Formatting guidelines

Language: 

• Manuscripts should be submitted in English.

• We require an extended abstract in the local language for pieces coming from countries where English is not the native language or when the research is relevant to a specific community.  This ensures that knowledge is share in local languages to the relevant authorities or audience. 

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Cover Letter

• We don’t require authors to submit a cover letter. 

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Title page: 

• A brief title, author name(s), preferred degree (one only), affiliation(s), and full address(es) of the authors must be included. 

• The name and address of the corresponding author should be separately and clearly indicated with email and telephone details.

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Abstract :

• Include an abstract (semistructured summary), with five paragraphs (Background, Methods, Findings, Impact, and Funding), not exceeding 500 words. 

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Text:

• We don’t require a specific text format, however we recommend to use 12 point Times New Roman font BOLD

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Tables

• Tables should be submitted as individual Excel files, named using the last name of the first author, the year of publication, and the table number in the following format: Mendez_Vanegas_2024_Table_1. xlsx

• Each table should be in a separate Excel file. Table legends should be included in the body of the manuscript, with the table number in bold followed by a description. For example:

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"Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the study participants, including age, gender, and socioeconomic status."

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Figures

• Main figure heading should be in 10 point Times New Roman font BOLD

• Figures can be included either within the main text of the manuscript or in a separate section entitled “Figures” at the end of the manuscript, following the references.

• Upon acceptance of your manuscript, we will ask for all images to have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, width 107 mm. Main figure heading should be in 10 point Times New Roman font BOLD

 

Audio/video material

• The paper to which the audio or video clip relates should be mentioned in the recording

• Audio clip and video files should be accompanied with brief text explaining the content of the audio, names of interviewers/ interviewees, date of recording, and place of recording if relevant

• Written consent from all parties must be obtained (see also the above section on Patient and other consents)

 

Data

• Numbers in text and tables should always be provided if % is shown

• Means should be accompanied by SDs, and medians by IQR

• p values should be given to two significant figures, unless p<0·0001

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Drug names

• Recommended international non-proprietary name (rINN) is required

• We encourage use of neuroscience-based nomenclature for psychotropic drugs

 

Gene names

• Use gene names approved by the Human Gene Organisation. Novel gene sequences should be deposited in a public database (GenBank, EMBL, or DDBJ), and the accession number provided. Authors of microarray papers should include in their submission the information recommended by the MIAME guidelines. Authors should also submit their experimental details to one of the publicly available databases: ArrayExpress or GEO

 

References

• Vancouver style

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How to submit your paper

Preselection Form 

Before submitting your full scientific paper, we kindly ask authors to complete a preselection form that our editorial office will use to evaluate submissions. In this form, please upload your abstract, ensuring it clearly includes all important data such as sample size, methods, results, and the impact and importance of your work. Additionally, we ask for other relevant metrics and whether you wish to be considered for the “Latinas Writing Science” program. This process helps fast-track our decision making. If your manuscript is selected for review, we will contact you within one or two weeks to proceed with the full submission of your manuscript.

 

You can find  in our website: https://www.huitaca.org/preselection-form

 

Once you submit this form, please wait for our editorial office to contact you. If your paper is selected for full submission, please read the following guidelines to ensure your research is within the scope of our journal and adheres to our regulations and submission requirements.

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Submission

Upon receiving your pre-submission, our editorial team will review it and get in touch within the next one to two weeks with a request for the full manuscript submission if your paper is selected for further consideration. Detailed instructions on how to submit the full manuscript will be provided at that time. The full manuscript submission should include the following information:

 

• Title Page: Include the title of the manuscript, authors’ names, emails, and affiliations.

• Abstract Page: 

  • Provide an abstract (semi-structured summary) with five paragraphs, not exceeding 500 words:

    • Background

    • Methods

    • Findings

    • Impact

  • Keywords: Up to five

  • A statement on “ Research Impact and Relevance”: In this section, authors should articulate the significance of their study within the context of women’s health, societal influences, and environmental factors in the Global South. Explain how your research addresses critical issues, fills existing knowledge gaps, and contributes to the broader scientific understanding in these fields. Highlight the potential real-world applications, policy implications, and benefits for communities, particularly those in non-English speaking regions. This section should demonstrate how your findings can drive meaningful change, inform best practices, and support the advancement of women’s wellbeing globally.

