Submissions

Universitas Medica publishes articles related to the medical profession in general, previous acceptance by the Editorial Committee.

Papers must be submitted through the Open Journal System. Papers should be sent exclusively to this publication, but may be reprinted in other scientific journals upon formal request by the authors and written authorization of the publisher of Universitas Medica.

The manuscripts must be accompanied by a letter to the editor where the main author states:

1) That the manuscript has been read and approved by the other coauthors and that the submission has not been previously published nor previously submitted to another journal (or an explanation provided in Comments to the editor).

2) Suggestion of an associated editor to take charge of the submission with which the authors have no conflict of interest.

3) Suggestion of the name of two Javeriana University peers who can be reviewers with whom the authors do not have a conflict of interest, attaching their position and email.

4) Suggestion of the names of two external peers to the Javeriana University that do not have conflict of interest,that can be reviewers, attaching their position and email.

5) Declaration that the policy of confluence of interest of the journal is known. A statement of potential conflicts of interest that should also be included in the text of the paper (include sources of funding and other conflicts of interest).

6) The ORCID number of each of the authors that should also be included in the metadata. To apply, you can access: https://orcid.org/

7)  Declaration on sources of financing for work

The author must keep copies of all material sent to Universitas Medica. The journal is not responsible in case of loss of work.

Types of articles

1. Original work: designed to answer a specific question (evaluation of diagnostic tests, treatments, clinical course, prognosis of diseases, etc.) and are supported by statistical analysis. They usually follow a sequence of introduction, material and methods, results and conclusions.

2. Case reports: considered uncommon but medically important and instructive experiences. They should include a summary, detailed description of the case, and discussion. The extension should not be more than 10 pages in double space, and at most with 5 tables or illustrations. Please follow COPE best practise guidelines regarding case reports.

3. Reviews: are the result of a critical review of recent literature, made by a researcher with expertiese in the field. They must have more than 50 references. If they have less than 50 references they are considered short reviews.

4. Correspondence: Letters addressed to the editor containing constructive comments on articles previously published in Universitas Medica, or with comments of general interest for medicine. The maximum length of a letter is 250 words.

5. Reflexión articles. Present a critical analysis of subjects related to the practice of medicine.

All manuscripts must be submitted in the following sequence, starting each component on a separate sheet:

1. Title in Spanish and English. The title should be concise but informative, and be followed by the name and surnames of each author with their highest academic degree and affiliations to institutions. It should also include the name of the department and institution to which the work should be attributed. The name, address and telephone number of the author (s) responsible for the correspondence and the request for reprints must be identified. Finally, the names of donors, in terms of subsidies, equipment, drugs or technological aids, should be specified.

2. Summary/abstract. No more than 200 words for major articles and 150 words for case reports and reflexion articles. 

On a separate sheet, the same abstract must be written in English.

3. At the bottom of the page, the author will enter 3 or more keywords to help classify the paper. Keywords must be in Spanish and English and with preference those included in the data base Ciencias de la Salud: Decs.bvs.br.

The body of the text of research papers should include: introduction, methods, results and discussion or conclusions. Long articles may need subtitles, especially in the methods and results sections. In the introduction it is useful to point out in sequence the following points, without extensively reviewing the topic:

• The importance of the problem to be investigated
• What is not known about the problem
• Why it is useful to aquire the knowledge presented in the paper
• The purpose of the study
• Hypothesis to be investigated

The Materials and Methods of paper should be reported in sufficient detail to allow the reproduction of the findings by other authors. Abbreviations should be explained and their use limited. This part of thetext should include at least:
1. The research design used
2. The number of patients studied
3. How the patients were selected
4. Investigated variables and how they were measured (preferably using measures from the international system of units, if relevant [Acta Medica Colombiana, 1987; 12: 395-410)
5. The method of data analysis 

The results section must begin with a description of the study patients. Ideally, including those excluded or who did not continue the study. The frequency of the most important variables should then be described, and then the comparisons made between groups. Do not repeat in the text the data stated in the tables, only emphasize or summarize the relevant parts of them.

Discusion/Conclusions

The conclusions that can be drawn from the paper should be briefly reported indicating to which group of patients they apply. If necessary point out the limitations of the study and what implications can be extrapolated.

Acknowledgements. Contributions to the manuscript that need to bementioned can be included in the acknowledgements section, but not all contributions justify authorship, for example the general support given by the director of a department, scientific advisors, reviewers, data collectors, typists, etc.

Conflict of Interest: This section will include a description of the conflicts of interest presented by the authors or a sentence that states that there is no conflict of interest.

References. These are written with double spacing, and are listed according to the order they are mentioned in the text.
For journals: the abbreviations used must follow the style of the Index Medicus. When the authors are 6 or more, the first three can be listed and add "et al.". For order, punctuation and capitalization purposes, please follow the following example: Arciniegas JQ, Papaprieto SE, Cooper TB, et al. New concepts of the philosophy and management of acute myocardial infarction. Rev Colomb Cardiol. 1988, 2: 327-50.
For book chapters. Include Author (s) of the book chapter. Title of the chapter. Publisher (s) or author (s) of the book. Edition. City: House Publisher; year. First page and final page. For purposes of order, punctuation and capitalization, please follow the example below: Teres D, Lemeshow S. Evaluating the severity of illness in critically ill patients. In: Shoemaker WC, Abraham E, editors. Diagnostic methods in critical care. 1st ed. New York: Marcel Dekker; 1987. p. 1-7.
For books. Include: Author (s) of the book. Title. Edition. City: House Publisher; Year. For purposes of order, punctuation and capitalization, please follow the following example: Sacddett DL, Haynes RB, Tugwell P. Clinical epidemiology. 3rd ed. Boson / Toronto: Little, Brown and Company; 1985.

The tables should be written in double space and on one page each table. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to limit the number of tables. They are listed in Arabic numerals according to the order of appearance in the text and should have title. Abbreviations are explained with a footnote to the table. If the tables are from a source that has already been published the authors must obtain written permission for publication, and send a copy of the permit to Universitas Medica and give the respective recognition in the text.
Photographs, graphics, drawings and diagrams will be called figures.They are listed in order of appearance. If the figures are from a source already published, written permission for republishing must be obtained, and a copy of the permit must be sent to Universitas Medica and the respective recognition must be given in the text. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to limit the number of figures.

The articles must be typed in Word and the figures must be attached in a separate file in .jpg or .tiff format (in high resolution) 

Universitas Medica reserves the right to make modifications in the text of the manuscripts with the sole aim of improving the wording and editing, when this is absolutely necessary.