About the journal

Brief History

The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD) – ISSN 1678-9199 – was founded in 1995 by the Center for the Study of Venoms and Venomous Animals (Cevap/Unesp), initially under the title Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins. Since its inception, the journal has sought innovation, being one of the first Brazilian scientific publications in digital format, initially distributed on floppy disks and later on CD-ROM, prior to the widespread dissemination of the internet in the country. In 1998, it was selected to join the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) program, consolidating its place in the electronic scholarly communication scenario.

From 2003 onward, with the expansion of its scope to include tropical diseases, the journal adopted its current name and began operating entirely online, with electronic submission and access. Over the years, the journal has established itself as an important international outlet in toxinology and tropical diseases, increasing its visibility through key indexings, including PubMed and PubMed Central, alongside the adoption of a continuous publication model starting in 2013. This process was accompanied by consistent growth in its bibliometric indicators and the strengthening of its internationalization.

In recent years, especially after 2020, JVATiTD has maintained its evolutionary trajectory through continuous publication and the reinforcement of its policy for the broad and free dissemination of scientific knowledge. In partnership with SciELO, the journal reaffirms its commitment to open science, editorial transparency, and global visibility, adapting to the transformations of contemporary scholarly communication. In 2025, the journal celebrated 30 years of history, consolidating its position as an international reference in toxinology and tropical diseases, while remaining aligned with best editorial practices and open access principles.

Open Access

JVATiTD follows the open access model, formally adhering to the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) definition of open access, providing immediate, worldwide, unrestricted online access to all published scientific content. Under this policy, authors retain copyright and grant third parties use rights under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0). This permits any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, provided the original publication is properly cited. The open access model is supported by an article processing charge (APC) paid by the authors, their institutions, or funding agencies, ensuring that no financial barriers are imposed on readers. In many cases, the journal itself covers the APC on behalf of the authors.

Open Science Compliance

JVATiTD follows the Gold Open Access model and is committed to advancing scholarly communication by adopting open science practices. As part of this commitment, the journal requires authors to complete and submit the Open Science Compliance Form upon manuscript submission. Through this form, the practices adopted in the research are contextualized, with authors formally declaring matters related to preprints and open data.

Publication Ethics

JVATiTD is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). All research involving human subjects, human material, or animals must be approved by an institutional review board (IRB) or institutional ethics committee prior to the start of the study. For research conducted in Brazil, this includes approval by the CEP/CONEP system (for humans) or CEUA (for animals). A statement containing the name of the ethics committee, project approval code (approval number), and approval date must be included in the manuscript.

Clinical trials or randomized controlled trials must be registered in a primary registry of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. In addition, any experimental work involving animals must comply with animal welfare principles in experimental science, referencing specific principles of laboratory animal care or equivalent national regulations to ensure ethical standards are met.

Authors must ensure that reported research is free of misconduct, such as data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or redundant publication. Submission of a manuscript implies that the work is original and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. To ensure the integrity of the scholarly record, all manuscripts undergo similarity detection software screening. In cases of confirmed misconduct, the journal will follow COPE guidelines and flowcharts, which may result in a retraction notice or a formal correction.

Aims and Scope

The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD) is an open-access scientific journal dedicated to publishing research on all aspects of toxinology, venomous animals, and tropical diseases. Its interdisciplinary content includes original research articles covering studies on toxins derived from animals, plants, and microorganisms. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

systematics and morphology of venomous animals;
physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and immunology of toxins;
epidemiology, clinical aspects, and treatment of envenomation by animals, plants, and microorganisms;
development and evaluation of antivenoms and toxin-derived products;
epidemiology, clinical aspects, and treatment of tropical diseases (caused by viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, and parasites), including neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) defined by the World Health Organization.

Digital Preservation

This journal follows the standards set forth in the SciELO Digital Preservation Policy.

Indexing Sources

Bibliographic Information

Journal title: Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases
Abbreviated title: J. Venom. Anim. Toxins incl. Trop. Dis.
Published by: Cevap/Unesp
Frequency: Annual
Publication mode: Continuous publication (CP)
Year established: 1995

Websites and Social Media

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/JVATiTD/
X (ex-Twitter) – @JVATiTD
Bluesky – @jvatitd.bsky.social
Blog SciELO em Perspectiva

Editorial Policy

Preprints

JVATiTD supports open science practices and accepts the submission of manuscripts previously deposited on publicly recognized, non-commercial preprint servers (such as SciELO Preprints, bioRxiv, arXiv, medRxiv, among others). In line with ICMJE and COPE guidelines, the journal does not consider preprint deposition as prior publication. Authors must provide the preprint DOI at the time of submission. Although the journal maintains a double-blind peer review process, authors should be aware that anonymity may be compromised, as reviewers might identify authorship by searching public repositories; nevertheless, ethical rigor and scientific review integrity remain guaranteed.

