Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submission Checklist

Authors are obligated to ensure that their submissions meet all the requirements listed below. Submissions that do not meet these requirements will be returned to the authors.

• Originality statement / Certificate of originality and transfer of rights: A document addressed to the journal's board of editors stating that it is an original manuscript, that has not been previously published or submitted to another journal, and that all rights are hereby ceded to the University of Costa Rica. Download this document here.
• Metadata: Author information: full name, highest completed academic degree, profession, institutional affiliation, city, and country, ORCID. This information must be completed in the submission metadata in the OJS system.
• Title page: download this document here.
• Article Structure: The article should be submitted following the specifications of the journal's Guidelines for Authors and in OpenOffice or Microsoft Word format.
• Bibliographic standards: The text must comply with the Vancouver citing and referencing style. Include the DOI or electronic address at the end of each reference.
• Review Policy: Must comply with the guidelines to ensure a blind review while maintaining confidentiality. Consult how to help to ensure privacy protection by clicking here. Use “Identifiable information” to substitute data that could allow the reviewer to identify the article, for example, if it is the name of a known program or intervention or in the case of self-citation.
• Research involving human subjects must be approved by their respective ethics committees.

Submission guidelines. Basic requirements for publication in REVENF.

General guidelines

• REVENF accepts unpublished and original articles.
• REVENF only accepts research articles with data collected in the last 5 years.
• Articles submitted for review must demonstrate an advance in knowledge and implications for clinical practice, teaching or research in nursing or healthcare.
• Submitted articles cannot be submitted for consideration to another journal simultaneously.
• Papers may be submitted for publication in the original language (Spanish, English or Portuguese) without charge. However, the author will have the opportunity to add the publishable version of their article in another language. The translation and philological correction are the sole responsibility of the author (s), therefore, the version in another language must be accompanied by both certificates.
• This is a non-profit publication of the University of Costa Rica, with the sole interest of contributing to scientific knowledge in the health disciplines, therefore, there are NO SUBMISSION OR PUBLICATION FEES IN THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE.
• Manuscripts should not include the authors' information to ensure a blind review process.
• Manuscripts must not include information about the ethics committee that allows the study to be traced, such as the name of the committee and approval number, this information must be included in the corresponding space on the title page.
• The article must be submitted through the OJS platform.
• The journal is under the Creative Commons license allowing the use of open access articles.

Types of documents

Original articles

• These are documents that present the results of primary research. They are limited to 5000 words excluding abstract, references, tables and/or figures.

Review articles

• These are documents that present the results of secondary research: systematic review, scoping review and integrative review. Limited to 5000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables and/or figures.

Essays

• It is the analysis, reflection or discussion that the author proposes on a specific issue or problem. Limited to 3000 words excluding abstract, references, tables and / or figures.

Editorial

• It consists of the analysis or reflection on a specific topic or problem by an expert on the subject invited by the editorial team.

Document structure and preparation

• Document format: OpenOffice or Microsoft Word.
• Margins on all sides.
• Times New Roman font, size 12, double-spaced.
• Continuous line numbering.
• Text Alignment: justified in a column.
• Use inclusive language. Consult how to use inclusive language by clicking here. 

Submission Process

The submission process is done through the Open Journals System (OJS). You must upload the following files into the system:

1. Full original text in the original language: including title, abstract, and keywords in the 3 languages (Spanish, English and Portuguese), main text, tables and figures, any conflict of interest and references. Omit author information in this document.
2. Originality statement and transfer of rights.
3. Title page: Must contain the name of the article in the 3 languages and author information: full name, highest completed academic degree, profession, institutional affiliation, city and country, ORCID. The corresponding author should be identified, they should note the institution where the research was conducted and include their e-mail address. Acknowledgements and funding if applicable.

Each author’s contribution should be indicated according to the criteria from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

1. Substantial contributions to the conceptualization or design of the paper; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the article.
2. Drafting the work or critically reviewing it for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the version to be published.
4. Agreement that they will be responsible for all aspects of the work to ensure that issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the paper are adequately investigated and resolved.

These four conditions must be met in full to be considered an author. The title page must be signed by all authors.

You should suggest two potential peer reviewers who have no conflicts of interest to evaluate the publication. Their institutional affiliations, research interests, and e-mail addresses must be included.

Finally, metadata and any other information requested (section, language of submission, title, abstract, authorship and collaborators, discipline, keywords, citations) must be filled out in the system.

Text Preparation:

Title

The title should have a maximum of 18 words in the original language. Abbreviations, acronyms, or the geographical location of the investigation should not be used. The title should be clear and indicate the content of the document.

Abstract

It should include the abstract in three languages (Spanish, English and Portuguese), with a maximum of 250 words in the original language, structured by the following sections: introduction, aim, method, results and conclusion. Each section subtitle should be highlighted in bold and followed by a colon.

