Instructions for authors

Updated on June 2023

 

RPMESP publishes articles that address topics in the field of public health and experimental medicine, that highlight contributions to the improvement of the health situation in Peru and the world. RPMESP receives and publishes articles in Spanish and English.

 

General formatting guide

• The files corresponding to the text of the article, figures and tables should be in an editable format (Microsoft Word®, Microsoft Excel®, etc.).
• The font should be Arial, size 10, with 1.5 spacing.
• RPMESP uses the International System of Units.
• RPMESP uses the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for scientific names of animals and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. Scientific names (family, genus, species) should be in italics.
• RPMESP uses the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommendations for the nomenclature of chemical compounds.
• Abbreviations and acronyms should follow the term they represent when first mentioned in the body of the text. For example: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
• In the text of the article, when referring to two authors, the last names of both authors should be used (e.g., Gutierrez and Caceres). When referring to three or more authors, the surname of the first author should be indicated followed by et al.
• Footnotes to tables or figures should use the letters of the English alphabet in lower case, as superscript, and in ascending order.
• p-values should have three decimal places. Statistical estimators and measures of strength of association should have two decimal places. Percentages should have one decimal place. Decimal comma should be used in the Spanish text; decimal point should be used in the English text.
• The references must include the DOI number (e.g., doi: 10.17843/rpmesp.2021.382.6562) (See examples in Table 3).
• The First Page section should be at the beginning of the manuscript text.

 

Table 1. Maximum word count, and maximum number of tables, figures and references for to each section.
Section	Abstract	Content	Tables/ figures	References
Editoriala	--	1500	--	-
Original article	250	4000	6	35b
Brief report	150	2000	4	20
Review	250	4000	5	60
Special	150	3500	4	40
Case report	150	2000	5	20
Public health history	100	2500	3	30
Letters to the editor	--	500/800c	1	6
a Articles in this section are requested by the RPMESP Board. b The number of references may increase in the case of systematic reviews. c 800 words will be allowed in scientific letters.

 

Instructions for each section of the manuscript

The sections vary according to the type of article.

 

1. First page

The first page should include the following (in order of appearance):

a. Title: in English and Spanish (with a suggested maximum length of 20 words).

If the research has been presented in part or in full at a scientific event (abstract book, poster or oral presentation), is part of a thesis, technical report or is in a digital repository, authors should place the primary reference below the title.

We recommend reviewing the following example:

Role of the intercultural facilitator for international migrants in Chilean health centers: perspectives of four key stakeholder groups.

This study is part of the thesis: Sepúlveda-Astete C. Qualitative study of the role of intercultural facilitators in the health care of international migrants in two communes of the Metropolitan Region: Quilicura and Santiago [Master’s thesis]. Santiago: Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, University of Chile; 2019.

b. Short title: in English (with a suggested maximum length of 7 words).

c. Author identification: Each author must include his/her ORCID number (e.g. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5120-0713). Authors are responsible for the way their names are presented, according to the examples in Table 2.

 

Table 2. Forms of citation and presentation of authorship.
Forms of presentation	Corresponding citation
Carlos A. Fuentes	Fuentes CA
Carlos Fuentes	Fuentes C
Carlos Fuentes-Gutiérrez*	Fuentes-Gutiérrez C
Carlos A. Fuentes-Gutiérrez*	Fuentes-Gutiérrez CA
* If you wish to include both last names in the citation, they must be connected by a hyphen.

 

d. Affiliation: Only one institutional affiliation, one academic affiliation per author (if applicable), city and country can be included (e.g., Centro Nacional de Salud Pública, Instituto Nacional de Salud. Lima, Peru). In the case of profession and academic degree, each author should indicate his/her profession and the highest academic degree obtained (e.g., physician specializing in Endocrinology, doctor in Public Health). Terms such as “candidate for”, “consultant”, “teacher”, “resident in”, “chief of service” or “professor” are not accepted.

e. CRediT roles: Authors must specify their contributions according to the CRediT role taxonomy(https://credit.niso.org/). The definition of each role is described below.

