Guidelines for authors of Biological and Health Sciences

Health, Life and Biological Sciences

Instructions for submitting Life Sciences, Biological Sciences and Health Sciences manuscripts

Manuscript presentation structure

Preparation of the manuscript

The article must be written on an ISO A4 sheet size (21 x 29.7 cm), with a 2.5 cm margin on all 4 edges and 1,5 line spacing, Times New Roman font size 12. The text must have justified alignment.

Titles must be clearly highlighted in bold type, and subtitles in italics. All pages should be numbered in the lower right-hand corner. Secondary language words should be in italics.

Figures showing images (X-rays, histology, photographs, etc.) must be sent as separate files in JPEG electronic format. In clinical cases, the informed consent of the patient(s) must be attached.

Figures expressing results (bars, pastels, dotted diagrams) should be sent in greyscale, unless the need for colors is justified, and inappropriate resolutions for their adjustment in diagramming. The authors should provide the source files of these figures if necessary to make editing adjustments. All the figures must have their respective sequential numbering and a text at the bottom that correctly describes the aspects that are presented in the image; as well as marks inside to guide the reader in the detail of interest. The tables must be numbered consecutively and have a title that correctly describes their content. Other related details are set out below.

Extension

Depending on the section of the journal to which the articles are to be submitted, they must have the following extensions according to the type or section:

Original articles: up to 5,000 words, excluding abstract, tables and table captions or image captions and references; a maximum of 6 tables and 4 figures; the body of the article in IMRD format (introduction - methods results - discussion) and characteristics according to the research design. Clinical trials must comply with the Consort guidelines and meta-analyses and systematic reviews must comply with the Prisma guidelines. Authors are recommended to follow other current regulations according to the type of research design; table 1. The number of references should be in accordance with the content and only those most relevant to the article should be cited. An excessive number of references may be interpreted by the editor / Editorial Board as low capacity of the authors to discriminate the scientific literature of interest.

The editor or the Editorial Committee of the journal reserves the right to reduce the length and condense the contents, in order to publish the article in the section Scientific Letters.

Brief Communication: Brief communication is suitable for the presentation of research that extends previously published research, including reporting additional controls and confirmatory results in other settings, as well as negative results, small-scale clinical studies, clinical audits, and case series. A maximum of 3000 words will be allowed; authors must clearly acknowledge any work they are building on, whether published or unpublished. The following structure must be maintained:

“Abstract: The abstract should briefly summarize the objective, the findings or the purpose of the article. Minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Keywords: Three to ten keywords that represent the main content of the article. Main text: It should contain the body of the article and can also be divided into subsections with brief and informative titles. List of abbreviations: If abbreviations are used in the text, they must be defined in the text on the first use and a list of abbreviations must be provided ”.

Scientific letters: between 1,000 and 1,500 words; maximum 1 table and 2 figures, unless a higher number is justified. Body of the article in IMRD or ICD format as appropriate for an original investigation or case report, respectively. A maximum of 10 bibliographic references is considered sufficient for these manuscripts. 

Letters to the Editor: maximum 1,000 words, unless a greater number is justified; up to a table and a figure; maximum 10 bibliographical references (including that of the published article being commented on, if this is the reason for the letter). 3 authors top.

Case report: maximum of 2500 words, 2 tables and 4 figures, the informed consent, signed by the patient, must be attached in a scanned pdf format or electronically signed in pdf format. 15 references top. 6 authors top.

Medical images: maximum length of 350 words, describing the clinical condition presented; maximum 3 figures/pictures; maximum 2 bibliographic references. 3 authors top.

Review Articles (include clinical practice and clinical review): between 4,000 and 5,000 words, without considering the summary and bibliographic references; a maximum of 6 tables and 4 figures, unless a greater number is justified; the body of the article with subtitles as necessary; the number of references should be in accordance with the content and length of the manuscript. 35 reference at minimun, 6 authors top.

Articles from "Short or narrative reviews: These articles are aimed at promoting the academic activity of undergraduate students, with or without the sponsorship of a teacher; they should have a maximum length of between 2,000 and 2,500 words, without considering abstracts and bibliographical references; a maximum of 4 tables and 4 figures may be considered unless a higher number is duly justified; the body of the article with subtitles as necessary; the number of references (15-30 maximum). A maximum of 2 articles per issue will be published. 4 authors top.

