Submissions

Original Articles

Structured in Summary - Introduction - Methodological design - Results - Discussion - Bibliographic references (between 10 and 17 references, 75% of the last three years of the study, prioritizing their electronic access to the interested reader). Up to 15 pages with a maximum of 5,000 words are admitted if the bibliographic references are included, adjusted to the methodology and length of an original article. It will have a maximum of 5 authors.

Guidelines for writing and submitting a manuscript

Main Page starts with the title of the article, with a maximum of 15 words. Two spaces and underneath the full name(s) of each author with the successive superscript Arabic number that identifies it at the end of each one; then three spaces, the superscript Arabic number will be used equally for each author indicated and will then be specified: Institutional affiliations of each author (NO CHARGES OR DEGREES OF STUDY AND/OR SCIENTIFIC). Following the scheme: University, Faculty, or Hospital (or Health Center). City, country. Example: Granma Medical University. Manzanillo Faculty "Celia Sánchez Manduley". Granma, Cuba.

Author/s: The designated person(s) is/are recognized as the author(s) as long as they meet the requirements corresponding to the right to authorship. The order in which the authors are listed is a joint decision of the authors, and they must satisfy the basic known ethical criteria for authorship. Each author must have participated in the work to a sufficient degree to assume public responsibility for its content and to be liable for any conflicts of interest.

A collective authorship article should specify who the principal persons are who are responsible for the document, the other individuals who collaborated in the work, and if it is the intention of the principal authors, a separate acknowledgment should be made in the "Acknowledgements" section after the conclusions.

Summary: This is an important part of the work, presented with extreme accuracy and synthesis of the data presented because of the initial interest that should motivate the reader to read the entire work. It will not exceed 250 words in length and will be structured with its sections: Introduction - Objective - Methodological design - Results - Conclusions. It should be written using the passive voice or impersonal tone, (e.g. "it was done"), remember not to use abbreviations, references to the main text, footnotes, or bibliographical references. Indicate the purposes of the study or research; the basic procedures (universe, sample, and selection of study subjects; observational and analytical methods); the most important results (specific data and, if applicable, their statistical significance); and the main conclusions. Important: emphasize the novel aspects and contributions of the study or observations that justified the research.

Keywords: Add below, duly labeled, 3 to 6 keywords or short phrases that will help indexers classify the article, which will be published together with the abstract. The terms from the DCS "Health Science Descriptors" list are available for this purpose or seek advice from medical school libraries. In the case of recently published terms that are not yet on this list, the authors may propose the standard terms.

Introduction: summarize the rationale for the study or observation. Mention the strictly relevant references, without making an extensive review of the subject for this type of work. Do not include data or conclusions of the work you are proposing. Be brief and provide only the explanation necessary for the reader to understand the text that follows. Explain the scientific problem and justify the novelty and importance of the study. It should not contain any tables or figures. It should end with a final paragraph that clearly states the objective of the work.

Methodological Design: identify the classification of the proposed type of study. The universe and sample clearly and the way of selection of the subjects (observed or who participated in the experiments: patients or laboratory animals, including controls). Mention the methods used, in case of using apparatus, reagents or measuring equipment (name and address of the manufacturer in brackets and its calibration or quality control standard), so that what is being measured or weighed is valid, and the procedures with sufficient detail so that other researchers can reproduce the results.

Provide references for accredited methods, including those of a statistical nature only where a method is not widely known to readers and briefly explain methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, stating the reasons for their use, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely the drugs and chemicals used, including generic names, doses, and routes of administration. It is unnecessary to express in the text if it was processed in Word or the tables and graphs were made in Excel or another tabulator, nor is it necessary to write that tables and graphs were used for better understanding.

Ethics:  When reporting experiments on humans, laboratory animals, or others, indicate whether the procedures followed were per the ethical standards of the committee (institutional or regional) overseeing human experimentation or with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as amended in 1983.

Sometimes detailed descriptions or photographs of individual patients, either of the whole body or parts of the body (including physiognomic features), are key documentation in medical journal articles. The use of such materials can lead to the disclosure of the patient's identity, sometimes even indirectly, through a combination of apparently innocuous data. Patients and their families have the right to anonymity in published clinical documentation. Details that could identify patients should be avoided unless they are essential for scientific purposes. Covering the eyes in patients' photographs may be insufficient protection of anonymity.

If patient identification is unavoidable, their informed consent must be obtained and notification of informed consent must be attached to the submission at the time of uploading the manuscript. Patient data will not be modified to protect their anonymity.

Results: it is a fundamental part of the publication of scientific articles. In some works a large number of results are obtained, which forces the author to select the most important ones according to his or her objectives. The first way to present them is the text. Tables, graphs, and illustrations will be used as an alternative to express the results following a logical sequence and not beyond the necessary ones (maximum of five in total). Avoid repetition in the text of data from tables, charts, and illustrations that are available to the reader. Highlight or summarize briefly and only the most important observations without reading to the reader.

Discussion: the author will discuss the results of the research in a logical order to its objective, with emphasis on new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions derived from them. Do not repeat in detail the data or other information already presented in the Introduction and Results from sections. Show the relationships between each result and the facts you presented. State your views on the subject.

Explain in the discussion the meaning of the results and their limitations, including their consequences for future research. Relate the observations to those of other relevant studies using updated citations. Link the conclusions to the objectives of the study, but refrain from making general statements and drawing conclusions that are not fully supported by the data.

Do not claim any provenance or mention unfinished work. Propose new hypotheses when there is justification for them, but identify them. This section includes, along with the discussion, the conclusions that you will summarize about the particularity of the work, which should be inferred from the discussion. The conclusions are presented as part of the discussion, usually at the end, which is only presented as a section in the summary at the beginning of the article.

