ISSN 0034-7167 printed version
ISSN 1984-0446 online version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Editorial Policy
• Manuscripts Categories
• Preparation of Manuscripts
• Process of Submission and Review of Manuscripts

The Brazilian Nursing Journal (Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem – REBEn), official publication of the Brazilian Nursing Association (Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem – ABEn), has as target audience Nursing and Health professionals and students. Its purpose is to disseminate scientific production from the varied areas of knowledge which are of interest to nursing professionals. The Journal receives submission of manuscripts in Portuguese, English and Spanish. In addition to six regular numbers per year, special numbers may be published, according to a previous evaluation, of the Publication Commission or of the Editorial Committee of REBEn, on its relevance, and with the express approval of ABEn’s National Directorate.

REBEn adopts the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), updated in April 2010. These requirements, known as the Vancouver style, are available at URL <http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html>.

Manuscripts should be sent exclusively to REBEn, and their simultaneous submission to other journal(s) is not allowed. Once published, the manuscripts become property of REBEn, being forbidden their total or partial reproduction in any dissemination medium, print or electronic, without the prior approval of the Scientific Editor of the Journal.

In the case of research involving human subjects, and considering the Resolution CNS Nº 196/1996, the author(s) must mention, in the manuscript text, the protocol number of the project approval of an Ethics Committee recognized by the National Commission on Ethics in Research (Comissão Nacional de ética em Pesquisa – CONEP) of the National Health Council (Conselho Nacional de Saúde – CNS), or of an equivalent organization in the country where the research has been performed. Similarly, the author(s) must detail, in the text, whether participants have freely signed an Informed Consent Form (Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido) upon being enrolled in the research.

REBEn adopts the requirement of the World Health Organization (WHO) and of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) that clinical trials (randomized experimental studies) must have a prior registration on a platform that meets the criteria established by those two organizations (WHO and ICMJE).The clinical trial registration number should be placed on a footnote on the manuscript Identification Page, a sine qua non condition to be published.

Concepts, ideas or opinions expressed in the manuscripts, as well as the source and accuracy of the citations contained on it, are of the exclusive responsibility of the author(s).

Editorial – Text on matters of interest to the historical moment, with possible impact on professional practice. It should contain a maximum of two (2) pages, including references, if any.

Research – Report on results of original and previously unpublished research, which corroborates the available knowledge in the area, or broadens the knowledge of Nursing and / or Health on the subject of the investigation. This category includes randomized clinical trials. It should contain a maximum of fifteen (15) pages, including abstracts and references.

Revision – A study that gathers results of research on a specific subject in a systematic way, aiding in the explanation and understanding of differences between primary studies that investigate the same question, and deepening knowledge about the object of research. It uses systematic methods and explicit criteria to identify, select and critically evaluate relevant research and to collect and analyze data from the studies included in the review. It should contain a maximum of twenty (20) pages, including abstracts and references.

Reflection – Discursive in-depth formulation, focusing on concept or theoretical construct in the field of Nursing or related field, or discussion on a specific theme, drawing analogies, analyzing and presenting different theoretical or practical points of view. It should contain a maximum of ten (10) pages, including abstracts and references.

Experience Report – Study describing a situation in practice (education, care, research or management / administration), the intervention strategies and the evaluation of their effectiveness, and that is of interest to the Nursing and / or Health professionals. It should contain a maximum of ten (10) pages, including abstracts and references.

Eventually, may also be published: Interview (maximum of 3 pages) with a Nursing and / or Health personality; Guest Author manuscript (maximum of 15 pages, including abstracts and references); Letter to the Editor (1 page) and Review of contemporary work, evaluated as being of interest to REBEn’s target audience (maximum of 2 pages, including references, if any).

General aspects

Manuscripts of all categories accepted for submission to REBEn must be typed in Microsoft Office Word file, with the mandatory configuration pages of A4 (210x297mm) and 2 cm margins on all sides, font Times New Roman size 12, line spacing 1.5pt. Pages should be numbered consecutively up to the References section. The use of bold should be restricted to the title and subtitle of the manuscript. Italics will be applied only to highlight words or phrases relevant to the object of study, or excerpts of speeches or interviews. In verbatim quotations from authors, of up to three lines, use quotation marks and insert them in the normal sequence of text; in case of more than three lines, highlight them in a new paragraph, without quotation marks, font Times New Roman size 11, single line spacing and indentation of 3 cm from the margin.

The author citations in the text should be numbered consecutively following the order in which they are first mentioned in the text and set using superscript Arabic numerals in parenthesis, without spaces between citation number, preceding word and following sentence or paragraph punctuation [Example: care⁽⁵⁾,]. In the case of consecutive citation numbering the numbers should be separated by a dash [Example: care^(1-5);], and when non-consecutive, numbers should be separated by commas [Example: care^(1,3,5).].

Abbreviations should not be used in the title and subtitle of the manuscript. In the manuscript text, use only standard abbreviations. In the first citation, the abbreviation appears in parenthesis, and the corresponding terms must precede it.

Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and endnotes shall not be accepted. Illustrations (tables, charts and illustrations - photographs, drawings, graphics, etc.) shall be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order they are inserted in the manuscript text, but may not exceed the number of five (5). The author(s) of the manuscript submitted to REBEn must provide a written authorization for use of illustrations drawn from previously published works.

Structure of the text

It is recommended that articles in Research and Review categories (systematic or integrative) follow the conventional structure with main sections: Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions, and where necessary including subsections of these. The manuscripts of other categories may follow different structures.

Identification Page

It is the first page of the manuscript and should contain, on the order here presented, the following data: title of the paper (maximum of 15 words) in three languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish); name(s) of author(s), indicating in a footnote, academic title(s), position and function occupied, institution where work(s) and to which the work must be attributed; and email address for correspondence. If the manuscript is based on a doctoral thesis, dissertation or monograph of specialization or undergraduate course, indicate in a footnote, the author, title, category (doctoral thesis, etc.), city, institution where it was presented, and year.

Abstract and Keywords

The summary and the words begin a new page. Regardless of the type of manuscript, the Abstract should contain no more than 150 words. The abstract should be written with clarity and objectivity, which certainly contribute to the interest of the audience in reading the full content of the manuscript. The summary should contain objective, methodology, results and conclusions as well as the most important new aspects of the study. The abstract in Portuguese (Resumo) must be accompanied by versions in English (Abstract) and Spanish (Resumen). Just below each summary, include, respectively, three (3) to five (5) descritores, key words and palabras clave. It is recommended that the author(s) of the manuscript confirm, using the website of the Virtual Health Library (Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde -BVS), if the selected descriptors are included in the set of standard Descriptors in Health Sciences (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde)- DeCS (http://decs.bvs.br).

Body of text

The body of the text should start at a new page, where there should not appear the manuscript title or name of the author(s). The body of the text should be continuous. REBEn does not use the system of progressively numbering the various sections of the manuscript body text.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments, if any, should be placed before the reference list. The author(s) must indicate, as well as the name(s) of thanked person(s), the reason for the acknowledgement. It is recommended that thanked person(s) are informed of the acknowledgement in order to obtain the agreement to include his/her name in this section of the manuscript.

References

The number of references in the manuscript should be limited to twenty (20), except for Review articles. The references, listed at the end of the manuscript, should be numbered consecutively according to the order they were included in the text, and prepared in accordance with the Vancouver style. Examples of references in this style, developed and updated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (U.S. NLM), may be found at URL <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html>.

The REBEn adopts the system of electronic submission and management of the editorial process. Manuscripts are submitted through the URL <http://www.scielo.br/reben/> by accessing the link Submissão Online. When submitting the manuscript, the submitting author must be sign it electronically and, if any, in behalf of the co-authors, confirming that the manuscript is not being submitted simultaneously to another journal and that, if accepted, the author agrees to the transfer of copyright to REBEn. This eliminates the need to send letters of Authorship Responsibility and Copyright Transfer.

Confidence in the Publication Committee and Editorial Board, and the credibility of articles published in REBEn depend partly on how potential conflicts of interest are managed during the processes of drafting and submitting the manuscript, peer review and editorial decision. There is a potential conflict of interest when the author(s) and / or the institutions they affiliate with, the assessor or the publisher maintain financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence their actions. Those relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests and competing loyalties, and may be minimal, negligible, or with significant potential to influence the actions of individuals or groups.

The REBEn, seeking to avoid conflicts of interest that could affect public confidence in its editorial process, requires that the author(s), by submitting a manuscript in any of the categories accepted for publication, indicate(s) if there are conflicts of interest that may have influenced inappropriately, his / her (or their) actions. The REBEn Scientific Editor and Associate Editors will avoid external reviewers when indicated that they may have a conflict of interest with the author(s) of the manuscripts, like those working in the same Department or Institution of the author(s).In turn, the external reviewers, being aware of financial or personal relationships that may influence their opinions about the manuscript, should refrain from assessing those where there is clear conflict of interest.

To start the process of submitting, the submitting author should have previously signed up to the system as author. The sign-up process is self-explanatory, and after completion of the process an ID for the manuscript will be generated, with an alpha-numeric code (Example: REBEN-0001). The submitting author and all coauthors, if applicable, will receive a message confirming the submission and the manuscript ID so that they can monitor its progress in the steps of the editorial process.

Evaluation of the manuscript takes into account: adherence to the guidelines for preparation of manuscripts, including the registration number of the clinical trial, when appropriate, in a footnote; use of the Vancouver style in preparing the list of references; the clarity and objectivity of the abstract; the inclusion of descriptors in the Health Sciences Descriptors-DeCS ; the potential of the manuscript for publication; and the readers’ potential interest.

When any of these aspects is considered unsatisfactory, the manuscript is rejected and is automatically stored in the system. When evaluated positively, the manuscript is sent for peer review, being adopted the double blind review, which seeks to ensure the anonymity of the author(s) and referees. The opinions expressed by the evaluators may consider the manuscript as accepted, rejected, or even that it requires review, whether of form or content. The opinions expressed by reviewers are appreciated by the Scientific Editor and a final opinion is then sent to the author(s).

All authors of ACCEPTED manuscripts must be subscribers to REBEn, a sine qua non condition for publication.