Submissions

Research article

٭ State the contribution of each one according  to CRediT taxonomy

It is the highest priority paper for publication in Revista Médica Electrónica.

Its length should not exceed 4 500 words, not including the bibliographic references. It will have the following order: (1) front page, (2) abstract and key words  (both in the original language of the article and in English), (3) introduction, ends with the objective, (4) materials and methods, (5)  results, (6) discussion, (7)  conclusions  (which may be included as final paragraph of the  discussion) and (8) bibliographic  references.

Conduct observational studies using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement. For the health economic evaluations use the CHEERS  guidelines, and for clinical trials use the CONSORT guidelines.

Introduction: it should be brief and provide the necessary explanation for the reader to understand the research development and the text of the article.  It provides the contextualization and background of the problems approached and the scientific problem that originates the research. It must also contain enough elements that justify the conduction of the study, expressing its importance, benefits and value. It should not contain tables or figures. It must include a last paragraph in which the objective of the work is clearly exposed.

Materials and methods: they will explain the context in which the research was carried out, the period of duration, the classification adopted for it, the detailed description of its universe, and of the selection and kind of sampling; the description of the criteria and justification for the selection of the sample, as well as the criteria of inclusion, exclusion and elimination, if it is required. It should also mention the variables studied, the study design, the mode of data collection and the techniques used, both the experimental techniques — if it is a research of this type— and the statistical ones. It should also include the ethical aspects of the study. In general, enough details should be provided to make the research replicable on the basis of this information.

Provide information of the accredited methods, including those of statistical type (only when it is a method not widely known by the readers) and shortly explain the already published methods, but that are not well known. Explain the new or substantially modified methods, stating the reasons they were used for and evaluating their limitations. Accurately identify the used drugs and chemicals products, without forgetting their generic names, doses, and routes of administration. It is not necessary to state in the text if it was processed in Word or that tables and graphs were made in Excel or in another tabulator, nor is it necessary to write that tables and graphs were used for better understanding.

When reporting on experiments on human beings, laboratory animals or others, indicate whether the procedures followed were according with the ethical standards of the committee (institutional or regional) that oversees experiments on humans or with the Declaration of Helsinki.  State the approval by any ethic committee and scientific council.

Results: this is the main part of the article. It should be written in past using the impersonal (predominance of was found). They present, without interpretation, the observations made with the method used. These data will be presented in the text with the complement of tables and figures. It is not necessary to repeat in the text all the data, just the elements of interest that will be later discussed, although it has to be mentioned the corresponding number of the tables being described. It is important that the comments on the results are presented before the placement of tables, figures or images, keeping a logical sequence of the text with them. In the Results section, bibliographic references are not cited; if it is necessary to compare, it will be done in the Discussion

Discussion: the novel and relevant aspects of the study and the conclusions derived from them are presented. The authors have to state their proper opinion on the matter. The following should be emphasized here: 1) the significance and practical application of the results; 2) considerations on possible inconsistence of the methodology (limitations of the study) and the reasons why the results may be valid; 3) the relation with similar publications and comparison between the areas of agreement and disagreement; 4) indications and guidelines for future research. It should be avoided that the discussion becomes a review of the topic and that concepts that have appeared in the introduction are repeated. The results of the research also should not be repeated.

Conclusions: these are not mandatory, although they can be presented as part of the discussion, at the end, and are only presented as a section in the abstract of the article. The conclusion(s) should be related with the objective(s) of the study. On the other hand, they should not establish priorities nor draw premature conclusions from works still in progress. They should have an adequate degree of generalization. They respond to the objectives of the study and are in correspondence with the results and discussion; the results are not repeated. Conclusions are presented as part of the discussion, generally at the end, and are presented as a section only in the abstract at the beginning of the article.

Bibliographic references: it is important that they are made on the most updated bibliography on the topic in question; 60 % or more of the bibliography used should be from the last 5 years. The quantity of bibliographic citations used should be between 15 and 25. They should be superscripted, and after the punctuation mark.

Annexes: up to two will be accepted exceptionally and their content counts towards the maximum number of words allowed (4500).

Editorial

Common methodological requirements for all types of articles

Title: it must be brief, no more than 15 words, but informative, both in Spanish and English. It should correspond to the subject of the article, be concise, understandable and informative. It should not include acronyms or abbreviations. If names of institutions are used, they must be official and up-to-date. It must be uploaded in the metadata in Spanish and English.

