Submissions

Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

1.Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología (The Colombian Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) is the official information medium of the Colombian Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It is a quarterly publication that circulates in March, June, September and December, governed by Resolution 218 of 1950 issued by the Ministry of the Interior and publishes in accordance with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE) Recommendations (see: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). It publishes specialty-related articles approved by the Editorial Committee which can suggest modifications of form or substance designed to ensure the best presentation of the article. All manuscripts sent to the Journal undergo a peer review process conducted by experts in the subject matter and in methodological considerations. This process takes place anonymously and the only people who know the identities of the author and the reviewer are the editors of the Journal, who are in charge of the exchange of correspondence between the authors and the reviewers.

2.Papers must be unpublished, meaning that neither the article nor part of it or its essence, tables or figures have been published or are in the process of publication with another journal. Later publication of total or partial reprints must be approved by the Editor and show credits for the original publication in the Journal.

3.Papers must be sent to Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología, in a Word file no more than 25 pages long, written in Arial 12 font and double spacing. The author must follow this link in order to make the submission: http://revista.fecolsog.org/index.php/rcog/user/register. A Statement of Originality and a Copyright Transfer form must also be sent with the authors’ scanned signatures and a Checklist with the applicable fields for each paper completed; in the event figures are included, they must be sent in a separate file in any of these formats: jpg, bmp, tiff o psd.

4.When trials with human subjects are reported, the approval of the Ethics Committee of the institution where the study was conducted is mandatory, and the trials must be consistent with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1964 and later amendments (the latest being that of the 52nd General Assembly gathered in Edinburgh, Scotland, October 2000, available at http://www.wma.net/s/policy/17-c_s.html). No patient names, initials, clinical record numbers or data that could allow identification in certain circumstances are allowed. Only manuscripts that meet the criteria included in the checklist and submitted in the forms available in the Journal’s website (http://www.fecolsog.org/revista/Guia_Indicaciones_Autores_APU_02.pdf) will be received.

5.The manuscript will be reviewed initially to ensure that it is relevant for the target audience, focuses on the topics covered by the Journal, and meets the reporting quality and clarity criteria suggested by the EQUATOR initiative for original research of the following types: controlled clinical trial, observational study, study of diagnostic test accuracy, systematic review, economic evaluations, and qualitative research (http://www.equator-network.org/) Additional information is available in the last section of this document.

6. The Federación Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología – FECOLSOG, trongly recommends that all articles approved for publication be translated into English, this because the publication is currently in PubMed, and the translation into this language allows greater visibility and readability. Thus, it offers the authors a subsidy of 50% of the cost of the translation of the article. The other 50% of this cost will be borne by the authors. Who carries out the translation is an expert company and is the same that is responsible for the entire translation of the publication.

7. Software for plagiarism detection or double publication will be used with a maximum limit of similarity allowed 25%. Plagiarism is the act of presenting as an own an idea or product with content derived from an existing source. The editorial office will verify all potentially acceptable manuscripts to detect plagiarism and double publication, using the iThenticate® program. Taking into account that iThenticate® also verifies whether there is self-plagiarism or redundancy, it is advisable that the authors pay special attention to correctly cite any content even if it is the result of their previously published works. If the editors of the Colombian Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology discover plagiarism in an article submitted or this will be rejected and will proceed in accordance with the guidelines suggested by the Ethics Committee in publications.

8. In terms of layout, each section must be presented in a new page, in accordance with the following sequence.

title page, abstract and key words; main body of the text, the length of which must be in accordance with each type of study; acknowledgements and references. All charts, tables and figures must be submitted in a separate page with their title, notes in the order they appear, and figure legends. The content of each section is described below:

8.1.  Title page. This page includes: a) the title of the article (in Spanish and English); names and surnames of all the authors, together with their most important academic titles and the institution to which they belong; b) name of the department and institution to which the work needs to be attributed; c) name and postal and e-mail addresses of the author who will be in charge of all correspondence related to the manuscript. The title page needs to include a disclaimer paragraph as well as information on funding sources, if any (e.g. contributions from Colciencias or the Central Bank; contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, of any equipment, drug or supplies provider).
The manuscript needs to be as concise as possible and no abbreviations should be used. If the topic has been presented in a scientific meeting or congress, the nature of the meeting, the city and date of the presentation must be included. Authors must indicate which should be the running head or foot line they want to see included (limited to 40 characters).

