About the Journal

Objetive and Scope

The Iatreia journal has been the official scientific publication of the School of Medicine of the University of Antioquia since 1988.  Its mission is to contribute to the national and international transmission of high-quality knowledge about medical education and diverse aspects related to the health-disease process, as well as the practice of health-related professions in Latin America and the World. The current fields of interest include, but are not limited to, medicine, microbiology, nutrition, bioengineering, and related areas. Iatreia is a quarterly journal that follows International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

 

Editorial Policy

Peer Review Process

The Iatreia journal uses the double-blind peer review system to ensure anonymity during the evaluation process. According to the peers concept, the editorial committee decides on the publication of the article. 

To guarantee such review, the names or academic titles of the authors, or the sponsoring organization, if any, must not appear in the article file. This information will be provided in another section

 

Ethics and Best Editorial Practices Statement

Ethics Statement

Iatreia follows the University of Antioquia ethical guidelines for Journals and the international standards issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Likewise, it complies with the Best Practice Guidelines for Scientific Journal Editors, with the purpose of ensuring transparency both in the publication of the contributions and in the procedures for the resolution of related conflicts. 

The journal’s editorial team will ensure that all the parties (authors, peer reviewers, editor, and editorial committee) fully follow the ethical norms during the editorial process:

For Authors

To avoid research misconduct, the authors should comply with the following guidelines:

For Peer reviewers

  • To disclose conflicts of interests or disqualifications. 
  • To strictly adhere to the journal’s review process policies.
  • To respond to requests and submit reviews on time.
  • To make a methodical and rigorous review, given the expertise level of the peer reviewer.
  • To respect the confidentiality of the information related to the editorial process.

To know more about the peer reviewers’ guidelines, visit the link below: (Guide for peers)

Editor and Editorial Committee

  • To guarantee the transparency of the contributions and the review and publication processes.  
  • To ensure the objective dialogue and the confidentiality of the parties involved in the editorial process.
  • To respond rapidly and respectfully to questions and notifications.
  • To guarantee compliance with international standards of ethics, research, and publication in all the scientific and editorial processes of the journal.

 

Corrections and Retractions

Unintentional errors are part of science and editorial processes and require the publication of a correction after being detected. When a correction is needed, or in case of retractions, Iatreia follows the ICMJE recommendations. The journal will consider the retraction of articles in case of major errors, data fabrication or falsification, repeated publication without authorization, plagiarism, unethical research, or unreported conflicts of interest that may have affected the editorial process, following COPE guidelines.

 

Editorial Process

  1. Manuscript reception, structure evaluation, and compliance with minimum requirements
  2. Originality verification and anti-plagiarism check
  3. Editorial evaluation: compliance with thematic requirements according to journal policies
  4. Submission to two or more peer reviewers, preferably external to the University of Antioquia, and, if possible, foreigners. National peers must be recognized in the peer reviewers’ information service of the Science, Technology, and Innovation System. Peer reviewers will send recommendations about the article based on the Guidelines for Articles Review by Academic Peers
  5. Based on the reviews, the journal’s editor will make a preliminary decision about whether to reject the article (based on reviewers’ majoritarian concept) or to send it back to the authors for corrections. The final decision of acceptance for publication may require the consensus of the Editorial Committee
  6. In case of acceptance, the article will go through language revision or style correction. The recommendations are sent to the author for approval or correction, if necessary. 
  7. Preprint stage
  8. Article’s layout stage, followed by the electronic publication in PDF format 

Authors are informed about the progress of the process at all the stages through the OJS platform. The evaluation and editorial process usually takes between 3 and 6 months.

Iatreia editorial process map

 

Iatreia Publication Criteria

For manuscripts review, the following criteria–which are considered necessary to evaluate if a submission is suitable for publication by the journal– are proposed:

  1. Quality and accuracy of the arguments presented in the manuscript
  2. Convenience and relevance of the article in the area of research
  3. Novelty, pertinence of the topic, and the work approach (theoretical perspective) for the moment when it was written
  4. Coherence and reliability of the material in terms of the use of concepts, theories, data, procedures, justifications, and implementations
  5. Compliance with the objectives formulated by the author and coherence of these with the results obtained
  6. Use of sources that are pertinent and relevant in the area of knowledge
  7. Validity of the data presented, that is, that the information included in the manuscripts is reliable in terms of the use of concepts, theories, data, procedures, justifications, and implementations
  8. Clear distinction between the author’s contributions and the information from other material and authors

In the link below, the instructions that describe the steps to follow to ensure the integrity of the anonymous peer review are provided: https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/iatreia/about/submissions

 

Open Access Policy

The journal is committed to the Open Access policies (OA) defined by UNESCO (1) as “the provision of free access for everyone to academic and peer-reviewed scientific information”. Consequently, free, and immediate content access is provided through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform, under the premise that facilitating free and open access to academic research enables widespread dissemination of information and, in turn, contributes to the globalization of knowledge.

The articles published by the journal are available to be used under the Creative Commons license, which defines the terms in which the works can be used, the rights they wish to grant and under what conditions. Iatreia has the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

 

Data sharing Policy

The data underlying the results and analysis of all works published in Iatreia must be made available to anyone who wishes to reproduce them. Authors must ensure that all essential data are either included in the main text of the article or in the supplementary material, or alternatively in a public repository. Additionally, authors must commit to sharing raw data upon request, as long as it is legally and ethically possible.

AI Use Policy

With the aim of promoting transparency, responsibility, and the proper attribution of authorship in articles submitted for publication in the journal, we provide authors with the following guidelines regarding the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Iatreia adheres to the recommendations established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) concerning the use of AI in the preparation of scientific manuscripts. Consequently, Iatreia will not consider AI tools as authors, since they are not accountable for the content of the article, cannot respond to queries that may arise during the publication process, and cannot assume responsibility for ethical violations in scientific publishing.

In cases where the researcher has used LLMs or AI tools to generate elements of the manuscript, such as images, figures, method design, data collection, or data analysis, this use must be explicitly detailed in the Materials and Methods section, specifying the purpose, the AI tool employed, and its corresponding version.

 

Publication Frequency

The Iatreia journal is quarterly, issued as follows: January-March; April-June; July-September; October-December.  Occasionally, independent publications (supplements) are published.

 

Long-term Preservation Policy

The journal is committed to the long-term preservation of its content. To this end, we follow the PKP Preservation Network and NAS Institutional.

 

Sponsor

University of Antioquia - School of Medicine 

Funding sources

Office of the Vice-chancellor for Research and School of Medicine, University of Antioquia.

Digital Object Identifier

Since April 2015, the Iatreia journal has incorporated the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) in its publications to guarantee direct access and enable its identification.

 

References

  1. Swan A. Directrices para políticas de desarrollo y promoción del acceso abierto [Internet]. París: UNESCO; 2013 [Accessed June 17, 2016]. Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002225/222536S.pdf
  2. COPE [internet]. England: Committee on Publication Ethics; 2009. [Accessed January 27, 2022]. Available at: https://publicationethics.org/
  3. ICMJE [internet]. Philadelphia: ICMJE; 2000. [Accessed January 10, 2022]. Available at: http://www.icmje.org/about-icmje/
  4. COPE Council. COPE position - Authorship and AI [Internet]. 2024. Available from:  https://doi.org/10.24318/cCVRZBms

  5. Flanagin A, Bibbins-Domingo K, Berkwits M, Christiansen SL. Nonhuman “Authors” and Implications for the Integrity of Scientific Publication and Medical Knowledge. JAMA [Internet]. 2023;329(8):637–639. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.1344

  6. ICMJE. Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors [Internet]. 2025. Available from: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html#four