  • A statement confirming that the manuscripts is solely the work of the author(s) stated, hasn’t been previously published elsewhere, and is not under consideration by another journal.

• Main Body of Work: Present the full research content, organized appropriately with clear headings and sections.

• Figures: Include all figures within the manuscript or in a separate “Figures” section at the end of the manuscript after references.

• Tables: Submit each table as an individual Excel file named using the format LastName_Year_TableNumber (e.g., Mendez_Vanegas_2024_Table_1). Table legends should be included in the body of the manuscript, with the table number in bold followed by the description (e.g., Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the study participants, including age, gender, and socioeconomic status).

• Statements Page:

  • Conflict of Interest Statement

  • Author’s Contributions

  • AI-Assisted Technology Disclosure

  • Acknowledgments. 

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Statements, permissions, and signatures

We will request the following forms after peer review. The following signed statements are required:

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• Authors’ contributions

• AI-Assisted Technology Disclosure

• Conflicts of interest Statements (ICMJE forms)

• Acknowledgments—written consent of cited individual

• Use of copyright-protected material—signed permission statements from author and publisher

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Author Contributions Form

The Authors’ Contribution Form is designed to detail the specific roles and responsibilities of each author involved in the research and manuscript preparation. By clearly outlining individual contributions, we aim to maintain the integrity of the publication process and give proper credit to all contributors. Please fill out this form accurately, indicating the specific tasks and sections each author was responsible for, to facilitate a fair and transparent acknowledgment of all contributions. To ensure clarity and transparency in recognizing and listing the contributions of each author, we are providing the following guidelines.

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• Authorship: The authorship of your scientific manuscript should be based on four key criteria:

  • Substantial contributions: This includes the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.

  • Drafting and reviewing: Involves drafting the work or critically reviewing it for important intellectual content.

  • Final approval: Authors must give final approval of the version to be published.

  • Accountability: Authors should agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work is investigated and resolved.

 

• Identification of contributions: Authors should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific parts of the work and have confidence in the integrity of their co-authors’ contributions.

• Criteria for authorship: All designated authors should meet all four criteria. Those who do not should be acknowledged but not listed as authors.

• Role of the corresponding author: The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and ensuring compliance with administrative requirements. They should be available to respond to queries during and after publication.

• Group authorship: For large multi-author groups, decisions on who will be credited as authors should be made early, with all listed authors meeting the four criteria. Some groups may designate authorship by a group name. For this collaborator or study group, if they wish to be indexed to the paper, please provide a separate document with a table of first names and surnames of all members of the group (this is to ensure that PubMed and similar databases encode the names correctly).

• Acknowledgment of non-author contributors: Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged but not listed as authors, with their contributions specified. Please include written consent of any cited individual(s) noted in acknowledgements or personal communications. Give example here. 

• Local Coauthorship: We require coauthorship with colleagues in the locations where the research is conducted.

• Authors Consent: Journal of Women’s Health and Wellbeing will not publish any paper unless we have the signatures of all authors. We suggest you use the author statement form and upload the signed copy with your submission. 

• Non-Author Contributors: Individuals should be acknowledged but not listed as authors if they don’t meet all criteria. Activities not qualifying for authorship include funding acquisition and general supervision. Acknowledged individuals might need to give written permission due to implied endorsement.

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AI-Assisted Technology Disclosure

Disclosure of AI-assisted technology use in work production is required. AI cannot be listed as an author due to the lack of accountability. Humans must ensure the accuracy and integrity of AI-generated content, including correct attribution and avoiding plagiarism. These guidelines are designed to ensure that authorship is reserved for those who truly deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work, while also encouraging collaboration and acknowledging significant contributions that do not meet the criteria for authorship.

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Declaration of interests

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Financial relationships are easily identifiable, but conflicts can also occur because of personal relation-ships or rivalries, academic competition, or intellectual beliefs. A conflict can be actual or potential, and full disclosure to the Editor of all relationships is a requisite. Purposeful failure to disclose conflicts is a form of misconduct and might lead to publication of a correction or even to retraction. All submissions to Global Women’s Science, Nature and Society must include disclosure of all relationships in which there is a potential or actual conflict of interest, even if it not directly relevant to the submitted work. The Editor may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions and will publish all disclosures that authors declare on their conflict of interests form. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to check that all declarations made by authors on their conflicts of interest form are included at the end of the manuscript. Agreements between authors and study sponsors that interfere with authors’ access to all of a study’s data, or that interfere with their ability to analyse and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently, may represent conflicts of interest, and should be avoided. Authors may be required to provide the journal with any such agreements in confidence.

