REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMITTING ARTICLES TO INDEXA JOURNALS
- Conditions for sending articles
The candidate articles must be original and intended exclusively for the journal in question, their simultaneous submission to other publications not being allowed.
Brazilian portuguese versions of articles originally published in another language in foreign journals will be considered. In these cases, this fact must be indicated by the title (E.g.: Treatment of anomalies of the palate – full translation) and the author must inform where and when the original article was published. Other conditions in which pre-published articles shall be accepted are described in ICMJE’s “Requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals”, partially available on our website (www.indexaonline.com.br/ICMJE.pdf). We prefer original articles.
Once approved for publication, we encourage authors to send the English version of their articles. Both versions will then be published on our website, becoming more accessible to foreign researchers, except for articles which have already been published in English.
Upon sending an article, the author declares that he or she is responsible for the images included.
Authors of articles who present photographs which allow subjects to be identified must obtain their permission in writing. A standard form of consent is available on our website (www.indexaonline.com.br/journals/authors/consent.pdf). This is a suggested format for the term of consent. Indexa will not be held responsible for the consequences of its use. Please check your national legislation on the subject to make sure this form can be used as a proof of consent by the subject.
Authors of articles which include illustrations and other images must own the rights to their reproduction in print.
Indexa requires the registration of clinical trials for their publication. Clinical trials perfomed in Brazil must be registered at SISNEP – National System of Ethics in Research (http://portal.saude.gov.br/sisnep/). Clinical trials performed in other countries can be registered in different institutions, such as the website http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ and others. Articles reporting clinical trials must be sent alongside registration number or protocol and the name of the institution where they were registered.
According to Brazilian law, clinical research made in Brazil with the experiment of new medicines or health products in humans must be previously authorized by Anvisa. Authors must inform authorization number and date in their articles. Studies performed illegally shall not be accepted. In order to verify if your study project requires authorization, visit Anvisa’s website (www.anvisa.gov.br/medicamentos/pesquisa/index.htm).
In Brazil, ethical principles for research with animals are determined by COBEA (www.cobea.org.br). The adherence to these principles must be informed in articles reporting animal research performed in Brazil.
Foreign authors of articles involving clinical studies in humans or animals must refer to the legislation of their country and comply to their demands, as well as to established ethical rules and norms. Compliance must be mentioned in the article, as well the set of norms and rules to which it complies. Adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm) and/or OLAW – USA (Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare - http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/olaw.htm) is advisable.
Indexa periodicals follow the standard established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For further information useful to the good preparation of an article, read the document “Requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals”. A simplified version is available in our website, under the title “Requirements for manuscripts sent to biomedical journals” (www.indexaonline.com.br/ICMJE.pdf) and the original version can be read in www.icmje.org. Requirements most relevant to authors submitting manuscripts to Indexa journals are included below.
For articles reporting clinical trial, we suggest following directives established by CONSORT (www.consort-statement.org). CONSORT establishes a checklist of items, which makes it easier for authors to verify if their study is being executed and reported clearly, accurately, ethically and in a scientifically valid manner. This list is described on the link “Guide to developing and writing a scientific article” (www.indexaonline.com.br/journals/guide.asp)
We omit the names of authors upon sending articles for review. In order to ensure that your article will receive an unbiased, blind review, do not include your name or any other information which will allow readers to identify you as the author.
All articles published become the property of Indexa and cannot be reproduced without written authorization. Republished articles must inform the date and name of the journal where they were originally published.
Manuscripts must be submitted through our submission system and only through the intended journal’s website, after registration has been filled in completely. Potential conflicts of interest must be informed while completing registration. After registering, authors must print and sign the terms of assignment of copyright and responsibility, sending them by post to the address indicated.
- Article selection and peer-review process
The entire peer-review process is performed online. Authors shall be notified by email when their article is rejected or approved, or when corrections are suggested. At anytime, authors can access the manuscript submission system through the journal’s website and check how the review process is evolving.
All articles received are first reviewed by the executive editor and the chief editor. After approval, articles are reviewed by two peer specialists, consecutively. The reviewers are members of the board of reviewers or of the editorial board, an updated list of which is published at every copy of the Journal. Articles approved by both reviewers and editors are sent to be added to the list of publication.
In order to ensure impartiality, our system provides “double-blind” reviews: the author’s identity is unknown to the reviewer and vice versa. Reviewers are selected for each article according to their field of expertise and attempting to avoid conflicts of interest.
If corrections are suggested at any point in the process, the author shall be notified by email and must access the journal’s manuscript submission system to perform the necessary changes. The author must be prepared to correct his or her article up to three times before publication.
