Instructions for authors

Types of manuscripts accepted

Investigación e Innovación Clínica y Quirúrgica Pediátrica accepts manuscripts in Spanish and English and considers the following types of manuscripts for publication:

• Original articles

• Special articles

• Review articles

• Case reports

• Letters to the editor

Each manuscript type must comply with the specific requirements regarding structure, length, and content described in these Instructions for Authors.

Submission conditions and originality

Only original and unpublished manuscripts are accepted. Submissions must not have been previously published, nor be under consideration for publication in another journal or dissemination medium.

Multiple, redundant, or duplicate publication, whether in the same or another language, is not permitted. Submission of a manuscript implies that the authors declare the originality of the work and confirm compliance with these editorial conditions.

General ethical requirements

All manuscripts must comply with the ethical principles of research and scientific publication established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the Council of Science Editors (CSE).

The journal reserves the right to reject any manuscript that does not comply with these ethical standards.
For detailed information on editorial and research ethics policies, authors should refer to the Editorial Policy section.

Manuscript submission

As part of the submission process, authors are required to verify that their submission complies with all the elements listed below. Submissions that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned to the authors.

All submissions must be made online through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform, following the corresponding steps and attaching the required information. To do so, authors must register in advance with a username and password. If you already have an account, you may log in to begin the submission process. 

Manuscripts submitted through the OJS system will be evaluated using the Turnitin plagiarism detection tool. In addition, if a manuscript is accepted for publication, a second Turnitin evaluation will be performed prior to the generation of the proof.

Similarity check

Manuscripts submitted through the OJS platform are screened using a similarity detection software (Turnitin) prior to peer review.

In addition, once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, a second similarity check is conducted before the production of the final proof.

Peer review process

All manuscripts are evaluated by at least two independent external reviewers under a double-blind peer review model.

Editorial decisions are based on reviewers’ recommendations and the assessment of the editorial team.

Key policies

• Publication fees (APCs): The journal does not charge any fees for manuscript submission, processing, or publication (Article Processing Charges, APCs).

• Peer review: Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent external reviewers under a double-blind peer review model.

• Copyright, licensing, and open access: Information on copyright, licensing, and open access policies is available in the Editorial Policies section.

General considerations

• Submission of the article must be accompanied by the Sworn Statement for Article Publication, the Conflict of Interest Disclosure, and the Sworn Statement for the Publication of Articles Including Videos (when applicable), signed by the corresponding author.
• The main manuscript file must be submitted in Microsoft Word® format, with 2.5 cm margins, 1.5 line spacing, Times New Roman or Arial font, and 12-point font size.
• Tables and/or figures may be presented in an organized manner at the end of the document (after the references). Tables must be editable, and figures must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
• Scientific names (genus and species) must be italicized.
• Units of measurement must follow the International System of Units (SI).
• Abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms must be spelled out in full at first mention, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses (e.g., World Health Organization (WHO)).
• All pages must be numbered in the lower right corner.
• Line numbers must be included throughout the document; continuous numbering is recommended.
• Footnotes are not permitted in the main document.
• References must follow the Vancouver format.
• DOIs must be included for electronic publications (e.g., doi:10.1001/jama.2014.10186).
• Abbreviations or notes must be placed as footnotes to tables or figures, using lowercase superscript letters..
• Statistical estimates and measures of association must be reported with two decimal places (e.g., OR = 1.56; 95% CI = 1.45–1.98).
• p values must be reported with three decimal places (e.g., p = 0.019; p < 0.001).
• Percentages must be reported with one decimal place (e.g., 12.4%).
• A zero must precede decimal values.
• If the manuscript is written in Spanish, a decimal comma must be used, and spaces must be used to separate digits for values greater than one thousand (e.g., 12 345).
• If the manuscript is written in English, a decimal point must be used, and commas must be used to separate digits for values greater than one thousand (e.g., 12,345).

