ISSN 0120-3347
printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

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

The Colombian Anesthesiology Journal is the official publication of the Colombian Anesthesiology and Reanimation Society (SCARE). It has as main objectives to divulge knowledge related to this specialty and its related areas.. Two or more experts in the topic revise each manuscript. The author shall receive a report of the revision process and of the decision taken, within the next eight weeks after the reception of the manuscript.

The Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology is the Colombian Society of Anesthesiology and Resuscitation’s (Sociedad Colombiana de Anestesiología y Reanimación - SCARE) official publication and is aimed at publishing and circulating knowledge related to the specialty and related areas, such as peri-operative medicine, intensive care and pain medicine. It is published quarterly.

General standards

Articles, work and manuscripts must be unedited and may be written in Spanish or English. Any part of an article, table or figure must thus not have been already published by or be in review for being printed by or in print in any other journal. The publication or reproduction of national or foreign work must have been approved by the Editor, acknowledging the respective credit where due. Work and/or material to be printed must be addressed to the journal’s Director, Editor or Editorial Committee, signed by the authors, to the postal or e-mail address, in text processing form (*.doc, *.rtf, *.txt, *.sxw o *.pdf), using standard extensions. Material must be sent via SCARE’s web page (http://www.scare.org.co; in the Publications’ section), e-mail revcolanest@scare.org.co, or to SCARE’s offices by certified mail: Carrera 15 A No. 120-74, Bogotá, D.C, Colombia. Manuscripts must be sent in magnetic form (diskette or compact disc).

One or two people from the Editorial Committee will be designated two weeks in advance for reviewing each article and returning it with their observations regarding its quality, content and epidemiological and bibliographic aspects.

The journal’s editor will select an anonymous external peer for the peer review process; such person will be someone having nothing to do with SCARE or any work relationship whatsoever, being organisationally dependent according to PUBLINDEX recommendations. Such person will have two weeks to deliver their considered conclusions and evaluation.

The Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology follows the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Sent to Biomedical Journals (URMs), as laid down by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 1997; 336:309-15 http://www.icmje.org Manuscripts are received on the understanding that they have been prepared, written and reviewed by all the named authors. Abbreviations may not be used.

According to that established in the Uniform Requirements, to be considered as being an author, it is essential that one has made a substantial contributions related to the planning of the work or article, participated in its conception and design and has collaborated by providing data and information, as well as analysing and/or interpreting them, giving final approval to the definitive text.

The material to be sent must be presented in black ink, double-spaced, on white, letter-sized, bond paper, on one side of the paper only. The margins must be at least 2.5 cm. If formatted on A4 paper, then a margin of at least 4 cm must be left at the bottom of the page. The text’s total length must not exceed 15 double-spaced pages, letter size 12. A note must also be attached stating that the work has been reviewed by the main author and all the other authors and state that it has not been totally or partially published in any other printed medium, except for summaries or memoires resulting from work having been presented at a congress.

The whole of the above process has been noted in the Editorial Committee’s minutes, filed together with the respective papers according to ISO 9000-2001.

An author will receive a report of the review process, the decision taken, any recommendations, the adjustments which must be made to the work up to 8 weeks after the Editorial Committee has analysed a particular manuscript.

Authors

The following must appear on the title page) the title of the article (in Spanish or English), b) each author’s christian and surname, the highest academic degree obtained (MD, PhD, MSc), academic rating (fulltime time, associate or assistant teacher, instructor, MD postgraduate student) and institution, the department or section to which she/he belongs, personal e-mail and postal address and main author’s fax number to which correspondence must be sent.

Titles

The title must be orientated towards a person who is making a bibliographic search, with the aim of consulting in a defined sequence: title, subtitle, summary in Spanish and English, key words according to an updated dictionary, introduction and objectives, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions and bibliography. Graphs, Tables and Figures must be presented on separate sheets.

Summaries

A summary written in Spanish which does not exceed 250 words must be sent, together with its corresponding English translation. It must contain essential information: an introduction, study objectives, the methods used, the results and conclusions, emphasising any novel details resulting from the work. It must be presented as a continuous piece of writing, as a single paragraph. Abbreviations and references must not be used in either the title or the summary. The abbreviation of the Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology when making references is: Rev. Col. Anest.

