ISSN 2504-3137
[printed version]

ISSN: 2504-3145
[electronic version]

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and Policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts

• Publishing policy of the journal

To stimulate the debate around subjects important for research & development in Public Health, at a national and international level, through the publication of original articles, applied investigation or revision in this area or similar areas. The contributions must be presented in English.

• Areas of interest of the publication and the type of articles and other matters published

The Portuguese Journal of Public Health accepts original works, applied investigation or revision on any subject related with the general subject of public health, understood this in its broader sense.

• Procedures of valuation by peers ( peer review ) of the journal

The responsibility to accept, to reject or to propose modifications is attributed to the Directors of the journal. For this purpose, it is supported both by an Editorial and a Scientific Board, constituted of internal and external, national and international reviewers, applying the system of double-blind peer review in the evaluation of articles.

• Public of the journal

The journal is intended to researchers, teachers and students of higher education as well as a diverse range of managers, doctors and other health professionals.

• Format and the forms of original shipment for the journal

Manuscript Submission. Manuscripts should be submitted through the Karger MM platform available at www.karger.com/PJP . At the time of submission, complete contact information (postal/mail address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers) for the corresponding author is required. First and last names, e-mail addresses, and institutional affiliations of all co-authors are also required.

The works should include: the title of the work, name(s) and small curricular sketch of the author(s), main functions or titles, until the maximum of two.

Cover Letter. A cover letter and complete contact information for the corresponding author (postal/mail address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers) and whether the authors have published or submitted any related papers from the same study, should be included.

All articles are refereed. Papers submitted to the journal must not previously have been published nor submitted for publication to any other journal.

An author submission statement should be submitted.

• Standards of presentation of the journal

The works should contain: a small introduction to the article until the maximum of a typewritten page; the text; pictures and graphs with titles and legends, which will have to be preceded of a previous reference in text.

Manuscript File Formats. For submission and review, acceptable manuscript file formats include Word and WordPerfect, with double-space text and right margins unjustified (ragged). Manuscripts in PDF format should not be submitted.

Title Page. The title page should include a word count for text only (maximum of 5.000 words) and the full names, highest academic degrees, and affiliations of all authors. If an author's affiliation has changed since the work was done, the new affiliation also should be listed.

Abstract. Include a structured abstract of no more than 300 words for reports of original data, reviews and meta-analyses. Abstracts are not required for editorials, commentaries, and some special features.

Key words. Each article should have 2 to 10 keywords.

Abbreviations. Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Expand all abbreviations at first mention in the text.

Figures . It is in the author's interest to provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please be sure that all imported scanned material is scanned at the appropriate resolution: 1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour.

Figures must be saved separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the article file.

Submitted articles should include:

a) Article title, name(s) and short author(s) curricula, main functions and titles, up to the limit of two;

b) Small introduction not longer than a typed page;

c) The text;

d) Tables and figures and with titles and legends referred previously in the text;

e) Short abstract with title and keywords, in Portuguese and English;

f) The original manuscripts should not include footnotes.

All complete bibliographic references will appear at the end of the article.

• Standards for bibliographic references of the journal

References. References should be prepared in Vancouver style. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation.

All bibliographic references should be cited in the text:

Text and citation: (…) embora o seu desempenho na epidemiologia, prevenção e tratamento ainda esteja para ser avaliado 12 (…)

Citations should be numerical with inserted location in the text, in exponent, resending for the documents, in the order they are cited. The following citations of the same document must have the same number of the first. For journals, references must contain the name of the first author (surname and name), followed by the others, the title of the article, the name of the publication and its identification (year, volume and pages). A detailed description of the format for the different types of references can be found in the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals”.

Revision : Authors will receive copies of the article for correction, which will have to concentrate exclusively on errors of typewriting. The devolution of the tests must be accomplished in the deadline of one week after the date of reception by the author.

Correspondence :

spublicacoes@ensp.unl.pt

PJPH.Journal@ensp.unl.pt

service@karger.com

The Portuguese Journal of Public Health publishes different types of articles:

•  Original articles - result of research of empirical, experimental or conceptual nature (maximum of 6.000 words; 300 word abstract );

•  Review articles - critical bibliographical review of a book related with the area of public health in its broader sense, published in the last three years (maximum of 1.200 words; 150 word abstract ).

  Original Articles

“Research articles”

They include observational studies, experimental or quasi-experimental studies, programs evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis, decision analysis and studies on evaluation of performance of diagnostic tests for population selection. (Each article must contain objectives and clear hypotheses, used drawing and methods, results, discussion and conclusions). They include, also, theoretical essays (critics and formulation of important theoretical knowledge) and articles dedicated to the presentation and discussion of methodological aspects and techniques used in public health research.

Research Articles are reports of original work (including systematic reviews and meta-analyses). Authors are asked to follow the CONSORT guidelines for Research Articles.

Systematic revision and meta-analysis - Synthesis of results of original, quantitative or qualitative studies, describes with detail the process of investigation of the original studies, the criteria used for selection of those enclosed in the revision and the procedures used in the synthesis of the results obtained by the reviewed studies (that can be or not meta-analysis procedures).

Prior approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or an Ethics Review Committee is required for all investigations involving human subjects.

Research Articles report on primary research. They should represent original research in basic, translational, or clinical science. They must describe significant and original observations. Consideration for publication is based on the article's originality, novelty, and scientific soundness, and the appropriateness of its analysis.

“Review articles”

A critical revision presenting a descriptive character and corresponding to the comprehensive presentation and to the discussion of subjects of scientific interest in the field of Public Health.

Review Articles are considered reviews of research or summary articles. They are state-of-the-art papers covering a current topic by experts in the field. They should give evidence on and provide answers to a well-defined aspect or question in a particular area. Review Articles must include a critical discussion of the reported data and give a clear conclusion with potential impacts on the standard of care.

Review Articles are usually invited by the editors but may be unsolicited. Potential authors are asked to contact the editorial office before submission in order to avoid clashes with other pending reviews. (This does not include Book Reviews or Product Reviews).

• Other information

The manuscript originals should not contain footnotes. All the complete bibliographical references will be inserted in the end of the article.

• It specifies the sections or parts that form an article:

Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Gratefulness and Bibliographical references.

• Determines the extension and other instructions for the presentation of abstracts

Two summaries, one in Portuguese and another one in English will have to be presented. The format of the summaries must be structured or narrative, as it is to an original article (up to 300 words) or about an article of another typology (up to 150 words).

• It determines the format, extension, and other instructions for the presentation of illustrations, figures, photographs, tables etc.

Figures. It is in the interest of the author to supply the figure in the format with the best possible resolution. He should verify if all the digitized material was submitted to this process in a certain resolution: 1200 DPI for the line of art, 600 DPI for the scale of greys and 300 for the color scale.

The figures must be sent in separate filing-cabinet of the text manuscript.