ISSN 2709-7927
online version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

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

Acta Médica del Centro is published in an electronic version and adheres to the open access policy. Its mission is to disseminate, on a local, national and international scale, scientific production in the area of ​​Health Sciences to contribute to the training and scientific updating of its readers, who are health professionals and all those interested in increase your medical culture. For this purpose, it publishes, on a quarterly basis, full-text articles in Spanish.
The journal is certified as a Scientific-Technological Serial Publication since it meets the certification requirements set forth in Resolution 59/2003 of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of the Republic of Cuba.

Acta Médica del Centro only publishes articles that are not under review by any other scientific journal. In the case of an article for publication that has been exhibited at an academic event or revealed in another publication medium, the author must inform the Editorial Board. Manuscripts previously available on recognized Preprints servers (MedRXiv, ArXiv, PubMed Central, SciELO Preprints) are accepted. The journal does not assume any responsibility for the ideas expressed by the authors and does not contain or accept advertising materials.

The articles sent to Acta Médica del Centro are subjected to a double-blind peer evaluation process in which neither the reviewer nor the author have any data that allows them to identify themselves, special care is taken with the established ethical standards to avoid conflicts interests (however, the journal accepts the opening of the peer review). Acta Médica del Centro has the collaboration of external evaluators outside its editorial team and who do not belong to the institution that sponsors it.
The author responsible for the correspondence will receive the notification of receipt of the manuscript, with his identification number, which he must use from that moment in the correspondence. Within a period of two weeks, the Editorial Board will carry out the first review to determine the relevance of the topic and if the manuscript conforms to the Publication Standards. In the event that the article presents essential deficiencies or does not deal with a topic of interest to the journal, it will be rejected; if the deficiencies were only in form, they will be returned to the author for correction before beginning the evaluation process. The date of receipt of the article will not begin to count until the correct reception of the same.
It is then delivered to the reviewers, who will have four weeks to do the review; their conclusions will be evaluated by the Editor, who will determine if the article is: accepted, accepted with modifications or rejected.
The observations and suggestions of the Editorial Board and the reviewers will be sent to the responsible author, who must respond as soon as possible (maximum one month).

Receipt and registration of the manuscript is only the initial step of the editorial process for its selection and does not necessarily lead to acceptance for publication. The final decision belongs exclusively to the Editorial Board, who reserves the right to choose the articles to be published, as well as to make style modifications respecting the original content.

Acta Médica del Centro publishes Editorials, Original Articles, Case Reports, Communications, Letters to the Editor, Review Articles, articles on Culture and Medicine and Clinical Pathological Sessions. The characteristics of each of these articles are detailed below and instructions are provided for the presentation of summaries, figures, tables, bibliographic references, etc.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Original research article. In this category are the articles of studies in basic, epidemiological, qualitative and mixed sciences (quantitative and qualitative), as well as those that come from technological innovations.
These articles will have a maximum length of 6,000 words (excluding the abstract, figure legends, acknowledgments and references), tables and figures up to eight and no more than six authors.

Abstract: structured, up to 250 words (Introduction, Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions).
Introduction: indicate the context or background of the research (eg, the nature of the problem and its importance) and state the specific purpose or objective of the research or the hypothesis that is tested in the study or observation.
Methods: this section is written in the past tense and can have the following structure.
- Design and population:
• Type of study and research design.
• Period of time and places in which the investigation was carried out.
• Selection of participants (universe, samples, selection criteria, number of participants in each group studied).
- Study variables: variables taken into account and their definition.
- Procedures / data collection and management:
• Methods used for evaluations and times when they were made.
• Equipment and reagents (name, commercial company, country).
Methods that are already published should be indicated with a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
- Statistic analysis:
• Describe statistical methods in sufficient detail to allow verification of results from the data.
• Report measurement indicators of error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals).
• Avoid relying solely on testing statistical hypotheses, such as the use of p-values, which does not provide information on the magnitude of the effect.
• Specify the computer programs used and their version.
For more information on the selection and correct reporting of statistical methods, refer to the Statistical Analyzes and Methods in the Published Literature (SAMPL Guidelines) guide.
- Ethical considerations:
Research involving humans must be carried out in accordance with the Ethical Principles for Medical Research on Human Beings (Declaration of Helsinki) established by the World Medical Association.
Declare the approval of the research by the institution's ethics committee. It is the responsibility of the author to keep the approval documents of the ethics committee, the informed consent and the primary records used in the data; they can be requested by the editors.
Results: present the results following the logical sequence of the variables studied. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or illustrations in the text, summarize only the most important observations, do not duplicate data in graphs and tables, use graphics as an alternative to tables with many entries. Give numerical results, not only the derivatives (eg, percentages) but also the absolute numbers from which they were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. If it includes information from data not shown, it can be requested by the journal.
Discussion: highlight the new and important aspects of the investigation. Do not repeat in detail data that appears in the Introduction or in the Results and do not introduce new data not presented in the Results. Compare and contrast the results with those of other relevant studies. Explain the limitations of the study and include suggestions for new research to complete the aspects not addressed and their recommendations for a future development of the topic.
Conclusions: respond to the objectives of the study in correspondence with the results and the discussion. Avoid making outright claims and drawing conclusions that are not properly supported by the data. Its writing is done in the present tense.

