Submissions

Author Guidelines

Editorial Policy

The InterAmerican Journal of Medicine and Health (IAJMH) is a peer review journal edited by Faculdade São Leopoldo Mandic in a continuous publication model, free of charge for submission, processing and publication of articles and open access to readers. This journal publishes national and international articles in English, Portuguese and Spanish on medicine and other health areas: original articles, review articles, short communications, letters to the editor, case reports and editorials (invited by the editor).

Original articles:

They include all original clinical studies, epidemiological studies, screening and diagnostic studies, descriptive and interventional studies, as well as reports on basic research with laboratory animals and reports of intervention in public health. Scientific results from original research in areas such as health policy, economic evaluation, ethics, law and health care will also be accepted. They should report original research that has not been published and is not being considered for publication in other journals.

Review articles:

Critical summary of the available knowledge on a specific topic, through the analysis and interpretation of the pertinent bibliography, in order to contain a critical and comparative analysis of the studies in the area, which discusses the limits and the scope of the methodology, allowing an indication of perspectives for the continuity of studies in this line of research.

Original and review articles should be limited to 3,500 words (excluding abstract, title, and references). Manuscript should be organized including the following topics: title, short title, abstract (with a maximum of 350 words), descriptors (up to five), manuscript text (introduction, methods, results and discussion), thanks, conflict of interest, support reference list and title of the tables / figures. A total of five illustrations (tables and figures) are allowed. For original articles the maximum number of references is 35.

Short communications:

Reporting information on relevant topics, supported by recent research, which supports the work of professionals working in the field, acting as an introduction to the subject or an update thereof.

Framed research such as short communications should have a maximum of 2,000 words (excluding abstract, title and references). The manuscript should be organized including the following topics: title, short title, abstract (with a maximum of 100 words), descriptors (up to three), manuscript text (without subdivisions), acknowledgments, conflict of interest, financial support, list of references (up to 15 references), title of the tables / figures. A total of three illustrations (tables and figures) are allowed.

Letters to the editor:

Comments and suggestions about articles published in the previous 6 months by the magazine. Letters of opinion on various current topics will also be evaluated for publication.

Matters of this nature should not exceed 1,200 words, and should not contain abstract and descriptors. Only one illustration (table / figure) is allowed and a maximum limit of 12 references.

Case Reports:

Detailed description and critical analysis of one or more cases, typical or atypical, based on a broad and current bibliographic review on the subject. The author must present the problem in its multiple aspects and its relevance.

Case reports should have a maximum length of 1,500 words (excluding title, abstract and references). The manuscript should be organized including the following topics: title, short title, abstract (with a maximum of 100 words), descriptors (up to three), manuscript text (introduction, case report, discussion), thanks, conflict of interests, support financial, reference list (up to 12 references), title of the tables / figures. A total of three illustrations (tables and figures) are allowed.

Editorial:

Written by invitation of the editor, considering the topics of the focus area of ​​the journal. They should not exceed 1,500 words, without abstract and keywords and at most one figure or table and ten references.

Submission of papers

Papers will be accepted that are accompanied:

1. Declaration of Responsibility: I certify that I took part in the conception of the study in order to make public my responsibility for its content and have not omitted any financing links or agreements between the authors and companies which may have an interest in the publication of this article;  I certify that the manuscript is original and that the work, partially or in full, or any other work with substantially similar content of which I am the author, has not been sent to any other Journal.
   2. Transfer of Copyright: I declare that, should the article be accepted, IAJMH will become the owner of the copyrights referred to therein, which will become the exclusive property of the Journal.
   Any reproduction, adaptation and disclosure, partial or full, through any printed publication channel or in electronic format, for pedagogical or commercial purposes, will be allowed, provided that due credit is attributed to the original creation. It will not be the necessary prior request for authorization by the Journal.
   3. Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest: according International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) form.
   4. Covering letter to editor signed by corresponding author with a description of the type of study and subject matter and the study’s main contributions to the area.

Each author must read and sign the following documents: (1) Declaration of responsibility, (2) Transfer of copyright and (3) Disclosure of Potencial Conflicts of Interest, which should contain the following: Title of manuscript, Full name of the authors (in the same order in which they appear in the manuscript), Author for contact, Date.

IAJMH recommend using EQUATOR NETWORK (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) reporting guidelines available at http://www.equator-network.org/ for manuscript consolidation.

IAJMH adopts the ICMJE recommendations, available at URL <http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html>.

If any figures are selected from other previously published studies, the authors should obtain and provide written permission for their reproduction. This authorization should accompany the manuscripts submitted for publication.

Authorship: the number of authors should be consistent with the size of the project. The credit for authorship should be based on significant contributions, such as the concept and design, or analysis and interpretation of the data. The inclusion of the names of authors whose contributions do not meet the abovementioned criteria cannot be justified, in which case they may appear in the Acknowledgments section.

The IAJMH considers acceptable a maximum of 6 authors per article. However, a larger number may be accepted on an exceptional basis for papers that are more complex, which should be accompanied on a separate sheet of paper including a convincing justification for the participation of each of the authors.

The identification page of the manuscripts should explicitly contain details of the contribution made by each author.

Submission of the manuscript

The text should be typed in Arial font size 12 with a line space of 1.5 cm. The paper should be A4 with left and top margins of 3 cm and bottom and right margins of 2 cm.

All pages should be numbered starting from the identification page.

The elements of the text should be set out in the sequence shown below:

Title: a) full title; it should be concise and avoid excessive wording; b) short title of up to 50 characters.

