Submissions

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Scope and policy

DEMETRA: Food, Nutrition & Health (e-ISSN 2238-913X) is a specialized journal that publishes articles in continuous flow in the field of Food, Nutrition and Health in its various subareas and related areas. DEMETRA is open to contributions from the national and international scientific community. There are no costs for submission and evaluation of manuscripts.

DEMETRA only accepts unpublished articles in Portuguese, English and Spanish, languages in which articles can be submitted. After approval of the manuscript, texts in Portuguese and Spanish will be translated to English by professionals accredited by DEMETRA, and the authors will bear the cost of such translation.

Authors with English proficiency may submit manuscripts in this language, but the manuscript will be reviewed, and if it is considered inappropriate, an accredited translation will be indicated. After approval the article should be translated into Portuguese.

Social networks

DEMETRA, aiming at a greater dissemination of its content, encourage authors to publish their articles in social networks and other databases, after publication in the journal, such as:

Academia.edu - https://www.academia.edu/

Mendeley - https://www.mendeley.com/

ResearchGate - http://www.researchgate.net/

Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en

Submission

All articles must be submitted electronically at <https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br>. Any other form of submission will not be evaluated by the publishers.

At the time of submission should be attached, in Word format:

(1) the complete manuscript, with no author identification including figures, graphs and tables at the end of the text after the references; and

(2) the cover page – uploaded as supplemental file not for review; and

(3) Authorization of publication and copyright declaration should be sent only in case of approval of the article.

Manuscript evaluation will only begin if the cover page is sent in a separate file, uploaded as a supplementary document, to guarantee anonymity during the peer review process.

The journal encourages the deposit of manuscripts on preprint platforms. If the deposit occurs, the author must notify the editors using the "Comments for the Editor" field, inserting the link (URL) and the DOI number of the manuscript accepted by the preprint platform.

Peer Review Process

Concerning articles that have already been disclosed as preprints, peer review process will be single-blind, considering that the manuscript’s author(s) may be known.

Reviewers

In submitting the manuscript, authors must indicate on the cover page at least three possible reviewers, with the respective e-mails and the academic or research institutions they are linked to. Reviewers must have experience in the area of the proposed subject and hold a doctorate degree. However, this indication does not determine the actual invitation to reviewers.

Preliminary assessment

If the manuscript is not considered to be of scientific priority or insufficient for publication, it may be rejected, without detailed comments, after the initial analysis made by at least two editors of DEMETRA.

Authorship

Authors are only those who contributed intellectually to the development of the study. The type of participation by each author must be indicated on the cover page. Collaborating in data collection or performing some technique, or yielding equipment to obtain data, are not, by themselves, sufficient criteria for authorship of a study. In these situations, those who collaborated can be mentioned in the Acknowledgments. The author must meet one or more of the following requirements: (1) participation in the study design; (2) participation in data collection, analysis and interpretation; (3) participation in the writing of the study; and (4) participation in the final review and approval of the manuscript for submission.

Evaluation of manuscripts

Manuscripts that meet the journal's standards are sent to the evaluation phases. To be published, the manuscript must be approved in the following stages:

● Preliminary evaluation: The evaluation of the manuscript is based on its relevance to the field of Food, Nutrition and Health. If the manuscript is not considered to be of scientific priority or insufficient for publication, it may be rejected without detailed comment after initial analysis by at least two editors of the journal.

● Blind Peer Review: Manuscripts selected in the preliminary review are subject to expert review on the topic. The procedure is confidential as to the identity of both authors and reviewers. Opinions are reviewed by the editors for final decision.

Conflict of interest

Authors must explicitly state individually any potential conflict of interest, direct and / or indirect, and financial or non-financial.

Articles categories

Perspectives: Analyzes of current issues of importance for Food, Nutrition and Health, of immediate interest (maximum of 1,600 words).

Discussion: Analysis of relevant topics in the field of Food, Nutrition and Health. It should contain critical comments developed by authors invited by the Editors, (maximum of 4,000 words and 4 illustrations).

Brief Communication: Reports of preliminary research results, or results of original studies that can be presented succinctly (maximum of 1,500 words and 3 illustrations).

