ISSN 0120-386X
Printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts
• Conflict of interest
• Copies to the author
• Delivery mail

The following are the instructions to submit manuscripts to be published in the Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública (National School of Public Health) Journal of Antioquia University. It is addressed to those interested in the wide thematic scope of public health, in a national and international level, in order to communicate new aspects to improve people’s health and life quality.
Types of manuscripts to be sent: 

• Articles of scientific and technological communication: describe in detail original and inedited results of research structured in four parts: introduction, methodology, results, and discussion. 
• Reflection articles: present the results of a finished research from an analytical, interpretative, and critical perspective of the author, on a specific topic, having recourse to original resources.
• Review articles: Document ensued from a finished research where they analyze, systematize, and integrate results of published or non published research on an area of science and technology in order to show advances and tendencies of its development.
• Theme Review article: Document resulting from the critical review of the literature on a particular topic.
• Opinion Articles and debates: correspond to essays, analysis, and comments sent by those interested or by invited authors.
• Communications: reports or advances of original investigations.
• Letters to the editor: critical, analytical, or interpretative positions on published manuscripts in the journal which, according to the editing committee,   represent an important contribution to the discussion of the topic in the scientific community.
• Reviews: summaries of books, journals, and other types of publications on some of the areas or topics of public health.

Copyright. Receiving a manuscript does not imply that the editing committee is forced to publish it nor that the journal is compromised to publish it in a specific date. Responsibility for the articles’ points of view corresponds to the authors only. The articles cannot have been published nor can be published in other national and international scientific journals. Articles sent to simultaneous publishing to another or other journal are not accepted. The editing committee is responsible for the study and selection of articles and they are submitted to evaluation by experts (peer review).  The committee decides to accept, reject or do the relevant editing corrections to the articles.   

Each article must have the following components, properly differentiated and in the order given below.

As short as possible; preferably no question marks or exclamations and it should be affirmative. We recommend a maximum of 8 words; if it is not possible, it would be better to divide it in title and subtitle, divided by colon. It must report on the topic and the conclusions. The title must be written in English and Spanish. If the title needs a foot note explanation, it is referenced with an asterisk –not with a superscript number- immediately after the title.

It includes the full name of all authors including middle initial, last name, date of birth, document of identity, academic qualifications, electronic direction, current position and institutional affiliation. It must refer to an author to whom correspondence is addressed, including their address, telephone number, fax, electronic direction or a Po Box. It is suggested that the order of the authors should be in relation with the contribution that each one did to the work..

The text of this component should be structured in four subtitles: objective, methods, results, and discussion.  It should be written in both Spanish and English in a paragraph with up to 200 words, including the synthesis of each component of the article.

2.1.Keywords

These words describe the content of the article and should not be more than five. They should be written in English and Spanish, paying special attention in the accurate translation of terminology, neologisms, abbreviations, and acronyms. It is recommended to use the key words accepted by international data bases.  You can go to the virtual library of PAHO available in http://www.bvsalud.org, and check the descriptors in health science through the link http://decs.bvs.br/E/homepagee.htm 

3.1.Introduction

It should be brief and give the necessary explanation for the reader to understand the rest of the text. It should not include tables or figures, unless they are absolutely necessary for the understanding of the text. It should include a last paragraph explaining clearly the objective (s)

3.2.Methodology

It will describe the selection of the population identifying sex, age, and other important characteristics and how data was collected. It will refer to the type of study and analysis (descriptive, epidemiological, experimental, essay, clinical, etc), the assignation system of the subjects and their randomization. It will identify methods, instruments of evaluation, treatment, pharmaceutics or chemical products indicating the generic name, dose, and way of administration. It will describe the statistic package.
When dealing with experiments carried out with animals or humans, it should show that ethic norms of research have been followed and international agreements of animal and human experimentation have been accomplished. It should also describe whether the participants of the research gave written consent.
The Revista Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública supports the policies for registering  clinical essays of World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME), recognizing the importance of  such  initiatives for the registering and international communication of information on clinical studies.

3.3.Results

Results should be described in a logic sequence and the texts supported with tables explaining clearly the results of the study. Do not repeat in the text all data of tables and figures, just the most important. Make emphasis and summarize only the most important observations.

3.4.Discussion

Emphasize new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions derived from it. Do not repeat in detail the results of the previous section or in the introduction. Make a relation of the results with other relevant studies over the topic. Explain the implications of the findings and their limitations. Relate the conclusions with the objectives of the study. Do not make suppositions if they are not supported with the data. If appropriate, you may include recommendations.

