Any article submitted to this journal must follow the guidelines outlined in the "Ethics and Policies" section of this author’s guide. It is essential to consult it before submitting manuscripts.
For any article type of this journal, except Letters to the Editor, the three headings: Ethical Considerations, Funding, and Conflicts of Interest, should be included on the first page.
Ethical Considerations:
If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author must ensure that the described work has been carried out in accordance with the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki for experiments involving human beings; and in accordance with uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Authors should include a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from human subjects and that all ethical procedures were followed. The rights to privacy of human subjects must always be respected. Approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or the relevant ethics committee should be indicated in this section.
Funding:
Authors are requested to identify who provided financial support for the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if applicable, in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript drafting, and decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, this should be stated.
Conflicts of Interest:
All authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that could influence their work, even if they are not directly related to the current manuscript.
Possible conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, other funding, travel grants, and participation in courses and conferences as paid experts. If none of these conditions apply, the statement should read: "Conflicts of Interest: None."
Original articles
These will be original studies that offer novel information, of very broad interest to national and international scientific communities, whose specific data have not been published in any other journal. The studies will always be prospective and will show the results of research projects or the study design of projects that are still under way. All the information contained in the submitted articles will have to be original, and manuscripts reporting results previously reproduced in other journals will not be accepted for. In the cover letter (see below), the original nature of the manuscript contents, which will be the authors responsibility, will be made explicitly clear. All the submitted manuscripts will always be peer-reviewed, and the final decision will be made on the basis of the comments from the expert reviewers and the Editors. When writing the articles, authors are advised to use the international guidelines for the report of health-related research results:
Clinical trials: CONSORT (http://www.consort-statement.org/). Besides, all trials must be registered in one of the international databases, and the number of the corresponding registry will always be indicated.
Observational studies: STROBE (http://www.strobe-statement.org/).
Articles involving diagnostic tests: STARD (http://www.stard-statement.org/).
Systematic reviews and metaanalysis:PRISMA (http://www.prismastatement.org/).
For other types of research studies, verify the corresponding guidelines in the initiative EQUATOR (http://www.equator-network.org/).
The recommended length of the text is 3,000 words. A maximum of 6 figures and/or tables will be allowed. A maximum of 30 references may be included. If any of these parameters are exceeded, the authors must provide adequate justification in their cover letter. There are no limitations on the number of authors, although all authors must have contributed substantially to obtaining the results and preparation of the manuscript in accordance with ICMJE criteria (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html).
In the cover letter, in a totally independent document, the specific contribution of each author will always be specified.
Manuscripts should be structured into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, as well as an Abstract of up to 250 words structured into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results and Conclusion.
Reviews
These will be articles in which a topic of interest will be reviewed on the basis of an up-do-date and objective view extracted from the most relevant and recent publications dealing with the subject in question. The authors will not have to give their own view/opinion about the topic in question, but they will have to provide a summary of the state-of-the-art in an organized, structured, and adequate manner. Review articles will always be peer reviewed, and the final decision will be made on the basis of the comments from the expert reviewers and the Editors. Reviews will have a maximum length of 4,000 words. The article will include a 250-word abstract, which will not be structured, and will have a maximum of 6 figures or tables. The number of authors will be limited to three, except where adequate justification is provided. There is no limit to the number of references.
Clinical cases
Criteria for the selection of clinical cases will be novelty, originality and interest in the subject; that describes a disease or entity not previously described, infrequent or rare. Those clinical descriptions that contain information that due to their relevance may have a clear educational value for the readers of the journal will be especially valued.
The text can have a maximum of 1,500 words, without including the bibliography, the summary and the legends of the figures. The summary will have a maximum of 250 words and must be structured. Tables and figures cannot be more than 2 in total. The number of authors will be limited to three.
When writing the articles, authors must use the international guidelines CARE: https://www.care-statement.org/
The structure of the article will be:
- Title: The diagnosis or intervention of primary focus followed by the words “case report”.
- Key Words: 2 to 5 key words that identify diagnoses or interventions in this case report (including "case report").
- Abstract
- Introduction: What is unique about this case and what does it add to the scientific literature?
- Symptoms and clinical findings: The patient’s main concerns and important clinical findings.
- The primary diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes.
- Conclusion – What are one or more “take-away” lessons from this case report?
- Introduction:
- Briefly summarizes why this case is unique and may include medical literature references.
- Patient Information
- De-identified patient specific information.
- Primary concerns and symptoms of the patient.
- Medical, family, and psychosocial history including relevant genetic information.
- Relevant past interventions and their outcomes.
- Clinical Findings: Describe significant physical examination (PE) and important clinical findings.
- Timeline: Historical and current information from this episode of care organized as a timeline (figure or table).
- Diagnostic Assessment:
- Diagnostic methods (PE, laboratory testing, imaging, surveys).
- Diagnostic challenges.
- Diagnosis (including other diagnoses considered).
- Prognostic characteristics when applicable.
- Therapeutic Intervention:
- Types of therapeutic intervention (pharmacologic, surgical, preventive).
- Administration of therapeutic intervention (dosage, strength, duration).
- Follow-up and Outcomes: Clinician- and patient-assessed outcomes if available. Important follow-up diagnostic and other test results.
- Discussion:
- Strengths and limitations in your approach to this case.
- Discussion of the relevant medical literature.
- The rationale for your conclusions.
- The primary “take-away” lessons from this case report (without references) in a one paragraph conclusion.
Informed Consent – The patient should give informed consent. (Provide if requested.)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters related to articles published by the journal are the first choice for this section as well as letters providing opinions and observations focused in a topic of current interest. The letters related with published articles must be received within three weeks after the publication of the article and at the discretion of the Editorial Board will be sent to the author of the article, who will have 4 weeks in which to answer. Letters should contain fewer than 700 words, one table or figure, and must contain no more than 5 references. After publication of the reply, no further correspondence will be accepted. Up to 4 authors are accepted.
CLINICAL TRIALS AND PROTOCOLS. Authors wishing to submit an article to this section are invited to contact the Editor-in-Chief prior to submission in order to screen the relevance and priority. Large publicly-funded clinical research projects that prospectively assigns human participants to intervention or comparison groups to investigate the cause-and-effect relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome are welcomed by the Journal.
Health-related interventions include any intervention (e.g., drugs, procedures, devices, and process-of-care changes) used to modify a health related outcome.
All clinical trial must be registered at an appropriate online public registry. For clinical trials, CONSORT statement comprising flow diagram and checklist is warranted. Observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration. All articles are rigorously peer reviewed before a final publication decision is made.
The recommended length of the text is 3,000 words (excluding the abstract, tables, figures, and references). The text should include a maximum of 5 tables and/or figures (charts, graphs, or illustrations). Authors are also advised to limit the number of references, if possible, to a maximum of 25 references. The articles must be accompanied by an abstract of maximum 250 words that includes the following sections: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and Conclusions. A 3 key points of the relevance of the protocol is also recommended.