Salud Mental

Guidelines for Authors

Salud Mental publishes original articles on psychiatry, psychology, neurosciences and other related fields in the following formats:

  1. Editorials
    Written at invitation of the Director Editor, editorials express authoritative opinions on specific topics of interest to the scientific community and the area of mental health. They are designed to foster debate and promote new lines of research. Maximum extension: 1000 words.
  2. Original articles (peer-reviewed section)
    These articles present research results unpublished in other journals, and can be written using the following methodologies:
    • Quantitative methodology. This methodology includes primary and secondary results from cross-sectional studies, clinical trials, cases and controls, cohorts,
      and quasi-experimental studies. Maximum extension: 3500 words.
      Depending on the type of study, manuscripts should
      adhere to the following guidelines:
    • Qualitative methodology. This methodology includes focus group reports, in-depth interviews, semantic networks, and content analysis. Maximum extension: 5000 words.
      Articles using this type of methodology should comply with the COREQ guidelines.
  3. Review articles (peer-reviewed section)
    • Systematic reviews. These reviews should preferably include a meta-analysis. Maximum extension: 4000 words. They should comply with PRISMA guidelines.
  4. Case reports
    They include reports on the effects of a diagnostic or therapeutic method that is useful or relevant in the medical, academic, or scientific field. Maximum length: 2000 words.
    These should comply with the CASE REPORT guidelines.

Note. The word count for each of these sections excludes the title, abstracts, and keywords, as well as the funding, conflicts of interest and acknowledgments sections. Words included in tables, figures and references are not considered either.

Languages

Salud Mental only receives and publishes manuscripts in English.

Ethical aspects in publishing

See Ethical Guidelines for the journal.

Authorship

The number of authors will depend on the type of manuscript submitted. The maximum number of authors for original or review articles is eight. Only in the case of multicenter studies will the maximum number of authors be increased to twelve, provided this is justified by the scope of the study.
In the event of collective authorship, the name of the editors or those responsible for the article will be included followed by “and the group...” when all members of the group consider themselves co-authors of the work. If the name of the group is to be included, even if not all its members are considered co-authors, the authors responsible will be mentioned followed by “on behalf of the ...group or “by the ...group.” In any case, the names and institutions to which members of the group are affiliated should be included in an appendix at the end of the manuscript.

Editorial guidelines

It is of the utmost importance for authors to consider the following before sending their manuscript:

