About the Journal
Focus and Scope
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina is an electronic, continuously published, Diamond Open Access journal with technical-scientific peer review. It is edited by the Academic Division of Químico Farmacéutico Biólogo of the Facultad de Ciencias Químicas at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.
The journal aims to contribute to the dissemination, discussion, and strengthening of scientific, academic, and technical knowledge in the fields of pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical sciences, and related disciplines. Its purpose is to publish works that provide evidence, critical analysis, methodological proposals, technological advances, or specialized reflections relevant to research, teaching, professional practice, and innovation in health sciences.
The thematic scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to, the following areas: pharmaceutical technology and analysis; clinical, community, and hospital pharmacy; pharmacology; toxicology; natural and synthetic products with biological activity; computational chemistry; genomic sciences; biotechnology applied to health sciences; translational medicine; biomedical sciences; drug development; preclinical and clinical research; as well as emerging topics related to health, therapeutics, and pharmaceutical innovation.
The journal is intended for researchers, faculty members, undergraduate and graduate students, professionals in pharmaceutical, chemical-biological, biomedical, and health sciences, as well as members of academic, clinical, hospital, regulatory, and industrial institutions interested in the generation, application, and dissemination of scientific knowledge in these fields.
The journal publishes the following types of content: original articles, review articles, short communications, editorials, letters to the editor, hypotheses, and tutorials. Each contribution is assigned to the corresponding section according to its nature, structure, and purpose, ensuring consistency among the terminology used in the table of contents, editorial sections, and published files.
Publication Frequency
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina operates under a continuous publication model. Approved and edited articles are published individually throughout the year once the peer-review, correction, editing, and final approval processes have been completed.
The journal compiles one annual volume corresponding to the January-December period of each year. Under this model, the journal does not publish semiannual or quarterly issues; instead, articles are incorporated continuously into the current annual volume.
The journal previously operated on a semiannual publication schedule. However, following the adoption of the continuous publication model, articles are now published as soon as they are editorially approved and are incorporated into the corresponding annual volume.
Peer Review Policy
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina submits all manuscripts received to an editorial evaluation and peer-review process in order to ensure the scientific quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and academic clarity of the works published.
Review Model
The journal employs a double-blind peer-review system, in which the identity of the authors is concealed from the reviewers and the identity of the reviewers is concealed from the authors. This model is intended to promote an impartial, objective assessment focused exclusively on the scientific and academic merit of the manuscript.
To preserve anonymity, authors must submit a version of the manuscript without personal or institutional identifying information, acknowledgments, authorship statements, or any other elements that may reveal their identity. The editorial team may request adjustments to the file before initiating the review process.
Initial Editorial Assessment
Upon receipt of a manuscript, the Editorial Committee conducts a preliminary assessment to verify that the work:
•Meets the thematic scope of the journal.
•Complies with the established editorial guidelines.
•Presents an appropriate academic structure.
•Clearly states its objectives, methodology, results, and conclusions.
•Meets basic criteria of originality, ethics, and scientific integrity.
Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements may be returned to the authors for correction or rejected without external peer review.
Selection of Reviewers
Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial assessment are sent to two or more expert reviewers in the relevant subject area. Reviewers are selected based on their academic expertise, scientific track record, methodological knowledge, and absence of conflicts of interest related to the content of the manuscript.
Reviewers must declare any potential academic, institutional, personal, financial, or professional conflict of interest that could compromise the objectivity of their evaluation. If a relevant conflict exists, the reviewer must refrain from participating in the process.
Review Criteria
During the review process, peer reviewers evaluate, among other aspects:
•Originality and relevance of the work.
•Relevance of the topic to pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical sciences, or related areas.
•Strength of the problem statement and objectives.
•Appropriateness of the methodological design.
•Quality of data analysis and interpretation of results.
•Coherence among results, discussion, and conclusions.
•Currency, relevance, and sufficiency of bibliographic references.
•Clarity, organization, and quality of academic writing.
•Compliance with ethical research principles, when applicable.
Confidentiality
All manuscripts submitted for review are treated as confidential documents. Reviewers, editors, and members of the Editorial Committee must not share, reproduce, cite, use, or disclose the content of the manuscript prior to publication.
The information contained in submitted manuscripts must not be used for the personal, academic, or professional benefit of reviewers or editors involved in the process.