Final approval or exclusion of an article can be expected within up to 12 weeks from the date of submission, excluding the time needed by the author for corrections.
Indexa reserves the right not to publish submitted articles, even if they have been approved by reviewers.
- Responsibility of the authors
The authors are responsible for the veracity of the information presented in the articles and in the registration forms and documents, as well as for the use of good practices and professional ethics in the execution of trials and research. According to the international laws of copyright, authors are responsible for the originality of the articles, and the reproduction of contents or ideas already published without crediting the original author is considered to be plagiarism liable to punishment.
On our journal’s manuscript submission system, the text in each session of the article must be copied and pasted in the designated window. The original text can be copied from most text files: Word, WordPerfect, txt, iWorks, etc. Text must be formatted using:
- Arial Font size 12
- Text centralized to the left
- Two paragraphs (double enter) between sections.
- Increased margin (Tab) at the beggining of each paragraph and before headings and subheadings
- Title in boldface Arial font size 14
- Headings (titles of main sections) in boldface Arial size 12
- Subheadings (titles of chapters inside each section) in boldface Arial size 11
Tables must be inserted in the text and accompanied by a subtitle. Images must be submitted separately in JPG, TIF, GIF, PSD or PNG formats. Images must be numbered and a subtitle must be informed for each submitted image, including its number. The text must refer to the image also by its number. Although images can be sent in any size and resolution, the author must be prepared to supply images with a good resolution (minimum advised: high resolution in camera of 3 megapixels) for printing after approval.
Some journal print articles in black and white; therefore, colored images must be convertible to monochromatic.
Articles must not exceed 15 pages + references and abstracts must be shorter than 250 words.
- Experimental and research articles
The standard format of original articles is encouraged by Indexa, which is composed of abstract and 5 sections:
- Introduction
- Method
- Result
- Discussion
- Conclusion
Each one of these sections can contain subsections, if the author deems it necessary.
We suggest that experimental articles be designed and presented according to CONSORT guidance (http://www.consort-statement.org).
- Literature or book review
The format suggested for articles of revision is composed of the abstract and 3 or 4 sections:
- Introduction
- Revision / Discussion (optional subsections for each topic)
- Conclusion
The format suggested for articles reporting clinical cases contains the abstract and 3 sections:
- Introduction
- Case report
- Discussion
- “Personal Strategy”, “My point of view”
Articles describing your personal strategy for executing a determined procedure or your point of view about a determined subject must have the abstract and their text can be organized in sections in a free manner.
. Give preference to citations of national periodicals. It is a way of disclosing the national scientific production.
References must be inserted in the text, with numbers written above, on the order in which they appear and must be listed in numerical order at the end of the text, in a separate section. We suggest using the resource “References”, of Word (Insert > References > Footer notes X end of doc.).
The titles must always be in the language in which they were published. If desired, a translation into the language in which the article is being written can follow between parentheses.
Examples of the most common types of citation are given below, in English and Portuguese:
- Citing articles of magazines:
Surname Initials. Title of the article. Standard abbreviation of the name of the magazine. Date of publication; Number (volume):start-end page.
In the case of electronic magazines, the citation must be ended with the address of the website such as “disponível em”/ “available from”.
Petitti DB, Crooks VC, Buckwalter JG, Chiu V. Blood pressure levels before dementia. Arch Neurol. 2005 Jan;62(1):112-6.
Di Loreto C, Maeda MYS et al. Garantia de Qualidade em citopatologia: aspectos da correlação cito-histopatológica. Rev Assoc Med Bras. 1997; 43 (3): 195-98. Disponível em http://www.ramb.org.br/
Surname Initials. Title and subtitle of the book in the original language. No of the edition, if there is one. Place of publication: Editor (in the case of theses, University); year of publication. Page(s), if the information cited can be located.
Eyre HJ, Lange DP, Morris LB. Informed decisions: the complete book of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. 2nd ed. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2002.
Gonzalez R. Buttocks reshaping, posterior contour surgery: a step-by-step approach (Remodelagem de glúteos, cirurgia do contorno posterior: uma aproximação passo-a-passo). Rio de Janeiro: Indexa, 2006. p. 115-17.
Author, if indicated. Title of the text [Internet]. Place of origin of the page: Institution or name of the website; year of publication of the website, if indicated [date upon which it was updated, date upon which it was cited]. Available in address of page.
