Advances in Rheumatology is an international, open access journal publishing pre-clinical, translational and clinical studies on all aspects of pediatric and adult rheumatic diseases, including degenerative, inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. The journal is the official publication of the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology and welcomes original research (including systematic reviews and meta-analyses), literature reviews, guidelines and letters arising from published material.

The journal was founded in 1957 under its former name Revista Brasileira de Reumatologia.  It operates double-blind peer review and continuous publication (no issues). The publication costs for Advances in Rheumatology are covered by the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology until 2021, so authors do not need to pay an article-processing charge.

Its abbreviated title is Adv. Rheumatol., which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes and bibliographical references and strips.

• Index Copernicus
• LILACS
• MEDLINE
• PubMed
• Scopus
• Web of Science

All content of the journal, except where identified, is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type BY.

The publication costs for Advances in Rheumatology are covered by the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology (Sociedade Brasileira de Reumatologia) https://www.reumatologia.org.br/.

Editors-in-Chief
Eduardo dos Santos Paiva, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil
Marcos Renato de Assis, Faculdade de Medicina de Marília, Marília, SP, Brazil

Associate Editors
Cleandro Albuquerque, Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil
Ana Cristina de Medeiros Ribeiro, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Rafael Mendonça da Silva Chakr, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Sandro Félix Perazzio, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil.
Maria Carolina de Oliveira Rodrigues, Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto Medicina, Brazil

Consulting Editors
Luís Eduardo Coelho Andrade, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Ricardo Fuller, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Roberto Ezequiel Heymann, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Paulo Louzada Junior, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil
Mittermayer Barreto Santiago, Serviço de Reumatologia Bahiana/Hospital Santa Izabel, Salvador, BA, Brazil
Ricardo Machado Xavier, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Honorary Editors
João Francisco Marques Neto, University of Campinas, Brazil
Adil Muhib Samara, University of Campinas, Brazil
Hilton Seda, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Natalino Hajime Yoshinari, University of São Paulo, Brazil

Editorial Board
Eloísa Bonfá, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Alessandra Bruns, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Ernest Choy, University of Cardiff, Wales, UK
Thomas Dörner, Hospital Charité, Berlin, Germany
João Eurico Cabral da Fonseca, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Enrique Roberto Soriano Guppy, Instituto Universitário Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Arthur Kavanaugh, University of California San Diego, California, USA
Cristiane Kayser, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Munther Khamashta, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK
Evandro Mendes Klumb, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sergio Candido Kowalsky, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil
Iêda Maria Magalhães Laurindo, Universidade Uninove, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Roger Abramino Levy, GlaxoSmithKline, Pennsylvania, USA
José Eduardo Martinez, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil
Manuel Martínez-Lavín, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chavez, Mexico City, Mexico
Marco Matucci-Cerinic, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Iain McInnes, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Lícia Maria Henrique da Mota, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil
Jamil Natour, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Eduardo Ferreira Borba Neto, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Sandra Gofinet Pasoto, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Ivânio Alves Pereira, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
Rosa Maria Rodrigues Pereira, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Geraldo da Rocha Castelar Pinheiro, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro,Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Francisco Airton Castro Rocha, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil
Percival Degrava Sampaio-Barros, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Emília Inoue Sato, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Ricardo Cervera Segura, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain
Samuel Katsuyuki Shinjo, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Yehuda Shoenfeld, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel Hashomer, Israel
Clóvis Artur Almeida da Silva, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Alexandre Wagner S Souza, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Vera Lúcia Szejnfeld, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Maria Teresa Terreri, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
George C. Tsokos, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Richard J. Wakefield, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Cristiano Augusto de Freitas Zerbini, Hospital Sírio-Libanês, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

BMC
Journal Editorial Operations Assistant: Jhoan Flores
Production Editor: Chiara Locuratolo

Advances in Rheumatology is an international, open access journal publishing pre-clinical, translational and clinical studies on all aspects of paediatric and adult rheumatic diseases, including degenerative, inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. The journal is the official publication of the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology and welcomes original research (including systematic reviews and meta-analyses), literature reviews, guidelines and letters arising from published material. It operates double-blind peer review and continuous publication (no issues).

Research articles
Research articles should report on original primary research. The information below details the section headings that you should include in your manuscript and what information should be within each section.

