Instructions for authors

Background

South Health is a peer review platinum open access (free of charges for authors, free of charges for readers) journal edited by the Group of Emerging Diseases and the Group of Research in Dynamics and Epidemiology of Antimicrobial Resistance - “One Health” of Universidad Científica del Sur (Lima, Peru). The articles will be published on-line in rolling basis, within an issue/year The journal publishes full articles, brief reports, scientific letters, letters to editor, case reports, commentaries, profiles, reviews, methodological notes, editorials and special articles (see Guidelines for Authors).

Aims and Scope

The journal is focused to publish comprehensive research on microorganisms and their interactions with hosts and environments in and beyond human health. Thus, the journal welcomes publications addressing basic research, environmental, human or animal issues and/or their interfaces. Bacteriology, Virology, Mycology, Parasitology, Protistology, Immunology as well as Metagenomic approaches are considered. Articles related to microorganisms and/or infectious diseases with a focus on Public Health and Social Attitudes, including, but not limited to health systems,  control measures, vaccines, public health programmes or interventions, economical impact, cost-effectiveness approaches, or other are also welcomed.

Submission

The manuscript submission will be done through the journal webpage (https://revistas.cientifica.edu.pe/index.php/southhealth/about/submissions). In absence of exceptional circumstances and previous approbation by editors-in-chief, no article submission sent by e-mail will be considered.

While up to two corresponding authors may be present in the manuscript, article submission will be done by one of the authors (corresponding author) on behalf of all signing authors. E-mails will be sent to this author containing all correspondence and decisions related to the manuscript.

Reviewer suggestions are welcomed, but not obliged. The authors will have the option to list opposite reviewers, but specific reasons need to be provided. In any case final decision about article reviewers is of managing editor.

Submissions from around the world related to local or global issues are welcomed, paying special attention to Latin America and other low-income or south countries.

Language

The journal accepts articles in Spanish and English. In any case, title, abstract and keywords will be submitted in both languages. Abstract and keywords will be translated by the journal without cost if requested.

Please be sure that language and grammar have been carefully to avoid unnecessary mistakes.

Style

The text should be written in standard typography Times New Roman sized 12 points. All the text (including references) should be double spaced, with wide margins. Genes, Latin words, and scientific names should be italicized. For symbols, the 'insert symbol' function must be used.

Manuscript pages should be numbered, and continuous line number should be used thoroughly manuscript.

If the authors use more than one surname as signature, the journal strongly recommends the use of a hyphen to avoid mistakes in future citations and for indexing purposes.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or shared with any third part. Submission documents will be deleted regularly from submission webpage but in no case before one year after article circuit completion, irrespective of final decision.

Revision process

All received manuscripts will be assessed by a member of the editorial committee, who will confirm the suitability of the text for the journal. The authors can suggest a member of the editorial committee for management of the article, but final editor selection will be done in basis of both manuscript field and editor availability, with final decision being responsibility of the editor-in-chief. A list of the members of editorial committee, including language management (please be advised that several editors only will manage articles in English language), affiliation and areas of expertise may be found in https://revistas.cientifica.edu.pe/index.php/southhealth/about/editorialTeam. Those articles considered suitable for publication will be subjected to peer-review to assess scientific quality of the text. The number of reviewers will be at least two. Final decisions about acceptance, resubmission or rejection will be responsibility of Editor. Editors and reviewers will be asked to consider whether they have any conflicts of interest when they are assigned a paper, and if necessary to refuse to handle the manuscripts.

Ethics issues

Experimental work with humans or animals must be approved by the adequate(s) Ethical Committee of the institution(s) in which the work was done. The use of approval code(s) is highly recommended and may be solicited during editorial process. Human studies will also include a statement regarding informed consent. Studies including livestock or pets should provide a similar owner statement. Studies considering either free-range wild animals or wild animals in controlled environments (e.g.: zoological centers, wildlife recovering centers) also need to include approval by competent organisms.

The use of human images needs to be supported by consent of publication signed for person present in the image, parent or legal guardian, if children less than 18 or under legal age of majority (if higher than 18) of residence country, or next of kin if the person died. In addition, children older than 14 years should provide a signed informed assent. If images are entirely unidentifiable and no details on individuals are included within the article, consent for publication of images may not be required. Nevertheless, final decision on whether consent to publish is required lies with the Editor.