Acknowledgments: the reasons may include recognition of contributions that do not justify authorship, such as general support from the head of the department, recognition for technical assistance received or material support, specifying the nature of the support, and financial relationships that may give rise to a conflict of interest.

Persons who intellectually contributed to the article, but whose participation does not justify authorship, may be cited by name, adding their role or type of contribution; for example, "scientific advice," "critical review of the study proposal," "data collection," or "participation in the clinical trial. These persons must give their permission to be named or at least know and agree to be named. It is the authors' responsibility to obtain written permission from the persons mentioned by name in the acknowledgments, as readers may infer that they support the data and conclusions, and will assume shared responsibility for any conflicts.

References: The Vancouver 2012 Standards for References will be used, using a number system style in order of appearance, using Arabic numerals, superscript, and parentheses. Abstracts will not be accepted as references, nor will unpublished observations or personal communications, or those texts that cannot be made available to a reader.

Original papers should not exceed 17 citations. Citations from published documents and with more than 75% of the total number of updates (last five years of the study) will be accepted.

Bibliographic references consulted on-line must contain the URL, dates of publication, and access to consultation, which will allow the editors, first, and readers in due course, access to the article referred to.

Case Report

These are articles that describe one or more clinical cases of exceptional observation, or a novel aspect of a previously known disease or syndrome, which represents a contribution of special interest for the knowledge on the topic or on the process described in the present world. Before writing a report or case presentation, a background study should be conducted into the international literature to see if it has value as a publication. Briefness will be the fundamental characteristic of this type of article. Its structure includes Abstract - Introduction - Presentation of the case - Discussion and References.

The maximum length of the text will be up to 3 500 words and between 10 and 15 references will be cited with their corresponding URLs and updated (see form of referencing in the original article). They will include up to 3 authors.

Review Articles

This type of article offers a critical evaluation of the published papers, compiling, analyzing and synthesizing the current state of a particular topic. The purpose of the review, sources and methods of reference search should be indicated.

The article should include: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methodological design, Development, Conclusions and References. Optionally, the paper may include tables and figures. The review articles should be elaborated with the most updated possible bibliography of the subject to be reviewed.

The introduction should be extensive. The method section will include the methods used, the databases and the search strategies; as well as the criteria used for the selection of the cited articles (in case selection criteria are used). It does not require results, but it should enhance the discussion as the secondary article that it is.

Its fundamental characteristic is to use a larger number of references which are as current as possible, it should contain between 20 and 30 citations, (more than 75% updated) usually long, between 10 and 25 pages or up to 5,000 words without the references.

The review article, although sometimes contains new data, is intended to examine the existing published literature and put it in some perspective, offering a critical evaluation of the object of study and should arrive at important conclusions for the reader, based on the works analyzed. It should situate the science according to the authors' considerations, always from an ethical perspective.

Special Article

It will be a short article that will present new aspects related to the medical scientific field in which the readers and authors of the journal are positioned. If it includes bibliography, must present the characteristics described in the original articles.

Brief Communication

Brief communications are scientific articles, not very extensive, which aim to inform the scientific community about a hypothesis, or partial results of a research; they include Summary, Introduction, Objective, Methodological design (in which the essential elements for the development of the work are explained), Results (if any), a Discussion that should not be too extensive expressing its essential elements, Conclusions and References.

May include up to four tables, figures or illustrations that will follow the same rules of the original articles, and should not include more than 17 bibliographic citations that must present the characteristics described in the original articles. Up to 3 authors are accepted.

Medical Illustration

This section aims to show images of interest in the practice and learning of medicine. The image should capture important visual information obtained from the physical examination or diagnostic means used for the clinical evaluation of a patient.

The title should not be more than 8 words, 1 author is accepted, the image(s) should have good technical quality, it can be unique or divided into several panels properly marked (Panel A, Panel B, Panel C, etc.). If necessary, signs can be used to define structures that are referred to in the attached text.

If photos of patients are presented, use elements that impede their identification. The accompanying text should be no longer than 150 words. Include relevant clinical information on the patient's history, clinical and laboratory findings, evolution and treatment (if any).

It is important to emphasize that this is not a case report, that the fundamental element is the image and that the accompanying text is to comment on it.

Letters to the Editor

Letter to the Editor constitutes a brief commentary in agreement or disagreement, mainly the second, with aspects contained in published works related to concepts, methodologies, interpretations, results, or other aspects of those already published in the scientific journal "2 de Diciembre".

Rules for writing the letters

The title should be informative and unaccepted concessions are allowed in other original articles. They may be conspicuous (interrogative, explanatory, or through the use of wordplay). It must begin with an explicit and clear reference to the fact that motivates it, whether it is the article that appeared in the journal or another cause, and from there an expository scheme in a progressive way. The following paragraphs should be the argument in favor and even against, or additional comments regarding the reason for the letter.

If original data will be submitted, the main characteristics of the methodology should be explained in a very summarized way (more summarized than in the original article). The following paragraphs should include a discussion of the reasoning or data provided and end with a final paragraph as a conclusion. One author is acknowledged, although, depending on the purpose, up to two are accepted. The length of the letter will be up to two pages, about 700 words maximum. Up to 6 current bibliographical references are accepted if necessary.

They may be motivated by matters relating to the journal's mission for the development of public health as long as the letters allow an exchange of ideas and opinions between authors and readers of the journal, this activity must be as interesting as the original article that triggered the exchange of correspondence.

They should be dynamic and offer to the journal added value by allowing the scientific community to publish a brief result of research, to present results from an original article, not yet published, or an original article that promotes re-discussion of already available data and its subsequent explanation in letter format, or to develop opinions, ideas, and hypotheses that are shown to the scientific community and health professionals.