ISSN 1575-0620 -Print Version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and Policy
• Article structure

The Journal of Spanish Prison Health is the official organ of the Spanish Prison Health Care Professionals Society. The journal was founded in 1998 and is published quarterly. The journal accepts articles dealing with the basic, clinical or health care aspects of the health of the prison population. The journal is aimed at health professionals who work with prisoners and has the objective of improving the quality, organisation and social structure of the prison health system. The journal has five main sections: 1. The Editorial. 2. Original research articles. 3. Book reviews. 4. Specialist articles covering studies on philosophical aspects and methodological descriptions. 5. Letters to the Editor.

The editorial board considers that at present, the Journal of Spanish Prison Health may be indexed and classified as belonging to the sector of Public Health - epidemiology, prevention and detection of diseases and the general influence of Prison Health Care in the community are fundamental issues for this publication. Nevertheless, the journal also deals with issues related to transmissible diseases, mental health, primary care, legal medicine and health care management.

The Editorial Process

The Journal of Spanish Prison Health acknowledges receipt of articles submitted for publication: they are reviewed by the Editorial Committee and usually sent for external evaluation.

All manuscripts will be considered by the journal's Editorial Committee. The articles will be reviewed to ensure they meet the publication norms of the journal; if they do not, they will be returned to the author to be amended or corrected within a period of 20 days. Once the article has been approved, it will be sent for external evaluation and a decision will be made on its publication. Articles approved for publication pending amendment by the author must be returned within 30 days if small-scale amendments are required; if substantial changes are necessary the article must be returned within 60 days. If changes in form or content are required for publication, the author will be informed of the suggestions. If it is considered necessary, the author may be asked to confirm data authenticity; pertinent statistical documentation, identification of clinical cases etc. should therefore be kept until the publication of the article. The Editor reserves the right to contact the Research Committee of the institution where the article was prepared in order to obtain information or clarify certain aspects of the piece. The Journal of Spanish Prison Health reserves the right to make changes or modifications to improve comprehension of the article without making any changes to its content. Articles are published in sections of the journal according to specific criteria.

Peer Review

The adjudication system used by The Journal of Spanish Prison Health is external, confidential and anonymous (double-blind). All submitted articles are externally reviewed except Letters to the Editor and Editorials. The reviewers are selected from the Experts Committee and are those that the Editorial Committee considers the most appropriate according to their professional profile. Two reviewers are assigned to each article and if they have markedly opposing views, a third opinion is taken into consideration. The Editorial Committee includes experts on methodology and specialists on style, employed by the publishers.

The guide and instructions used by the reviewers will be made public in the first issue of each volume; this will also be the case with the evaluation form that must be completed by the reviewers and their instructions with reference to competence (specific aspects of the articles that must be evaluated or ignored) and responsibilities (situations in which the reviewer must reject the article or refuse to read it; what must be done with the article after reading it and how the report must be prepared or what must be done if the reviewer refuses to prepare a report; notice on confidential information; ethical and legal considerations; remuneration offered by the journal for the time, work and expenses of the reviewers etc.).

After receipt of the evaluator's report the manuscript will be kept in the editorial offices until its publication. Authors will be notified of the evaluation, the provisional decision on the article and the author's right to reply, to be submitted in the same way as the article. The author will be notified of the final decision, taking into account the acceptance/rejection and instructions for the presentation of the definitive version.

There is no right of appeal against rejection or the return of rejected articles.

The following factors influence the decision to accept or reject an article for publication in the journal:

- Originality (completely original, valid conformation, repetition and known results).
- Current relevance and singularity.
- Relevance of utility (application of results for resolution of specific problems) and significance (an increase in scientific knowledge).
- Viability and scientific validity: the quality of contrastive methodology.
- Presentation: well written (clarity, brevity, precision), well organised (logic, coherence) and good presentation of the material.

At the same time, the journal considers a certain order in the publication of articles; there are criteria of editorial priority that may be linked to the interests of the readers, the number of articles received or awaiting publication and the number of articles dealing with the same subject or issue.