Bibliographic references: they will be up to 30 (60% of the bibliography consulted must be from the last five years for journals and 10 years for books).
Conflict of interest: declare whether or not there is a conflict of interest.
Authors' contribution: declare the personal contribution of each author to the research using the CRediT Taxonomy.

CASE REPORTS

Case reports are important in recognizing new or rare diseases and in evaluating the therapeutic or harmful effects and costs of interventions. They describe one or more clinical cases (short series of cases) of exceptional observation, difficult or atypical presentation that suggest a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge and that, together with a brief and pertinent review of the literature, make an important contribution to the knowledge of the pathophysiology or other aspects of the process.
Authors are suggested to review the Consensus based Clinical Case Reporting Guideline Development (CARE) prior to submission.
These articles will have a maximum length of 3 000 words (excluding the abstract, figure legends, acknowledgments and references), up to five figures and no more than three authors, in very justified cases up to five.

The words "case report" must appear in the title.
Summary: Introduction (What is unique in this case? What does it contribute?). Patient information should include major symptoms and important clinical findings, major diagnoses, therapeutic interventions and outcomes. Conclusions (What were the main lessons that could be learned from the case?).
Introduction: briefly summarize the background of the case by referring to the relevant medical literature, what is unique in this case? What does it add to the medical literature?
Patient information: provide demographic information and main symptoms; describe clinical findings, diagnostic evaluation, therapeutic intervention, follow-up and results.
Discussion: describe the strengths and limitations in handling this case; analyze and compare the main findings with those of other cases reported in the relevant medical literature; justify the conclusions and the main lessons that can be drawn from this case report.

Bibliographic references: they will be up to 15 (60% of the bibliography consulted must be from the last five years for journals and 10 years for books).
Conflict of interest: declare whether or not there is a conflict of interest.

COMMUNICATIONS

Brief communications are short scientific articles that have the objective of making known a hypothesis, the partial or definitive results of an investigation, the advances in diagnostic or treatment techniques or other observations of interest to the scientific community and that justify their posting faster.
These articles will have a maximum length of 3,000 words without including references, no more than two tables or figures and up to three authors.
Structured Abstract, Introduction (short, one page maximum, where the objective is included), Methods, Results, Discussion (it should not be very long, one page maximum, expressing its final considerations) and Conclusions.

Bibliographic references: they will be up to 15 (60% of the bibliography consulted must be from the last five years for journals and 10 years for books).
Conflict of interest: declare whether or not there is a conflict of interest.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Editorial Committee encourages the readers of Acta Médica del Centro to submit comments, considerations or objections regarding articles published in the journal. Letters are received within four weeks from the publication of the article to which they refer and will be sent to the author, who will have a period of two weeks to respond; once the answer is published, no further correspondence will be accepted. They must be written in an appropriate language, with respect to the ethical guidelines of the profession, although this does not prevent them from criticizing, in an ethical way, concepts, methodologies, results and interpretations.
Articles addressed to the director will also be accepted with the aim of making him aware of any relevant fact from a scientific, educational or healthcare point of view that deserves to be published in the journal.
The letters have a maximum length of 3 000 words without including the references that will be up to 10, a table or figure and up to three authors.

REVIEW ARTICLES

They are articles in which a subject is analyzed in a detailed, selective and critical way from its first appearances in world literature to the current state of knowledge on the subject. It is not only a passive and more or less detailed review of the literature, but an active review, which nurtures with something else what everyone could obtain by reading what was previously published. Hence, explanatory tables and illustrations can be included.
These articles will have a maximum length of 5,000 words (excluding the abstract, figure legends and references), tables and figures up to six and no more than three authors.

