Submissions

Author Guidelines

Editorial policies and scope

MedUNAB was founded in 1997 by the Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga (UNAB) in Colombia, South America. It is an open access, double blinded peer reviewed, scientific journal. MedUNAB publishes national and international scientific and academic intellectual production around the disciplines related to health sciences, giving priority to interprofessional care, public health, general medicine, nursing, psychology, biomedical engineering and clinical-surgical specialties. Principally, it publishes articles based on investigation, revision, and investigation methodology.

MedUNAB follows the ethical standards proposed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). It is published three times a year (one issue every four months) and is addressed to scientists, researchers, specialists, professionals and students interested in health sciences. MedUNAB is edited and published in Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia. 

Editorial freedom

The publishing group has full authority and editorial freedom over the entire editorial content and the time of its publication. The evaluation, selection, programming or editing of articles is performed by the publishing group, without interference from third parties directly or indirectly. Editorial decisions are based on the work validity and its relevance for readers.

Diversity and inclusive language politics

Attention must be paid to the general principles of writing about every person and their personal characteristics without prejudices, making use of inclusive and non-discriminatory language to avoid gender bias. For this, we recommend consulting the APA normative, a reliable guide that provides clear and comprehensive instructions: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/general-principles 

Digital preservation policies

Currently, the MedUNAB journal is covered by the PORTICO Digital Preservation Service which provides reliable preservation services for electronic resources and ensures that the digital content is available and accessible to researchers, academics, and students. This digital preservation system operates on a community model in which its own reviews and external peer certifications are guaranteed to ensure the quality and safety.

Long-term digital preservation is ensured by the fulfillment of the following key factors:

1. Usability: the intellectual content must remain usable even with technological changes, for which the PORTICO service monitors constant threats of technological obsolescence and takes the measures to face them.
2. Authenticity: the content must be an authentic and verifiable replica of the original material, for which the PORTICO service maintains a constant audit of the files and its metadata.
3. Visibility: the content must have logical bibliographic metadata that allows it to be found over time. The PORTICO service ensures that the preserved content has these characteristics so that it is always found.
4. Accessibility: the content must be available for its use. The PORTICO service always maintains the titles available for users.

MedUNAB also adheres to the archive politics established by the DOAJ Directory Open Access Journals for the preservation of long-term content.

Politics for the use of artificial intelligence technologies

The Journal adopts the policies established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available in its section on the use of artificial intelligence (https://publicationethics.org/cope-focus/cope-focus-artificial-intelligence), along with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), regarding the use of this technology, as set out below:

Authors must disclose, when submitting the manuscript, whether AI-assisted technologies (such as large language models, chatbots, or image generators) were used to produce any part of the work. If so, the cover letter and the submitted manuscript must include a description of the technologies used and what they produced. For example, if the AI was used to assist with writing, this should be described in the Acknowledgments section. If the AI was used for data collection, analysis, or the generation of figures and tables, this should be described in the Methods section.

Considering that the authors of the manuscript are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, chatbots or other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or coauthors. All AI-generated materials must be carefully reviewed and edited by the authors to avoid submitting results that appear authoritative and are incorrect, incomplete, or biased.

The authors must confirm that there is no plagiarism of text or images in the AI-generated materials. Authors must ensure that all quoted material is correctly attributed, including

Cited material made by AI  is not accepted. Primary sources must be cited. 

Preprint Publication Policy 

MedUNAB accepts manuscripts that have been published previously in a preprint non-profit-driven server. The authors must notify MedUNAB about any preprint related to the sent manuscript. 

Open-science politics

When submitting the research manuscript, authors are encouraged to upload the data that underlie the findings reported in the manuscript. A repository that may be institutional but should be publicly accessible and appropriate for datasets (source databases or tabulated data sets) is suggested while maintaining the confidentiality of study participants (anonymous version). The Dataset can also be created using any platform, but the journal recommends the use of some: 

Mendeley Data:  https://data.mendeley.com/   

Zenodo:  https://zenodo.org/  

The Dataverse Project:  https://dataverse.org/   

Dryad:  https://datadryad.org/stash   

Figshare:  https://figshare.com/   

EMBL. EBI:  https://www.ebi.ac.uk/   

The public dataset aims to provide archives so that evaluators, editors, and readers may observe and access the original results data. Different archives exist for different types of documents associated with the datasets: Excel, Word, PDF, videos, images, and interviews. 

Once the article has been approved for publication, the author will be asked to provide the reference of the dataset's deposit place, including the DOI. The authors must include the respective citation in the methods section and in the reference list (see how to reference a data set in the reference section). For articles that require the attachment of a specific appendix, it is suggested that this document be attached to the dataset and the reference in the results section. 