Peer review process

JVATiTD employs a double-blind peer review system, ensuring that the identities of authors and reviewers remain anonymous throughout the evaluation process. This same double-blind peer review process applies to all submitted articles, regardless of whether they were previously deposited as preprints. Although the journal recognizes that prior availability on preprint servers may impact strict author anonymity, it believes that the value of open access and rapid scientific dissemination outweighs absolute confidentiality policies.

The journal's target goal is to send each received and pre-screened manuscript to at least three independent peer reviewers who are experts in the field. In rare cases, when a third reviewer is unable to evaluate and at the sole discretion of the handling editor, the review process may proceed and be concluded with only two reports. In compliance with open science practices and following SciELO guidelines, the journal adopts editorial transparency by publishing the name of the handling editor responsible for managing and approving the manuscript on each published article. Publication decisions are based exclusively on criteria of originality, validity, and significance, under the final responsibility of the editor-in-chief following review analysis.

Open data

The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD) adopts the principles of open science, actively promoting transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility of all published scientific research. Operating under a continuous publication model with unrestricted open access under the CC BY 4.0 license, the journal ensures that editorial content and associated data are globally available without financial or technical barriers for readers.

In alignment with the SciELO TOP Guidelines, JVATiTD requires authors to openly share datasets, analytical code, and experimental materials supporting the findings reported in their manuscripts. To this end, the journal mandates the inclusion of an "Availability of data and materials" statement attached to the title page upon submission, which must include the direct link and persistent identifier (DOI) of data previously indexed in a recognized, open public data repository.

Additionally, to ensure proper attribution of credit and facilitate scientific reuse, the journal requires that all data deposited in external repositories be formally cited within the text and included in a standardized format in the article's reference list. Thus, JVATiTD consolidates its open data ecosystem in line with SciELO policies while fully preserving the ethical rigor of its double-blind peer review process.

Article Processing Charge

All articles published by JVATiTD are open access and freely available online. This is made possible through an article processing charge (APC) covering publication services, including the provision of online tools for editors and authors, article production and hosting, and coordination with indexing and abstracting services. Therefore, an APC of USD 900 (US dollars) applies to articles accepted for publication after peer review. Authors based in Brazil are eligible for a reduced rate of BRL 2,750 (Brazilian real) per accepted manuscript. Discounts may be granted upon request at the discretion of the journal editors.

Due to the end of institutional financial support provided by Unesp to its journals, authors (first, last, or corresponding) affiliated with Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Brazil, will no longer be eligible for APC waivers for new submissions starting October 2026. Manuscripts submitted before October 2026 that are currently under review or processing will retain the waiver benefit, even if published after that date.

Ethics, Misconduct, Errata, and Retraction Policy

JVATiTD acts rigorously and transparently against threats to scientific integrity, strictly following the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the SciELO Network's Guidelines on Best Practices for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publication.

Upon submission and evaluation, all manuscripts undergo screening by plagiarism and data integrity detection software to prevent fabrication, falsification, or redundancy. Research involving human subjects or animals requires clear indication of approval codes from institutional ethics committees (such as CEP/CONEP and CEUA in Brazil) and mandatory prior registration of clinical trials in the WHO platform.

Suspicions or allegations of misconduct at any stage will be formally investigated by the editor-in-chief based on COPE flowcharts and SciELO standards, reserving the right to request original raw data for auditing. If an ethical infraction or unintended error compromising the article is confirmed, the historical record will be preserved through prompt publication of errata, addenda, or expressions of concern.

For severe misconduct — such as plagiarism, ghost authorship, data fabrication/falsification, redundant republication, or manipulation that invalidates conclusions —, JVATiTD enforces zero tolerance, applying immediate retraction. In line with COPE and as mandated by SciELO guidelines, retraction (full or partial) may occur on the initiative of the Editor-in-Chief or upon justified request from authors, institutions, or funding agencies.