Divisions

The articles, regardless of their length and section to which they apply, may be relocated by the journal's editorial committee and will be structured in three main blocks: headings - body of the article - supplements

Each of these blocks must contain the different sections requested by the editorial board of the scientific journal Ciencia Ecuador. Table 2 presents a checklist of contents that should be reviewed by the author before sending the article. Manuscripts that are not complete in their components have little chance of being reviewed.

Headings

Title of the article: Use concise, descriptive titles in accordance with the content of the article. On many occasions, it may be advisable for the title to describe the design of the study. Authors may also suggest an "abbreviated title" for the article.

Institutional affiliation of the authors:

The surname of the author(s) separated from the first name by a comma, according to example

Piza Calero Guillermo a, b, c, Zambrano Alcívar Cruz a, d, e,

The Orcid logo will be added by the publisher, but the respective link must always be attached.

Scientific credit institution or labor affiliation

Affiliation

a) University of ...
b) Hospital of ...
c) Institute of...
d) Society ...
e) College of ...

E-mail address of the main author or the person responsible for correspondence

Institution of the scientific credit: specify, if applicable, the department(s) and institutions to which the work should be attributed Sometimes they coincide totally or partially with the authors' personal affiliation institutions.

Degree of contribution: for each author, according to the contribution in the idea, planning, execution of the study, analysis, and interpretation of results and writing of the article.

Abstract: All articles must be presented with an abstract in  English of approximately 80 to 250 words and its translation into the second language Spanish.

The summary should not contain information not included in the body of the article, nor bibliographical references.

Keywords: between 3 and 7 keywords or short phrases should be included after the summary, which synthesizes the main topics of the article and allows its indexation. It is recommended to use the DeCS Health Sciences Descriptors (DecS) applied by several Latin American journals, available at http://decs.bvs.br. And alternatively the terms that appear in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of Index Medicus, available at http://www.nml.nhi.gov/mesh/meshhome.

Body of the article (example)

The body of the original articles must have the IMRD structure (accord to previous description):

Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion

This structure is a direct reflection of the scientific research process. The presence of sub-items in the results and discussion can be useful to clarify their content and guide the reading in extensive manuscripts.

For articles on controlled clinical trials, authors should refer to the Consort statement (www.consort- statement.org).

Supplements

We consider the manuscript to be complementary to the aspects related to the document or research presented. Except for conflicts of interest, the presence of acknowledgements, preliminary presentations, appendices and annexes depends on the relevance of being communicated.

Conflicts of interest: declaration of personal, professional and financial or other relationships that may lead to conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgements: mention of persons, institutions, departments that collaborated directly or indirectly with the work. Sources of funding and grants should also be mentioned in this section.

Funding: a statement of the sources of funding, grants or economic funds received for the study or work. If there are no external sources, the authors should declare the work as "the author(s) did not receive (ieron) specific funds for this work".

Preliminary presentations: full declaration of preliminary presentations and previous articles that could be considered redundant publications of the same work.

Appendices and annexes: the mention of the complete list of researchers in the case of works whose authorship has been expressed as a working group, can be communicated in this section. Similarly, the report.

Bibliographic references: Bibliographic references for manuscripts in the biomedical sciences should be in Vancouver format, and should be updated unless it is scientifically relevant to cite citations long after they have been published. for which the use of Zotero is suggested.

The use of the tool Zotero is recommended.

Add the link or DOI hyperlink in the articles that have it.

Submissions of manuscripts

The submission of manuscripts is permanent throughout the year. The manuscripts should be submitted on the OJS platform, in an attachment in a document in text format compatible with Microsoft Word for Windows operating system.

The file must be labeled with the first surname of the corresponding author and/or the topic of the paper.

In addition, each author will provide a minimum of 3 contacts with e-mails of peers for the manuscript review process of the journal, as well as agreeing to be part of the reviewers of this journal.

In the event that after 15 days of requesting modifications based on the observations of the peers, if no reply is obtained from the authors, it will be understood as an abandonment of the manuscript, and therefore, the renouncement of the content of the same for publication.

The grammatical revision of the final versions, after peer review, is under the responsibility of the authors, who must coordinate or arrange it with the publishing house or a grammatologist or linguist of their confidence. In this second case, the author of the correspondence undertakes to annex the respective certificate, preferably with an electronic signature, in the submission's library. In the event that the author(s) undertake(s) to check grammatical errors and corrections themselves, as permitted by the present editorial policy, an explanation will be added to the published version.

Make a new submission to the Health, Life and Biological Sciences section.