8.2.  As set forth in the Uniform Requirements, authors, in order to be considered as such, must have made a substantial contribution to a) the concept and design, or data/information collection, or data analysis and interpretation; b) planning of the article or review of the important intellectual content; c) final approval of the version for publication. Authors must comply with all the above conditions. “Courtesy authorship” is not acceptable. For example, contribution of samples or patient recruitment, although essential for research, are not authorship in themselves, and mention in the acknowledgments section is enough for those types of contributions. Authors must specify their participation in the preparation of the article.

8.3. Abstract and key words. The article must include 250 words in the form of a structured abstract consisting of: objectives, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusions. It must be concise and written in an impersonal style. The abstract must be followed by the key words, which must match those proposed in the BIREME list of Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) (available at http://decs.bvs.br/E/homepagee.htm). The following must be taken into consideration for the abstract and key words: key words must be taken from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in PubMed (available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh); for terms that have appeared recently and are not yet part of the DeCS or the MeSH, common expressions can be used.

8.4. Main body of the text. The use of idioms, medical jargon, regionalisms or any language variations that go against the good use of the language must be avoided. Papers must be unpublished and written using the Arial 12 font, double spaced and keeping upper and lower margins of 2.5 centimeters and right and left of 3 centimeters using Microsoft Word®.

Mathematical formulas and expressions must be consistent with the International System of Units. The full meaning of the abbreviations or acronyms must come first before they are continued to be used in the text. The development and outline of the text depend on the type of work and the section in which the article will be included. Refer to the section on the type of manuscripts published.

8.5. Acknowledgements. Include contributions requiring acknowledgement but which do not constitute authorship, as well as the overall support provided by a department chief. Other examples are scientific advisors, reviewers, data collectors, typists, etc.

8.6.References. The Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología suggests that authors should include at least two Colombian or Latin American references. In the body of the text, references are identified with Arabic numerals in parenthesis and are numbered consecutively in the order they appear. References must follow the Vancouver referencing style available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html. Abstracts cannot be used as references.

8.7. Tables and figures.The title of the table must provide information of the population, place and time of the study. Tables must be numbered with Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear. The title must be at the top of the page and the notes in the lower part of the page (explanations must not be added to the title, but included in the notes). Symbols for units must be included at the top of the columns. The order for symbols included in the footnotes of the tables is as follows:*, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, §, ††, ‡‡

Photographs, graphs, drawings and schematics are called Figures and must be numbered in the order they appear, and the legends must be included in separate pages.
When a figure or table has been published previously, the written permission of the editor is required and credit must be given to the original publication. If photographs of individuals are used, their written permission must be obtained.
The Editorial Committee reserves the right to limit the number of figures and tables.