Ethical principles in research and publishing

The journal will make every effort to detect and report any of the following dishonest practices:

- Fabrication, falsification, omission of data and plagiarism: Fabrication of results is produced when non-existent or fictitious data is presented by an author; falsification is produced when data is manipulated, modified or changed by the author; omission is when the author deliberately hides or conceals information or data; plagiarism occurs when the author presents as his/her own work, information, ideas, data or results obtained by others. Plagiarism may take two forms: the direct copying of a text without using inverted commas and citing the source; modification of some words in a text, paraphrasing or insufficient acknowledgement.
- Duplication of publication: redundant publication is only admitted under ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) criteria(http://www.icmje.org/).
- Authorship: similarly, we accept the conditions of authorship set out by the ICMJE.
- Conflicts of interest: The ICMJE states that conflicts of interest in the publication of a manuscript occur "when any participant in the process of publication - author, arbiter or member of the editorial board of the journal - has links with activities that may harmfully influence their judgement, irrespective of whether this influence has or has not affected the process". Financial relationships with the industry (e.g. employment, consulting, shareholdings, fees, expert testimony), directly or indirectly through family members are usually considered as the most important sources of such conflicts of interest. Nevertheless other conflicts of interest may occur due to personal relationships, academic rivalries, or intellectual conviction.

Ethical Responsibilities

- When describing experiments with the use of human beings, it must be stated whether the procedures followed conform to the ethical norms of the Committee for Responsible Human Experimentation (institutional or regional) and the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, revised in 1983. Names, initials or hospital reference numbers should not be used, especially in tables or graphs. When experiments on animals are being described, it should be stated that they have been carried out in accordance with the norms of the institution, or an international research organisation or a national regulatory law concerning the use of laboratory animals.
- The institution that has financed the research must give permission for publication.
- The journal does not accept previously published material. Authors are responsible for obtaining the relevant permission for partial reproduction of material (text, tables or graphs) from other publications and for correctly acknowledging the source. Permission must be sought from both the author and the publisher of the material in question.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: the journal expects authors to declare any commercial relationship that may suppose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

AUTHORSHIP: The list of authors should only include the names of those people that have intellectually contributed to the preparation of the article. Help in data collection or participation in a technical process are not, in and of themselves sufficient criteria to be named as an author. In general to be considered as such, the 'author' must comply with the following requisites.

1. Participation in the conception and realisation of the work that has resulted in the article in question.
2. Participation in the writing of the text and subsequent revisions of the same.
3. Participation in the approval of the final version to be published.

No responsibility is accepted for possible conflicts derived from authorship of articles published in the journal.

INFORMED CONSENT: In the section on methodology, authors must state that procedures and controls used with patients have only been implemented with the informed consent of all those concerned.

TRANSFERENCE OF COPYRIGHT: should be included as an annex to the manuscript and signed by all authors.

· Format
The first page of the article should include the following information in the following order:

· The title of the article (in Spanish and English)
· The initial of the author's first name and full surname.
· The author's workplace and address for correspondence.

The article should be clearly set out as follows:

- Introduction: a brief explanation to enable the reader to understand the text.
- Materials and methodology: this will include the centre where the experiment or research took place, the timescale, the characteristics of the series that has been studied, the sample selection criteria and the techniques employed - all with sufficient information so that the experience may be repeated. Statistical methodology should be described in detail.
- Results: there should be a description (not an interpretation) of observations noted with the methodology employed. The description should be complemented by the use of tables and graphs.
- Discussion: this should include: the opinions of the author concerning the subject studied; the meaning and practical application of the findings; the consideration of inconsistency in the methodology or validity of the results; a summary of similar published work, indicating areas of agreement or disagreement; ideas with regards to the possibilities of future lines of research.

· There should be an abstract, in Spanish and English, outlining the predominant aspects of each part of the article: the main objective; a brief description of the methodology and the results; the most important conclusions drawn from the research.

The abstract should be of 150-250 words and should be followed by the four key words, written in both languages. In this section, use should be made of the list of headings available in the "Medical Subject Index" (MeSH) of the "Index Medicus"
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

· The bibliography should be presented at the end of the article, on separate sheets, enumerated and included in the contents. Bibliographical references should be consecutively numbered in the order that they appear in the text. Bibliographical references should be representative, easily accessible to the reader and should not be more than twenty in number. The article should be presented in accordance with the guidelines approved by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Vancouver norms, 5th ed.), as laid down in Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, N Engl J Med 1997; 336: 309-316 or in Requisitos de uniformidad para manuscritos presentados a revistas biomédicas. Rev Esp Salud Pública 1995; 69; 151-162.