Open-access and licensing politics

This Journal provides immediate access to its content under the principle of support and knowledge exchange. The publications of the MedUNAB journal are under a Creative Commons Attribution License (Creative Commons, CC) type 4.0, with attribution and non-commercial rights, that permit unlimited use, distribution, and reproduction in any way, as long as the original author and source are correctly cited. MedUNAB gives the authors a PDF document of the manuscript accepted by the author that may be deposited in a non-commercial repository after its publication. 

Ethical policy in scientific publishing

Ethical Aspects, Confidentiality, and Plagiarism

For research involving human participants—particularly interventional studies—the manuscript must describe the procedures in accordance with the standards of the ethics committee that approved the study and with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as revised by the 59th General Assembly of the World Medical Association held in Seoul (Korea) in October 2008, available at http://www.wma.net/s/policy/pdf/17c.pdf. In all cases, the Methods section must state the type of informed consent obtained and the name of the ethics committee that approved the study; in the case of clinical trials, the registration number must be provided.

In relation to participant privacy and confidentiality, patient names, initials, or hospital numbers must not be used under any circumstances. For illustrative material containing a patient's image, written informed consent from the patient for publication of the image must be submitted together with the manuscript. Similarly, for studies involving animals, the manuscript must state that the procedures were conducted in accordance with applicable local regulations for the protection of animals.

Additionally, authors must adhere to the guidance of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), published as “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals" available at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/. The Spanish version can be consulted at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/translations/. 

Authorship

An author is a person who has made a significant intellectual contribution to the study. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), in its update of December 2019, recommends that “authorship be based on the following four criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the manuscript; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the manuscript; AND
2. Drafting the manuscript or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the manuscript in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the manuscript are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the manuscript performed, an author should be able to identify which coauthors are responsible for specific parts of the manuscript. Furthermore, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their coauthors. All those designated as authors should meet all four authorship criteria, and all those who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Individuals who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.” For more information, please consult the ICMJE website, available at http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf 

Access, Processing Costs, and Article Submission

The MedUNAB Journal is an open-access scientific journal; moreover, submission and editorial processes, as well as acceptance for publication and the publication of manuscripts submitted to the journal, do not entail any costs for authors.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received and evaluated, regardless of whether they are accepted or rejected, will be treated as confidential material: the editor and the editorial team will not share information about the manuscripts, including their receipt and evaluation, the content or status of reviewers' critical assessments, or their final disposition with anyone. Information about the process will be provided only to the authors and the reviewers. Third-party requests to use manuscripts and their reviews for legal proceedings will be courteously declined.

External peer reviewers will be asked to treat the material as confidential during the review process, not to discuss it publicly, and not to appropriate the authors´ ideas; moreover, once they have submitted their assessment, they will be asked to destroy paper copies and delete electronic copies. Reviewers will also be asked to declare whether or not they have any conflicts of interest relevant to performing their role as reviewers.

All received manuscripts, whether accepted or rejected, along with their associated correspondence, will be archived in a repository to comply with PUBLINDEX Colombia requirements.

Plagiarism, Corrections, and Retraction

Plagiarism is one of the most common forms of misconduct in academic publications. It occurs when an author presents the work of others without permission, mention, or acknowledgment. Plagiarism can vary in its level of severity, and certain actions must be taken by the journal as the editorial body. The MedUNAB Journal adheres to the COPE algorithm https://publicationethics.org/files/plagiarism%20A.pdf in the case of suspicion of plagiarism in manuscripts submitted for consideration. In the case of plagiarism detected in a published manuscript, the retraction of the article will be considered following the corresponding algorithm: https://publicationethics.org/files/plagiarism%20B.pdf. 

Consequently, the journal also acknowledges that errors are part of the scientific and editorial

process. In consequence, the MedUNAB Journal adopts the recommendations of the

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) regarding corrections and retractions.

• Corrections: Issued when errors are identified after publication. These errors must be clearly highlighted without compromising or altering the original version of the work and the notice must be accompanied by a visible link to the article.
• Retractions: Issued when the results of an article lack reliability, whether due to honest error or misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, data manipulation, or AI misuse, among others). The retracted article will continue to be accessible to the scientific community, but it will be labeled as “retracted” in all formats with a clear explanation of the reasons. The authors, the journal, or third parties can review the retractions, and sufficient evidence must be presented in each case.

MedUNAB adheres to the guidelines and international flowcharts for managing corrections and retractions, available at 

• COPE: https://publicationethics.org/guideline/retraction-guidelines 
• ICMJE: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/

Identification of Authorship Roles in Research Articles

The Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) provides a framework to distinguish and recognize each coauthor´s contribution to a scientific article. It is used to represent the responsibilities undertaken by each coauthor in the scholarly production of a research document. Its primary objective is to provide appropriate credit to all those who participated in the research process. 

Delineating each individual’s contribution ensures that their work is properly acknowledged in the reporting of results. These practices comply with the authorship criteria defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). 

