ISSN 1677-5449 printed version portuguese
ISSN 1677-5449 printed version english
ISSN 1677-5449 online version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Manuscripts' form and presentation
• The sending of manuscripts

J Vasc Bras is a peer-reviewed quarterly publication of the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery (Sociedade Brasileira de Angiologia e de Cirurgia Vascular - SBACV). It is directed to vascular surgeons and clinicians and professionals of related fields, and accepts submissions in Portuguese, English and Spanish. The aim of the Journal is to select and disseminate high-quality scientific contents concerning original research, novel surgical and diagnostic techniques, and clinical observations in the field of vascular surgery, angiology, and endovascular surgery.

The J Vasc Bras Instructions to Authors follow the recommendations in the latest version of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals of 2009. The complete document is available at www.icmje.org.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Manuscripts submitted for publication should not have been published or submitted to other Journals in part or in whole.

2. Materials published in J Vasc Bras become the property of the Journal and of the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery. Published materials may not be reproduced elsewhere in part or in whole without written permission from J Vasc Bras and from the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery and without citation of the original source.

3. In cases of articles that reproduce previously published figures, the original source must be cited in the legends and written permission must be obtained from the copyright holder (publishing house or journal).

4. We recommend that authors keep a copy of the materials submitted to J Vasc Bras, since they will not be returned to the authors.

5. J Vasc Bras will not consider editorials which were not invited by the Editor-in-Chief or advertising materials.

6. The corresponding author will receive an e-mail confirming the submission. If the paper is in accordance with the Instructions to Authors and with the editorial policies of the Journal, it will be reviewed by two referees appointed by the Editor-in-Chief. Authors and reviewers remain anonymous throughout the review process. Within 60 days, the authors will be informed of acceptance, rejection, or need for revision requested by the Editorial Board. A decision letter and reviewers' comments will be e-mailed to the authors. Manuscripts that require revision will be returned to the authors for correction. Authors will be requested to return a revised version of the manuscript within one month and provide a letter detailing their responses to the reviewers' comments. Revised manuscripts are sent back to reviewers for reassessment. At this time, a decision will be made for acceptance, rejection, or need for additional revision.

Below, we disclose the Assessment Questionnaire to the general public, so as to ensure total transparency of the editorial process.
- Does the manuscript contain new and significant information to justify publication?
- Does the Abstract (Summary) clearly and accurately describe the content of the article?
- Is the problem significant and concisely stated?
- Are the methods described comprehensively?
- Are the interpretations and conclusions justified by the results?
- Is adequate reference made to other work in the field?
- Is the language acceptable?
- Please rate the priority for publishing this article (1 is the highest priority, 10 is the lowest priority).
- Manuscript Structure: Is the length of the article, number of tables and figures adequate? Too short/few? Too long/many?
- Please state any conflict(s) of interest that you have in relation to the review of this paper (state “none” if this is not applicable).
- Please rate the article for Interest, Quality, Originality, and Overall, choosing between Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, or Poor.
- Confirm that the study was approved by an Ethics Committee.
- Recommendation: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, Reject & Resubmit, or Reject.
- Would you be willing to review a revision of this manuscript?

7. A maximum of eight authors per manuscript is allowed. If there are more than eight authors on the manuscript, a statement specifying the contribution of each author should be provided. In cases of collective (corporate) authorship, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. Collaborative and multicenter studies must list as authors the investigators in charge of the protocols applied (maximum of five authors). All collaborators who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgments section or under a heading entitled •Additional information concerning authorship,• at the end of the article. Authorship credit is based on substantial contributions of each author to conception and design of the study, analysis and interpretation of data, and drafting and critically revising the manuscript. Inclusion of names whose contribution does not fulfill these criteria is not warranted.

8. Authors must disclose any conflicts of interest that might bias, or in any way impact the integrity of, the submitted manuscript. Some examples include publications, make public statements related to the subject of the manuscript, participate in an industry advisory committee, or other activities related to industry sources. Authors should check the list below and/or use this list as criteria for a conflict of interest statement:

- participate in clinical and/or experimental trials supported by a commercial entity;
- participate in speaking activities related to industry sources;
- consultant to or director of a commercial entity;
- participate in an industry advisory committee receiving money for completion of research;
- receive grant monies from a commercial entity;
- shareholder of a commercial entity;
- family relationship with owners/directors of a commercial entity having an interest in the subject of the manuscript;
- production of scientific reports in journals supported by a commercial entity;
- any financial relationship with people and institutions that might affect the integrity of the manuscript (e.g., being an employee, consultant or shareholder of a commercial entity, receiving honoraria, providing expert testimony, holding patent rights or having a patent application pending, receiving grant monies or other types of financial support).