• The types of manuscripts published in the Journal are:
  Original research: observational and clinical or experimental research study comprising the following sections:Title and executive summary as described in section 8.3. The main body of the text must contain, a) Introduction: objectives and rationale for the study or observation; b) Materials and methods: complete description of the elements and procedures used, in such a way that the study may be replicated. The following must be included: design, population, sampling and sample size, procedure, definition of the variables and type of statistical analysis. This section must necessarily make reference to the ethical considerations in accordance with the type of research (not only for experimental trials), as well as to whether the study and the informed consent (in applicable) were approved by the institutional Ethics Committee. For controlled clinical trials, the protocol must have been registered previously in the World Health Organisation International Clinical Trials Registry Platform [ICTRP] available at http://www.who.int/ictrp/en/, or in the clinical trials registry of the United States National Institutes of Health (Clinical trials.gov, available at https://clinicaltrials.gov/). Entry in the registry must be reported in the final document for publication. Considerations regarding animal research must also be included in this section (if there is an Animal Research Committee or not, care provided to the animals, etc.); c) Results: they must be presented in a logical sequence in the text. Charts and figures must include information that supplements the text; d) Discussion: Brief description of the most important findings of the study and comparison with results in the international and local literature, potential explanation in case of inconsistent results and, finally, strengths and weaknesses of the study; e) Conclusions derived from the study and implications for clinical practice and research regarding the results. Maximum 25 pages.
  Reflection article: In general terms, this is an article where the author gives an analytical, interpretative or critical perspective on a specific subject, supported by original sources. It is characterised by having at least one objective derived from assumptions or unsolved controversies. It contains a thesis that needs to be supported (not a hypothesis to be rejected or verified) based on underpinning theories and facts that allow to prove the thesis, in order to end with the conclusions of the manuscript. This type of article usually lacks the methodology and discussion sections and it is no more than 15 pages long.
  Review article: Reviews integrate the results of research studies, either published or not, about a field of science or technology, in order to describe development trends and advances. Since 2013, the RCOG Journal has been giving priority to reviews of the literature that follow a verifiable and reproducible methodology with a low risk of bias, over narrative reviews. A review article must have the following sections: a) Introduction, which must contain a brief description of the condition that is the subject matter of the review, or the target population subgroup, followed by the description of the intervention being evaluated and that applies to the condition under study. The intervention may be a medical technology, e.g., a medication, a surgical procedure or a diagnostic test. It may also be a risk factor or a prognostic factor. Next is a brief description of the way the intervention acts and, finally, the importance of the review of the literature presented to the RCOG readers. b) Materials and methods: This section must include the question to be answered by means of the review of the literature (ideally in the PICO format); a reference to the criteria used for including studies in the review by type of epidemiological design (clinical trials in the case of medical or surgical interventions, cohorts or case series, or reviews of the literature, or clinical practice guidelines); type of participants, type of subject matter (intervention, diagnostic test or risk/prognostic value depending on the interest); and outcomes (primary and secondary) that will be assessed through the review of the literature. When interventions are evaluated, at least one of the primary outcomes must be related with potential adverse effects. This section must contain a description of the search strategy implemented. Mention must be made of the databases or any other sources of information where the search was conducted, search terms and the limits implemented (language, date of publication, etc.). Reference must be made to the methodology used for selecting the relevant studies, how many authors were in charge of selecting the articles, data extraction, assessment of the risk of bias, and the analysis of the information. The way in which discrepancies were solved must be reported. Results may be presented in a descriptive manner or data clustering by statistical methods or meta-analysis. This section must contain effect measures for dichotomous data: relative risk (RR), odds ratio (OR) or risk difference (RD) and continuum. For meta-analyses, graphs and tables that group the information of the studies included must be submitted, together with an assessment of the heterogeneity of the results and report bias. Finally, the necessary considerations regarding the methodology used for synthesising the information (fixed or random effects), as well a potential subgroup or sensitivity analyses. c) Results: Mention must be made of the number of titles retrieved, those that were excluded and why, and then present the number of studies included (a PRISMA flowchart is helpful). The key characteristics of the studies included must be summarised (place where they were conducted, population, intervention, comparisons and outcomes), together with an assessment of their quality (risk of bias), and the results of the review either descriptively or by means of weighed grouping of data in the form of tables or figures that include the information described in the methodology; d) Discussion: This section must focus on the main findings in the literature. Agreement and disagreement with other reviews must be mentioned, together with the effect of the quality of the evidence on the findings, and the applicability of the evidence. e) Conclusions: Reference must be made to the implications for practice and for research. No more than 25 pages long.
  Case report or case series: The objectives of case reports (1 to 5 cases) and of case series (6 or more cases) presented in Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología (RCOG) are the following: 1) to disseminate information regarding diseases that pose a new challenge for clinical practice; 2) to create an association hypothesis; 3) to point to a reason for conducting a review of the literature regarding an area of controversy or lacking sufficient information; 4) in situations of therapeutic interventions, to describe a new technique, disseminate or review a surgical technique.
