Submissions

Author Guidelines

Paper submission - Brazilian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences

Brazilian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences, formely titled HUPE Journal, publishes new articles about several themes all related to health and biomedical sciences, provided they're not in simultaneous analysis for publication in any other journal. It rejects promptly any plagiarism and selfplagiarism practices. It features dedicated sections to original research, literature reviews, case studies, and letters to the editor. Papers must be submitted only in English. The submission process comprises the following steps:

Fees and charges: BJHBS does not charge any Article Publication Charges (APC), as it aims to publish and disseminate quality research in the fields of health and biomedical sciences aligned with the terms of the Budapest Open Access Initiative.

Peer review: papers are reviewed by at lest two specialists. Accepted papers will be edited according to the publishing standards of BJBHS, to improve readability and minimize redundancy, without loss of original meaning. The final edited version will be sent to authors for approval.

Conflicts of interest agreement: 

Introduction letter: a letter that must come with the submitted paper and contains at least the following information:

• a statement that the paper has not been submitted for publication in another journal;
• recommendation of two specialists for consulting in the scientific field of the submitted paper. The Editorial Board may or may not choose any of these consultants;
• conflicts of interest statement: state if the authors have any conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest are those with potential influence over the published content, compromising the objectivity, integrity, or perceived value of the paper;
• author information: to provide full name and institutional affiliations of every author and a mailing address of the main author (postal and e-mail). Authors will be required to objectively state that the submitted paper consists of original content, informing it has not been previously published nor is it being analysed with this intent elsewhere.

If the authors had assistance from technical writers or language reviewers, it must be explicitly stated in the introduction letter, along with the assurance that the authors are fully responsible for the scientific content of the paper.

Authorship information: scientific authorship must be limited to those who contributed with intellectual work, with actual collaboration in the research. Therefore, to be considered an author, each contributor must meet the following conditions: (a) significant contribution to the creation and design of the study or to the analysis and interpretation of its results; (b) substantial contribution to the production of the paper, or critical review of its intellectual content, and (c) approval of the final version for publication. Leading or supervising a research lab/group does not in itself qualify as authorship. Sole contributions to fund raising or to data gathering also do not qualify as authorship. To ensure transparency in this aspect authors are expected to include a statement of authorship detailing the role of each author in the study and in the production of the paper. In the absence of this authorship statement within the introduction letter, the paper will be disqualified for analysis.

The letter must be signed by the main author, who will represent all other authors in this document.

Title page: this page must contain title and author information as follows:

• title (in English) 100 characters maximum, counting spaces;
• short title (in English) 50 characters maximum, counting spaces;
• the name of each author with their affiliation in this particular order: first name, abbreviated middle names, last name. Department (or service). Course. University (or institution). City, state/province/ territory, country.
• contact information for an author: first name, abbreviated middle names, last name, mailing address, e-mail.

Types of papers

1. Original papers:

Papers resulting of original research. Maximum of 5,000 words (excluding abstract and references) and five images or tables. Maximum of 40 listed references. They must be submitted in the following format:

• abstract: must be written in English with a maximum of 250 words. Must follow the structured abstract model, with mandatory introduction, methodology and resources, results and discussion. It is well known that the abstract gets more visibility and distribution than the full text of the paper. Therefore, it must contain the essential information in the paper, but cannot be just a patchwork of sentences from it. It must be succinct and direct, highlighting what is most important in the full text in order to encourage a full reading. In the "conclusion", all results must be related to the objectives of the study. The discussion must assert the contribution of the results to the body of knowledge about the subject of research.
• keywords: three to six terms related to the subject must be given, separated by semicolons, according to DeCS (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde) for Portuguese and Spanish, and also MeSh (Medical Subjects Headings) for English.

