Our editorial policy complies with the following characteristics:
A rigorous peer review process (see “Peer review guidelines”) which aim is to provide a constructive and reasoned approach for authors to the critical-evaluative process of reviewers and editors (see “Evaluation criteria”), always with the intention to work actively with the authors in the improvement of their manuscripts. The authors always have the opportunity to argue back the final decision. Manuscripts are always considered based on the scientific validity and technical quality; in no case the “novelty” or the possibility of impact shall be considered a criterion for acceptance or rejection.
IBJ considers the publication in Open Access as a moral duty: The authors retain their work and publication rights; readers, meanwhile, should not pay for access to new knowledge and the society ensures that all research with positive or negative results, are accessible and transparent. The publication will be made using the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC).
The editorial board is composed of experienced editors in the editorial and/or research activity in the Latin American region, as well as globally. Each manuscript is sent to an editor that will choose a reviewer, keep the authors informed of the process and respond to any questions, complaints or suggestions. All this is done through the OJS software, free and easy to use.
The publication of accepted articles is done immediately in unedited format. Edited format will be available within a maximum of 15 days. The cost (see Publication fees) of publishing in the IBJ magazines covers only the costs of publication. If you wish you can request the English translation service (from Spanish or Portuguese) and editing service, also at cost price. Authors can edit their manuscripts, thus reducing the cost of publication; the final article to be published will be reviewed and approved by the editorial department (see “Submission guidelines”).
IBJ provides use of performance metrics for every article: like number of views, page views, article impressions and citations. This way you can use this data in order to measure the impact of your work in the scientific and medical community.
As we can meet the conditions of the different providers, the articles published in the IBJ magazines will be indexed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), EMBASE, PsycINFO and search through the Web of Knowledge. All articles are archived in EuroMed Central.
An original article should contain the following sections ordered as presented below:
This letter must mention that the article is original material that has not been published elsewhere and has not been under review for publication in any other way during the revision. This work may have been published in abbreviated form in congresses or scientific meetings, reporting this respectively. This letter must also include a section on conflict of interest that will be also included in the text of the manuscript (See Editorial Policy).
This page should include the title of the manuscript, the full name of the authors, the highest of each degree and affiliations; must also submit the name, full postal code, Phone number, fax and email of the corresponding author (this information will also be required to submit the article for review).
The title should be brief, informative, should not make statements or present findings and should have less than 150 characters. The abbreviated title must contain less than 50 characters including spaces, should as short as possible, should contain the main message of the article and not contain abbreviations.
The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 250 words for not structured summaries or 300 words for structured ones. IBJ Plus will accept not structured summaries (250 words max) while IBJ Clinical Pharmacology/Infectious Diseases will accept structured summaries (300 words max).
Note: For the manuscripts in Spanish or Portuguese, the abstract must also be accompanied by the English translated version. Those items submitted in English the translation to Spanish / Portuguese is not required.
It is recommended to write six key words chosen from MEDLINE MeSH, which best describe the manuscript. Choosing a correct list of words ensure that this arises in a large number of searches in the different search engines and thus increase its visibility.
In the embodiment of the introduction the author should assume that the reader has knowledge of the matter treated article and therefore should be as concise as possible but still it is advisable to present a brief historical review of the subject which will be discussed.
In this section of the manuscript the authors must include sufficient detail of the procedures performed so that these can be replicated information. However the methods that have been published in detail elsewhere should not be described in detail, but they have to be referenced. In the case of clinical trials should refer to the approval of the trial by an ethics committee duly authorized to do so and must be registered in a public register before submitting the manuscript for review (For more information see Editorial policy). Authors should refer to the manufacturer's name and location of the same for each of the specific medical equipment and instruments used in the study, and all medication must be identified by its pharmaceutical name and your business name if relevant.
The results section should be brief and present the experimental results in text, tables and figures. Tables and figures should not be extensively described in the text. The explanatory descriptions of the content of figures and tables should be included as footer at the end of each one.
The discussion should focus on the interpretation and the significant results with objective comments that describe their relation to other jobs in the same area. Discussion should not repeat the information in the results. The final paragraph should extol the main conclusions of the study and provide some indications of future research should be performed.