Authors:

1. Name and surname of each author, does not go in the body of the article, but will be uploaded in Metadata through the OJS system and as a complementary file in the general data page. The order in which the authors' data are incorporated into the metadata is the order in which the authors will appear in the publication.

2. The number of authors to declare will correspond to the type of article.

Summary: it must be uploaded to the journal in Spanish and English, with no more than 250 words and single spacing. It will be structured or not depending on the type of article. In case of being structured it will have introduction, objective, methods, results and conclusions. It is written in past tense.

Keywords: They must be concrete and representative of the semantic content of the document, both in the main and secondary contents. There should be at least 3 keywords or phrases, maximum 6. They represent the entries (descriptors) for the indexing and information retrieval systems of the article. One or more keywords must appear in the title. It is recommended to use the Decsfinder keyword search engine (https://decsfinder.bvsalud.org/dmfs) sponsored by Bireme and PAHO.

Bibliographic references: This journal follows the guidelines described in the Recommendations for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (Vancouver Style).

The number of bibliographic citations to be included and actuality will depend on the type of article.

Citations must correspond to articles published in scientific journals; Wikipedia references are not allowed. Journals’ references, as well as more than 50% of the references must be from scientific documents published on the Internet and be accompanied by the corresponding URL or DOI.

The list of references should be manually numbered. Numerical list cannot be used. In electronic citations, the date of consultation of the url (year, month and day) is separated by slash. E.g. 2021/03/17.

Figures and graphs: They should be submitted in jpg format; in the case of photographs- 300 dpi.  Graphics and diagrams should be submitted in an editable format. All should be of adequate quality. The quantity to include depends on the type of article.

Acknowledgements: when considered necessary, the persons, centers or entities that have collaborated or supported the work should be mentioned. If there are commercial implications, they should also appear in this section.  The declaration that each of the persons mentioned in the Acknowledgements section authorizes to be mentioned is needed.

Tables: they collect information in a summarized way and present it efficiently. They also allow the information to be displayed with the desired level of detail and precision. The comments made on the data offered will always be referred to in the text and should precede their presentation of the information.

The dimensions of the tables cannot be larger than 800 pixels. The tables smaller than 580 pixels should be placed inside the text; tables larger than 580 and up to 800 pixels should be placed in electronic files independent from the text of the article. All tables should be numbered consecutively, in the same order in which they are cited for the first time in the text that comments on them. Each table should be accompanied by a brief title to be placed above the body of the table. The tables, in their design, must be presented in web 1 style, must not contain horizontal or vertical interior lines or colors, must conform to the orientation of the text, respecting the predetermined right and left margins (3.0 cm) and without exceeding more than one third of the height of the page of the document presented. Each column in the table must contain a brief or abbreviated heading. The maximum number of tables per article is eight, provided that only this resource is used for the presentation.

The table footnote will include the legend, asterisk, note and source (they will be placed in this order, without the word legend, and all its elements are separated by comma or semicolon). In the cases of primary data (survey, clinical record), these do not have sources. The following symbols should be used for footnotes, following the same order presented: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡.

Statistic measures of dispersion, such as standard deviation or standard error of the mean, should be properly identified. Authors should ensure that each table is properly referenced in the text. If data from other sources, published or not, are presented in the tables, the corresponding permissions should be obtained and the sources should be publicly acknowledged. Decimal numbers should be separated by commas and not by periods. If the article only uses tables or charts for the presentation of its results, the maximum number allowed is eight.

Figures: they should be made and photographed with professional quality, or photo-quality digital reproductions in JPEG or GIF format should be submitted. Figures should be self-explanatory as much as possible, since many will be reproduced directly as slides for scientific presentations. However, titles and detailed explanations should be included in the captions, not in the body of the figures. The maximum number of figures according to the type of article should be reviewed. As in the tables, the dimensions of the figures cannot be larger than 800 pixels. Figures smaller than 580 pixels should be placed inside the text, figures larger than 580 and up to 800 pixels should be placed in electronic files independent from the text of the article in the formats mentioned above (JPEG or GIF).

Annexes: up to two will be accepted exceptionally, in research articles, and their content counts towards the maximum number of words allowed (4500).