• Conceptualization: Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
• Methodology: Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
• Software: Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
• Validation: Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/ reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
• Formal analysis: Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
• Investigation: Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
• Resources: Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
• Data Curation: Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later reuse.
• Writing - Original Draft: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
• Writing - Review & Editing: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre-or post-publication stages.
• Visualization: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/ data presentation.
• Supervision: Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
• Project administration: Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
• Funding acquisition: Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.

The abbreviation of each author’s name (three capital letters as described in the Sworn Statement) must be included, followed by all the roles that the author assumed during the research process and preparation of the article. An author may have multiple roles. Please follow this example:

ABC: visualization, writing - original draft, software and validation. DEF: project administration, conceptualization and methodology. GHI: research, data curation, visualization and methodology. JKL: formal analysis, investigation, software and funding acquisition. MNO: writing - review and editing and project administration.

The corresponding author is responsible for verifying the veracity of the information in this section, in addition to attesting that all authors agree with the roles attributed to them.

f. Funding: State whether the research has been self-funded or funded by an institution. If the research was funded by a competitive fund, it should be described.

g. Conflicts of interest: Each author must declare any relationship, condition, circumstance or position that may affect the objectivity of the manuscript as stated in the Sworn Statement. We suggest reviewing the section on conflicts of interest in our Editorial Policies.

h. Correspondence: This section must include the names, surnames and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

 

2. Abstract: The abstract should be included in English and Spanish. Abstracts in Original Articles should have the following structure with subtitles: objectives, materials and methods, results and conclusions. Abstracts in Brief Reports should have the same structure, but without subtitles. The abstract is not structured in the other types of articles.

 

3. Keywords: A minimum of three and a maximum of ten should be proposed, separated by semicolons, in Spanish and English. The BIREME Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) should be used for keywords in Spanish and English. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the National Library of Medicine, alternatively, can be used for keywords in English.

 

4. Key messages: Three paragraphs which should include 1) the motivation for the study (identification of the knowledge gap); 2) the main findings, and 3) the implications for public health or health policies. These messages should be written in a comprehensible language for a non-specialist audience. The three paragraphs should add up to 100 words.

 

5. Introduction: This section should include the current state of the problem, background, justification and objectives of the study. The last line of the introduction should clearly present the objective of the study.

 

6. Materials and methods: This section should include the type and design of the research, characteristics of the population (place, temporality, among others), sample selection, definition and categorization of variables, procedures, statistical analysis, and ethical aspects. The information contained in this section should be able to ensure the reproducibility of the study. If the procedures have been previously described, they should be adequately cited.

Studies on medicinal plants should describe the collection and botanical identification procedures in this section. Any drugs and chemical compounds should be identified, with their generic name, doses and routes of administration. This section is called The Study in the case of Brief Reports.

RPMESP requires that all manuscripts must follow the corresponding guidelines for each type of article: STROBE, for observational studies; CONSORT, for clinical trials; STARD, for studies on diagnostic tests; PRISMA-S, for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (the protocol should be registered in PROSPERO); COREQ, for qualitative studies; CHEERS, for economic evaluations; SAGERS, for studies involving sex and gender; ARRIVE (), for experimental animal studies, etc. You can find all these guidelines and useful information for submitting your articles on the EQUATOR website.

a. Ethical aspects: The ethical considerations involved in the conduct of the study should be detailed in the final part of the Materials and Methods section, in a subsection entitled Ethical Aspects. If the study involved human subjects or experimental animals, a statement mentioning that the internationally ethical standards were met must be included. For human studies, the institutional ethics committee that approved the protocol should be identified and the approval code should be included as well. If required, the Editorial Committee may request proof of approval from the ethics committee. The Editorial Board will require the approval of the study by an institutional ethics committee in the cases detailed in the Ethics section.

The codes from PRISA, REPEC, or the registration number of any of the primary registries of the World Health Organization’s Registry Network or registries approved by the ICMJE must be included.