Criterios de autoría

• Each author must have made a substantial contribution to the article in accordance with the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/) and with reference to the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) (https://credit.niso.org/).
• Authors are responsible for the content of the manuscript at the time of submission through OJS.
• The corresponding author is responsible for verifying compliance with the above criteria.
• Contributions that do not meet authorship criteria may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.

Submission characteristics

• The journal accepts submissions in Spanish and English, considering the following article types:

  • Editorial

  • Original Article

  • Brief Original / Short Communication

  • Review Article

  • Special Article

  • Case Report

  • Letter to the Editor

• Maximum word count, tables, figures, and references depend on the manuscript type, as detailed in Table 1.

 

Table 1. Maximum length by article type

• Word counts do not include the title, abstract, keywords, tables, figures, or references.
• Abstracts must be structured and include objectives, methods, results, and conclusions.

Title page (submitted separately)

Must include the following information, in order:

• Article title in Spanish and English.
• Short title in Spanish and English, not exceeding 80 characters (excluding spaces).
• Author names, separated by commas, with Arabic numerals.
• Institutional affiliation: The institutional affiliation must include the department/section/unit/faculty, the institution, the city, the postal code, and the country (e.g., Sub Unidad de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica, Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño San Borja, Lima 15037, Peru).
• ORCID iD for each author (e.g., https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4664-2856).
• Corresponding author’s full name, primary and alternate email addresses, phone number, and mailing address.
• Author contributions: Each author must specify their individual contributions in accordance with the CRediT taxonomy and as detailed in the Sworn Statement for Article Publication.
• Conflict of interest: Authors must declare any activity, relationship, condition, or circumstance that could affect the objectivity of the manuscript.
  If there is nothing to declare, authors may use one of the following statements: 

  “The authors declare no relevant financial or non-financial conflicts of interest.”

  “The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this article.

• Funding: Authors must declare whether the research was self-funded or funded (in whole or in part) by any institution, agency, or organization. If funding was received, authors must indicate the name of the funding body and, when applicable, the grant or contract number. Funding is defined as any financial or material support specifically allocated for the execution of the study, including grants, competitive funds, contracts, scholarships, institutional budget allocation, or funding for analysis, sample processing, or publication. The use of routine institutional resources derived from the author’s employment relationship (computer equipment, facilities, access to medical records, regular working hours, or other standard institutional resources) is not considered funding and does not require specific declaration. If no external funding was received, authors must include the following statement: “This study did not receive external funding”.
• Data availability: Authors must state whether the data supporting the results of their research, including datasets, analysis files (e.g., spreadsheets with processed data, intermediate results, summary tables, or files generated by statistical or bioinformatics software) and, when applicable, codes or scripts used in the analyses, are available in public repositories (indicating the DOI or URL), or whether they can be obtained upon request from the corresponding author.
• Ethical aspects: In the case of case reports, authors must indicate whether informed consent from parents or legal guardians was obtained or, alternatively, whether the report was approved by a duly accredited Ethics Committee.
  For original articles, ethical aspects must be described in the Methods section.
  The editorial team reserves the right to request submission of the informed consent form or ethical approval documentation when deemed necessary for the evaluation of case reports.
• Use of artificial intelligence: If artificial intelligence tools (e.g., language models such as ChatGPT or others) were used in the writing, editing, data analysis, image generation, or any other stage of manuscript preparation, this must be explicitly declared. The declaration must include the name of the tool, its version, and the specific purpose of its use. The use of AI does not constitute authorship and therefore must not be included in the list of authors.
• Acknowledgements: The acknowledgements section may be used to recognize individuals who made important contributions to the work but do not meet authorship criteria, as well as to declare relevant funding information. Authors are encouraged to carefully consider researcher contributions and authorship criteria when participating in multiregional collaborations involving local researchers, in order to promote greater equity in research collaborations.

