Submission Guidelines
Authors interested in submitting a manuscript to Acta Neurológica Colombiana should take into account the following essential information:
Author data, affiliation and corresponding author. Authors who participate in the journal must be registered in ORCID: https://orcid.org/register
ORCID must be completed in at least three fields: institutional affiliation (Employment), academic degrees (Education and qualifications) and publications (Works).
The journal, by editorial guideline, does not include in the authors' information but only their institutional affiliation, city and country. Example:
1 Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe, Medellín, Colombia.
In this way, authors are asked to send only the information of their current institutional affiliation and, if possible, only one affiliation. Academic degrees (MD, neurologist), work positions, distinctions, etc., should be included in the ORCID, as such a link will be provided for each author.
Finally, each manuscript should have a designated corresponding author, who is the person with whom the editor or journal will have permanent contact. That corresponding author should also provide a physical address (with street nomenclature) of his/her university, hospital, clinic, office or research center, including city, country and e-mail address.
Types of manuscripts. Acta Neurológica Colombiana publishes original research articles (including clinical trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses), narrative reviews, clinical cases, updates, perspective articles and short communications.
To verify the conditions of structure and length of each type, please go to the section Manuscript Types: https://actaneurologica.com/index.php/anc/manuscripts
Official languages. The journal welcomes submissions and publishes manuscripts in both Spanish and English. Authors are invited to submit their contributions in either language.
Originality. The journal only accepts submissions of original manuscripts, which have not been published in part or in full elsewhere. The submission of articles already published in other languages or the recycling of texts will be considered an ethical misconduct.
Editorial and scientific quality of manuscripts. ANC invites authors to submit well-written manuscripts, carefully revised and reread to achieve the greatest possible clarity in their structure, argumentation and scientific prose. The submission of draft versions, sloppy or submitted for the purpose of fulfilling academic or research commitments, is not acceptable.
Manuscripts with poor use of language, problems in their structure, or poor and outdated bibliographic support will most likely be discarded in the first phase of the evaluation process (editorial filter).
Correct use of sources and protected material. All manuscripts received by the journal are subjected, in a first evaluation stage, to an editorial filter that involves a review of their similarity with other sources, through a robust anti-plagiarism software (IThenticate by Turnitin). If it is detected that the manuscript is using texts without giving the correct credit (citation) or if it has tables, images, figures or any other graphic element taken from another source, without the proper authorization of use or reproduction, it may be rejected.
Ethics. The journal follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and devotes an entire section of its policy to this issue: https://actaneurologica.com/index.php/anc/etica
All authors should be aware of the journal's ethics policy and adhere to it in the submission of their manuscripts and throughout the publication process.
Peer review process. All manuscripts published in the journal are submitted to external peer review, according to the conditions of the "double-blind" system. The details of this process in the journal can be read in the following section: https://actaneurologica.com/index.php/anc/review
Copyright. A publication license signed by each of the authors will be requested at the time of submission. Also, if there is anything to clarify or endorse regarding a manuscript, once it is approved after the peer review process, the Editorial Coordination may request again the signature of the publication license in order to confirm the publication.
This license does not transfer the rights of the manuscripts to the journal or to the Association and authors retain full copyright ownership so that they can reuse their work if they wish to do so.
In turn, the journal articles will be published under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND) license.
This license implies that the texts published by the journal may be used under the following conditions:
“You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
Attribution - You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial - You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives - If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
No additional restrictions - You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.”
Use of artificial intelligence (AI). Authors should declare whether they have made use of any type of AI tool or whether AI has been involved in the development of any section of their manuscript. In this statement they must specify which tool they used and in what way.
The journal accepts the use of AI under two principles, 1) accountability and 2) transparency. First, accountability refers to the fact that the accuracy, reliability, and originality of all article contents rest solely with their authors; AI will not be considered a co-author nor can any responsibility be transferred to it for errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in any manuscript. Second, any use of AI must be declared and doing so without being disclosed to the editors or the Editorial Coordination of the journal, will be considered a serious ethical misconduct and a reason to refuse the publication of a manuscript, at any stage in which it is in the publishing process.
