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(Updated: 2023/03/31)

About the journal

Basic information

 

Epidemiology and Health Services: Journal of the Brazilian National Health system (Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde: revista do SUS - RESS) is an on-line, open-access, free of charge, rolling volume scientific periodical, published by the General Coordination for the Development of Epidemiology in Health Services, located within the Department of Strategic in Health Secretary of Health and Environment Surveillance of the Ministry of Health, Brazilian Ministry of Health (CGDEP/DAEVS/SVSA/MS).

RESS is governed by Ordinance No. 14, dated August 13th 2015, and by its Charter, drawn up by its Editorial Core Group and its Editorial Committee, which are available to provide any further information that may be necessary.

The Journal’s abbreviated title is Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde, which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes, bibliographic references and legends.

 


Mission

 

RESS’ mission is to disseminate epidemiological knowledge applicable to surveillance, prevention and control of diseases and health conditions of public health interest, with the aim of improving the services offered by the Brazilian National Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS).

 


Background

 

RESS is the continuation of the former SUS Epidemiological Report (Informe Epidemiológico do SUS - IESUS), created in 1992, following the setting up of the National Epidemiology Center (Centro Nacional de Epidemiologia - CENEPI). When the Health Ministry created its Health Surveillance Secretariat (SVS/MS). In 2003, the Journal changed its name to Epidemiology and Health Services (RESS), with effect from volume 12, number 1.

 


Indexing sources

 

Articles published by Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde (RESS) are indexed or summarized by:

Databases:

  • Medline
  • Coleção SciELO Brasil
  • Coleção SciELO Saúde Pública
  • Scopus
  • Embase
  • Literatura Latino-Americana em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS)
  • Web of Science
  • PubMed Central (PMC)

Indexing services:

  • Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
  • Sumarios.org

Directories:

  • Online Regional Information System for Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (Latindex)
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Virtual Library:

  • CAPES Journal Portal
 


Intellectual Property

  Published articles are the sole responsibility of their authors and do not necessarily express the position of the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Content published by RESS is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-type license (CC-BY), under which others are allowed to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon published work, even for commercial purposes, as long as due authorship credit is given.  

 

Storage

 

The RESS, as part of the SciELO Brasil and SciELO Saúde Pública Collections, counts on digital preservation through the Cariniana Network, created by the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia (Ibict/MCTI) and which operates with a digital preservation system based on the distributed networking model, with storage using the LOCKSS open source system created by Stanford University. RESS issues published prior to indexation in the SciELO Collections are also digitally preserved, with the support of the Instituto Evandro Chagas (IEC).

 

 

Dissemination

 

The RESS disseminates its content through its website (https://ress.iec.gov.br/p/home). Authors are informed when their article has been published and they are encouraged to disseminate its contents in their personal and institutional networks. The RESS Informa Newsletter is published fortnightly by the journal and disseminated via its mailing list. Each full issue of the journal is also disseminated via the mailing list. RESS’ associate editors publish a monthly press release of recent journal publications on the SciELO em Perspectiva Blog. The RESS encourages participation of members of its Editorial Core Group in scientific events to promote its contents, and is also a partner journal of Agência Bori, which disseminates scientific content to the press. 

 

 

Supporting institution

 

Secretary of Health and Environment Surveillance, Brazilian Ministry of Health (SVSA/MS)

 

 

 

Editorial Board

 

Chief Editor

 
  • Cynthia Braga, Instituto Aggeu Magalhães, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Recife, PE – Brasil
 

 

Executive Editor

 
  • Guilherme Loureiro Werneck, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil
 

 

Scientific Editor

 
  • Bárbara Reis-Santos, Rede Brasileira de Pesquisa em Tuberculose (Rede-TB), Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brasil
 

 

Editors

 

Associate Editors

  • Amanda Coutinho de Souza, Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil
  • Carolina Fausto de Souza Coutinho, Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, SP – Brasil
  • Cristine Bonfim, Diretoria de Pesquisas Sociais da Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Pernambuco, PE - Brasil
  • Doroteia Aparecida Höfelmann, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR - Brasil
  • Elisângela Aparecida da Silva Lizzi, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Cornélio Procópio, PR – Brasil
  • Isis Polianna Silva Ferreira de Carvalho, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil
  • Laylla Ribeiro Macedo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Brasil
  • Maryane Oliveira Campos, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF - Brasil
  • Tatiana Mingote Ferreira de Ázara, Instituto René Rachou, Fiocruz, Minas Gerais, BH– Brasil
  • Thaynã Ramos Flores, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, RS – Brasil 