Full text

• introduction: it must be short and present the purpose (context and justification) of the study, including a short review of relevant studies about the subject, mentioning any recent progress, and referencing just what is appropriate.
• methodology and resources: this section must briefly present all the information needed for other researchers to replicate the study. Adopted procedures must be clearly described, as must the analysed variables and tested hypotheses. Definitions must be given whenever necessary. Population, sample, and measurement instruments must be described and information about data gathering and processing must be given. If possible, validity scores must be included. Methods an techniques used must be duly detailed, including statistic methods. New or substantially modified methods must be described, with a justification for its use and mention of its limitations. Research ethics must be observed. Authors must explicitly state that the research was done within ethical standards and with the approval of an ethics committee.
• results: this section must be a concise report of all new information found, with minimum personal bias and judgment. The data must be presented in a logical sequence, starting with the most important information. Data from tables and images must not be repeated, but briefly referred to. It must state the significance of the new data and the relevance of the new findings in relation to established theories and to scientific literature. In this section must also be mentioned the limitations of the present work, as well as its implications for future research. Finally, conclusions must be included in this section, always related to the initially stated objectives.
• acknowledgments: must be concise and limited to people and institutions that contributed to the research in some degree, but could not be included as authors.
• in-text citations: BJHBS follows the Vancouver style, according to the general rules of The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, second edition (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/). For in-text citations, use Arabic numerals superscript, ¹ without spaces, right after a word or punctuation: "Parkinson's Disease¹ description began in the 1950s,² when..." In some cases, the names of the authors may figure in the text: "Phillips¹² analysed several conditions of..."; and up to two authors can be named: "Handel and Matias¹⁵ conducted a study about..." However, when the number of authors is three or more, the first author must be named along with the expression "et al": "Silveira et al¹³ have proposed a new methodology..."
• references: all referenced cited in-text must be in the reference list. References shall follow the Vancouver style, according to the general rules of The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, second edition (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/). They are limited to published material, papers, and abstracts. Authors are responsible for providing precise and complete references. In references with more than one author, authors up to three must be named. From there on, an "et al" must follow the first three authors. There must be no more than 40 references.
• tables and/or images: up to a maximum of five, including the authorship and/or source.
• tables: must be created in dedicated software, such as Excel. The width must be proportional to one page in the current layout. The font must be Arial, size 9, single space. Tables must be imported to and submitted in a text file: .doc/.docx (Microsoft Word), .rtf (Rich Text Format), or .odt (Open Document Text). They must be assigned a number in ascending order and receive a title and/or subtitle explanation. They must also be referenced within the text. The content of a table must not replicate that of an image nor vice versa. Their numbers must be assigned according to the order in which they are referenced in-text.
• images: can be photos, illustrations, graphics, drawings, etc. Images must be submitted as separate files (.tiff or .jpeg). They must be assigned a number in ascending order and receive a title and/or subtitle explanation. They must also be referenced within the text

2. Clinical cases:

Case report: usually describes one to three patients or a family case. The text must be up to 2,000 words long, with up to three tables or images and up to 25 references. The abstract must be no more than 100 words long.

Clinical case solution: must contain a step by step description of the decision process of clinical cases. Patient information must be presented to one or more clinical experts in stages (text in bold) to simulate the way information is made available in clinical practice. The expert must answer (text in regular font) as new information is added, sharing their reasoning/arguments with the reader. The text must be up to 2.500 words long, and must have up to 15 references.

3. Literature review:

Must be about subjects relevant to medical practice. These will form a section about the common theme of each issue. These are limited to 5,000 words (excluding abstract and references) and a maximum of five images and/or tables. Maximum of 40 listed references. Literature reviews will be submitted for the editorial board analysis under invitation by the guest editor of this section, and must conform to the following standards:

Title page: this page must contain title and author information as follows:

• title (in English) 100 characters maximum, counting spaces;
• short title (in Portuguese, English, and Spanish) 50 characters maximum, counting spaces;
• the name of each author with their affiliation in this particular order: first name, abbreviated middle names, last name. Department (or service). Course. University (or institution). City, state/province/ territory, country.
• contact information for an author: first name, abbreviated middle names, last name, mailing address, e-mail.

Full text:

• abstract: must be written in English with a maximum of 250 words for each language. Must follow the structured abstract model, with mandatory introduction, methodology and resources, results and discussion. It is well known that the abstract gets more visibility and distribution than the full text of the paper. Therefore, it must contain the essential information in the paper, but cannot be just a patchwork of sentences from it. It must be succinct and direct, highlighting what is most important in the full text in order to encourage a full reading. In the conclusion, all results must be related to the objectives of the study. The discussion must assert the contribution of the results to the body of knowledge about the subject of research.
• keywords: three to six terms related to the subject must be given according to DeCS (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde) for Portuguese and Spanish, and also MeSh (Medical Subjects Headings) for English. Keywords must be separated by semicolons.

