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1. Editorial Policies
The Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism - AE&M is a peer-reviewed and open access journal whose mission is publishing and disseminating original research in the fields of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. The journal publishes the following categories of articles: Original Article, Review Article, Brief Communications, Guidelines and Consensus, Case Report and Letter to the Editor.
The AE&M follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), of the Council of Science Editors (CSE), of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and the best practices manual of the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo.
Articles acceptance will be based on originality, significance and scientific contribution. Articles with purely propaganda or commercial purposes will not be accepted. The articles must be submitted only in English, using easy and precise language and avoiding the informality of colloquial language. Only manuscripts whose data are not being evaluated by other journals and/or which have not been previously published will be considered for evaluation.
The contents published in AE&M are licensed under Creative Commons (CC-BY) Attribution 4.0 International, which allows unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any media, since the original work is properly cited.
2. Inclusive use of language
AE&M endorses the concept of people-first language. The language, in all publications, should be placed first on the person and then the disease, as the following example: subject with obesity instead of obese subject, subject with diabetes instead of diabetic subject. The same should apply to other diseases, for example: not using acromegalic, osteoporotic, hypertensive, among others. Check your text before posting to avoid unnecessary resubmission delays. For more information, see: https://bit.ly/3z4YdPX.
3. Research involving human beigs and experimental reserach
All trials involving human beings or human tissue must be in accordance with the principles explained in the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by a research ethics committee or equivalent. In all experiments involving human subjects, it must be documented that an informed consent was granted by the participants and that an institutional human research committee approved the investigations. This must be clearly stated in the Methods Section of the manuscript.
Study populations - details of age, race and sex, as relevant to the content, should be described in detail. Participating individuals must be identified only by numbers or letters, never by initials or name. Photographs of patients’ faces should only be included if they are scientifically relevant. Authors must obtain the patient’s written consent for the use of such photographs and such consent must be provided at the time of submission.
In experimental work involving animals, the standards established in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the Brazilian Guidelines for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific and Didactic Purposes (DBCA), from the National Council for the Control of Animal Experimentation – CONCEA of 2013, must be respected.
Manuscripts submitted to AE&M must include a statement confirming that all experimentation described was carried out in accordance with accepted standards of animal care, as described in the Ethical Guidelines. The number of animals used in each group and each experiment must be included. All research animals must be purchased and used in compliance with federal, state and local laws and institutional regulations.
AE&M recommends that manuscripts follow the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines, that were developed as part of an initiative by the NC3Rs to improve the design, analysis and manuscript of investigation with animals – improving published information and minimizing unnecessary studies - https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines.
4. Ethical considerations
AE&M supports the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Council of Science Editors (CSE) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) recommendations to ensure the integrity of published articles.
Scientific misconduct and unethical acts include, but are not limited to: plagiarism, fabrication, forgery, redundant or duplicate publication, violation of federal, state or institutional rules, and honorary authorship. Any cases of misconduct will be dealt with the appropriate sanctions established by the Editorial Board.
Research misconduct does not include honest errors or differences of opinion.
Concepts, ideas or opinions expressed in the manuscripts, as well as the origin and accuracy of the citations contained therein, are the sole responsibility of the author(s).
AE&M uses the Similarity Check software, which allows to detect similarities in the submitted materials.
The Editorial Board of AE&M will discuss suspicious cases and will make the appropriate decisions, such as suspending the publication in the journal for a period determined by the Editorial Board. Authors will be immediately notified of all stages of this process. AE&M will not hesitate to publish errata, corrections, retractions and apologies when necessary.
5. Conflict of interest
AE&M requires that all manuscript authors, in any category, to declare any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, or personal, religious or political beliefs that may be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity are considered a potential source of conflict of interest. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company’s board of directors, participation in a company’s advisory board or committee, and consulting or receiving a speaker’s fee from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not prevent publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, it must be clear in the cover letter. It is responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively disclose with the submission ALL relevant business relationships and any others that might be pertinent.
Manuscript Category
AE&M strongly encourages authors that manuscripts meet the quality standards established by the guidelines for health research production – Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research Network (EQUATOR). EQUATOR is a directory that provides guidelines with the aim of improving the reliability of published health research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting.