Manuscript body

The manuscript body must include the following information, in the order listed below:

• Article title: The article title must be provided in Spanish and English.
• Abstract: The abstract must be submitted in Spanish and English. The abstract must be structured.
• Keywords: After the abstract, authors must specify three to six keywords, separated by commas, in Spanish and English. Keywords must be based on Descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS) for Spanish (https://decs.bvsalud.org/es/) and/or Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for English (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/). If no appropriate controlled terms are available, commonly used terms or expressions may be used at the authors’ discretion. Exceptionally, if the original language of the manuscript is English, authors may submit only the keywords (MeSH), and the assigned editor will identify the Spanish keywords (DeCS). This version must be validated by the authors at the proof stage, if the article is accepted for publication.
• Article content: Authors must follow the “Specific instructions by article type”, available in the corresponding section. Maximum word count, number of tables, figures, and references are indicated in Table 1.
• References: Only references cited in the text should be included and must be numbered consecutively according to the order of appearance. The journal follows the Vancouver style, in accordance with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For proper citation of different types of documents (journal articles, books, book chapters, technical reports, online resources, among others), authors should follow the guidelines provided in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd edition). References to journal articles must include the DOI, when available. The use of reference management software such as Zotero or Mendeley is strongly recommended.
• Tables and figures: tables and figures must be placed after the references in the same manuscript file. The maximum number of tables and/or figures is specified in Table 1.

Tables

Tables must comply with the following format:

• The table number and title must be placed above the table, using the following format:
  

  Incorrect: TABLE 1. Characteristics of patients included in the study.

  Correct: Table 1. Characteristics of patients included in the study.

• Tables must be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals.
• Abbreviations must appear as footnotes below the table.
• Abbreviations must be written in paragraph form, and footnotes must be presented as a vertical list.
• Any bold text within a table must be defined in a footnote.
• Tables should be limited to 1–2 pages in a Word file, preferably in portrait orientation.

Figures

Figures must comply with the following format:

• Figures include diagrams, maps, photographs, drawings, or graphs included in the article.
• Figures must be numbered using Arabic numerals (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) and cited in the manuscript as (Fig. 1), (Fig. 3A and 3B), etc.
• Figure legends must include the meaning of abbreviations and notes used, as well as a general caption when appropriate.
• Figures must be uploaded as TIF, EPS, or PNG files.
• Figures must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and be legible at 100% zoom.
• A readable font size must be used.
• Photographs showing patients’ faces must be edited to prevent identification. If the full face is shown, authors must submit assent and/or informed consent signed by the patient and/or parents or legal guardians.
• If a previously published figure that is not in the public domain is included, the source must be indicated and written permission from the copyright holder must be provided.
• Figures combining images and graphs in multiple panels must be uploaded as a single file.
• Panels must be labeled A, B, C, etc. (not A., A-, or A)), and labels must be placed in the upper left corner.
• Arrows must be included in radiographs or histological figures to indicate areas of interest described in the figure legends.
• For figures with graphs, all axes must be clearly labeled and units of measurement specified.
• Axis labels must be centered, and axis numbers must be oriented to be read from left to right.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material includes tables, figures, methods, databases, or files that complement the study results and contribute to a better understanding but are not essential to the main article.

• Supplementary material hosted in external repositories (e.g., GitHub, Dryad) is permitted.
• The Editorial Committee will evaluate supplementary material to determine its functionality and scientific accuracy.
• If approved, supplementary material will be published as submitted, without copyediting or typographical correction. Responsibility for errors lies entirely with the authors.
• Supplementary material must be uploaded as a single file.
• Tables and figures in supplementary material must be cited as Supplementary Table S1, S2, etc., and Supplementary Figure S1, S2, etc.
• Table numbers and titles must be placed above the table:

Incorrect: SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1. Differentially expressed genes between patients with leukemia and healthy controls.

Correct: Supplementary Table 1. Differentially expressed genes between patients with leukemia and healthy controls.

