ISSN 1665-7063 printed version ISSN 2395-8421 electronic version

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORSThe journal Enfermería Universitaria is a quarterly publication of the National School of Nursing and Obstetrics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Its objective is to transmit contributions related to the areas of the research, education, and practice in the health area, and to contribute to the strengthening, discussion, and interchange among and within disciplines associated to national and international health and academic institutions.

PUBLISHING POLICIES: Authors, professionals, professors, and students from nursing and from other health disciplines can participate. The Journal considers for publication those articles which are unpublished, and keeps all the rights as exclusive. Concepts, judgments, and opinions expressed in the articles are responsibility of their authors, and do not reflect the criteria, policies or points of view from our institution and journal. The reception of an article does not imply our obligation to publish it or a commitment regarding its publication date. Authors are fully responsible of the contents in their articles, including any change suggested by the review committee.

Received contributions must be related to any of the following sections:

*Only by invitation

Editorial: In this section an expert gives opinions about, analyzes and meditate on a novel topic which reflects his/her experience, or the product can be oriented to comments on published articles or topics covered in the respective journal issue.

Research Articles: These are documents which have the objective of sharing results from original and unpublished research studies. They can be quantitative (quantified variables are studied) or quantitative (centered on the understanding of structural and situational contexts). They can be in a brief format depending on their objectives and results.

Review Articles: A) Systematized: they are aimed to examine a published research on a delimited topic and place it within a determined perspective. B) Narrative y C) Historical: These last two forms have the objective of showing the treatment which a specific topic has been given in relation to its different perspectives or approaches.

Practice Innovation Articles: articles which show experiences, insights, or original, innovative, and/or relevant proposals within the healthcare, administration, and education areas, and which have clearly contributed to nursing, can all be included.

Letters to the Editor: These are letters on nursing-relevant topics, or which are related to articles published in the journal. The authors who are object of comments will have the right to reply.

SELECTION PROCESS: Received contributions go through a selection process which lasts 4 months approximately.

Editorial opinion: upon reception, the journal's guidelines in the article are verified.

Academic opinion: next, the document's academic and scientific value is examined through an

arbitration system (peer review) with national and international experts on the different areas, and external to the Editorial Committee. The editor designs two referees, and in the case that their opinions differ, a third referee will be included. To the opinions can be "approved", "approved with modifications" (a month is given to the author to re-submit, with a maximum of three re-submissions), and not approved." At this stage, the author's and reviewers' anonymity is protected.

Editorial Committee: in agreement with the journal guidelines, the academic and scientific value, and the referees' opinion, it is defined if the submitted article is published or not.

In case of being accepted, the Editors have all the publication rights, and therefore, any total or partial reproduction of the article’s text or illustrations requires a previous authorization from the Editors.

PREPARING AND SENDING THE WRITINGS:

* Writings must be sent through the Elsevier Editorial Platform: http://ees.elsevier.com/reu/* The correspondence responsible author must include the "comparison list" and a consent form from each of the authors.* All the document (including front page, abstracts, and figure titles) must be written in double space, in letter size format (28 X 21.5 cm.) and 2.5 cm margins.* All pages must be numbered in Arabic format.

1. Front page

Must include:

Works title (in Spanish and English). A brief and descriptive format (15 words maximum) is recommended.

Authors will be mentioned with a name plus a last name. Some authors include both their last names, linking them with a hyphen. Example: E. Colin-Barraza.

Affiliations will be referenced with letters (a, b, c, etcetera) as superscripts. Superscripts will be placed first and then the punctuation sign. Example: J. Morales (a SUPERIND), A. Ramírez (b), and A. Gonzalez (c).

Data included in affiliations must be placed in the following order: Unit, Service, Department or Division / Hospital / Faculty and University / City, Province, Country. Neither academic nor titles will be placed.

An asterisk will be placed in the author for correspondence through e-mail. The author's name will not be placed again.

You must explain in five lines maximum:The consensus, contradictions, or gaps in the

knowledge of issues related to the topic of the study.

What is the contribution of this research to the overall knowledge?

Each author’s specific participation in the research stages.

2. Structured abstracts:

In all articles, abstracts in Spanish and English must be included.

