ISSN 1851-3743
online version
ISSN 0327-9286
printed version

Instructions to authors

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

Acta Toxicológica Argentina (Acta Toxicol. Argent.) is the official publication for scientific promotion of the Asociación Toxicológica Argentina. It is a member of the Núcleo Básico de Revistas Científicas Argentinas (Basic Core of Argentinean Scientific Journals) since 2007. Full articles can be accessed through SciELO Argentina electronic library.
The goal of Acta Toxicológica Argentina is to publish articles concerning all areas of Toxicology, including original articles, case reports, short communications, revisions, popularization of science articles, technical notes, thesis summaries, letters to the editor and relevant news.
Original articles must detail complete research and should be organized into the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion (the last two can be combined into one section).
Case reports include description of clinical case studies which represent a contribution to the field of Toxicology.
Short communications are brief, concise articles that contribute to the respective area of Toxicology.
Revisions or updates comprise studies where an extensive revision of a topic of current importance and/or interest has been carried out.
Articles concerned with popular science and special articles can comment on a broad range of toxicological topics.
Technical notes should briefly describe new devices or analytical techniques validated by conclusive experimental studies.
Thesis summaries are sufficiently detailed abstracts of approved doctoral or magisterial thesis. They must include a copy of acceptance and a sworn statement by the author and director, and should not exceed 1,000 characters.

Articles must be written using a word processor (Microsoft Word 2003 or higher) with double-spacing throughout (including abstract, references and tables), and a minimum letter size of Arial 12. Manuscripts must contain page numbers on each page from the first page. The use of bold and italic letters must be limited to the bare minimum necessary.
First page should contain the article title (in capital letters), full name and affiliations of all authors, workplace (name of institution and postal address; if it differs between authors, numerical superscripts, not in parentheses, next to each author should be used to identify it); fax and/or e-mail address of the corresponding author (signaled by a subscript asterisk next to the name).
Second page must include an English title and the abstract, both in the language of submission and in English, each followed by four key words in the corresponding language. If the article is written in English, then the abstract in Spanish must be provided. Keywords must be headed by capital letters and separated by semicolons.
Introduction. It should include updated background references and clearly stated study goals.
Materials and methods. This section should describe the methods, devices, reagents and procedures used, sufficiently detailed to enable the experiments to be reproduced.
Ethical considerations. All clinical studies must specify the name of the Ethics and Research Committee responsible for the approval of the study, as well as the patients’ written consent. Studies involving non human experimental subjects must give assurance that ethical guidelines for the protection of animal handling and welfare were followed.
Statistical analysis. The statistical tests employed should be properly explained and justified to allow verification by other researchers. If statistical software was used to process data, it should be mentioned.
Results can be showed through one of the following formats: text, tables or figures. Authors should avoid repetition, and only the relevant data should be presented. An extensive interpretation of the results should be left for the Discussion section.
Tables must be typed in separate pages and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in order of appearance in the text. Legends or explanations should be included as footnotes. Marks for footnotes must be superscript Arabic numerals in parentheses. Continuous lines may be only used for the outer borders of the first and last row and to separate columns and data titles, not for outer borders of columns. Please make sure that each table is cited in the text.
Figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and presented in separate pages. Drawings must be of good enough quality to ensure adequate reproduction. Bar, pie or statistical charts must be prepared in GIF format. Numbers, letters and signs within figures must be of the appropriate size to be legible when the final sizing takes place. All signs used must have a reference in the figure caption.
Black-and-white only photographs should have proper contrast and a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Submit all original drawings and photographs in glossy paper with the authors’ name and figure number written in pencil in the back. For the electronic submission, photographs should be in high resolution JPEG or GIF formats. Both figures and photographs must be clearly legible. The minimum size for figures is half-letter paper size (21 x 15 cm) at 300 dpi. Magnification must be indicated whether by a scale bar or the magnification number.
Present figure captions in a separate page, accordingly numbered. Only the elements visible in the corresponding figure must be included in the caption.
Abbreviations. Authors should only use conventional abbreviations, avoiding their use in the title and abstract. When an abbreviation is first introduced in the text it must be preceded by the full term, except in the case of unit measures.
Unit measures. Length, size, weight and volume measures should be expressed according to the metric system (meter, kilogram, liter or their decimal multiples). Temperatures will be provided in degrees Celsius; blood pressure in millimeters of mercury.
All hematological and biochemical parameters should follow the metric system, according to the International System of Units (SI). However, editors could require that alternate units be provided before publication.
Nomenclature. For chemicals, authors should primarily adhere to IUPAC norms. Designate organism names according to international norms by stating the unabbreviated genus and species in italic.
Discussion. Emphasis should be placed on the most relevant and novel aspects of the study. Interpret experimental data in terms of previous published findings. Include conclusions without repeating data and concepts stated elsewhere.
Acknowledgements. Limit to a single paragraph, using Arial 10 lettering.
References. Citations in the text consist of the authors’ last name (up to two authors) and the year of publication in parentheses. In the case of more than one citation, list them from the oldest to the newest and separate citations by semicolons. For more than two authors, only cite the first author’s last name followed by et al. and the year of publication.

Examples:
“Caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) is the psychoactive substance with the largest consumption worldwide (Concon 1988; Lewin 1998; Nehlig 1999)”.
“During pregnancy the total consumption of caffeine should not exceed 300 mg/day (Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (OTIS) 2001; Kaiser and Allen 2002; Nawrot et al. 2003)”.

Full references must be listed alphabetically at the end of the manuscript under the subheading References.

Examples:

1. Standard article in periodical publications.
   Halpern S.D., Ubel P.A., Caplan A.L. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(4):284-7.

2. Books and monographs.
   Murray P.R., Rosenthal K.S., Kobayashi G.S., Pfaller M.A. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby, 2002.

3. Book chapters.
   Meltzer P.S., Kallioniemi A., Trent J.M. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B., Kinzler K.W., editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. P. 93-113.

4. Electronic material.
   1. Article published in an online journal.
      Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [online]. 2002 Jun. [accessed August 12, 2002];102(6):[1 p.]. Available at: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htmArticle
   2. Website.
      Cancer-Pain.org [online]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated May 16, 2002; accessed July 9, 2002]. Available at: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.
   3.  Partial website.
      American Medical Association [online]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2002 [updated August 23, 2001; accessed August 12, 2002]. AMA Office of Group Practice Liaison. Available at:
      http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1736.html

For correct citation please refer to the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” proposed by the International Committee of Medical Journals Directors, available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Manuscripts can be submitted in electronic form by the e-mail address to: envios.acta.ATA@gmail.com, or sent in CD-ROM to the postal address: Alsina 1441, office 302, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (C1088AAK).
For electronic submissions, please include “Manuscript for Acta” in the subject. The body of the e-mail should contain the title of the article, as well as the first and last name of all authors. Articles must be attached as Microsoft Word 2003 files or higher, and be in accordance to the guide for authors specified below.
A letter to the Director in Word format in the name of all authors requesting the article be considered for publication also needs to be included. This letter should clearly state that:

• The submitted article has not been published, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and will not be sent to another journal or published in any way until the reviewing process in Acta concludes.
• All authors are responsible for the content of the article.
• All authors express whether any conflict of interest arose from the study. If they received external funding, the source should be declared. Likewise, any association between authors and commercial companies whose product/s were used or mentioned in the study must be stated.
• If the article is accepted for publication, all authors agree to transfer copyright to Acta.

If one or more of these items are not addressed in the letter the editorial process cannot be initiated.