At this point the authors should include all kinds of financial and / or logistical support for the study and source of all kinds of new drugs not marketed.
Following the regulations of the ICMJE, those who do not meet the authorship criteria but has contributed substantially to the research, either technically, scientifically or legally, and not been sufficient their inclusion in the Acknowledgements, they should be included in this special section entitled as “Non-Author contributors ".
Authors must get consented permission from the contributors to be included in this section.
Authors should declare whether they have any financial interest related to the study described. This information must be included in this session and will be published as a meeting of the article. This information must also be present in the letter making the submission process.
Those who helped in the design, editing, design, data collection or analysis and interpretation of data but do not meet the autorship criteria should be included in the acknowledgments section.
The role of a scientific (medical) writer must be included in the acknowledgements section, including their source(s) of funding. We suggest wording such as 'We thank Jane Doe who provided medical writing services on behalf of XYZ Pharmaceuticals Ltd.'
Authors must get the permission of the partner consented people for inclusion in this section.
Should only reference articles directly related to the manuscript. They should avoid exhaustive lists. References should follow the Vancouver format. Numbers in the text should appear at the end of the manuscript, and these should be listed in order of appearance in the text. All authors must be referenced to a total of six authors, for papers with more than six authors should submit only the first six followed by et al.
Abbreviations of journal titles should be in accordance with those used in the latest edition of Index Medicus. The number of the first and last page of each reference should be indicated. Abstracts and letters must be identified as such. Published in the press and articles submitted for publication and may be included in the reference list, but no citation is required to works not yet submitted for publication items.
Personal communications should be followed by the reference number that corresponds to them in order and should be included in the list of references in the usual way or simply referenced in the text; the author can choose which method to use. In any case the authors must obtain permission from the original author to cite his unpublished work.
Examples:
Tables should submit a title and submit a footnote to table abbreviations used where appropriate, should be numbered successively and cited in the text. Tables should not duplicate the content of the text. Should consist of at least two columns; columns must have always header. Authors must ensure that the information contained in the tables is consistent with data reported in the text, which totals are added correctly and that the percentages have been calculated correctly.
Figures and images must present title, be numbered sequentially and cited in the text. The legend of the figures should be brief and specific.
If any figure and / or table has been previously published authors should obtain informed consent to reproduce such material. The same goes for quotes, illustrations and other materials that are not previously published in the public domain. The original source must be cited in a footnote in the figure or table. The use of a third dimension is widely discouraged when this third dimension not provide relevant information. Scale markers should be used in photographs and indicate the type of stain used.
This session can present all the material that is relevant to the conclusion of the article but due to space or formatting will not be included in the published version. Item must be clear and contain all necessary information without the need for the reader to have to resort to supplement materials which will be linked to the article. This material should consist of data files, graphics, movies or extensive tables. See the graphic design section for more information on the type of files that are accepted.
The files will appear exactly as they have been submitted without any editing.
When material is subjected to supplement the authors must:
The first mention of a manufacturer, the city (and state, if in the USA) and the country must be provided.
Manuscripts written in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with the judgment of the author's choice of language will be accepted. The article will be published in the language in which it is under review.
Example:
You can download a template of the manuscript here.
Manuscript files can be in the following formats: DOC, DOCX or RTF. Microsoft Word documents should not be locked or protected.
Responsible reporting of research studies, which includes a complete, transparent, accurate and timely account of what was done and what was found during a research study, is an integral part of good research and publication practice and not an optional extra. IBJ supports initiatives aimed at improving the reporting of health research
We ask authors to use the following guidelines when drafting their manuscripts. We ask authors to address all items recommended by the guidelines (as a minimum); where this is not possible, please provide an explanation in the text to give a transparent account of your study.
Adherence to recommended reporting guidelines will facilitate review of your manuscript, increase the probability of its successful publication, and improve the usability of research findings from your study in further research and clinical practice.
Research submitted to IBJ must comply with internationally-accepted standards for research practice and reporting, including data management, figure preparation, reproducibility, and reporting guidelines.
We reserve the right to enforce standards that may be more strict than local legal or ethical frameworks. Issues discovered after publication will be addressed according to guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and may lead to a correction, retraction, or expression of concern. We may also contact authors’ institutions as appropriate.
