ISSN 0123-9392
printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Preparation of manuscripts
• Manuscripts submissions

INFECTIO is the oficial journal of the Asociación Colombiana de Infectología (ACIN). It will publish original research articles, reviews and commentaries dealing with infectious diseases and related scientific subjects.

Preliminary or summarized results of original research on the causes, mechanisms, diagnostics, evolution, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases or related areas. Text will not exceed 1.500 words, 20 bibliographic references or less, and a maximum of 2 Figures and/or Tables will be included.

Reports of unusual but informative cases related to adverse events of drugs in infectious diseases. Text will not exceed 1.500 words, 10 bibliographic references or less, and a maximum of 1 Figure and/or Table will be included.

Systematic reviews or meta-analysis on subjects or published articles related to infectious diseases. Text will not exceed 4.500 words and a maximum of 6 Figures and/or Tables will be included. One of the sections of the review article should state the method of searching and considering scientific references for inclusion.

Research articles or reviews on the concepts and recent clinical practice related with infectious diseases and their treatment. Its content should illustrate or be based on consensus guides of medical practice and also include authorized references. Text will not exceed 4.500 words and a maximum of 6 Figures and/or Tables will be included.

Commentaries on contemporary subjects or else on research articles included in the corresponding edition. These should only be written after an Editorial Board´s command, and will not exceed 1.200 words and 20 references or less.

Commentaries on the content of the journal or on other topics of interest to the readers. Text will not exceed 300 words and 3 to 5 references. No Figures and/or Tables will be included. When letters deal with published material, they should be received 6 weeks after the publication of the referred article.

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the "Requerimientos Uniformes para Manuscritos Enviados a Revistas Biomédicas", prepared by the "Comité Internacional de Editores de Revistas Médicas" (Acta Médica Colombiana 1997; 22(4): 199-211. Last version published in http://www.icmje.org). Format for the bibliographic references is specified in the same sources, and the Editorial Board of INFECTIO will prefer manuscripts that cite references of Colombian authors and journals.

All sections of the article should be ordered according to the following sequence: Title page, Summary (english and spanish), Introduction, Methods, Results (including Tables and Figures with their corresponding legends), Discission, Acknowledgements and References. Each section should be printed in separate pages, and all pages should be numbered.

First page will include:

· Title and short title (if necessary). Title in spanish.

· Authors in order of appearance. Please include abbreviations only for academic titles, do not include membership to scientific societies or other non academic organizations.

· Institutional affiliation of each author will be published as a footnote in the first page of the article. Only institutions to which each author belonged when the study was performed will be included.

· Finantial support (if necessary).

· Name and complete corresponding address

Summaries should have less than 250 words (excluding keywords). Summaries for original articles must be structured as follows:

· Objective

· Experimental design

· Location

· Population

· Analysis of data

· Results

· Conclusions

· Keywords

In basic science research, the experimental design, location, population and analysis of data may be included in one section entitles Material and Methods.

Reviews and therapeutic advances should include a non structured summary in english and in Spanish, with a maximum of 200 words, and with keywords extracted from scientific descriptors such as the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and, in spanish, the "Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud (DeCS)"

Authors will be responsible for obtaining permissions to include in their article texts, figures and/or tables from other publications. Acknowledgements to referring authors should follow the recommendations of original editors. Otherwise, author(s), reference codes and editorial sources should be included. Lent material must be submitted with the corresponding acceptance letter from the copyright owner.

Financial support for scientific procedures, including equipment and used drugs, should be referred in the Title page. Authors must describe in the remission letter of the study, any direct or indirect financial conflict that might have affected the conduction or the results of the corresponding research. Publishing of such articles depends on the criteria of the Editorial board.

In the submission setter, complete details should be revealed on any previous publication of the submitted material, either as congress memories, oral or poster presentations, reviews, book chapters, etc.

Authors should include in the Methods section, when appropriate, the procedures employed to assure the ethical restrictions of the study according to the principles of the Helsinki Declaration and its revisions, and also Resolution No. 008430 of the Ministerio de Salud de Colombia.

Once the manuscript is received, a confidential registry number is assigned. Information about manuscripts will only be given if this number is cited. Decisions on accepted or rejected articles will be communicated through a letter or mail to the contact in the article.…

Every manuscript is read by the editor or editor in charge. The editorial board will decide relevance and importance of the manuscript for the journal. When it is accepted, a pair review process start and two members of the Scientific Committee are choose for reviewing the article. Those two reviewers are asked to keep confidentiality, declare conflicts of interest, and not to save copies of the manuscript. If the manuscript is submitted by one or more members of the editorial board of INFECTIO, these will not be asked to participate in the editorial process.

The average number of accepted or rejected articles is determined by the total number of submitted manuscripts, quality of these and available space in the journal. Manuscripts are judged on the basis of the relevance of the issue of research, study design, clarity on presenting data, discussion on the information obtained and importance of findings and commentaries to the readers of INFECTIO. Rejected articles are given back to the authors.

Previews of approved manuscripts will be sent for a final review. These will have to be given back in five days. In the case of publishing houses, the authors will receive manuscripts published for immediate correction by telephone. The journal reserves the right to make modifications in the text of articles, with the purpose of improve the writing and edition of the same, when this is strictly necessary. INFECTIO does not assume any responsibility by the ideas set out by the authors.

All the documents will have solely to be sent by electronic mail to info@infectio.org with copy to the electronic mail acin@etb.net.co. The manuscripts must be sent in Word, Arial source 12 points, double-spaced. The images and figures must be sent within the text and in separate format in format GIF or JPEG. The manuscripts will include a letter in which the section is clarified in which it is desired to be including (see Content). The authors of original articles must clarify that the content has not been published in another journal and that is known and accepted by all. The letters must also indicate all the financial sources of the study and the roll that these could have in the collection and the analysis of the results. The publication of these data will be put under the discretion of the publisher. The letter will also include the complete name of the author, the direction of mail, the telephone, the fax and the email.