[Review Articles].

This paper summarizes the main features of review articles in medical topics. Articles can be classified as narrative reviews, systematic reviews or meta-analysis. Narrative reviews are appropriate to update etiology, pathophysiology or clinical aspects of diseases, and advances in basic and preclinical sciences.

[How can you succeed in having your manuscript published in a medical journal. Advices to inexpert authors that can also be useful to senior authors].

Young authors may benefit by some advices on how to proceed when they decide to write a manuscript and submit it to a medical journal. They should start by selecting the journal considering the topic and nature of their study, how relevant the results seem and the interest it may have in editors and readers. A reasonable choice should consider new journals that publish good papers selected after external peer review.

[History, purposes and characteristics of medical journals].

Medical journals are fundamental elements in medical education, in professional life, in research and in academic careers. They communicate new scientific and clinical findings, legitimate and give credibility to biomedical and clinical investigation, are guarantors of the authors' intellectual property, are a useful forum for the discussion of relevant topics, distribute selected information to readers and are archives of their publications. Out of the numerous medical journals appeared before and during the XIXth Century, only 24 of them remain active until today and Revista Médica de Chile appears as number 20 in the list.

[Ethical problems in scientific publications].

Ethical problems have always been present in scientific publications. Since the founding of medical journals, in the XIX Century, until today they are a source of concern because one main purpose of medical scientific publications is to add new, reliable information that could guide or modify medical decisions and public health policies. Since 1997, Revista Médica de Chile has published several articles clarifying this situation and emphasizing the need to avoid ethical misbehavior.

[The fascination of editing a medical journal and the nostalgic memories when departing].

As of March 2016, Humberto Reyes, MD, FACP, steps down as Editor-in-Chief of Revista Médica de Chile. He joined its editorial team in 1971, as a part-time Assistant Editor. A few years later he became Associate Editor and since 1996, Editor-in-Chief.

[Shortening undergraduate medical training: now and for all medical schools in Chile?].

In Chile, undergraduate medical education starts after High School, it lasts seven years, with the final two dedicated to a rotary internship, taking to an M.D. degree that allows the graduate to enter working activities.

[An analysis of Chilean biomedical publications in PubMed in the years 2008-2009].

Background: During the years 2008 and 2009, 1,191 biomedical articles authored by Chilean investigators working in Chile were indexed in PubMed.

Aims: To evaluate the potential visibility of those articles, according to scientometric indexes of the journals where they were published.

Methods: Those journals where the articles had been published were identified and each journal’s Impact Factor (JIF), 5-year JIF, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), SCImago Quartiles (Q) for 2010 and the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) for 2008-2009 were identified.

[ProfessorHernán Alessandri, M.D. (1900-1980)].

Hernán Alessandri M.D. was an outstanding clinician and a leading medical educator, born in Santiago in 1900 where he died in 1980 [corrected].

[Raúl B. Etcheverry, M.D. (1909-2014)].

Professor Raúl B. Etcheverry, M.D.

[A tribute to Richard V. Lee, M.D].

Richard V Lee, MD, MACP, FRGS, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Obstetrics, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Social and Preventive Medicine. Director, Division of Maternal & Adolescent Medicine, and Director, Division of Geographic Medicine, Department of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, passed away on May 7,2013. His academic degrees and university positions are a vivid testimony of his wide professional interests and capabilities.

[Revista Médica de Chile in the year 2012].

During the year 2012, 539 manuscripts were submitted to this journal, following an increasing trend in the recent decade. Rejection rate was 33%. This higher number of submissions demanded a larger number and wider scope of external reviews, retarding the editorial process.

[Tradition and progress (1872-2012)].

The first issue of Revista Médica de Chile appeared in July, 1872. Since then it has been published monthly and thus it became one of the oldest medical journals being printed since the 19th Century. The opening Editorial in the first issue, labeled as "Prospecto"and written by the first editor, Germán Schneider, M.

[Main characteristics of current biomedical research, in Chile].

Background: Biomedical research is a fundamental tool for the development of a country, requiring human and financial resources.

Aim: To define some current characteristics of biomedical research, in Chile.

Methods: Data on entities funding bio-medical research, participant institutions, and the number of active investigators for the period 2007-2009 were obtained from institutional sources; publications indexed in PubMed for 2008-2009 were analysed.

[The relevance and fate of abstracts presented in scientific meetings].

Abstracts presented in scientific meetings are indispensable tools to diffuse the latest research in the field. They provide the authors with an opportunity to receive feedback from a critical audience so they can prepare a final manuscript to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. However, several studies in a wide range of medical specialties and other related sciences showed that no more than 50% of abstracts presented in annual meetings of learned societies are published in a 5-year follow up after the meeting.

[Chile: Standing up again].

One of the biggest earthquakes recorded in human history has recently devastated a large part of the Chilean territory and, followed by a Tsunami, destroyed cities, seaports, fishermen's coves, bridges, and countryside houses. This cataclysm affected a large proportion of our population, leaving homeless families, no working tools for work places, hospitals, schools, public buildings, museums. However, the loss of human Uves was small compared to similar disasters.

[Revista Médica de Chile in the year 2009].

During the first semester of 2009 Revista Médica de Chile has received an increasing number of manuscripts. Close to 30% were rejected while most other are in the process of being improved by the authors after receiving criticisms by external peer reviewers and the editors. The time lag between acceptance and publication of manuscripts is on an average six months.

[Plagiarism in scientific publications].

Similar to what occurs in literature, art and other human endeavours, every scientific report is based in previous work done by others. The new paper should add something original but a basic law of scientific honesty demands that any mention ideas, observations or thinking that has been previously proposed or published by others, should be acknowledged properly in the text and in the references. Plagiarism is identified when the authors of a scientific report use ideas or text that belong to others and present them as original, the previous source is concealed or it is referred to in a different context.

[An opinion survey among readers of Revista Médica de Chile].

Background: A few objective indicators support the relevance of articles published in medical journals, such as the ISI Impact Factor and Citation Indices. However, a feedback from the readers can help to improve a journal.

Aim: To report the results of an opinion survey addressed to readers of Revista Médica de Chile, in June-August 2007.

[The 135th anniversary of Revista Médica de Chile].

Revista Médica de Chile was founded 135 years ago and it has been published monthly since then, being now the 23rd oldest biomedical journal in the world and the second oldest published in Spanish (Table 1). It is included in the major international data bases and it adheres since their first version to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (ICMJE) and to the recommendations established by the World Association of Medical Journal Editors (WAME) . The number of articles submitted for publication to the Revista has increased in the last decade, including manuscripts coming from other countries and these are published in English when the authors do not have Spanish as their original language.