ISSN 0120-9957
printed version

ISSN 2500-7440
online version

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22516/issn.2500-7440

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

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

All material proposed for publication must be submitted to the Colombian Journal of Gastroenterology, registering as Author on the page www.revistagastrocol.com. It must be accompanied by the formats FT-021 Letter of Originality, FT-022 Letter of assignment of rights and FT-055 Information of authors and the Submission preparation Checklist duly filled in as they are mandatory for the publication and registration of all articles of the Journal. The formats appear below these instructions. The Editor of the Revista colombiana de Gastroenterología or the Editorial Committee will decide if the article meets the conditions to be submitted for evaluation by external scientific peers experts in the subject. The evaluation will be double blind; the identity of the authors is not revealed to the peer reviewers and neither does the latter to the first. The external pairs will give their concept suggesting the acceptance without modifications of the article, acceptance with modifications or the concept of non-publication. Based on the concepts of peer reviewers, the Editorial Committee defines whether or not it will be published. The observations of the external evaluators will be communicated to the authors.

Once the author receives the comments of the evaluators, they should proceed to answer them point by point and incorporate the corresponding modifications in the text. They will have 90 days to make the modifications and submit the modified article. In case this time is not met, the Editor of the RCG will understand that the authors have lost interest in publishing the article. Once the article has been modified by the authors, the Editor will verify the fulfillment of the recommendations requested by the external evaluators and if these have been adequately complied with, they will consider the article to the Editorial Committee so that it is included in a future number of the RCG. This decision will be communicated to the authors.

The editorial decision based on the criteria given by the external peers, will be communicated to the author by mail and there is no appellate appeal in the case that this corresponds to reject the article. Once the article has been accepted for publication and after editing and style correction, the authors will receive the PDF of the article, which must be carefully reviewed and returned with its approval or the observations that may arise in a term maximum of 48 hours. In case of not receiving a response from the main author, it is assumed that he agrees with the version to be printed. Once the publication is done, the authors will receive a copy of the magazine.

Manuscripts should follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Vancouver Group) and available at http://www.icmje.org/.