The operational process strictly complies with SciELO criteria:

Publication of a formal retraction document with its own DOI, citing and linking to the original article.
Explanatory text in neutral and objective language, detailing those responsible and the reasons for the action.
Inclusion of a permanent "Retracted" watermark on the PDF and electronic version of the original article, ensuring access for the historical record of science while clearly marking it to prevent future citations.

Conflict of Interest Policy

JVATiTD enforces a rigorous policy based on COPE guidelines and ICMJE recommendations, requiring full transparency regarding financial, personal, political, academic, or commercial relationships from all participants in the editorial process:

Authors: must declare potential conflicts upon submission, obligatorily including a "Competing interests" section on the title page of the manuscript to detail funding, employment, patents, stocks, political or intellectual convictions that may create bias. If any conflict exists (even potential), it must be reported by completing and signing the Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form and attaching it to the submission platform. In the absence of conflicts, a standardized negative statement is required: "The authors declare that they have no competing interests".
Reviewers: upon invitation, reviewers must disclose any suspected bias or conflict (such as recent collaborations, academic rivalry, or competing commercial interests) and, if present, decline the review immediately.
Editors and editorial board: any editor with a conflict of interest must recuse themselves from managing and making final decisions on the manuscript. Submissions from members of the editorial board follow an independent workflow managed by editors externally to the institution, ensuring the integrity and impartiality of double-blind review process.

Similarity checking software

JVATiTD enforces a mandatory textual similarity checking policy for all received manuscripts, following initial screening by editors and prior to peer review. The journal uses iThenticate to ensure article originality and the integrity of the scientific record. Additionally, in compliance with SciELO best practices guidelines, the journal is expanding its routines to include automated tools for verifying data integrity and image manipulation. Cases displaying high similarity rates without proper citation are formally investigated following COPE flowcharts.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Resources

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be used by authors as support for the following activities:

Textual support: writing assistance, grammatical/stylistic editing, and translation.
Methodology and data: assistance with data collection, statistical analysis, and methodological processing.
Visual elements: support in generating conceptual illustrations, diagrams, and graphs, in compliance with the journal's image integrity guidelines.

However, the journal strictly stipulates that these tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors, as only humans can assume responsibility for the integrity, originality, and accuracy of the work. Concealing or failing to declare the use of AI is considered a serious ethical infraction that violates research transparency.

Image and visual element integrity

To ensure the authenticity and accuracy of published scientific data, the use of AI tools in creating, editing, or processing figures must adhere to the following criteria:

Figures based on scientific data (micrographs, gels, western blots, clinical images, graphs, etc.): the use of generative AI to create, alter, manipulate, or modify original scientific content is strictly prohibited. Only standardized technical adjustments (such as linear adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color balance applied uniformly across the entire image) that preserve data integrity and do not obscure or alter original information are permitted.
Conceptual illustrations, diagrams, and graphical abstracts: the use of generative AI to support the creation of illustrative or conceptual figures is permitted. In such cases, explicit declaration of the tool used (including name, version, and purpose) is required, along with mandatory human review and full author responsibility for the truthfulness and accuracy of the content.

Mandatory transparency requirements

In all cases where AI resources are used, authors must fulfill the following requirements:

Initial declaration: inform and specify the extent of use in the cover letter.
Manuscript sections: if AI was used to assist in writing or generating a graphical abstract, explicitly detail its use in the Acknowledgments section; if used for data collection, analysis, or generating permitted visual elements, authors must describe its use in the Methods section (when part of the experimental workflow), indicating the tool used, version, purpose, and an express confirmation that no scientific data was fabricated, manipulated, or altered. Example: "Textual review and grammatical corrections were performed using OpenAI's ChatGPT (version GPT-4, June 2026) to improve readability".
Citation and referencing: properly cite the generated content within the text of the article, treating it as a non-recoverable source. Example of in-text citation: "[...] (ChatGPT, OpenAI, response to the prompt 'simulate statistical parameters', June 10, 2026)".

AI use by reviewers

Reviewers may use AI-assisted tools exclusively to support data verification, fact-checking, or to improve the writing clarity of their review reports, provided they use enterprise or closed versions of AI applications that strictly ensure submitted manuscript data is not stored or used for model training.