Frequency. The journal is published on a continuous basis. This model implies that each manuscript that is approved by external reviewers is immediately passed to editorial production (style correction, design and layout) and is programmed within an issue that is open according to its subject matter and typology of manuscripts.
In this way, the publication of papers in the journal is dynamic and the contents of the journal can be updated all the time, week by week.
Access. ANC publishes its contents in immediate open access and under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND) license.
Regarding self-archiving, the journal allows articles to be self-archived in institutional repositories or in the websites that the author considers, in its final edited version, as long as the complete reference to the original article published in the journal and its respective DOI (digital object identifier) is included.
Preservation. ANC protects the content it publishes on its website and provides perennial access to it, through stability, security and continuous support for its platform. In addition, in order to preserve its contents over time, it subscribes to the PKP Preservation Network project.
Publication costs. Acta Neurológica Colombiana, despite being an open access journal, does not charge for the submission or publication of articles. The journal operates with the support of the Colombian Association of Neurology and its purposes are exclusively scientific, not commercial.
Types of manuscripts for submission
The journal publishes the following types of manuscripts and each one meets certain conditions of structure or length:
Original articles. Among original research articles the journal is interested in receiving observational studies (STROBE), clinical trials (CONSORT) and systematic reviews or meta-analyses (PRISMA).
The structure of these articles should have the following: introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusions. In terms of length, the limit is three thousand (3000) words, not including references.
The abstracts of these papers must be structured, in a way that corresponds to the contents of the article, through these items: introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusions.
The abstract cannot exceed 250 words, not including the title, structure items and keywords.
Narrative reviews. These reviews deal with a topical issue, of common interest to the neuroscience community, and useful for clinical or medical practice. In terms of length, the limit is three thousand (3000) words, not including references.
The abstracts of these papers must be structured, but through these three items: introduction (what is the context and importance of the topic to be addressed?), contents of the review (with free subsections, according to the author's approach) and conclusions.
The abstract cannot exceed 250 words, not including the title, structure items and keywords.
Clinical cases. The cases seek to contribute to the diagnosis of patients and to the challenges of clinical practice in neurology. The structure of the cases should have the following: introduction (context and purpose), presentation of the case, discussion and conclusions. In terms of length, the limit is two thousand (2000) words, not including references.
Case abstracts should be structured, in a way that corresponds to the contents of the article, through these items: : introduction (context and purpose), presentation of the case, discussion and conclusions.
The abstract cannot exceed 250 words, not including the title, structure items and keywords.
Consensus, guidelines and recommendations. Consensus, guidelines and recommendations are manuscripts that give indications, mainly, for clinical practice in Neurology. In their structure, these documents should have a title, structured abstract (including purpose, description of the methodology, contents and conclusions), keywords (between 6 and 12), introduction, description of the methodology, development of contents (with the subtitles and sections required by the manuscript), conclusions and references.
There is no limit to the length of these documents, except as suggested by the editor-in-chief or editor-in-charge or as recommended by the peer reviewers for each specific case. The abstract will have a maximum of 250 words.
Update. These are articles that report a novel treatment or a recent useful development for clinical practice. They may also address issues or problems of rapid development in research, with a particular interest in new theories, concepts or results in neuroscience and neurology. In terms of length, it is two thousand five hundred (2500) words, not including references.
The abstract should be structured in three items, mainly: introduction (context and purpose), body of the text (in the sections that the author freely needs to develop in his argumentation) and conclusions.
The abstract cannot exceed 200 words, not including the title, structure items and keywords.
Perspective. These are articles in which the authors give their point of view, their perspective, on some matter of interest for neurology or neurosciences and with scientific, ethical, clinical or contextual repercussions in the area, in the relationship with patients. However, even if it is a reflective text, it must be well supported by findings and current scientific literature relevant to the topic being addressed. In terms of length, the limit is two thousand five hundred (2500) words, not including references.
