Official Publication of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS)
Former title: Archives de Investigación Médica

Archives of Medical Research Guidelines for Authors Including New Information for Mandatory Manuscript and Peer Review Submission with the Elsevier Electronic System (EES) http://ees.elsevier.com/arcmed/

Archives of Medical Research , published and distributed by Elsevier Inc., is the official medical research publication of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, IMSS (Mexican Institute of Social Security), Health Sciences Research Department, Mexico. This peer-reviewed Journal is published eight times per year and includes articles covering all areas of medical research relevant to human disease. Articles reporting original research that demonstrate pertinence to human medical investigation are encouraged and published as Original Articles and Brief Reports, along with Rapid Communications, Book Reviews, News and Comments, Opinion, and Letters to the Editor. Review Articles, written by experts in their field, will be at the invitation of the Editors of Archives of Medical Research. Natural product articles may be considered if they thoroughly describe the active compounds and their actions.

Manuscripts written proficiently in scientific English are accepted from authors in any country and should besubmitted only via http://ees.elsevier.com/arcmed/ , c/o Luis Benítez-Bribiesca, Editor-in-Chief. The Editorial Office of Archives of Medical Research located at Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Unidad de Congresos, Bloque B, 4° piso, Av. Cuauhtémoc #330 Col. Doctores, 06725 México, D.F., México (Telefax: (+52) (55) 5761-1503, Fax: (+52) (55) 5627-6900, extension 21982, Fax: (+52) (55) 5761-1503). Once all Elsevier Electronic System (EES) manuscript submission requirements are fulfilled, the work will be accepted for submittal and an immediate acknowledgment of receipt letter will automatically be sent to the corresponding author, along with an EES accession number to be used for all further correspondence. After peer review and acceptance, manuscript production status from the Elsevier Production Tracking System may be obtained at: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/arcmed In addition, all manuscript reviewers who kindly afford their much appreciated time and expertise to our peer review process will be asked to enter the EES system at http://ees.elsevier.com/arcmed/ for all communications regarding the manuscript.

Submission of a manuscript implies that it reports unpublished work and, if accepted for publication, will not be published elsewhere without Journal consent. A letter signed by each author expressly stating that he/she has contributed substantially to the article, describing those contributions, and agreeing to submission of the article must be received with electronic signatures of all coauthors. This letter should express that the final manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors and that they have taken due care to ensure the integrity of the work. As stated in the Uniform Requirements (see later), credit for authorship requires substantial contributions to a) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data, b) the drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual content; and c) final approval of the version to be published. All these conditions must be met and should be listed in each co-author letter.

Include separately the complete names and e-mail addresses of two internationally recognized experts in the scientific area of your manuscript, to be used at the discretion of the Editorial Board of the Journal.

Natural Products. Studies mentioning the use of natural products must first describe active compounds and significant actions. Studies that do not include these may be rejected without further review. The use of purified agents is encouraged. All active agents should be sufficiently identified with chemical names as well as registry numbers and common names where appropriate.

Form. Manuscripts should be submitted only electronically via the EES system with text and tables preferably in Word format. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page.

Manuscript Preparation. Assemble the manuscript in this order: Title page, Abstract, Text, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure Legends and Figures. Prepare the manuscript in Word using 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1 inch margins all around, flush left margin without paragraph indents, unjustified right margin. This format includes the title page, where all information should be presented as previously mentioned. Do not boldface any information unless it is explained and necessary. Do not center any information.

Organization. Organize manuscripts as follows:
Title Page. The title page should contain a brief, concise title of not more than 150 characters. Titles should accurately reflect the content of the article. Provide a running title of no more than 50 characters. The Editors of Archives of Medical Research reserve the right to modify titles when deemed appropriate. Following the title and running title, all author names should be listed, without any degrees or titles. Affiliations (without street addresses) should be listed below author names, using a superscript letter to identify the authors with their corresponding affiliation. The author to whom correspondence should be sent should be listed below the affiliations and should include complete name, street address, city, state, country, postal code, FAX number (if applicable), and e-mail address (obligatory for submission).