The CRediT taxonomy defines fourteen contributor roles for recognizing author contributions in publications. Detailed documentation and information on the CRediT taxonomy can be found on the Editorial Ciencias Medicas website http://www.ecimed.sld.cu/2020/06/27/taxonomia-credit/ and at Elsevier’s “CRediT author statement” page https://www.elsevier.com/authors/policies-and-guidelines/credit-author-statement.

Financial resources

MedUNAB journal is exclusively funded by the Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, receives no private nor public external funding sources, and the publicity that might be presented in the journal is strictly academic.

Interoperability protocol

MedUNAB uses the OAI-PMH protocol for the storage of files by different databases. You can find it at the following link: https://revistas.unab.edu.co/index.php/medunab/oai. Additionally, the journal has meta tags following the Dublin Core standard.

GENERAL GUIDELINES AND PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

MedUNAB accepts scientific manuscripts written in Spanish, English or Portuguese, in any of the following categories. 

However, as of January 1st, 2025, to increase the MedUNAB Journal's international visibility, we motivate the authors to translate the article to English as soon as the manuscript is accepted. MedUNAB offers different options for this, which will be presented to the author in the publication phase. 

It is important to send Key Point information, which will be included at the end of the article with the following information:

- What is known about the subject? Write 3 or 4 sentences that summarize the essential points about what is known about the research topic (maximum 100 words in total)

- What does it contribute to the knowledge of the subject? Write 3 or 4 sentences that summarize the essential points about what the study contributes to the knowledge of the topic (maximum 100 words in total).

Types of articles

Original article. This document presents detailed outcomes of original research projects. For observational studies (cross-sectional, cohort, cases and controls) take into account the STROBE checklist (https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists). For qualitative research, the COREQ checklist is recommended. For CONSORT clinical trials (only trials with registered identification number will be published on validated pages, for other types of studies take into account the EQUATOR guidelines (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/coreq/). Maximum length of 5,000 words including the title, abstract, keywords, tables, figures and references. In the case of qualitative research studies, a maximum length of 6,000 words is accepted.

It generally contains five sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusions (A-I-M-R-D-C). Include the key points before the references.  Maximum number of references: 40.

Short article. Short reports or progress on partial results of original research, in which its rapid disclosure is of great utility, with a maximum length of 3,000 words including the title, abstract, keywords, tables, figures and references. It is important to include Key Point information. It generally contains five sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusions (A-I-M-R-D-C). Maximum number of references: 20. 

Review article. Document resulting from research in which the results of another research are analyzed, systematized, and integrated. Within this category you may find the integrative, systematized reviews, Scoping review or exploratory systematic review. 

Scoping Review Revisions (Scopus or overview). The list of verification must be used for this type of tipology, considering the following checklist: (PRISMA-ScR-Fillable-Checklist_11Sept2019.pdf (squarespace.com). Also, the protocol must be registered previously. We suggest to use the OSF (Open Science Framework) platform in the following link: OSF Registries | Scoping review protocol. https://www.medwave.cl/medios/medwave/Marzo2021/PDF/medwave-2021-02-8144.pdf

https://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1988-348X2015000200002. It is important to include Key Point information. It generally contains five sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results (the inclusion of tables, diagrams and figures is recommended), Discussion and Conclusions (A-I-M-R-D-C), with a maximum extension of 5,000 words, including the title, abstract, keywords, tables, figures and references. The key points must be included before the references. Minimum number of references: 50.

Systematic review with or without meta-analysis. It presents a detailed systematic search of the literature, in which the inclusion and exclusion criteria are exposed, as well as the terminology used for the search, databases, period, languages, among others, from the chosen literature to support the study in course. Expose searching data and the process in which articles were selected, as a flowchart (http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/Checklist.aspx). It differs from a meta-analysis due that in the latter, authors present a reasonable synthesis with a statistical analysis of the results found in studies. The following readings are suggested to clarify the key aspects of the elaboration of this type of articles: https://www.revespcardiol.org/es-revisiones-sistematicas-metaanalisis-bases-conceptuales-articulo-S0300893211004507 ; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10654-019-00576-5 . The systematic review protocol must have been previously registered in one of the registration systems, such as: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ . It is important to include Key Point information. It generally contains five sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results (it is recommended to include tables, charts and figures), Discussion and Conclusions (A-I-M-R-D-C), with a maximum length of 5,000 words including the title, abstract, keywords, tables, figures and references. Include the key points before the references. Minimum number of references: 20 and maximum: 50.