Authors are expected to comply with standard reporting guidelines for study designs. Check the EQUATOR Network for reporting instructions and supporting documentation. Documentation for specific studies should be uploaded as supporting information during manuscript submission. Read the Submission guidelines.
In IBJ we provide a free and immediate access to content, adhering to the principle of open access to scientific research, contributing to the improvement of knowledge sharing globally.
An OA article is universally and freely accessible via the Internet, in an easily readable format and deposited in at least one widely and internationally recognized open access repository.
The author(s) or copyright owner(s) irrevocably grant(s) to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate the research article in its entirety or in part, in any format or medium, provided that no substantive errors are introduced in the process.
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. (See license)
In IBJ we rely on the ICMJE criteria regarding authors groups. More information here.
This work is under Creative Commons license Attribution Non-Commercial CC-BY-NC 4.0.
Authorship criteria are based on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.
The ICMJE lists four conditions for authorship credit. Authors must meet all four conditions in order to be listed.
In IBJ we rely on the ICMJE criteria regarding authors groups. More information here.
Reviewer invitations are sent by email from the submission OJS system. Use the links in the email to accept or decline.
Reviews must be entered through OJS system. Email the journal office if you are having trouble accessing the manuscript or entering your comments. (assistant@ibjournals.com)
You should not accept a review assignment if you have a potential competing interest, including the following:
Please inform the editors or journal staff and recuse yourself if you feel that you are unable to offer an impartial review.
When submitting your review, you must indicate whether or not you have any Competing interests.
In IBJ we also care about the compliance of reporting guidelines in the review of manuscripts, which is why we follow the COPE Guidelines for peer reviewers in order to provide a transparent and fair review to our authors.
IBJ employs a structured reviewer form provided by OJS Software to help reviewers focus on our publication criteria and improve the efficiency of peer review. IF you want to know more about the reviewer process read OJS: Reviewer-Review user guide.
The final decision on a manuscript is made by the Academic Editor. The Academic Editor’s decision is based on the reviewers’ comments as well as IBJ´s Publication Criteria and the editor’s own assessment of the manuscript. When reviewers disagree, the decision is not necessarily made according to majority rule.
We send reviewers’ comments along with the decision letter to all reviewers of that manuscript. If reviewers have identified themselves, this information will be passed on to other reviewers.
Reviewers who may have offered an opinion not in accordance with the final decision should not feel that their recommendation was not duly considered and their service not properly appreciated. Experts often disagree, and it is the job of the Academic Editor to make a decision.
When an author revises a manuscript, the Academic Editor will often ask the original reviewer(s) to evaluate the authors’ revision. We expect the reviewers to be available to provide these additional comments.
Revised manuscripts are indicated with the letter “R” in the manuscript number (e.g., R1, R2, R3, etc.). The invitation letter will also mention that the assignment is for a revision.
Academic Editors decide which experts to invite to review papers they are handling. If you are interested in reviewing for IBJ, you may want to look through our list of Academic Editors to identify the ones who are in your field of research, and send them a brief summary of your expertise as well as your interest in being a reviewer. Make sure you sign up for an account in our submission system so your name can be searched in the database.
If you have questions or concerns about the manuscript you are reviewing, or if you need assistance submitting the review, please email us. (assistant@ibjournals.com)
IBJ is designed to communicate scientific research in the areas of biomedicine, clinical medicine and clinical pharmacology. We accept submissions of any basic or applied disciplines that can contribute to the enrichment of scientific knowledge in this area.
To be accepted for publication in IBJ, research articles must satisfy the following criteria:
Original clinical research studies that meet appropriate study design and established guidelines. (See submission guidelines) are included in this section results of clinical trials.
We will consider the publication of systematic reviews only if the method can guarantee full and fair sampling of existing sources and also to follow the submission guidelines. (See submission guidelines)
Studies with descriptive basis, virtually devoid of inferential statistics, and presenting one or more series of clinical cases that lead to conclusions that may be relevant to everyday clinical practice, on the issue of the magazine (clinical pharmacology IBJ Clinical Pharmacology, or IBJ infectious diseases infectious disease). IBJ in the journal Clinical Pharmacology will have special consideration with adverse drug reactions and drug interactions relevant and little known.