1. Papers must be sent to the Revista colombiana de Gastroenterología in a Word file on letter sized paper, double spaced, with 3 cm right and left margins. Submissions must be accompanied by the duly completed FT-021 letter of originality, the FT-022 letter of assignment of rights, the FT-055 author’s information and the Checklist for shipment preparation form which are required for publication and registration of all articles in the Review. Each part of the article should begin on a new page in the following sequence: title page, abstract Spanish and English with word counts, text, acknowledgments, references, tables (Each table should be on a separate page with its title and notes.) and captions for figures. Beginning with the title page, all pages should be numbered in the upper right hand corner. Figures (x-rays, histology, and others) should be delivered in a separate file. The title page should include a word count for the text of the article not counting the abstract, acknowledgements, tables and figures. Maximum word counts are 2,500 for research articles, 3,000 for review articles, 1,500 for case studies, and 1,000 for letters to the editor.
2. Research articles should be organized into sections titled Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Other types of articles may use other formats as long as they are approved by the editors.
   The Revista colombiana de Gastroenterología supports the policies for registration of clinical essays of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and recognizes the importance of these international initiatives for registering and making clinical studies public through open access. Consequently in the near future we will only accept documents for publication which have received an identification number from one of the Clinical Trials Registries validated as complying with the criteria established by the WHO and ICMJE. The registration number must appear at the end of the abstract. This rule will apply to articles which report experimental studies, clinical trials, or randomized prospective studies.
3. Every article will be ordered as follows:
   1. Title Page. The first page of the manuscript should contain: a) The title of the article in Spanish and English. Titles should be concise and express the central content of the article.
      b) Names and surnames of authors and their academic degrees and institutional affiliations. The names of the authors and the order in which they appear must be carefully reviewed before articles are submitted. Additions, deletions or reordering of authors should be done prior to submission. Any such changes made after submission but prior to acceptance must be approved by the Editor of the Journal. All authors must indicate their ORCID code to help identify the author unambiguously.
      c) Work place of the author(s) during the study reported.
      d) The name, address, and email address of the author responsible for correspondence.
      e) All sources of financial support including grants, equipment, drugs, etc. In a separate document the authors must declare all financial support received, specifying sources and declaring whether or not the source or sources had influence over the research..
      f) The word count for the article should appear at the bottom of the title page as set forth in point one. .
      g) If the topic has been presented at a meeting, the date, place, and character of the meeting should be indicated.
      h) Authorship. As established in the Uniform Requirements, to be considered an author of an article it is essential that the individual in question must have made substantial contributions to the article’s:
      a. Conception and design of the article, and/or acquisition of the article’s data and information, and/or analysis and interpretation of that data. b. Planning of the article and/or review of important intellectual content. c. Final approval of the version to be published. The authors must comply with all the conditions mentioned. "Authorship by courtesy" is unacceptable. For example, contribution of samples or recruitment of patients, although essential for research, do not constitute authorship by themselves. A mention in the acknowledgments is sufficient for this type of contribution. Authors must specify how they participated in the preparation of an article.
   2. Abstract and key words. The abstract should appear on the second page. Maximum length is 250 words. It should describe the purpose of the research, materials and methods, principal results and most important conclusions. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used. The authors may provide their own English translation of the abstract and title. The magazine will translate the title and abstract for those authors who are not in a position to do so themselves and whenever else it may be necessary. No bibliographic references should appear within the abstract. The editors may modify the abstract submitted by the authors. At the end of the abstract the authors must list three to five keywords. Keywords are used for indexing articles should be drawn from those listed in the Medical Subjects Headings (MeSH) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh or from those listed at Health Sciences (DeCS) at http://decs.bvs.br/E/homepagee.htm. These keywords will be used for work indexing purposes. In this section, omit quoting bibliographic references.
   3. Introduction. The introduction should summarize the study and clearly express its purpose. When appropriate it should explicitly state the hypothesis the authors tested in their study. It should not provide an extensive review of the topic. Only the absolutely necessary bibliographic references should be included.
   4. Materials and Methods or Patients and Methods. This section describes the selection of subjects and controls studied including patients, animals, organs, tissues, cells, etc. It identifies methods, instruments, apparatuses, and procedures employed with enough precision to allow observers to reproduce the study's results. When well established methods, including statistical methods, are used, the authors should limit themselves to citing the methods in the text and providing a bibliographic reference. When the methods used have been previously published, but are not well known, a brief description should be provided in addition to bibliographic references. When the methods used are new or are modifications of established methods, they should be precisely described, their use should be justified, and their limitations should be explained. Experiments performed with human beings must make explicit whether the ethical norms of the Helsinki Declaration (as modified in 2005) have been followed and must explain whether the research was reviewed and approved by a committee of the institution in which the study was conducted. When the editors request, the authors must append a copy of the document approving their study. Pharmaceutical and chemical agents used must be identified by their generic names and the doses and methods used to administer them must be specified. Patients should be identified by sequential number but not by their initials or hospital identification numbers. Authors must always note the number of patients observed, the number of observations, statistical methods used, and level of statistical significance chosen prior to the study for judging results. Identifying statistical methods used is fundamental.