Methasynthesis. It is a rigorous revision and interpretation of findings in several qualitative investigations using qualitative methods. It aims to produce a new and integrative understanding of the findings that can benefit much more than the individual results of each investigation. Generally, it has five sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, results (we suggest including tables and figures), discussion and conclusions (A-I-M-R-D-C), with a maximum extension of 6,000 words including title, abstract, keywords, tables, figures, and references. Include the key points before the references. Number of references: Minimum: 20 and maximum: 50. 

following link: http://doi.org/10.4321/S1132-12962011000100023. 

https://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2444-79862020000200005 

https://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0465-546X2009000300002

https://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1988-348X2015000200002 

http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/rsap/v9n4/v9n4a14.pdf 

Special Articles. A variety of topics will be considered, among which stand out the approach of topics related to research methodology, specialties, academic development in the area of health sciences, or any other type of article in English or Spanish. Your work could contribute significantly to the current trends at the national and international levels.

The editorial team is open to any suggestion from authors or groups interested in updating knowledge in a specific or novel aspect of the health sciences area, with a maximum length of 4,000 words, including title, abstract, keywords, tables, figures, and references. It generally contains five sections: Abstract, Introduction,

Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusions (R-I-M-R-R-D-C). Maximum number of references: 30. Include information on key points. The maximum number of authors allowed is 6.

Images in clinical medicine. Photographs that aim to capture and illustrate visually and didactically a concept, discovery, variety, disease or diagnosis found by health professionals, in daily clinical practice. These must be original images, with a high quality and resolution, and may not have been submitted or published in other sources. These photographs must represent and should highlight the relevance from the subject it intends to illustrate. Maximum number of photographs: 4. Each photograph must be sent separately (they will be referenced in order from left to right and those located above and in the below row: A, B, C, D, respectively).

Requirements on the quality for submitted photographs: appropriate angle and composition, enough sharpness and lighting in order to be able to appreciate details, and with a 300 dpi resolution. They must be in JPEG format. Any clue on the patient’s identification must be avoided (name, ID number, name of the institution, clinical record code, among others). The patient must sign an informed consent, which must be sent along with the photographs.

Title’s extension acceptance is up to eight words. The descriptive text from the photographs should be sent in an editable file apart from that containing the photograph. The text has not particular structure and must contain clinically relevant information (case description, clinical and laboratory findings, treatment response, clinical evolution), definition from the disease shown, description of the typical injuries mentioned in the literature, and the justification that enables to highlight the importance of publishing this image. The journal reserves the right to edit submitted photographs, in order to adjust quality requirements

Maximum number of words for the description of the clinical medical image: 800 including title and references. Maximum number of authors: 4. Maximum number of references: 6.

Perspective. A perspective is an opinionated review of the primary research literature that has a more limited scope than a typical review. Although opinionated, they are aimed to encourage new approaches and discussions about models, theories and ideas. 

Comments or abstracts of the practice based on the evidence. In this type of article, a clinical problem is presented thoroughly, where several recent studies have been published that have changed the knowledge of the subject. It aims to find the applicability in the practice derived from the analyses of these studies. It includes a discussion about these studies' validity, results, and interpretation. It will be presented in the following structure: Title in a question format, backgrounds that sustain the question or the clinical problem, body of the evidence that answers the question (principal studies), critical evaluation of the evidence, results or principal findings, conclusion in recommendation format or an abstract that includes strength and direction of the scientific evidence that supports it. The limit of words is of 3000 including title, abstract, keywords, tables and references. Maximum number of authors: 6. Maximum number of references: 25. 

Some examples of these types of articles may be consulted in the following links: https://www.lacardio.org/unidad-de-sintesis-y-transferencia/  

https://www.lacardio.org/unidad_sintesis/cuales-son-los-resultados-clinicos-del-uso-de-un-incentivo-respiratorio-durante-el-posoperatorio-inmediato-de-cirugia-abdominal-toracica-y-cardiaca/

Letter to the editor. Critical, analytical or interpretative positions about documents already published by the MedUNAB journal that according to the Editorial Committee, constitute an important contribution to the discussion of the topic on behalf of the scientific community. The publication can be edited because of length, grammar, or style, and the author will be informed about it before it is published. Maximum number of references: 10.

Editorial. This document is written by the editor, a member of the Editorial Committee or a guest researcher chosen by the editor, about current topics of scientific interest and/or orientations about the thematic purpose of the journal. Editorials will have a maximum length of 1,500 words counting the title and the references. (10 or less). Tables/figures: a maximum of 1 figure or table. Be sure to leave a clear and concise message in the conclusion. 

Science and Art. This section corresponds to a review of the image presented on the MedUNAB Journal cover, where the author presents their credentials and the most relevant aspects that inspired the piece's design and technique. The correspondence sent can be edited because of extension factors, grammatical, or style corrections. The author will be informed before it is published. The maximum number of words is 1000, including the title. 

Section characteristics

General guidance

In case the following indications are not met, the editorial process of the manuscripts already received will not start nor will certify that such document is in evaluation process.