Estimativa da Incidência de câncer em 2008 no Brasil e nas cinco regiões (Estimates of cancer incidence in Brazil and the five regions) [Internet]. Rio de Janeiro: INCA – Instituto Nacional do Cancer; c1996-2007 [cited 2007 dec]. Available from http://www.inca.gov.br/conteudo_view.asp?id=1793/.
Leuck I. Sudorese Excessiva (Hiperidrose) [Internet]. [Local não informado: publicador não informado]; c2001-2007 [atualizado 30 nov 2006; citado 1 dez 2007]. Disponível em http://www.abcdasaude.com.br/artigo.php?518.
Upon citing websites, check the source of the information. Give preference to information published by renowned institutions and to printed publications. It is advisable to print and file the pages cited for future reference, as they can be removed from the network.
The standard agreed to by the National Library of Medicine of the USA must be used. For other types of citation, see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=citmed .
Below there is an example of the appearance that your article must have upon being sent, as well suggestions for the contents of each section.
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Title of Article
Title of Article in English
Full name author 1, Full name author 2,...
Institution(s) to which the authors belong, if it is the case
E-mail and address for contact of the author in charge
Keywords: minimum 3, maximum 10. Preferably use DeCS (Describers in Health Sciences) terms, available at http://decs.bvs.br.
Keywords: same keywords, translated into English. Preferably use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms, listed by the National Library of Medicine of the USA, available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/filelist.html, or the terms in English suggested by the DeSC.
Abstract
Here the author must summarize the article, briefly describing its objective, method, results and conclusion, emphasizing innovating aspects. In many methods of inquiry only the abstract is available and so it must be true to the contents of the article, objective and complete.
Abstract
Reproduction of the abstract translated into English.
Introduction
The objective of the Introduction is to situate the reader in an impartial manner concerning the current scientific scenario surrounding the subject and indicate with accuracy the subject of the article1.
The introduction must make the objectives of the study clear. Here it is advisable to set forth a hypothesis to be tested, in the form of a question to which one can answer “yes” or “no”. For example, in an article which seeks to analyze the efficacy of the treatment of the disease x by the method y, the introduction must state that the article seeks to test if the method y is efficacious in treating the disease x. If it is not efficacious, the conclusion shall be that the hypothesis tested was not confirmed. If it is partially efficacious, the conclusion shall be that the hypothesis is confirmed in w% of the cases or that it is only confirmed in these circumstances.
In the introduction, the execution of the study must also be justified, showing its relevance and originality. It is important to show the current scenario of the research about the subject, i.e. list the main theories or conclusions of studies already published about the subject.
Method
Here the author describes the method used. They must be described with a high degree of accuracy and objectivity, when applicable:
- material used, including manufacturer, model, etc.;
- criterion of selecting the sample, followed by the justification ;
- size and description of the sample obtained;
- type of treatment or procedure applied, with a detailed description;
- substances of drugs used, including dosage, administration, etc.;
- periods and methods of observation;
- method of collecting data;
- method of analyzing data or statistics;
- among others.
Avoid the use and descriptions of complex statistical analyses. If necessary, explain them in layman’s terms.
In the case of studies in which parts of the sample are handled in different ways, the totality of these parts must be indicated as a percentage and in absolute numbers.
Information obtained throughout the study must be presented in the section “Results”. In the Introduction only include the information with which the study started.
Results
In this section the results of the research must be presented clearly. The use of tables is preferable to simple numbering of the numerical or classifying results, and the authors are encouraged to use visual aids, such as graphs and images, which allow a better understanding2, bearing in mind that the images shall be printed in black and white.
Avoid repeating in the text what is shown in tables and graphs. Details of information which is not essential to understanding the text must be included as an appendix, avoiding perturbing the fluency of the reading.
Numerical results, when possible must be given as a percentage and in absolute numbers. Avoid using technical mathematical terms.
Result subsession 1
It may be convenient to divide the “Method” and “Results” sessions into subsessions.
Discussion
In this section the author analyzes the results obtained and what they mean for the initial hypothesis or for the objectives of the study. It is advisable to begin with a summary of the main results. Avoid statements which cannot be proved by the results obtained.
Conclusion
The author states if the hypothesis tested was confirmed or not, talking about the meanings of the results obtained, being able to make a comparison with previous studies, or not. The conclusion must be short and objective, analyses and digressions being set forth in the section “Discussion”.
References
- da Silva JC, Pereira M. Nome completo do artigo. Abrev Nom Rev (Full name of the article. Short name) 2002; 4(3):125-136.
- Oliveira L, Cunha R. Nome completo do livro (Full name of the book). Cidade: Editora, 2000. p115-17.
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