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Guide for authors

Introduction

Galicia Clínica is the official journal of the Galician Society of Internal Medicine (SOGAMI). This open access journal is issued four times a year at www.galiciaclinica.info.

Galicia Clínica will evaluate the publication of medical articles, preferably related to Internal Medicine and its subspecialties, and/or with prevalent medical issues in the Autonomous Region of Galicia. www.galiciaclinica.info. The system will confirm the submission and allow consultations regarding the status of the manuscript. Original works sent via a different method will not be accepted.

The editorial committee, with the help of two reviewers, will evaluate the submitted works in order to decide whether its publication is appropriate, whether amendments are required or the publication is dismissed. Once accepted, the print drafts will be sent to the author in order to correct possible misprints.

Article types

Editorials
To always be commissioned by the Editorial Committee. The maximum text extension will be 2000 words, with a maximum of 10 bibliographical references. It cannot exceed 2 authors.

Reviews
Reviews of current topics in Internal Medicine will be taken into consideration. They will usually be commissioned by the Editorial Committee. Any author can send articles to this section, which will then be evaluated by the Editorial Committee. The required structure comprises: Title (in Spanish and English), Summary (in Spanish and English), Keywords, Introduction, Review and Conclusions. The text cannot exceed 4000 words (excluding Summary, Bibliography and the figure and table captions). A maximum of 6 tables or figures can be added. The Bibliography will consist of a maximum of 50 references. The summary must be written in Spanish and English and it may have a maximum extension of up to 250 words. It is not required to follow a specific structure. The maximum number of authors will be 3.

Originals Works
The following works will be deemed original research works: randomized clinical trials, cohort studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies and studies based on surveys with a high response rate. The required structure of the article is: Title (in Spanish and English), Structured Summary, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methodologies, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and Bibliography (maximum of 30 references). The text will not exceed 3000 words (excluding Summary, Bibliography, figure and table captions). A maximum of 5 tables or figures can be added. The summary will be written in Spanish and English, it cannot exceed 250 words and it will be structured in the following epigraphs: Objectives, Materials and Methodologies, Results and Conclusions. The maximum number of authors is 8.

Brief Originals
The following works will be deemed original research works that due to their characteristics can be published in an abridged form. They will be structured like the original articles. The text will not exceed 1500 words (excluding Summary, Bibliography and the figure and table captions). A maximum of 3 tables and figures can be added. The Bibliography will have a maximum of 15 references. The Summary must be written in Spanish and English and it will have a maximum extension of 250 words. It must be structured in the following epigraphs: Objectives, Materials and Methodologies, Results and Conclusions. The maximum number of authors is 6.

Clinical cases
Particularly interesting clinical cases will be taken into consideration. It must follow the structure: Title (in Spanish and English), Summary, Clinical Case, Discussion and Bibliography. The text will not exceed 1000 words (excluding Summary, Bibliography and the figure and table captions). A maximum of 3 figures and tables can be included. The Bibliography will consist of a maximum of 10 references. The Summary will not exceed 150 words; it is not required that it follows a specific structure. The number of authors must not surpass 4.

Letters to the Editor
Commentary, opinions or observations regarding the articles previously published by the journal well be taken into consideration. The maximum length of the text will be 1000 words. A maximum of 1 table or figure and up to 10 bibliographical references can be included.

Medical Images
Images of a particular academic or formative interest will be taken into consideration. The image must be high resolution and detailed. It is convenient to use indicators such as arrows or asterisks to further clarify the image. They will be accompanied by a brief explicative text that does not exceed 250 words and with a maximum of 3 bibliographical references. The maximum number of authors is 2.

Language

This journal will be published in Spanish and English. Either language must be grammatically and orthographically correct. British and American variations of the English language are equally accepted, as long as they are not confused or mixed.

Before uploading the manuscript

The submitted article must be a text never published previously in any form (save a communication to a scientific conference or a doctoral thesis), and it cannot be a text that is undergoing a review process in any other journal at the time of its submission.

The submitted works must meet the uniformity requirements usual to biomedical journals. Such requisites can be consulted at: "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication, Updated April 2010" http://www.icmje.org. It is strongly advised to read the particular section: "Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to a Biomedical Journal" (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/) and closely follow its indications when writing the work applicable for submission.

Authorship

All the authors must have contributed to the article substantially. For more information, consult the authorship requisites described by the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html).

Files

The files must be supported by Microsoft Word. The text must be written in the font "Times New Roman", 12 pt, with a simple (1.0) line spacing. Photographs, images or graphic files will be sent in PDF format or as an image file (JPEG or similar).

Every submitted article must contain the following files:

Letter of introduction.
Title page: it must contain the title (in Spanish and English), the authors alongside with their affiliation data, author of contact (a post address and e-mail must be specified).
Manuscript: it is the main body of the article; it will be structured according to the different types of articles specified in the previous section.
Images: the photographs, images or graphic files must be high quality with a resolution of 300 ppp. In the definite printing size. They will not be published otherwise. For guidance, a file containing an image following the mentioned characteristics typically has a size of 500 KB or more.

Keywords

Each article must have between 3 and 5 keywords (in Spanish and English). The MESH terms (Medical Subjects Headings) from the Index Medicus should be used.

Bibliography

All quoted bibliographical references must be listed in the Bibliography.
The references within the text must be quoted with superscript numbers.
Bibliography: enumerate the references in the same order of appearance given in the text, following the format recommended by the ICMJE.
Examples:
- Referencing a journal article:
  
  Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients.N Engl J Med. 2002;347(4):284-7.
  