• There is no length limit for supplementary tables.

Procedure videos (supplementary material)

Videos showing clinical or surgical procedures must be submitted as supplementary material and comply with the following requirements:

• Maximum title length: 15 words.
• Maximum duration: 3 minutes.
• Minimum resolution: Full HD (1920 × 1080 pixels).
• Format: MP4, preferably encoded in H.264, aspect ratio 16:9.
• Audio must be clear, with slow and intelligible speech; Spanish subtitles are recommended.
• Unnecessary editing or distracting transitions should be avoided; close-up shots should be used for key steps.
• Explanatory graphics or animations are permitted.
• The video must be submitted together with a script of up to 250 words including a brief introduction, a description of the procedure, and its clinical relevance.
• If identifiable patients appear in the video, prior informed consent must be obtained from the patient or legal guardian for the use and publication of the images.

Specific instructions by article type

Authors are strongly encouraged to consult international reporting guidelines and checklists appropriate to each study type, available through the EQUATOR Network: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/.

Original articles

Original articles must be written in accordance with the international reporting guidelines appropriate to the study design, available through the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research). These include, but are not limited to:

• STROBE: for observational studies

• CONSORT: for randomized controlled trials

• SRQR: for qualitative studies

• TREND: for quasi-experimental studies

Structure of original articles

Original articles must be structured as follows:

1. Title in Spanish and English
2. Abstract with keywords
3. Resumen with palabras clave
4. Introduction
5. Methods
6. Results
7. Discussion (including limitations, strengths, conclusions, and recommendations)
8. References

• The abstract must be structured and include objectives, methods, results, and conclusions.
• The introduction should briefly describe the current state of the problem, background, justification, and study objective(s), which must be stated at the end.
• The methods section must describe the study in sufficient detail to allow replication and must include subsections such as:

1. Study design
2. Population and sample
3. Variables
4. Procedures
5. Statistical analysis
6. Ethical aspects

• The results must be presented clearly and concisely, avoiding redundancy with tables and figures, and without subjective interpretation.
• The discussion must describe the main findings, compare them with previous studies, highlight their relevance, and include strengths, limitations, conclusions, and recommendations. 

Special articles

• Special articles include academic or technical contributions that, due to their nature, do not always conform to the conventional structure of an original research article. This category may include, but is not limited to, guidelines or technical documents, descriptions and evaluations of institutional programs, clinical, surgical, or technological innovations, methodological developments, as well as reports of implementation experiences or process improvement initiatives in pediatric health care.
• The structure of the manuscript will depend on the type of contribution submitted and should be defined in a manner consistent with its objectives and content. When a special article includes original research data, it must comply with the relevant ethical and methodological standards and, where applicable, follow the guidelines established for original research articles.

Case reports and case series

• Case reports must follow the CARE guidelines (https://www.care-statement.org/).
• Authors must obtain informed consent from the patient or the legally responsible person prior to drafting the case report. Specific cases must be evaluated by an Institutional Research Ethics Committee (IREC).
• At the time of manuscript submission, authors must declare that they have obtained the patient’s informed consent or provide documentation of ethical review by a duly accredited IREC.
• Individuals included in the case report may be identified using sequential numbers (e.g., Case 1, Case 2, etc.).
• Under no circumstances should case reports include direct identifiers, such as names, telephone numbers, email addresses, personal identification numbers, physical addresses, or exact dates of events.
• Authors must exercise particular caution when using combinations of indirect identifiers, such as sex, age, region of origin, occupation, income level, ethnicity, religion, among others, due to the risk of patient re-identification. It is recommended that no more than three indirect identifiers be included for any single case.
• The presentation of figures must comply with the instructions provided in the corresponding section. When appropriate, the use of arrows or markers is recommended to facilitate reader comprehension, with the corresponding explanation included in the figure legend.
• If the report includes images showing the patient’s face, authors must obtain explicit informed consent from the patient or their legal representative specifically authorizing the publication of such images. This consent must clearly state the purpose of the publication and the scope of image use, and it must be reviewed and approved by a CIEI. In addition, authors are encouraged to apply facial masking techniques that cover as much of the face as possible, including at least the eyes and eyebrows, in accordance with published recommendations (Standardization of Guidelines for Patient Photograph Deidentification. Annals of Plastic Surgery, 76(6), 611–614.). https://doi.org/10.1097/SAP.0000000000000817). Suggested techniques include:

