About the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research is an open-access journal published by the Associação Brasileira de Divulgação Científica and can be found at www.scielo.br/bjmbr. The journal features articles of exceptional significance, originality, and relevance in all areas of biological science. Our audience is the Brazilian and international scientific community. The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research is highly selective in the manuscripts that it publishes; rejection rates are high. To be considered for publication in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, any given manuscript must be outstanding in the following ways: Originality, Importance to researchers in its field , Interest to scientists outside the field, Rigorous methodology and substantial evidence for its conclusions. Submission of a manuscript to the Brazilian Journal implies that the data have not been published previously and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere while the manuscript is under review. The following represent "prior publication": any printed material in excess of 500 words describing results or methods of a submitted/in press manuscript; published tables or illustrations that duplicate the content of a manuscript; electronic manuscripts or posters available via the Internet. When part of the material in a manuscript has been presented as a preliminary communication or in an unrefereed symposium, this should be cited as a footnote on the title page and a copy should accompany the submitted manuscript. Overview of the Editorial Process Our aim is to provide all authors with an efficient, courteous, constructive and just editorial process. To ensure the fairest and most objective decision-making, the editorial process is run as a partnership between the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research editors and the editorial board, which is comprised of leaders in all fields of medicine and biology. In situations in which authors are unsure whether their paper is within the scope of the journal and satisfies the basic requirements for publication in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, we are happy to consider presubmission enquiries. Responses to these enquiries will normally be provided within a few days. The papers of authors who receive an invitation to submit their manuscripts will then enter the regular editorial process. Submitted manuscripts will be assigned to one of the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research Section Editors, who will promptly evaluate the paper and decide if it is likely to meet the requirement of providing a major advance in its relevant field and describing a sufficient body of work to support the main claims, and, if so, it will be sent out for peer review. A Section Editor works with the Editor throughout the review process. Expert reviewers will be asked to assess the technical and scientific merits of the work. Once all reviews have been received and considered by the Editor and Section Editor, a decision letter to the author will be drafted. There are several types of decisions possible:
Upon acceptance, the manuscript enters our production system. Articles are typically published online within 9 weeks of formal acceptance, and usually before they are assembled into a complete issue. Publication may be further expedited when justified. For complete explanation see Editorial Review Polices. Preparation of Research Manuscripts The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research publishes original research articles of outstanding scientific significance. We will consider manuscripts of any length; we encourage the submission of both substantial full-length bodies of work and shorter manuscripts that report novel findings that might be based on a limited number of experiments. The key criteria are that the research demonstrates clearly its novelty, its importance to a particular field as well as its interest to those outside that discipline, and conclusions that are justified by the data.
It is important that you include a cover letter with your manuscript. Take the time to consider why this manuscript is suitable for publication in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research. Why will your paper inspire the other members of your field, and how will it drive research forward? Please explain this in your cover letter.
Text format
Guidance on grammar, punctuation, and scientific writing can be found in the following sources: Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 7th edn. Rockefeller University Press, Reston, 2006; Medical Style and Format. Huth EJ (Editor). ISI Press, Philadelphia, 1987, Marketed by Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, MD. The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research follows the reference format of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, which can be found on the website of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html). The writing style should be concise and accessible. Editors will make suggestions for how to achieve this, as well as suggestions for cuts or additions that could be made to the article to strengthen the argument. Our aim is to make the editorial process rigorous and consistent, but not intrusive or overbearing. Authors are encouraged to use their own voice and to decide how best to present their ideas, results, and conclusions. Although we encourage submissions from around the globe, we require that manuscripts be submitted in American English. As a step towards overcoming language barriers, we encourage authors to seek the assistance of professional services available on the site. Text footnotes, if unavoidable, should be numbered consecutively in superscript in the manuscript and written on a separate page following the abstract.
Subject sections (and subsections) Eight to nine issues per year of the Brazilian Journal are organized into sections of Biosciences and authors should specify in the cover letter the specific section in which they prefer to publish their paper.
Three to four issues per year are dedicated to Clinical Investigation and authors should specify in the cover letter the specific section in which they prefer to publish their paper.
