Author Guidelines

The Editorial Committee of the Cuban Journal of Medical and Health Informatics (RCIM) establishes the following methodological and technical guidelines that must be followed for the publication of articles in the journal.

This journal accepts the use of AI tools for the preparation of articles submitted to it. Therefore, the method must state all instances in which the tool is used, its name, and the extent of its use. Authors are solely responsible for the content of their articles. Any result of the use of artificial intelligence must be reviewed, analyzed, and corroborated in all its consequences by the authors.

Authors are advised, to enhance the visibility of their articles, to carefully select essential concepts or terms directly related to the article's topic and its variants, including synonyms and abbreviations, when selecting keywords. Do not repeat terms that appear in the title or abstract; always use thesauri whenever possible to ensure consistency and relevance of the selected keywords; remember that it is permissible to use complete sentences to provide a more precise search filter; combine general and specific terms to achieve a balance that benefits visibility.

The RCIM pursues the objective of disseminating the results of works related to Medical and Health Informatics, as well as other related specialties, prepared by professionals, teachers, technicians, and graduate and undergraduate students.

National and international contributions are accepted in Spanish and English, provided they follow the stipulated instructions.

Unpublished works of a theoretical, methodological, or practical nature whose dissemination contributes to their application or is of substantial use to readers are accepted. Papers previously presented at scientific events are also accepted, provided they have not been fully published in the event's proceedings.

Articles previously posted on preprint servers are accepted, as long as they clearly identify the preprint as a non-peer-reviewed work and include the authorship information. In this case, the authors must state, on the first page of the article, below the title, that the article was previously posted on a preprint server and include access to it.

The content published in RCIM is protected under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 License, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the primary source of publication is duly cited.

At the beginning of the evaluation and selection of manuscripts, the relevance, novelty, and impact of the work are analyzed; the manuscript submission is also evaluated. The journal's Editorial Committee will decide whether the manuscript will continue the editorial process or not, and will be notified within a period of no more than 30 days.

The recommendations for article authors, proposed below, are based on the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication (Uniform Requirements) and are intended to improve the preparation of submitted materials in terms of quality and clarity of presentation.

Manuscript Format and Preparation:

Research papers that describe original results and contribute new knowledge or approaches to the different areas of expertise in Medical Informatics, Cybernetics, Mathematics, Pedagogy, Statistics, Bioinformatics, as well as other related disciplines such as Bioethics and Infoethics, among others. The recommended minimum length is more than 10 pages (A4), in Calibri font, size 12. There will be a maximum of six authors.

Articles resulting from a critical analysis of the bibliography on a subject, with updated approaches and inclusion of the authors' own expertise, presenting their corresponding conclusions. As an essential condition, they must meet the current requirement. They must include an extensive bibliography (up to 50 references) with a minimum length of 12 pages (A4), in Calibri font, size 12, with double line spacing. There will be a maximum of six authors.

Short opinion pieces, articles on experimental studies, or other appropriate forms, with a length not exceeding 10 pages (A4), in Calibri font, size 12.

Dedicated to articles that refer to the production of software by enca

rgo, indirect product of research, or other similar product.

This category includes comments, scientific observations, or critiques of articles and topics published in the journal, as well as questions or experiences that can be summarized. Likewise, reports on progress or preliminary findings from unfinished research or a new technology may be considered. Maximum recommended length: 3 pages.

In order to communicate data logically and clearly, it is proposed to follow the IMYRD structure (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion) whenever possible, taking into account that such ordering is a direct reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Although it is possible to add subsections to longer articles, especially in the Discussion and Results sections, to enhance the clarity of the content. Other types of articles, such as communications, reviews, or technical reports, may require different structures, depending on the clarity of the exposition, which is acceptable.

In order to contribute to the editors' and writers' proofreading of the articles, the text of the articles must be sent to the journal in Word format, double-spaced throughout, and maintaining normal margins.

Given the practical importance of numbering the text, the ordinal numbers must be listed consecutively on each page, starting with the cover page in all cases. Tables and images included in the articles must be mentioned in the text at some point prior to their appearance.

At the end of each article, the author's statement must be included, as well as a formal declaration of no conflicts of interest.

Cover page (first page of all articles submitted to the RCIM).

Include the following information:

• Full title in Spanish and English. It must be clear and concise. A maximum of 15 words is suggested where possible; however, if not, its length may be extended to provide sufficient information to allow for the retrieval of appropriate information. The title should conveniently describe the content of the article in the fewest possible words, but in a way that is understandable and searchable.

