ISSN 1657-9550
printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

The BIOSALUD Journal is an biannual publication of Universidad de Caldas, whose objective is the publication of original, revision, and reflection articles, as well as case reports associated with different subjects related to human health. This publication has also been conceived as a tribune of opinion on different subjects related to the policies and the health problems and the health researched carried out in Colombia. The journal has been catalogued in the C category by the National System of Indexing and homologation of specialized journals of CT+I (Publindex), since 2006, for a two-year period.

• Scientific and technological research article: it is a document that presents in detail the results obtained from a research project. This article must contain: title, summary in English and Spanish, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion.
• Reflection article: it is a document that presents a personal and critical analysis of the research results, based on original sources.
• Revision article: a document in which the state of the art of a specific research topic is analyzed and presented. This document must highlight the contributions of the authors in the extension of the knowledge on the specific topic. It must contain at least 50 references from original articles.
• Short article: it is a document in which an advance of the results obtained in the development of a research project are presented, must be to their impacts, making their publication essential before the investigative process is finalized.
• Case report: it is a writing in which the results of a particular situation appear, since they are considered to be new findings, methodologies, or therapies, associated with a short and critical revision of the state of the art at a worldwide level of similar cases that have been presented.
• Subject revision: it is the document in which a specific subject is updated, accompanied by an analysis of the data collected for said revision.
• Editorial: a document written by the editor or any member of the Editorial Committee or by guest invited by the publisher. The editorial can be related to present problems in the health field, health education, as well as an analysis of new findings in the biomedical research.
• Letter to the editor: it is a document sent to the editor by the readers of the journal in which critics are made, results are refuted or reviews related to articles published in previous numbers of the journal, that according to the Editorial Committee, their knowledge by the scientific community is considered important.
• Bibliographical reviews: a section of the journal in which commentaries on recent publications are made by the scientific community of the Faculty of Health Sciences in particular, and by publications made at national or worldwide level.

General principles

The text of articles product of the observation and experimentation are usually divided in sections such as: introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion. The extensive articles specially need to be divided in subsections in the results and the discussion with the purpose of being more comprehensible. Other articles such as: case reports, revisions, reflection articles and editorials, probably require other formats. The use of double space throughout the manuscript, as well as suitable margins, allow the editor and reviewers to edit the text directly line by line, adding commentaries or doubts in the manuscript. If the manuscripts are sent via e-mail, this article also must be doubled space, since it must also be printed for its revision and edition. The page numbers is another important aspect, so that the reviewers and the editor can reference specific portions of the manuscripts. Each section of the manuscript must be separated in the following way:

It must include the following information:
• Title of the article: it must be concise and easy to understand.
• Names of the authors and institutional affiliation.
• Name of the section of the institution to which the authors are enrolled, with the corresponding institutional name.
• Correspondence for authors: it must contain: address, telephone number, fax and electronic mail address of the author responsible for the manuscript. In addition, the author must state if he/she wishes their electronic address to be published.
• Name and address of the authors to whom reimpressions can be solicited.
• Source or sources of the resources that served to finance the investigation.

It must be on the following page after the title page. The abstract must be in English and in Spanish. It must contain a short summary of the introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, enunciating each of these sections before their contents. New and important aspects of the study or observations must be emphasized, as well as the basic procedures, main findings, wherever possible with their statistical significances and the main conclusions. The extension should not exceed 300 words. It should not include information or aspects that are not contemplated in the text, bibliographical abbreviations, references to the text or citations. It must be written in third person. Since the abstracts are the parts mentioned in many databases, special care is required in their writing, so that it faithfully reflects the content of the articles. 3 to 10 key words in English and Spanish should be included. They can also be short phrases that capture the main topics of the article. Key words are important for the indexation of the article in databases. The key words used should be listed in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the Medicus Index: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html, for the key words in English. For the key words in Spanish, use the electronic page of the virtual health library; descriptores en ciencias de la salud.

The introduction contains a context of the study in which the problem is justified, what is the intention or objectives of the research; the state of the art on the subject being studied should be appropriately referenced, but data or conclusions of the research being published should not must be be included.

They must be presented in a logical sequence, enunciating the main and most important findings first. All the data in the charts or illustrations should not be repeated in the text. Additional material and the technical details must be placed in an appendix that does not interrupt the flow of the text; these appendices will only be published in the electronic version of the journal.

The numerical results not only are must be to express in percentage but also in absolute numbers and the statistical methods used are must be to explain to analyze such. The charts and figures to those necessary for the argumentation and valuation of the discussion are must be to restrict. To charts data in and graph are not must be to duplicate.

To emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that arise from them. Not to repeat data given in the introduction or the results. In the experimental studies he is useful to begin the discussion in summary briefly the main findings, later explaining because of these results; one is must be to make a comparison and contrast of the results with other excellent investigations; to enumerate the limitations of the investigation and to explore the implications of the findings for future investigations and the clinical practice if it is possible.

To relate the conclusions to the findings of the study but to avoid affirmations and conclusions that cannot be confirmed with the provided data; in individual affirmations are not must be to do on the economic benefits unless the manuscripts include appropriate economic data and analysis; to enunciate new hypotheses if they suitably are sustained, but is necessary to indicate clearly that these are hypothesis.

Revision articles must implement original articles as references, avoiding the use of abstracts as references. In case that a reference hasn't been published yet, it must be indicated that it is "in process"; the authors must obtain a written permit to reference such articles, as well as verifying that the articles have been accepted for its publication. And in case a reference has not been published, it should be identified as "unpublished observations" with the written consent of the source.

Avoid the references of "personal communication", unless they are a source of essential information unavailable from a publication, in this case, the name of the person and the date of the mail should be referenced in parentheses in the text. For a scientific article, the authors must obtain written permission and confirmation of the source of said communication.

The references must be consecutively numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. The references, charts and legends in the text must be identified with Arabic numbers in parentheses. The legends mentioned in charts or figures must be numbered according to the sequence established in the text. The titles of journals must be abbreviated according to the style used in the Medicus Index, consulting the list of the journals indexed by MEDLINE or SCIELO.

The manuscript can be sent in physical and electronic format to the director of the journal, at Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Facultad de Ciencias para la Salud, Universidad de Caldas A.A. 275, Manizales-Caldas-Colombia. The name of the person responsible for the content of the article must be included, with the address for the reception of correspondence and the shipment of manuscripts that require corrections. The manuscript can also be sent to the following e-mails: labmicro@ucaldas.edu.co, revistascientificas@ucaldas.edu.co