Submissions

Author Guidelines

GENERAL INFORMATION

- Articles for publication must be submitted exclusively to the Journal Health NPEPS. Simultaneous submission to another journal, in whole or in part, is not permitted. Submissions may be in Portuguese, Spanish, or English.

- Articles written by specialists from other areas may be published in the Journal Health NPEPS, provided the topic is of interest and related to the health field.

- Originality is required for article acceptance.

- Article submission is online at: http://periodicos.unemat.br/index.php/jhnpeps

- All authors must be registered on the journal's website, providing their ORCID and/or ResearchID. Once submitted, authorship cannot be modified.

- The journal does not charge submission or publication fees. After manuscript acceptance, authors must have their manuscript translated and grammatically revised by accredited professionals/companies.

- The submission of the manuscript, attachments, and the completion of all data are the sole responsibility of the authors submitting the manuscript.

- The opinions and concepts expressed in the manuscripts, as well as the accuracy and origin of citations, are also the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position/opinion of the Journal Health NPEPS Board of Directors and Editorial Board.

- The Journal assumes no responsibility for grammatical errors and therefore reserves the right to request that authors proofread the Portuguese.

- The author(s) are fully responsible for the content of the manuscript.

- Upon acceptance of the work, the main author must indicate the role played by each author of the manuscript; the inclusion of new co-authors is not permitted.

- Before publication, the final version of the manuscript will be sent to all authors for proofreading. After the authors return this version and the article is published, no changes will be made to the order of authorship, spelling of names/surnames, personal data, email, ORCID, and address if the error was made by the author(s).

- The editorial process follows the regulations of the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors - ABEC, the Code of Ethics for International Publication and Guidance on Good Publication Practice (COPE), in accordance with Elsevier's recommendations, as well as the Singapore Declaration.

- The journal supports policies for the registration of clinical trials with the inclusion of the database name and clinical trial registration number.

- The journal adopts the standards for presenting clinical research results indicated by ICJME, the Equator network, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO):

* Randomized clinical trial - CONSORT 

* Diagnostic accuracy studies - STARD or TRIPOD

* Systematic reviews and meta-analyses - PRISMA

* Narrative review - SANRA

* Observational studies in epidemiology - STROBE

* Case reports – CARE

* Qualitative studies - COREQ or SRQR

* Quality improvement studies - SQUIRE

* Study protocols - SPIRIT

* Preclinical studies in animals - ARRIVE

* Economic evaluation - CHEERS

 

METADATA

Full names of ALL authors (maximum 8 authors per article), in full, as well as other data, a brief biography (complete affiliation and credentials), professional category, highest university degree, name of the department and institution of origin, email address, city, state, and country must be completed at the time of submission and provided only in the metadata.

Therefore, the manuscript submitted in "doc" format should only contain the scientific work and should not include the names or any other form that identifies the authors.

For multicenter studies, the number of authors may exceed eight; however, the submission must be accompanied by a letter to the editor informing of this particularity.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

- Acknowledgments for financial aid, technical assistance, and other support for the execution of the work should not be mentioned at the time of submission.

- Upon acceptance of the work, the authors will be instructed on how to proceed with its inclusion.

- Information regarding research funding should be reported, including the name and number of the project and the funding agency.

 

REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION

- Authors of submitted works must indicate their agreement with the "Copyright Statement" of the CREATIVE COMMONS CC BY 4.0, which is included in Step 1 of the Submission.

- Manuscripts resulting from studies involving human subjects must indicate the procedures adopted to comply with Resolution 466/2012 of the National Health Council/Law No. 14.874/2024 and indicate the approval protocol number of the research project and the date of approval by the Research Ethics Committee (REC). For articles originating from other countries, the procedures adopted will be those contained in the Declaration of Helsinki (1975 and revised in 1983). The REC approval letter (scanned and in PDF) must be attached at the time of submission in Step "4 - Transfer of Supplementary Documents".

Conflicts of interest can arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not entirely apparent but may influence their judgments about what is published. Conflicts of interest can be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial. When authors submit a manuscript, whether an article or a letter, they are responsible for recognizing and disclosing any conflicts that may influence their work.

 

MANUSCRIPT REVIEW PROCESS

- For publication, in addition to meeting the guidelines, the following will be considered: timeliness, originality and relevance of the topic, scientific consistency, and respect for ethical standards.

- Submitted articles will first be checked for compliance with the journal's scope, adherence to guidelines, and plagiarism (being submitted to the iThenticate software, and the author will be notified of any inconsistencies). Subsequently, the manuscript will be evaluated by external ad hoc reviewers. The Journal Health NPEPS adopts a double-blind peer review policy, preserving the anonymity of authors and reviewers. The reviews submitted by the reviewers are assessed by the editorial team, which issues the final decision, or, in case of disagreement between the reviews, requests a third decision from an external ad hoc reviewer.