X-rays, ultrasound or other images, produced by diagnostic imaging techniques, as well as photographs of pathology specimens or microphotographs, should be sharp photographic reproductions, generally 127 × 173 mm in size and up to 580 pixels. Letters, numbers and symbols included in the figures should be sharp and uniform, and of sufficient size so that each character remains legible in the reduced version of the published article.

Microphotographs should contain scale markers. Symbols, arrows or letters included in the microphotographs should stand out clearly against the background.

Photographs of individuals: the individuals included in the photograph must not be identifiable, or must be accompanied by appropriate written permission allowing the use of the photograph. Whenever possible, specific permission should be obtained for publication of these materials.

Figure caption: it will appear at the end, as a closing and final point; it must be brief and will not exceed one line in length; the word figure will be written in abbreviated form (Fig.) in bold Verdana 10 font, centered at the foot of the figure. The text of the figure should be in Verdana 10 font. If the figure has a caption, this should be placed at the bottom of the figure, center aligned and using Verdana 9 font. The source of the figure should be placed below the number and title of the figure, centered and in Verdana 9 font. Both, the numbering and title as well as the source must be included in the image of the figure itself. If a previously published figure is used, the original source must be identified and written permission from the copyright owner to reproduce the material must be submitted with the manuscript. Unless it is a document in the public domain, this authorization is required regardless of who the authors or the publishing company are.

All the figures will be referred to in the text and will be numbered consecutively according to the Arabic system. In the case of a single figure, it is not numbered.

When symbols, arrows, numbers or letters are used to identify parts of the figure, the meaning of all of them should be clearly identified and explained in the legend. The internal scale of the image should also be explained. In microphotographs, the staining method used should be described.

The total number of tables, figures, photographs, microphotographs and radiographs allowed will depend on the type of article.

Units of measurement: units included in the International System of Units (meters, kilograms or liters) or their decimal multiples must be used for length, height, weight and volume measurements. Temperature should be expressed in Celsius degrees. Blood pressure should be measured in millimeters of mercury.

All clinical laboratory results should be reported in IS or IS-permitted units. If you wish to add traditional units, these should be written in parentheses. Example: Glycemic: 5.55 mmoll/L (100mg/100 mL).

Abbreviations and symbols: only common abbreviations should be used; the use of unusual abbreviations can be extremely confusing for readers. Authors should avoid the use abbreviations in the title of the paper and in the abstract. The first time an abbreviation appears in the text it should be preceded by the complete term to which it refers; if the abbreviation or acronym is in another language, it should be made clear in the display of the term that it is its Spanish translation of that language. Exceptions are common units of measure.

Scientific names of living beings: when it is necessary to write the scientific name of a living being, such as a bacterium, a plant or an insect, the writing of these names must be done according to a specific nomenclature or "taxonomic name".

Scientific names of diseases: they also have a standardized international name; this precise classification and nomenclature is useful for diagnostic and treatment studies, for standardizing causes of disease or death, and for other statistical uses. This nomenclature is known as International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, and is published and updated periodically by the World Health Organization.

Drug names: an International Nonproprietary Name (INN) is used, which is compiled and updated by the World Health Organization. It can be consulted in a database called MedNet, which includes the official generic names of all drugs.

The different types of articles may deal with topics related to Basic Biomedical Sciences, Clinical and Pathological Sciences, Surgical Sciences, Epidemiological and Health Sciences, Technological Sciences, Stomatology, Nursing, human capital formation, historical and Social Sciences topics, bibliometric and scientometric studies, all related to human health.

Editorial

 

Scientific editorials: they suppose a rigorous update or an interesting point of view on a certain topic.

Opinion editorials: they contain points of view and socio-politic positions of the scientific community on a certain topic of common interest to researchers and health professionals.

They are requested by the editorial committee. This is a commissioned section.

Short communication

 

Short communications, also called “short articles”, present the partial, preliminary or definitive results of a research, advances on diagnostic or treatment techniques or other observations of interest that justify their publication more quickly. They are characterized by including an abstract, introduction (where the objective is included), methods, precise results, a well- argued discussion, conclusions and bibliographic references. (See guidelines for Research Article).

Review article

 

These are systematic reviews. Its length will not exceed 5,000 words, not including bibliographic references, and it will not have more than three authors. This type of article offers a critical evaluation of published works, since it compiles, analyzes and synthesizes the current state of a certain topic relevant to science. The purpose of the review, sources and methods of searching for references must be indicated. It is recommended using the PRISMA Guide for systematic reviews and meta-analyses as well as the Guide for the development of a systematic review in the area of Health Sciences of the University of Valencia.