1. Adjacent skin cloning (preferred facial masking method
2. Blurring 
3. Opaque boxes 
4. Coarse pixelation   

• Whenever possible, authors should confirm the patient’s approval of the final edited photograph prior to publication.
• If the report includes images from diagnostic procedures (e.g., radiographs, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, laparoscopic images, ultrasound images, pathology slides, or photographs of non-distinctive body parts), authors must ensure that all direct and indirect identifiers have been removed prior to submission. If original image files are required for article layout, authors must also ensure that file names do not contain any information that could identify the patient.

Structure of case reports

Case reports must be structured as follows:

1. Title in Spanish and English
2. Abstract with keywords
3. Resumen with palabras clave
4. Introduction
5. Case description(s)
6. Discussion (must include limitations, strengths, and conclusions)
7. References

• The abstract and introduction must clearly state the novelty of the reported case.
• The case description must be written clearly, with relevant events described in chronological order, without indicating specific dates.
• The discussion must address the strengths and limitations of the case approach and compare and contrast the findings with the existing literature. In addition, the lessons learned from the case must be summarized in a one-paragraph conclusion.

Review article

• For systematic reviews, authors are strongly encouraged to consult the PRISMA 2020 statement from the earliest stages of the writing process (https://www.prisma-statement.org/prisma-2020-checklist) and to consider using the PRISMA templates for manuscript development. For scoping reviews, authors are encouraged to follow the PRISMA-ScR statement (https://www.prisma-statement.org/scoping).
• For both systematic and scoping reviews, the structure may vary and may include sections such as protocol registration, information sources, search strategy, study selection, data extraction, risk of bias, certainty of evidence, among others.

Structure of review articles

Review articles must be structured as follows:

1. Title in Spanish and English
2. Abstract with keywords
3. Resumen with palabras clave
4. Introduction
5. Results
6. Discussion
7. Conclusions
8. References

• The title must clearly indicate that the manuscript is a review article.
• The introduction should briefly present the current state of the problem, relevant background, justification, and the objective(s) of the review. The objective(s) must be stated at the end of the introduction.
• The methods section must include the eligibility criteria for the studies analyzed, information sources, search strategy, study selection process, data collection process, outcomes assessed, effect measures, methods used to assess risk of bias, and methods used to assess the certainty (or confidence) of the body of evidence for each outcome.
• The results section must include the results of the study selection process, characteristics of the included studies, results of the risk of bias assessment, results of individual studies, results of the synthesis, potential biases, and the certainty of the evidence for each outcome.
• The discussion section must address the limitations of the included information and of the review process, as well as the implications of the findings for practice, policy, and future research.

Letters to the editor

• The journal accepts two types of letters to the editor.

1. Scientific letters: These present preliminary results or important findings from a small study that does not justify publication as a full article (Original Article or Brief Original / Short Communication).
2. Informative or commentary letters: These discuss and/or complement the findings of Original Articles or Brief Original / Short Communications published in either of the journal’s two most recent issues.

• In some cases, when an author is referred to in a letter, the journal’s editorial policy allows the author to submit a reply, also in the form of a Letter to the Editor.

Structure of letters to the editor

Letters to the editor must be structured as follows:

• Las cartas al editor deben ser redactadas en el siguiente orden:

1. Title in Spanish and English
2. Letter text
3. References

•  

• •