Original Article: articles that report the results of original, clinical or laboratory research. The original article must contain 3,600 words in the main text, six figures and tables, and have up to 60 references.
Review Article: articles that present a critical and comprehensive review of the literature on current issues in the field of endocrinology and metabolism in the clinical or basic fields. All review articles are preferably submitted upon invitation from the AE&M and are subject to peer review. Articles in this category are ordered by the editors to authors with proven experience in the field of knowledge, or when the proposal directed by the authors in prior contact receives the approval of the editorial board. Manuscripts must contain 4,000 words, four figures or tables and up to 100 references.
Brief Communication: consists of original data of sufficient importance to justify immediate publication. It is a succinct description of the confirmatory or negative results of a focused, simple, and objective trial. Objectivity and perspicuity increase the likelihood that a manuscript will be accepted for publication as a Brief Communication. The main text must contain 1,500 words, 30 references and two illustrations (tables, figures or one of each).
Guidelines or Consensus: Consensus or guidelines proposed by professional societies, task forces, and other associations related to Endocrinology and Metabolism, may be published by AE&M. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed, must be modifiable in response to criticism, and will be published only if they meet the journal’s editorial standards. The manuscript must contain 3,600 words in the main text, six figures and tables and up to 60 references.
Case report: Brief communication used to present case reports, or isolated case, of clinical or scientific importance. These reports must be concise and objective. They must contain data from isolated patients or families that substantially add knowledge to the etiology, pathogenesis and natural history of the condition described. The case report must contain up to 2,000 words, four figures and tables and up to 30 references.
Letter to the Editor: Letters should be brief comments related to specific points, in agreement or disagreement, with the published work, and can be presented in response to articles published in AE&M in the previous 3 editions. Original published data related to the published article are encouraged. Letters must contain 500 words and five complete references. Figures and tables cannot be included.
AE&M recommends the World Health Organization (WHO) and ICMJE clinical trial registration policies, recognizing the importance of these initiatives for the international registration and dissemination of open access clinical trial information. Thus, only clinical research articles that have received an identification number in one of the Clinical Trials Registry validated by the criteria established by WHO and by ICMJE (Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials - REBEC) will be accepted. The registration identification number must be entered in the “Methods” section.
Randomized trials should follow CONSORT guidelines. This statement provides an evidence-based approach to improving the quality of clinical trial reporting. All manuscripts describing a clinical trial must include the CONSORT Flow Diagram showing the number of participants in each intervention group, as well as a detailed description of how many patients were excluded at each phase of the data analysis. All clinical trials must be registered and made available on an open-access website. The clinical trial protocol (including the complete statistical analysis plan) must be submitted with the manuscript https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1745-6215-11-9).
As per the ICMJE recommendation, adopted by AE&M, clinical trials must contain a data sharing statement. The sharing statement must indicate: individual patient data; a data dictionary that defines each field in the dataset and the supporting documentation (e.g., statistical/analytical code); what will be made available for access; when, where and how the data is available (inform the data repository access link); types of analysis allowed; and whether there are restrictions on the use of the data. If the data cannot be shared, the reason for not sharing must be explained. For sample data sharing statements that meet ICMJE requirements, go to: http://www. icmje.org/news-and-editorials/data_sharing_june_2017.pdf
Research Data: To enable the reproducibility and reproduction of the data, AE&M encourages the deposit and sharing of research data that support the publication of the article. Data Repository is a storage space for researchers to deposit their datasets associated with their research. AE&M encourages authors who, before choosing a data repository for deposit, to consult at their institution which repository is most relevant to their research. AE&M requests that authors use FAIRsharing and re3data.org to search for a suitable repository.
Authors must select a data repository that issues a persistent identifier, preferably a DOI – Digital Object Identifier, and has established a robust preservation plan that ensures that data is preserved forever. Examples of data repositories: Dryad, Figshare, Harvard Dataverse, Mendeley Data, Open Science Framework e Zenodo.
Manuscript Preparation
The manuscript must be sent in a Microsoft Office Word file, with mandatory page layout on A4 paper (210 × 297 mm) and 2 cm margins on all sides, font Times New Roman or Arial, size 12 and 1.5 pt. spacing between lines.
