Any article submitted to this journal must follow the guidelines described in this author guide, so it is essential to consult it before submitting manuscripts.
FIRST PAGE
Regardless of the article type or journal section, authors must always include on the first page of the article, in addition to the title, authors, affiliations, and email addresses, statements regarding Ethical Considerations, Informed Consent, Funding, Conflict of Interest, the use of artificial intelligence, and Authorship. Declarations are required even if the author considers that none exist or are not applicable.
Ethical Considerations. Any article involving experiments with human subjects requires the author to declare that all procedures were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, relevant laws, and institutional guidelines. The reference number of the study’s ethical committee approval must be included in Original Articles involving human experimentation. For Original Articles involving animal experimentation, compliance with the corresponding regulations must also be stated.
Declaration required in the sections Originals, Latest Advances in Surgery, and Resident Section.
Informed Consent. All articles that include patient data, photographs, or tests, whether anonymized or not, must include an explicit statement within the article body confirming that informed consent was obtained from the patient(s) for reproduction. It must be declared that no patient data appear in the article, or if they do, that such data do not violate patient privacy or confidentiality nor allow identification, and that informed consent has been obtained in any case. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be respected. Appropriate consents and permissions must be obtained when presenting one or more cases without experimentation, or when an author wishes to include personal details, other information, or images of patients or any other individuals in an Elsevier publication. The author must retain written consents and provide Elsevier with copies or proof of consent upon request. To avoid doubt, informed consent is always required in clinical cases, regardless of whether images are anonymized or not, including X-rays. Images accompanied by any patient data always require a declaration.
This declaration is mandatory in all sections except Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and Literature Reviews that do not include Clinical Cases.
Funding. The author must identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if applicable, in study design; data collection, analysis, and interpretation; manuscript writing; and the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) did not have such involvement, this should be declared.
This is a mandatory statement in all sections. If there is no funding, the author must explicitly declare that none exists.
Conflict of Interest. Any existence of financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that could have influenced the work must be specified, even if not directly related to the current manuscript. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations and other funding, as well as travel grants and participation in courses and conferences as a paid expert. If none of these conditions apply, the statement should read: "Declaration of interest: none." If a member of the Editorial Board contributes as an author to a manuscript submitted to the journal, the responsible editor must include in the conflict of interest section the following statement: “As ABC is a member of the Journal’s Editorial Board, they have not participated in or had access to information regarding the review and acceptance process of the manuscript.”
This declaration is always mandatory. There will be one declaration per participating author.
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Writing. Any other use is not authorized. Please refer to the description later in these guidelines.
This is a mandatory declaration whenever AI is used.
• Authorship. Those listed as authors must have made substantial contributions. Changes to authorship or alterations in the order of authors cannot be made after manuscript submission without prior justification and approval by the Editor-in-Chief. Refer to the sections related to this matter described later in these guidelines.
BODY OF THE ARTICLE
Ethical Considerations and Informed Consent must also be declared beyond the first page in the case of experimentation involving animals or humans. If experiments are conducted with animals or human beings, certain declarations must be included within the manuscript, even if they are also required on the first page. These will always be declared in the Original Articles or Brief Original Articles (if included), regardless of whether the author considers that they do not exist or are not applicable.
Ethical Considerations and Informed Consent In the case of experiments with humans or animals, the author will declare in the Materials and Methods section of the original articles, brief original articles, or case series, if applicable, that the guidelines for Human and Animal Rights described in the "Ethics in Publishing" section of this author guide have been followed. Specifically, if experiments involve human subjects, authors will confirm that the research was conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki, and in the case of animals, that the ARRIVE guidelines have been followed or that the research complies with the Laboratory Animal Use and Care Law and, when applicable, the Animal Welfare Law. Authors must also declare in the Materials and Methods (original or brief original) that they have obtained informed consent and approval from the Research Ethics Committee (CREC) or the relevant committee, without revealing data that could hinder blind review. Please note that the Spanish Law on Biomedical Research states that Ethics Committees for Research at each center must evaluate all biomedical research involving interventions on humans or the use of their biological samples.
All articles that include patient data, photographs, or tests, whether anonymized or not, must explicitly state within the body of the article that informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) for reproduction. Appropriate consents and permissions must be obtained when presenting one or more cases without experimentation, or when an author wishes to include personal details, other information, or images of patients or any other individuals in an Elsevier publication. The author must retain written consent forms and provide Elsevier with copies of these forms or proof of consent upon request.
EDITORIAL. These are comments made on current topics or on articles published in the same issue. The maximum length of the manuscript will be 1,200 words, including up to 15 references. All editorials will be requested by the Journal's Editorial Board and should not be submitted without prior written approval. There may be an option for opposing or complementary editorials that present different perspectives on the addressed topic.
Editorial comments, previously solicited by the Journal's Editorial Board regarding some articles previously published, will also be published. These comments should be up to 250 words in length and include up to 6 bibliographic references, related to previously published articles.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE. Research works will be considered in the following fields of Urology: robotics, laparoscopy, basic research, clinical research, surgical techniques, imaging techniques, transplantation, oncology, endourology, urogynecology, quality of life, methodology, medical education, and history. Recommended study designs include analytical types such as cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal studies, case-control studies, cohort studies, and controlled trials. Controlled clinical trials must adhere to the CONSORT guidelines available at (http://www.consort-statement), and observational analytical studies should follow the STROBE statement (http://www.strobe-statement.org/). Retrospective descriptive studies that do not include appropriate statistical treatment will not be accepted.