Uploading any confidential manuscript content into public or open AI tools is strictly prohibited, as this constitutes a severe breach of confidentiality. Under no circumstances should AI tools be used to generate, draft, or synthesize the scientific evaluation or final peer review reports, which must remain the fully original and critical work of the human reviewer.

Should a reviewer use permitted AI tools for textual refinement or data verification in their report, this use must be explicitly declared to the Editorial Office upon report submission.

AI use in editorial management

Within its editorial management, JVATiTD also uses AI-assisted tools integrated into its workflows. These applications support scope identification, plagiarism and text similarity detection, as well as assistance in identifying potential peer reviewers and verifying metadata.

To ensure total manuscript confidentiality, all AI-assisted tools used in the JVATiTD editorial workflow operate under strict data privacy protocols. Submitted content is processed exclusively through secure enterprise applications, ensuring that manuscript data is never uploaded to public AI tools, stored on insecure servers, or used for model training. The journal applies the same rigorous standards of confidentiality and data protection to editorial AI technologies as required of peer reviewers.

The editorial team's use of these technologies aims to ensure technical quality and scientific integrity in the peer review process, serving as operational support without ever replacing the critical, analytical, and ultimate judgment of the editorial board and its human reviewers.

Sex and Gender Considerations

The JVATiTD editorial team, in compliance with open science practices, requires all submitted manuscripts to adhere to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines. These guidelines guide the systematic reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, and interpretation of findings, ensuring research quality and replicability. Additionally, JVATiTD reaffirms its commitment to gender equity in the composition of its editorial board and in recruiting its reviewer panel, aiming to ensure representation and diversity across all journal levels.

Ethics Committee

JVATiTD is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics, following the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the SciELO's Guidelines on Best Practices for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publication.

Prior approval by an institutional ethics committee is mandatory for all research involving human subjects, human materials, or animals. For research conducted in Brazil, approval by the CEP/CONEP system (human subjects) or CEUA (animals) must be observed. Manuscripts must obligatorily include, in the methodology section and back matter declarations, a statement containing the name of the ethics committee, approval protocol number, and authorization date. Studies involving human participants must also include an informed consent statement.

Copyright

Authors of articles published by the Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD) retain full copyright of their work. All manuscripts are licensed and made available in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 license, which allows articles to be downloaded, read, reused, cited, and distributed without restriction in the digital environment, provided the original work and the version published by the journal are properly attributed. This policy aims to ensure maximum exposure, dissemination, and impact for published studies while guaranteeing due scientific credit to their authors.

Intellectual Property and Terms of Use

All scientific content and articles published by JVATiTD, except where otherwise specified, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 open access license. he copyright and use terms applied to the content of published articles are clearly stated and independent of the copyright terms applying to the journal website and platform itself.

Authors of articles published by JVATiTD retain full copyright of their work, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows articles to be freely downloaded, reused, cited, and distributed without restrictions in the digital environment, provided the original work is properly attributed. In strict compliance with the open access policies of the SciELO Network and DOAJ, the journal's copyright terms do not contradict licensing rules, and the expression "all rights reserved" is considered inappropriate and never used for published scientific content.

Additionally, JVATiTD adopts an active self-archiving policy and encourages authors to share their accepted or published manuscripts. Depositing these works in institutional repositories, data repositories, personal blogs, and academic or professional social media is permitted and encouraged, provided full bibliographic citation and the permanent link (DOI) are included.

Sponsors and Funding Agencies

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief

Rui Seabra Ferreira Jr., Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Botucatu, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5222987608775248, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6952-0512, e-mail: rui.seabra@unesp.br

Emeritus Editor

Benedito Barraviera, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Botucatu, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/6840524602748457, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9855-5594, e-mail: benedito.barraviera@unesp.br

Associate Editors

Clarissa Feltrin, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Botucatu, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2010112764261397, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7384-7558, e-mail: clarissa.feltrin@unesp.br
Daniel Carvalho Pimenta, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2791913950833163, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2406-0860, e-mail: dcpimenta@butantan.gov.br
Jean-Philippe Chippaux, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – Délégation Régionale Occitanie, Paris, Île-de-France, France. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1976-8568, e-mail: jean-philippe.chippaux@ird.fr
Maria Elena de Lima, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais/MG, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5642915270924367, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6185-4032, e-mail: lima.mariaelena@gmail.com

Communication Editor

Ana Silvia S. B. S. Ferreira, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Botucatu, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7842202980920591, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2035-7731, e-mail: ana.ferreira@unesp.br