Editor for systematic reviews

  • Taís Freire Galvão, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP - Brasil

Editor for statistical methods

  • Lúcia Rolim Santana de Freitas, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF - Brasil
 

 

Editorial Committee

 
  • Alicia Matijasevich Manitto, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP - Brasil
  • Ana Lúcia Escobar, Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Porto Velho, RO - Brasil
  • Brendan Flannery, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta - Estados Unidos
  • Bruce Bartholow Duncan, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS - Brasil
  • Carlo Henrique Goretti Zanetti, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF - Brasil
  • Carlos Castillo Salgado, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore - Estados Unidos
  • Carlos Machado de Freitas, Fundação Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brasil
  • Cláudia Medina Coeli, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brasil
  • Cor Jesus Fernandes Fontes, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, MT - Brasil
  • Eduardo Simões, University of Missouri, Columbia - Estados Unidos
  • Eliseu Alves Waldman, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP - Brasil
  • Everton Nunes da Silva, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF – Brasil
  • Iná da Silva dos Santos, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, RS - Brasil
  • Isabella Chagas Samico, Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira, Recife, PE - Brasil
  • Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Júnior, Organização Pan Americana de Saúde, Washington – Estados Unidos
  • João Bosco Siqueira Júnior, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO - Brasil
  • José Cássio de Moraes, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP - Brasil
  • José Ueleres Braga, Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brasil
  • Luiz Augusto Facchini, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, RS - Brasil
  • Márcia Furquim de Almeida, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP - Brasil
  • Maria Cecília de Souza Minayo, Fundação Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brasil
  • Maria da Glória Lima Cruz Teixeira, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA - Brasil
  • Maria de Fátima Marinho de Souza, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP - Brasil
  • Marilisa Berti de Azevedo Barros, Universidade de Campinas, Campinas, SP - Brasil
  • Otaliba Libânio de Morais Neto, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO - Brasil
  • Vera Lúcia Guimarães Blank, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC - Brasil
 

 

Editorial Production

 

Executive Secretary

  • Aline Vieira de Lima, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil
  • Dalila de Carvalho Silva Gonzaga, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil

Portuguese proofreading

  • Ermenegyldo Munhoz Júnior, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF - Brasil
  • Maria Irene Lima Mariano, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF - Brasil

English translation and proofreading

  • David Ian Harrad, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil
  • Lúcia Ferreira Quirino, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil

Spanish translation proofreading

  • Lota Moncada, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil

Layout

  • Rhander David de Lima Sousa, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil

Communications/Divulgation

  • Matheus Nunes Oliveira Alves, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF – Brasil

Librarian

  • Isabel dos Santos Figueiredo, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF - Brasil

Electronic edition

  • Instituto Evandro Chagas, Ministério da Saúde, Ananindeua, PA - Brasil
 

 


EDITORIAL POLICY AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Ethics

 

Research integrity

RESS follows the guidance provided in the document entitled “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals”, issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) – available from english and from portuguese.

RESS has adopted the principles of publication ethics contained in the Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Practices in contravention of scientific integrity, such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, redundant publication and undisclosed conflicts of interest, among other practices involving misconduct, will be evaluated by members of the Editorial Core Group and the Editorial Committee, who are independent in relation to the editorial process of the manuscript in question, according to the COPE flowcharts and other COPE recommendations, which will immediately communicate the authors as to its decision and all the steps of this process. RESS uses the iThenticate system for identifying plagiarism

RESS has a Statement on Publication Ethics which expresses its commitment to ethics by adopting best scientific publication practices.