Abstract: structured, up to 250 words (Introduction, Objective, Method, Conclusions).
Introduction: define the current state of the subject and how it behaves in the national, regional or global context. Establish the scientific problem that gave rise to the review and clearly describe the objectives of the work, the importance and the usefulness of the review.
Methods:
- Eligibility criteria: specify the characteristics of the report according to the eligibility criteria used to make the review (eg, years considered, languages, publication status), giving justification.
- Information sources: describe all the information sources used in the search (eg, databases, search dates and date of the last search carried out). Criterion and justification for the selection of the consulted sources. Number of articles by type (original articles, thesis, systematic reviews, etc.).
- Bibliographic search: present the complete electronic search strategy for at least one database, including the limits used (eg, period reviewed, language, etc.), so that it can be repeated. Enter the terms (descriptors or keywords), the search engines used, the number of articles consulted and the number of articles selected. Specify the document selection criteria (they are determined by the objectives of the review, that is, the question the research is trying to answer; the methodological and scientific quality, the reliability and validity of the documents will also be taken into account selected articles).
Development: the results and discussion will be written together and will constitute the fundamental basis of the article.
- Provide the number of studies evaluated, assessed for eligibility and included in the review, with reasons for exclusions at each stage, ideally with a flow chart.
- Summarize the main results based on the strongest evidence.
- Discuss divergences or coincidences with other research on the subject, limitations in research, inadequacies in knowledge.
- Express your critical opinion on the subject reviewed.
- Include figures and tables that highlight the relevant aspects, without repeating information.
Conclusions: respond clearly to the defined objective. Propose possible applications of current knowledge based on the information compiled. Provide a general interpretation of the results in the context of other evidence and implications for future research.

Bibliographic references: they will be up to 50 (75% of the bibliography consulted must be from the last five years for journals and 10 years for books).
Conflict of interest: declare whether or not there is a conflict of interest.

CULTURE AND MEDICINE

Space dedicated to a diversity of topics from different specialties in the medical area that are related to history and art. These articles must be accompanied by an unstructured summary that indicates the objective, the methodology used, the main contributions and the conclusions of the research. The body of the article will present a brief and clear background, as well as the scope, originality and importance of the topic, the objective of the research and the research method used. Include a critical analysis of the sources consulted and present specific conclusions that respond to the objective of the research.
The structure of the article can be Introduction, Development and Conclusions, however, this section does not have a fixed structure, so authors are allowed to organize the article into sections according to their convenience and creativity, to facilitate development and understanding about the topic. Any type of article related to this section can be included.
These articles will have a maximum length of 3,500 words without including references that will be up to 15, figures and tables up to three and no more than three authors.

PATHOLOGICAL CLINICAL SESSION

In this section, clinical cases will be published in the form of clinical pathological discussion, selected for their clinical relevance and for their interest in the differential diagnosis process.
These articles will have a maximum length of 6,000 words (excluding the abstract, figure legends and references), figures and tables up to 10 and no more than 10 authors.

Summary: unstructured.
Presentation of the case: X-rays and other imaging techniques necessary for the development of the discussion can be provided (maximum three pages).
Clinical discussion: includes the differential diagnosis and the clinical diagnosis based on the most relevant criteria of the participants in the session.
Pathological discussion: macroscopic and microscopic findings supplemented with images -the photomicrographs must contain scale markers and the staining method used-, and a brief review of the topic that may include aspects such as: history, evolution, classification, characteristics, epidemiology, pathogenesis, etiology, peculiarities, perspectives in treatment, etc.
Final diagnosis: direct cause of death, intermediate cause of death, basic cause of death and other diagnoses.

Bibliographic references: they will be up to 20 (60% of the bibliography consulted must be from the last five years for journals and 10 years for books).
Conflict of interest: declare whether or not there is a conflict of interest.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

The manuscript must have the following format: Verdana 12 font, 1.0 line spacing and 2cm margin, without indentations, tabs or any other design attribute such as centered titles, spaces between paragraphs, page breaks and separate page, among others. The pages will be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals at the bottom right.

Title: in Spanish and English (no more than 15 words). It should reflect the content of the manuscript without creating unwarranted expectations about its scope. It should not include acronyms or abbreviations (except MeSH terms, eg, HIV). If institution names are used, they must be official and up-to-date.