- Examples of bibliographical references:

In the article: (Include the names of up to six authors; when there are seven or more, note the first six then put "et al."):

Marco-Mouriño A, Gomez-Pintado P, García-Guerrero J, Fernández de la Hoz-Zeitler K, Guerrero-Moreno R, Acín-Garcia E, et al. 'Estrés entre el personal sanitario penitenciario. Detección e intervención. Rev Esp Sanid Penit'. 1997; 35: 329-335.

Work published by an institution (non-specified author):

Comité internacional de Expertos en Litiasis. Medicina Renal 1996; 7: 105-114

Books and other monographs:

Author(s)
Eldenstein B. 'La Meningitis Viral'. Buenos Aires: Editorial Corzo S.A. 1987: 170-174

Chapters in books:

Vera N. Vila J. 'Técnicas de Relajación'. En/In Caballo V. 'Manual de terapia y modificación de conducta'. Madrid. Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, S.A. 3ª Ed. 1995: 161-181

In order to check abbreviated titles of referenced journals, consult the National Library of Medicine website (NLM) via LocatorPlus (http://130.14.16.150/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First),
or the Latindex directory (http://www.latindex.org) for Hispano-American journals not registered in the NLM.

· Tables and graphs should be drawn in black. They should be clear and allow for a correct interpretation. A maximum of three graphs and/or photographs and three tables will be admitted. All photographs will be separate from the text, numbered and referenced in the text according to their appearance. If necessary, an arrow may indicate the upper part of the photograph.

At the bottom of each photograph there should be a number which is also listed on a separate sheet. For the section "La Sanidad Penitenciaria en Imágenes" ("Prison Health in Pictures"), 2 - 4 photographs are admitted with a corresponding reference number and a description in each case of no more than 250 words on a separate sheet.

Tables will be submitted on separate sheets and should include: a reference number in Roman numerals, the general heading and the title. There should only be one table per sheet. Tables should be clear and without corrections. Acronyms and abbreviations should be explained by the use of footnotes.

· All articles should be submitted in electronic format, via website, e-mail or diskette as follows:

The journal's preference is that articles are sent via the Spanish Prison Health Care Professionals Society website, (www.sesp.es) accessing the page entitled 'revista' (journal) or, as an attachment to an e-mail to revista@sesp.es .

Diskette: the format should be 3.5". The article should be in Microsoft Word (Office 97 or later). The diskette should be clearly labelled with the name of the author, the file name, and the text or graphics programmes utilised, specifying the version. It should be sent by mail to: Talleres Editoriales Cometa., Ctra. Castellón, Km 3.4, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain.

The text of the article should be sent as one file including the first page, the abstract and references in ASCII, RTF or similar format.

The tables should be sent in separate files.

Figures, graphs or photographs should be sent in independent TIFF, GIF or JPEG files.

The article should be of a maximum of ten, DIN-A4 pages, not including the bibliography. Short articles should be a maximum of five DIN-A4 pages. Letters to the editor should be a maximum of 1,000 words. The maximum number of pages specified refers to texts written in font size 12.
Irrespective of the software utilised, all documents should be typed in a clear and simple manner, avoiding complex formats. We recommend the following:

- Use only one font style (e.g. Times New Roman).
- Do not justify the text.
- Do not change the style of headings, titles or sub-headings in the text (e.g. by use of bold, italics or CAPITALS).
- Use only one font size, preferably size 12.
- Do not indent paragraphs.

Pages should be numbered consecutively. The page number should be inserted in the top right corner. The automatic word processor numbering function is the best option.

Published articles will become the property of the journal. The article, software and other materials will not be returned to the author. Rejected articles will be returned to the address of the signatory. The editorial board of the journal accepts no responsibility for the views and opinions put forward by the author. For each published article, the Journal of Spanish Prison Health will send up to ten free copies of the journal to the first signatory author, on request. The total or partial reproduction of published articles, even when citing the source is strictly prohibited, unless express authorisation is given in response to a written request.