Advisory Editors

Abdulrazaq G Habib, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Kano, Nigeria. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4219-8724, e-mail: abdulrazaq_habib@yahoo.co.uk
Adolfo Borges, Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), Caracas, Venezuela. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5827-2410, e-mail: borges.adolfo@gmail.com
Anamaria Mello Miranda Paniago, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul/MS. Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/6109442394375852, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8925-7712, e-mail: anamaria.paniago@ufms.br
Anna Nekaris, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5523-7353, e-mail: anna.nekaris@aru.ac.uk
Carlos M. Álvarez, Universidad de La Habana, Habana, Cuba. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9640-3474, e-mail: calvarez@fbio.uh.cu
Eliane Candiani Arantes, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2062982268663101, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6712-6033, e-mail: ecabraga@fcfrp.usp.br
Fatima Laraba-Djebari, Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene, Algiers, Algeria. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4641-261X, e-mail: flaraba@hotmail.com
Heloisa Sobreiro Selistre-de-Araujo, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4065824911933203, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-7814, e-mail: hsaraujo@ufscar.br
Jan Tytgat, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1778-6022, SciProfiles: 11515, e-mail: jan.tytgat@kuleuven.be
Jose Paes de Oliveira Filho, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Botucatu, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7234583758071194, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9890-2640, e-mail: jose.oliveira-filho@unesp.br
Lourival Domingos Possani, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6357-2661, e-mail: lourival.possani@ibt.unam.mx
Luis Alberto Ponce-Soto, Universidad Católica de Santa María, Arequipa, Peru. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5976-2913, e-mail: poncesoto@gmail.com
Luis Fernando García Hernández, Universidad de la República de Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay. e-mail: luizf.garciah@gmail.com
Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3862-5535, e-mail: mohamed_hassanain@science.suez.edu.eg
Pascal Mansuelle, Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4504-6809, e-mail: pmansuelle@imm.cnrs.fr
Sakda Daduang, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand. e-mail: sakdad@kku.ac.th
Suely Vilela, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/6797019657873081, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3274-180X, e-mail: suvilela@usp.br
Wilson Lourenço, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2386-363X, e-mail: wilson.lourenco@mnhn.fr

Editorial Office

Juliana Siani Simionato, Managing editor, e-mail: juliana.simionato@unesp.br

Instructions to authors

Accepted article types

JVATiTD adopts English as the exclusive language for submission and publication, making high linguistic quality and grammatical correctness essential. Aligned with open science practices, the journal accepts and encourages the submission of manuscripts previously deposited on public, non-commercial preprint servers (such as SciELO Preprints, bioRxiv, arXiv, medRxiv, entre outros), not considering this practice as prior publication. Authors must provide the preprint DOI upon submission.

The document types accepted by the journal are:

Research: works presenting original research results, reporting scientifically grounded experiments that provide a substantial amount of new information.
Review: concise and accurate updates on recent advances in specific research areas within the scope of the journal.
Case report: detailed account of the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of a single patient.
Short report: studies on important preliminary research findings, ongoing research projects, or results of limited scope.
Letter to the editor: texts containing the re-analysis of a previously published article in the journal; studies that may not cover "standard research" but are of general interest to the journal; or a brief report of research findings fitting the scope.

Authors' Contributions

JVATiTD requires authorship contributions to be explicitly stated directly in the published article body through a mandatory section at the end of the manuscript titled "Authors’ contributions". To ensure transparency and proper recognition of each contributor, the journal formally adopts the international CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), a standardized system composed of 14 structured roles reflecting the true diversity of scientific work. This statement clearly links each author's initials to specific roles performed during research development, concluding with formal confirmation that all contributors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Formatting example: "AB, CD: conceptualization, methodology, writing – original draft. CD: investigation, formal analysis, data curation. EF: resources, funding acquisition. EF, GH: supervision, writing – review & editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Manuscript Preparation

The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD) advises authors to present their research in a concise, complete, and rigorous manner, clearly demonstrating the study's relevance within the scope of toxinology and tropical diseases. Manuscripts must be unpublished, written in English, and contain robust experimental details to ensure full data reproducibility; depositing datasets in public repositories with persistent identifiers (such as a DOI) is strongly encouraged. Additionally, as the journal follows a double-blind peer review model, authors must prepare the main manuscript file to be completely anonymous, placing names, affiliations, and institutional declarations exclusively on the title page, which is submitted separately via the online submission system.