The manuscripts will be received in an digital and editable format (e.g. Microsoft Word®), they must include: title page (it will be in a separated file), title and short title, abstract, keywords, text, acknowledgement, topics of interests, references, charts, tables, figures along with their titles and texts. Abbreviations and units of measurement must be typed to double space using just one side of the page without allowing spaces between paragraphs; and entering just one space after a period. Use Times New Roman font, size 12, and set up the page margins to 3 centimeters on each side. Also use italics for scientific terminology; and please do not underline them.

The original manuscript and its annexes must be remitted to the editor in an electronic editable format through OJS (Open Journal System) platform.

Each section feature guidance 

Title page. This section must include, for each author, his/her full name, academic degree(s), institutional affiliation, city, department, country (the information provided should not include abbreviations or acronyms), e-mail (personal and institutional), ID number and place of issue, telephone number (cellphone or landline number), link of the author’s CvLAC (with updated information) and identifiers such as: ID Redalyc, ORCID (we highly recommend to create your login: https://orcid.org/register); go to link 1 to view the tutorial “Creating an ORCID”: https://www.canva.com/design/DAG45RxVY6A/EXLLbxeqRKHd7jsXT7hoNg/view?utm_content=DAG45RxVY6A&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h258e7d64d2#1 and link 2 to view the tutorial “Updating your ORCID”: https://www.canva.com/design/DAG45flvqnk/6ejBStZxEyCghgpafwH3MA/view?utm_content=DAG45flvqnk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h3c91e77368#1, Scopus, Cvlac, Research Gate, Mendeley, Academia, Google Citation, among others (identifiers that are not provided by the authors will not be included). 

All the authors must send the data mentioned previously and it is also required to provide full contact information from the correspondence author, including postal address, phone number and e-mail address. The peer evaluators proposed must fulfill the minimum criteria of a master's degree, having published in indexed journals in Scopus or WOS the last two years related to the topic they are evaluating; the editing committee of the Journal will choose if the peer evaluators proposed will be consulted. 

It is important to take into account that this section must be sent in a separate file, so that there is no information about the authors within the article.

Title. It must describe the article clearly, accurately and precisely; the title must have proper syntax, lack of abbreviations, has a maximum length from 15 to 20 words (except in clinical medical images where the number of words for the title is up to 8). The title must have a short title for the heading of the pages.

Abstract. The work must include a well-structured abstract, the structure of it will depend on the article type. For example, for an Original research article the structure will include Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusions. The abstract is presented only in the article’s original language and will have a maximum of 250 words. The translation of the abstract into the other two languages will be carried out by MedUNAB journal, if the author requires it. The use of references is not allowed, nor is recommended the inclusion of acronyms in the abstract. The writing must be in third person. 

Keywords. It is required to list from five to eight keywords in Spanish as well as in English and Portuguese. Consult the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) published in https://decs.bvsalud.org/es/ ; to select the ones in Spanish and Portuguese, and consult Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html , to select the ones in English.

Text. It should not include the author’s names, due that this information must be presented in the Title Page. The text of the article depends on the article type, as mentioned in that section.

Introduction. This section must provide enough background to give the reader a proper contextualization about the topic so that he/she can clearly see the scientific justification of the article. The objective of the article must be presented in a clear, concise and direct way. It is recommended to present the objective of the article in the last paragraph of this section. 

Methodology. In general, it must include all necessary information to enable other researchers an adequate and an accurate reproducibility of the research. It may include: type of study, selection of population or materials used detailing the criteria for inclusion and exclusion, the brand and series of the materials, conditions under which the experiments were performed, the instruments used, in the case of surveys, it must be mentioned if they were elaborated by the authors or if they used previously validated surveys please mention in which or what studies these surveys were validated; technical specifications of the procedures, detailed procedures that allow other researchers to reproduce them, statistical analysis with their respective statistical techniques to each set of variables, and statistical packages used. In the final paragraph of the methodology include ethical aspects, where the type of risk study is mentioned, the ethics committee that approved the study, or in the case of clinical trials, the code which the clinical trial is registered in.

Results. Data or measurements of the main findings of the research must be presented in a logical, simple and clear sequence in the text, and they must be written in the past tense; data or measurements repeated must be given in charts or figures. The percent sign must be next to the number, no spaces between. The decimals should be indicated as a period (.) and the thousand units as a comma (,), this must be in the whole text.

Discussion. In this section, the author analyzes the results compared with those of the literature reviewed, where the author highlights the similarities and differences among them. The specific findings are mentioned as first and then, the general implications, keeping a logical, organized, clear and concise sequence. In this section is recommended to be precise with the meaning of the findings related to the hypothesis of the study, and to mention the limitations presented during the study.

Conclusions. They must be related to the objectives of the study, they must mention the scope of the research, and avoid statements not derived from the study's results.