   5. Results. Results should be presented following a logical sequence which is in agreement with the sequence in the body of the article and the tables and figures. Data should be presented in tables or figures, but both should not be used to present the same data. The text should highlight the most important observations without repeating the data presented graphically. Results should not be mixed with the discussion.
   6. Discussion. This section should be a discussion of the results obtained in the study rather than of the entire topic in general. It should emphasize only the study's new and important findings and the conclusions you draw from those findings. It should not repeat in detail the data which appears in the results section. Agreements and disagreements within and among study findings should be highlighted, and the limitations of the study should be compared with those of other relevant studies cited in the bibliography. Conclusions should be connected to the purpose of the research which was highlighted in the introduction. Avoid drawing conclusions which cannot be supported the findings of the study or which are supported by unfinished research. Propose a new hypothesis when you feel it is appropriate, but be certain to state clearly that his is a new hypothesis. When appropriate, make recommendations.
   7. Acknowledgements. Express gratitude only to people and institutions which have contributed substantially to the project.
   8. References. Bibliographies should be limited to a maximum of 40 citations. They should be numbered consecutively in the order of their first appearances in the text. In the text each citation should be referenced with an Arabic numeral superscript at the end of the sentence to which the citation refers. References which appear only in tables or figures should be numbered according to the first time the table or graph is referred to in the text. Citations may refer to works which have been accepted for publication, but have not yet been published. In these cases the Spanish words “(en prensa)” signifying “forthcoming” should be placed in parentheses following the complete citation. The Vancouver format for endnotes can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.
      1. Magazine and Journal Articles: Cite the paternal last name(s) followed by the initial of the first name(s) of the author(s). Mention all authors names when there are six or less authors. When there are seven or more, include the first six followed by “et al.” or “y cols” (meaning “and colleagues”) no matter what language the citation is in. Limit punctuation to commas to separate authors' names. Cite the full title in the original language. Cite the abbreviated name of the journal without parentheses. Use the abbreviations found in the Index Medicus at http://www.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji/html. Cite publication year, volume, and beginning and end pages separated by a hyphen (-). Example: 1. Awad W, Garay A, Martínez C, Oñate V, Turu I, Yarmuch J. Descenso ponderal y calidad de vida mediante la cirugía de Bypass gástrico con y sin anillo de calibración. Rev Chil Cir 2008; 60:17-21.
      2. Chapters of Books: Authors of chapter. Title of chapter. Last name and initial of first name of the author(s) or editor(s) of the book. Title of book. Edition. City: Publishing House; Year of publication. Initial and final pages of chapter separated by a hyphen (-). Example: 2. Croxatto H. Prostaglandinas. Funciones endocrinas del riñón. En: Pumarino H, ed. Endocrinología y Metabolismo. Santiago: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1984; 823- 840.
      3. Articles from online journals: Cite author's name, article name, and name of publication as for print journals appending journal's internet address and date site was visited. Example: 3. Morse S. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis (cited 1996 Jun 5). Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm
      To cite other types of publications please consult Requisitos Uniformes para Manuscritos Enviados a Revistas Biomédicas at www.icmje.org Authors are responsible for the exactitude of their references. For the case of scientific articles, the DOI address.
   9. Tables: Each table should be presented on a separate page. Cells should be separated by double spacing. Tables should be numbered in the consecutive order of appearance in the text and assigned titles which clearly indicate their content without reference to the text except for a brief explanatory caption independent of the text of the article. Horizontal lines should separate only the column headings and general titles. Columns of data should be separate by spaces but not by vertical lines. Explanatory notes must be provided for all non-standard abbreviations. Tables should be cited within the text.
   10. Figures. Figures include all illustrations which are not tables (Graphs, radiographs, sonograms, etc.). Graphs should be produced with appropriate software. Digitalized computer images should be recorded at medium or high resolutions in JPEG or TIFF format so that they can be loaded into the most commonly used graphic design programs. Digital figures should be sent in a file separate from the text of the document. Letters, numbers, arrows and symbols in photographs should be clear and sharp. They should be large enough to be legible when the figure is reduced in size for publication. Titles and captions should not appear within photographs. Rather, they should be included on a separate page to allow the graphic designer to place them correctly. Symbols, arrows and letters used on photos of microscopic images should be large enough and should contrast sufficiently with the surrounding image to be clear and legible. Each figure should be cited in the text consecutive order. If a figure is reproduced from another published source, permission must be obtained and the source must be cited. Photographs of patients must mask their faces sufficiently to protect their anonymity.
   11. Captions for figures. Titles and captions should be presented on a separate page from figures. Captions should clearly and explicitly identify all symbols, arrows, numbers, and letters employed to indicate details of illustrations.
   12. Units of measurement. Use decimal metric measurement units.
   13. Corrections by author. After the article is ready for publication, the final proofs are generally sent to the author for a final review. If any corrections are needed, they must be indicated on the proof sheet and returned to the editors within the time limits stipulated.
   14. Responsibility. Responsibility for the content of each article belongs entirely to the author. The Colombian Review of Gastroenterology will ensure that ethical principles are respected.
   15. Copyright. The Colombian Review of Gastroenterology publishes all articles under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivative 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. By making a submission to the RCG, authors indicate that they understand and subscribe to the conditions established in said license.
   16. Privacy statement. The names and email addresses entered in the Colombian Journal of Gastroenterology will be used exclusively for the stated purposes and will not be available for any other purpose.
   17. Citing this magazine. The abbreviation for citing the Revista colombiana de Gastroenterología is Rev Colomb Gastroenterol.