Abstract. Include a Structured Abstract (sections entitled Background, Aim of the study, Methods, Results, and Conclusions, no more than 250 words) followed by four to six key words or short phrases for cross-indexing. Refer to the Medical Subject Headings-Annotated Alphabetic List, (National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Library Operations, Medical Subject Headings, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/ ) for internationally accepted subject headings. Do not cite References in the Abstract.

Sections should be in the following order: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion (no separate Conclusion section is included in Original Articles). Acknowledgments (if mentioned), and References follow the text. Tables, with included titles, and Figure Legends follow. Figures should be sent separately. See Section on Illustrations.When using abbreviations, clearly explain at first mention and use abbreviation consistently thereafter. Do not overuse abbreviations.

Research on Human Subjects. All research involving human subjects must contain a statement reflecting informed consent and approval from the scientific and ethics committees at the end of the Methods section. Conflict of interest should be specified.

References. Accuracy of references is the responsibility of the authors. Copy authors' names, article titles and other publisher information accurately, according to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (N Engl J Med 1997;336:309-316). Confirm that all references mentioned in the text are presented in the Reference section at the end of the paper (and vice versa). References mentioned within text should be presented in Arabic numbers in parentheses and appear before the ending punctuation if at the end of the sentence. Do not superscript reference numbers. References are numbered sequentially in the text. The Reference list at the end of the paper should be numbered in the order as mentioned in the text and must match the in-text citation.. If more than six authors are listed, limit the number of authors listed to three, after that, use et al. References may contain only published works and papers in press. Works in progress, manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted, unpublished data, and personal communications may only be acknowledged (in parentheses) within the text (including year). Adhere to the following formats for:

Articles in Journals*
Vega KJ, Pina I, Krevsky B. Heart transplantation is associated with an increased risk for pancreatobiliary disease. Ann Intern Med 1996;124:980-983.
*We do not include month and number of the cited journal, as specified in the second option of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.

Volume with supplement
Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and occupational lung cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994;102(suppl):275-282.

Books and other monographs
(Note: Previous Vancouver style incorrectly had a comma rather than a semicolon between the publisher and the date.) Personal author(s) Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers; 1996. Editor(s), compiler(s) as author Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.

Book chapter
(Note: Previous Vancouver style had a colon rather than a period before pagination.) Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. pp. 465-478.

Conference proceedings
Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.

Patents:
Larsen CE, Trip R, Johnson CR, inventors; Novoste Corporation, assignee. Methods for procedures related to the electrophysiology of the heart. US patent 5,529,067. 1995 Jun 25.

Periodical abbreviations should conform to those used in theIndex Medicus as first published in its January issue each year and in the first volume of the annual Cumulated Index Medicus.

Tables and Figures. Be sure that all Tables and Figures are mentioned in the text. The publisher will prepare the final layout of all Tables and Figures appropriately, as close to the mention in the text as possible. It is not necessary to indicate where Tables and Figures should be placed. Tables or Figures used from another published source (either exactly or closely adapted) require written permission from the publisher. It is the author's responsibility to obtain this permission upon acceptance of the manuscript by Archives of Medical Research. Elsevier will not publish any material that has been previously published without this permission.

Tables. Each Table should be typed on a separate page using Word or Excel format. Type all material using double spacing. Tables should be self-contained and self-explanatory. Provide a title for each table and use Arabic numbers. Do not use vertical lines to separate information within the table. Avoid the use of both tables and graphs to illustrate the same results and detailed description of information in either within the text that can be easily observed in the Tables and Figures. Use superscript letters for table legends.

