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 Originals 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 are included in the article, or if present, they 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 research and/or article preparation and briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if applicable, in the study design; data collection, analysis, and interpretation; report writing; and the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, this should be declared. This declaration is mandatory in all sections. If none exist, the author must explicitly state so.
Conflict of Interest. Any financial or personal relationships with others that could have influenced the work must be disclosed, even if not directly related to the current manuscript. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, other funding, 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 the following statement in the conflict of interest section: “As ABC is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal, they have not participated in nor had access to information regarding the review and acceptance process of this manuscript.” This declaration is always mandatory. There must be one declaration for each participating author.
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Writing. Any other use is not authorized. See the detailed description later in these guidelines. This declaration is mandatory whenever such tools are used.
Authorship. Those listed as authors must have made substantial contributions. Changes to authorship or author order are not permitted after submission without prior justification and approval by the Editor-in-Chief. Please refer to the relevant sections described later in these guidelines.
BODY OF THE ARTICLE Ethical Considerations and Informed Consent must also be declared beyond the first page in cases of experimentation involving animals or humans. If experiments involve animals or humans, certain declarations must be mentioned within the manuscript even though they are also required on the first page. These must always be declared in Originals or Brief Originals (if included), even if the author considers they do not exist or are not applicable.
Ethics and Informed Consent For experiments involving humans or animals, the author must declare in the Materials and Methods section of Originals, Brief Originals, or Case Series, if applicable, that the guidelines on Human and Animal Rights described in the “Ethics in Publication” section of this author guide have been followed. Specifically, if human subjects are involved, authors must confirm that the research was conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association’s Code of Ethics (Declaration of Helsinki). For animals, authors must declare compliance with ARRIVE guidelines or that they are acting in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act on the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and, where applicable, the Animal Welfare Law. Authors must also declare in Materials and Methods (Original or Brief Original) that they have obtained informed consent and approval from the Clinical Research Ethics Committee (CREC) or corresponding committee without revealing information that could compromise blinded review. Please note that the Spanish Biomedical Research Law establishes that Ethics Committees corresponding to each center must evaluate all biomedical research involving interventions in humans or the use of their biological samples.
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. 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 or evidence of their acquisition upon request.
Original articles. The manuscript should have the following order:Title, structured Resumen/Abstract (objective, material and methods, results, conclusions) with a maximum of 250 words, Palabras clave/ Keywords (3 to 6), Introduction, Material and Métodos, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and References. Original articles should have a maximum length of 6,500 words (18 DIN-A4) and up to 5 tables and 5 figures will be accepted. Do not exceed 30 references.
Images of interest. Briefly describe the findings of the examination/image(s) and their relevance in a clinical case). The figure captions should provide a more detailed explanation of the case, examinations and findings. The total length of the text should not exceed 500 words. A maximum number of 6 authors is recommended. Up to 3 figures and references will be accepted.
Letters to the Editor. Maximum length should be 600 words (2 DIN A-4). One figure and one table will be accepted. There should be no more than 5 references. A maximum of 6 authors is recommended.
Other sections. The journal includes other sections which will be commissioned as:
Continuing Education. The manuscript should have the following structure: Title, non-structured abstract with a maximum of 150 words, Keywords (3 to 6) and the following sections: 1) Introduction that would include the approach to the issue, the current status of the issue; 2) Practical application/implementation: indications, methodology, interpretation, clinical impact; 3). References: do not exceed from 40; 4) Key points; 5) 8-10 multiple-choice questions with 5 answers and only one valid answer. Maximum length of the text should be 6,500 words (18 DIN-A4) and up to 5 tables and 5 figures will be accepted. Depending on the subject to be developed, some of the points may not be applicable.
Special Collaboration. These are articles whose main objective is the maintenance or improvement of knowledge, so that Nuclear Medicine professionals can receive updated training in the most relevant topics of their professional practice. The Special Collaboration, unlike continuing education, which has more of a teaching objective, reflects more the author's personal experience and opinion. Just to serve as a guide the manuscript should include an abstract, 3-5 keywords. Maximum length of the text should be 6,500 words (18 DIN-A4) and up to 5 tables and 5 figures will be accepted. A maximum of 40 references are recommended.