Publishing regulations

Firstly, and in general, authors commit to the following:

  • The articles submitted are original and unpublished and have not been simultaneously published in other journal(s).
  • At least one of the authors shall be member of the Official Nurses Association and should be up to date with the membership fees. It isn´´ t necesary for the author to be registered in Malaga. He/She can be member of the other Official Nurses Association.
  • Articles shall be submitted in OpenOffice/Word format.
  • Bibliographical references shall provide URL addresses whenever possible.

Manuscripts should include the following sections (each one starting on a new page):

A. Cover letter: It should include the title of the article, authors, academic/professional credits, together with a statement where authors declare that:

  1. It is an original work and has not been published before or simultaneously submitted to another publication.
  2. All authors have intellectually contributed in its elaboration and therefore are their actual authors.
  3. All authors have read and approved the final version of the submitted manuscript.
  4. There have been no conflicts of interest during the creation and elaboration of the manuscript. In case there were any conflicts in terms of financing or other means of support, the authors agree to declare them in the corresponding section.
  5. The manuscript describes the results of the study in an honest and accurate way, and does not overlook any important aspect of it. It also explains any possible discrepancies.

B. Title page. The title page should include:

    1. The title of the article: concise (up to 15 words) but informative. It shall not include any references.
    2. The name of all authors, their highest academic grades and organizational affiliations.
    3. The name of the department(s) or organization(s) that should be accredited for the work.
    4. If applicable, a disclaimer statement.
    5. Name, postal address and email of the author in charge of the correspondence.
    6. Source of supports received, such as subsidies, equipment and medications.
    7. Abbreviated title (up to 40 characters including letters and blank spaces) at the bottom of the first page.

C. Abstract (both in English and Spanish): Up to 250 words. It shall include: aims of the study, methodology, main results and conclusions. In the event that this convention is not applicable for the study, the authors shall outline its content as clearly and precisely as possible. Following the abstract, the authors must provide 4 to 6 keywords (in Spanish and English) as per established by the Health Sciences Descriptors system (https://decs.bvsalud.org/en/).

D. Manuscript: Original articles should not exceed more than 5000 words. As for those specified in the authors’ guidelines as ‘brief’ or ‘special’ articles (clinical cases, letters to the editor, editorials, innovative experiences, critical reviews, news, etc.), the limit is 2500 words, excluding Resumen and Abstract sections, as well as images, charts and bibliography. The margin width should be no less than 25 mm (1 inch). Times New Roman font size 12, double spacing and justified alignment should be used throughout the article, including the title pages, abstract, text and bibliographic references. Pages shall be numbered consecutively starting with the title page. The page number should be at the top or bottom right corner of each page. The text of the articles (with the exception of clinical cases, editorials, special articles, critical reviews and letters to the editor) shall be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusions. In the case of original studies including researches on human beings (following the Good Clinical Practices Guidelines), or those containing data subject to the current legislation regarding Data Protection policies, the article shall include the authorization issued by the referred Research Ethics Committee together with an express statement on how the informed consents were requested to patients and how the patients’ autonomy and personal data were protected. Since manuscripts will be ‘blind reviewed’, the names of authors and institutions should not be included. Instead, they shall be replaced by an ‘X’.

E. Charts and images: They need to be consecutively numbered following the order of their first appearance in the text, and they should include a brief title describing their contents. Any necessary explanation can be added as a footnote (placed at the bottom of the chart/ image, not on top of it). These notes will specify any unusual abbreviations used. Charts will have neither horizontal nor vertical lines inside and will be edited in black (without colour).

F. Bibliography: It should follow Vancouver citation style.

SPECIFIC REGULATIONS FOR CLINICAL CASES: it must contain a summary and a structured abstract, between 150 and 250 words in length. The maximum length of the papers will be 2,500 words. It must include the following sections: Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion, Conclusions. The maximum number of bibliographic references is recommended to be 15. For all other aspects, please refer to the general publication regulations.

SPECIFIC REGULATIONS FOR RESEARCH PROTOCOLS: this section contains research protocols/projects that have been awarded prizes and/or received funding for their implementation. It must contain a summary and a structured abstract, between 150 and 250 words in length. The maximum length of the papers will be 5,000 words. It must include the following sections: Introduction, Objective, Methodology, Ethical Considerations, Discussion. The maximum number of bibliographic references is recommended to be 40. For all other aspects, please refer to the general publication regulations.

RULES FOR THE "LETTERS TO THE EDITOR": this section hosts brief manuscripts that comment a published article or dealing with a current topic or scientific observations. The text will have a minimum length of 500 words and a maximum length of 1000 words. As well as a maximum of 5 bibliographic references.

INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLY THE VANCOUVER CITATION STYLE

Order of appearance

References must appear in numerical order of their first citation in the text (1, 2, 3, etc.) in superscript format. For example: Vancouver style.1

When an author is mentioned within the text, the reference number should appear after the author’s surname: Martínez Heredia.1 If more than two authors are mentioned, only the first author’s surname is given, followed by the abbreviation et al. and the reference number: Cunningham et al.1

Authors’ names

Authors’ names should be presented as follows:

Surname(s) followed by the initials of the first name(s). No comma is used between the surname and initials.

