Submissions

Author Guidelines

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Manuscripts written in Portuguese and abstracts written both in Portuguese and in English are accepted. Original research papers must follow the text structure known as IMRD: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Reports of qualitative research may have other formats, e.g., Results and Discussion in the same section followed by Final Considerations or Conclusions. Other manuscript categories (review studies, commentaries, or letters to the editor, etc.) follow text formats appropriate for them.

The research reports must be written in such a way as to allow any interested researcher to replicate the results. We thus encourage following the recommendations below according to the category of the manuscript:

- CONSORT checklist and flow chart for controlled and randomized trials;

- STARD checklist and flow chart for studies of diagnostic accuracy;

- MOOSE checklist and flow chart for meta-analyses and systematic reviews of observational studies;

- PRISMA checklist and flow chart for systematic reviews and meta-analyses;

- STROBE checklist for observational studies in epidemiology;

- RATS checklist for qualitative studies.

The items required for submission of the manuscript are detailed according to the category of the research report. To assess the occurrence of plagiarism, every manuscript is entered into a program for detecting similarities between texts. The ORCID of the  all authors must be informed in the cover letter submitted with the manuscript.  

FORM AND PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Presentation

The text must be typed on a Microsoft Word processor or on a compatible alternative, using an A4 size page, with line spacing and font size allowing full legibility. The complete text, including the cover and reference pages, the tables, and the figure captions, must contain a maximum of 25 thousand characters with spaces.

Two files of the manuscript must be submitted; the first should contain all of the information requested in the items below and the second should be a blind copy, i.e., all information that could identify the authors or the place where the research was carried out must be excluded.

Identification data of the manuscript: Title page

Authorship: the concept of authorship applies when a person has made a substantial contribution to the design of the research project, to the analysis and interpretation of data, and to writing and the critical review of the manuscript. Inclusion of authors’ names whose contribution does not meet the aforementioned criteria is not justified.

Title in the original language of the manuscript: the title must be concise and complete, containing relevant information to enable retrieval of the article from the databases. The limit is 90 characters, including spaces.

Short title: it is the title that will appear in the article header. It must contain the essence of the subject in up to 45 characters.

Identification of authors and coauthors: these should be identified by first name and last name; institution or institutional affiliation (course, laboratory, department, hospital, clinic, university, etc.); and city, state, and country of the institution. Names are to be presented according to the order of authorship. The ORCID of all authors must be informed at the time of submission of the manuscripts, in the presentation letter.

Institution: up to three institutional hierarchies of affiliation can be included (e.g., university, school, department).

Research funding: if research was subsidized, indicate the type of aid, the name of the funding agency, and the process number.

Previous presentation: if the study was previously presented at a scientific meeting, indicate the name of the event, place, and year of the event.

Correspondence: the name, e-mail, and address of the author in charge of correspondence must be included to enable exchanges with BJGH.

Studies with humans or animals: there should be included a mention of the ethics committee approval and, in the case of clinical trials, the registration number of the Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials-REBEC (http://www.ensaiosclinicos.gov.br) or of Clinical Trials (http://clinicaltrials.gov).

Abstract, descriptors and keywords

The second page must contain two forms of the same abstract, one in Portuguese and the other in English (maximum 250 words). The abstract must be written in a single paragraph, with maximum precision and conciseness; its content must follow the formal structure of the text, which includes the following sections: objective, methods, results and conclusion.

Each abstract is to be followed by a list of up to five descriptors and keywords (look them up in DeCS - Health Sciences Descriptors of the Lilacs Virtual Health Library (http://decs.bvs.br) and in MeSH - Medical Subject Headings from Medline (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Text structure of the manuscript

The manuscript should be organized according to the following formal structure:

a) Introduction - justify the relevance of the study given the current state of the object under investigation and establish the objective of the article;

b) Methods – in order to enable replication of the results, describe in detail sample selection, the procedures and materials used, and the methods employed in statistical analysis;

c) Results – report the findings in a concise manner and in logical sequence, supporting them with tables and graphs as the case may be. Care must be taken not to repeat all of the data contained in the tables and/or graphs in the text;

d) Discussion - comment on the most important findings, discussing the results achieved by comparing them with those of previous studies. When applicable, address the study limitations;

e) Conclusion - summarize the findings based on the evidence.

Tables, graphs, charts, figures, and diagrams

Tables, graphs, charts, figures, and diagrams are deemed pictorial representations. No more than five of them are to be included in a manuscript. When selecting them, special care must be taken to ensure their relevance. Titles should be precise and objective for the representations to be understood on their own. The latter are to be placed at the end of the text, which should have markings to indicate the points of their insertion in the text before publication, and numbered in arabic numerals in the order of mention in the text. Any abbreviations must be spelled out in the footnote.

Figures, graphs, photographs and diagrams have the titles at the bottom, and must also be numbered in arabic numerals in the order of mention. Abbreviations and other information must be placed in the footnote after the title. Any figure (images, graphics, photographs and illustrations) must be mentioned in the text and presented in a size greater than or equal to the size intended for display (PNG or JPEG extension in a resolution above 800 pixels). If the figures have already been published, written permission for reproduction must be provided by the author / editor, and the captions must include the source of the publication.

Note: Tables, graphs, charts, figures and diagrams must be submitted in separate files without footnotes, which must be at the end of the manuscript.

Norms of scientific citation

References are to be cited in the text in the form of superscript arabic numerals, placed before any punctuation, and not enclosed by parentheses, brackets, or the like. The references should be listed consecutively according to the order of citation in the text. When a study is cited instead by means of the author’s name and year, the reference number must be placed before the author's name. If the study has two authors, their names should appear linked by ‘and.’  In cases of multiple authorship, name only the first author and follow it with “et al.”

References

References (for original articles, 40 to 50 references will be limited) must be standardized according to the Vancouver style – Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication – and listed in order of citation. Journal titles should be referred to in an abbreviated form, according to PubMed. If a publication has up to six authors, all must be cited; over six, only the first six should be cited and followed by the Latin expression “et al.”. Whenever possible, include the DOI of the authors whose names are cited.

Examples:

Journal article: Ribeiro AP, João SM, Sacco IC. Static and dynamic biomechanical adaptations of the lower limbs and gait pattern changes during pregnancy. Women’s Health. 2013; 9 (1): 99-108. https: // doi: 10.2217 / whe.12.59

Book: Mansur, Antônio de Padua. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases. 1. ed. São Paulo: EDUSP; 2019. v.1, p. 288.

For other examples: We recommend looking up the rules in the National Library of Medicine (“Citing Medicine”), available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=citmed.