Additionally, the submission to the journal implies the adherence to journal ethics in publishing:

• The authors should declare any potential financial or non-financial conflict of interests. A conflict of interest is present when interpretation of results may be influenced, or may be perceived as potentially influenced, by personal or financial relationships. If the authors have doubts about consideration of specific themes as a conflict of interests, please contact to the journal for clarification prior to text submission. If no conflict of interest is present, this finding should be reported in the section “Conflict of Interests” (see below).
• Funding information should be properly reported. If the work has been performed using own funds the sentence “No external financial support” or an express indication to internal economic support of affiliation institution should be reported on Funding section (see below).
• If multiple, redundant or concurrent publication is detected during or after revision process, the manuscript will be rejected or retracted if published. If retracted, a retraction note appears in the subsequent issue of the journal. Publishing the same manuscript in more than one journal, except in very specific circumstances, constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable. Abstracts, part of published lecture, academic thesis or electron pre-print do not qualify as multiple, redundant or concurrent publication, but need to be reported in first page of the manuscript (see below).
• The presence of errors that does not invalidate the study, may be solved by publication of erratum note by authors or (if applied) answering the letter(s) to editor which identified and report article errors. Major errors leading to an invalidation of study will result in authors self-retraction or journal article retraction. Note that new data obtained by either the same authors or other after article acceptance are not considered for erratum or retraction. Prior to any decision about retraction, the editor-in-chief will contact the authors to report detected mistakes.
• The detection of scientific misconduct as for instance fabrication or falsification of data will results in automatic rejection or retraction.
• The journal may revise the originality of the text. If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript will be immediately rejected. Note that previous publication of the manuscript in another language is considered as an unacceptable practice (self-plagiarism) and will also results in immediately rejection.

Availability of Materials

It is expectable that own biological material described in Material and Methods section (i.e.: Microorganisms, Parasites, Plasmids, and Cell lines) will be present on National Collections or Repositories or will be made available in limited quantities for non-commercial research purposes at reasonable or no cost. Note that this item does not apply for material received for third parts.  

Availability of Data

Where ethically, South Health encourages that data and/or software supporting conclusions will be available to readers. Ideally data should be presented in the same text, but submission as Supplemental material may be considered. All publicly available datasets should be fully referenced in the reference list.

New DNA sequences

 All newly described DNA sequences should be submitted to an adequate repository (e.g.: GenBank, ENA or other), and the accession number should be provided in the text. The sequence will be accessible at acceptance, and ever prior to article publication. DNA sequences present in international repositories such as GenBank should not to be submitted again.

New microorganisms

 The type strain of all newly described microorganisms should be deposited at least in two accessible culture collections based in different countries, with this data being reported in text. If accepted for publication, for standardization of bacterial nomenclature should be sent a request validation to the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) office, including the proposed name, a copy of the accepted/published South Health article, and adding a confirmation of the deposit of the type strain in at least two culture collections in distinct countries.

Authorship Criteria

Only those persons who have actively participated on the conception, development and/or analysis of the studies, as well as revised critically the manuscript and agrees with final version of the text submitted to the journal can be listed as authors. Note, that authors accept responsibility for all the text, not only for the part which describes his/her participation. In this sense, the journal adheres to ICJME definition of authorship as below indicated:

“The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

Final approval of the version to be published; AND

Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.” (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html).

Those who contributes to the study, but which does not accomplish authorship criteria may be recognized on Acknowledgments section.

The author order listed in the manuscript need to be established prior to submission of the text. The corresponding author(s) guarantee on submission that all participating authors have been listed appropriately and that order has been approved by all authors. The journal will does not intervene in disputes on this subject. New authors may be added in the revision stage only if new experiments/analysis are required by reviewers prior to publication and if these studies are performed by a previous no listed author. In this case, all final authors should sign a letter, explaining the situation, justifying that new experiments/analysis have been performed and agreeing with the inclusion of the new author(s) and with the new authorship order. No modification of author list will be considered after text acceptation. Misconducts in authorship may results in article rejection.

An equal role between two authors in the study (e.g.: co-first author) can be reported using a superscript small letter in and a footnote with the text "equal contribution". The journal considers the possibility to list up to two corresponding authors, but only one of them will be involved in mailing with the journal (see below).

“Umbrella” Consortiums

Large collaborative studies resulting from the action of groups or consortiums organized under a specific name should be authored by at least one named individual, if necessary, the name of the consortium can be added as last author. Authors englobed under this umbrella name can be listed in Acknowledgment section.