Original: Articles originating from unpublished researches, of subject relevant to the area (maximum of 5,000 words, and 5 illustrations). Empirical research articles should contain the following sections: introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. For trials, conceptual approaches, and the like, there is freedom to establish the structure (title and subtitles) in order to contemplate the identification of the object of the study or problem in question and conceptual foundations, the development of the argument, the final considerations and the adequate and updated bibliography (maximum of 5,000 words and 5 illustrations).

Review: Critical review of available literature on a relevant subject relevant to the area; there must necessarily be analysis and interpretation of available literature through systematic review and meta-analysis (maximum of 4,000 words).

Other languages: Reflective texts on topics of interest to the readers of the journal, in relation to the fields of Food, Nutrition, Health, Commensality, Arts and Culture, using iconographic, poetic, literary, musical and audiovisual resources, among others, to strengthen and give consistency to the proposed discussion. Photo Features: Full HD (1920 x 1080) with 300 DPI resolution. (word limit 1,500 words and 6 illustrations and / or media).

For all categories

• For the word count, the abstract, references and illustrations will be disregarded.

• Abstracts must have a maximum of 250 words.

• Titles or subtitles should not be numbered, making use of graphic resources, preferably upper and lower case.

• Illustrations (figures, tables, tables and graphs) should be presented separately, at the end of the text, after references of the original with their respective titles, captions and specific references. 

• Throughout the text authors should indicate, with emphasis, the location of each illustration, all duly numbered.

• Tables and charts should be prepared in Word.

• Graphs must be drawn in Excel and the corresponding numeric data should preferably be sent separately in Word or in another spreadsheet as text for easy copying and pasting.

• Pictures must be forwarded in JPEG or TIFF.

• Footnotes: should be restricted as necessary and indicated by superscript letters (Ex. ^{a, b}). Use Word's own function for superscript letters.

• The texts must be prepared in Word, paper size A4, double-spaced, with margins of 2.5 cm, font Arial size 12. Make sure that all pages are numbered consecutively.

Thematic areas

Authors should indicate, in addition to the category of the article, the thematic area, namely:

Food and Nutrition in Collective Health

Food for Collectives

Food Science and Technology

Human and Social Sciences in Food

Basic and Experimental Nutrition

Clinical Nutrition

PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT  

COVER PAGE

Submit the manuscript accompanied by a cover page containing:

a) Full title in the original language of the manuscript and in English;

b) Short title for heading, not exceeding 40 characters (including spaces);

c) Name of each author, in full. Do not abbreviate the first names. All authors must be registered in the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID®) for article submission. If you do not have it, make the registration through the link: <https://orcid.org/register>). Inform, explicitly, the contribution of each author in the article. Authorship credit should be based on substantial contributions, such as: design; analysis and interpretation of data; review and approval of the final version of the article. The inclusion of names of authors whose contribution does not meet the above criteria is not justified;

d) Inform the academic qualification, current institutional affiliation, besides city, state and country f all authors;

e) Indicate the full address of the institution to which the corresponding author is linked;

f) Inform the e-mail and ORCID (https://orcid.org/) of all authors;

g) Inform if the article comes from dissertation or thesis, indicating the title, author, university and year of publication;

h) During the submission of the manuscript, the authors should indicate on the cover page at least three possible reviewers, with their e-mails and academic or research institutions to which they are linked. Reviewers should have experience in the area of the proposed topic and have a doctoral degree or proven technical experience in the area. The reviewers' suggestion does not determine the effective invitation for the review.

The processing of the article will only begin with the sending of the cover page in a separate file to guarantee anonymity during the peer review.

STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT

Title

• Complete, in the original language of the manuscript and in English, which should be concise and avoid unnecessary and / or redundant words; without abbreviations and acronyms or geographical location of the research.

• Abbreviated for heading, not exceeding 40 characters (including spaces), in Portuguese.

Abstract

All articles submitted in Portuguese, Spanish or English must contain an abstract with a minimum of 150 and a maximum of 250 words.

Articles submitted in Portuguese do not need an abstract. If the article is approved, the English version will contain this section.

The abstract should not contain quotes.

Highlighting at least three and at most six terms of indexing, the descriptors in Health Science - DeCS - of Bireme http://decs.bvs.br, or DeCS / MeSH (http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov / mesh / and http://decs.bvs.br/).

