Images in biomedicine: An illustrated paper with photographs demonstrating and explaining a concept, a structure, a disease or a biomedical diagnosis. It must include a short commentary emphasizing the importance of the illustrated topic.

Make your own diagnosis: The purpose of papers presented in this category is to challenge the diagnostic ability of readers, using illustrations or photographs of clinical data, or microscopic findings. It has two parts, the clinical presentation and the corresponding findings in the first part, and the correct diagnosis in the second part. The latter should appear on a separate page and with an updated comment on the disease it highlights.

Case presentation: Clinical cases with peculiar presentations or special features of diagnostic value and a brief review of the relevant literature.

Letters to the editor: Readers can request explanations or comment on articles published in the journal. The decision to publish these letters lies on the Editorial Board.

Book review: Brief critical writings on books about health and biomedicine.

Preparation of the manuscript

Please follow the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors that are published as "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals" (updated December 2013) (http://icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf).

The manuscript must include the following sections:

Presentation page: This section must include the following items:

- Manuscript title (maximum 165 characters)

- Running title for page headlines (maximum 50 characters)

- Spanish title (maximum 165 characters)

- A paragraph with the authors´ full names (include only first family name)

- The institutional affiliation of each author including the name of their group, institution, city and country. The link of authors´ names and institutional affiliation should be done using numbers in superscript. Omit positions held and academic qualifications.

- Name of corresponding author, along with postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address

- A paragraph stating authors´ specific contribution to the article.

Abstracts: The manuscript must include a structured abstract (introduction, objective, materials and methods, results and conclusions) in both Spanish and English, not longer than 250 words. The use of references is not allowed in the abstract, and the inclusion of abbreviations and acronyms is not recommended.

Key words: No more than ten key words in each language are permitted. Authors are advised to verify the English keywords in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the Index Medicus available from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.htm, and the Spanish keywords in Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud (DeCS) of the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences index available from http://decs.bvs.br

Text: All manuscripts, including the presentation page, abstracts, references, tables and titles of figures and tables, should be in double space. Leave only a single space after the end of each paragraph. Use Arial font size 12 for the text and for table and figure titles, and do not justify the text (left justified). Use italic letters for species names or scientific terms; do not underline for italicization.

Electronic format: The manuscript must be received as an MS Word^TM file, preferably in the 97-2003 version. Figures should come attached to the Word document and they should be sent preferably in a 300 dpi tiff format. Graphics made with Power Point^TM or MS Word programs are not acceptable because of low resolution. Illustrations are printed in a single column (75 mm) or in two columns (153 mm), therefore, illustrations must be sent in one of these two print sizes. In the case of color illustrations, please use CMYK files in a high resolution tiff format. The best resolution for CMYK files is 300 dpi if the image does not include text. If the image includes text, the recommended resolution is 600 dpi; if it is black and white, the recommended resolution is 1200 dpi. The recommended font for graphics is Helvetic. If your files are Macintosh, please convert them to one of the above formats. A complete list of the files must be sent including the names of the programs in which they were formatted.

Acknowledgements: Authors should certify that persons mentioned in the Acknowledgements have been informed and they have agreed to it. This is not required in the case of institutions.

Conflicts of interest and financial support statements: Authors must place these statements before the References section in separate paragraphs.

Biomédica subscribes the ICMJE recommendations in this respect and adopts their format for the statement of potential conflicts of interest, which should be filled out individually by each autor and sent along with the letter of submission. The electronic format is available from http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/.

References: Strict adherence to the guidelines of the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals is required. A number is assigned to each reference as it appears in the manuscript, the tables and figures in ascending order. The reference numbers are placed within parenthesis (not as indices or superscripts).

Personal communications, unpublished data, manuscripts in preparation or submitted for publication, and abstracts presented at congresses or other scientific meetings must not be numbered but rather referenced in the text within parenthesis.

Consult the periodical publications list of Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd7serials7lij.html) for exact abbreviations of journal names. If the journal is not listed, write its full title. Include only the first six authors of the article, followed by et al. The inclusion of national and Latin-American references is recommended. For this purpose, please consult Lilacs, Latindex, Sibra, or Colciencia´s indices, and other pertinent bibliographic sources.

The following are some examples of references from different types of publications according to the Vancouver style.

Scientific journal: The adequate way of citing scientific journals is the following (Please, check the order of the data, spacing and punctuation):

Authors (only first family name followed by first name initials) in bold. Title. Journal´s abbreviated name. Year;volume:initial page-last page. http://dx. doi.org/

Examples:

Alter G, Malenfant JM, Altfeld M. CD107a as a functional marker for the identification of natural killer cell activity. J Immunol Methods. 2004;294:15-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jim.2004.08.008

Sánchez J, Villada OA, Rojas ML, Montoya L, Díaz A, Vargas C, et al. Efecto del zinc aminoquelado y el sulfato de zinc en la incidencia de la infección respiratoria y la diarrea en niños preescolares de centros infantiles. Biomédica. 2014;34:79-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.7705/biomedica.v34i1.1581

Book or document: The adequate way of citing books or documents is the following (Please, check the order of the data, spacing and punctuation):

Authors (only first family name followed by first name initials) in bold. Title. Edition (when applicable). Place of publication: Publisher; year. Initial page-last page or total number of pages.

Example:

Bernard HR. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Second edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 1994. 585 p.

Book chapter or document: The adequate way of citing book chapters or documents is the following (Please, check the order of the data, spacing and punctuation):

Authors (only first family name followed by first name initials) in bold. Title of chapter. In: name of book author(s), editor(s). Title of book. Edition (when applicable). Place of publication: Publisher; year.