Copyright statement

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. When distributing or re-publishing the Work, the Author agrees to credit the Journal as the place of first publication.

Sharing

The journal encourages to authors to share the final version of the article in public and private repositories as well as social nets.

 

Types of Manuscripts

Different types of manuscripts are considered (see Table 1). On-line publication allows being flexible in terms of length, references, tables or figures, and thereby these issues are indicative, excepting for Authors and Abstract, which should be fully adherent to established limits. Nevertheless, unjustified or excessive deviations of suggested sizes may result in delays or immediate rejection.

All manuscripts must comply with the required format (see below) and word count. Any deviation from these instructions may result in delays or immediate rejection.

                        Table 1: Type of Articles

Structure and nature of articles

Full Articles, Brief Reports

These pieces are composed by First Page, Abstract, Graphical Abstract (optional) Keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion (Results and Discussion may be combined), Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References, Tables, Figures.  

These formats are intended to present results of primary research. When those results may be presented in concise format, describing smaller non-preliminary pieces of work, brief report is the adequate presentation.

Scientific Letters

First Page, Keywords, Text (no subsections), Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References, Tables, Figures.

This format is intended to present preliminary scientific results.

Letter to editors

First Page, Keywords, Text (no subsections), Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References.

Letters to editors are conceived to comment about articles published in the journal either about the article itself or because a related circumstance or association with an actuality thematic. These letters may be submitted up to 6 months after on-line publication of commented article. On basis of the nature of the comment, the journal may offer to the authors of the commented article the option of publish a Reply.

Case Reports

First Page, Abstract, Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion, Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References, Tables, Figures. 

This section is intended to present instructive clinical and veterinary cases, not being limited to unusual presentations or infrequent pathogens.

Genome Announcements

First Page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, (Results and Discussion may be combined), Nucleotide Sequence Accession, Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References, Tables, Figures.   

In this section may be succinctly reported new fully sequenced microorganisms genomes.

Commentaries, Reviews, Editorials and Special Articles

First Page, Abstract (excepting editorials), Graphical Abstract (optional), Keywords, Text (Sections and subsections as for author criteria), Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References, Tables, Figures. 

Commentaries are devoted to present personal opinions about relevant scientific issues. Approaches to non-scientific audience, such as policy makers, are welcomed. While usually commissioned, spontaneous collaborations are welcomed.

Reviews will present an in-depth overview of a specific field. Both commissioned and spontaneous narrative and systematic reviews are considered. When systematic reviews, PROSPERO registration is needed.

Editorials are ever commissioned by the journal. Prospective authors interested in submit an editorial are encouraged to propose by e-mail to the editorial team, which evaluate the commission.

Special Articles are ever commissioned by the journal. This type of articles is intended to address information which is not suitable for other sections, as for instance congress reports, books recension, or other.

Profiles

Microorganism profiles are short pieces of text devoted to present in a brief and concise manner the main issues related to a specific microorganism. Due to the size constrictions, it is not expected a complete and in-depth revision, if not a succinct text presenting the key points related to a specific microorganism. Due to limited size of the text, an adequate selection of the key information is crucial.

There are composed by First Page, Abstract, Graphical Abstract (optional), Keywords, Text (see below), Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References, Tables, Figures. 

The text has not mandatory sections, but they will be selected among those listed below, following the specificities of the microorganism:

Historical Approach, Taxonomy, Phylogeny, Reservoirs, Microbiological Features, Epidemiology, Clinical Presentation, Diagnostic Tools, Treatment, Antimicrobial Resistance, Virulence, Transmission, Prevention, Vaccines, Key Research Questions.

Prospecting authors interested in write a Profile should contact to the editorial committee prior to submission to avoid duplications with commissioned or submitted Profiles.

Methodological notes

First Page, Abstract, Graphical Abstract (optional), Keywords, Introduction, Standard Procedures, Acknowledgements (optional), Funding, Competing Interest, References, Tables, Figures. 

These notes are intended to present specific established work protocols of special interest for students and young training scientific career. New methodologies, requiring validation analysis, should be submitted as full articles or brief reports.

Prospecting authors interested in write a Methodological note should contact to the editorial committee prior to submission to avoid duplications with commissioned or submitted Methodological notes.