Comments on articles recently published in the journal or communications very brief or an exceptional case of a study that is easy to summarize. The letter is not structured or presented abstract. It does not support supplementary material. If the letter to the editor refers to an article recently published in the journal he will be sent to the author of it to exercise its right to reply, if deemed appropriate.
A section called Perspectives is included in all IBJ magazines. Usually, manuscripts for this section will be requested directly by the editors. If you want to send a manuscript of these, here are the required characteristics:
The perspectives should be brief trials addressing relevant topics of biomedical research including history, methods, ethics, science policy and regulations, social, professional and others. In this regard, we are especially interested in the perspectives of the different countries of the Latin American region.
We ask the authors previously get in contact with the editorial office.
Research protocols considered of general interest authorized by relevant ethics committee. (See submission guidelines).
Protocols and therapeutic guidelines considered of general interest. (See submission guidelines).
A competing interest is anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of research or non-research articles submitted to IBJ.
Competing interests can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal. Competing interests can arise in relationship to an organization or another person.
Declaring all potential competing interests is a requirement at IBJ and is integral to the transparent reporting of research.
Failure to declare competing interests can result in immediate rejection of a manuscript. If an undisclosed competing interest comes to light after publication, IBJ will take action in accordance with COPE guidelines and issue a public notification to the community.
All potentially competing interests (see below) must be declared if they occurred within 5 years of conducting, or preparing for publication, the research under consideration.
Interests outside the 5-year time frame must also be declared if they could reasonably be perceived as competing according to the definition above.
Financial competing interests include but are not limited to:
Non-financial competing interests include but are not limited to:
At the time of submission, authors must state what competing interests are relevant to the submitted research. These may include but are not limited to:
Editors (professional or academic, paid or unpaid) and reviewers must declare their own competing interests and if necessary disqualify themselves from involvement in the assessment of a manuscript.
Common reasons for editors and reviewers to recuse themselves from the peer review process may include but are not limited to:
Anyone who comments on published IBJ articles must declare all competing interests (financial or non-financial) at the time of posting the comment.
In any studies that involve experiments on human or animal subjects, the following ethical guidelines must be observed. For any experiments on humans, all work must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964-October 2013). Papers describing experimental work which carries a risk of harm to human subjects must include a statement that the experiment was conducted with the human subjects’ understanding and consent, as well as a statement that the responsible Ethical Committee has approved the experiments. In the case of any animal experiments, the authors must provide a full description of any anesthetic or surgical procedure used, as well as evidence that all possible steps were taken to avoid animal suffering at each stage of the experiment.
IBJ's policy is based on Spanish’s Data Protection Law, Spain and European Union common law of confidentiality, and the traditions of medical ethics.
All IBJ authors are required to declare what support they received to carry out their research. Declaring funding sources acknowledges funders’ contributions, fulfills funding requirements, and promotes greater transparency in the research process.
We support GPP2 Good Publication Practice for Communicating Company Sponsored Medical Research.
Each author must individually declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. This information includes the name of granting agencies, grant numbers, and a description of each funder’s role. If the funder has played no role in the research, this must be stated as well.
Authors are not required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them if the grant is not related to the research published.
A Funding Statement is included in the metadata of each published article. The Funding Statement includes the funding information declared by the authors.
Inaccurate information about funding discovered after publication may require a correction.
Funding information is entered in the online submission system. Read the Submission guidelines.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
A competing interest exists when professional judgment concerning the validity of research is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain. We require that our authors reveal any possible conflict of interest in their submitted manuscripts.
If there is no conflict of interest, authors should state that “The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.”
IBJ applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY-NC) license to works we publish. This license was developed to facilitate open access – namely, free immediate access to, and unrestricted reuse of, original works of all types.
Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited.
No permission is required from the authors or the publishers to reuse or repurpose IBJ content provided the original article is cited. In most cases, appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original article.
Kaltenbach LS et al. (2007) Huntingtin Interacting Proteins Are Genetic Modifiers of Neurodegeneration. IBJ Plus 3(5): e82. doi:XX.XXXX/journal.pgen.XXXXXX.