The abstracts of Perspectiva articles should be structured, in a way that corresponds to the contents of the article, through these items: introduction (context and purpose), body of the text (in the sections that the author freely needs to develop in his argumentation) and conclusions.
The abstract cannot exceed 200 words, not including the title, structure items and keywords.
Short communication. These are articles that address a topic of scientific or clinical interest that requires rapid dissemination (and discussion) among the basic and clinical neuroscience community. In terms of length, the limit is two thousand (2500) words, not including references.
The abstracts must be structured, in a way that corresponds to its contents, through these items: introduction (context and purpose), body of the text (in the sections that the author freely needs to develop in his argumentation) and conclusions.
The abstract cannot exceed 200 words, not including the title, structure items and keywords.
Letters to the editor. Letters to the editor are discussion papers submitted to the editor-in-chief regarding a paper published in the journal. Its maximum length is one thousand words (1000) and its structure is free. They do not require an abstract.
Obituaries. The journal publishes obituaries in the In Memoriam section. These contributions seek to document the legacy of distinguished neurologists, highlighting their scientific and clinical contributions, as well as their role in the training of future generations.
The structure of obituaries is flexible; however, it is recommended that their length should not exceed 2,000 words (excluding references, where applicable).
This section is not open to unsolicited submissions. Obituaries are commissioned by direct invitation from the Editor or the Editorial Board, who will determine their acceptance and eventual publication.
Keywords. Keywords for all manuscripts requiring an abstract should range from 6 to 12 terms and should be selected using the DeCS/Mesh tool here:
https://decsfinder.bvsalud.org/dmfs
Methodological guidelines (equator network). For the writing of several of these manuscripts, the use of the following guidelines and their checklists is recommended (it is important to note that such guidelines can be requested in the peer review process):
https://www.equator-network.org/
Additional requirements for the submission of clinical studies
In order to ensure transparency, traceability, and the overall quality of clinical studies submitted for publication, the journal requires that all clinical trials be prospectively registered in a publicly accessible registry, prior to the start of data collection.
Manuscripts reporting the results of clinical trials must clearly indicate the trial registration number and the official name of the registry in which the study was recorded. Studies that have not been registered, or that were registered retrospectively, will not be considered for publication—except under exceptional and well-justified circumstances.
Accepted registries include, but are not limited to:
ClinicalTrials.gov – United States
EU Clinical Trials Register – European Union
ISRCTN Registry – International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register
WHO ICTRP – World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform
The trial registration must comply with international ethical standards and adhere to the CONSORT guidelines for the transparent reporting of randomized controlled trials, as outlined in the description of original research articles accepted by the journal.
Graphic aspects of manuscripts
Regarding the graphic aspects in the presentation of a manuscript, the following aspects should be taken into account:
Elaboration of tables and figures. It is suggested that, as far as possible, authors should prepare all the graphic material of their manuscript. In the case of having to use any table, image or photograph from an external source, already published, it will be the sole responsibility of the author to request the corresponding permissions (such permission must clearly state that the use in digital media is authorized). Graphic components brought from other sources will not be published if the permissions are not sent to the journal.
It is important for authors to bear in mind that the right of quotation cannot be applied to images, photos or graphic components, since they are considered a work in themselves and the right of quotation is exercised only on a fragment of a work. Neither should adaptations or translations be made without due authorization, as this would result in the creation of an unauthorized derivative work.
Name of tables and figures and sources. In the case of using a figure or table from another source, which has the respective permission, the source must be declared and included in the list of references and in the corresponding numbering order in the body of the text, according to Vancouver style.
Likewise, all tables and figures must have a title and, if necessary, may have explanatory notes and conventions for their understanding. Photographs or images should be named as "figures" in all cases and numbered consecutively, according to their order of appearance.
Mention of tables and figures in the body of the text. All tables and figures accompanying a manuscript should be named in the body of the text. It is not correct to include a table or figure if it has not been mentioned in the body of the text of the manuscript, and such an error may represent a problem in the marking or indexing of the article in some systems or in the publication in certain formats.