Keywords

Three to ten short phrases should be given which are deemed essential for linking bibliographic review searches. As far as possible, MeSH terms should be used (Medical Subject Headings) from the Index Medicus.www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.or BIREME’s health science descriptors (HSD) (http:// decs.bvs,br/E/homepage.htm). In case unknown terms or those which have appeared recently do not appear in MeSH or HSD, then current terms may be used.

Ethical aspects

Investigations carried out on human beings must state clearly that the approval of an ethics’ committee or one supervising research on humans has been obtained and that this is cited in the text and is in line with the Declaration of Helsinki. Research carried out on animals must include a citation in the text regarding the approval of a committee for research on animals having been sought and granted.

Conflict of interest and financing

The source of financing must be mentioned on the first page of an article when there may be a direct or indirect conflict of interest. To the contrary, it must be declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Classifying publications

The Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology receives the following types of manuscript for publication, in line with the corresponding limits regarding the maximum number of words and references quoted:

1. Editorials: 2,000 words, 10 references.

2. Clinical and/or Experimental or Laboratory Research original article), consisting of a maximum of 4,000 words and 50 references.

3. Investigation in Health Education: 4,000 words and 50 references.

4. Case series: 2,000 words, 25 references.

5. Articles Providing Reflection on a Set Subject: 2,000 words, maximum 25 references.

6. Systematic Review Articles: until 7.500 words and more than 50 references. Lifelong medical education papers: 2.000 words and 25 references.

7. Non-Systematic Reviews: 4,000 words, 50 references.

8. Case Reports: 2,000 words, 25 references.

9. Letters to the Editor: 250 words, 10 references.

10. Translations of current topics (translations of relevant articles will only be received when the respective authorisations from the owners of the copyright have been attached).

11. Management Guidelines: 7,500 words, 100 references.

12. Article in English (authorisation).

13. History of Medicine and the Specialisation: 2,000 words, 25 references.

14. Updating and Technological Innovation.

Tables, images and Figures

Tables, images and Figures must be included at the end of a manuscript, on separate sheets.

Tables must be consecutively numbered and mentioned in the text. Neither vertical nor horizontal lines must be used. Each column must have an appropriate heading. Explanatory notes must not be placed in the headings; they must be placed at the foot of the Table, sequential symbols being used for referring to them.

Images must be sent in the following image file formats: bitmap (*.bmp), GIF (*.gif), JPEG (*.jpg), TIFF (*.tif), or portable document format (*.pdf). They must have a minimum 300 dpi resolution if they are digital images.

Figures must be clearly labelled and headed, consecutively numbered and be mentioned in the text. If a single Figure has more than one part, each part must be alphabetically identified (e.g. Figure 3 A, Figure 3 B).

If photographs of people are being sent, then the corresponding authorisation for its publication must also be sent.

If photographs, illustrations or Tables are taken from the work of other authors, then the author must be cited. When an unmodified transcription of Tables is used, and in the case of photographs and illustrations, then the respective written permission for publishing them must also be sent.

Bibliographical references

The titles of the journals cited in the work must be numbered in accordance with the order in which they appear in the text; Arabic numbers placed within brackets must be used and the punctuation and abbreviations used must use the same format as that indicated in Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ tsd/serials/lji.html).

The authors must cite at least one author or journal from the national or Latin-American area in the bibliography.

Examples:

Periodic publications Mortero RF, Clark LD, Tolan MM, Metz RJ, Tsueda K, Sheppard RA. The effects of small-dose ketamine on propofol sedation: respiration, postoperative mood, perception, cognition, and pain. Anesth Analg. 2001;92:1465-9.

Books Viby-Mogensen J. Neuromuscular monitoring. In: Miller RD (Ed). Anesthesia, 5th ed. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone Inc.; 2000. p.1363.

Article in an e-journal Thomas EJ, Petersen LA. Measuring errors and adverse events in health care. J Gen Intern Med. [serial online] 2003 Jan [cited 30 August 2007];18(1):[7 screens]. Available at: URL: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/ doi/abs/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.20147.x