How to publish?

Revista Ciencia y Salud / eISSN: 2215-4949 / https://revistacienciaysalud.ac.cr/ojs

How to publish?

Science and Health is the specialized scientific journal of the University of Medical Sciences (UCIMED), focused on Physiotherapy, Medicine, Nutrition, Pharmacy, and Microbiology. Our call for papers is open permanently for manuscript submissions.

The main objective of the journal is to disseminate new findings and innovations in our fields of medical sciences in the Latin American region.

Our journal is open access and does not charge for publication, editing processes, or access fees for authors or readers.

If you wish to submit your manuscript, it is important to follow and read our instructions to fully comply with the quality criteria that our publication demands:

  • Manuscripts must be your own work, meaning they have never been published in another journal or dissemination space, nor submitted to another journal or publication system simultaneously.
  • You must read and comply with all the quality requirements expressed in our Author Guidelines.
  • You must attach, in addition to the manuscript, the Presentation Letter and Declaration of Originality signed by the authors.
  • Only authors who participated in the manuscript's writing should be listed, which includes all individuals who responsibly contributed to:
    • a) Study design
    • b) Data collection
    • c) Results analysis
    • d) Manuscript writing
    • e) Statistical evaluation
  • Following the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), artificial intelligence tools cannot be recognized as authors of a manuscript submitted to this journal. As tools, they cannot meet the authorship criteria, assume responsibility for the accuracy of the presented information, claim copyright under Costa Rican copyright law, or declare conflicts of interest.

Start publication process

Critical Path: Our Evaluation Process

Publication Process

Our evaluation process consists of 4 phases, described below:

Phase 1: Submission

  1. Authors submit the manuscript to the journal to start the submission process.
  2. The editor, along with the Editorial Committee, determines if the manuscript meets the mandatory requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines: style, format requirements, clarity, originality, and thematic relevance.
  3. The editor submits the manuscript to a plagiarism check on the Turnitin platform to detect possible malpractices. Any intentional malpractice will be penalized with immediate rejection of the document, as stated in our ethics policies.
  4. Once accepted for publication, no additional modifications to the content will be accepted. All authors will be required to sign and submit a reproduction rights assignment declaration to the journal.

  5. If the article is in English and the authors are not native speakers, they must have the manuscript's English quality reviewed by an expert and send the certification to the journal within two weeks of submission.
  6. In accordance with the journal's policies, the use of artificial intelligence tools for manuscript writing, graphic creation, or data analysis must be reported in the materials and methods section, indicating the tool used. The authors are responsible for the content generated by these tools and any conflicts arising from copyright infringements caused by them, as established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (Authorship and AI tools | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics).

  7. The journal reserves the right to accept or reject manuscripts submitted for publication.
  8. If the article presents no anomalies, the editorial committee verifies its thematic relevance. If it receives a majority of votes in favor, it proceeds to the next phase; otherwise, it will be rejected, and the author will be notified.

Resources for download:

Presentation Letter and Declaration of Originality

Phase 2: Review

Peer Review System

  1. Once the manuscript is received, it is anonymized and sent to peer reviewers.
  2. Authors may recommend up to 3 peer reviewers, although this does not guarantee their selection. Reviewers will be chosen to avoid conflicts of interest.
  3. The editor selects at least 3 external reviewers.
  4. The editor mediates between reviewers and authors, ensuring the quality and relevance of the review process.
  5. Once corrections are submitted, authors have a maximum of 3 weeks to address the comments and incorporate the changes into the text. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to withdraw the manuscript if no response is received within 6 weeks.
  6. If reviewers' opinions vary significantly, more reviewers will be called for a second round of evaluation.
  7. For the article to advance to the next phase, the editor will make the final decision once the reviewers' comments are satisfactorily addressed.
  8. Accepted manuscripts will be kept in the journal's private digital archive from the date of publication.

Phase 3: Correction

  1. The manuscript is sent to the philology staff, who will analyze the text and apply necessary style corrections to make it more understandable for readers.
  2. If necessary, the philologist will request clarifications or annotations from the authors.
  3. The editor will approve the text for the next phase, preparing it for layout (mockups).

Phase 4: Publication

  1. The manuscript undergoes layout and assembly, following the journal's branding and format guidelines.
  2. The document will be assigned the corresponding license according to our policies (Creative Commons License).
  3. Once ready, the article will be published on the journal's website, communication channels, and social media.
  4. After publication, authors may share the text on networks and platforms, respecting the journal's distribution rights according to the assigned license.