Literature reviews may fall into two types:

a. Systematic review and meta-analysis - Through a synthesis of original studies' results, the paper must answer specific relevant health sciences questions about the theme of its issue (see BJBHS's focus). It must detail the search process to find the original studies, selection criteria, and synthesis procedures for the results of the reviewed studies (which may or may not be meta-analysis procedures).

b. Narrative/critic review - Narrative or critic review has a descriptive discoursive character, and aims to offer a broad presentation and to discuss themes of scientific interest within the health field. It must have a clear formulation of the scientific subject of interest, a theoretical-methological critic of the reviewed works, and a conclusive synthesis. It must be elaborated by experienced researchers in the field in question or by renowned experts of notorious knowledge.

• Acknowledgments: must be concise and limited to people and institutions that contributed to the research in some degree, but could not be included as authors.
• In-text citations: BJHBS follows the Vancouver style, according to the general rules of The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, second edition (www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/books/NBK7256/). For in-text citations, use Arabic numerals superscript,1 without spaces, right after a word or punctuation: "Parkinson's Disease1 description began in the 1950s,2 when..." In some cases, the names of the authors may figure in the text: "Phillips12 analysed several conditions of..."; and up to two authors can be named: "Handel and Matias15 conducted a study about..." However, when the number of authors is three or more, the first author must be named along with the expression "et al": "Silveira et al13 have proposed a new methodology..."
• References: all referenced cited in-text must be in the reference list. References shall follow the Vancouver style, according to the general rules of The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, second edition (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/). They are limited to published material, papers, and abstracts. Authors are responsible for providing precise and complete references. In references with more than one author, authors up to three must be named. From there on, an "et al" must follow the first three authors. There must be no more than 40 references.
• Tables and/or images: up to a maximum of five, including the authorship and/or source. 
• Tables: must be created in dedicated software, such as Excel. The width must be proportional to one page in the current layout. The font must be Arial, size 9, single space. Tables must be imported to and submitted in a text file: .doc/.docx (Microsoft Word), .rtf (Rich Text Format), or .odt (Open Document Text). They must be assigned a number in ascending order and receive a title and/ or subtitle explanation. They must also be referenced within the text. The content of a table must not replicate that of an image nor vice versa. Their numbers must be assigned according to the order in which they are referenced in-text.
• Images: can be photos, illustrations, graphics, drawings, etc. Images must be submitted as separate files (.tiff or .jpeg). They must be assigned a number in ascending order and receive a title and/or subtitle explanation. They must also be referenced within the text.

4. Other submissions:

Editorial: it's a commentary on or analysis of papers in a given issue. It may include an image or table and be no more than 750 words long, containing up to five references. It will be written by the editor in chief or by an invited contributor at their request.

Letters to the editor: space for reader's to talk about recently published papers. Each letter must have up to 200 words (excluding references), five references and one image or table. It must be submitted no later than six months after the publication of the relevant paper. Letters non-related to papers published by BJHBS are limited to 500 words (excluding references), five references, and one image or table. Authors of letters will be required to provide their details, as well as contact information and possible conflicts of interest. The decision about the publication of a letter is made by the editor in chief.

5. On-line submission:

Papers and other types of material must be sent to bjhbs.uerj@gmail.com, along with the introduction letter. The subject of the e-mail must be: "Type of paper [original paper, case report, literature review]" or "Letter to the editor" -- title" + last name of its main author in UPPER CASE.

All subsequent communication must happen through responses to the original e-mail.

The editorial committee will analyse the material according to the editorial policies of BJHBS and will answer regarding acceptance for peer review as soon as possible. If it's considered fit for publication, it will be processed and proceed to editing, proofreading and layout.

After a paper's acceptance, the term of copyright transfer and the statement of conflicts of interest must be sent as soon as possible.

The final layout will be forwarded to the authors for final approval in .pdf format. This approval must be given according to a deadline defined by the editorial team.

Papers and other texts that do not conform to the specifications of these guidelines will be returned without any analysis by the editorial board of BJHBS. Such material must be re-submitted for new analysis once specifications are followed.