• Full name, scientific degree, ORCID identifier, professional information (work center, positions, etc.), and email address of all authors; city and country. It is recommended to include the mobile phone number of one of the authors, whenever possible. This information should appear in the lower right quadrant of the first page. A corresponding author should always be listed.

Second page

Includes a summary of the article; it is not required to be structured; written in Spanish and its English translation (abstract), of no more than 250 words. The summary should reflect the problem posed, the objective, the method followed, the main results, and conclusions, but not detailed material or data cited in the work.

It should be written in the past tense, clearly and concisely. Below, insert the keywords or descriptors, also in Spanish and English, in a number between 3 and 10. Standardized terms from the DeCS (Health Sciences Descriptors) thesaurus and those from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) should be used whenever possible.

Letters to the editor do not include an abstract.

Third page

Depending on the type of article, it includes different subdivisions.

In the case of the IMRYD structure, the following recommendations will be considered:

It should clearly explain the nature and relevance of the problem under investigation. It describes the objective of the work. The background information should be appropriately argued so that the reader is able to understand and evaluate the results of the study without needing to consult other publications on the topic. It should be brief, unless it is a review article. Two to six paragraphs will be sufficient, provided that the above is met. The introduction should adequately delineate the bibliographic references used. The Introduction includes the objective(s) of the research project.

This section describes the procedures, techniques, and tools that will be used to achieve the stated objectives. It should provide detailed information to the point that it is possible for the reader to discern whether the work is valid and reproducible. The variables to be worked with must be operationalized, provided they are not obvious. The ethical standards adhered to by the researchers are briefly described.

The results should be concise and clear. They should reflect the new knowledge contributed to the scientific community, provide a broad description of the findings or proposals, and everything that contributes to demonstrating the fulfillment of the study's objective(s). Tables and figures should be used so as not to duplicate or repeat the text; they should contribute to summarizing and making the presentation clearer and more concise.

This section should present the principles, relationships, and generalizations between the observed facts. It should discuss, not recapitulate, the results. Show how the results and interpretations agree or disagree with previously published work, all of which will be referenced through in-text citations. The discussion should present the significance of the results in terms of theoretical consequences and practical applications. The discussion should not contain new results nor be a mere repetition of results. It serves to point out exceptions, lack of correlation, or unresolved issues.

This is optionally included in longer papers or in articles with an unusually long discussion section. To present it clearly and simply, the individual statements may be numbered consecutively. This section may briefly recapitulate the content of the article.

If deemed necessary, the collaborating person(s) or center(s) that have provided any significant technical assistance received in terms of external funding, scholarships, or the provision of equipment or materials of various kinds should be cited.

These should be double-spaced at the end of the paper. They will be written in the style adopted by RCIM, which has been developed based on the Vancouver style in conjunction with national and international standards where necessary. They will be numbered in the order of appearance in the text and should be identified by Arabic numerals followed by a period and hyphen. Numbering should not be automatic, and the endnote insertion tool provided by word processors should not be used. Mention of personal communications and unpublished documents should be avoided; these should only be cited in the text and in parentheses if absolutely necessary. References to articles approved for publication, but still in editorial process, should be included, indicating the title of the journal and a clarification in parentheses ( ). All authors of the cited text should be listed up to six; if there are more authors, the first six should be mentioned, followed by the abbreviation "et al." Journal titles must be abbreviated according to the rules stipulated by Index Medicus (List of journals indexed in Index Medicus at ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/online/journals/ljiweb.pdf).

No capital letters or underlining should be used. The order of bibliographical elements and the use of punctuation marks prescribed by the Vancouver Standards must be observed.

Below is the link to: "Citations and Bibliography Preparation: Plagiarism and the Ethical Use of Information: Vancouver Style" from the Autonomous University of Madrid.

https://biblioguias.uam.es/citar/estilo_vancouver

The following link is to a Vancouver-style citation generator provided online by the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

https://www.grafiati.com/es/blogs/nlm-citation-generator/

Declaration of Authorship and Non-Conflicts of Interest

At the end of each article, each author's commitment to authorship must be expressed according to the Credit taxonomy, the specifications of which are available at: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1029-30432021000100001&lng=es.Epub01-Jan-2021

Likewise, authors must state that there are no conflicts of interest.