Editorial Decision
Based on the reviewers’ recommendations and the judgment of the Editorial Committee, the manuscript may receive one of the following decisions:
Accepted without modifications.
Accepted with minor revisions.
Subject to major revisions and further evaluation.
Rejected.
The decision is communicated to the corresponding author together with the reviewers’ comments, ensuring that the observations are clear, respectful, evidence-based, and aimed at improving the quality of the manuscript.
Review of Revised Manuscripts
When revisions are requested, authors must submit a corrected version of the manuscript accompanied by a response letter explaining, point by point, how the observations made by the reviewers and the editorial team were addressed.
The Editorial Committee may accept the revised manuscript, request further modifications, send it back for additional peer review, or reject it if it determines that substantial comments were not adequately addressed.
Impartiality and Editorial Ethics
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina promotes a fair, objective, and non-discriminatory evaluation process, regardless of gender, age, nationality, institutional affiliation, academic degree, theoretical orientation, personal beliefs, or any other condition unrelated to the scientific merit of the manuscript.
Editorial decisions are based exclusively on academic quality, scientific relevance, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and the contribution of the manuscript to its field of study.
Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers must provide well-founded, constructive, and respectful evaluations. Their comments must be aimed at strengthening the manuscript and must not include personal judgments about the authors.
Reviewers must also inform the editorial team if they detect possible issues related to originality, plagiarism, redundant publication, data manipulation, ethical conflicts, or any other situation that may compromise the scientific integrity of the work.
Final Decision
The final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript rests with the Editorial Committee of the journal, taking into account the reviewers’ assessments, the quality of the authors’ responses, and compliance with current editorial policies.
Acceptance of a manuscript does not depend solely on a favorable peer-review outcome, but also on compliance with the formal, ethical, and editorial criteria established by the Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina.
Similarity and Originality Verification
All manuscripts received by the Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina are subjected to similarity screening using Turnitin as part of the initial editorial process. This procedure aims to verify the originality of the document and detect potential textual overlap, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, content duplication, or inappropriate use of sources.
The recommended similarity index should be below 30%. However, this percentage will not be interpreted automatically or in isolation, as the Editorial Committee will conduct a qualitative review of the report, considering the nature of the matches, the proper use of citations, bibliographic references, methodological fragments, institutional names, technical terminology, and common expressions within the field.
When a manuscript presents a high similarity index or relevant unjustified overlaps, the Editorial Committee may request corrections from the authors before continuing with the evaluation process. If plagiarism, self-plagiarism, substantial reproduction of previous works, citation manipulation, or inadequate attribution of sources is identified, the manuscript will be rejected.
The journal may apply these verification mechanisms at any stage of the editorial process, including after acceptance, if evidence emerges suggesting lack of originality or non-compliance with good editorial practices.
Open Access Policy
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina provides immediate open access to all its content in order to promote the free, broad, and timely dissemination of scientific knowledge. The journal operates under a Diamond Open Access model, which means that both article access and publication are free of charge for readers and authors.
This policy is grounded in the principle that open access to academic research contributes to the global exchange of knowledge, enhances author visibility, and promotes the advancement of pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical sciences, and related fields.
Readers may access, download, distribute, and use published articles, provided that authorship and the original source of publication are properly acknowledged in accordance with the journal’s editorial conditions.
Article publication in the journal involves no cost for authors. The expenses derived from the editorial and publication process are covered by the Facultad de Ciencias Químicas of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, the institution that provides administrative and financial support to the journal. This support does not imply responsibility for, intervention in, or influence over the scientific, academic, methodological, or interpretive content of the published articles.
Artificial Intelligence Use Policy
Effective Date
This policy enters into force upon its approval and publication on the official website of the Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina. It will be reviewed periodically by the editorial team to ensure its continued alignment with the development of new artificial intelligence tools, evolving scientific publishing practices, and national and international guidelines on editorial ethics.
Scope
This policy applies to all individuals participating in the publication process of the Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina, including authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Committee, technical staff, and any other individuals involved in the receipt, evaluation, editing, correction, production, and publication of manuscripts.
The policy covers all document types considered by the journal, including original articles, review articles, short communications, case reports, letters to the editor, editorials, technical notes, academic essays, supplementary materials, images, tables, figures, graphical abstracts, and any other content submitted to, evaluated by, or published in the journal.