4. Acknowledgments

When necessary, those who have contributed or supported in the research will be mentioned.

References should be numbered in sequence as they appear in the text with Arabic numbers in parentheses (), plain text, with no use of hyperlinks of footnotes. Each reference must begin with last name and then first letter of the authors –no punctuation marks in between- up to six authors. If there are seven or more, the first six may be quoted and then the abbreviation et al. Authors must be separated with commas.

The following are examples of references for different types of material with the respective schematic guide of presentation, according to the International Vancouver Norm

5.1.Articles of journals. 

Last name(s) and first letter (s) of author’s (s) name(s). Title of the article and subtitle -if so- separated by colon (:) International abbreviation of the journal/ year of publication; volume (if there is any)/ number of the journal (within parenthesis), range of pages, from first to last separated by short hyphen (-). These last four items (year, volume, number and pages) are separated with the punctuation marks mentioned above and not with spaces between them.
Example:

• Cardona A, Franco A. La salud pública como disciplina científica: fundamento para los programas de formación académica. Rev. Fac. Nac. Salud Pública 2005; 23(2):107-112.

The firstsix names are mentioned followed by the abbreviation et al.
Example:

• Sosa M, Filgueira J, López-Harce J, Díaz M, Lozano C, del Castillo A, et al. ¿Qué opinan los internistas españoles de la osteoporosis? Rev Clin Esp 2005; 205(8): 379-382.

5.3.Journal article on internet

Last name(s) and first letter(s) of the author’s name (s); title of the article; name of the Journal [Journal on internet]; Year [date of access/quoted]; volume (number): [Extension/pages]. Website.
Example:

• Francés I, Barandiarán M, Marcellán T, Moreno L. Estimulación psico cognoscitiva en las demencias. An Sist Sanit Navar [Journal on line] 2003 september-december. [Acces october 19 2005]; 26(3). Available in:http://www.cfnavarra.es/salud/anales/textos/vol26/n3/revis2a.html

5.4 Books.

Last name(s) and first letter of the author’s name(s). Title of the book and subtitle –if so-, separated by colon (:). Number of edition or reprinting, described with the abbreviations ed. or reprint (this information is omitted when it is the first edition). Place of publication (city): Printing; year of publication, pages.
Example:

• Porta J, Llanadosa M. La Universidad en el cambio de siglo. Madrid: Alianza Editorial; 1998. p. 22-3.

5.5 Chapter of a book. >Last name(s) and first letter of the author’s name(s); title of the chapter In: name of the director/ coordinator/editor of the book; Title of the book; edition. Place of publication (city): printing; year. first and last page of the chapter.
Example:

• Bólumar F. Medición de los fenómenos de salud y enfermedad en epidemiología. En: Gálvez R, director. Medicina preventiva y Salud Pública 10ª ed. Barcelona: Masson S.A.; 2001. Págs 71-78.

5.6 Organization as author.Name of the organization; title of the book; publisher; year.
Example:

• Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. América Latina frente a la desigualdad. Washington: BID; 1999.

5.7 Monograph (book) on line
Author/s or Director/Coordinator/Editor; title [monograph on internet/book on internet]. Edition; place of publication: Editor; year [date of Access/consult/quoted]; website.
Example:

• Moraga F. Protocolos diagnósticos y terapéuticos en Dermatología Pediátrica. [monograph on Internet]. Madrid: Asociación Española de Pediatría; 2003 [access   december 19 2005]. Available in: http://www.aeped.es/protocolos/dermatologia/ index.htm

To quote another type of documents and supports it is recommended to visit the URL http://www.fisterra.com/recursos_web/mbe/vancouver.asp#recomendaciones which offers a summary of the norm in Spanish updated until 2005 under the subtitle Ejemplos de referencia bibliográfica (examples of bibliography reference).

The graphic material is basically conformed by tables, figures, and graphs. All of them should be named or announced in the text, as close as possible to the point of insertion. Those names in the text are described by the terms table, figure, map, whatever the case be, followed by a correspondent Arabic number. Tables and graphs will be within the file.

Should have a brief title above, next to the term table, written in small letters -Save words that grammatically need to be used in capital letters-. Explanatory notes and the source should be written below. Information in tables should not reproduce or repeat what is said in the text. Columns in the tables must be separated with the help of the tabulator.

Include diverse illustrative material, such as pictures, maps, diagrams, and schemes. The title should be as brief as possible below next to the term figure in small letters  –Save words that grammatically need to be used in capital letters– Explanatory notes and the source should be written below, after the title.
It should be taken into account that the edition of articles of the journal is in one ink only. Therefore, the graphic material should not contemplate colored codes for figures.