Example: Enríquez de Luna-Rodríguez M

Note: List all authors up to six. For references with seven or more authors, list the first six followed by “et al.”

Journal titles

Journal titles must be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations (LTWA) of the ISSN International Centre: https://www.issn.org/es/servicios-y-prestaciones/servicios-en-linea/consultar-la-ltwa/

Online publications

Whenever an article has a DOI, it should preferably be included in URL format: https://doi.org./...

If no DOI is available, the article URL should be included as follows: Available from: https://.../ [Accesed YYYY Month DD]

Online journal articles with DOI:

Author(s). Title of the article. Abbreviated journal title. Year;volume(issue):pages. DOI

Example:

Enríquez de Luna-Rodríguez M, Jiménez Cortés Y, Rodríguez Montalvo JA, Rivas-Ruiz F, Canca Sánchez JC. Compliance of the qSOFA scale in emergency triage. Enferm. Cuid. 2022;5(2):2-7. https://doi.org/10.51326/ec.5.2.4948431

Online journal articles without DOI:

Author(s). Title of the article. Abbreviated journal title. Year;volume(issue):pages. Available from: URL [Accessed DD-MM-YYYY]

Example:

Onwuegbuzie AJ, Dickinson WB, Leech NL, Zoran AG. Un marco cualitativo para la recolección y análisis de datos en la investigación basada en grupos focales. Paradigmas. 2011;3(2):127-57. Available from: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/3798215.pdf [Accessed 09-04-2021]

Online Institutional Publications / Reports:

Name of institution (not abbreviated). Title of publication. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Available from: URL [Accessed DD-MM-YYYY]

Example:

Comité de Lactancia Materna de la Asociación Española de Pediatría. Lactancia materna: Guía para profesionales. Madrid: Asociación Española de Pediatría; 2004. Available from: https://www.ministeriodesalud.go.cr/gestores_en_salud/lactancia/CNLM_guia_de_lactancia_materna_AEP.pdf [Accessed 15-04-2021]

Legislation

Title of the Law, Order, or Decree. Name of publication, issue number (DD-MM-YYYY). Available from: URL

Example:

Ley de cohesión y calidad del Sistema Nacional de Salud. Boletín Oficial del Estado, nº 128 (29-05-2003). Available from: https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2003-10715

Electronic books

Author(s). Title. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Available from: URL [Accessed DD-MM-YYYY]

Example:

Díaz Sesé E, García Rodríguez E, López Langa N, Rodríguez Fidalgo ML, Blanco Aparicio M, Moreno Galarraga L, et al. Guía de actuación en Enfermería en casos de crisis asmática en centros educativos. Madrid: AMECE; 2021. Available from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dYmrw-wKTovj_ZZtO-ce-riypUiuHEUE/view [Accessed 20-01-2022]

Theses

Author. Title of the thesis [Thesis]. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Available from: URL. 

Timonet-Andreu E. Efectos de la complejización del proceso en pacientes con insuficiencia cardiaca y sus cuidadores. Estudio de cohortes [Thesis]. Málaga: Universidad de Málaga; 2014. Available from: https://riuma.uma.es/xmlui/handle/10630/8497

Website with author

Author/Name of institution. Title of website. Place of publication: Publisher; Publication date/year (if unavailable, indicate [Date unknown]). Available from: URL [Accessed DD-MM-YYYY]

Example:

European Medicines Agency. European Medicines Agency. Brussels: European Medicines Agency; [Date unknown]. Available from: https://european-union.europa.eu/index_en [Accessed 10-07-2022]

Webpage/Blog post

Author/Name of Organization. Title of page. Title of website. Date of publication. Available from: URL of the web page. [Accessed DD-MM-YYYY]

Example:

Organización Mundial de la Salud. Cuidados paliativos. Organización Mundial de la Salud; 20 August 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/palliative-care [Accessed 11 February 2026]

Online Newspaper Article

Author(s). Title of the news article. Name of newspaper/media outlet. Date of publication. Available from: URL of the news article [Accessed DD-MM-YYYY]

Example:

Blanco PR. La tuberculosis vuelve a ser la enfermedad infecciosa que más muertes causa. El País. 30 October 2024. Available from: https://elpais.com/planeta-futuro/2024-10-30/la-tuberculosis-vuelve-a-ser-la-enfermedad-infecciosa-que-mas-muertes-causa.html#?rel=mas [Accessed 11-02-2026]

Figures, Tables, and Images (not created by the author)

Identification: The type of element (for example: Figure) should appear in bold together with its corresponding sequential number. For example: Figure 1. Example description of a figure.7

Description: Provide a brief description of the image, figure, etc. (maximum 15 words).

Citation Order: The corresponding reference number must be indicated in superscript, following the same numerical sequence used for all other citations in the text, in order to identify the source of the element in the reference list.

How to reference: References should follow the guidelines corresponding to the original source from which the figure, table, or image was taken (journal article, book, website, etc.). The individual image, table, or figure itself should not be referenced separately.