Illustrations. Instructions for submitting Figures may be found on the EES page ( http://ees.elsevier.com/arcmed/ under Author Information Artwork Guidelines. Original illustrations should be professionally designed, in two dimensions, separately from the text (Tables are included with the Text), and submitted with the manuscript in recent versions of software programs. (Elsevier recommends that only TIFF, EPS, or PDF formats be used for electronic artwork.) Figure size must be at least 8.5 cm (maximum 17.6 cm) in width. Resolution of the jpg images must be at least 300 dpi Color illustrations are encouraged, and may be requested of the corresponding author by the Editor-in-Chief for certain figures; however, the cost of color printing is at the author's expense and arranged directly with the publisher (t.monturano@elsevier.com).

BRIEF REPORTS: These are brief, definite reports of novel findings that are relevant to medical practice. They use the same structure as original articles (with the exception of an unstructured Abstract), and emphasis should be given to the concise presentation of results, with sufficient explanation of experimental or methodological data. Limit to 4,500 words, including all aspects of the manuscript, and no more than 2 tables or figures and 20 references. These brief manuscripts are reviewed for their novelty, immediacy, significance, and completeness and may report preliminary results.

BOOK REVIEWS: A book review examines one book in 2,000-3,000 words. It presents a book's strengths and weaknesses and scientific achievements. Books are analyzed using a conceptual framework, and the implications of future research and practice are addressed in depth.

REVIEW ARTICLES: Review articles will generally be invited by the Editor-in-Chief. They should be concise and do not include experimental details. Their main purpose is to provide up-to-date information about a topic by an expert in the field. Non-invited authors may submit review articles accompanied by a list of their own published works in the field that confirms their expertise in the area.

OPINION: This is an expression of the author's opinion about a medical subject, 850 words including text, references, and acknowledgments but not including the title page.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letters would preferably address articles published in Archives of Medical Research and should be structured with 500 words including text, references, and acknowledgments, but not including the title page.

NEWS AND COMMENTS: No more than 850 words and approximately 10 references are welcome as a comment on another paper or other report or event within the past month or so or in the near future.

Proofs, Reprints, Subscriptions, and Copies. The corresponding author will receive proofs electronically that must be corrected and returned to Elsevier according to their instructions and in accordance with their deadlines in order to meet their publication schedules.
Elsevier reprint permissions information: http://www.elsevier.com/homepage/authors/?form=permis. Twenty-five complimentary reprints of each article are mailed to the corresponding author. An order form for requesting additional reprints will be sent by the publisher. Subscription and journal copies may be requested by contacting Elsevier Periodicals Customer Service, 11830 Westline Industrial Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146. Telephone: (+800) 654-2452 (U.S. and Canada); (+314) 453-7041 (outside U.S. and Canada). Fax: (+314) 523- 5170. E-mail: journalscustomerservice-usa@elsevier.com (for print support); journalsonlinesupport-usa@elsevier.com (for online support).

Copyright. Upon acceptance of an article by the Journal, the author(s) will be asked, in a separate letter with forms attached, to transfer copyright to the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social to provide the widest diffusion of information. This copyright must be signed and returned via email to Elsevier Log-In in Philadelphia within 48 hours. Non-compliance will delay issue publication of the individual article. Elsevier copyright information: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/authors/copyright.

Elsevier Further Liberalization of Copyright. To demonstrate their continued support for scholarly communications, on June 3, 2004, the following was published in a communication from Arie Jongejan, CEO, Science and Technology, Elsevier, entitled Building Insights, Breaking Boundaries:Authors of papers published in any Elsevier journal can now post the final text of their articles, as accepted by the journal, i.e., with all of the changes made during the peer-review and editing process, on the authors' personal or their institutions' websites.

Instructions included in these Archives of Medical Research guidelines conform to guidelines indicated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (seeUniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: N Engl J Med 1997; 336:309-316). Download the Uniform Requirements at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/336/4/306.

Archives of Medical Research is indexed in Current Contents (Life Sciences)-Science Citation Index-Index Medicus—Excerpta Medica-Chemical Abstracts—LILACS (Brazil).Consult the Archives of Medical Research electronic page at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/arcmed and the Elsevier home page at: http://www.elsevier.com