Instructions for Authors
SCOPE AND POLICY
The journal Acta Ortopédica Brasileira, official organ of the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sâo Paulo (DOT/FMUSP), is published bimonthly in six issues per year (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/ Aug, Sep/Oct, and Nov/Dec) with English version. The titles, abstracts and keywords are published in English and Portuguese.The publication follows entirely the international standard of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) - Vancouver Convention - and its uniform requirements [http://www.icmje.org/]. Submitted papers are sent for peer review evaluation to decide whether they should be published or not, suggesting improvements, asking the authors for clarification and making recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief. The editor(s) and/or reviewer(s) responsible for approval of the manuscript will be identified in the accepted articles. The concepts and statements contained in the papers are the sole responsibility of the authors.
We ask authors to observe the following instructions for publication.
PUBLICATION FEE
To allow for the sustainability and continuity of the Acta Ortopédica Brasileira, we inform authors that starting in January 2017 a publication fee was instituted for articles. Authors are responsible for paying a fee to publish accepted articles, which will be charged to authors when their respective works are approved. Following the acceptance of the manuscript and notification by the editor-in-chief, authors should make a deposit in the name of the Atha Mais Editora LTDA, CNPJ14.575.980/0001-65, Santander (033) Bank agency 4337, account number 13001765-6. A copy of the deposit receipt should be sent to the email actaortopedicabrasileira@uol.com.br and include the work protocol number (AOB-0000), the article title, and the name of the article’s author(s).
The fee is a R$ 1.150,00 (US$ 600). Upon submitting the manuscript and filling out the registration form, the author should read and agree to the terms of original authorship, relevance, and quality, as well as to the charging of the fee. Upon indicating agreement with these terms, the manuscript will be registered on the system for evaluation.
ARTICLES FORMAT
Number of words recommended according to the publication type: The criteria specified below should be observed for each type of publication. The electronic counting of words should start at the Introduction and end at the Conclusion.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION: The journal Acta Ortopédica Brasileira receives the following types of contributions: Original Article, Update Article and Review Article. The Update and Review articles are only considered by invitation from the Editorial Board.
Manuscripts should be sent in .txt or .doc files, double-spaced, with wide margins. Articles should be submitted ideally in English and Portuguese. Measures should be expressed in the International System (Système International, SI), available at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units and standard units, where applicable.
It is recommended that authors do not use abbreviations in the title and limit their use in the abstract and in the text.
This journal adopts Writecheck plagiarism detection system, however all published content are the sole responsibility of the authors.
The generic names should be used for all drugs. The drugs can be referred to by their trade name, however, the manufacturer’s name, city and country or electronic address should be stated in brackets in the Materials and Methods section.
PRESENTATION LETTER: The cover letter accompanying the submission of the manuscript should be signed by the corresponding author and should include the following information: Title, names of all authors, text authorizing the publication of the article, stating that it has not being submitted simultaneously elsewhere and it has not been previously published (publication in another language is considered as the same article). Authors should make sure that the manuscript is entirely in accordance with the instructions.
Preprint: RBME accepts the submission of articles published as preprints. A preprint is a completed scientific manuscript that is deposited by the authors in a public server. It may have been previously published without having passed through a peer review and can be viewed free of charge by anyone in the world on platforms developed today for this purpose, such as the Scielo PrePrint platform (https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo/user/register). In most cases, a work published as a preprint is also submitted to a journal for peer review. Thus, preprints (not validated through peer review) and journal publications (validated through peer review) function in parallel as a communication system for scientific research.1,2
Data sharing: RBME encourages the sharing, citation and referencing of all data, program code and content underlying article texts in order to facilitate the evaluation of research, the reproducibility of studies, and the preservation and reuse of content. Data sharing can be published on the Scielo Dataverse platform, https://data.scielo.org/
Citations should facilitate access to research content and when articles, books, and online publications are cited, the data should be cited in an appropriate place in the text and the source included in the list of references in accordance with the Vancouver Style standards.3
ABBREVIATIONS: The use of abbreviations should be minimized. Abbreviations should be defined at the time of its first appearance in the abstract and also in the text. Non-standard abbreviations shall not be used, unless they appear at least three times in the text.
Measurement units (3 ml or 3 mL, but not 3 milliliters) or standard scientific symbols (chemical elements, for example, Na, and not sodium) are not considered abbreviations and, therefore, should not be defined. Authors should abbreviate long names of chemical substances and therapeutic combinations terms. Abbreviations in figures and tables can be used for space reasons, but should be defined in the legend, even if they were defined in the article.
CLINICAL TRIALS: The journal Acta Ortopédica Brasileira supports the Clinical Trials Registry policy of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ICMJE, recognizing the importance of these initiatives for the registration and international dissemination of clinical studies in open access. Therefore, it will only accept for publication articles involving clinical research that have received an identification number in one of the clinical trials registry platforms validated by WHO and ICMJE. The URLs of these registry platforms are available at the ICMJE page [http://www.icmje.org/about-icmje/faqs/clinical-trials-registration/].