Authorship: a) full name of all the authors, indicating the Department and/or Institution to which they belong (including an indication of the full addresses of all the universities with which the authors are connected); b) only one affiliation per author will be accepted. The authors should therefore choose from their affiliations the one they deem to be the most important; c) all affiliation data should be submitted in full, without abbreviation; d) full mailing address of all authors including contact name, telephone and email. NB: this should be the only part of the text that identifies the authors.

Abstract: a) all articles submitted should contain an abstract with a minimum of 150 and maximum of 250 words; b) for original articles, abstracts should be structured by highlighting the objectives, basic methods employed, information on the study’s location, population and sampling, results and the most significant conclusions, considering the objectives of the study and indicating how the study may be followed up. For the other categories, the abstract format should be in narrative form, but include the same information; c) it should not contain citations or abbreviations.

Indexing terms: correspond to the words and expressions that identify the content of the article. Highlight a minimum of three and a maximum of six indexing terms, using the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) created by BIREME, the virtual library of health sciences.

Introduction should be short and define the problem being studied, summarizing its importance and highlighting the gaps in knowledge which will be addressed in the article. It should contain an up-to-date review of the literature pertinent to the topic, adapted to the presentation of the problem, and which emphasizes its relevance. It should not be too extensive unless they are in manuscripts submitted as a Review Article.

Methods should be presented in detail sufficient to permit the observations to be corroborated, including the procedures employed, the population and sample; measurement tools and, where applicable, the validation method; statistical treatment. As far as the statistical analysis is concerned, the authors must demonstrate that the procedures used were not only appropriate for testing the hypotheses of the study but also that they have been correctly interpreted. The levels of statistical significance (e.g. p<0.05; p<0.01; p<0.001) should be mentioned.

Accurately identify all medication and chemical substances used, including generic names, doses and routes of administration. Scientific terms should be typed in full rather than their corresponding short form symbols. Included in this classification are: names of chemical compounds and elements and the binary combinations of microbiological, zoological and botanical nomenclature. The generic names of products are preferable to their respective commercial brand names, always followed (in parentheses) by the name of their manufacturer, the city and country where they were manufactured, separated by commas.

State that the research study was approved by an Ethics Committee accredited by the Brazilian Health Council and supply the approval opinion number. When giving accounts of experiments using animals, note if the policies of institutional or national research councils or any national laws related to the care and use of laboratory animals were observed.

Results should be presented with the minimum possible discussion or personal interpretation, accompanied by tables and/or adequate illustrations, when necessary. Do not repeat in the text all the data already shown in the illustrations and tables. Statistical data should be submitted to appropriate analysis.

Tables, charts, figures and graphs should be limited to six in total and numbered consecutively and independently using Arabic numerals, according to the order in which the data are mentioned and should be shown on individual, separate sheets with an indication of their location in the text. Information on the place and year of the study is essential. Each should be given a brief title. Charts and tables should not display borders at the sides. Graphs should always be accompanied by the respective underlying numerical values, in Excel format.

The authors shall take responsibility for the quality of the figures (drawings, illustrations, tables, charts and graphs), which should be capable of being reduced without loss of definition, for sizes with one or two columns (7 cm and 15 cm, respectively); landscape format is not permitted. Digitized figures should have a JPEG extension and a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. When displaying images and text, the use of a patient’s initials, name and record number should be avoided. The patient may not be identified or be recognizable from the images.

Discussion should be restricted to the significance of the data obtained, avoiding hypotheses that are not founded on the results, and relate them to existing knowledge and to data obtained in other, important studies. Emphasize the novel and important aspects of the study and the conclusions arising therefrom. Do not repeat in detail the data or other material already cited in the Introduction or Results sections. Include implications for future studies.

Conclusion: final part of the paper based on available evidence which is pertinent to the object of the study. The conclusions should be precise and clearly set out, each one based on the objects of the study, listing the results obtained given the hypotheses raised. Demonstrate what was achieved by the study and the potential application of the results of the research study; further studies may be suggested that complement the research or address issues materializing during the course of the study. Bibliographical citations will not be accepted in this section.

Acknowledgements should be listed in a paragraph consisting of a maximum of three lines, directed towards institutions or individuals which effectively contributed to the study.

Appendices should only be included when essential to an understanding of the text. It will be the responsibility of the editors to determine if their publication is necessary.

Abbreviations and initials should be used in a standardized form, being limited to only those conventionally used or sanctioned by use, accompanied by the full meaning when first cited in the text. They should not be used in the title or the abstract.

References should be consecutively numbered observing the order in which they are mentioned for the first time in the text, based on the Vancouver reference style. For references with up to six authors, all of them should be cited; for more than six authors, the first six should be cited, followed by the Latin expression et al. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html) and printed without the use of bold type, italics or underlines, the same presentation being used for all references.

Citations or references to graduate course conclusion monographs, dissertations, theses and unpublished texts (classroom lessons, amongst others) will not be accepted. References to books should be kept to a minimum as they reflect the opinion of the respective authors and/or editors. Only references to the most recent books will be accepted. If an unpublished work written by one of the manuscript’s authors is cited (i.e. an article in press), it will be necessary to include the acceptance letter of the journal that is to publish the article referred to.

Bibliographical citations in the text: use the numerical citation system where only the index numbers of the references, in superscript format, are shown in the text. They should be placed in numerical order using Arabic numerals, half a line above and after the citation and should be included in the list of references. If there are two authors, both should be cited connected by a "&"; if there are more than two, the first author is cited followed by the expression et al.

The accuracy and adequacy of the references to works which have been queried and mentioned in the text of the article are the responsibility of the author. All those authors whose works are cited in the text should be listed in the References section.