 

The article should include: title, abstract, introduction, method, discussion, conclusions (they may be included as the final part of the discussion)  and bibliographical references . Optionally, the article may include tables and figures. Review articles should be written with the most updated bibliography possible on the topic that is addressed and its access in networks.

Introduction: it should present the brief and clear backgrounds with its bibliographic basis, state the scientific problem that originates the review and describe the objectives of the work.

Methods: to include the criteria and justification of the selection of the sources consulted, search engines used, databases and search strategies, as well as the criteria used for the selection of the articles cited and the period taken for the review. It does not require results, but the discussion should be expanded as a secondary article.

The authors can be guided by the following aspects:

• The searchable database (e.g., “Scopus” and/or “Web of Science”) can be defined based on substantiated evidence (e.g., both being the largest scientific databases of scholarly articles that can provide data or bibliographic records on demand). To avoid biased results due to the scope covered by the selected database, researchers could use two or more different databases.

• Search keywords can be developed by reading academic papers and subsequently exchanging ideas with experts. It is recommended to use a keyword search engine such as Decsfinder (https://decsfinder.bvsalud.org/dmfs), sponsored by Bireme and PAHO. The growing number of databases, journals, periodicals, automated approaches, and semi-automated procedures using text mining and machine learning can offer researchers the ability to search for new and relevant research and forecast citations of influential studies. This allows them to determine other relevant articles.

• Boolean operators (e.g., AND, OR) should be used strategically when developing the search keyword string (e.g., “environmental causes” AND “congenital malformations” OR “congenital anomalies” OR “congenital diseases "). Furthermore, the correct and accurate application of quotation marks is important, but is often circumvented, leading to incorrect selection processes and differentiated results.

• The search period (e.g. between a specific period [e.g. 2010 to 2020] or up to the last full year at the time of writing) can be defined based on the justified scope of the study (e.g. e.g., contemporary evolution versus historical trajectory).

• The search field (e.g. “article title, abstract, keywords”) can be defined based on justified assumptions (e.g. it is assumed that the focus of the relevant papers will be mentioned in the title of the article, the abstract and/or the keywords).

• The subject area (e.g. “embryology and genetics”) can be defined based on justified principles.

• The type of document (e.g., “article” and/or “review”), which reflects the type of scientific/practical contributions (e.g., empirical, synthesis, thought), can be defined based on justified grounds (e.g., articles selected because they are peer-reviewed; editorials not selected because they are not peer-reviewed).

• The type of source (e.g., “scientific journal”) can be defined based on justified reasons (e.g., journals selected because they publish finished work; conference proceedings not selected because they are works in progress and are not taken into account as “publications” in their own right).

• Language (e.g., “English”) can be determined based on justified limitations (e.g., nowadays, there is not much reason to use a language other than the academic lingua franca, English). Truncation and wildcard searches are recommended to capture both sets of spellings. It is important to note that each database varies in its symbology.

• Quality filtering (e.g. “A*” and “A” or “4*”, “4” and “3”) can be defined based on justified motivations (e.g. the aim is to decompress the knowledge produced in a more original and rigorous way). , which is the hallmark of top-tier journals, such as those rated “A*” and “A” by the Journal Quality List [JQL]  of the Australian Business Deans Council [ABDC] and rated “4*,” “ 4” and “3” by the Academic Journal Guide [AJG] of the Chartered Association of Business Schools [CABS]); in Cuba, group I, II or other magazines according to CITMA resolution.

• The relevance of the paper (i.e., within the focus of the review) can be defined based on justified judgment (e.g., for a review focused on customer engagement, articles that mention customer engagement as a passing comment without really investigating it, would be excluded).

• Other: The selection process should be carried out starting with the deduction of duplicate results from other databases, tracked by screening abstracts to exclude ineligible studies, and ending with the selection of the full text of the remaining documents.

• Others: The interpretation of the exclusion-inclusion criteria of the summaries/articles is mandatory when deciding whether the articles address the topic or not. This step could involve removing a huge percentage of initially recognized articles.

Results: The number of titles and summaries reviewed, the number of full-text studies retrieved, and the number of studies excluded and the reasons for exclusion will be indicated. This information can be presented in a figure or flowchart.