 

7. Results: Results should be presented clearly, without including opinions or subjective interpretations. Information in this section can be complemented with tables or figures, which should not repeat the information in the text. Subtitles can be included. This section is called Findings in the case of Brief Reports.

 

8. Discussion: This section should include the most relevant results of the study in order to compare them with the existing literature, and thus enrich the discussion centered around the main topic of the article. It is suggested to include previous studies that support and contrast with the results. The final part of the section must include the strengths and limitations (including possible sources of bias and how they were handled), public health implications and, finally, conclusions and recommendations.

 

9. Acknowledgements: In this section authors can acknowledge other people or entities who contributed to the research. Those who are acknowledged have to be identified and the reason for thanking them should be stated. Persons included in this section must authorize their mention.

 

10. References: Only include the references that are cited in the text, arranged correlatively according to their order of appearance. The Vancouver format should be used in accordance with the ICMJE’s “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals”. If there are more than six authors, the first six should be placed followed by et al. We recommend using reference managers. Examples of how to present the references can be found in Table 3. Manuscripts whose references are not in Vancouver style will not enter the editorial process.

 

Table 3. Examples of the presentation of references for articles published in RPMESP.

Journal articles with DOI

Palma-Pinedo H, Reyes-Vega M. Barreras identificadas por el personal de salud para el tamizaje de VIH en población indígena de la Amazonía peruana. Rev Peru Med Exp Salud Publica. 2018;35(4):610-9. doi: 10.17843/rpmesp.2018.354.3855. Salisch NC, Vujadinovic M, van der Helm E, Spek D, Vorthoren L, Serroyen J, et al. Antigen capsid-display on human adenovirus 35 via pIX fusion is a potent vaccine platform. PLoS One. 2017;12(3):e0174728. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174728.

Printed articles without DOI

Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002;935(1-2):40-6.

Articles on the Internet without DOI

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [Internet]. 2002 [cited 2019 Aug 12];102(6). Available from: https://insights.ovid.com/article/00000446-200206000-00031.

Articles with more than six authors

Manrique-Hinojosa J, Núñez-Teran M, Pretel-Ydrogo L, Sullcahuaman-Allende Y, Roa-Meggo Y, Juárez-Coello P, et al. Detección del virus del papiloma humano en muestras obtenidas mediante técnica de autotoma en un grupo de universitarias peruanas. Rev Peru Med Exp Salud Publica. 2018;35(4):642-6. doi: 10.17843/rpmesp.2018.354.3450.

Print books

Baños Díez JE, Farré Albaladejo M. Principios de Farmacología Clínica. Barcelona: Masson; 2002.

Books on the Internet

Manso G, Hidalgo A, Carvajal A, de Abajo FJ. Los primeros 25 años del sistema español de farmacovigilancia de medicamentos de uso humano [Internet]. Principado de Asturias: Universidad de Oviedo; 2010 [cited 2017 Feb 20]. Available from: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=863509.

Book chapters on the Internet

Fuente C, Rodríguez A, de Abajo FJ, Vargas E, Moreno A. Comité de Seguridad de Medicamentos de Uso Humano y su contribución a la salud pública. En: Manso G, Hidalgo A, Carvajal A, de Abajo FJ. Los primeros 25 años del sistema español de farmacovigilancia de medicamentos de uso humano [Internet]. Principado de Asturias: Universidad de Oviedo; 2010 [cited 2017 Oct 14]. p. 157-71. Available from: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=863509.

Thesis

Ticona Chávez ER. Tuberculosis pulmonar activa en pacientes admitidos en emergencia [doctoral thesis]. Lima: Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; 2015. Available from: https://cybertesis.unmsm.edu.pe/handle/20.500.12672/6842.

Technical documents on the Internet

Ministerio de Salud. Análisis de la situación de la enfermedad renal crónica en el Perú, 2015 [Internet]. Lima: Dirección General de Epidemiologia, MINSA; 2015 [cited 2018 Aug 10]. Available from: https://www.gob.pe/institucion/minsa/informes-publicaciones/285012-analisis-de-la-situacion-de-la-enfermedad-renal-cronica-en-el-peru-2015.