If the item you plan to reuse is not part of a published article (e.g., a featured issue image), then indicate the originator of the work, and the volume, issue, and date of the journal in which the item appeared.
For any reuse or redistribution of a work, you must also make clear the license terms under which the work was published.
IBJ encourages authors to use figures where this will increase the clarity of an article. The use of color figures in articles is free of charge.
IBJ journals publish articles in author version PDF within days of acceptance. This version in then replace with a typeset final PDF version and full text web version.
Figures in the full-text web version of an article are linked directly from the text each time they are mentioned and open in a new window. In the typeset PDF figures are placed appropriately within the text, as close as possible to their first mention in the text.
IBJ journals do not redraw author-provided figures. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that figures are provided at a sufficiently high resolution to ensure high quality reproduction in the final article.
Production of the final full-text web and PDF versions will proceed more quickly if authors submit figures in accordance with IBJ guidelines as specified in this document.
Figures, tables, and images are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY-NC) license.
IBJ accepts the following file formats for figures, tables and images:
Figures are resized during publication of the final full text and PDF versions to conform to IBJ standard dimensions, which are detailed below.
Illustrations should be designed such that all information, including text, is legible at these dimensions. All lines should be wider than 0.5 pt when constrained to standard figure widths. Note that all fonts must be embedded.
Figure legends should be included after the reference list in the main manuscript text file rather than being a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided:
Chemical scheme images, unlike figures, should be included as part of the manuscript. CDX is the file format for saving chemical reaction schemes prepared using ChemDraw. Suggested ChemDraw settings are:
Scheme legends should not form part of the embedded scheme image, but should appear immediately after the scheme in the text. Please include a legend comprising:
If any relevant accompanying data is submitted to repositories with stated licensing policies, the policies should not be more restrictive than CC-BY-NC.
Do not submit any figures, photos, tables, or other works that have been previously copyrighted or that contain proprietary data unless you have and can supply written permission from the copyright holder to use that content. This includes:
If you are submitting a revised manuscript, include the following items with your revised submission:
Need more time to prepare your revision? Email assistant@ibjournals.com
The corresponding author takes responsibility for and speaks on behalf of all authors.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring all authors have access to the final version of the manuscript that is submitted to the journal.
In the event that a member of the author group requests a change to the author list after submission, the corresponding author is asked to provide written confirmation that all other others consent to the change.
Read the submission guidelines for instructions on formatting author names and affiliations.
The involvement of any professional medical writer in the publication process must be declared. The European Medical Writers' Association Guidelines contain additional information about the role of medical writers.
IBJ journals follow the COPE guidelines for changes in authorship.
Editors should be aware of the author list and author affiliations when they invite reviewers to review a manuscript in order to reduce the likelihood of inviting individuals with potentially competing interests that would disqualify them from participating in the peer review process.
Editors and reviewers should contact the journal with any concerns about the author list or if they identify any potentially competing interests that should be declared or that mean they should recuse themselves from the process.
Plagiarism is not acceptable in IBJ submissions. Plagiarized content will not be considered for publication. If plagiarism is identified, we will follow COPE guidelines.
If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate. We reserve the right to inform authors' institutions about plagiarism detected either before or after publication.
We expect that editors and reviewers will be vigilant in their evaluation of IBJ submissions and will notify the journal about any plagiarism identified.
We are committed to ensuring the integrity of the peer review process, in accordance with COPE guidelines. All submitted material should be treated as strictly confidential until published.
The peer review process is confidential to all parties. Correspondence as part of the review process is also to be treated confidentially by all parties, including authors.
Authors may provide basic details about the nature of the research presented in manuscripts currently under review.
Editors and reviewers are required to treat all submitted manuscripts in strict confidence and should not share information about submissions with any other parties unless previously agreed with the editor. The involvement of a third party in the review must be declared at the time of the submission of the review.
We expect that editors and reviewers will not make use of any material or take advantage of any information they gain through the peer review process.
We will follow up on any and all breaches of confidentiality. If there are any concerns about misconduct during the review process, we will follow COPE guidelines in investigating them.
Reviewers may identify themselves by signing their names at the time reviews are submitted if they wish.
Image files should not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information present in the original image.