Discussion: it is the exposition in accordance with the objectives of the work. Figures and tables can be included that highlight relevant aspects without repeating information. It will contain the systematization and interpretation of the results indicated in the literature consulted: to contrast the differences and coincidences with the studies analyzed, to criticize the results of the study in light of the works published by other researchers, to describe the possible applicability and generalization of the results, to include new aspects to consider (if necessary) and to point out or highlight the limitations or contributions of the review.

Conclusions: they respond to the objectives of the study. They must be clear, concrete and relevant.

Bibliographic references: the relevant literature on the topic must be represented, be well delimited (with superscript and after the punctuation mark), and contain 60% of the last 5 years. The number of bibliographic citations used should not be less than 20 or more than 30. Every relevant article used in the discussion must be bounded as a bibliographic reference. If it is required to collect a greater number of references, a greater number of these will be accepted, which will be at the discretion of the editors.

 

Opinion article

 

This type of article provides an opportunity for authors to express and argue their opinions about a problem, fact or circumstance of scientific interest in the field of the medical sciences and public health. It may cover aspects of the health care, educational and research services, and extend to topics of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, prognosis and other of clinical-epidemiological and administrative interest. It may also include topics of pedagogy and didactics in the field of medical sciences education, as well as in aspects of research development in its different ontological, epistemological and methodological approaches, and development and introduction of technologies and products.

They are short papers that should be written following the logical order of introduction, development, and conclusions —without separating the sections— and bibliographic references (it is important to make this part with the most updated bibliography on the subject in question; 60 % or more of the bibliography used must be from the last 5 years). The number of bibliographic citations used should be between 10 and 15.

The introduction should contain the contextualization of the problem, fact or characteristic that generates the opinion of the author or authors, the importance of the aspects on which the opinion is expressed, as well as the justification to write the article, closing this section with the objective of the work. The development will be written in a concise but appropriate way, exposing the main theoretical and empirical argumentation on the aspects and issues which generate the issuing of the opinion of the author or authors, according with the ideas expounded and argued by them. Finally, in the conclusions, the essential aspects that give exit to the objective are generalized. The author or authors should show power of analysis, synthesis and induce reflection and debate.

Presentation of cases

 

These articles have as characteristic that they discuss one or several cases of interest, which is given by:

• Clinical syndrome or hereditary or congenital disturbance, not previously described.
• The case is known but its frequency is scarce, so there are problems in its diagnosis.
• Identification of few frequent clinical manifestations.
• Use of new and more precise procedures of diagnosis than those referred before.
• Use of useful therapeutic diagnosis not described previously.
• Use of new medications according to the published in the literature.

The above must be adequately argued in the text of the presentation.

In its basic content the section Methods is omitted, and the results are included in the presentation of the clinical case or cases.

They will have the following structure: introduction (include the objective); presentation of the case (exposed in chronological order, since the patient was treated the first time until the outcome), discussion and bibliographic references (between 10 and 15).

They will short works, with no more than 2 500, not including bibliographic references. They should have an unstructured abstract, with a maximum of 250 words. Only three authors will be admitted.

All the articles submitted to this section must comply with the established in the CARE guidelines.

Letter to the director

 

This section gives the possibility to readers of having a space where to make brief comments, in agree or disagree, on aspects contained in papers published in Revista Médica Electrónica in the last two years. They can be related with interpretations, concepts, methodologies, results, etc.

Letters to the director allow the exchange of ideas and opinions between the authors and the readers of the journal, being this activity as interesting as the article that triggers the exchange of correspondence.

Norms for writing the letter:

The title must be informative and concessions not accepted in other original articles are allowed. They may be striking, in interrogative, exclamatory form or by the use of puns.

It should begin with an explicit and clear reference in relation to the fact that motivates it, whether it is the article published in the journal or other cause related with it and from there an expositive scheme and in progressive manner.

The following paragraphs should be the argumentation in favor or against; or additional comments regarding the reasons for the letter. If original data are going to be presented, the main characteristics of the methodology should be explained in a very summarized way (more summarized than in the original article). In the following paragraphs should be contained the discussion made of the reasoning or data provided and end with a last paragraph as conclusions. The length of the letter is going to  be around 1 500 words as maximum. In addition, up to six bibliographic references are accepted.

They should not include annals, announcements, calendar, calls; books received, news, reprint, meeting inform, summaries, obituaries, extended summary or thesis summary, product review and translation (of an already published article).