Declaration of competing interests. Authors must inform in the manuscript if during the development of the work competing interests took place, declare the sources of financing of the work including the names of the sponsors along with explanations of the function of every source where appropriate, in designing the study, collecting data, analysis and interpretation of results, report writing, or a statement that funding does not have implications which could skew or suggest that may bias the study.

Tables and figures. Graphics, schemes and photographs, diagrams, charts, among others, will be named "Figure" and “Table”. They must be placed at the end of the document. They should be cited in the order as they appear along the text, with Arabic numerals providing a list for the figures and another one for the tables, which should not have vertical lines. Each table and figure must be sent in a separate page along with their titles, explanatory description and its source (in case it is elaborated by the author of the manuscript, it must be specified). Titles must be precise and must specify if they are elaborated by the author and if not, cite the source from which it was taken or their respective authorization. Every table must have their title above its appearance. Figures on the other hand, must have their title below its appearance. The maximum number of tables and figures is 8.

Photographs must have an excellent image quality, date and source must be clarified and also the photos should be sent in JPEG format of 300 Dpi. In microscope preparations, it must be mentioned color and size according to the used objective.  Figures will be published in color or black and white, according to its suitability.

Funding sources: authors must declare if they received any source of funding, indicating the funding entity or entities and the name of the project with which the publication is associated (if applicable).

Abbreviations. The author should avoid the use of abbreviations in the manuscripts title and abstract. When they appear for the first time in the text, they should be between parentheses and proceeded by the complete term they are making reference to, except for the units of measurement, which will be presented according to the International System of Units, without using plural.

References. Observe strictly the Vancouver Citations and References Guide produced by the Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga (Correa-Parada I, Picón-Merchán J, Estupiñán-Ortiz A, Barreto-Montenegro AE. Guía de citas y referencias Vancouver [Internet]. 2020. Recuperado a partir de: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12749/11879). Assign a number to each reference cited in the text. Write down the reference numbers between parentheses; if the reference is next to a punctuation mark, place the number before this.

See the list of periodical publications accepted by PubMed (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html) to get the exact abbreviation of the cited journal; if the journal does not appear, type the journal's full title. Transcribe only the first six authors of the article, followed by “et al”. It is recommended the inclusion of national and Latin-American references for which you can see Lilacs, Latindex, Sibra, Imbiomed, Scielo, Publindex, Fuente Académica, Periódica, Redalycs among other bibliographic sources. References should include articles about the topic published in the last four years in indexed journals in recognized databases and academic resources and auto-citation must be avoided. In your manuscript, no more than 30% of all references can be from documents published more than 5 years ago.

Below, reference examples: 

Printed publication

- Journal article

Gempeler FE, Díaz L, Sarmiento L. Manejo de la vía aérea en pacientes llevados a cirugía bariátrica en el Hospital Universitario San Ignacio, Bogotá, Colombia. Rev Colomb Anestesiol. 2012;40(2):119-23.

- No authorship

Solución corazón siglo 21 puede tener un aguijón en la cola. BMJ. 2002; 325(7357):184.

- Books and other monographs 

Grossman SC, Porth CM. Porth’s pathophysiology: Concepts of altered health states: Ninth edition. Porth’s Pathophysiology: Concepts of Altered Health States: Ninth Edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2013. 1648 p.

- Book chapter and alike

Mompart García MP. La situación en enfermería. En: Cabasés Hita JM, editor. La formación de los profesionales de la salud: formación pregraduada, postgraduada y formación continuada. Madrid: Fundación BBVA; 1999. p. 493-514.

- Presentation 

Arendt T. Alzheimer’s disease as a disorder of dynamic brain self-organization. En: van Pelt J, Kamermans M, Levelt C, van Ooyen A, Ramakers G, Roelfsema P, editores. Development, dynamics, and pathology of neuronal networks: from molecules to functional circuits Proceedings of the 23rd International Summer School of Brain Research; 2003 Aug 25-29; Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2005. p. 355-78.

- Technical reports

Barker B, Degenhardt L. Accidental drug-induced deaths in Australia 1997-2001. Sydney: University of New South Wales, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre; 2003.

Newberry S. Effects of omega-3 fatty acids on lipids and glycemic control in type II diabetes and the metabolic syndrome and on inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, renal disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and osteoporosis. Rockville: Department of Health and Human Services (US), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2004. Report No.: 290-02-0003.

- Newspapers

La "gripe del pollo" vuela con las aves silvestres. El País (Madrid) (Ed. Europa). 17 de julio de 2005;28.

Gaul G. When geography influences treatment options. Washington Post (Maryland Ed.). 24 de julio de 2005;Sec. A:12 (col. 1).