Theuse of capital letters should be limited to the strictly necessary, according to the spelling criteria indicating its use only in cases recognized by the Spanish norm (such as beginning of text and paragraph, main names, abbreviations, but never acronyms). Typographic chances should also be reduced to the least possible.

Abbreviations should not be used, save institutions or programs whose name appears continuously in the text; if this is the case, the complete name should be given the first time it is quoted, followed by the correspondent abbreviation. The units of measurement will be those recommended by the International System of Units and will not have plural or final period. Whatever the case, the exclusive invention of abbreviations to identify very particular elements of the topic or particular scope of any discipline should be avoided, if they are not widely used –nationally and internationally– to be immediately recognized during the reading.

The commercial name of a drug should be avoided and use the generic one instead. In case the former is necessary, it will be indicated with the symbol ®.

7.4.Footnotes

They should be indicated with an asterix and are placed at the bottom of each page. Regarding the bibliographic references, they should be placed at the end of the article in Arabic numbers.

7.5 Quotes in the text. 

They should be brief. If they take more than five lines, they should go in another paragraph in a shorter type of letter from the rest of the text and with 1 cm of indentation on the left. If they take less than five lines, they should go in the same text and in the same letter size. They should go within quotation marks and between parentheses it should be written (last name, year, and page) at the end.
Example:

• “Por su objeto material (la educación), la sociología de la educación es una ciencia de la educación; por su objeto formal (lo social de la educación) es una parte de la sociología; por sus posibles aplicaciones, es una ciencia «auxiliar» de la pedagogía” (Quintana Cabanas, 1987, 143).

In case an author mentioned in a book is quoted (that is to say, it is not the author of the article/book which is being read) it should be described: (last name, year, page, quoted in: last name, year, page). The book which has been read will appear in the bibliography (not the quoted one written by the author)
Example:

• “La adaptación es un ajuste al medio y al ambiente, con un carácter más externo que interno; la integración implica un sentimiento interior de satisfacción personal, de agrado de sentirse a gusto con su vida” (Buceta, 2000, 227; quoted in: de la Red y Rueda, 2003, 77)

In case the article or book is written by an organization (without explicit author) the organization itself will appear (institution, year, and page).
Example:

• “Los centros de enseñanza son un área fundamental de confluencia de jóvenes, por lo que los puntos ubicados en ellos deben ser especialmente cuidados” (Cabildo de Tenerife, 1999, 109)

When quoting information from internet, all data should be described (if it is a word or pdf document, normally the page appears). If there is not data of the year, page or author, the website should be described.
 Example:

• “La educación especializada supone concienciar a los individuos de su propia identidad y dignidad personal, dando a cada uno la oportunidad de desarrollar y aumentar su propia calidad de vida” (Índice de documentos del grupo de educación social especializada, http://www.eduso.net/archivo/docdow.php?id=19)

It should be limited to the norms to the author hereby published, which follow the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals” (The New England Journal of Medicine 1997;336:309-313).
The article should be written in Word, times New Roman 12, and have up to 6000 words of extension without counting tables, graphs, and references. Each article should have up to 25 references, except review articles which present a very careful bibliographic revision.
To send the article you must enter to the Open Journal System platform where you will find the system of magazines of the University of Antioquia, whose address is http://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/fnsp?journal=fnsp. There it selects the name of the National School of Public Health magazine, you will register as author assigning a user's name and password (if you think fit may be register as a reviewer and reader) and follow the steps listed there to upload your article.
Once the article is submitted, a letter will be sent automatically to the editor stating that the author or authors claim the manuscript as original, that is has not been sent nor will be submitted for publication to another journal. Likewise, they are authorizing the reproduction of the material, the financing support, any conflict of interest that may exist, and the transference of the copyright to the Revista Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública, in case the publication is accepted.

Editors and the Editing committee will be attentive to possible conflicts of interest that may affect the capability of peers or reviewers or disqualify them to evaluate a specific manuscript.
Editors, the editing committee or reviewers proclaim themselves disabled to use the information obtained with the manuscripts for personal purposes. 

The contributor, whose work is published, will receive three copies of the journal with the article. If the article has more than one author, each one of them will receive two copies.

The articles should be sent to the editor and be confined to the Instructions for authors who should send a letterrequesting the publication of the article in the journal, saying that the article is original, and that all authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript. It should be sent to:

Álvaro Olaya Peláez
Director
Revista Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública
Medellín, Colombia
57-4-219 68 67
revfnsp@gmail.com
http://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/fnsp