Ethics in research involving human beings

Observance of ethical precepts in the conduct and publication of research results is the sole responsibility of the authors, and the ethical recommendations contained in the Declaration of Helsinki must be respected. In the case of research with human beings in Brazil, authors must fully comply with the norms contained in the corresponding National Health Council Resolutions. Whenever pertinent, the protocol number and the date of approval by the Research Ethics Committee should be informed. In the case of a clinical trial, the identification number of one of the clinical trial registries validated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ICMJE will be required.

Conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest are situations in which there are interests – apparent or not – capable of influencing the process of manuscript preparation and review. They are conflicts of a diverse nature – personal, commercial, political, academic or financial – to which any person may be subject.

Authors must acknowledge and disclose such interests, when they exist, by means of a Statement of Responsibility, which must be signed by all authors during manuscript submission, and the ICMJE disclosure form. The conflict of interest statement will be published in the manuscript if it is approved.

Ad hoc reviewers involved in the editorial processing must declare, in their manuscript review report, whether they have any conflicts of interest.  The main reviewer conflicts of interest are:
1. Working or having worked at the same institution/organization as the author;
2. Having a recent history of collaboration or publication with one of the authors;
3. Having any form of relationship with the company that funded the research;
4. Having a personal relationship with the author.

Editors and members of the Editorial Committee have submitted a disclosure of conflicts of interest.

As a means of ensuring the editorial independence of the journal from its funding institution, the decision on approval of manuscripts for publication is made by the Editorial Committee and the decision on rejection of manuscripts that are being processed is validated by at least two members of the Editorial Core Group.

Authorship responsibility

Authors must declare that they are responsible for the veracity and uniqueness of their work by signing a Statement of Responsibility.

Authorship criteria must comply with the ICMJE/ Vancouver Style deliberations, which recognize as authorship criteria substantial contributions to the following four activities: (i) study concept or design, or data collection, analysis and interpretation; (ii) drafting or relevant critical review of the intellectual content of the manuscript; (iii) final approval of the version to be published; and (iv) responsibility for all aspects of the work, including ensuring its accuracy and completeness. All those designated as authors must meet the four authorship criteria.

Right to reproduce

Content published by RESS is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-type license (CC-BY), under which others are allowed to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon published work, even for commercial purposes, as long as due authorship credit is given.

Open science and data sharing

RESS is aligned with the principles of open science. Manuscripts previously published on non-commercial preprint servers are welcomed, such as SciELO Preprints, bioRxiv and medRxiv, provided they have not been simultaneously submitted to another journal for peer review. The submitting author should inform RESS regarding preprint deposition by completing the Open Science Conformity Form, which should be submitted as a supplementary file together with the manuscript.

RESS currently adopts the double-blind peer review model. In line with the progressive transparency of the manuscript review process, the name of the associate editor involved in the editorial process is included in the published manuscript.

Access to the study databases may be requested at any stage of the editorial process. RESS encourages deposition and sharing of research data supporting the publication of the manuscript in public data repositories, such as the SciELO Data repository. For detailed instructions on data deposition, click here.

RESS also encourages deposition and sharing of statistical software programming routines used in data analysis, in the form of supplementary materials.

Sex and gender equity

Manuscripts submitted to RESS should observe the principles of the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (Sex and Gender Equity in Research - SAGER)  Guidelines. According to these Guidelines, the terms sex (biological attribute) and gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances) should be used with care, so as to avoid confusion in their use.

 


Instructions for Authors 
 

 

Manuscript modalities

The RESS Editorial Core Group receives manuscripts in the following modalities:

a) Original article – an original research product falling into one or more of the several thematic areas of surveillance, prevention and control of diseases and health conditions of public health interest.

b) Review article

b.1) Systematic – product of the application of bias-reduction strategies in the selection, critical appraisal and synthesis of results from different primary studies, with the aim of answering a specific question; it may use the procedure involving quantitative synthesis of results, in the meta-analysis format; it is desirable to indicate the registration of the review protocol on the PROSPERO database (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews).

b.2) Narrative – product of the critical analysis of published material, with in-depth discussion on a theme relevant to public health or an update on a controversial or emerging theme; it must be prepared by a specialist, invited by the editors.

c) Research note – concise report of final or partial results (preliminary note) of original research.

d) Experience report – description of an experience in the area of epidemiology, surveillance, prevention and control of diseases and health conditions of public health interest; it should be prepared when invited to do so by the editors.