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS: As recommended by the ICMJE and resolution of the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine nº 1595/2000, authors have the responsibility to recognize and declare any potential financial conflicts of interest, as well as conflicts of other nature (commercial, personal, political, etc.) involved in developing the work submitted for publication.
CORRECTION OF PROOFS: As soon as they are ready, proofs in electronic format shall be sent via email to the author responsible for the article. Authors must return the proof with the appropriate corrections via email no later than 48 hours after having received them. The remittance and return of the proofs by electronic mail is intended to speed up the revision process and subsequent publication of these documents.
ELECTRONIC FILE ORGANIZATION: All parts of the manuscript must be included in a single file. This file must be organized to contain a cover page first, then the text and references followed by figures (with captions) and, at the end, tables and charts (with captions).
COVER PAGE: The cover page must contain:
a) type of article (original, revision or update article);
b) complete title in Portuguese and English with up to 80 characters, which must be concise yet informative;
c) The full name of each author (no abbreviations) and their affiliation (hierarchical units should be presented in ascending order, for example, department, college/institute and university. The names of institutions and programs should be submitted preferably in full and in the original language of the institution or in the English version when writing is not Latin (e.g. Arabic, Mandarin, Greek);
d)The place where the work was performed;
e)Name, address, telephone number and e-mail of the corresponding author.
ABSTRACT: The abstract in Portuguese and in English should be structured in cases of original articles and shall present the study’s objectives clearly, methods, results and main conclusions and should not exceed 200 words (do not include any reference citations). Moreover, the abstract should include the level of evidence and the type of study, according to the classification table attached at the end of this text.
KEYWORDS: Must at least contain three keywords based on the Descritores de Ciências da Saúde (DeCS) - http://decs.bireme.br. In English, the keywords must be based on the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html, with at least three and at most, six citations.
INTRODUCTION: It must present the subject and the objective of the study, and provide citations without making any external review of the subject material.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Authors can acknowledge financial support to the work in the form of research grants, scholarships and other, as well as professionals who do not qualify as co-authors of the article, but somehow contributed to its development.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This section should describe the experiments (quantitatively and qualitatively) and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other researchers to reproduce the results or provide continuity to the study.
When reporting experiments on humans or animals, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed the rules of the Ethics Committee on Human Trials of the institution in which the survey was conducted, and whether the procedures are in accordance with the 1995 Helsinki Declaration and the Ethics in Experimentation Animals, respectively. Authors should include a statement indicating that the protocol was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (affiliate institution of at least one of the authors), with its identification number. It should also include whether a Free and Informed Consent Term was signed by all participants.
Authors should precisely identify all drugs and chemicals used, including generic names, dosages and administration. Patients’ names, initials, or hospital records should not be included. References regarding statistical procedures should be included.
RESULTS: Results should be present in logical sequence in the text, using tables and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables and/or illustrations, but emphasize or summarize only the most relevant findings.
DISCUSSION: Emphasize new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that derive from it, in the context of the best evidence available. Do not repeat in detail data or other information mentioned elsewhere in the manuscript, as in the Introduction or Results. For experimental studies it is recommended to start the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings, then explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings, compare and contrast the results with other relevant studies, state the limitations of the study and explore the implications of these results for future research and for clinical practice.
Link the conclusions with the goals of the study, but avoid statements and conclusions that are not supported by the data, in particular the distinction between clinical and statistical relevance. Avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs, unless the manuscript includes data and appropriate economic analysis. Avoid priority claim (“this is the first study of ...”).
CONCLUSION: The conclusion should be clear and concise, establishing a link between the conclusion and the study objectives. Avoiding conclusions not based on data from the study in question is recommended, as well as avoiding suggest that studies with larger samples are needed to confirm the results of the work in question.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: When applicable, briefly acknowledge the people who have contributed intellectually or technically to the study, but whose contribution does not justify authorship. The author must ensure that people agree to have their names and institutions disclosed. Financial support for the research and fellowships should be acknowledged in this section (funding agency and project number).
IDENTIFICATION OF THE AUTHORS: The ORCID number (Open Researcher and Contributor ID, http://orcid.org) of each of the authors, following the name of the respective author, and the complete link must be included on the cover page.
DECLARATION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE AUTHORS: The declaration of the contribution of the authors must be included at the end of the article using at least two criteria of authorship, among them:
Substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work, or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the study data;
Writing of the work or critical review of its intellectual content;
Final approval of the version of the manuscript to be published.
All the authors must be included in the declaration, according to the model:
“Each author made significant individual contributions to the development of this manuscript. Faloppa F: writing and performing surgeries; Takimoto ES: data analysis and performing surgeries; Tamaoki MJS: review of the article and intellectual concept of the article.”