All manuscripts must include a cover letter stating the importance and relevance of the manuscript. This letter should also contain the following information: whether or not there is a conflict of interest, whether the manuscript is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere, and also include the ethics committee number (human or animal). In the case of research carried out in Brazil, the cover letter must contain the CAAE registration number generated on the Brazil platform.
Manuscripts submitted without complying with all of these items will be put on hold until completion.
AE&M uses blind review, which means that the identity of authors must be omitted from reviewers. In order to facilitate the submission process, the journal recommends that authors prepare their manuscripts in separate files as described below:
The Cover Page should be structured as follows:
The title of the article must be in English and be concise and informative.
Short title of 40 characters maximum for page titles.
Full names of authors with their respective academic degrees.
Each author’s affiliation must contain the following information: university, department, city, zip code, country, email and ORCID (all authors must have the ORCID identifier – Open Researcher and Contributor ID – https://orcid.org/signin).
A corresponding author must be indicated.
It is mandatory that each author attests to have participated sufficiently in the work to assume responsibility for a significant portion of the content of the manuscript. Each of the authors must specify their contributions to the work. The corresponding author or author who submitted the work will indicate, during the submission process, the guarantee and accuracy of the integrity of all data reported in the manuscript.
AE&M recommends that authorship be based on the criteria of the ICMJE. Unrestricted co-authoring is allowed. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to:
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Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; and
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Elaboration of the work or critical review of important intellectual content;
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Final approval of the version to be published; and
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Consent to be responsible for all aspects of the work, ensuring that issues relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are properly investigated and resolved.
All collaborators who do not meet the authorship criteria must be listed in the Acknowledgments section, as well as the financial support from development agencies.
Keywords: three to five descriptors in English must be included. Descriptors can be found at the following addresses: https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/MeSHonDemand or https://meshb-prev.nlm.nih.gov/search
Manuscript Type
Manuscript Preparation: the body text should not contain any information such as the name or affiliation of the authors. And it must be structured as follows:
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Abstract
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Main text (article)
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Tables, Graphics, Figures and/or Photographs. They must be cited in the main text in numerical order
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Sponsorship
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Acknowledgments
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References
Abstract: original articles, briefs communications and case reports must present abstracts of no more than 250 words. The abstract must contain clear and objective information about the trial in a way that can be understood without consulting the text. The abstract must include four sections that reflect the section titles of the main text. All information reported in the abstract must be originated from the manuscript. Please, use complete sentences for all sections of the abstract.
Introduction: the main goal of the introduction is to stimulate the reader’s interest in the article, offering a historical perspective and justifying its objectives.
Materials and Methods: must contain all the details of how the study was conducted, so that other investigators can evaluate and reproduce it. The origin of hormones, unusual chemicals, reagents and devices must be indicated. For modified methods, only new modifications should be described.
Results and Discussion: the Results section should briefly present the experimental data both in the text and in tables and/or figures. The repetition in the text of the results presented in the tables should be avoided. For more details on preparing tables and figures, see below.
The Discussion should focus on the interpretation and meaning of the results, with concise and objective comments describing its relationship with other research in this area. In the Discussion, we must avoid repeating the data presented in Results. It may include suggestions to explain those data and must close with the conclusions.
Tables and Figures: Tables and Figures must be numbered according to the order in which they appear in the text, contain a title and be sent in separate files. Tables must not contain data already mentioned in the text. They must be open on the sides and have a completely white background. The abbreviations used in the tables must be mentioned in alphabetical order, in the footer, with the respective forms in full. For tables taken from other sources of information or adapted (with proper permission), the credit of the source must be informed at the end of each legend in parentheses. This credit must be complete with the bibliographic reference of the source or the copyright. Likewise, the abbreviations used in the figures must be explained in the captions. Only images in JPEG format will be accepted, with minimum resolution according to the type of image, for both black and white and color images: 1200 dpi for simple black and white graphics, 300 dpi for black and white photographs and 600 dpi for color photographs. AE&M requests that the authors file the original images in their possession, as if the images submitted online present any impediment to printing, we will contact you to send us these originals.