The maximum length of the manuscript text will be 2,500 words. Additionally, it should include: a structured abstract of no more than 250 words, containing 3-6 keywords; up to 30 bibliographic citations; figure legends; and tables. A maximum of 6 elements (figures and/or tables) per article will be accepted. Figures should be submitted in color, in separate files from the text, in TIFF format, at 300 dpi (never embedded in Word, PowerPoint, or similar files). The journal emphasizes brevity and clear writing in articles.
If your article is accepted, you may be asked to prepare a "graphical abstract" for it. Consult the instructions on how to prepare it, included in these author guidelines.
REVIEW. These are articles that systematically present, select, critique, and synthesize the relevant evidence related to well-defined questions about current topics in Urology (diagnostic uncertainties, therapeutic approaches, and prognostic issues). All Review Articles will be solicited by the Journal’s Editorial Board. If an author wishes to write a review of this type, they must contact the Editorial Board directly and request it prior to submitting the manuscript. Preference will be given to systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which should follow the recommendations of the PRISMA statement (http://prisma-statement.org/).
Articles submitted in this format will be reviewed by the Editorial Board, members of the Journal’s Editorial Committee, and other reviewers. The maximum length of the manuscript will not exceed 3,500 words and must be structured according to the sections described in these author instructions (Background, Objective, Evidence Acquisition, Evidence Synthesis, Conclusions), although the inclusion of additional sections deemed necessary by the author for a comprehensive understanding of the topic is allowed.
The abstract must be structured and contain a maximum of 250 words; 3-6 keywords should be included; up to 40 bibliographic references; figure legends; and tables as needed. A maximum of 10 elements (figures and/or tables) per article will be accepted. Figures should be submitted in color, as separate files from the text, in TIFF format, at 300 dpi (never embedded in Word, PowerPoint, or similar files). The journal emphasizes brevity, clarity, and high-quality writing.
If your article is accepted, you may be asked to prepare a "graphical abstract." Instructions on how to prepare it are included in these author guidelines.
LAST ADVANCES IN SURGERY. This section will consider works presenting new surgical techniques in Urology. The manuscript should conform in format to an original article. It must also address a specific current surgical issue. Essential requirements include a minimum of 10 patients who have undergone the procedure in question, with a minimum follow-up of 1 year for all patients.
The maximum length of the manuscript will be 2,500 words according to the sections described in these guidelines and will include: a structured abstract in Spanish of no more than 250 words, 3-6 keywords; up to 30 references; figure legends; and tables. It is advisable that the number of authors be limited to no more than six. Emphasis is placed on brevity, clarity, and good writing.
As this is an illustrative and demonstrative section of the journal, preference will be given to manuscripts that include images and explanatory sketches. Authors are encouraged to submit professional illustrations that depict the key steps of the surgical procedures.
Up to 6 figures and/or tables will be accepted per article. Figures should be submitted in color, as separate files from the text, in TIFF format, at 300 dpi.
The article must be accompanied by a video file in a dynamic image format, with royalty-free music and narrated in Spanish or English, illustrating the main steps of the technique. The video duration should be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes, demonstrating the surgical technique and its different technical steps, along with the necessary materials. Videos should be in mpg or avi format, with a file size not exceeding 50 MB. The audio narration must be royalty-free. All cases must comply with patient privacy protection standards and have informed consent for online publication. This file will be available in the online version of the journal (http://elsevier.com/acuro).
Articles will be solicited by the Journal’s Editorial Board. If an author wishes to write an article of this type, they must contact the Editorial Board directly and request it before submitting the manuscript. Articles submitted in this format will also be reviewed according to the Editorial Process and may be rejected.
CASE REPORTS. Description of one or more clinical cases of particular interest that contribute significantly to the understanding of the pathophysiology or other aspects of the anesthetic-surgical process or the critically ill patient. The maximum length of the text will be 1,750 words, excluding an unstructured abstract of 150 words and a maximum of 10 bibliographic references. The structure of these works will be the same as that of original articles and may include up to 4 tables and/or figures. Creating an infographic is optional. The recommended number of authors is four, although a maximum of six will be allowed.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR. Articles included in this section may express free opinions or comments related to recently published articles in the journal. They can provide a reply or complement to works published in Actas Urológicas Españolas. Letters must be signed individually (maximum two authors). The submitted text must not exceed 500 words in any case. Personal comments should be avoided. No abstract or keywords will be included. If images are necessary, only one per letter should be included, in color and TIFF format, at a minimum of 300 dpi. Letters should be accompanied by three bibliographic references.
RESIDENTS' SECTION. This section is reserved for original articles where the primary author is a resident or fellowship trainee. Authors must provide an official certification of their resident or fellow status when submitting an article for this specific section of the journal. This certification can be in the form of a letter on the official letterhead of the institution, signed by the department head, and attached as an additional file to the manuscript.
Manuscripts must adhere to the instructions for original articles (see above). The two best works published in this section during the calendar year will receive a special recognition at the AEU annual meeting.
SPECIAL ARTICLES. This section includes works carried out by Scientific Societies, Working Groups, or expert panels (Clinical Practice Guidelines, Consensus Conferences, Systematic Reviews) that review current topics in Urology. The maximum length of the text should not exceed 2,500 words (excluding the abstract, tables, and references). The maximum number of bibliographic references allowed is 80. Up to 4 tables and figures will be accepted (e.g., 3 tables and 1 figure). An unstructured abstract of approximately 150 words must be included, along with an English abstract. If the work is produced by different societies and aims for simultaneous publication in multiple journals, please contact the Journal Manager of this journal to receive all submission requirements. Among other things, the article will undergo peer review in only one journal; the published version must be identical across all journals, and a signed approval letter from each involved society must accompany the submission. Actas Urológicas Españolas will not accept secondary publications.