Original Articles and Short Communications

Introduction: It should contain a brief review of the updated literature pertinent to the theme. The presentation of the hypothesis(es) and objective(s) should be consistent with the theme.

Methods: Describe in a clear and succinct way the method(s) used, so that it can be reproduced by other authors, accompanied by the bibliographical citation. Regarding the statistical analysis, the authors should demonstrate that the procedures used were appropriate to test the hypotheses of the study, and also to interpret the results correctly. Inform if the research was approved by the Ethics Committee accredited to the National Health Council and provide the registration number. Experiments with animals should be comply with international or national research council guidelines regarding the care and use of laboratory animals.

Results: The results can be presented in tables, charts and / or figures, elaborated in order to be self-explanatory and with statistical analysis. Avoid repeating data in the text. Illustrations (figures, tables, charts and graphs) should be presented separately, at the end of the text, after references with respective titles, legends and specific references. The graphics and figures can be colored.

Discussion: Should be presented in a way that the observed results are adequately and objectively confronted with data already recorded in the literature.

Conclusion: Should contain the relevant conclusions, considering the objectives of the study. Bibliographic citations will not be accepted in this section.

For trials, conceptual approaches, and the like, there is freedom to establish the structure (title and subtitles) of the manuscript in order to approach the study object or problem addressed and conceptual foundations, the development of the argument and final considerations.

Acknowledgments: They can be registered, in a paragraph not exceeding three lines, addressed to institutions or individuals that have provided effective collaboration for the study.

Abbreviations and acronyms: Should be used in a standardized way, restrict only to those used conventionally or sanctioned by use, accompanied by the meaning, in full, when the first citation in the text. They should not be used in the title and the abstract.

References in the Vancouver style: Must be numbered consecutively, following the order in which they were first mentioned in the text, according to the Vancouver style.

In references with up to six authors, all should be cited. In references with more than six authors, the first six should be mentioned, and then include the expression ‘et al’.

Citations / references of monographs for the conclusion of undergraduate courses,  studies congresses, symposiums, workshops, meetings, which do not present DOI or ISSN number, and unpublished texts (classes, among others) will not be accepted.

If unpublished data obtained by other researchers are cited by the manuscript, it will be necessary to include a letter authorizing their use by their authors.

Indication of DOI: When the cited document has the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) number, this must be informed, waiving the access date of the content (see citation rules examples of electronic material). The prefix ‘https: //doi.org / ...’ should be used.

Bibliographic citations in the text: should be presented in numerical order, in Arabic numerals, placed in exponent (use Word's own function for superscript numbers), after punctuation, if any. (Example: ... the GTHR questionnaire was used.⁶), and should appear in the reference list in the order in which they appear throughout the text. All studies cited in the text should be listed in the References section. Inaccurate citation of references may be used as a criterion for refusal of the article.

The accuracy and adequacy of references to papers that have been consulted and mentioned in the article are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Research involving human subjects: should include information regarding approval by the Ethics Committee for Research on Human Subjects, according to National Health Council Resolution No. 466/2012. Include this information in the “Method” section, stating the document number. Copy of the approval of the Ethics Committee opinion must accompany the manuscript.

Clinical Trials: DEMETRA: Food, Nutrition & Health supports the clinical trial registration policies of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and The World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), recognizing the importance of these initiatives for the international registration and dissemination of clinical trial information in open access. Therefore, only clinical research articles that have received an identification number in one of the Registers of Clinical Trials validated by the criteria established by the WHO, ICMJE and WHO - http://www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/, whose addresses are available on the ICMJE website - http://www.icmje.org/, are accepted for publication. The identification number must be registered at the end of the abstract.

Authors must observe the following checklists according to the type of study:

• Randomized clinical trial - CONSORT - http://www.consort-statement.org/
• Observational studies in epidemiology - STROBE - http://www.strobe-statement.org/
• Diagnostic accuracy studies - STARD - http://www.stard-statement.org/
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses - PRISMA - http://www.prisma-statement.org/
• Qualitative studies - COREQ - www.equator-network.org
• Case reports - CARE - https://care-statement.org/
• Quality improvement studies – SQUIRE  - www.equator-network.org
• Study protocols – SPIRIT - www.equator-network.org
• Preclinical studies in animals – ARRIVE - www.equator-network.org

COMMUNICATION