Summary: its writing is done in the past tense, it should not have bibliographic citations or abbreviations and it will be accompanied by an English version (abstract). The structured abstract must have up to 250 words and the headings: Introduction, Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusions. The unstructured abstract should be up to 150 words.

Key words: they must be concrete and representative of the semantic content of the document, both in the main and secondary contents. There must be at least three keywords. The use of Descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS) is recommended and must be accompanied by their English version, obtained from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

Tables: they will be referred to in the text, numbered consecutively according to the Arabic system and with a small title at the top. At the bottom of the table the legend, the asterisk, the note and the source are put (they will be placed in that order, without putting the word legend), unusual abbreviations will be explained and the following symbols will be used according to the order presented: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡. Statistical measures of dispersion, such as standard deviation or standard error of the mean, must be appropriately identified. The content must be self-explanatory and the data provided must not repeat the information indicated in the text or in the figures. Those that contain little data can be commented in the text instead of appearing as tables. The format will be basic table 1 and tables in image format are not accepted. Decimal numbers must be separated by commas and not periods. Charts will be used as an alternative to tables.

Figures: these are graphics, photos and diagrams in digital format (JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF) with an adequate resolution, referred to in the text and numbered consecutively according to the Arabic system. They should be self-explanatory as much as possible, but in case of detailed explanations these should be included in the legend, not in the body of the figures. The symbols, arrows or letters included should stand out clearly against the background. The internal scale should be specified and the method of staining of the photomicrographs identified. Graphics and diagrams must be presented in an editable format.
If photographs of people are used, they must not be identifiable, or they must be accompanied by the corresponding written authorization that allows their use. If a previously published figure is used, the original source must be identified and the authorization of the copyright owner to reproduce the material must be sent with the manuscript. Unless it is a document in the public domain, this authorization is necessary regardless of who the authors or the publishing company are.

Abbreviations: avoid the improper use of abbreviations. Those you use must be widely used and when they appear for the first time in the text they will be preceded by the full term.

Measurement units: metric units (meters, kilograms or liters) or their decimal multiples must be used for measurements of length, height, weight and volume. The temperature must be expressed in degrees Celsius. All clinical laboratory results will be reported in or permitted by SI units. Commas are used for decimal expressions, not periods.

Acknowledgments: we must acknowledge the people who contributed to the research, but whose contribution does not justify being authors and state the type of contribution made. For example, translation assistance, scientific advisor, reviewer, data collector, statistical advisor, etc. The aid received through scholarships or other financial aid must also be indicated here. When deemed necessary, the persons, centers or entities that have collaborated or supported in carrying out the research will be summoned. It is the author's responsibility to request authorization from individuals and institutions to be mentioned. They are located after the Conclusions.

Bibliographic references: citations must be updated with more than 60% of the last five years for journals and 10 years for books, they will be limited by Arabic numbers and according to the order of appearance within the text, in the form of a superscript, between parentheses and later to the related idea or to the punctuation mark of the corresponding paragraph. Provide primary data sources, not data cited by third parties, and do not reference sites that are not scientifically refereed (eg, Wikipedia, EcuRed, non-scientific newspapers and magazines, etc).
Bibliographic references will be submitted according to the Vancouver Standards. For more information visit:
- http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/recursos/vancouver_2012.pdf
- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/ (Citing Medicine)
- http://www2.bg.am.poznan.pl/czasopisma/medicus.php?lang=eng (Index Medicus - abbreviations of journal titles)
The examples most frequently used in bibliographic references according to the Vancouver Standards are shown below.

- Journal article. Authors. Article title. Journal. Year; Volume: Pages.
Up to six authors, they all get; if there are more than six, the first six will be included, adding the Latin particle “et al”. Example:
Sarria-Estrada S, Acevedo C, Mitjana R, Frascheri L, Siurana S, Auger C, et al. Reproducibilidad de la valoración cualitativa de la atrofia del lóbulo temporal por RM. Radiología. 2015;57(3):225-228.

- Book. Author or Authors. Title of the book. Edition. City: Editorial; Year.
Cite specific pages if applicable. Example:
Álvarez Álvarez G. Temas de guardia médica. La Habana: Ciencias Médicas; 2003.

- Chapter of the book. Authors of the chapter. Chapter title. In: Authors or Editors. Title of the book. Edition. City: Editorial; Year. Pages. Example:
Béquer García EA, Caballero López A, Martín García L, Linares Borges A. Antimicrobianos. En: Caballero López A. Terapia intensiva. 2da ed. La Habana: Ciencias Médicas; 2009. p. 1570-1636.