Submission Format

Manuscript submission to JVATiTD is conducted exclusively through the ScholarOne Manuscripts online system and requires a mandatory division into three essential files to support the double-blind review process:

Anonymous main manuscript file: must be submitted in an editable format (.doc or .docx), set with 1.5 line spacing and continuous line and page numbering. As part of the blind process, this file must not contain author names, affiliations, or back matter declarations (acknowledgments, funding, etc.). It should include the complete text of the article (structured according to document type), reference list, and small tables.
Title page: file submitted separately containing metadata and full author identification – full names (with clear indication of compound surnames via hyphen or highlighting for proper indexing), complete institutional affiliations, emails, and ORCID iDs (strongly encouraged for all). It must also contain the mandatory declarations block (Authors' declarations) – acknowledgments, data availability, funding, competing interests, authors' contributions (CRediT taxonomy), ethics committee approval, and consent for publication.
Cover letter: mandatory document detailing why the manuscript fits the journal's scope (toxinology and tropical diseases), confirmation of originality and novel contribution, indication of special issues (if applicable), APC matters, and clinical trial registration number/date (if reporting human health interventions).

Technical and content specifications:

Language: the full text must be exclusively in English.
Abstract: limit of 300 words, without abbreviations or references. Structured (Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion) for research articles and short reports; structured (Background, Case Presentation, Conclusion) for case reports; and unstructured for reviews and letters to the editor.
Key words: from 4 to 10 terms in English, with the use of standard MeSH terms strongly encouraged.
Length: no rigid restrictions on text length or number of illustrations, provided the manuscript is concise and complete.
Ethics approval: mandatory textual statement on the title page with the committee name and protocol number for human/animal research (or "Not applicable").
DOI: all published articles will receive an individual DOI assignment.

Digital Assets

Digital assets in documents must strictly adhere to JVATiTD technical criteria to ensure publication quality.

Figures and illustrations: must be submitted as separate image files (.jpeg, .jpg, .tif, or .png) and never embedded directly into the manuscript body. High resolution (300 dpi), consecutive numbering in order of appearance, and multi-panel figures composite in a single file (e.g., parts A, B, C) are required. Figure captions must be included in the main manuscript text, not within the image file. Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permission for reproduced images.
Tables: must be formatted using the Word processor's native table tool (editable object); embedding tables as images or spreadsheets is prohibited. Tables must be numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals, with a title above and legends/explanatory notes below. Small tables remain in the main text body; large tables should be placed at the end of the anonymous manuscript file.
Additional files: supplementary datasets, large tables, videos, or animations supporting the results (avoiding the term "data not shown") may be uploaded as additional files. On the system file upload page, select: "Supplemental file for review". They must be named sequentially (e.g., "Additional file 1") and explicitly cited in the text. The journal recommends that massive data volumes preferably be deposited in public repositories (SciELO Data, Zenodo, GenBank, etc.) with proper links and persistent identifiers (DOIs), rather than uploaded as attached files.

Citations and References

JVATiTD adopts the National Library of Medicine (NLM) reference style, also known as Vancouver style, following the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations detailed in the international manual Citing Medicine. In the manuscript text, citations must be formatted numerically and consecutively using Arabic numerals enclosed in brackets in order of appearance. Example: "... as described by Lourenço [3, 4, 5]...". Note that unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list. Article titles must be formatted in sentence case (capitalizing only the first word of the title/subtitle, proper nouns, and acronyms); note that this rule does not apply to journal titles, which must retain their standard abbreviated title case (capitalizing the first letter of each word). In the reference list, cite up to six authors; for works with seven or more authors, list the first six followed by 'et al.'