Websites

Instituto Nacional de Salud [Internet]. Lima: INS; 2018 [cited 2018 May 10]. Available from: https://web.ins.gob.pe/.

Part of a website

Instituto Nacional de Salud [Internet]. Lima: INS; 2018 [cited 2018 Nov 3]. Rev Peru Med Exp Salud Publica. Available from: https://rpmesp.ins.gob.pe/.

Legal documents

Ley de la Persona Adulta Mayor, Ley No.30490 [Internet]. Diario El Peruano. 20 julio 2016 [cited 2019 Aug 12]. Available from: https://cdn.www.gob.pe/uploads/document/file/3766931/Ley%20N%C2%B0%2030490.pdf?v=1666119068.

 

11. Tables, figures and supplementary material: Tables and figures should be placed after the references (in the same Word file), and should also be sent as a separate file in their original format. Supplementary material should be submitted as a separate file, this file will not be edited; authors are responsible of how this file is presented.

a. Tables: Tables should follow a sequence in Arabic numerals and contain only the necessary information to be interpreted without referring to the text. Only one horizontal line must be used, which will separate the heading from the body of the table; in no case should vertical lines be used. Place the meaning of all acronyms, signs and calls in the table footnotes. Tables should be in an editable format (Microsoft Word®, Microsoft Excel®) and should be placed after the references (in the same Word file).

b. Figures: Maps, photographs, diagrams and graphs are considered figures, which must follow a sequence using Arabic numerals. Photographs should be sent in TIFF or JPG format with a resolution greater than 600 dpi or 300 pixels. Maps, diagrams or graphs should be submitted in an editable format. The caption of the figure must include the meaning of all acronyms, signs and calls used. Captions of microphotographs should indicate the magnification and staining method. Maps should have a scale. Photographs showing patients’ faces should be edited to avoid identification of the individual. Authors should state that consent for publication of the photographs was obtained from the patients or their legal representative. If a previously published figure is included, the source must be stated and written permission from the copyright holder must be provided. Figures should be placed after the references (in the same Word file), and should also be sent separately in the formats indicated above.

c. Supplementary material: Supplementary material includes tables, figures, codes, databases, instruments, files, images, etc. that complement the main findings of the study, whose inclusion is not necessary in the published article, but that contribute to a better understanding of the work. They will be available only in the electronic version and will be downloaded directly through a web link. Supplementary material that is available in external repositories such as Figshare, GitHub or others is allowed. The Editorial Board will evaluate the supplementary material to be published. This material will not be edited, so the content and formatting will be the responsibility of the authors.

 

Specific guidelines according to the type of article

 

Editorial

The Editorial Board of RPMESP determines the topic and requests the participation of experts. Their content will refer to articles published in the same issue of the journal or will deal with a topic of interest according to the editorial policy.

 

Original Article

These are articles that report data from research on topics related to public health and experimental medicine. Original Articles are carried out with high methodological quality, originality, and timeliness; these include systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The maximum length is 250 words for the abstract, 4000 words for the content, six tables or figures, and 35 references.

The sections of an Original Article should have the following structure:

• First page
• Title
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Key Messages
• Introduction
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgments
• References

 

Brief Report

Brief Reports are research articles that, because of their objectives, design and results, can be published in an abbreviated form. Brief Reports can cover preliminary results of larger studies.

The maximum length is 150 words for the abstract, 2000 words for the content, four figures or tables, and 20 references. The Editorial Board will evaluate the date of execution of the study and data generation.

The abstract should have the following structure: objectives, materials and methods, results and conclusions. However, it should not have subtitles.