Online Publications

- Journal article

- With URL:

Leiva MJ, Fuentealba C, Boggiano C, Gattas V, Barrera G, Leiva L, et al. Calidad de vida en pacientes operados de Baypass gástrico hace más de un año: influencia del nivel socioeconómico. Rev Méd Chile [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2018 Oct 3];137:625-33. Available from: https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-98872009000500005&lng=es

- With DOI:

Rossi C, Rodrigues B. The implications of the hospitalization for the child, his family and nursing team. A descriptive exploratory study. Online Braz J Nurs [Internet]. 2007;6(3):15-24. doi: https://doi.org/10.5935/1676-4285.20071110 

- With continuous editing format

Authors. Title. Journal. Year; Volume (number). With an e and after number of pages. Doi.

If they do not have volume: Last name and initial of the authors. Work title. Abbreviated name of the journal. Year; day and month of the publication date and doi. 

- Book or monography

- With URL:

Zubrick SR, Lawrence D, de Maio J, Biddle N. Testing the reliability of a measure of Aboriginal children's mental health: an analysis based on the Western Australian Aboriginal child health survey [Internet]. Belconnen (Australia): Australian Bureau of Statistics; 2006 [cited 2016 Oct 25]. 65 p. Available from: https://goo.gl/WkS9OL

- With DOI:

Srivastava D, Mueller, M, Hewlett, E. Better Ways to Pay for Health Care [Internet]. Paris: OECD; 2016. 170 p. doi: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264258211-en 

- Book chapter

- With URL:

Jessup AN. Diabetes Mellitus: A Nursing Perspective. En: Bagchi D, Sreejayan N, editores. Nutritional and Therapeutic Interventions for Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome [Internet]. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2012 [cited 2017 Oct 3]. p. 103-10. Available from: https://goo.gl/M9u1qt

- With DOI:

Urquhart C, Currell R. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis of health IT. En: Ammenwerth E, Rigby M, editores. Evidence-Based Health Informatics: Promoting Safety and Efficiency through Scientific Methods and Ethical Policy. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 2016. p. 262-74. doi: https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-635-4-262 

- Technical report 

Arkes J, Pacula R, Paddock S, Caulkins J, Reuter P. Technical report for the price and purity of illicit drugs: 1981 through the second quarter of 2003 [Internet]. Washington (DC): Executive Office of the President (US), Office of National Drug Control Policy; 2004 [cited 2016 Oct 26]. Report No.: NCJ 207769. Available from: https://goo.gl/7yhrcB 

- Presentation

- With URL:

Corral Liria I, Cid Expósito G, Núñez Álvarez A. Vinculación del género en la profesión de enfermería. En: Suárez Villegas JC, Liberia Vayá IH, Zurbano-Berenguer B, editores. I Congreso Internacional de Comunicación y Género Libro de Actas: 5, 6 y 7 de marzo de 2012. Facultad de Comunicación Universidad de Sevilla [Internet]. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla; Editorial MAD; 2012 [cited 2016 May 3]. p. 72-85. Available: https://idus.us.es/xmlui/handle/11441/33158 

- With DOI:

Yue-Ping Z, Yu-Jie G, Xiao-Yan L. Application of problem-based learning mode in nursing practice student teaching. En: Li S, Dai Y, Cheng Y, editores. Proceedings - 2015 7th International Conference on Information Technology in Medicine and Education, ITME 2015 [Internet]. Los Alamitos (CA): IEEE; 2016. p. 385-9. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ITME.2015.163 

- Master or Doctoral thesis

Soto Ruiz MN, Guillén Grima F (dir), Marín Fernández B (dir). Evolución de los estilos de vida relacionados con factores de riesgo cardiovascular en estudiantes universitarios de Navarra [Thesis on the Internet]. [Pamplona]: Universidad Pública de Navarra; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 3]. Available from: http://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/20868 

- Complete webpage 

U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed [Internet]. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine; 2016 [cited October 26th, 2016]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

• Dataset references: 

Authors. Title of the database. Year. Data archive: version (if one exists). DOI. 

Submissions

Any material proposed for publication in MedUNAB must be sent via “portal de revistas académicas” at Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga (UNAB) https://revistas.unab.edu.co/index.php/medunab/index through the Open Journal System (OJS). Subscribe as an author by clicking on https://revistas.unab.edu.co/index.php/medunab/user/register . 

Editing Formats

The MedUNAB journal had a physical format with ISSN 0123-7047 registration until 2018. Currently, with the objective of caring for our environment, we embrace the initiative of a single electronic format in PDF and XML JATS with the ISSN  2382-4603 registration, in addition to doi registration:  https://doi.org/10.29375/issn.0123-7047.