Only those persons who contributed directly to the intellectual content of the paper should be listed as authors. Authors should meet all of the following criteria, thereby allowing persons named as authors to take public responsibility for the content of the paper.
Authors should state in the cover letter that the manuscript is intended to be a Full-length Paper, Short Communication, Review Article, Concepts and Comments, Case Report, Overview. All formats should contain: abstract of no more than 250 words, no more than 6 key words, a running title to be used as a page heading, which should not exceed 60 letters and spaces. For Short Communication and Full-length Paper the text should be divided into separate sections (Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion), without a separate section for conclusions. For Review Article the text may be divided into sections with appropriate titles and subtitles. References, no exceptions will be made: Review: 60 references, Full-length Paper: 40 references, Short Communication, Concepts and Comments and Case Report no more than 20 refences and up two tables or figures (or one of each). Each manuscript should clearly state its objective or hypothesis; the experimental design and methods used (including the study setting and time period, patients or participants with inclusion and exclusion criteria, or data sources and how these were selected for the study); the essential features of any interventions; the main outcome measures; the main results of the study, and a section placing the results in the context of published literature. A short communication is a report on a single subject, which should be concise but definitive. The scope of this section is intended to be wide and to encompass methodology and experimental data on subjects of interest to the readers of the Journal. A review article should provide a synthetic and critical analysis of a relevant area and should not be merely a chronological description of the literature. A review article by investigators who have made substantial contributions to a specific area in medical and biological sciences will be published by invitation of the Editors. However, an outline of a review article may be submitted to the Editors without prior consultation. If it is judged appropriate for the Journal, the author(s) will be invited to prepare the article for peer review. A minireview is focused on a restricted part of a subject normally covered in a review article. The Concepts and Comments section provides a platform for readers to present ideas, theories and views. A case report should have at least one of the following characteristics to be published in the Journal:
An overview does not contain unpublished data. It presents the point of view of the author(s) in a less rigorous form than in a regular review or minireview and is of interest to the general reader. Papers that will not be accepted for publication
Specific areas of the Journal Cell biology The main characteristic of research papers in the area of Cell Biology is the emphasis on the integration at the cellular level of biochemical, molecular, genetic, physiological, and pathological information. This section considers manuscripts dealing with either prokaryotic or eukaryotic biological systems at any developmental stage. Papers on all aspects of cellular structure and function are considered to be within the scope of Cell Biology by the BJMBR. The Editors encourage submission of manuscripts defining cell biology as an area of convergence of several other research fields, especially manuscripts providing insights into the cellular basis of immunology, neurobiology, microbial pathology, developmental biology, and disease. Manuscripts containing purely descriptive observations will not be published. Manuscripts reporting new techniques will be published only when adequately validated and judged by the Editors to represent a significant advance. Biological activity of natural products The Journal will consider papers for publication which describe the activity of substances of biological origin only if they satisfy all of the following criteria:
Organization of the Manuscript Most articles published in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research will be organized into the following sections: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Results, Material and Methods, Discussion, References, Acknowledgments, Tables with legends and footnotes, Figure legends and Figures. Uniformity in format will facilitate the experience of readers and users of the journal. Continuous page numbers are required for all pages including figures. There are no specific length restrictions for the overall manuscript or individual sections. However, we urge authors to present and discuss their findings concisely. We recognize that some articles will not be best presented in our research article format. If you have a manuscript that would benefit from a different format, please contact the editors to discuss this further. Our online submission system can support a large range of formats for text and graphics, but if you experience difficulties with the site or are concerned about the suitability of your files, please see the manual for submission or contact the Production Department of the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research (bjournal@fmrp.usp.br). Title The title should be as short and informative as possible, should not contain non-standard acronyms or abbreviations, and should not exceed two printed lines. Example: Please also provide a brief "running title" of approximately 60 characters. Example: Initials and last name(s) of author(s) (matched with superscript numbers identifying institutions). Institution(s) (Department, Faculty, University, city, state, country) of each author (in Portuguese if authors are from Brazil). Example: 1Divisão de Animais Peçonhentos, Instituto Vital Brazil, Niterói, RJ, Brasil Corresponding author: Name, complete mailing address, including zip code, telephone number, Fax number and E-mail of author to whom correspondence should be sent. A list of key words or indexing terms (no more than 6) should be included. A capital letter should be used for the first letter of each key word, separated by a semicolon. The Journal recommends the use of medical subject headings of Index Medicus for key words to avoid the use of several synonyms as entry terms in the index for different papers on the same subject. Remember, key words are used by the Scielo Database (see http://www.scielo.br/bjmbr;articles search/subject) to index the article. This short title, to be used as a page heading, should not exceed 60 letters and spaces. Since abstracts are published separately by Information Services, they should contain sufficient hard data, to be appreciated by the reader. The Brazilian Journal publishes unstructured abstracts. The abstract should briefly and clearly present the problem, experimental approach, new results as quantitative data if possible, and conclusions. It should mention the techniques used without going into methodological detail and mention the most important results. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and should be defined in both the Abstract and text. Please do not include any reference citations in the abstract. If the use of a reference is unavoidable, the full citation should be given within the abstract. The abstract should not exceed 250 words and should be written as a single paragraph double-spaced on a separate page following the title page. Please see <http://www.bjournal.com.br/writing_a_good_abstract.html> for suggestions on writing a good abstract The Introduction should put the focus of the manuscript into a broader context. As you compose the introduction, think of readers who are not experts in this field. Include a brief review of the key literature. This should state the purpose of the investigation and justification for undertaking the research and relationship to other work in the field. An extensive listing or review of the literature should not be used. If there are relevant controversies or disagreements in the field, they should be mentioned so that a non-expert reader can delve into these issues further. The Introduction should conclude with a brief statement of the overall aim of the experiments and a comment about what was achieved. Sufficient information should be provided in the text or by referring to papers in generally available journals to permit the work to be repeated. This section should provide enough detail for reproduction of the findings. Protocols for new methods should be included, but well-established protocols may simply be referenced. We encourage authors to submit, as separate files, detailed protocols for newer or less well-established methods. These will be linked to the article and will be fully accessable. The results should be presented clearly and concisely. Tables and figures should be used only when necessary for effective comprehension of the data. In some situations, it may be desirable to combine Results and Discussion into a single section. The Results section should provide results of all of the experiments that are required to support the conclusions of the paper. There is no specific word limit for this section, but a description of experiments that are peripheral to the main message of the article and that detract from the focus of the article should not be included. The section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading. Large datasets, including raw data, should be submitted as supplemental files; these are published online alongside the accepted article. The Results section should be written in past tense. The purpose of the Discussion is to interpret the results and relate them to existing knowledge. Information given elsewhere in the text, especially in Results, may be cited but all results not repeated in detail in the Discussion. The Discussion should spell out the major conclusions and interpretations of the work including some explanation of the significance of these conclusions. How do the conclusions affect the existing assumptions and models in the field? How can future research build on these observations? What are the key experiments that must be done? The Discussion should be concise and tightly argued. If warranted, the Results and Discussion may be combined into one section. When appropriate, briefly acknowledge technical assistance, advice and contributions from colleagues. People who contributed to the work, but do not fit the criteria for authors should be listed in the Acknowledgments, along with their contributions. Donations of animals, cells, or reagents should also be acknowledged You must also ensure that anyone named in the Acknowledgments agrees to being so named. Financial support for the research and fellowships should be acknowledged on the title page. Only published or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Meeting abstracts, conference talks, or papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should not be cited. Limited citation of unpublished work should be included in the body of the text only. All personal communications should be supported by a letter from the relevant authors. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation. When possible, references which are easily available in English should be cited. The BJMBR uses the numbered citation (citation-sequence) method. References are listed and numbered in the order that they appear in the text. In the text, citations should be indicated by the reference number in parentheses. Multiple citations within a single set of parentheses should be separated by commas without a space (1,5,7) . Where there are more than three sequential citations, they should be given as a range. Example: "...has been shown previously (4–9)." Make sure the parts of the manuscript are in the correct order before nambering the citations. Because all references will be linked electronically as much as possible to the papers they cite, proper formatting of the references is crucial. For all references, list the first 6 authors followed by et al., Title, Journal (abbreviation), Year, Volume, Complete Pages, The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research follows the reference format of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, which can be found on the website of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html). Use the Medline journal abbreviations and follow the reference style shown on the Website noted above, with several exceptions. See below for details. If the author uses the program "Reference Manager", copy the file containing the style of the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research and place it in the folder of "Styles". When submiting the manuscript, send the file produced in Reference Manager (".rmd") as an attachment. Please use the following style for the reference list: Published Papers. First 6 authors followed by et al., Title, Journal (abbreviation in italics), Year, Volume, Complete Pages. Lammers AE, Hislop AA, Flynn Y, Haworth SG. The 6-minute walk test: normal values for children of 4-11 years of age. Arch Dis Child 2008; 93: 464-468. Zhang Q, Malik P, Pandey D, Gupta S, Jagnandan D, Belin de CE, et al. Paradoxical activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase by NADPH oxidase. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2008; 28: 1627-1633. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). Global strategy for asthma management and prevention: NHLBI/WHO Workshop Report. Bethesda: National Institute of Health. National Heart, Lung and Blood Insitute publication No. 02-3659; 2006. Article accepted for publication but not yet published. First 6 authors followed by et al., Title, Journal (abbreviation), Year of expected publication, (in press) at the end of the citation. Janiszewski M, Lopes LR, Carmo AO, Pedro MA, Brandes RP, Santos CXC, et al. Regulation of NAD(P)H oxidase by associated protein disulfide isomerase in vascular smooth muscle cells. J Biol Chem 2005 (in press). Electronic Journal Articles (Online Journals). Ensure that URLs are active and available. American Academy of Ophthalmology. Diabetic retinopathy disease severity scale. Am Acad Ophthalmol http://www.aao.org/education/library/recommendations/international_dr.cfm; 2005. Accessed 11 August 2006. Simon JA, Hudes ES. Relationship of ascorbic acid to blood lead levels. JAMA http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/281/24/2289; 1999. Accessed 11 August 2006. Internet Communication. Ensure that URLs are active and available. Brasil. Associação Brasileira para o Estudo da Obesidade: pesquisa da população brasileira. http://www.abeso.org.br. Accessed February 22, 2008. Information behaviour of the researcher of the future, CIBER Report. http://www.bl.uk/news/2008/pressrelease20080116.html. CAPES Statistics. http://www.capes.gov.br/capes/portal. Accessed March 16, 2006. CNPq Plataforma Lattes, "Investimentos do CNPq em CT&I". http://fomentonacional.cnpq.br/dmfomento/home/index.jsp. Accessed March 16, 2006. Audiovisual Material Physician's Desk Reference (PDR). Release 2003.1AX. [CD-ROM]. Montvale: Thomson PDR; 2003. Computer Program Dean AG, Dean JA, Coulombier D, Brendel KA, Smith DC, Burton AH, et al. Epi info, version 6.04: a word processing database and statistics program for public health on IBM-compatible microcomputers. [Computer program]. Atlanta: Centers of Disease Control and Prevention; 1998. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Version 12.0. [Computer program]. Chicago: SPSS Inc.; 2006. Patent Larsen CE, Trip R, Johnson CR. Methods for procedures related to the electrophysiology of the heart. Patent No. 5.529.067. Novoste Corporation; 1995. Book, Whole. Authors, Book title, Edition, City, Publisher, Year. American College of Sports Medicine. Diretrizes do ACSM para os testes de esforço e sua prescrição . Rio de Janeiro : Guanabara Koogan; 2007. Book, Chapter. Authors, Chapter Title, Editors, Book title, Edition, City, Publisher, Year, Pages of citation. Kronfol A. Behavioral effects of cytokines: a psychiatrist's perspective. In: Plotnikoff NP, Faith RE, Murgo AJ, Good RA (Editors), Cytokines stress and immunity. London: CRC Press; 2007. p 1-16. Kintzios SE. What do we know about cancer and its therapy? In: Kintzios SE, Barberaki MG (Editors), Plants that fight cancer. New York: CRC Press; 2004. p 1-14. Report WHO (World Health Organization), IPCS (International Program in Chemical Safety). Environmental health criteria: 118 Inorganic mercury. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1991. National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research. Wake up America: a national sleep alert. Washington: Government Printing Office; 1993. Thesis Joselevitch C. Visão no ultravioleta em Carassius auratus (Ostariophysi, Cypriformes, Cyprinidae): estudo eletrofisiológico do sistema cone - células horizontais. [Master's thesis]. São Paulo: Instituto de Psicologia, USP; 1999. Conference, Symposium Proceedings. Cite papers only from published proceedings. Hejzlar RM, Diogo PA. The use of water quality modelling for optimising operation of a drinking water reservoir. Proceedings of the International Conference Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology. 1999 Jun 23-26; Prague. Prague: Institute of Hydrodynamics AS CR; 1999. p 475-482. "Unpublished results", "Personal communication" and "Submitted papers". Reference should appear in the text with the individual name(s) and initials and not in the reference list. (Santos CS, da-Silva GB, Martins LT, unpublished results). It is assumed that the author has obtained permission from the source when "personal communication" is cited. Abstract. First 6 authors followed by et al., Title, Journal (abbreviation), Year, Volume, Complete Pages (Abstract). Lima SM, Bonci DM, Grotzner SR, Ribeiro CA, Ventura DF. Loss of amacrine cells in MeHg-treated retinae in a tropical fish. InvestOphthalmol Vis Sci 2003; 44: E-5172 (Abstract). Authors are asked at submission to state whether they have any financial, personal, or professional interests that could be construed to have influenced their paper. Reviewers are also asked to declare any interests that might interfere with their objective assessment of a manuscript. Any relevant competing interests of authors must be available to editors and reviewers during the review process and will be stated in published articles. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Define all abbreviations upon first use in the text. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used unless they appear at least three times in the text.
The use of standardized nomenclature in all fields of science and medicine is an essential step toward the integration and linking of scientific information reported in published literature. We will enforce the use of correct and established nomenclature wherever possible: We strongly encourage the use of SI units. If you do not use these exclusively, please provide the SI value in parentheses after each value. Examples:
Species names should be italicized (e.g., Homo sapiens). Genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles should be indicated in italics. Use the recommended name by consulting the appropriate genetic nomenclature database, e.g., HUGO for human genes. It is sometimes advisable to indicate the synonyms for the gene the first time it appears in the text. The Recommended International Non-Proprietary Name (rINN) of drugs should be provided. Figures must be submitted in high-resolution version. Please ensure that the files conform to our Guidelines for Figure Preparation when preparing your figures for production. Preparing figure files for submission Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research encourages authors to use figures where this will increase the clarity of an article. The use of colour figures in articles is free of charge. The following guidelines must be observed when preparing figures. Failure to do so is likely to delay acceptance and publication of the article.
Supported file types The following file formats can be accepted. Detailed information for each file type can be found by clicking on individual links.
Submission of Research Manuscripts You are Ready to Submit Your Manuscript. Text files can be submitted for review in the following formats: DOC or RTF. Files with figures can be submitted in the following formats: EPS, Excel, JPEG, PhotoShop, PowerPoint, or TIFF. Electronic Submission Detailed instructions for submission can be found on the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research Manuscript Submission and Peer Review Web site. Files are uploaded individually and are combined into a single PDF file. Outline of the Production Process Once an article has been accepted for publication, the manuscript files are transferred into our production system. Manuscripts are then copyedited by professional copyeditors who correspond directly with the authors concerning queries and corrections. Any corrections should be made before the article is formatted. Once the article has been formatted, PDF proofs are generated so that authors can approve the final article. The prompt return of proofs by authors will expedite the production process. |