  1. Manuscripts should be written clearly and concisely, with no spelling or grammatical errors.
  2. The text should be written in Word format, Times New Roman font, size 12, with double-spacing and 2.5 cm margins on letter size sheets.
  3. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page, with the number written in the upper right corner.
  4. The first page (showing the title) should contain the following sections in the order mentioned here:
    • Title of article in Spanish and English. The title should be descriptive and indicate the main results of the study.
    • Short title in Spanish and English. Maximum extension: six words.
    • Full name of author and co-authors. The authors must be listed and then an Arabic number must be placed in superscript, indicating the institution to which they are affiliated. 
    • Author ORCID number. It is a requirement that all authors have their ORCID identification number, which can be obtained at https://orcid.org/register.
    • Author affiliation. This should be indicated with Arabic numerals and in superscript. Affiliations should be placed immediately after authors’ names (not as footnotes). Affiliations should specify the department, area, institution, city, and country of each author. It is not necessary to indicate the postal address. Institutions must be written in their original language, without translation. If the authors add acronyms, these must be included in the official name. No positions or degrees of the authors (such as doctor, resident, or researcher) should be written.
      For example:
      Juan José García-Urbina,1 Héctor Valentín Esquivias Zavala2
      1 Dirección de Investigaciones Epidemiológicas y Psicosociales, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Ciudad de México, México.
      2 Departamento de Publicaciones, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Ciudad de México, México.
    • The  “Correspondence” section should be placed at the end of the first page, indicating the corresponding author with their postal address, phone and email address. This will be the only author Salud Mental will contact during the process.
      For example:
      Correspondence:
      Juan José García-Urbina
      Dirección de Investigaciones Epidemiológicas y Psicosociales, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz.
      Calz. México-Xochimilco 101, San Lorenzo Huipulco, Tlalpan, 14370, Ciudad de México, México.
      Phone: 55 4152-3624
      E-mail: jurb@imp.edu.mx
  5. The second page should contain abstracts of the article in English and Spanish. Each abstract should contain a maximum of 250 words.
    • Abstracts of original articles and systematic reviews should comprise the following: Introduction, Objective, Method, Results, and Discussion and Conclusion.
    • Abstracts of Clinical Cases should comprise Introduction, Objective, Main findings, Interventions, Results, and Discussion and Conclusion. 
    • Keywords. At the end of each abstract, a minimum of four and a maximum of six keywords should be included, separated by commas and in lower case. Keywords must be the same in English and Spanish. These are used for indexing articles, which is why three of them must be found in the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings).
  6. The body of the manuscript begins on the third page, which should follow the structure indicated in the abstract:
    • Introduction (or Background for Narrative Reviews). The last paragraph of this section should clearly include the objectives of the review and, if necessary, the hypotheses.
    • Method. This should contain the following sections:
    • Results. These should be presented in a logical sequence within the text. They can be supported with tables, graphs, and figures.
    • Discussion and Conclusion. This section will highlight new and relevant aspects of the study and the conclusions derived from it, as well as the possible implications of its findings and its limitations.
  7. After the Discussion and Conclusion section, author statements should be added in the following order:
    • Funding. In this section, authors should declare whether the study or the preparation of the manuscript received any type of funding, indicating the name of the entity that provided the funds.
      For example:
      This study was partially funded by CONSEJO NACIONAL DE CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGÍA (No. XXXXXXX).
      If no financial support was received, authors must state it was well.
      For example:
      None.
    • Conflict of interest. In this section, authors must declare whether they have conflicts of interest related to their scientific activity. Having a conflict of interest will not necessarily prevent publication of the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, the following phrase must be inserted: “The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.”
    • Acknowledgments. If deemed necessary, acknowledgment of the people, centers or entities that have collaborated or supported the research will be mentioned after the previous statements.
  8. References. Are placed after the authors’ declarations (Funding, Conflicts of interest, and Acknowledgements), and must adhere to the Publication Guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA), last edition.
  9. Tables and figures. Salud Mental establishes a maximum total of five graphic elements. The standard requested for tables and figures adheres to the Guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA), last edition. These will be placed in the same document as the manuscript after the references.
    • Tables must contain a title and a note with an explanation of the acronyms used at the bottom.
    • Figures must be submitted in a high resolution format (minimum image size 300 dpi).
    • Titles of the tables and figure captions must be clear, brief, and always have an identifying number. Within the text, the author must indicate in parentheses and capital letters where the graphic elements should be inserted.
      For example:
      The definition of some behavioral patterns was changed (Table 3) so that they were more comprehensible in Spanish and the categories that group such patterns were redefined based on specialized literature.
      (INSERT TABLE 3 HERE)

Complementary files

  1. Authorization letter for Publication. This should be signed by all the authors and submitted in PDF format. The form is available at the following link: http://www.revistasaludmental.mx/public/Authorization-letter-for-publication.pdf.
  2. Cover letter. The author should describe the strengths of their scientific contribution, highlighting the scope, originality, and importance of their contribution to the field of mental health. It is mandatory to mention three national or international reviewers in the field of knowledge of the submitted manuscript, please indicate the full name and email address of each of the reviewers. This must be uploaded in PDF.

Emphasis and punctuation

  1. Manuscripts should generally avoid footnotes, although they may be considered if essential.
  2. Italics should be used to:
    • Highlight foreign words
    • Emphasize popular expressions
    • Mention titles of books, published documents and periodicals
  3. Italics can be used also to:
    • Highlight significant or important terms when they are first mentioned
    • Highlight a word or sentence within a quote
  4. Double quotes should only be used for:
    • Citing paragraphs from other authors within the text
    • Quoting verbatim fragments of the study subjects’ words
  5. Avoid using double parentheses, in other words, one parenthesis inside another, and use square brackets instead.
  6. Long dashes can be used to indicate parenthetical sentences.
  7. All punctuation marks must be used correctly. For example, if question marks are used in a Spanish text, the corresponding opening and closing signs must be included together with quotation marks.

Mathematical and statistical formulae

The following points must be considered when results are presented:

  1. Write figures from zero to nine in letters and use numbers for figures from 10 onwards.
  2. Use numbers with dates and samples, etc.
  3. Include confidence intervals in statistical data.
  4. Statistical symbols are written in italics (M, SD, n, p).
  5. Express exact probability to two or three decimal places (for example, p = .04; p = .002), with no zero in front of the decimal point. If it is less than .001, it should be written as follows < .001.
  6. Leave a space before and after each sign (a + b = c, instead of a+b=c).
  7. Use periods instead of commas to indicate decimals.

Please check the following before submitting your manuscript

Before submitting your manuscript, be sure to attach the requested documentation. Submissions failing to comply with the editorial guidelines will be returned to authors.

  1. Manuscript in WORD format
  2. Cover letter in PDF format.
  3. Authorization letter for publication in PDF format.