Title page

The title page should: 

• present a title that includes, if appropriate, the study design e.g.:
  "A versus B in the treatment of C: a randomized controlled trial", "X is a risk factor for Y: a case control study", "What is the impact of factor X on subject Y: A systematic review"
• or for non-clinical or non-research studies a description of what the article reports
• list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors
• if a collaboration group should be listed as an author, please list the Group name as an author. If you would like the names of the individual members of the Group to be searchable through their individual PubMed records, please include this information in the “Acknowledgements” section in accordance with the instructions below
• indicate the corresponding author

Abstract
The Abstract should not exceed 350 words. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Reports of randomized controlled trials should follow the CONSORT extension for abstracts. The abstract must include the following separate sections:

Background: the context and purpose of the study
Methods: how the study was performed and statistical tests used
Results: the main findings
Conclusions: brief summary and potential implication
Trial registration: If your article reports the results of a health care intervention on human participants, it must be registered in an appropriate registry and the registration number and date of registration should be in stated in this section. If it was not registered prospectively (before enrollment of the first participant), you should include the words 'retrospectively registered'. See our editorial policies for more information on trial registration

Keywords
Authors can include three to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.

Background
The Background section should explain the background to the study, its aims, a summary of the existing literature and why this study was necessary or its contribution to the field.

Methods
The methods section should include:

• the aim, design and setting of the studythe characteristics of participants or description of materials
• a clear description of all processes, interventions and comparisons. Generic drug names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names in parentheses
• the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate

Results
This should include the findings of the study including, if appropriate, results of statistical analysis which must be included either in the text or as tables and figures.

Discussion
This section should discuss the implications of the findings in context of existing research and highlight limitations of the study.

Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions and provide an explanation of the importance and relevance of the study reported.

List of abbreviations If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations should be provided.

References
Advances in Rheumatology uses Vancouver reference style. For example, to cite an article within a journal (no page numbers):

Rohrmann S, Overvad K, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Jakobsen MU, Egeberg R, Tjønneland A, et al. Meat consumption and mortality - results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. BMC Medicine. 2013;11:63.

All web links and URLs, including links to the authors' own websites, should be given a reference number and included in the reference list rather than within the text of the manuscript. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, as well as the date the site was accessed.

Please note that your manuscript must include a 'Declarations' section including all of the subheadings (please see below for more information).

Reviews
Narrative reviews provide comprehensive and authoritative coverage of a topic area.
Key aims of reviews are to provide systematic and substantial coverage of mature subjects, evaluations of progress in specified areas, and/or critical assessments of emerging technologies.
Reviews should be approximately 4000 words (including abstract) with 75 references. Please do not include headings in your abstract. The Editorial Office reserves the right to request a reduction in the length of a Review. Please refer also to the commissioning letter or contact the Editorial Office for further guidance.
Please note that systematic reviews should be submitted as Research.

Title page
The title page should:

• present a title that includes, if appropriate, the study design e.g.:
  "A versus B in the treatment of C: a randomized controlled trial", "X is a risk factor for Y: a case control study", "What is the impact of factor X on subject Y: A systematic review"
• or for non-clinical or non-research studies: a description of what the article reports
• list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors
• if a collaboration group should be listed as an author, please list the Group name as an author. If you would like the names of the individual members of the Group to be searchable through their individual PubMed records, please include this information in the “Acknowledgements” section in accordance with the instructions below
• indicate the corresponding author

Abstract
The Abstract should not exceed 350 words and should be structured with a background, main body of the abstract and short conclusion. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract.

Keywords
Authors can include three to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.

Background
The Background section should explain the background to the article, its aims, a summary of a search of the existing literature and the issue under discussion.

Main text
This should contain the body of the article, and may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions and include an explanation of their relevance or importance to the field.

List of abbreviations
If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations should be provided.
Please note that your manuscript must include a 'Declarations' section including all of the subheadings (please see below for more information).

Position article and guidelines
These articles highlight current or evolving clinical practice guidelines and consensus statements, and provide guidance to enhance clinical decision making in the field of rheumatology.
The information below details the appropriate section headings for manuscripts and the information that should be included within each section.
In the case of extensive author contributions as part of a group of equally-contributing authors, a group statement may be used in place of, and/or in addition to, initials. 

• For example: “All of the authors provided critical review, relevant edits, and feedback to direct content during multiple rounds of review. In addition, all authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.” All authors must still be listed independently in the author listing/acknowledgments. (More details below in 'Authors' Contributions' section.)

Title page
The title page should:

• bullpresent a title that includes, if appropriate, the scientific area under consideration and the group that developed the consensus, e.g.:
  “The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer consensus statement on immunotherapy for the treatment of prostate carcinoma”
• list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors
• if a collaborative group is listed as an author, please list the group name as an author (e.g., Drs. A, B and C, on behalf of the XYZ Committee). If you would like the names of the individual members of the Group to be searchable through their individual PubMed records, please include this information in the “Acknowledgements” section in accordance with the instructions below
• Indicate the corresponding author

Abstract
The Abstract should not exceed 350 words and should be structured with a background, main body of the abstract and short conclusion. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references.