Key words

Must include three to six descriptors in three languages (Spanish, English and Portuguese) separated by semicolons in alphabetical order, compound words hyphenated; extracted from the DeCS/MeSH vocabulary.

Consult the DeCS/MeSH vocabulary by clicking here. 

Guidelines for text presentation

Depending on the type of article and the research design, the following guidelines will be used:

• CONSORT
• TREND
• STROBE
• COREQ
• PRISMA
• PRISMA ScR
• JBI

Document Body

For original and review articles.

IMRYD format. The text should be divided into the following parts:

• Introduction
• Materials and Method
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Conflict of Interest
• Bibliographic References

Essays must consist of an introduction, body, conclusion, conflict of interest and bibliographical references.

Editorials do not require an abstract, keywords or IMRYD format. If bibliographic citations are used, the references section must be included.

Introduction.

This part of the paper introduces the specific problem under study, providing background information, theory and justifies its importance and the knowledge gap, supported by updated bibliographic references. The general aim and the hypothesis (if applicable) are noted at the end of this section.  

Materials and Method.

Includes research design, population, and sample (eligibility criteria), context, variables (if applicable), data collection methods and techniques, recruitment and data collection procedures, data analysis, and ethical considerations.

Results.

They should be presented in a logical and concrete sequence, and have a satisfactory statistical analysis, if applicable. The data found should be noted, without interpretations or comments. To facilitate the understanding of the information, tables and figures can be included in the section (do not send them separately). Do not write in the text what is already explained in the tables to avoid being redundant. 

Discussion.

This section is exclusively reserved to discuss the acquired data and results; it is supported by bibliographic references, discussing commonalities and differences of the existing knowledge to the study’s results. The scope and limitations of the study, if any, should be mentioned. Additionally, the implications of the results in health practice should be stated, as well as new hypotheses that may arise to develop them in subsequent studies.

Conclusion. 

It should be direct, clear, and factual in response to the objectives established in the introduction. Do not cite bibliographical references.

Bibliographical references.

Must use the Vancouver numbered referencing style.

According to the type of document, the number of bibliographic references requested is as follows:

• Original articles: up to 40 references.
• Review articles: up to 60 references.
• Essays: up to 20 references.

In-text citation: The bibliographic citations must be enumerated consecutively according to the order in which they appear in the manuscript, in Arabic numbers, in the superscript, without parenthesis and without mentioning the names of the authors (except for those that constitute a theoretical reference the method).

When sequential, indicate the first and last number, separated by a script (e.g.: ^1-4); when they are intercalated, they must be separated by a comma (e.g.: ^1,8). Between the numerical quote and the word that precedes it, it should not be spaced (e.g.: ....stressful situations^2-4,8,12) and in case it is at the end of the sentence, it should be placed after the full stop (e.g.: ....for health.^18,24)

Textual citation. Write it in quotation marks, in italics and continuing the sequence of the text.

Journal article

Two authors:

Kurt Y, Öztürk H. The effect of mobile augmented reality application developed for injections on the knowledge and skill levels of nursing students: An experimental controlled study. Nurse Educ Today. 2021;103:104955. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104955

More than two authors:

Gayoso MV, Avila MAG, Silva TAD, Alencar RA. Comfort level of caregivers of cancer patients receiving palliative care. Rev Lat Am Enfermagem. 2018;26:e3029. doi: 10.1590/1518-8345.2521.3029.

Britto PR, Lye SJ, Proulx K, Yousafzai AK, Matthews SG, Vaivada T, Perez-Escamilla R, Rao N, Ip P, Fernald LCH, MacMillan H, Hanson M, Wachs TD, Yao H, Yoshikawa H, Cerezo A, Leckman JF, Bhutta ZA. Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development. Lancet. 2017;389(10064):91-102. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31390-3.

Organization as author:

Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002;40(5):679-86. doi:10.1161/01.hyp.0000035706.28494.09.

Personal autor and organization as author:

Ginsburg KR; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics. 2007;119(1):182-91. doi: 10.1542/peds.2006-2697.

 Website:

World Health Organization. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard [Internet]. Geneva: WHO; 2021. Available from: https://covid19.who.int/

Books and Monographs

Book:

Polit DF, Beck CT. Fundamentos de pesquisa em enfermagem: Avaliação de evidências para a prática da Enfermagem. 9a ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed; 2019.

Chapter in a book:

Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith, RZ, editors. Introduction to the Electronic Age. New York: E-Publishing Inc; 2009. p. 281–304.

If you need to cite another document that is not included, you should consult it here.

Tables and figures

Maximum 5 (between tables, graphs, or figures), in the whole length of the text. They must be legible.  The tables must be in Word format and not as images. The presentation of statistical data in tables and figures must follow the APA 7 format. All tables and figures must have a source. Consult the APA 7 format by clicking here.