Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. General Requirements

1.1. Adherence to Vancouver style

The Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal adheres to the Vancouver style, formally known as “uniformity recommendations for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: writing and editing for biomedical publications elaborated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors”, whose official text is available at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/.

Failure to comply with these recommendations, as well as with these guidelines, will result in a delay in the editorial process and may cause the paper to be rejected.

1.2. Originality of papers

Papers previously published or submitted at the same time to another journal will not be accepted. Papers previously presented as a communication to conferences may be considered provided that it has been partial and the work develops or extends the object of the research.

Papers that have been partially published (for example: the methodology used, part of the results, the previous bibliographic review, etc.) may be accepted, provided that this circumstance is clearly stated in the text of the publication.

1.3. Ethics in studies and experiments

When studies on human subjects are presented, it should be indicated that they have been authorized by the corresponding Clinical Research Ethics Committee and, in any case, compliance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, with its successive revisions, should be guaranteed. In particular, it should be stated that the patient data have been obtained after signing an informed consent when necessary. Likewise, the authors should declare that the protocols established by their respective health centers have been followed to access the data in the medical records in order to be able to carry out this type of publication for research/disclosure purposes for the scientific community.

When animal experiments are performed, it should be disclosed whether the guidelines of the institution or of a national or international research council have been followed; or whether any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals has been taken into account.

1.4. Authorship

Only those persons who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the development of the work are listed as authors, according to the uniform recommendations for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (see authorship contribution policy).

1.5. Conflict of interest

Authors of any work submitted to the Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal are responsible for acknowledging and declaring the existence of any conflict of interest of an economic or other nature that could lead to bias in the work. In addition to the cover letter, the text of the article should specify all financial support received that has made it possible to carry out the work, as well as other financial or personal relationships related to it.

The non-existence of conflict of interest should also be reflected in the text of the article.

1.6. Use of inclusive language

The Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal is constantly working to promote gender equality, and therefore suggests following the recommendations for inclusive language contained in our gender equality policy.

2. Guidelines for the preparation and submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts, in Spanish or English, should be prepared according to the templates used by the Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal (Download templates) and submitted electronically through the joiurnal's web page (Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal ). The editorial process can also be monitored on this website.

The following links provide a simple explanation of how to register and submit an article:

Tutorial for registering in the BES >>

Tutorial to send an article to the BES >>

2.1. Types of contributions

The Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal publishes the following types of papers:

Editorial Note: Reserved mainly for the dissemination of topics related to the Weekly Epidemiological Bulletinor those considered to be of special interest or topicality. They will be written at the request of the editorial committee.

Epidemiological study: Quantitative or qualitative research papers. They should follow the structure: introduction, method, results and discussion.

Short original: Quantitative or qualitative research papers. They must follow the structure: introduction, method, results and discussion.

Letter to the editor: Scientific observation or opinion on papers recently published in the Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin, as well as other relevant current issues.

It is mandatory that the papers comply with the following characteristics:

2.2. Style and format guide

All papers should consist of at least these three components: the Cover Letter, the Title Page and the Body of the article. In addition, authors may add Annexes with additional information.

Cover letter

This is a text to be entered in the “Comments to the editor” field in step 1. This text should include:

• The title and type of article.
• That the work has not been previously published, that it has been partially published or that it has been previously communicated to a congress. In the last two cases, a complete reference should be attached to allow its location. A brief statement to this effect should also be included on the title page.
• That the work is not under review in any other journal.
• That the appropriate authorizations have been obtained for the reproduction of already published material (if applicable) and that they will be given to the editorial board of the Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal once the work has been accepted for publication.
• Possible conflicts of interest or nonexistence thereof.
• Grants or financial support received for the research from which the article derives.
• Indication and justification of the need for a rapid publication process due to the special topicality of the research or the rapid obsolescence of the data.