Below are examples of the main document types standardized according to the journal's guidelines:

Standard journal article with DOI: Chippaux JP, Amta P, Madec Y, Ntone R, Noël G, Clauteaux P, et al. Epidemiologic, clinical, and therapeutic aspects of formally identified Echis romani bites in northern Cameroon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2025 Jul 28;19(7):e0013195. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0013195.
Article with e-location ID: de Oliveira IS, Alano-da-Silva NM, Ferreira IG, Cerni FA, Sachett JAG, Monteiro WM, et al. Understanding the complexity of Tityus serrulatus venom: a focus on high molecular weight components. J Venom Anim Toxins Incl Trop Dis. 2024 Jan 22;30:e20230046. doi: 10.1590/1678-9199-JVATITD-2023-0046.
Preprint: Creste CFZ, Orsi PR, Landim-Alvarenga FC, Justulin LA Jr, Golim MA, Barraviera B, et al. Improvement of bone regeneration using fibrin biopolymer combined with differentiated stem cells. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2019 Apr 16 [cited 2026 Aug 24]. doi: 10.1101/608166.
Whole book: Rochat H, Martin-Eauclaire MF, editors. Animal toxins: facts and protocols. 1st ed. Basel: Springer Basel AG; 2000. 365 p.
Book chapter: Gutiérrez JM, Rucavado A, Escalante T. Snake venom metalloproteinases: biological roles and participation in the pathophysiology of envenomation. In: Mackessy SP, ed. Handbook of venoms and toxins of reptiles. 1st ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2010. p. 115-138.
Research data repository (datasets): Damm M, Petras D. Mass spectrometry: snake venom proteomics of seven taxa of the genera Vipera, Montivipera, Macrovipera and Daboia across Türkiye. Zenodo [dataset] 2024 [updated 2024 Feb 20; cited 2026 Jun 10]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10683187.
Part of a website: World Health Organization [Internet]. Venomous snakes distribution and species risk categories [cited 2019 Oct 14]. Available from: http://apps.who.int/bloodproducts/snakeantivenoms/database/.

Supplementary Documents

During the online submission process, in addition to essential article files, authors must or may provide administrative, methodological, or legal compliance documents, such as:

Conflict of interest disclosure form: this document must be completed, signed, and uploaded to the system (option: "Supplemental file not for review") only when a real or potential conflict of interest (whether financial, commercial, political, or intellectual) exists on the part of the authors. If no conflicts exist, submitting this form is unnecessary; simply maintain the standardized negative declaration on the title page ("The authors declare that they have no competing interests").
Reporting guidelines and checklists: for manuscripts following specific study designs, such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses, authors may upload the corresponding completed checklist (e.g., PRISMA) to demonstrate methodological rigor and compliance with international reporting guidelines (system option: "Supplemental file not for review").
Translation or language editing certificate: if the manuscript underwent professional translation or editing by language service companies, the quality certificate issued by the company may be attached to attest to English language correctness (system option: "English editing certificate").
Open Science Compliance Form: document reiterating the journal's policy of accepting manuscripts previously deposited on recognized preprint servers (SciELO Preprints, bioRxiv, arXiv, medRxiv) and the authors' commitment to public data availability (system option: "Supplemental file not for review").
Ethics committee supporting documentation/consent forms: although a textual statement with the protocol number is mandatory on the title page, optional uploading of copies of institutional ethics approval certificates or consent forms is permitted as an editorial and legal safeguard (system option: "Supplemental file not for review").

Funding Statement

The journal requires rigorous itemization of all sources of financial support that enabled the execution of the study. Upon submission, due to the double-blind review process, authors must enter this information in the specific metadata field in the system and textually in the declarations section (Funding) restricted to the title page, which will be incorporated into the final article body only after acceptance. The full name of the funding agency or sponsor (without abbreviations) must be provided, along with the grant, contract, or award number. If the research was conducted without external financial support, authors must state "Not applicable", attesting that no external funding was received for the work.

Disclaimer

The opinions, information, and data contained in accepted and published manuscripts are the sole and full responsibility of their authors and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion, official policies, or position of the Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD), its editorial board, or the Center for the Study of Venoms and Venomous Animals (Cevap/Unesp).

Additional Information

The journal shows international impact indicators across its major indexing databases. According to 2025 data, JVATiTD achieved a 2-year Journal Impact Factor (Journal Citation Reports, Clarivate) of 2.5 and a 4-year CiteScore (Scopus, Elsevier) of 3.6. Citations per document (Cites/Doc) averaged 2.364 over a 2-year period, 2.315 over a 3-year period, and 2.689 over a 4-year period, consolidating the relevance and growing global visibility of its publications in toxinology and tropical diseases.

Contact

Cevap/Unesp
Rodovia Alcides Soares, km 3, portaria 2, Fazenda Experimental Lageado, Botucatu, SP, CEP 18619-002, Brasil.
Telefone: +55 14 3880 7693
Email: editorial.jvatitd@unesp.br