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• At the end of the text, under a subheading “Declaration of interests”, all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations, even if it does not directly relate to the submitted work. Examples of financial conflicts include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patents or patent applications, and travel grants, all within 3 years of beginning the work submitted. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that none exist.

 

Role of the funding source

• All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgment at the end of the text. Authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Patient, Surveys and other consents

• Appropriate written consents, permissions, and releases must be obtained where you wish to include any case details, personal information, and/or images of patients or other individuals in The Lancet journals in order to comply with all applicable laws and regulations concerning privacy and/or security of personal information. Studies on patients or volunteers need approval from an ethics committee and informed consent from participants. These should be documented in your paper.

• Since the consent form needs to comply with the relevant legal requirements of your particular jurisdiction, we do not provide sample forms; this is your responsibility. Your affiliated institution should be able to provide an appropriate form.

• To respect your patient’s and any other individual’s privacy, please do not send signed forms to the Global Women's Science, Nature and Society. Please instead complete the patient consent section of the Author statements while retaining copies of the signed forms in the event they should be needed.

 

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Reporting sex-based and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance

For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals, model organisms, or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex- based and gender-based analyses into their research design according to evolving funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address their research’s sex and/or gender dimensions in their manuscript. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research’s generalisability. With research involving cells and model organisms, researchers should use the term “sex”. With research involving humans, researchers should consider which terms best describe their data (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. They offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting, and research interpretation. However, there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender or reporting sex-based and gender-based analyses.

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Definitions

In human research, “sex” and “gender” are complex, evolving concepts influenced by both biology and society. “Sex” may refer to biological attributes or to a categorization made at birth based on visible anatomy, while “gender” encompasses the social roles, behaviors, and identities shaped by cultural and historical contexts. These constructs are not binary or static but exist on a spectrum that includes diverse sex categorizations and gender identities, such as intersex, non-binary, and more. It’s crucial for researchers to clearly describe how they collect and report data related to sex and gender, using precise terms like “sex assigned at birth” and employing a two-step process for ascertaining gender identity and sex assigned at birth. This approach enhances the accuracy and inclusivity of research, acknowledging the fluidity and spectrum of sex and gender, and addressing the potential limitations of traditional categorizations.

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Disclosure of results before publication

Presentation of data at a scientific meeting, as a poster, abstract, orally, on a CD, or as an abstract on the web, or on a preprint server does not conflict with submission to Global Women’s Science, Nature and Society. 

 

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What happens after you submit your paper?  

How Journal of Women’s Health and Wellbeing handles your paper

• Acknowledgment: Receipt of your paper will be acknowledged by an email containing a reference number, which should be used in all future communications. Checking for plagiarism, duplicate publication, and text recycling. At our discretion, material that we are interested in publishing will be checked by editors using CrossCheck (see Lancet 2011; 377: 281–82). We expect that such papers are written in a way that offers new thinking without recycling previously published text.

• Peer review: Global Women’s Science, Nature and Society operates a doubled-anonymised peer- review process. On submission to Global Women’s Science, Nature and Society, your report will first be read by one or more of the editors. That decision will be communicated quickly. Research papers are followed by peer review by at least three reviewers. You will receive notification of which editor is handling the peer review of your paper.

• Decision: Submissions that survive in-house and peer review might be referred back to authors for revision. This is an invitation to present the best possible paper for further scrutiny by the journal; it is not an acceptance. Authors should give priority to such revisions; the journal will reciprocate by making a final decision quickly. Two copies of the revised version should be sent back, one of which should be highlighted to show where changes have been made. Detailed responses to reviewers’ comments, in a covering letter, are also necessary. 

 

Peer review Process

The process begins with our editorial team meticulously selecting papers that align with our journal’s scope and meet our publication criteria. Should your paper be accepted for peer review, we aim to inform you of this decision within three weeks of your submission. Selected papers are then forwarded to our reviewers, who are given between one to two months to thoroughly review your work and provide detailed comments. Following the review, we will contact you with the reviewers’ comments along with an editorial decision, which may range from acceptance (with major or minor changes required) to rejection within three months?. We encourage authors to refer to our list of article types to understand which submissions undergo peer review and which do not. Articles exempt from peer review are directly considered by the Editor-in-Chief and members of the editorial board.