e) Opinion article – succinct commentary on specific themes to promote debate in the field of epidemiology and/or health surveillance, based on scientific evidence and expressing the authors' qualified opinion; it must be written by a specialist, invited by the editors.

f) Debate – theoretical article written by a specialist, invited by the editors, which will receive comments and/or criticisms, through rejoinders, signed by specialists, also invited by the editors.

g) Investigation of events of public health interest – an original product of an experience in the area of epidemiology, surveillance, prevention and control of diseases and health conditions of public health interest.

h) Profile of national health databases – description of Brazilian bases of interest for epidemiology, disease surveillance, prevention and control, by invitation of the editors.

i) Letters – brief comments and/or criticisms, related to an article published in the most recent issue of the journal, which may be published by decision of the editors and accompanied by a reply letter from the authors of the commented article.

The characteristics of the modalities RESS receives are summarized in the box below.

Box: Manuscript modality characteristics.
 

Modality

Number of words

Number of tables and figures

Number of references

Abstracts
(150 words)

Box showing study contributions

Original article

3500

Up to 5

Up to 30

Yes

Yes

Systematic review article

3500

Up to 5

No limit

Yes

Yes

Narrative review article

3500

Up to 5

No limit

Yes

Yes

Research note

1500

Up to 3

Up to 30

Yes

Yes

Experience report

2500

Up to 4

Up to 30

Yes

Yes

Opinion article

1500

Up to 2

Up to 30

No

No

Debate

3500 (1500 each reply or rejoinder)

 

Up to 30

No

No

Investigation of events of public health interest

2500

Up to 4

Up to 30

Yes

Yes

Profile of national health databases

3500

Up to 7

Up to 30

No

Yes

Letters

400

Up to 5

Up to 5

No

No

 

At the discretion of the editors, other article formats may be published, such as tools for health surveillance management (limit: 3,500 words), epidemiology applications (limit: 3,500 words), interviews with personalities or authorities (limit: 800 words), reviews of contemporary works (limit: 800 words), thematic series articles and editorial notes.

Manuscript structure

In preparing manuscripts, authors should be guided by the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (English and Portuguese versions).

Manuscript structure should conform to the guidelines provided in the scientific writing guides, according to their design.
A complete list of the guides can be found on the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) website at: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines. Below is a list of the main guides pertinent to the scope of RESS.

  • Observational studies: STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology)
  • Systematic reviews: PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), English and Portuguese versions
  • Health estimates: GATHER (Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting), English and Portuguese versions
  • Secondary database studies: RECORD (Conducted using Observational Routinely-collected health Data) 
  • Sex and gender report: SAGER (Sex and Gender  Equity in Research)      English and Portuguese versions     

Only manuscripts that are in agreement with the Submission Template will be accepted. RESS receives manuscripts written in Portuguese, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, in RTF (Rich Text Format), DOC or DOCX (Word document) format. Footnotes will not be accepted. Each manuscript must contain:

Title page

a) manuscript modality;
b) manuscript title, in Portuguese, English and Spanish;
c) running title in Portuguese;
d) name, ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) and e-mail of each author;
e) affiliation institution (up to two hierarchical levels; city, state, country), listed below the list of authors with superscript numbers; include just one institution per author;
e) corresponding author, name, e-mail and telephone;
f) pagination and maximum number of words in the abstracts and in the text;
g) information about academic work (final course paper, monograph, dissertation or thesis) that gave origin to the manuscript, naming the author, type and title of the work, year it was defended and institution;
h) Funding, or support, with the declaration of all sources, institutional or private, that contributed to the realization of the study; cite the number of the respective files. Suppliers of materials, equipment, inputs or medications, either free or at discounted prices, should also be described as sources of funding, including the city, state, and country of origin of these suppliers. This information must be included in the Statement of Responsibility and on the title page of the article.

Abstract/Resumo/Resumen

Abstracts must be written in a single paragraph, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, with up to 150 words, and structured with the following sections: objective, methods, results and conclusion. In the case of experience reports, this structured format is optional.