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina operates within the academic framework of the Facultad de Ciencias Químicas of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Therefore, this policy is consistent with current institutional regulations, as well as with the general principles of academic integrity, research ethics, open science, editorial responsibility, and good scientific publishing practices.
Principles
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina recognizes that artificial intelligence can serve as a support tool for research, scientific communication, academic editing, and editorial management. However, its use must be transparent, responsible, verifiable, and ethically oriented toward strengthening scientific knowledge.
The journal adopts the following principles:
Human responsibility. Every scientific contribution must be assumed by human individuals. Artificial intelligence tools cannot be considered authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, or intellectual agents responsible for a manuscript.
Transparency. The use of artificial intelligence tools must be clearly, sufficiently, and verifiably disclosed whenever such tools have been involved in writing, analysis, editing, interpretation, content generation, data processing, image creation, literature review, translation, or any other relevant phase of the work.
Scientific integrity. Artificial intelligence must not be used to fabricate, manipulate, falsify, distort, or conceal data, results, images, bibliographic references, ethical approvals, conflict-of-interest statements, authorship, or any other element of the scientific process.
Verification and traceability. Authors, reviewers, and editors are responsible for verifying the accuracy, relevance, originality, and validity of any content generated or assisted by artificial intelligence.
Confidentiality. Manuscripts under evaluation, review reports, unpublished data, and editorial correspondence are confidential materials. They must not be uploaded to publicly accessible or uncontrolled artificial intelligence tools if there is any risk of storage, reuse, leakage, or model training using such information.
Equity and non-discrimination. The use of artificial intelligence must not introduce, reproduce, or amplify biases related to gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, language, institution, socioeconomic status, disability, research area, or any other personal or academic characteristic.
Human editorial decision-making. No editorial decision, including acceptance, rejection, requests for revision, reviewer selection, or resolution of disputes, may be delegated exclusively to automated systems or artificial intelligence tools.
Proportional and justified use. Artificial intelligence may be used as a support tool, but not as a substitute for scientific reasoning, critical analysis, responsible academic writing, expert review, or ethical evaluation.
Definitions
For the purposes of this policy, the following definitions apply:
Artificial intelligence: A set of computational systems capable of performing tasks that normally require human abilities, such as language generation, information analysis, pattern recognition, classification, prediction, translation, content synthesis, or image generation.
Generative artificial intelligence: Tools capable of producing text, images, tables, code, summaries, translations, responses, outlines, hypotheses, graphics, or other forms of content based on instructions or data provided by a user.
AI tool: Any application, platform, model, or system based on artificial intelligence, including language models, chatbots, image generators, writing assistants, advanced automatic translators, bibliographic analysis systems, summarization tools, detection software, programming assistants, and editorial support systems.
Content use: The use of artificial intelligence to generate, modify, interpret, summarize, translate, analyze, or propose substantive manuscript content, including ideas, arguments, hypotheses, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, citations, tables, or figures.
Formatting use: The use of artificial intelligence to improve formal aspects of a text, such as grammar, style, punctuation, clarity, organization, auxiliary translation, formatting adaptation, or editorial consistency, without modifying the essential scientific content.
Prompt or instruction: A text, command, question, file, image, manuscript fragment, dataset, or other input provided to an artificial intelligence tool in order to obtain a response, analysis, or product.
Rules for Authors
Prohibited Uses
Authors may not:
Include an artificial intelligence tool as an author, co-author, responsible collaborator, or source bearing intellectual responsibility.
Use artificial intelligence to fabricate, alter, invent, complete, or manipulate data, results, images, figures, tables, statistical analyses, ethical approvals, informed consent forms, or bibliographic references.
Present AI-generated content as their own without critical review, verification, and the corresponding disclosure.
Use artificial intelligence as a substitute for rigorous literature review, critical reading of primary sources, or scientific interpretation of results.
Include non-existent, inaccurate, or unverified references generated by artificial intelligence.
Use artificial intelligence to conceal plagiarism, self-plagiarism, redundant publication, image manipulation, inappropriate fragmentation of results, or any other editorial malpractice.
Upload sensitive data, confidential information, personal data, identifiable clinical information, unauthorized databases, third-party manuscripts, or protected materials to publicly accessible AI tools without explicit authorization.