Photographs: AE&M prefer to publish photos of unmasked patients. We encourage authors to obtain permission from patients or their families, before submitting the manuscript, for possible publication of images. If the manuscript contains identifiable patient images or protected health information, authors must submit documented authorization from the patient, or parent, guardian or legal representative, before the material is distributed to AE&M editors, reviewers, and other staff. To identify subjects, use a numerical designation (e.g., Patient 1); do not use the initials of the name.
Sponsorship: all sources of research support (if any), as well as the project number and the responsible institution, must be declared. The role of funding agencies in designing the study and collecting, analyzing and interpreting data and writing the manuscript should be stated in Acknowledgments.
Acknowledgments: All participants who have made substantial contributions to the manuscript (e.g., data collection, analysis, and assisting writing or editing), but who do not meet the authorship criteria, should be named with their specific contributions in Acknowledgments in the Manuscript. The conflict of interest statement must be included in this section. Even if the authors do not have a relevant conflict of interest to disclose, they must report it in the Acknowledgments section.
References: the references of printed and electronic documents must be standardized in accordance with the Vancouver style, prepared by the ICMJE. References must be in numerical order (in parentheses), according to the citation in the text, and listed in the same numerical order at the end of the manuscript, on a separate page.
AE&M encourages the use of the DOI, as it guarantees a permanent access link to the electronic article. For articles or texts published on the internet that do not contain the DOI, indicate the full URL address, as well as the access date on which they were accessed. Vancouver-style examples are available on the National Library of Medicine (NLM) website at Citing Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/ NBK7256/.
Example:
Article
Bein M, Yu OHY, Grandi SM, Frati FYE, Kandil I, Filion KB. Levothyroxine and the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with subclinical hypothyroidism: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Endocr Disord. 202127;21(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s12902-021-00699-5.
Unit of Measurement: Results should be expressed using the metric system. Temperature should be expressed in Celsius degrees and time of day using the 24-hour clock (e.g., 0800 h, 1500 h).
Standard abbreviations: All abbreviations in the text must be defined immediately after the first use of the abbreviation.
Molecular Genetic Description: Use standard terminology for polymorphic variants, providing the rs numbers for all reported variants. Assay details, such as PCR primer sequences, must be described briefly together with rs numbers. The pedigree charts must be drawn up in accordance with the published standard: Bennett RL, French KS, Resta RG, Doyle DL. Standardized human pedigree nomenclature: update and assessment of the recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. J Genet Couns. 2008 Oct;17(5):424-33. doi: 10.1007/s10897-008-9169-9.
Nomenclatures: For genes, use genetic notation and symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC).
For mutations follow the naming guidelines suggested by the Human Genome Variation Society.
Provide and discuss the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium data of the analyzed polymorphisms in the studied population. The calculation of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can help in discovering genotyping errors and their impact on analytical methods.
Provide the original frequencies of genotypes, alleles and haplotypes.
Whenever possible, the generic name of drugs should be mentioned. When a trade name is used, it must begin with a capital letter.
Acronyms should be used sparingly and fully explained when mentioned for the first time.
Peer Review Process
AE&M adopts blind review for approved manuscripts, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reports provided by them to the authors are anonymous. The feedback issued by the evaluators may consider the manuscript as accepted, rejected or requiring revisions, whether in form or content. The opinions issued by the evaluators are appreciated by the Editor-in-Chief, and a final feedback report is sent to the authors.
Electronic Submission
Manuscripts must be submitted and filled online in the ScholarOne system - https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/aem-scielo, accompanied by:
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Cover Letter.
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Declaration of Studies Involving Animal Experimentation (if applicable).
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The Manuscript.
Each document must be attached, separately, in the field indicated by the system.
To start the process, the subject responsible for the submission must previously register in the system as an author by creating/associating the ORCID register – https://orcid.org/signin. All authors must have their registration associated with an updated ORCID.
Important Considerations:
The manuscript must be submitted to a spell checker. Editing services are recommended, such as: American Journal Experts - http://www.journalexperts.com/index.php or PaperCheck
All references must be cited in the text and listed at the end.
Concessions must be obtained if copyrighted material is used (including from the internet).
