Editorial Policies

 

1. Originality and Exclusivity

• The Revista Médica del IMSS only accepts unpublished articles, written in Spanish or English.
• Once submitted, the manuscript must not be simultaneously sent to another journal, whether print or electronic.
• The order of authorship cannot be modified, nor can authors be added or removed after the initial submission, as declared in the Authorship Statement.

 

2. Editorial Process

• Each manuscript is registered, preliminarily evaluated by the editorial team and, if it meets the formal and thematic requirements, it is assigned for peer review. See our editorial manuals .
• The corresponding author will be the only official contact with the editorial team throughout the process.
• The request to withdraw the manuscript must be made formally, through a letter addressed to the editor.

 

3. Authors’ Responsibility

• The content, opinions, and citations contained in the articles are the sole responsibility of the authors.
• Conflicts of interest must be declared through the Conflict of Interest Statement.
• Any financial support or sponsorship must be disclosed in the Acknowledgments section.
• Authors are responsible for responding within the established timeframes to any requests or requirements made by the editorial team during the review and editing process.
• Authors are accountable for the final approvals granted to their article before its publication; once the issue has been indexed, no further modifications to the content will be made.

 

4. Copyright and License

• Once accepted, authors transfer the rights of the article to the journal, retaining their moral rights.
• The journal publishes under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
• Any total or partial reproduction of the content in other media requires prior authorization from the editor.

 

5. Manuscript Format and Submission

• All manuscripts must comply with the indicated formal specifications: Word format, Arial 12 font, double-spaced, established margins, etc. Download manuscript templates here .
• The following elements must be included:
  • Cover Page (with complete information of the authors and corresponding author).
  • Abstract in Spanish and English (structured or unstructured, depending on the type of article).
  • Keywords (3 to 5) taken from MeSH and DeCS.
  • Illustrations numbered and properly formatted.
  • References:

  References must be formatted according to the Vancouver style adapted to the guidelines of the medical journal, following the instructions provided in the Citation Manual available to authors. Verifiable, scholarly, and up-to-date sources will be prioritized, preferably those published within the last five (5) years, except in cases justified by their historical or theoretical relevance.

  Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of citations and the consistency between the text and the reference list, as well as verifying that all sources are accessible and reliable.

 

6. Mandatory Documentation (Annexes)

All manuscripts must be accompanied by the following documents in PDF format:

• Conflict of Interest Declaration (one per author).
• Authorship Recognition, signed by all authors.
• Copyright Transfer, handwritten and signed by all authors.
• For clinical cases: Patient’s informed consent.

 

7. Accepted Publication Types

Each article type has specific requirements for structure, length, abstract, keywords, and number of references:

Note: You must use the template corresponding to each article type, available on the journal’s website.

 

8. Editorial Ethics Policy

• Ethical standards of scientific publication are observed, including the protection of personal data and patient confidentiality.
• Authors must provide their ORCID code, which must match the one used in their previous scientific publications.
• Each author must register only one institutional affiliation, choosing the one most closely related to the development of the study.
• Equal authorship (“co–first authorship,” “shared authorship,” or Equal authorship) is not permitted.
• Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the data and the scientific integrity of the manuscript.

 

The Revista Médica del IMSS adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Good Publication Practices, ensuring transparency, integrity, and ethical responsibility throughout all stages of the editorial process.

• Protection of humans and animals: Any study involving human beings or animals must have written authorization from an institutional ethics committee and comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. This approval must be stated in the Methods section.
• Confidentiality and privacy: Authors must follow institutional protocols for accessing clinical data and obtain written informed consent from participants. Identifiable information must not be included in the text or images unless it is essential and explicit consent for publication has been obtained.
• Funding: Any source of financial or institutional support that contributed to the development of the research or its publication must be declared transparently.
• Authorship: The criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) apply. Only those who have made a substantial contribution to the design, analysis, or interpretation of data, participated in the drafting or critical revision of the manuscript, approved the final version, and assumed public responsibility for its content will be recognized as authors. Changes in the order or number of authors will not be accepted after the initial submission.
• Conflict of interest: Authors must declare any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence the study results or their interpretation. Conflict-of-interest statements will be published in both print and online versions.
• Originality and permissions: Manuscripts must be original and unpublished. Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions to reproduce previously published material and for submitting the corresponding authorizations to the journal.
• Plagiarism and duplication: Redundant or duplicate manuscripts are not accepted. If plagiarism is detected during the review process, the article will be rejected; if detected after publication, the journal will issue a correction or retraction following COPE and ICMJE guidelines.
• Corrections and retractions: The journal will issue errata or retractions promptly, ensuring the authenticity and currency of the published versions.
• Use of artificial intelligence: The use of artificial intelligence tools in scientific writing must be declared and comply with COPE recommendations. Such tools cannot be listed as authors.

 

9. Advertising and Direct Marketing

• The Revista Médica del IMSS does not accept advertising from private companies nor content for profit. Any dissemination is limited to official information from IMSS and public bodies.
• Direct marketing activities are restricted to institutional promotion of the journal, calls for papers, editorial news, and peer review invitations.