  This type of manuscript must include the following sections: a) Title: including design and the reason for presenting the cases. b) Structured abstract with the following sub- sections: Objective of the case presentation; Materials and methods: brief description of the characteristics of the cases, site where the cases were seen and its characteristics. Variables measured and type of analysis used. Results and conclusions.
  The body of the document must contain the following sections: a) Introduction: a brief description of the known facts about the condition in terms of how cases are defined, frequency and diagnosis, management and prognosis. Knowledge gaps or controversies regarding the subject matter and why the presentation of the case report or the case series is important, closely related to the objective of the case presentation included below. b) Case presentation: brief description of positive findings leading to the diagnosis of the cases (complaint, history, physical exam or diagnostic tests), and management and final course. In the event of a new procedure, it must be described in detail in order to enable replication in other settings. The characteristics of the site where the case or cases received care have to be described, including complexity level and the type of population it serves. If a new entity is presented, it must be done in great detail so that it can be recognised by other authors. If a new surgical technique is presented, it must be described in detail so that it can be replicated in other sites. c) Discussion: comparison of the potential advantages of the new surgical technique and those already in use, or the differences between the new entity and the existing ones, its biological plausibility, and potential association hypotheses.
  If the objective of the case presentation is to conduct a review of the literature, apart from the introduction and case presentation, the document must include the following sections: c) Materials and methods: this section must include the question to be answered with the review of the literature, the search terms, the databases searched, the time period covered by the search, and the languages of the search. Moreover, it must describe the inclusion criteria used in the studies by type of intervention, and whether there are exclusion criteria; it is suggested to include the variables measured in the studies considered. The following information on each study is required: author, study site and year, epidemiological design, type of subjects included, type of intervention assessed, and measured outcomes. Ethical consideration such as confidentiality of the information, protection of patient rights and consent for publication should be included. d) Results: This section must include the following information: number of titles identified, number of studies included and number of studies excluded and why they were excluded. It must also contain a description of the design of the studies included, grouped by design type and with their individual reference, the site where they were performed and the findings for assessment by type of outcome, with the references to support the information. e) Conclusions: Summary of the most important findings of the review of the literature in the light of the objectives of the case presentation. It is important to stress that when the objective of the case presentation is to conduct a review of the literature, there is no Discussion section. Maximum length is 15 pages.
  Medical Education: articles that contribute to integral medical training.
  History of Medicine: historical considerations regarding any of the areas of medicine.
  Letters to the Editor: brief comments no more than 400 words long and five references on any of the articles published in the Journal, or narratives of general interest in the area of health.
• The use of abbreviations is discouraged, except for units of measurement. In case abbreviations or acronyms are used, the first time they are mentioned in the text they must be preceded by the words from which they are derived.
• All measurements must be expressed in accordance with the International System of Units(SI), annotatinginparenthesistheconventionalmeasurementunits.Themetric system (metres, kilograms or litres) or multiples of 10 must be used for measurements of length, height, weight and volume. Temperatures must be reported in degrees Celsius. Arterial pressures must be reported in millimetres of mercury. All values for haematology or chemistry tests must be reported in the metric system using SI terms. Measurement units of the SI system must also be used in tables and figures, annotating conversion factors to conventional units in figure legends or table notes
• Legal Terms: Only the author is responsible for published concepts and Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología will not take responsibility for any of those concepts.
• Authors waive all control and publication rights over their manuscripts, and transfer their rights to Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología, including rights over on-line publication and publication in magnetic media.
• All texts included in Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología are copyright protected. Pursuant to the Law, reproduction in any form or mechanical or electronic medium is prohibited without the Editor’s written consent.
  To request permission for partial or total reproduction of the publications of Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología (RCOG) a written communication must be addressed to RCOG at rcog@fecolsog.org
• For reference citations, the abbreviation for Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología is Rev Colomb Obstet Ginecol. For additional information, go to https://revista.fecolsog.org/index.php/rcog or write to rcog@fecolsog.org. Apart from the page containing the information about the work and the authors and of the sections described above, the following documents must be submitted together with the manuscript:
  1. Statement confirming that the study has not been published in part or in full in any other journal.
  2. Statement on potential conflict of interest (financial or of any other type).
  3. Statement confirming that the paper, in the form it is submitted (including the order of the authors), has been read and approved by all the authors.
  4. Copiesofallpermissions(ifapplicable)forreproducingmaterial previously submitted by others; of patient consent for publication of photographs; authorisations to name people for their contributions.

