ISSN 1808-1851 printed version
ISSN 2177-014X online version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Politics and aims
• Manuscript preparation
• Manuscript mailing

The proposal of the journal is to publish articles that contribute to the improvement and development of the practice, research and teaching of the themes related to vertebral column in Brazil and in Latin America. All the manuscripts, after the Editors' approval, will be analyzed by two or more Reviewers, with the anonymity warranted in the judging process. Articles that do not present merit and do not fit in the magazine's editorial policy shall be rejected, with no resources. The reviewer's comments will be returned to the authors for modifications in the text or justification of its conservation. After the reviewer's approval, the will be send for the associate editors to the final approval. Only after the final approval of the Reviewer's and Editors, the manuscripts are going to be directed for publication. The affirmations and information expressed in the published articles of the journal Coluna/Columna are of the authors and its collaborators entire responsibility. The journal's publication norms are in conformity with Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, from October 2008, elaborated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, available at http://www.icmje.org/. The journal publishes articles for the following sections: Original Articles, Review Article, and Update Article. The articles can be written in Portuguese, Spanish or English.

1. The papers shall present:

Front page: paper's title (concise and informative), in the original language and in English; full name of the authors, without abbreviations; academic degree of each one of the authors and institutional affiliations; the place where the paper was carried out and/or of the research; sources which helped the research, if there is any; information when the manuscript is part of thesis, dissertations or papers presented in events; author's name for correspondence with the address, telephone, e-mail or fax.

Abstract and descriptors: abstract, in Portuguese, English and Spanish with 250 words. The Original Articles must follow the structure (Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions), emphasizing the most significant data of the paper. In the Reviews or Updates, the abstract shall not have a structure. Below the abstract, specify at least five and in the maximum ten descriptors (Keywords and Descriptores) that define the paper's subject. The descriptors must be based on DECS - Health Sciences Descriptors - avalaible at the electronic address http://www.decs.bvs.br, with the Portuguese, English and Spanish versions for each of the descriptors.

Text

Introduction: it must contain the objective of the paper and resume the logical fundaments of it. It should present only the pertinent quotations and do not include data or conclusions of the reported paper.

Methods: it should describe clearly the subjects' selection that interfered in the research (patients or laboratory animals, including the controls). It is necessary to identify the person's age, sex and other important characteristics. The definition and relevance of the race or ethnicity are ambiguous. Authors shall be particularly careful when using these categories. Methods, equipments (present the name and address of the manufacturer between brackets) and the procedures must be identified with enough details for allowing the results reproduction by other researchers.

Results: they should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables and figures. All the data of tables or illustrations should not be repeated in the text, and only the important observations should be emphasized or resumed.

Discussion: the newest and most important aspects of the study and their conclusions should be emphasized in this topic. Data presented in the Introduction or Results must not be repeated. New hypotheses should be established only when they are justified.

Conclusions: they shall be bonded to the study objectives, avoiding non-qualified affirmations and not being completely approved by data.

Figures: illustrations (photographs, draws, graphics etc) should be mentioned as figures, numbered in Arabic numbers, consecutively, according to the order they first appeared in the text. Photos must be sent in RGB, .tif or .jpg format with a 300 DPI resolution, in large format, jointly with the originals. Photos will be published in black/white. For colored publications, the additional cost will be the authors' responsibility.

Tables: they must be numbered in Arabic numbers, consecutively, according to the order in which they appeared in the text; it must appear a short title in each of the tables without abbreviations. No horizontal or vertical internal lines in the tables should be traced. If the tables and figures are extracted from already published sources, they must have the written authorization of the author or editor, with the reference source in which it was published.

Abbreviations and acronyms: they must be preceded from the full name when mentioned the first time in the text. In the figures and tables, they must have their meaning below the figure or table.

Acknowledgements: to include people's collaborations, institutions by financial support, technical favors, that deserve recognition, but that do not justify the inclusion as an author.

References: they must be rigorously in conformity with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, updated on October 2007. All the authors and papers mentioned in the text must appear in the references and vice-versa. The references numbering must be in the order they were mentioned the first time in the text, using Arabic numbers, for the text and references. The first six authors must be mentioned, if there are more than this quantity, the first six followed must be mentioned by the Latin expression et al. The journals titles must be abbreviated according to the journal list of Medline or Lilacs.

Examples:

. Articles in printed journals:

Caetano MBF, Albertoni WM, Caetano EB. Estudo anatômico das inserções distais do tendão extensor longo do polegar. Acta Ortop Bras. 2004;12(2):118-24.

Hong-Wan N, Ee-Chon T, Qing-Hang Z. Biomechanical effects of C2-C7 intersegmental stability due to laminectomy with unilateral and bilateral facetectomy. Spine. 2004;29(16):1737-45.

. Books:

Defino HLA. Lesões traumáticas da coluna vertebral. São Paulo: Bevilacqua; 2006.

. Chapter in a book:

Tencer AF. Biomechanics of spinal trauma. In: Cotler JM, Simpson JM, An HS, Silveri CP, editors. Surgery of spinal trauma. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000. p. 61-112.

. Dissertations and theses:

Giglio CA. Caracterização funcional e histológica de modelos experimentais de estudo do trauma raquimedular [tese]. Ribeirão Preto: Universidade de São Paulo; 2000.

. Articles in electronic journals:

1. Rogers FB. Venous thromboembolism in trauma patients: a review. Surgery [Internet]. 2001 [cited 2005 Oct 26];130(1):[about 12 p.]. Available from: http://www.harcourthealth.com/scripts/om.dll/serve

2. Papers must be typed in double-space, using the text processor Microsoft Word^®, with 3cm borders, and with the typeface Times New Roman, size 12, not surpassing 20 pages, including the front page, abstracts, text, acknowledgements, references and tables.

3. The original texts, tables and figures must be directed with two printed copies and one recorded copy in CD-ROM or DVD for the address in the end of the text.

To send the manuscript with the letter signed by all authors, with authorization for publishing and declaration that has not been published, or submitted to publication in another journal or book.

The following items must be detached to this letter:

a) Conflicts of Interest Declaration; b) Certificate of the Paper's Approval by the Ethics Committee in Research of the Institution, when the investigation involves experimenting in human beings or animals; c) Documentation concerning the eventual sources of the paper's financing; d) Declaration that the participants signed the document of Informed Consent Form, when it is a clinical research with human beings; e) Transference letter of the author's rights to the journal Coluna/Columna.

Important note: the journal Coluna/Columna, based on the recording policies for clinical assays of the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), recognizing the importance of these initiatives for the record and international divulgation of information about clinical studies, in open access, will only accept for publication, from August 2009, the articles of clinical researches that have received an identification number in one of the Clinical Assays Records, accredited by the established criteria by WHO and ICMJE, available at http://clinicaltrials.gov or in Pubmed's website.

Manuscripts must be sent to: Coluna/Columna - A/c: Ana Maria Cella - Al. Lorena, 1304 - 14° - cj. 1406/07 - São Paulo (SP), Brazil - 01424-001 - E-mail: revistacoluna@uol.com.br