 

10. Privacy Statement

• The IMSS Health Research Coordination is responsible for handling personal data.
• Information will be used exclusively for editorial management, statistical purposes, and institutional communication.
• The full privacy notice is available at: https://www.imss.gob.mx/avisos-privacidad

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Peer Review Process

The Revista Médica del IMSS publishes unpublished articles in Spanish and English. Versions already published, in press, under review elsewhere, or recycled texts are not accepted. Upon receipt through the journal’s portal, the article is registered with an ID number and reviewed to verify compliance with author guidelines, inclusion of mandatory annexes (conflict of interest declaration, authorship recognition, and copyright transfer), and its contribution to knowledge in the health sciences. Only then are reviewers assigned. Download the reviewers’ manual here .

Once registered in the journal, it is not ethically valid to submit the manuscript to another publication (print or electronic). Modifying the order of authorship or adding/removing authors is also not permitted.

If the author wishes to withdraw the article, they must formally notify the editor in writing via: revista.medica@imss.gob.mx .

Articles undergo a double-blind peer review process to guarantee anonymity of both authors and reviewers. Reviewers complete an evaluation form previously validated by the editorial board, according to the manuscript type. The evaluation is confidential and may result in three possible decisions: acceptance, revision, or rejection. In case of conflicting decisions, the editor will request a third reviewer to issue a final and unappealable resolution. The editor is responsible for communicating the decision and, where appropriate, the recommendations to the corresponding author.

If the article is accepted with revisions, the author has 20 business days to submit a new version adjusted to the recommendations. Otherwise, the Revista Médica del IMSS reserves the right to publish or reject the article.

The average time from receipt to publication is between 8 and 10 months.

If the article is accepted for publication, the author retains the intellectual rights over its content. However, the publication is considered the property of the journal through the rights transfer signed by all authors. Therefore, any total or partial reproduction in another medium requires prior authorization from the editor.

In case of maintenance of the journal’s electronic platform, the evaluation and editing processes will continue via the official email: revista.medica@imss.gob.mx .

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Open Access Policy

The Revista Médica del IMSS fully adheres to the principles of open science and the global movement for non-commercial open access, recognizing that scientific knowledge funded with public resources should be freely, immediately, and without restrictions available to society.

In line with the Berlin Declaration (2003), the Bethesda Statement (2003), and the Manifesto on Science as a Global Public Good (2023), our journal adopts the Diamond Open Access model, which guarantees publication with no author fees and free access for readers, thus promoting non-exclusion and non-rivalry in the circulation of knowledge.

 

Core Commitments

1. Universal right to knowledge.
   The journal considers science a global public good. Consequently, all publications are available in immediate open access, without economic or technical barriers for consultation, download, distribution, or reuse for non-commercial purposes.
2. Responsible licensing.
   Authors retain their copyrights and grant the journal the right of first publication under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. This license allows sharing for academic and non-commercial purposes, provided authorship is acknowledged and no modifications are made. The CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, in line with the Mexico Declaration, is also recommended as an alternative.
3. Recognition of non-commercial publishing venues.
   We concur with UNESCO (2021) and the Latin American open access movement that non-commercial scientific publishing venues should be recognized, evaluated, and incentivized by funders, accreditation systems, and research institutions.
4. Inclusion, equity, and multilingualism.
   Our editorial policy promotes bibliodiversity, multilingualism, regional and gender equity, and respect for traditional knowledge, in line with UNESCO’s Open Science Recommendation.
5. Digital preservation and sustainability.
   All content is stored in interoperable open access repositories that ensure long-term preservation of scientific knowledge, aligned with principles of sustainability, cooperation, and knowledge sovereignty.

 

Regional and Ethical Approach

The journal adheres to the principles adopted in the Mexico Declaration (2017), reinforcing the Latin American commitment to non-profit open access, and promoting an ethical vision that prevents the commercial appropriation of scientific content funded with public resources. We reject publication charge-based models (APC/BPC) or profit-oriented transformative agreements.

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Anti-Plagiarism Policy

 

Definition of plagiarism

Plagiarism is understood as the total or partial use of ideas, data, words, graphics, or structures from other sources without explicit acknowledgment of the original author.

 

Detection tools

All manuscripts are screened using anti-plagiarism tools. However, these technologies—including those based on artificial intelligence—have limitations, especially against AI-rephrased texts.

 

Authors’ responsibility

Authors must ensure that their work is original and that all external sources are properly cited. The use of third-party textual fragments requires quotation marks or paraphrasing with the corresponding reference.

 

Manipulation using AI

Using artificial intelligence to modify plagiarized texts and evade detection systems also constitutes plagiarism and will be treated as a serious ethical breach.

 

Editorial actions

If plagiarism is detected during review, the manuscript will be immediately rejected. If identified after publication, the article will be retracted and the author’s institution will be notified.

• 0% to 15% total similarity: acceptable. The manuscript proceeds without observations, except for common phrases or methodological structures.
• 16% to 24% total similarity: editorial review required. If overlaps concentrate in the introduction, discussion, or conclusions, clarifications or rewrites will be requested. The manuscript may be returned for corrections.
• 30% or more total similarity: unacceptable. The manuscript will be rejected for possible plagiarism, excessive self-plagiarism, or lack of originality. The decision will be final, unless documented evidence is provided by the authors.

 

Exclusions from the analysis

The following sections may generate similarities that will not be considered plagiarism if properly referenced or part of scientific writing conventions:

• Statement of objectives, standardized methodology, or description of validated instruments.
• Short textual quotations with appropriate references.
• Fragments of previously published articles by the same authors (self-plagiarism) with due attribution and not exceeding 10% of the manuscript.

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