Keywords/Palavras-chave/Palabras clave

Four to six keywords should be selected, with one of them referring to the study design. The keywords must be taken from the list of Health Sciences Descriptors (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde - DeCS) and presented in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

Study contributions
Authors must inform the main contributions made by the study. These will be prominently displayed in the diagrammed manuscript, in the event of it being published. The following topics should be included, with up to 250 characters with space for each topic:

a) Main results: briefly describe the answer to the study objective;
b) Implications for services: discuss how the findings of the study can have repercussions in health services and/or be used by them.
c) Perspectives: present a "look into the future" and reflect on what would be the next steps for the area/theme studied and/or what would be needed to implement the findings.

Main text

The text of manuscripts in the original article and research note modalities must contain the following sections, in the following order: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Author Contributions and References. Tables, boxes and figures should be referred to in the “Results” section and presented at the end of the article, when possible, or in a separate file (in editable format). The content of the sections should cover the following aspects:
a) Introduction: present the problem that gave rise to the research question, the justification and the objective of the study, in that order;
b) Methods: describe the study design, study population, methods used, including, when appropriate, sample size calculation, sampling and data collection procedures or source, place and date of data access, variables studied and their respective categories, data processing and analysis procedures; in the case of studies involving human beings or animals, include the relevant ethical considerations (see the section on Ethics in research involving human beings);
c) Results: present a synthesis of the results found; it is desirable to include self-explanatory tables and figures.
d) Discussion: present a summary of the main results, without repeating numerical values, their implications and limitations; compare the results with other publications relevant to the topic; in the last paragraph of the section, include conclusions based on the research results and their implications for health services or policies;
e) Author contributions: include a paragraph describing the specific contribution of each of the authors, in accordance with ICMJE recommendations.
f) Acknowledgements: when acknowledgements are made, they should be nominal and as few as possible; people who collaborated with the study and fulfilled the authorship criteria are named; the authors are responsible for obtaining written authorization from the people named, given the possibility that readers will infer that they endorse the data and conclusions of the study; impersonal acknowledgements - for example, “to all those who collaborated, directly or indirectly, with the realization of this work” - should be avoided;
g) References: their format should follow the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and also the United States National Library of Medicine Manual on citations and references in the area of medicine, with adaptations defined by the editors.

  1. In the text, use the numerical system, according to the order of citation in the text, with the numbers written in superscript, without brackets, immediately after the passage in the text where the citation is made (and punctuation, when present), separated from each other by commas; in the case of sequential numbers, separate them with a hyphen, listing only the first and the last reference of the sequential interval of the citations (e.g. 7,10-16).
  2. In the case of references with more than six authors, list the first six, follows by the Latin expression “et al.” for the remainder;
  3. Titles of periodicals should be written in abbreviated form, according to the style used in the Index Medicus or as per the Portal de Revistas Científicas de Saúde;
  4. Book titles and the names of publishers should be written in full;
  5. Whenever possible, include the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of the document cited.

Avoiding use of uncommon abbreviations or acronyms is recommended. Abbreviations or acronyms should only be used when they are established in the literature, and care should be taken to ensure the clarity of the manuscript. Authors may consult the Ministry of Health “Siglário Eletrônico” or the National Health Foundation “Manual de editoração e produção visual” (Brasil. Fundação Nacional de Saúde. Manual de editoração e produção visual da Fundação Nacional de Saúde. Brasília: Funasa, 2004. 272p.).

Manuscript submission

Manuscripts are to be submitted to RESS via the SciELO Publication System. Prior to submission, however, authors must prepare the following documents:

1. Statement of Responsibility, signed by all authors, scanned in PDF format;
2. Open Science Conformity Form;
3. Manuscript title page and text, in accordance with the Submission Template.

Processing fees
RESS does not charge fees for article submission, evaluation or publication.

Manuscript evaluation process

RESS will only receive manuscripts formatted in accordance with these Instructions and the subject matter of which falls within the scope of the journal.

A preliminary review will verify editorial and technical aspects, including but not limited to potential for publication, interest to the journal's readers, and compliance with ethical requirements. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements will be rejected. Manuscripts considered potentially publishable in RESS, in turn, will undergo the editorial process, which is composed of the steps specified below.