Research articles must be structured as follows:

SPANISH ENGLISHTítuloObjetivoMétodoResultadosConclusionesPalabras clave

TitleObjectiveMethodsResultsConclusionsKeywords

Abstracts related to narrative reviews, or essays, must be structured as follows:

SPANISH ENGLISH

TítuloResumenPalabras clave

TitleAbstractKeywords

Abstracts of practice experiences can adopt the format which best fits the needs.

All abstracts:

Must be written in a comprehensible form so

that the reader finds an adequate synthesis of the work.

Bibliographic cites should not be used. A maximum length of 250 words. At the end of abstracts in Spanish and English

three to six key words are registered. Acronyms will not be used in keywords. Keywords must be separated by semicolon,

and at the end, a period should not be placed. For support on DeCS and MeSH terms

http://des.bvs.br/ and http://www.nim.nih.gov.mesh/MBrowser.html

3. Document content format:

3.1 Research articles, systematized review articles, or practice experience articles will include the following:

1) Introduction2) Methods3) Results4) Discussion5) Conclusions6) References7) Tables and/or figures

Abbreviations will be explained the first time they are used a throughout the document.

3.2 Review article narrative, review article historical, original/innovative proposals will be structured as follows:

1) Introduction2) Development (with necessary subtitles)3) Conclusions4) References

4. Work body according to section:

Editorial: The extension can be between 2 and 5 pages

SECTIONSEditorial*Research ArticlesReview Articles (Systematized, narrative, Historical)Practice innovation articles (original proposals, experiences, or essays)Letters to the Editor

Research articles: Maximum extension of 20 pages.

The following are some elements to be included, both in qualitative and quantitative works:

- Introduction:

Include the objective and justification with theoretical and conceptual fundamentals. In qualitative studies, the selected theoretical perspective must be identified.

- Methodology:

Quantitative - In this section, the description of the study population, sample size, sampling type, selection criteria, and missing data must be included. In order to verify the results, the variable operationalization, measurement, analysis plan, and statistical methods must clearly and precisely described. Also, validity and confidence tests, and instruments, tests must be included. Statistical terms, abbreviations, symbols, and informatics programs must be indicated. In studies involving human beings, a proof of the Helsinki Declaration should be provided. Include, if it is the case, the informed consent letter and the institutional ethical committee.

Qualitative - Include information on the place and context of the study, the selection of the participants, how data were obtained, the type of research, and the ethical issues related to the research. A description of the process of analysis and testimony selection and contradictory data, and equipment and participant analysis must be described.

- Results:

Quantitative - Present them with a logical sequence of the text. Highlight and summarize only relevant findings, and do not repeat in the text those data of boxes, figures and illustrations. Make sure se order and sequence of these data corresponds to the presentation.

Quantitative - Present the results in an explicit form so that a significant image of the phenomenon under study is given.

- Discussion and conclusions:

These are derived from the analysis of the results and purpose of the study. Highlight the new and relevant aspects, as well as the explanation to the findings. Compare the results with those of other similar studies, and how this contributes to the knowledge of nursing. Affirmations should be fully supported by the data. The study limitations must be included. For qualitative studies, it is important to establish the pertinent theoretical connections.

Articles of systematized review: At least one person with previous experience on the topic must participate. The structure includes: Introduction (with the explicit objective), Methods, clarify the universe which covers the review in relation to periods and consulted databases, and also selection criteria; Results and Conclusions, here, the contribution of the review in aspects of the practice o new research elements, must contain at least 40 bibliographic sources. Boxes and figures can be included.

Articles of Narrative or Historical Review: Introduction, Development (including the sub-sections which are considered necessary), Conclusions and, References; all which are necessary to support the document’s arguments and thesis statements, and preferably published within the last five years.

Practice innovation: a maximum of 20 pages for any form:

- Original or innovative proposals to the practice.

Include the context of the information, in other words, where does it emerge, and to who it is directed to. This is information to which it refers (norms, procedures, agreements, and guidelines, etcetera) as well as information sources.

- Case study:

Introduction, Methodology (Case description, Ethical considerations, Assessment, Diagnostic, Interventions Plan), Results, Conclusions, References; at least 5 published articles and 5 texts related to the topic.