Initial page - last page or total number of pages.

Example:

Restrepo A, Tobón AM, Agudelo CA. Paracoccidioidomycosis. In: Hospenthal DR, Rinaldi MG, editors. Diagnosis and treatment of human mycoses. 1st edition. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press; 2008. p. 127-331.

Documents in web sites: The adequate way of citing documents published in web sites is the following (Please, check the order of the data, spacing and punctuation):

Authors (only first family name followed by first name initials) in bold. Title. Citation date: day, month, year. Available from: exact link to open the document.

Example:

Nucci M, Colombo AL. Clinical manifestations and diagnosis of acute/subacute paracoccidioidomycosis. UpToDate. 2012. Citation date: October 15, 2012. Available from: http://www.uptodate.com/contents/clinical-manifestations-and-diagnosis-of-acute-subacute-paracoccidioidomycosis

Tables and figures: Tables must be formatted using the Word processing tool for this purpose. Do not include columns or tabulations within the text of the manuscript.

Regarding microscope slides, include the staining and lens increase in the objective, but do not include the value of the ocular.

In the case of tables or figures previously published, an authorization by the copyright holder should be attached for publication in Biomédica.

Manuscript submission

The manuscript should be submitted to Biomédica´s on-line platform using the link "Información para autores", available from http://www.revistabiomedica.org/. However, a printed letter signed by all authors stating that they know the contents of the manuscript, that they agree to its submission for publication in Biomédica, and explicitly stating that the manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication to any other journal should be sent to the following address:

Revista Biomédica

Instituto Nacional de Salud

Avenida Calle 26 No. 51-20, bloque B, oficina B-245

Bogotá D.C., Zona 6, Colombia

Authors living in foreign countries may send theletter signed and scanned via e-mail to Biomédica´s e-mail: biomedica@ins.gov.co, explaining that they do so because they are settled abroad.

Once the printed letter of submission (in the case of local authors), or the e-mails (in the case of authors abroad) have been received at Biomédica´s office, the editorial review process will start.

The submission of a manuscript to Biomédica for publication implies the acceptance by the authors of the following:

- Full knowledge and strict adherence to the instructions to authors;

- compliance with the internationally accepted authorship criteria;

- inclusion of all authors that meet authorship criteria;

- total agreement with the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication, and

For the purpose of verifying that authors have complied with Biomédica´ publication guidelines, the corresponding author should include the following checklist along with the manuscript:

______Original article            _____   Short communication           ______ Technical note

______Tepic review              ______ Historical paper                    ______ Essay

______Commentary              ______ Images in biomedicine 

______Case presentation      ______ Make your own diagnosis  

______Alter to the Editor      ______ Book review 

1. Presentation

   ____ Text written in double space, in Arial font size 12 point, on one side of letter-size pages

   ____ Pages numbered consecutively

2. Title

   ___ Title in Spanish and English (maximum 165 characters)

   ___ Running title in the same language used in the text of the manuscript (Spanish or English, maximum 50 characters)

   ___ Authors´ names with institutional affiliations (do not include current positions or academic titles)

   ___ Corresponding author´s information: name, postal address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address

   3. Abstracts

   ___ Structured abstract both in Spanish and English (maximum 250 words) using the following subtitles: Introduction, Objective(s), Materials and methods, Results, Conclusion(s). The inclusion of a structured abstract applies only for original articles and short communications.

   4. Keywords

   ___ 6 to 10 per manuscript in each language

   ___ Keywords in English previously verified in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of Index Medicus available from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh7meshhome.htm , and Spanish keywords verified in Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud (DeCS) of the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences index available from http://decs.bvs.br

   5. Structure of an original article, technical note or short communication Include the following sections:

   ___ Introduction

   ___ Materials and methods

   ___ Results

   ___ Discussion

   ___ Acknowledgements

   ___ Conflicts of interest statement

   ___ Financial support statement

   ___ References

   ___ Tables and figures with their corresponding titles.

   6. Figures

   ___ Figures should go on a separate page with its corresponding title

   7. Tables

   ___ Tables should go on a separate page, in Word format using font Arial size 10 and single space

   ___ Tables should be numbered consecutively in their order of appearance in the text

   ___ Include titles for all tables and figures.

   8. References

   ___ References should be numbered consecutively according to the order of citation in the text.

   ___ Biomedica īs guidelines for citing references must be followed strictly.

   ___ If references are cited in tables or figures, please continue with the consecutive order used in the text.

   9. Use of abbreviations and acronyms

   ___ Write the complete term in its original language with the corresponding abbreviation in parenthesis.

   Avoid using abbreviations and acronyms that are not universally accepted.

   10. Nomenclature

   ___ Names of genus and species are written in italics

   ___ Microorganisms scientific names should be written in full the first time they appear in the text, as well as in the title and in the abstracts; after, just use the first letter of the genus followed by a dot and the complete name of the species.

   11. General considerations

   ___ Printed letter of submission signed by all authors. In the case of authors living abroad, the letter should be signed, scanned and sent from their personal e-mails.

   ___ Conflicts of interest statement in the corresponding form filled out by each author.

   ___ Manuscripts presenting results from research conducted on human subjects or animals include an explicit statement that ethical clearance was requested and obtained from an institutional ethics committee. This statement goes at the end of the Materials and methods section.

   ___ Site and registration number for clinical trials in human subjects.

   ___ Authors certify that the persons whose names are mentioned in the Acknowledgements section are fully aware of this and agree to their inclusion.

   ___ The financial support statement was included.

   ___ The names, institutional affiliation and e-mails of the four national and four international reviewers suggested by the authors were included in the letter of submission.