1) Technical review: performed by the associate and/or assistant editor, consists of the review of aspects of form and scientific writing, with the aim of ensuring that the manuscript meets all items of the Instructions for authors and is eligible to enter the external peer review process. At this stage the iThenticate plagiarism detection system report is also analyzed.
2) External peer review: performed by at least two reviewers external to the editorial board of the RESS (ad hoc reviewers), who have solid knowledge in the thematic area of the manuscript, who must assess the scientific merit and content of manuscripts, making constructive criticism for their improvement. The modalities submitted to external peer review are: “original article”, “research note”, “review article”, “experience report”, “investigation of events of public health interest”, and “profile of national health databases”. RESS uses the double-blind peer review model, in which ad hoc reviewers do not know the identity of manuscript authors and are not identified in the review sent to the authors. For manuscripts previously published on preprint servers, RESS understands that it is not possible to guarantee the anonymity of the authors, only the anonymity of the reviewers involved in the process is guaranteed. Ad hoc reviewers should follow the ethical requirements for reviewers recommended by COPE.
3) Review by the Editorial Core Group: Once the ad hoc reviewers’ reports have been issued, the associate editor, scientific editor and/or editor-in-chief also evaluates the manuscript and, when pertinent, indicates aspects that may be improved in its presentation and to meet RESS presentation standards. Following reformulation by the authors, the manuscript is subsequently evaluated as to its meeting the changes recommended or with regard to the justifications presented for not making the changes.
4) Final review by the Editorial Committee: once the manuscript is considered to pre-approved for publication by the Editorial Core Group, it is evaluated by a member of the Editorial Committee with expertise in the subject area of the study. At this stage, the manuscript can be considered approved and ready for publication, approved for publication after adjustments, or not approved for publication.

The reviews undertaken at each stage of the editorial process will be sent to the authors, through the submission system, with a defined deadline for reformulation. Authors are advised to pay attention to the communications that will be sent to the e-mail address they informed at submission, as well as to meet the deadlines for replying. Failure to observe the deadlines for replying, especially when not justified, may be grounds for discontinuation of the editorial processing of the manuscript. If the manuscript is approved for publication, but the need for adjustments to the text is still identified, the editors of the journal reserve the right to do so, and the authors will be informed thereof. It is important to emphasize that, in all stages, more than one review round may be necessary.

At the time of submission, authors may indicate up to three possible ad hoc reviewers, experts in the subject of the manuscript, and up to three expert reviewers to whom they would not like their manuscript to be submitted. The editors of the journal will decide whether or not to accept the authors’ suggestions.

Following approval, manuscripts proceed to editorial production, consisting of the following steps:

1) Final editing;
2) Portuguese proofreading;
3) Standardization of bibliographical references;
4) Translation of the full text of the manuscript into English and proofreading of the abstract in English and the resumen in Spanish;
5) Graphic design of the text, tables and figures;
6) Final review;
8) Quality control;
7) Press proof, sent to the lead author by e-mail, in PDF format, for their final approval of the publication of the manuscript; and
9) Desktop publishing and publishing in electronic format.

Manuscript processing flowchart.

Authors may contact the RESS Secretariat, via e-mail ress.svs@gmail.com or revista.svs@saude.gov.br if they have queries about any aspects relating to these Instructions, or if they need information on their manuscript’s progress, so as to avoid time gaps in the editorial process.

Coordenação-Geral de Desenvolvimento da Epidemiologia em Serviço/SVS/MS
Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde
SRTVN Quadra 701, Via W 5 Norte, Lote D, Edifício PO 700 - 7º andar, Asa Norte, Brasília, DF, Brazil. CEP: 70.719-040
Telephones: (+55) 61 3315-3464 / 3315-3714
E-mail: ress.svs@gmail.com ou revista.svs@saude.gov.br

Updated version issued in January 2022.

 

 

Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde e Ambiente - Ministério da Saúde do Brasil SRTVN Quadra 701, Via W5 Norte, Lote D, Edifício P0700, CEP: 70719-040, +55 61 3315-3464, Fax: +55 61 3315-3464 - Brasília - DF - Brazil
E-mail: ress.svs@gmail.com