- Each external ad hoc reviewer will follow the basic guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics - COPE (http://publicationethics.org). After being accepted to evaluate the manuscript submitted by the journal's editor-in-chief, this reviewer will have a maximum of 20 days to issue their opinion electronically.

- The Board of Directors ensures the anonymity of the authors in the peer review process, as well as the anonymity of the reviewers and confidentiality regarding their participation, which guarantees them freedom of judgment.

- The evaluation will indicate three possibilities:

1- Favorable (score 10): the manuscript is accepted for publication without any changes or with minor changes, which can be made by the Journal's Editorial Board. The work will not need to be returned to the author. Minor changes must be indicated in the review.

2- Favorable, provided that the revisions indicated in this review and/or noted in the text are addressed (score 5 to 9): the publication proposal must be revised by the author. The recommendations must be accompanied by detailed suggestions that guide the author on the elements to be observed to improve the presentation of the work.

3- Unfavorable (score of 0 to 4): the manuscript should NOT be accepted for publication. This is because it must be completely reformulated according to the justifications presented in the review.

- The reviewers' reports will be made available online to the author responsible for the submission, who will have 10 (ten) days to address the requests. Otherwise, the manuscript will be ARCHIVED, after a notification is sent to all authors, as it will be understood that there was no interest in addressing the request for adjustments. However, if there is still interest in publishing it, the article must be resubmitted, initiating a new peer review process. Authors must keep their email addresses updated to receive all communications.

- After acceptance of the manuscript, the authors must translate and proofread the grammar with accredited professionals/companies.

- If the author identifies the need to request a correction, they must send it to the Journal within a maximum of 15 days after the article's publication, and the Journal will decide on its relevance and possible publication.

 

MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES

Editorial: The responsibility of the Journal's Board of Directors, which may invite authorities to write it. Maximum limit of five pages.

Original Article: These are contributions intended to disseminate the results of original, unpublished, and completed scientific research. Maximum limit of 25 pages.

Review Article: Reviews can be systematic, integrative, or narrative. A review article comprises a critical evaluation of the literature on specific topics. It should include a section describing the methods used to locate, select, extract, and synthesize the data and conclusions. Maximum limit of 20 pages.

Case Report: Reports of academic, professional, healthcare, extension, research, and other experiences relevant to the health field. Maximum limit of 15 pages.

Reflective Analysis/Critical-Reflective Essay: discursive formulations with a theoretical effect, grounded in the overall situation of a given subject. Opinion pieces or analyses of issues that may contribute to a deeper understanding of topics related to the health field. Maximum limit of 15 pages.

Note Preview: preliminary research notes containing unpublished and relevant data for the health field. Space intended for a summary of a dissertation or thesis in its final stages of preparation. It should contain all stages of the study, following the same standards required for original articles. Maximum limit of three pages.

 

MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING:

- Standard Structure (TEMPLATE)

Texts should be typed using:

* Microsoft Word format (*.doc);
* A4 paper size (210 x 297 mm), portrait orientation;
* 1.0 (single) line spacing from the first word of the TITLE to the descriptors of the third abstract. 1.5 line spacing throughout the text, starting from the word INTRODUCTION;
* Bottom and side margins of 2cm and top margin of 3cm;
* Trebuchet MS font, size 12;
* Manuscript in the author's main language (Portuguese, English or Spanish).

 

Section:

TITLE (3 languages), ABSTRACT (3 languages), INTRODUCTION, METHOD, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION OR FINAL CONSIDERATIONS, REFERENCES.

Manuscript TITLE: original, concise (up to 15 words), but informative, excluding geographical location of the research and abbreviations) in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.

Primary section title and abstract - uppercase and bold. Ex.: TITLE; ABSTRACT; INTRODUCTION.

Secondary section title (subtitles) – First letter uppercase and the rest in lowercase and bold. Ex: Principles of healthcare (secondary section).

Do not use bullet points throughout the text.

ABSTRACT: Concise, up to 200 words, written in a single paragraph, accompanied by its version in Portuguese (RESUMO), English (ABSTRACT), and Spanish (RESUMEN), beginning with the same language as the work. The abstract should be structured in the following sections: objective, method, results, conclusion or final considerations (the titles of these sections should be in bold).

KEYWORDS: Below the abstract, include 3 to 5 keywords according to the Health Sciences Descriptors - DeCS (http://decs.bvs.br) or Medical Subject Headings – MESH (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh). Each keyword used will be presented with the first letter capitalized, separated by a semicolon (;).