The sections of a Brief Report should have the following structure:

• First page
• Title
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• The study (section covering the same as Materials and Methods),
• Findings (section that covers the same as Results)
• Discussion
• Acknowledgments
• References

 

Review Articles

This section includes narrative or exploratory reviews (scoping reviews) of current information on a topic of interest in public health or experimental medicine. The Editorial Board will evaluate the acceptance of other types of reviews submitted to the journal. The maximum length is 250 words in the abstract, 4000 words in the content, 5 figures or tables, and 60 references.

We recommend reviewing international guidelines, such as PRISMA-ScR for exploratory reviews or the Narrative Review Quality Assessment Scale (SANRA).

This section does not include systematic reviews and meta-analyses; these should be presented as Original Articles.

The sections of a Review Article should have the following structure:

• First page
• Title
• Unstructured abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction (includes the objective)
• Methodology (includes the search strategy, consulted databases, selection criteria, the process of information extraction and synthesis of information)
• Body of the article (discussion of the findings)
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References

 

Special Section

Articles in this section cover health topics and/or new or alternative techniques or methodological approaches of interest to public health or experimental medicine. Occasionally the RPMESP Board may invite experts to prepare manuscripts for this section. The title should not exceed 18 words. The maximum length of the abstract is 150 words and 3500 words for the content. Up to 4 figures or tables and 40 references will be accepted.

This section also includes systematizations of applied interventions and clinical practice guidelines supported by public institutions (MINSA and EsSalud in Peru).

The sections of an Article in the Special Section should follow the following structure:

• First page
• Title
• Unstructured abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Body of the article (methodological approach, results, discussion)
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References

 

Case Report

 This section includes case reports of diseases or conditions of public health concern. The case report should comply with the CARE guidelines.

Persons involved in the case should be only identified by correlative numbers. Initials, medical record numbers or any information that allows the identification of the human participants should not be used.

Authors should declare whether they have the informed consent of the patient or his/her legal representatives. If it is not possible to obtain the informed consent of the patient or legal representatives, the report must be approved by an ethics committee. This must be stated in the text of the article and proof should be submitted as well.

In addition, the authors must have the permissions of the head of the hospital department or service or equivalent for the publication of the report. The document must be submitted.

Photographs should be included in the Word file and also submitted as a separate file with a resolution greater than 600 dpi or 300 pixels. When reproducing microscopic slides, the magnification and staining methods should be specified. The figures’ caption should describe in detail what is intended to be shown; arrows can be used to facilitate understanding. All acronyms should be defined.

The maximum length is 150 words in the abstract and 2000 words in the content. Up to 5 figures or tables and 20 bibliographical references are allowed.

The sections of a Case Report should have the following structure:

• First page
• Title
• Unstructured abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction (it is important to describe the novelty of the case)
• Case report itself
• Discussion
• Acknowledgements
• References

 

History of Public Health

This section includes articles on health history topics and their historical development and historical events of interest to public health. Biographical notes on personalities who have made outstanding contributions to public health or experimental medicine can also be published in this section.

The maximum length is 100 words in the abstract, 2500 words between introduction, body and optionally conclusions. Three figures or tables and 30 references are allowed.

The sections of a Case Report should have the following structure:

• First page
• Title
• Unstructured abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction (stating the context of the article)
• Body of the article
• Conclusions (optional)
• References

 

Letters to the Editor

This section includes epistolary contributions from RPMESP readers.  They can be of two types:

• Letters that discuss or complement the results of original articles or brief reports published in the last issue of the journal. This type of letters can have up to three authors, a maximum length of 500 words, one table or figure and six references. The editorial policy of the journal allows the alluded authors to reply. The structure should be as follows: First page, title, content and references.

 

• Scientific letters: Communications that present preliminary results of research or interventions that have not been published or submitted simultaneously to another journal. This type of letters can have up to five authors, 800 words, one table or figure and six references. The structure should be as follows: first page, title, methodology, results, limitations, conclusions and references.

Letters to the editor that do not argue, with references, the discussion of a published article or those that do not qualify as a scientific letter, will not be accepted. In special cases, the Editorial Board will evaluate exceptions.