- Essays

Introduction, development, conclusions and references; those necessary to support the arguments and thesis proposed in the work, preferably published in the last five years.

Letters to the editor: the extension will be 2 pages maximum.

5. Funding, Conflict of Interests, and Greetings:

Each article must ALLWAYS contain a section for clarifications at the end of the text, previous to the references list, using the following categories:

Funding (compulsory): if there is none, the word "None" must be included.

Conflict of interests (compulsory): if there is none, the following phrase must be included: "Authors declare that they do not have any conflict of interest at all"

Greetings. optional

6. References

They should strictly follow the Vancouver model, used by the majority of the biomedical journals. Bibliographic references are numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear for the first time in the text, they should be placed in Arabic numbers in superscript and without parentheses. The numbers assigned must be converted in unique identifiers of that source, and they are re-used each time the reference is cited along the text. Here are some examples:

Journal articles:

i) Last name(s) and initial(s) of the authors, maximum three, and if there are more, add the legend et al. (period), ii) Title of the article (period). iii) Name of the journal abbreviated, iv) year (semicolon), v) volume, vi) number between parentheses (colon), vii) initial and final page of the article separated by a hyphen and when it is only one page, add at the end "just one page".

Example:

Barraza-Villarreal A, Sanín-Aguirre LH, Tellez-Rojo MM, et al. Prevalencia de asma y otras enfermedades alérgicas en niños escolares. Salud Pública Méx 2001; 43(5):433-443.

Books:

i) Last name(s) and initial(s) of the first three authors, if there are more, add the legend et al. (period), ii) title and sub-title (period), iii) edition (if it is not the first), iv) city of publication (colon), editorial (semicolon), year of publication (period), page if it is necessary.

Examples:

Burke MM y Walsh MB. Gerontológica: cuidados integrales del adulto mayor. 2ª ed. Madrid: Harcourt Brace; 2000. p.650.

Schön D. La formación de profesionales reflexivos: Hacia un nuevo diseño de la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje en las profesiones. Barcelona: Paidós; 1992.

Book Chapter:

i) Last name(s) and initial(s) of the first three authors, if there are more, add the legend: et al. (period), ii) title of the chapter (period), iii) in: Editors, Coordinators or book compilers, iv) Title of the book, v) Number of edition, vi) City of publication (colon), vii) Editorial; viii) year of

publication, ix) Initial and final pages corresponding to the chapter and separated by a hyphen

Example:

Stern C, Menkes C. Embarazo adolescente y estratificación social. En: Lerner S y Szasz I. Salud reproductiva y condiciones de vida en México. México: El Colegio de México; 2008. P. 347-396.

For international journal title short forms consult: http://1.usa.gov/mHKV2x or http://bit.ly/HWbYnP

Article in journal in Internet

i) Last name(s) and initial(s) of the authors, maximum three, if there are more, add the legend et al. (period), ii) title of the article, 111) name of the journal in short form [Internet], iv) year [date of consultation (semicolon), v) volume, vi9 number between parentheses (colon), vii pages, ix) available in: article's URL.

Example:

Alconero AR, Casaus M, Iglesias R, et al. El corazón de los jóvenes. Enferm Cardiol [Internet]. 2006 [consulta 23 marzo 2008]; 13 (38): 13-18. Disponible en: http://bit.ly/NYsbYe

Ailinger RL, Nájera RM, Castrillón MC, et al. Nursing Research in latin America: 1988-1998. Rev Lat Am Enfermagen [internet] 2005; 13 (6): 926-928 [consulta 12 Enero 2011].Disponible en: http://bit.ly/17TD7EZ

For more information, it is suggested to consult the uniformity requirements for writings for bio-medical journals: http://bit.ly/HTQQcW

7. Tables and figures

While designing boxes, tables, and figures (drawings, graphs, photographs, etc.) you must consider a possible size reduction. Boxes and figures titles should be understood without a reference to the text. These are identified with Arabic numbers according to the corresponding global sequence. Tables, boxes, and figures should be shown in the order in which they are referenced in the work (Table 2; Figure 4), in separate pages, and graphs should be in high resolution JPG files. The maximum number in tables and figures is six.