- Thesis. Author. Title [thesis]. City: Name of the institution; Year. Example:
Chumi Buenaño A. Náuseas y vómitos postoperatorios con la anestesia espinal para cirugía general electiva [tesis]. Santa Clara: Hospital Universitario Clínico Quirúrgico “Arnaldo Milián Castro”; 2016.

- Journal article on the Internet. Example:
Hernández Rivero O, Risquet Águila D, Hernández Rivero O, León Álvarez M, Pérez Fernández A, Ballate Machado D. La intersectorialidad en la atención a niños y adolescentes con trastornos del espectro autista. Acta Méd Centro [Internet]. 2016 [cited 21/07/2016];10(2):8-16. Available at: http://www.revactamedicacentro.sld.cu/index.php/amc/article/view/437/633

- Monograph on the Internet. Example:
Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2006 [cited 07/09/2007]. Available at: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/

- Web page of a website. Example:
Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc .; c2000-01 [updated 05/16/2002; cited 07/09/2002]. Available at: http://www.cancer-pain.org/

Conflict of interests: the authors must declare, after the bibliographic references, whether or not there is a conflict of interest in relation to the article presented.

Authors' contribution: declaration of the personal contribution of each author to the research, mandatory for all original research articles. It must be written using the CRediT Taxonomy (project developed by CASRAI). For more information, review the Methodology for the implementation of the CRediT taxonomy to scientific journals of the national health system.

Annexes: they must be cited in the text and are located after the references.

Complementary material: the authors can enrich their manuscript with additional images, multimedia files or other materials that do not conform to the format of the type of article being presented, but that favor its understanding.
The audios or videos:
- They should logically refer to key aspects of the article or research.
- Anonymous (do not include any identifying information).
- Of little "weight" (less than 5Mb) and about two minutes long.
- In avi, mpeg, mpg and mp3 formats.
- A brief description of each audio or video sequence will be included after the figure captions.
- They will only be included in the publication by decision of the Editor.

Acta Médica del Centro supports international initiatives to optimize the quality of scientific publications by promoting the transparent and accurate presentation of research and recommends that authors consult the guidelines collected in the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research) for writing. and publication of scientific papers on health research. Some of these guides are listed below.
- CONSORT: to present randomized controlled studies
- STARD: to present diagnostic precision studies
- STROBE: to present observational studies
- COREQ: consolidated criteria for the publication of qualitative research
- CARE: to present Case Reports
- PRISMA: to present systematic reviews and meta-analyzes
Adherence to the recommended guidelines will facilitate review of the manuscript, increase the likelihood that it will be published, and increase the likelihood that your study findings will be used in further research and clinical practice.

Acta Médica del Centro promotes increased transparency, credibility and reuse of research data. Authors are encouraged to share through specialized servers (Xenodo, DataCite, SciELO Data) any material used during the investigation and that may constitute a valuable source for other investigations.

Acta Médica del Centro has an on-line management system for manuscripts, for which it is necessary to be registered as an “Author” on the journal's website. If you want to register, click here. With this system you can follow your manuscript through the different phases of the editorial process.
To guarantee that the peer review is blind, the manuscripts must be sent, necessarily, in two or more independent files: Cover letter, Manuscript and Complementary material.

In the cover letter or first page will be declared:
• Section of the journal in which it is intended to be published.
• Title in Spanish and English (no more than 15 words).
• Authors: the full names and surnames of all authors must appear (avoid initials); in addition to the professional title, scientific degree, academic degree, teaching category, research category, institutional affiliation (department or service, institution, municipality, province, country), email and the ORCID digital identifier. Point out the author responsible for the correspondence.
• If the manuscript is not unpublished, when has it been made public or where is it available. Manuscripts previously available on recognized Preprints servers (MedRXiv, ArXiv, PubMed Central, SciELO Preprints) are accepted.
• That the manuscript is not under review by any other scientific journal.
• That the persons recognized in the acknowledgments section authorize their mention.

The manuscript must not contain any identifying data of the authors and will conform to the publication standards established by the journal for each of the sections, otherwise it may be rejected without undergoing review by experts. Make sure that any manuscript you send to Acta Médica del Centro complies with the Uniformity requirements for manuscripts sent to biomedical and health sciences journals established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors - ICMJE (Spanish version ).