Use AI to generate images, graphics, micrographs, gels, chromatograms, spectra, plates, maps, experimental diagrams, or any visual representation that may mislead readers regarding the actual evidence obtained.
Use AI to respond to reviewers’ comments without critically reviewing the relevance, accuracy, and scientific sufficiency of the response.
Expected Conduct
When using artificial intelligence, authors must:
Maintain full responsibility for the content of the manuscript.
Carefully verify all information, references, data, claims, translations, analyses, or interpretations produced with AI assistance.
Ensure that the use of AI does not compromise the originality, integrity, confidentiality, or scientific validity of the work.
Use AI in an auxiliary, proportional, and transparent manner.
Clearly distinguish between formatting uses and content-related uses.
Retain evidence of the use of AI, including the tool, version, date, purpose, parts of the manuscript in which it was used, and the main instructions or prompts employed.
Disclose the use of AI at the time of manuscript submission and, when appropriate, within the manuscript itself.
Confirm that all authors are aware of and approve the AI-use disclosure.
How to Declare the Use of AI
Any author who has used artificial intelligence tools must include a specific statement in the manuscript and/or cover letter. The statement must indicate, at minimum:
Name of the tool or model used.
Version, if available.
Date or period of use.
Part or parts of the process in which it was used.
Type of use: content, formatting, translation, language correction, analysis, bibliographic support, code generation, data processing, figure preparation, or other.
Prompts, main instructions, or a sufficiently detailed description of the instructions used.
A statement confirming that the authors reviewed, verified, and assume full responsibility for the final content.
Representative Example
“During the preparation of this manuscript, [name of the tool, version, date] was used to support [style correction/preliminary translation/section summarization/clarity review/text organization]. The main instructions used were: [briefly describe]. The authors critically reviewed all content generated or modified with the support of this tool, verified the accuracy of the information, and assume full responsibility for the final version of the manuscript.”
When Disclosure Is Not Required
Disclosure is not required for minor automated tools whose function is limited to basic spelling correction, reference management, format checking, file conversion, or routine use of statistical software, provided that they do not generate substantive content, interpretations, data, images, scientific arguments, or relevant new writing.
Rules for Reviewers
Prohibited Uses
Reviewers may not:
Upload complete manuscripts, substantive fragments, tables, figures, data, supplementary materials, or confidential journal information to publicly accessible artificial intelligence tools or to tools whose data management policies do not guarantee confidentiality.
Delegate the scientific, methodological, ethical, or editorial evaluation of the manuscript to artificial intelligence.
Use AI to issue automated review reports without direct reading, critical analysis, and their own expert judgment.
Share unpublished data, original ideas, preliminary results, hypotheses, images, methods, or information obtained during the peer-review process with AI tools.
Use AI to identify authors, institutions, or individuals involved in manuscripts submitted under double-blind review.
Use AI to generate offensive, biased, discriminatory, inaccurate, or unfounded comments.
Present AI-generated observations as their own judgment without review, correction, and validation.
Expected Conduct
Reviewers must:
Maintain absolute confidentiality regarding the manuscript and the review process.
Read and directly evaluate the assigned manuscript.
Assume full responsibility for the content of their review report.
Use artificial intelligence only as a limited support tool when confidentiality and process integrity are not compromised.
Disclose any use of AI in the preparation of the review report, summary, linguistic revision of comments, or methodological support.
Inform the editorial team if they detect possible undeclared, inappropriate, or problematic use of artificial intelligence in a manuscript.
Avoid relying on automated AI detectors as the sole evidence of misconduct.
How to Declare the Use of AI in Peer Review
If a reviewer uses artificial intelligence in any part of the evaluation process, they must inform the editorial team and indicate:
Name of the tool or model used.
Version, if available.
Date of use.
Part of the process in which it was used.
Type of use: formatting support, linguistic revision, organization of comments, auxiliary methodological analysis, or other.
Prompts or main instructions used.
Confirmation that no confidential information was shared with unauthorized tools.
Confirmation that the final review report reflects the reviewer’s own expert judgment.
Representative Example
“I declare that I used [name of the tool, version, date] solely to [improve the clarity/writing/structure of my comments]. I did not upload the full manuscript, data, figures, or confidential information to the tool. The scientific analysis, recommendations, and final decision are the result of my expert review, for which I assume full responsibility.”