People-First Language as an important tool to fight stigma
Language has a significant impact on perceptions, behavior, motivation and, consequently, health outcomes. The contribution of the medical and scientific community is essential for the evolution of language towards reducing the stigma associated with diseases or disabilities.
The “People First” movement began in 1974, focusing on people with disabilities, which may have contributed to their increasing integration into the community. People-first language was adopted by the American Psychological Association in 1992, with the aim of decreasing the focus that is placed upon the diagnosis and increasing the focus on the person. Since then, it has been widely adopted by various organizations for chronic diseases and disabilities (1). People-first language is the standard when referring to people with chronic diseases in a respectful manner, without labeling them by their illness (2).
In recent years, diabetes societies have also become concerned with language choices. Diabetes Australia was the first to publish a position statement in 2012 calling for a “new language for diabetes” (3), followed by the International Diabetes Federation, which wrote a technical document on language philosophy. In 2017, the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) organized a task force on language in diabetes care and education and issued a document with recommendations for language related to diabetes that is respectful, inclusive, person centered, and strengths based to diabetes clinicians, diabetes educators, researchers, journal editors and authors, and other professionals who communicate about diabetes (4). Since then, the ADA’s annually published Standards of medical care in diabetes document includes a recommendation to “use language that is person centered (e.g., ‘person with diabetes’ is preferred over ‘diabetic’)” (5).
When it comes to obesity, however, the scientific community is one step behind (2). A simple google scholar search using the term “diabetic people” shows about 13,500 results, while the term “people with diabetes” shows 295,000 publications. In the case of obesity, the opposite is observed: 73,300 results for “obese people” and 11,200 for “people with obesity”. Not surprisingly, obesity is a disease strongly associated with stigma in different scenarios (employment, schools, personal relationships) and it is extremely common in health care settings as well (2). In this context, individuals stigmatized due to their weight, or blamed by their health care professionals tend to gain more weight and have poorer health outcomes, according to several studies (6-8). As such, language matters and the use of people-first language could help to fight stigma, avoiding the characterization of an individual by their disease (2). Considering this, the Obesity Coalition Action has called upon authors and editors of scholarly research, scientific writing, and publications about obesity to use people-first language (9). Several organizations have already signed-on, including The Obesity Society, the World Obesity Federation and the European Association for the Study of Obesity.
The editorial board of the Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism, aligned with major journals that address diabetes and obesity, has decided to include the use of people-first language as a requirement for manuscript publication. We strongly believe that scientific journals should support people-fist language, in order to contribute to the reduction of bias and stigma. Hopefully, such a paradigm shift in scientific language will contribute to a positive change in health care education and practice.
References
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Crocker AF, Smith SN. Person-first language: are we practicing what we preach? J Multidiscip Healthc. 2019;12:125-9.
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Kyle TK, Puhl RM. Putting people first in obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2014;22(5):1211.Speight J, Conn J, Dunning T, Skinner TC; Diabetes Australia. Diabetes Australia position statement. A new language for diabetes: improving communications with and about people with diabetes. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2012;97(3):425-31.
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Dickinson JK, Guzman SJ, Maryniuk MD, O’Brian CA, Kadohiro JK, Jackson RA, et al. The Use of Language in Diabetes Care and Education. Diabetes Care. 2017;40(12):1790-9.
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American Diabetes Association. 4. Comprehensive Medical Evaluation and Assessment of Comorbidities: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2021. Diabetes Care. 2021;44(Suppl 1):S40-S52.
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Robinson E, Hunger JM, Daly M. Perceived weight status and risk of weight gain across life in US and UK adults. Int J Obes. 2015;39(12):1721-6.
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Wu YK, Berry DC. Impact of weight stigma on physiological and psychological health outcomes for overweight and obese adults: A systematic review. J Adv Nurs. 2018;74(5):1030-42.
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Tomiyama AJ, Carr D, Granberg EM, Major B, Robinson E, Sutin AR, et al. How and why weight stigma drives the obesity “epidemic” and harms health. BMC Med. 2018;16(1):123.
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People-First Language [Internet]. Obesity Action Coalition. [cited 2021 Mar 14]. Available from: https://www.obesityaction.org/ action-through-advocacy/weight-bias/people-first-language/
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