9. Manuscripts that are not in accordance with the Instructions to Authors will be returned to the authors for correction before review by the Editorial Board.

10. Upon acceptance of the manuscript, page proofs (PDF file) are sent to the corresponding author for approval prior to publication. Acrobat Reader is required to read the PDF file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following website: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Changes at this phase should be limited to typesetting errors. No substantial changes can be made to the paper at this stage. Corrected page proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt via e-mail (denise@scientific.com.br) .

11. A statement concerning approval of the study by the institutional research ethics committee (or equivalent) must be included with the manuscript. Resolução nº 196 de 10/10/96 sobre pesquisa envolvendo seres humanos. DOU 1996 Out 16; nº 201, seção 1:21082-21085). In case of authors from foreign countries, manuscripts should be in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and with local ethical guidelines. Experimental procedures described in animal experimental studies should conform to the guidelines of an ethics committee of a research institute.

12. J Vasc Bras supports the policy of registration of clinical trials by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE; www.icmje.org), recognizing the importance of such initiative for registration and public access to information on clinical trials. According to this recommendation, clinical trials should be registered in one of the Clinical Trials Registries recommended by the WHO and the ICMJE. Addresses are available at the ICMJE website (e.g., www.actr.org.au, www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.ISRCTN.org, www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm, and www.trialregister.nl). The clinical trial registration number should appear at the end of the abstract. All manuscripts accepted after January 2009 should have a clinical trial registration number.

TYPES OF ARTICLES

J. Vasc. Bras. publishes:

1. Complete original articles reporting the results of prospective, experimental, or retrospective studies, as well as articles awarded in congresses. These articles will be given priority for publication. They should be composed of: title page, structured abstract and keywords, text (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion or equivalent), acknowledgements (if applicable), references, tables (if applicable), figure legends (if applicable) and figures (if applicable).

2. Brief communications, i.e., initial or preliminary and partial results of clinical or surgical studies under development, or of the application of an innovative technique. They should be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text, references, tables (if applicable) , figure legends (if applicable) and figures (if applicable).

3. Well-documented case reports of great interest in terms of clinical and laboratory findings. Preference will be given to cases of uncommon disease or evolution, or submitted to innovative or alternative forms of treatment. J Vasc Bras will only accept case reports of a rare entity, pioneer or innovative treatment, or unexpected results. They should be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text (Introduction, Case description and Discussion or equivalent), references, figure legends (if applicable) and figures (if applicable).

4. Presentation of novel diagnostic, surgical, and clinical treatments, as long as there are no clear or disguised commercial purposes or associations with pharmaceutical or medical device companies. They should be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text, references, tables (if applicable) , figure legends (if applicable) and figures (if applicable).

5. J Vasc Bras publishes Therapeutic challenge, divided into four parts, as follows: 1) Introduction; 2) Part I - Clinical situation, describing the case or situation, including images and/or examinations performed, followed by pertinent questions regarding additional diagnostic means and/or therapeutic conducts; 3) Part II - What was done?, describing the conduct of choice, including procedures (surgical or clinical), additional examinations, progress of follow-up (if applicable), etc.; 4) Discussion, including a final paragraph with the conclusions of the study. They should be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, in both Portuguese and English, if possible, text, references, tables, figure legends (if applicable), and figures (if applicable). Therapeutic challenges should not exceed 1,500 words and 25 references.

6. Abstracts of dissertations presented and approved within 12 months prior to the submission date. They should be composed of: title, full name of the author, advisor, and members of the dissertation committee, date and service/department/program to which the dissertation was developed and presented, abstract and keywords.

7. Review articles, including meta-analyses and editorial comments. They should be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text, references, tables (if applicable) , figure legends (if applicable) and figures (if applicable).

8. Letters to the Editor concerning editorial subject or published articles. They should be composed of: title, name of the author, identification of the article commented, references (if applicable).