  If there are more than six authors, the first six will be listed, followed by "et al."
- Referencing a book:
  
  Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
- Referencing a book chapter:
  
  Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer.New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.
- Referencing a website:
  
  eatright.org [Internet]. Chicago: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics; c2016 [cited 2016 Dec 27]. Available from:https://www.eatright.org/

For any other type of reference, please refer to https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Acknowledgements

All the contributors to the article that do not meet the authorship criteria will be included in the "Acknowledgements" section.

Funding sources

The authors must specify the funding source if the research has received financing.

Conflict of Interest

The authors are obliged to declare all the possible conflicts of interest, be it personal relationships or financial relationships that may be related in any way to the results of the article. If there are no conflicts of interests, the authors must also include that information in a section of the manuscript, with the sentence: "there are no conflict of interests".

Abbreviations

The abbreviations used in the text must be clarified when they appear for the first time.

Ethical aspects

The authors should have done their research following the guidelines of the WMA Declaration of Helsinki – ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects and good clinical practices, as well as the regulations currently in force.

Informed consent:

In any clinical study, authors must be authorized by the appropriate Ethical Committee. They should also have a written informed consent or its exemption granted by the Ethical Committee. In the event of publishing clinical cases, authors must have been authorized by the patients prior to their submission, and they must ensure that none of the provided date can be traced back to the patient. The photographs cannot be identifiable (if the patient’s face is shown, the orbital region must be covered with a black strip); moreover, a written authorization from the patient must be attached to the submitted photographs.

In all the works including patients, the consent of their participation must be stated in written form. The right to privacy must be guaranteed at all times.

Human subject testing:

Scientific research and testing on human beings represent a right and a duty for the scientific and biomedical community. Scientific testing constitutes a paramount way to make progress regarding the knowledge of human nature. We must make the most of this knowledge in order to advance the human wellbeing, health and quality of life.

In the event of performing human testing, the following items must be specified in an independent document attached to the article:

When testing on human beings, the interests of science and society must never prevail over the subject’s wellbeing. The right of the subject to protect their integrity must always be protected. All precautions must be taken in order to preserve the physical and psychological integrity of the people that are participating as experimental subjects.
Testing on human beings that might pose risks or discomfort for said subjects must only be performed when there are no alternative procedures of comparable efficacy.
Biomedical research on human beings must be done according to the ethical and scientifical regulations widely accepted, and it will be based on the risk assessment on the basis of prior experiments, appropriately conducted in a laboratory and on animals, with a reasonable knowledge of the possible consequences of the experiments. No human subject will be tested unless there is no alternative method of comparable efficacy.
Proportionality between risks and benefits of the research. Risks or discomfort entailed by testing on human beings cannot be disproportionate or compromise the moral conscience or dignity. With regards to biomedical research, the importance of the objectives must be proportional to the risk it poses for the subjects.
Every biomedical research project with human subjects must be preceded by a careful calculation of the foreseeable risks and their contrast with the benefits that can be derived for the tested subject and others.
The concern for the tested subject must prevail over the interests of science and society. Any investigation or research can be cancelled if the risks surpass the calculated benefits.
The participation in any investigation or experiment will require the free and informed consent of the testing subject after receiving the adequate information regarding the nature and purpose of the experiment, the objectives, the methods, the estimated benefits and the possible risks or discomfort they can bring about. The subjects can withdraw their consent freely anytime without being affected. In the event that people with disabilities or decreased autonomy participate in the investigation or minor testing, their legal representative or their caretaker by duty must be the ones giving their written consent.
If the participation is rewarded economically or otherwise by the researchers, this will not be so high that it cannot be reasonably rejected by the subject.
The researchers must guarantee the subject’s right to privacy. In teamwork, every researcher is responsible for the totality of the professional secrecy. All the participants in an experiment with human subjects will keep it strictly confidential, so as not to violate the personal privacy of the participating subjects or their families.
In every investigation or scientific experiment, the testing subjects must be treated with utmost respect for their dignity, creed, privacy and modesty, especially regarding the most vulnerable subjects.
The identity of the researcher or researchers responsible for the experiment or scientific investigation, as well as the researching team that collaborates with it, must be clearly defined.
The responsibilities which derive from the research will always fall to the main researcher, never to the testing subject, even if the latter has given their informed consent. The approval of the testing protocols by an ethical committee do not exempt the researchers from their direct responsibility.

Animal testing:

If a part of the research has been conducted on animals, it must comply with the appropriate requirements and the authorization of the corresponding Clinical Research Committee.

Animal testing must adhere to the guidelines of ARRIVE (https://arriveguidelines.org/) and it must be done according to the ASPA [The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986]; the related recommendations of the UE Directive 2010/63/UE (https://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm)regarding animal testing; Guide For The Care And Use Of Laboratory Animals by the National Institutes of Health (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978). The author must clearly specify that such guidelines have been followed in the manuscript.

Galicia Clínica will only evaluate articles that include animal testing when they pursue the following aims:

Disease prevention, health problems and other anomalies or their effects, as well as their diagnosis and treatment on humans, vertebrate and invertebrate animals or plants; the development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical or food products alongside other products and substances, as well as carrying out tests to verify their quality, efficacy and safety.
The assessment, detection, normalization or modification of physiological conditions in men, animals, vertebrate or invertebrate animals or plants.
The protection of natural environment in the interest of the health and wellbeing of humans, vertebrate and invertebrate animals or plants.
Scientificresearch.
Educational and formationalpurposes.
Medical-legal research.