See Letter certifying the originality of an article to be submitted

See Letter ceding author's rights

Statement of compliance with publication standards

Responsible publication of research studies, including thorough, transparent, accurate and timely reporting of what was done and found during the study is an integral part of good research and publication practices and not an additional optional component.

Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología supports initiatives designed to improve the health research reports. Authors are requested to use the following guidelines as they prepare their manuscripts.

Controlled clinical trial: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/

Observational studies: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting- guidelines/prisma

Diagnostic validity studies:http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/

Case reports: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/care/

Statistical analysis: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/sampl/ / http://www.equator-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/SAMPL-Guidelines-6-27-13.pdf

Qualitative research reports: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/Coreq / http://intqhc.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/6/349/T1.expansion.html

Qualitative research synthesis: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/Entreq / http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/12/181/table/T1

Healthcare improvement guidelines: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/Squire

Economic assessment reports: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/Cheers

At the time of submitting the article for publication authors are requested to attach a letter confirming adherence to the relevant guideline as well as the completed checklist, if available, for the type of study, indicating the page number where the information requested is included in the manuscript. Answers to all the items of the guideline are required together with a brief explanation of why any item has not been answered, in order to allow for a transparent record of the study.

Adherence to the recommended publication guidelines will facilitate the review of the manuscript, increase the probability of publication, and improve the usefulness of the research findings for future research and for clinical practice.

Transparency statement

Statement by principal author or guarantor confirming that the manuscript is an honest, accurate and transparent report of the study conducted, that no important aspects of the study have been omitted, and that all discrepancies or deviations from the original study plan have been explained and reported.

Evaluation Process

Once received in accordance with the requirements of the Journal, the original manuscript will be sent for peer review within the next eight days. Evaluation is anonymous and peers are selected based on their leadership in the practice of the subject matter, determined by the number of publications in the relevant field or prior local or international training (specialty or sub-specialty, master or doctorate) in the field of research (two reviewers). When required, a third reviewer will assess the manuscript in terms of specific considerations such as statistics, measurement, qualitative research, etc.

Reviewers agree to:

1. Respect peer-review confidentiality and abstain from disclosing details regarding a manuscript or its review during or after the review and publishing processes.
2. Declare all potential conflicts of interest and seek advice from the Journal in case they are not clear about what is potential conflict of interest.
3. Inform the Journal of any real or suspected questionable conduct:
   1. Suspected redundant publication.
   2. Suspected plagiarism.
   3. Suspected made-up data.
   4. Suspected undisclosed conflict of interest.
   5. Suspected ethical issue.

• Accepted without changes.
• Accepted with changes.
• Acceptable with major modifications.
• Not accepted.

Once received, evaluations are sent to the author with the request to submit corrections, if considered relevant, within the next fifteen working days in order to conduct proofs before publication. Papers will not be returned.