Title page

It will be elaborated using the manuscript templates and will contain:

Title of the article. It should be as brief, clear and informative as possible and should adequately describe the content of the paper. It will have a maximum length of 15 words. If the study focuses on a specific population group (only women or men, elderly people...) this population group should be mentioned in the title. The use of acronyms, codes and symbols that are not commonly used should be avoided (the title should be written in English and Spanish).

Name and affiliation of the authors. Indicate the name and surname of each of the authors and make sure that you provide them in the correct spelling and according to the bibliographic signature of each author. Each author should have a superscript Arabic numeral call number referring to his/her affiliation (name of the institution(s), department(s) or center(s) and country). It must include the ORCID. It should not indicate the academic degree or professional category of the authors. The e-mail address of all authors should be included. A maximum number of six authors is recommended, and in the event that the number is greater, the need for this number of contributions should be justified.

Corresponding author. Indicate clearly who will be responsible for receiving correspondence throughout the process of evaluation and publication of the article, as well as after its publication. The e-mail address should be provided.

Funding. Financial and material support for the study should be acknowledged, indicating the organization, agency, institution or company, and the number of the project, agreement or contract. If there is no external funding, “No funding” should be indicated.

Conflicts of interest. Possible conflicts of interest of each of the signatories must be declared. Conflicts of interest may be labor, research, economic or moral. The editorial committee may require that this declaration of conflicts of interest be expanded or detailed to the maximum extent it deems appropriate. Likewise, if there is no conflict of interest, this should be explicitly stated with the word “None”.

Other declarations. You must declare that all the authors have approved the final manuscript and that the manuscript has not been sent either in whole or in part to other journals at the same time as to the Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal.

Body of the article

This document should not contain any information that could facilitate the identification of any of the authors and should be prepared using the manuscript templates and contain the following information

Title of the article. It should be as brief, clear and informative as possible and should adequately describe the content of the paper. It will have a maximum length of 15 words. If the study focuses on a specific population group (only women or men, elderly people...) this population group should be mentioned in the title. The use of acronyms, codes and symbols that are not commonly used should be avoided (the title should be written in English and Spanish).

Summary / Abstract. The abstract should provide the context or background for the research and should mention its purpose, the basic procedures (selection of subjects for the study, observational and analytical methods), the main findings (providing specific effect sizes and their statistical significance, if possible), and the main conclusions. The structure and number of words varies according to the type of article. In the case of original articles, the abstract should be structured with the sections Objective, Method, Results and Conclusions.

The abstract should be in Spanish and English and should be complete and accurate translations.

Note: For the abstract in Spanish, the use of commas for decimals is used. For the abstract in English, the use of the period should be used to separate decimals.

Key words. They should appear after the abstract in Spanish and English) in the corresponding language. A minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 key words should be included in order to complement the information contained in the title and help identify the work in bibliographic databases. Terms equivalent to those in the Medical Subjects Headings (MeSH) list of the Index Medicus (available at www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html) should be used. The equivalence between the terms in Spanish (Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud, DeCS) can be consulted at https://decs.bvsalud.org/E/homepagee.htm.

Main text. Original papers, short original papers and reviews should be divided into the following sections:

Introduction: It should be as brief as possible, trying to justify the need for the work presented. It is convenient to focus the problem with current data. Only the indispensable bibliography should be cited. No data or conclusions of the work to be published should be included. The last paragraph of the introduction should include the objective(s) of the work.

Methods: It will refer to the area where the research has been carried out, the period or duration, the characteristics of the population studied, the selection criteria employed and the techniques used, describing precisely how the study was carried out, type of design used, inclusion and exclusion criteria, treatment guidelines, statistical analysis, etc., providing sufficient details so that the experience can be repeated on the basis of the information provided.

In the case of reviews, it is essential to describe in as much detail as possible the bibliographic search carried out, the sources of data (bibliographic databases), the terms of interrogation used, the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of papers, the method for evaluating the quality of the evidence found and the techniques for assessing the results considered.