Use of AI by Editorial Management
The editorial team of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedicine may use artificial intelligence tools to support editorial tasks, provided that such use occurs under human supervision, safeguards confidentiality, and is internally documented.
AI may be used, in an auxiliary capacity, for:
a. Preliminary review of formal manuscript aspects, such as structure, length, consistency of sections, compliance with author guidelines, and general formatting.
b. Support in style editing, linguistic clarity, terminological normalization, auxiliary translation, or readability improvement, without altering the scientific meaning of the text.
c. Review of metadata, keywords, titles, abstracts, references, and editorial consistency.
d. Development of internal checklists to support the initial technical review.
e. Auxiliary detection of possible inconsistencies, formal omissions, textual similarity, citation problems, or potential integrity alerts, always subject to human verification.
f. Organization of editorial correspondence, drafts of administrative communication, and tracking of editorial workflow stages.
g. Support for accessibility, indexing, preservation, normalization, and dissemination of published content.
When AI is used in any of these tasks, the editorial team must:
Internally document the name of the tool, version, date, purpose, and scope of use.
Ensure that editorial decisions are made exclusively by human individuals.
Avoid uploading manuscripts, data, images, or confidential materials to tools that may store, reuse, or use such content for training without authorization.
Inform authors when their material has been processed with AI assistance in substantive editorial tasks.
Request authorization or consent when there is a possibility that the material may be stored, reused, or incorporated into model-training processes.
Not use AI detectors as the sole basis for rejecting, sanctioning, or questioning a manuscript.
Allow authors to respond to, clarify, or correct any editorial observation related to the use of AI.
Editorial Statement on Authorship and Responsibility
The journal does not recognize artificial intelligence systems as authors, co-authors, or entities responsible for scientific content. Authorship entails ethical, intellectual, legal, and academic responsibility for the published work; therefore, it may only be attributed to human individuals who have made substantial contributions and are able to respond for the integrity of the manuscript.
Any author who uses artificial intelligence retains full responsibility for verifying the originality, accuracy, relevance, validity, and legality of any content generated or assisted by such tools.
Data, Image, and Reference Integrity
The use of AI in the handling of data, images, or references must comply with the following criteria:
Reported data must correspond to real and verifiable observations, measurements, analyses, or sources.
Scientific images must not be generated, reconstructed, modified, or enhanced through AI in a way that alters the original evidence.
Any image modification must be declared when it has scientific or editorial relevance.
Bibliographic references must be directly verified by the authors using reliable sources.
Invented, inaccurate, or non-retrievable citations generated by AI will not be accepted.
The use of AI for data analysis, programming, or statistical processing must be described in the methodology section when relevant to study reproducibility.
Non-Compliance
Failure to comply with this policy, or the detection of malpractice related to the use of artificial intelligence, may result, depending on the severity of the case, in one or more of the following actions:
Request for clarification from the authors, reviewers, or members of the editorial team involved.
Request for correction of the AI-use statement.
Request for modification, verification, or removal of AI-generated or AI-assisted content.
Additional review of the manuscript by the editorial team or expert reviewers.
Rejection of the manuscript during the editorial process.
Withdrawal of the manuscript if it has not yet been published.
Publication of a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, when appropriate.
Notification to the competent institutional authorities in serious cases of academic or editorial misconduct.
The journal evaluates each case individually, ensuring the right of reply of the individuals involved and avoiding automatic decisions based exclusively on artificial intelligence detection tools.
Policy Updates
Given the rapid development of artificial intelligence tools, this policy may be updated by the editorial team of the Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina whenever new needs, risks, international standards, or applicable institutional provisions are identified.
History of the Journal
The Revista de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Biomedicina has been published continuously since 2016. It was founded through the initiative of Dr. Eduardo Soto Regalado, then Director of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences; Dr. Yolanda Araceli Gracia Vásquez, then Deputy Director of the Pharmaceutical-Biological Chemistry program; and Dr. Isaías Balderas Rentería, who served as the journal’s first Editor-in-Chief.
In 2019, Dr. Omar González Santiago assumed the editorial leadership of the journal, a position he held until 2024. Beginning that year, editorial responsibility was entrusted to Dr. Bryan Alejandro Espinosa Rodríguez, who currently serves as Editor-in-Chief.