Limitations on quantity. Manuscripts submitted to the journal may have a maximum of 6 tables and 6 figures. Photographs or images simply for decorative use in a manuscript are not allowed; a figure should serve to illustrate or demonstrate an aspect that is being addressed in a manuscript.
Manuscript final declarations
All manuscripts must include six mandatory final declarations, with the following specifications. The sections corresponding to each declaration are described below.
Author Contributions (not required for single-author manuscripts). For co-authored manuscripts, authors must declare the specific contribution made by each author to the manuscript, in accordance with the 14 roles defined by the CRediT taxonomy:
An example of how authors should report their contributions is provided below:
Diego Roselli: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, supervision, writing (original draft), writing (review and editing); Catalina Cerquera: data curation, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing (original draft), writing (review and editing); Hernán Bayona: data curation, formal analysis, methodology, project administration, software, writing (original draft), writing (review and editing).
This section is optional only in the case of single-author manuscripts.
Ethics Statement. Authors must declare whether the manuscript involves any ethical considerations, including whether the study received approval from an ethics committee, whether the study was registered as a clinical study in a relevant registry or database, whether informed consent was required and obtained, whether mandatory methodological reporting guidelines were followed in the preparation of the manuscript (such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE, or other guidelines identified by the EQUATOR Network), and whether informed consent from patients has been obtained (particularly in the case of case reports, or as required according to the study design).
If the research methodology involves ethical considerations, these must be mentioned in this final declaration. Authors must also clarify or specify such considerations directly in the Methods section of the manuscript.
Funding Statement. Authors must declare whether they received funding for the research, writing, or publication of the manuscript and identify the funding source (individual, institution, or organization). If no funding was received, this must be explicitly stated.
Conflicts of Interest Disclosure. Authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest individually, in accordance with the guidelines established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. If no conflicts of interest exist, this must be explicitly stated.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Statement. Authors must declare whether artificial intelligence (AI) tools were used in the preparation of the manuscript. If AI tools were used, authors must specify which tool was employed and describe how it was used.
If no AI tools were used, the declaration should read as follows:
“The authors declare that no artificial intelligence tools were used in the preparation or writing of this article (original research, review article, case report, consensus statement, or other applicable article type).”
Data Availability Statement. Authors must declare whether the article includes open data deposited in a public data repository or otherwise available through a recognized platform (e.g., Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad). When applicable, authors must provide the corresponding DOI or URL.
If no data are publicly available, authors may include the following statement:
“The authors declare that no data associated with this article are available in open-access repositories. For any inquiries or requests related to the article, please contact the corresponding author.”
Acknowledgments (optional). Authors may include acknowledgments to third parties who contributed to the research or to the writing, publication, or review of the manuscript. This is the only optional section among the final declarations.
All these declarations must be included in the single submission form, in the submission checklist, and in the manuscript submitted for peer review. In the version of the manuscript sent to reviewers, only the Ethics Statement and the AI Use Statement should be included, ensuring that no information identifying the authors or their institutional affiliations is disclosed.
Once the article has been accepted (if accepted), the complete set of final declarations will be included in the published version of the article.
Citation style
Acta Neurológica Colombiana follows the Vancouver citation style. In this regard, it is important that the authors are careful in the inclusion of each source and that the correspondence between what is called in the body of the text and what appears in the final list is perfect. As the Vancouver style demands that the sources be numbered according to their order of appearance in the text, care must be taken to ensure that the numbering does not omit or repeat references.
As for the citation structure of each bibliographic entry, the Vancouver style in Spanish can be consulted in the following manual (chapter 5, from page 79):
https://medicina.uniandes.edu.co/es/noticias/estudiantes/manual-de-citas-y-referencias-bibliograficas
In English, it can be consulted in this link of the National Library of Medicine:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
Finally, regarding references, it is essential that each entry, in the final list, has its DOI (digital object identifier). Crossref has a system that locates the DOI of the references that have it and it is very easy to use here:
Simple Text Query: https://apps.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery
There, you enter the complete section of references in the field and hit submit; after a few seconds or a minute, the system returns all the DOIs of the references that have it. Please include all DOIs in your manuscript.