Article eligibility

The documents put into consideration of the editorial committee must meet the following criteria:

• Contributions to knowledge. The document makes interesting contributions to the state of art of the object of study.
• Originality. The document must be original, i.e. produced directly by the author, without imitation of other documents. Authors are requested to declare that the document is original and unpublished and that it is not postulated simultaneously in other journals or editorials entities.
• Validity. Statements must be based on valid data and information.
• Clarity and accuracy in writing. Drafting the document must provide coherence to the content and clarity to the reader.

Editorial process 

Review phases of the articles

Once the article has been received, it is reviewed by the Editor and the Publishing School team to verify its compliance with the formal elements requested in the instructions to the authors. In this way, the review process has several moments:

1) Verification of compliance with standards for authors. For this matter, a checklist will be used in which the degree of similarity of the article with other publications will be verified using the journal’s anti-plagiarism software.

2) Internal review of the article, in which the relevance of the publication and coherence of the document are assessed. 

3) External peer review. 

4) Review of compliance with peer suggestions and approval for their publication. 

Internal review

In general, this evaluation will be blind on behalf of the Publishing School team, which will not know the names of the authors, and it will perform a comprehensive review of the references. If the manuscript does not meet these criteria mentioned previouusly, it will be sent to the authors indicating the corrections they must take into account before continuing the editorial process (this process can take up to three months). If the manuscript meets the formal requirements, the author will receive a notification stating that the manuscript will continue to the next phase, which is the evaluation by external scientific peer-reviewers. 

Peer Evaluation

External scientific peer-reviewers to the journal will have an academic degree of Master's or Doctorate, whose field of action is related to the manuscript under evaluation and have published at least one scientific document within the last two years. In addition, the external peers consulted are researchers recognized by MINCIENCIAS-Colombia as Junior, Associate or Senior researchers, or they will have an H5 Index equal to or greater than 2 for international external peers.

The external scientific peer review process will be double-blind. The authors' identity shall not be disclosed to the evaluators and the evaluators' names shall not be disclosed to the researchers. If the article is evaluated positively by an evaluator and negatively by another one, a third one is named and according to his/her concept, the inclusion of the document in the publication will be decided. Based on the previous concepts, the Editorial Committee will define whether the document is included in the publication or not. The observations of the external evaluators will be communicated to the authors along with the concept of acceptance with adjustments, final acceptance or rejection. Once the author receives the evaluators' comments, he/she will proceed to work on the corresponding modifications point by point and write down the corresponding modifications in the text. If the author decides not to follow a recommendation, the reason must be argued. Finally, the author must send the new version of the article. This stage will take an average ranging from three to five months depending on the availability of external peers, who perform this work ad honorem, and the time authors apply the changes requested by external peers.

Continuation of the editorial process

After edition and style correction have taken place, the authors will receive the diagramming tests about the article to carefully revise and return them to the editor with any observations within the next 48 hours. If the editors do not hear from the main author, it will be understood that the work is ready to be published. After publishing the edition, the main author will receive the web link that leads to his/her published article, along with a letter of acknowledgement. 

The correspondence author has the option to send a short video with adequate image quality, lighting and sound. It must be short, lasting maximum 50 seconds, and including the following structure: Name of the authors, title of the article, summary of the study and its main results to highlight. This video will be uploaded on the Journal’s YouTube channel, and on its website, with the purpose of reaching a greater visibility of its scientific production.

Submission of the manuscript 

The manuscript must be submitted with a letter signed by all the authors stating that they agree with its contents, and originality. It must also be mentioned that the manuscript has not been published partially or totally before, nor has been evaluated by another journal. If tables and figures are not original, the author of the manuscript must send a consent letter stating copyrights and credentials where material was taken from. 

Once the article has been accepted for publication, all authors must sign a copyright release form and declare their contribution roles for the academic production (Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Acquisition of funds, Research, Methodology, Project management, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing: revision and editing, see https://credit.niso.org/.Without this document it is impossible to publish in the MedUNAB Journal.

Estimated time for the evaluation and publication processes

The MedUNAB Journal has a schedule of internal editorial review, external review, approval, and style correction, translation, layout, and publication processes of about 6 to 10 months, depending on the response of reviewers and authors.

Editorial and Scientific Committees Selection 

The editorial and scientific committees have been created with the help of the directors of the Nursing, Medicine and Psychology programs of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga. The application is made considering multiple parameters, among which are: to be a professor or researcher with links to the Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, or to have an external vinculum to the institution at a national and international level, or to be working on an interinstitutional collaborative project, whether of university teaching, research, or extension. In addition, the candidates’ research experience and scientific publications are taken into account. Finally, an assessment of their citation index in POP is made, which must be higher than 2.

In case of further doubts or need of guidance, you may contact us under:

Revista MedUNAB

Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga

Calle 157 Nº 14-55 Cañaveral Parque

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia.

Telephone numbers: (+57) (607)6436111 Ext. 5549, 5597, 5529

E-mail: medunab@unab.edu.co