9. Special issues, such as annals of congresses, guidelines, collections of works presented at conferences sponsored by the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, and supplements focusing on specific topics may be organized upon request to the Editor-in-Chief.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

All manuscripts must be typed double-spaced and left aligned, including all sections: title page, text, references, tables, and figure legends. Original articles should not exceed 3,000 words (not including title page, abstract, tables, figures, and references). Case reports should not exceed 1,500 words in the main text. Review articles should not exceed 5,000 words in the main text.

Manuscripts should be typed using a Microsoft Word®-compatible word processor, font Times New Roman, size 12. Do not highlight any parts of the text using underline or bold. All pages should be numbered consecutively starting with the title page.

Do not use capital letters to write names (e.g., SMITH) within the text or in the references. Do not use periods after the letters in acronyms or abbreviations (AAA rather than A.A.A.). Full-form of abbreviations/acronyms should be displayed the first time they appear in the text, followed by the abbreviation/acronym in parenthesis.

Title page

This section must contain: title of the manuscript in Portuguese and English; short title in Portuguese (up to 50 characters including spaces);full names of all authors; name of the institution in which the work was carried out or to which the authors are affiliated; congresses where the study was presented; statement of conflict of interests (e.g., financial support or other support received in the form of devices or drugs). Name, mailing address, telephone, fax, and e-mail of the corresponding author.

Abstract and keywords

Abstracts for original articles should be structured as follows: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions. These abstracts should not exceed 250 words. The use of abbreviations and symbols should be avoided in the abstract. References should not be cited in the abstract. For brief communications, case reports, innovations and review articles, the abstract should be unstructured and limited to 150 words. Therapeutic challenges: abstract is not required.

At least three keywords should be listed below the abstract. Keywords should be in accordance with the Descritores em Ciências da Saúde (DeCS) elaborated by BIREME, available at digital libraries or the Internet (http://decs.bvs.br). The abstract and keywords in Portuguese should be followed by an abstract and keywords in English. The content of both versions should be identical.

Submission of dissertation abstracts

Dissertation abstracts must be structured and have no more than 350 words. They should be composed of: dissertation title, full name of the author, advisor, and members of the dissertation committee, date and service/department/program to which the dissertation was developed and presented, abstract and keywords in Portuguese (main text in Portuguese) followed by abstract and keywords in English. Dissertation abstracts will be reviewed following the same criteria for all submissions.

Tables

Tables (each table typed on a separate sheet of paper) should be cited in the text and numbered using Arabic numbers in the order in which they appear in the text, with an explanatory title or notes. Use only horizontal borders before and after the column headers and at the foot of the table. Do not use vertical borders.

Figures

All figures should be cited in the text and numbered using Arabic numbers in the order in which they appear in the text, with an explanatory legend. All legends should be listed on the same page at the end of the article. Color figures are accepted for online publication, but are printed in black and white. Therefore, all figures should be intelligible in black and white.

Figures should be sent in electronic files (only digital images and photographs will be accepted), extensions .jpg, .gif or .tif, with a resolution of 300 dpi or higher to enable good-quality reproduction. Figures should be sent via e-mail. If this is not possible, submit your illustrations via regular mail. Scanned photographs will not be accepted; paper photographs should be submitted via regular mail.
Photographs should not allow patient identification. Graphs should be bidimensional.

If the resolution of the figure received electronically is not adequate for printing, the Editorial Board may contact the authors and request that the figure be sent via regular mail. Identify all photographs sent via mail with a label on the back of the figure, indicating first author's name and top of the figure (with an arrow).

Do not send original X-rays, materials in heat-sensitive paper, or any other medical records. Instead, submit two sets of good-quality copies of these materials to enable reproduction.
Figures previously published and included in submitted articles should cite the original source in the legend and must be accompanied on submission by a permission letter from the copyright holder (publishing house or journal).

Acknowledgments

In this section, acknowledge the work of people who contributed intellectually to the manuscript, but whose contribution does not justify authorship. Also acknowledge any material support received.

References

All the authors and works cited in the text must be included in the reference list and vice-versa. References must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text (not in alphabetical order), identified by superscript numbers (and not numbers is parenthesis). Avoid excessive citation.

Original articles must have a maximum of 40 references; case reports, a maximum of 25 references; and review articles should not exceed 100 references. Select the most relevant references, and focus on the most recent works (past five years).