Erratum

Submitted by authors to correct a relevant error affecting the meaning of article, or leading to incorrect table or figure. Spelling errors affecting key sentences or authors/affiliations should also be considered. Note that minor errors, such as typographical or grammar errors that do not affect article readability, or new data obtained by the same or other authors are not a matter of erratum. Final decision about publication of an erratum is due by editor-in-chief

If the error is placed in an excerpt (table, figure, or other), the correct version should be included in the erratum.

Manuscript Sections

Please start each section in a new page (excepting Abstract and Keywords which should be in the same page, and Acknowledgments, Funding and Competing Interests, which should be presented in the same page, after discussion and prior to references)

First page

The first page will contain the title, author names and affiliations. Affiliations should be marked with Arabic superscript numbers. In addition, name of corresponding author(s) as well as contact data including address and e-mail should be present. If any author(s) have no affiliation, city and country should be indicated. While this later finding may be understandable for reviews, editorials, commentaries, profiles, methodological notes, or letters to editor, if manuscript contains experimental data (other than access and analysis of free databases as for instance GenBank), a clear justification about author role and where study (or his/her specific contribution) was developed is needed to be provided.

As above indicated, if two authors play a same role, this can be indicated using superscript small letter and the footnote "equal contribution".

If an author was visiting at the moment of development of the study or has moved since then, this can be indicated using a superscript number symbol (i.e.: #) and the footnote “Present address” or “Permanent address”.

If part or all of the study has been presented in a congress (in any format), lecture, academic thesis or electron pre-print, a footnote reporting this issue should be added at the bottom of first page.

Abstract

The abstract should present purpose, methods, main results and conclusion. If considered, a brief background information can be added at the beginning.

The abstract should be presented in a continuous non-structured format, without references. All abbreviations need to be defined in full both first time in abstract and first time in body text.

Graphical Abstract (Optative)

A pictorial manner to represent the manuscript. Graphical abstract is optative, but if submitted they will be also considered for diffusion out of classical scientific channels (e.g.: social nets).

Keywords

Place 3 to 6 keywords just after the abstract. Avoid multiple concepts (i.e.: do not use "and", "or", "of", ...). As a general rule and in order to facilitate the visibility of the article in searches, please avoid the use of words present in the title. Abbreviations may be used if they are established in the specific field of the manuscript.

Introduction

This section will present the current knowledge in the field, and will orientate the readers to the specific issues of the study developed. The aim of the study should be stated at the end of the section.

Material and Methods

This section is intended to collect the methodologies used in the study. While methods need to be presented with sufficient details to be reproduced, when previously published should be summarize and a properly cite be used. Of note, if previous method is modified or adapted, a properly cite should be used and these modifications/adaptations need to be presented.

Standard Procedures (Only Methodological Notes)

Present the procedure of the methods sequentially, including times, and alerting about critical points.

Results

This section is intended to present the outcomes of experiments. Avoid duplication between results text, tables and figures. The use of two decimals is suggested if appropriate. When adequate, statistical significance should be stated. Indicate the number of experiments repetitions is useful to determine their reproducibility.

Discussion

The implications of obtained results should be analyzed in the perspective of current knowledge. Elaboration of hypotheses based on the obtained data and supported by bibliography are welcomed. If required, work limitations should be disclosed in the penultimate paragraph. The conclusions of the study should be presented in the last paragraph.

Nucleotide Sequence Accession (Compulsory section in Genome Announcements)

Accession number for new sequencing genomes should be provided.

Acknowledgements (optional)

List here those individuals who have contributed to the study, but without accomplishing authorship criteria (e.g.: idiomatic correction, writing assistance, fieldworkers, those who provide specific material or microorganisms ...). Generic thanks to editors or reviewers should not be included.

Authors signing under umbrella name can be listed in this section.

Funding

Funding sources should be recognized, please list funding organism and code (if appropriate). If needed for funder basis, the specific project can be added. See next examples for orientation:

Example 1: This work was supported by XXXX (grant number YYYY).
Example 2: The project XXXX was supported by YYYY (grant number ZZZZ)

If no external funds were available, please indicate “No external financial support” or, if needed because Research center rules, indications to internal economic support of affiliation institution can be reported (e.g.: "The study was supported by internal funds of University XXXX"). If these internal funds were related to an internal competitive grant program, this can be reported as for examples 1 or 2.