Do not use the terms: Palavras-chave, Keywords, and Palabras-clave.

Use: Descritores, Descriptors, and Descriptores, respectively in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.

 

INTRODUCTION: This section should be brief, presenting the guiding question, justification, and objectives consistent with the study's proposal. The objectives should be incorporated into the last paragraph of the introduction.

METHOD: Indicate the methods employed, the population studied, the data source, and the selection criteria, which should be described objectively and completely. Include the protocol number and date of approval of the research project by the Research Ethics Committee. It should also state that the research was conducted in accordance with the required ethical standards.

RESULTS: The results should be described in a logical sequence. When presenting tables and illustrations, the text should complement and not repeat what is described in them.

DISCUSSION: The discussion can be written together with the results (for quantitative studies, the discussion should preferably be presented separately). The discussion should include a comparison of the results with the literature and the authors' interpretation. Regarding the literature, it is suggested to use references primarily from articles published in the last five years, including international articles and, when possible, articles published in the Journal Health NPEPS.

CONCLUSION OR FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: the conclusions or final considerations should highlight the most important findings, comment on the limitations, and discuss implications for future research.

 

Narratives: in individual paragraphs, indented 4 cm, font size 10, single line spacing, and italicized for the text, with the code representing each interviewee in parentheses after the period, without italics. Authors' interventions on what was said by the study participants should be presented in square brackets.

Illustrations: up to five may be included (graphs, charts, tables, and figures), preferably in color or grayscale. The title and content of these illustrations should be in font size 10, according to the following specifications:

Tables - should be prepared for direct reproduction by the layout editor, inserted into the text, with the first letter of the caption capitalized at the top, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order in which they were cited in the text, content in font size 10 with the first letter capitalized, presented in a maximum size of 14 x 21 cm (journal standard) and the length should not exceed 55 lines, including the title. Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines. Use a short or abbreviated title in each column. Place explanatory material in notes below the table, not in the title. Explain in notes all non-standard abbreviations used in each table. If using data from another source, published or not, obtain permission and indicate the source in full.
Figures: should preferably be submitted in high resolution in JPG, JPEG or TIFF format. Ensure that they have a minimum resolution of 300dpi.
Photographs: should be submitted in good resolution (minimum 300dpi) in JPG, JPEG or TIFF format, preferably prepared using Adobe Photoshop.
Charts: created using Microsoft Word or Excel, should be saved with the original extension (.doc or .xls). They should not be copied or pasted from one program to another.
Maps and Illustrations: must be professionally vectorized (drawn) using CorelDraw or Illustrator software in high resolution, and their dimensions should not exceed 21.5 x 28.0 cm.

Images: produced in statistical software must be converted to Excel or PowerPoint format. If this is not possible, convert the file to JPG, JPEG, or TIFF format with a resolution of 300 dpi and send it along with the original file.

Symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms: use only standardized abbreviations. Except for standard units of measurement, all abbreviated terms must be written out in full, followed by their abbreviation in parentheses, the first time they appear in the text, even if they have already been mentioned in the abstract.

 

REFERENCES

The Journal Health NPEPS adopts the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" – Vancouver Style, published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The Vancouver style is available on the website: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html or http://www.bu.ufsc.br/ccsm/vancouver.html (Portuguese translated version).

The Journal Health NPEPS does not support the use of grey literature. Therefore, a maximum of 15% is accepted.

Regarding the publication period of the references used, 85% must belong to at least the last five years.

They should be identified in the text by superscript Arabic numerals, without spaces from the last word. When making sequential citations of authors, separate them with a hyphen, indicating the first and last, e.g.: ...health conditions of the population^1-4. When interspersed, numbers should be separated by commas, e.g., ...health conditions of the population^1-4,7.

In the reference list, references should be numbered consecutively (in bold), according to the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Therefore, they should be numbered and formatted according to the Vancouver Style.

 

EX: 1. Marques LC, Silva WRV, Lima VP, Nunes JT, Ferreira AGN, Fernandes MNF. Maternal mental health: screening for risk factors causing postpartum depression. J Health NPEPS. 2016; 1(2):145-159.

When the document has one to six authors, cite all authors, separated by commas. When it has more than six authors, cite all the first six authors followed by the Latin expression "et al."

Journal titles should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=journals. For abbreviations of national and Latin American journal titles, consult the website: http://portal.revistas.bvs.br, eliminating the periods from the abbreviation, except for the last period to separate it from the year.

Regarding the abbreviation of months in periodicals - in English and German, months are abbreviated starting with capital letters; in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian, they are abbreviated in lowercase. Both will be without periods, as recommended by the Vancouver Style.