Results: Describe the findings obtained with the materials and methods referred to, detailing both positive and negative findings. The data may be mentioned in the text or in the form of tables or figures. Data in tables or figures should not be repeated in the text. Only important observations that meet the objective of the study should be highlighted.

Discussion: It should interpret the results, highlighting the new and important aspects of the work and the conclusions derived from them. It should relate the observations described with other relevant studies. The authors may present their own opinions on the subject. The meaning and practical application of the results, the relationship with similar publications and comparison in areas of agreement and disagreement, indications and guidelines for future research, and considerations on possible limitations of the study should be discussed.

On the other hand, the discussion should not turn into a review of the topic and concepts that have appeared in the introduction should not be repeated. Nor should the results of the work be repeated. Gratuitous assertions and assertions not supported by data or existing knowledge should be avoided.

Possible limitations of the study that may condition the interpretation of the results should also be indicated.

The Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal does not establish a conclusions section in the original articles and reviews. The same will be written in the last paragraph of the Discussion.

Acknowledgments: This section should record the material and financial support, of any kind, received. The granting organization, institution or company should be indicated and, if applicable, the project number assigned to it. Technical assistance, equipment support, academic collaboration (consultations) or other financial assistance (grants or awards) should also be included.

Any person, natural or legal, mentioned must be aware of and consent to their inclusion in this section.

Conflict of interest: In addition to indicating it in the cover letter, the text of the article should state whether or not there is a conflict of interest. This section should also mention any economic or personal relationship that may influence the performance of the editors and reviewers.

Bibliography: Only those works related to any section of the manuscript should be cited. Authors are responsible for an adequate bibliographic review of previous knowledge on the subject of their research. Reviewers will especially consider that all relevant literature has been evaluated. Preferably, unpublished papers and data should not be cited, but referred to in the text.

The abbreviations of the journals indicated in the US National Library of Medicine for Medline/PubMed should be used. In the case of a journal not included in Medline/PubMed, the full name of the journal should be used, without abbreviations.

The bibliography should be presented according to the order of appearance in the text of the body of the article, tables or figures, with the corresponding correlative numbering in Arabic numerals. In cases in which the citation is placed next to a punctuation mark, the citation should precede the punctuation mark.

In the text, citation numbers should be indicated in superscript and in parentheses (see manuscript templates).

The format and style of citation should strictly follow the uniformity recommendations for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Citation examples can be consulted at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.

Whenever possible, the DOI number should be indicated at the end of the bibliographic reference.

Tables: they will include table numbering with Arabic numerals, which will be cited in the text in correlative order; table title at the top and abbreviations, acronyms or explanations at the bottom. Exceptionally, large tables may occupy more than one page. The content should be self-explanatory and the data included should not be repeated either in the text or in other tables or figures.

Figures: Figures should include all types of non-tabular material, images, (morphology, algorithms, histograms, graphs, etc.) and should be cited, by means of Arabic numerals, in the text in correlative order. They should be submitted with sufficient resolution and high quality. The title of the figure should be at the top. Figure captions should be written immediately below the figure, indicating the corresponding number in Arabic numerals. In the case of photographs of patients, they should be taken in such a way that they are not identifiable. They should preferably be presented in JPEG or PNG format.

Decimal numbers and fractions: A comma should be used as a separator sign for decimals. Figures less than the unit must have a zero before the decimal separator (e.g. 0.2 and not .2).

The appropriate sign to facilitate the reading of numbers with more than four digits is the point. For example: 30,000. Numbers referring to years are excluded. E.g.: 2023.

Footnotes / Endnotes: Footnotes or endnotes should not be used.

Appendices

If you have supplementary material that is necessary for the understanding of the work to be published, please prepare separate files to be sent as attachments.

If you provide material subject to copyright or that requires prior authorization for publication, the corresponding authorizations should be attached as attachments.

If the authors consider it convenient, they can also attach figures and tables in separate files.