If any of the author’s affiliation institutions is supported by Core funds, this can be acknowledged. See next examples for orientation:

Example 3: “The XXX Research Center is supported by YYY”
Example 4: “The University XXX is supported by YYY”

Personal grants, including travel grants for short stages, should be reported in this section.

Competing Interest

All financial and personal relationships that could transmit the perception of an inappropriate influence must be disclosed. If no competing interest is present, please include the section and write "None".

References

All references included in body text should be present in reference section and vice versa. Unpublished data, or submitted but not accepted manuscripts may be included in body text as personal communication or unpublished data respectively (e.g.: Jones M, personal communication”, “Perez M et al. unpublished data). In these cases a written permission of author(s) cited is required.

The references will be presented in the text following the scheme

One author: Author surname, publication year.

Two authors:  1^st Author surname and 2^nd Author surname, publication year

More than two authors: 1^st Author surname et al, publication year.

Webpages, including databases such as GenBank, PubChem, Specific PubMLST microorganisms webpages, or other, can be reported in the text within parenthesis or in reference list (in this case, please be below for rules and models).

In the Reference section, references will be listed in alphabetical order following Vancouver style, when more than one reference will be authored by the same authors and in the same order, the ancient reference should be the first listed.

The first six authors will be included in the reference, if more listed the first six followed by "et al". The title should be reported in original language. Nevertheless, note that Latin characters are used, for instance: if the article is write in Spanish, the title should be reported in Spanish, if the article is write in Chinese characters, the title should be reported following English translation. Journal name should be abbreviated, Number pages will be written in abbreviated format. When journals use article number instead of page numbers, this should be reported. When possible add doi number. If in submission stage a referenced article is in press, please do not indicate publishing year or pages, irrespective of any “Ahead of Print” document present in repositories, or other data reported in databases. In these cases, the use of doi number is of special relevance for traceability of references. In revision and proofs, “in press” references should be actualized to final publication if available.

Books should be cited following the schema author(s). title (edition if required). editorial, city, country. year.

If congress communications have been published in a journal as standard or supplementary number, please reference following journal model, in other case follow provide example.

When referenced Thesis, please clarify the grade (BsC, MsC, PhD). If present in an internet repository, please add a link.

In referenced patents, please include patent number as well as publication year.

When include webpages in reference section, If the accessed page include version number, or any type of sequential numeration related to page modifications, this should be reported. In addition, when established include an acronym in parenthesis to facilitate the inclusion of references in body text as for instance: (EUCAST, 2022).

For non-scientific journals (for instance Daily Press), please follow the schema of scientific articles if possible, or add a functional link.

For a guide follow next examples:

Journal article:

Example 1: Espinoza K, Zavalaga C, Irigoin-Lovera C, Gonzales-DelCarpio DD, Díaz-Santibañez I, Pons MJ, et al. Antimicrobial resistance levels among gram-negative bacteria from Peruvian Boobies (Sula variegata) in Northern Peru. J Wildl Dis. 2021;57:722-5. https://doi.org/10.7589/JWD-D-21-00003.

Example 2: Silva V, Correia E, Pereira JE, González-Machado C, Capita R, Alonso-Calleja C, et al. Biofilm formation of Staphylococcus aureus from pets, livestock, and wild animals: relationship with clonal lineages and antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotics 2022;11:772. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11060772.

Example 3: Ruiz J. Reflexión acerca del concepto de “Una salud”. Rev Peru Med Exp Salud Publica 2018;35:657-62. https://doi.org/10.17843/rpmesp.2018.354.3821.

Example 4: Khun PA, Riley TV. Epidemiology of Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile infection in Southeast Asia. Am J Trop Med Hyg. in press. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.21-116.

Book

Example 1: Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Performance standards for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Document M100 - S32. CLSI, Wayne, USA. 2022.

Book chapter

Example 1: Ruiz J, Gomes C, Pons MJ. Bartonellaceae. In: de Filippis I. (ed). Molecular Typing in Bacterial Infections, Volume II. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. 2022. pp: 195-215

Congress Communications

Example 1: Goñi P, Markona A, Beltran A, Chueca P, Menacho C, Fernández MT, et al. Acanthamoeba como reservorio de bacterias resistentes a los antibióticos. XXIV Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica. Zaragoza, España. 2020.