REFERENCES: References: Cite up to about 20 references, restricted to the bibliography essential for the article’s content. Number references consecutively, as they first appear in the text, using superscripted Arabic numerals in the following format: (Reduction of functions of the terminal plate.1) Please include the first six authors followed by et al.
Journal names must be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus.
a) Articles: Author(s). Article title. Journal title. year; volume: initial page – final page
Ex.: Campbell CJ. The healing of cartilage defects. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1969;(64):45-63.
b) Books: Author(s) or publisher(s). Book title. Edition, if other than the first one. Translator (s), if applicable. Publication site: publisher; year. Ex.: Diener HC, Wilkinson M, editors. Drug-induced headache. 2nd ed. New York: Spriger-Verlag; 1996.
c) Book chapters: Author(s) of the chapter. Chapter heading. Publisher (s) of the book and other related data according to previous item. Ex.: Chapman MW, Olson SA. Open fractures. In: Rockwood CA, Green DP. Fractures in adults. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven; 1996. p.305-52.
d) Summaries: Author(s). Title, followed by [abstract]. Journal year; volume (supplement and corresponding number, if applicable): page(s) Ex.: Enzensberger W, Fisher PA. Metronome in Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Lancet. 1996;34:1337.
e) Personal communications must only be mentioned in the text if within parentheses
f) Thesis: Author, title (master, PhD etc.), city: institution; year. Ex.: Kaplan SJ. Post-hospital home health care: the elderly’s access and utilization [dissertation]. St. Louis: Washington Univ.; 1995.
g) Electronic material: Author (s). Article title. Abbreviated Journal title [medium]. Publication date [access date followed by the expression “accessed on”]; volume (number):initial page-final page or [approximate number of pages]. URL followed by the expression “Available from:”
Ex.: Pavezi N, Flores D, Perez CB. Proposição de um conjunto de metadados para descrição de arquivos fotográficos considerando a Nobrade e a Sepiades. Transinf. [Internet]. 2009 [acesso em 2010 nov 8];21(3):197-205. Available from: http://periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br/seer/index.php/transinfo/article/view/501
H) Data Sharing: Pavezi N, Flores D, Perez CB. Proposição de um conjunto de metadados para descrição de arquivos fotográficos considerando a Nobrade e a Sepiades. Transinf. [Internet]. 2009. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-37862009000300003. Write [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can identify it properly as a data reference. The identifier [dataset] will not appear in the published article.
TABLES: Tables should be numbered in order of appearance in the text with Arabic numerals. Each table should have a title and, when necessary, an explanatory caption. Charts and tables should be sent in editable source files (Word, Excel) and not as images. Tables and charts covering more than one page should be avoided. Do not use image elements, text boxes, or tabs.
FIGURES (ILLUSTRATIONS AND PHOTOS): Figures should be submitted on separate pages and numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals, according to the order of appearance in the text. To avoid issues that compromise the journal pattern, all material sent shall comply with the following parameters: all graphics, photographs and illustrations should have adequate graphic quality (300 dpi resolution) and present title and caption. In all cases, the files must have .tif or .jpg extensions. Files with extension .xls, .xlsx (Excel), .eps or .psd to curve illustrations (graphics, drawings and diagrams) shall also be accepted. Figures include all illustrations such as photographs, drawings, maps, graphs, etc. Black and white figures will be freely reproduced, but the editor reserves the right to set a reasonable limit on their number or charge the author the expense resulting from excesses. Color photos will be charged to the author.
Please note that it is the authors’ responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures (or tables) that have been previously published elsewhere. Authors must have permission from the copyright owner, if they wish to include images that have been published in other non-open access journals. Permission shall be indicated in the figure legend, and the original source must be included in the reference list.
LEGENDS TO FIGURES: Type the legends using double space, following the respective figures (graphics, photos and illustrations). Each legend must be numbered in Arabic numerals corresponding to each illustration and in the order they are mentioned in the text. Abbreviations and acronyms should be preceded by the full name when cited for the first time in the text. At the bottom of figures and tables discriminate the meaning of abbreviations, symbols, signs and other informed source. If the illustrations have already been published, they shall be accompanied by written consent of the author or editor, stating the reference source where it was originally published.
PAPER SUBMISSION: From January 2008 Acta Ortopédica Brasileira adopts the SciELO Publication and Submission System available online at http://submission.scielo.br/index.php/aob/index. Authors should follow the registration and article inclusion instructions available at the website.
The authors are solely responsible for the concepts presented in the articles.
Total or partial reproduction of the articles is permitted as long as the source is indicated.
All journal content, except where identified, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution type BY-NC license.
If you require additional clarifications, please contact Atha Comunicação e Editora - Rua: Machado Bittencourt, 190, 4º andar - Vila Mariana - São Paulo, SP, CEP 04044-000 - Email: actaortopedicabrasileira@uol.com.br – phone number 55-11-5087-9502 and speak to Ana Carolina de Assis/Arthur T. Assis.