Background
The Background section should explain the background to the article, its aims, a summary of the existing literature and the issue under discussion.

Methods
The methods section should include:

a clear description of all recommendation processes and comparisons. Generic drug names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names in parentheses

• the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate 
• scale for rating literature
• procedure for managing conflicts of interest
• the characteristics of participants or description of materials

Recommendations
This section contains the body of the article and should be broken into subsections with short, informative headings, such as the following:

• Questions to Explore
• Literature review and analysis
• Recommendations

Conclusions
This should clearly state the main conclusions and include an explanation of their relevance or importance to the field. Furthermore, this should provide a brief statement acknowledging the potential future implications of the consensus topic.

List of abbreviations
If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations should be provided.

References
Advances in Rheumatology uses Vancouver reference style. For example, to cite an article within a journal (no page numbers):
Rohrmann S, Overvad K, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Jakobsen MU, Egeberg R, Tjønneland A, et al. Meat consumption and mortality - results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. BMC Medicine. 2013;11:63.

All web links and URLs, including links to the authors' own websites, should be given a reference number and included in the reference list rather than within the text of the manuscript. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, as well as the date the site was accessed.

Please note that your manuscript must include a 'Declarations' section including all of the subheadings (please see below for more information).

***Declarations

All manuscripts must contain the following sections under the heading 'Declarations':

• Ethics approval and consent to participate
• Consent for publication
• Availability of data and material
• Competing interests
• Funding
• Authors' contributions
• Acknowledgements
• Authors' information (optional)

Please see below for details on the information to be included in these sections.
If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write 'Not applicable' for that section. 

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must:

• include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
• include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate

Studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval.
See our editorial policies for more information.
If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Consent for publication
If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.
See our editorial policies for more information on consent for publication.
If your manuscript does not contain data from any individual person, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Availability of data and materials
All manuscripts must include an ‘Availability of data and materials’ statement. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. By data we mean the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. We recognise it is not always possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, and in such instances data availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access.
Data availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple datasets):

• The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
• The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].
• The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
• The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [third party name].
• Not applicable. If your manuscript does not contain any data, please state 'Not applicable' in this section.

Competing interests
All financial and non-financial competing interests must be declared in this section.
Please use the authors initials to refer to each authors' competing interests in this section.
If you do not have any competing interests, please state "The authors declare that they have no competing interests" in this section.

Funding
All sources of funding for the research reported should be declared. The role of the funding body in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript should be declared.

Authors' contributions
The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. Guidance and criteria for authorship can be found in our editorial policies.
Please use initials to refer to each author's contribution in this section, for example: "FC analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding the hematological disease and the transplant. RH performed the histological examination of the kidney, and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript."

Acknowledgements
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article who does not meet the criteria for authorship including anyone who provided professional writing services or materials.
Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.
See our editorial policies for a full explanation of acknowledgements and authorship criteria.
If you do not have anyone to acknowledge, please write "Not applicable" in this section.
Group authorship (for manuscripts involving a collaboration group): if you would like the names of the individual members of a collaboration Group to be searchable through their individual PubMed records, please ensure that the title of the collaboration Group is included on the title page and in the submission system and also include collaborating author names as the last paragraph of the “Acknowledgements” section. Please add authors in the format First Name, Middle initial(s) (optional), Last Name. You can add institution or country information for each author if you wish, but this should be consistent across all authors.
Please note that individual names may not be present in the PubMed record at the time a published article is initially included in PubMed as it takes PubMed additional time to code this information.

Advances in Rheumatology is an English-language publication. Any manuscript submitted to Advances in Rheumatology must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. All authors of the manuscript must have read and agreed to its content and are accountable for all aspects of the accuracy and integrity of the manuscript in accordance with ICMJE criteria.

Advances in Rheumatology operates a double-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers do not know the names or affiliations of the authors and the reviewer reports provided to the authors are anonymous. The benefit of double-blind peer review is that it allows reviewers to judge the manuscript based on content alone, and they are not unconsciously biased by knowledge of who the authors are.

Submitted manuscripts will initially be screened by the Editor-in-Chief, with manuscripts deemed of suitable quality and interest assigned to the relevant Associate Editor. Manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two or more experts, who will be asked to assess the manuscript and provide constructive comments for improvement.