Thesis and Dissertations

Example 1: Flores-Caldas CA. Resistencia antibacteriana en cepas de Escherichia coli aisladas del proceso de beneficio bovino en Lima Metropolitana. [BsC Thesis]. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru. 2017. https://cybertesis.unmsm.edu.pe/bitstream/handle/20.500.12672/8661/Flores_cc.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y (Accessed on October 27, 2022)

 

Patents

Example 1: Hirst G, Reddy R, Hecker S, Totrov M, Griffith DC, Rodny O, et al. Cyclic boronic acid ester derivatives and therapeutic uses thereof. US-9694025-B2. 2017.

Non-scientific Journals

Example 1: Gomes C, Rubio P. Tan letal como el ébola y más que la peste... pero erradicable. Planeta Futuro El Pais. 2014. https://elpais.com/elpais/2014/11/10/planeta_futuro/1415622037_892870.html. (Accessed on October 27, 2022)

Example 2: Silio E. Revistas seudocientíficas para engordar currículos académicos. El Pais 2019. 15160:22-3.

 

Pagina web

Example 1: World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/. Accessed on October 10, 2022.

Example 2: European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST). Clinical breakpoints - bacteria (v 12.0). https://www.eucast.org/clinical_breakpoints/. Accessed on October 15, 2022.

 

 

Please be advised that accents, italics and special characters are not considered in most of international repositories. Furthermore, note that mistakes are present in repositories. Thus, the reference should be ever referred to PDF or hard copy of the articles. While the journal can correct reference mistakes in editorial process, the authors have the only responsibility of accuracy and correctness of references. Lack of uniformity, grammatical mistakes (e.g.: Use of initial capital letters in all words), lack of any of essential elements or severe mistakes (e.g.: Missing authors) will result in the return of the article to authors for correction prior to any editorial consideration of the text. Note that these mistakes are tipically introduced by reference management softwares. If use this tye of programs, please revise carefully reference section to avoid unnecessary delays.

 

Tables and Figures

Tables and Figures may be presented after reference section in independent pages. If a suggested position is indicated in text this will be considered, but final presentation will be determined to facilitate both reading and understanding as well as final edition of text.

Please be sure that tables are in editable text and not as images. Each table and figure should be accompanied by its own numbering (Arabic numbers), a short and descriptive title (above them), and the legend and abbreviations explanation that helps understanding.

In answer to reviewers’ stage, the figures should be sent in TIFF format with a minimum resolution of 300dpi (600 dpi recommendable). Draws, images, maps, photography, or graphics are all considered figures. Draws and fluxogrames are also accepted in PDF format.

Modification of images such as linear adjustments to contrast, brightness, and/or color may be needed in order to a better presentation of results, but they need to be applied to all image, not only to a portion and should no obscure any part of the image. Alterations such as concealment deletion, displacement, duplications or removal of parts of the image, selective enhancement or addition of elements are unacceptable.

The authors are responsible to obtain permissions from copyright owner for reproduction of figures previously published. This permission should be sent to the journal in any moment of editorial process (i.e.: submission or revision stages or just after receiving final acceptation mail), but ever prior to publication. The permission of authors (if not copyright owners) is not mandatory, but welcomed and encouraged.

In the web system should be reported the original or reproduction nature of tables, figures or images. If reproductions, it is mandatory to indicate origin and copyright owner permission or confirm that figures are for free use as applied. When images proceed for a free use webpage, a screen capture in which this issue will be clearly showed is adequate. These issues should be indicated at the end of the caption. If the table or figure is based on external data, the origin of this should be also reported at the end of the caption.

Note the difference between reprinted and adapted. Reprinted will be considered if the reproduction is identical, without modifications, to original table, figure or image. Adapted will be considered if modifications have added in order to adequate the image to author’s proposals. Be advice, that when ask for permissions this distinction might be required for copyright owners.

Examples:

Free use image:

Example 1: Reprinted from Sánchez et al., 2022 (published under a Creative Commons license).

Free use webpage (a document or screen capture confirming this finding should be sent to the journal prior to publication)

Example: 2: Adapted from http://d-maps.com/m/america/equateur/equateur22.pdf

Copyrighted document

Example 3: Adapted from Dehio (2005) with permission of Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Table or figure based on external data

Example 4: The graphs were constructed using data from the Boletín Epidemiológico de Peru (http://www.dge.gob.pe/portal/index.php?optioncom_content&viewarticle&id347&Itemid249).

Example 5: based on data from Smith et al. (2021).