Do not forget to cite Brazilian and Latin American authors whenever relevant. In doing so, please consult the following sources: LILACS (www.bireme.com.br), SciELO (www.scielo.br) and J Vasc Bras (www.jvascbr.com.br).

Avoid citations that are not easily available to readers, such as abstracts presented at conferences and other restricted publications. Do not use •personal communications• as references. Papers that have been accepted for publication may be cited followed by the expression •in press.• For citation of other works by the authors, select only original journal articles (do not include book chapters and review articles) which are related to the topic under discussion. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Below are some examples of different types of references:

Journal articles:

1. Harvey J, Dardik H, Impeduglia T, Woo D, Debernardis F. Endovascular management of hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm hemorrhage complicating pancreaticoduodenectomy. J Vasc Surg. 2006;43:613-7.

2. The UK Small Aneurysm Trial Participants. Mortality results for randomised controlled trial of early elective surgery or ultrasonographic surveillance for small abdominal aortic aneurysms. Lancet. 1998;352:1649-55.

3. Hull RD, Pineo GF, Stein PD, et al. Extended out-of-hospital low-molecular-weight heparin prophylaxis against deep venous thrombosis in patients after elective hip arthroplasty: a systematic review. Ann Intern Med. 2001;135:858-69. 2001;135:858-69.

If there are more than six authors, cite the first three followed by •et al.• Cite all authors if there are six or fewer.

Book chapters:

4. Rutherford RB. Initial patient evaluation: the vascular consultation. In: Rutherford RB, editor. Vascular surgery. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 2000. p. 1-12.

Journal article on the Internet:

5. Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[approximately 3 p.]. http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm

Journal article published on the Internet:

6. Wantland DJ, Portillo CJ, Holzemer WL, Slaughter R, McGhee EM. The effectiveness of web-based vs. non-web-based interventions: a meta-analysis of behavioral change outcomes. J Med Internet Res. 20004;6(4):e40. http://www.jmir.org/2004/4/e40/. Accessed Nov 29 2004. 29/11/2004.

Homepage/Web Site:

7. OncoLink [site on the Internet]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania; c1994-2006. [updated 2004 Sep 24; cited 2006 Mar 14]. http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/.

Software:

8. Smallwaters Corporation. Analysis of moment structures: AMOS [software]. Version 5.0.1. Chicago: Smallwaters; 2003.

AUTHOR CHECKLIST

• Title (in English and Portuguese, if possible).
• Short title (up to 50 characters with spaces).
• Full names of all authors.
• Name of the institution in which the work was carried out or to which the authors are affiliated.
• Conflict of interests declaration according to the checklist presented in General Information, item 8, of this Instructions to Authors (e.g., grants, devices or drugs received as financial support, or other relationships that may influence the published results).
• Studies resulting from randomized clinical trials should be accompanied by a statement of registration in one of the Clinical Trial Registries recommended by the WHO and the ICMJE. This category includes any prospective study (cohort, case series, randomized clinical trial, etc.) approved by the ethics committee, involving patients or groups of patients, in which authors assess and compare treatments, procedures, diagnostic techniques, etc.
• Name, full mailing address, phone, fax and e-mail of corresponding author.
• Up to 250-word structured abstract for original articles or up to 150-word unstructured abstract for case reports and review articles.
• At least three keywords (indexed in DeCS, http://decs.bvs.br).
• All pages are numbered.
• All figures and tables are cited and numbered in the order in which they appear in the text.
• All figures (when sent via regular mail) are identified with a label indicating first author's name and top of the figure.
• Figures do now allow identification of the patient.
• All references are cited in the text and are numbered in the order in which they appear in the text, with superscript numbers.
• References are adequately formatted (according to examples).
• There are citations of Brazilian and Latin American authors (whenever relevant).
• The authors have copies of informed consent forms and other documents required by the Ethics Committee at the institution in which the work was carried out.
• The authors have written permission for the use of previously published figures.
• If the article is being submitted via regular mail, one hard copy and a diskette are being submitted.

Using the SciELO Submission System (preferred):

Access J Vasc Bras at SciELO database (http://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/jvb-scielo), register your login data (login and password) and follow the steps in order to submit your manuscript.
If you have any doubts, please contact the editorial office via e-mail denise@scientific.com.br.