 

Proofs

Your paper might be substantially edited after acceptance to ensure that it is accurate, clear, and understandable to a wide readership. We will process the English of your manuscript for language edits suggested by peer reviewers at no extra charge. 

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• If authors from Latin America require extensive editorial services in language and form, they can apply to our “Writing Science for Latinas” program.

• All figures will be redrawn into Global Women's Science, Nature and Society style by our in-house illustrators.

• You will receive a proof from an Assistant Editor. That proof should be corrected and returned within 48 h.

 

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Post Publication

Online publication

Journal of Women’s Health and Wellbeing publishes papers online as they become ready. You will be informed at least a week in advance of the Online publication date

 

Complains and Appeals

Sometimes editors make mistakes. When we do, we like to hear about them. If an author believes that an editor has made an error in declining a paper, we welcome an appeal. In your appeal letter, which should be sent to editorial_office@huitaca.org , please state why you think the decision is mistaken, and set out your specific responses to any peer reviewers’ comments if those seem to have been the main cause of rejection:

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• At least two editors will decide whether to invite a revised manuscript and whether re-review, or otherwise, is indicated.

• Authors or concerned parties are encouraged to contact us directly via our designated email address editorial_office@huitaca.org. Upon receipt of a complaint, it will be promptly forwarded to the appropriate editor who will then be in direct touch with the complainant. This ensures that all concerns are thoroughly reviewed and addressed in a timely and efficient manner, maintaining the integrity and transparency of our processes. Our commitment is to ensure that every complaint is taken seriously and managed with the utmost professionalism and respect.

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Misconduct Allegations

Misconduct can include the following situations:

• Plagiarism: Submission of work that contains significant portions of text, ideas, or findings from another source without proper attribution.

• Fabrication and Falsification: Making up data or results and recording or reporting them, or manipulating research data and images to misrepresent the results.

• Duplicate Submission: Submitting the same manuscript, in whole or in part, to more than one journal simultaneously.

• Conflict of Interest Non-disclosure: Failing to disclose financial or personal relationships that could bias research outcomes.

• Authorship Disputes: Misrepresenting who contributed to the work or excluding contributors from proper acknowledgment.

• Ethical Violations in Studies Involving Humans or Animals: Conducting research without obtaining appropriate ethical approval or not following ethical guidelines for the humane treatment of subjects.

 

Misconduct allegations can be made by a variety of individuals who interact with or are affected by the research and publication process. These can include, but are not limited to: 

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• Authors: Researchers or writers who believe their work has been plagiarized or who have witnessed unethical practices in research or publication.

• Reviewers: Peer reviewers who, during the evaluation of a manuscript, identify potential misconduct such as plagiarism, data fabrication, or ethical concerns.

• Editors: Journal editors who notice inconsistencies, ethical breaches, or other issues either during the submission process or post-publication.

• Readers: Members of the scientific community or the public who come across published work and suspect ethical violations or misconduct.

• Institutional Affiliates: Representatives from the institutions affiliated with the authors or research, such as university ethics committees or research oversight bodies, who become aware of potential misconduct within their organization.

 

To address allegations of misconduct, individuals should direct their concerns to editorial_office@huitaca.org. Upon receipt, these allegations will be forwarded to our Ethical Committee. The committee is tasked with responding within one month, during which they may request further information or recommend specific actions and sanctions. This streamlined process ensures prompt and decisive handling of misconduct cases.

 

Open access policy

• Global Women’s Science, Nature and Society is fully open access (gold OA), which means that all the content is immediately and freely available to anyone.

• To support the costs of publishing including reviewing (first by internal review, and then external peer review), technical, copy editing, typesetting and graphics, online hosting, archiving, and pro-motion, authors are asked to pay an article processing charge (APC), upon acceptance. The APC is payable for all full-length peer-reviewed article types. Information on the APC for Global Women’s Science, Nature and Society can be found in our website.

• For any questions, please contact our team editorial_office@huitaca.org

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Copyright and reuse

Articles are published under Creative Commons licensing, which enables authors to retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work, provided full credit is given to them as originators. 

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For Creative Commons licensing see http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/