Submissions

Author Guidelines

(version 25-Aug-2023)

Instructions for submission

Articles may be submitted in Portuguese, Spanish, or English. All articles accepted for publication will be published in English with translation costs covered by the RBFHSS/SBRAFH (maximum 3500 words). Articles originally submitted in Portuguese will also be published in Portuguese.

1. Scope and ethics in publishing

RBFHSS publishes articles on issues related to hospital pharmacy and other health services. Among these are the management and evaluation of services in the pharmaceutical care assistance, clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care, home care, waste management, risk management and patient safety, pharmacotherapy, clinical pharmacogenetics, use of integrative and complementary practices in health services, health technology assessment, innovation in health care, hospital pharmaco-technics, applied legislation, drug stability and compatibility studies, quality control, pharmaco-economics, pharmaco-epidemiology, pharmacovigilance and techno-security. RBFHSS does not charge any submission or publication fee or article processing charges.

The studies must follow all the national and international standards for research with human beings or animals and report their approval numbers to the ethics committee, if applicable. In these cases, when approved, attach a copy of the research's approval by the Ethics Committee for Research with Human Beings or by the Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals.

Controlled clinical trials should present documentation regarding the research's registration in a clinical trial database, considering the orientation of the International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP) of the World Health Organization (WHO), and of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and Systematic Reviews, PROSPERO.

The authors are responsible for the opinions expressed, which do not necessarily reflect the RBFHSS. The mention of certain companies or commercial products does not imply that they are to be approved or recommended rather than others of a similar nature. The authors should declare potential and actual conflicts of interest regarding the article, when they exist.

RBFHSS follows the Code of Conduct for Journal Editors of the Committee on Ethics in Publishing (COPE) to prevent plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data fabrication. All manuscripts submitted to RBFHSS are assessed by plagiarism detection program — Similarity Check. RBFHSS does not consider for publication articles previously published elsewhere (including in preprint form).

2. Types of articles published

Considering the strength of evidence from publications and the national and international policies of journals evaluation, "Original" articles have a high priority for publication in the RBFHSS. Our publication priority is the lower for articles such as "Expert Opinion", "Perspectives" and "Reviews" that are not "Systematic reviews" with or without meta-analysis.

Editorials: concerning a topic of interest or the articles published in the journal; they reflect the author's opinion, an expert in the field, who may be an editorial team member or an independent author invited by the editor.

Original articles: original research reports on topics of interest in the field. Papers presented at meetings and conferences are not necessarily qualified as scientific papers. Systematic reviews are considered original articles. Original papers should follow the international recommendations for writing and standardization, especially in the Methods section, as recommended by the international guidelines, such as the STROBE (Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology), CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials), CHEERS Statement (Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards) or PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). More details can be found on the Equator Network about which quality instrument is suitable for your type of study (http://www.equator-network.org/).

• Authorship: No limit of authors or collective authorship (specify the names of the contributors).
• Title: maximum of 150 characters (including spaces).
• Abstract: Structured in: objectives, methods, results, and conclusions. Between 250 and 350 words.
• Text body: maximum of 4,000 words. Structured in introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion and references. Aggregated sections will not be accepted.
• References: no limit.
• Tables and figures: Maximum of 5 elements.
• Supplementary material: Large tables may be published as supplementary material.

Case reports, experience reports, and evaluation of health services: The communication of cases or of rare or unusual outcomes, with pioneering treatments, is relevant, see Table 1. They must be approved by the Research Ethics Committee as well as have the patient's consent, if applicable. Case studies and evaluations of programs or services may also be submitted for peer review if they involve innovation. Articles related to experience reports, however, besides presenting description and analysis of innovative practices in pharmaceutical assistance, care or education, should only be submitted for evaluation upon invitation of the RBFHSS editorial board.

• Authorship: Maximum of 3 authors.
• Title: maximum of 100 characters (including spaces).
• Abstract: Unstructured. Maximum of 200 words.
• Text body: maximum of 1,500 words. Follow CARE recommendations.
• References: Maximum 15 references.
• Tables and figures: Maximum of 5 elements.
• Supplementary material: Large tables may be published as supplementary material.

Narrative reviews: Narrative reviews will only be accepted for peer review if the authors are invited by the editorial board. Alternatively, you may consult the Editor-in-Chief for publication interest (atendimento@sbrafh.org.br). In this case, include a list of publications indexed on PubMed that demonstrate the authors' experience with the topic.

Perspective Articles: Contributions by invitation of the editor, on themes, techniques, and methods relevant and of interest in the national or international panorama for the field of pharmaceutical services. 

Book reviews: Brief summaries of recently published books on various aspects of hospital pharmacy and health services. Each book review should describe the content, objectively, when addressing the following essential points as well as the work's contribution to teaching and research in the field. The relevance, type of information found, gender, style of narrative, ease of reading, illustrations and general format must be pointed out. If possible, compare the work with others published in the same area. The author's background and the type of reader to whom the book is directed should also be briefly described.

Letters to the Editor: letters on hospital pharmacy or health services topics to clarify, discuss or comment constructively on articles published in RBFHSS. The letters must be signed by the author and specify their professional affiliation and address.

• Authorship: Maximum of 3 authors.
• Title: maximum of 80 characters (including spaces).
• Abstract: No abstract.
• Text body: maximum of 700 words.
• References: Maximum 10 references.
• Tables and figures: Maximum of 1 element.

3. General criteria for acceptance of the article

The selection of manuscripts for publication is based, above all, on the suitability of the subject for the journal; its scientific rigor, originality, contribution to the advancement of knowledge, and current information. The journal may refuse to publish any manuscript whose authors are unable to answer editorial questions satisfactorily or within the stipulated deadline.

Articles that have been previously published, in print or electronically (e.g., on the Internet), in the same or similar format, should not be submitted and will not be accepted for publication. Any instance of prior publication must be disclosed when the article is submitted, and the authors must provide a copy of the published document.

Manuscripts that do not comply with the submission rules will not be accepted. We recommend that, to make sure they are following the standard RBFHSS format, the authors review all these criteria (checklist available on the website), as well as review one or two articles published in this journal, before submitting their articles for evaluation.

4. Instructions for article submission

Submission occurs via a platform (www.rbfhss.org.br) in a single file with the .docx or other compatible extension containing all the parts indicated below:

FIRST PAGE (title page)

Title in English: only the first letter of the title and first names should be capitalized and without an endpoint

Title in Portuguese: only the first letter of the title and first names should be capitalized and without an endpoint

Authorship:

• a) Full names (ONE name, ONE middle name and ONE surname)
• b) Abbreviated names [NameONE LETTER for the middle name ONE LETTER for the first name (no space between them)], institution (one affiliation and state) and e-mail. Follow International standards for authors’ names and abbreviations. Example: Maria José Caetano Flores Silva will be abbreviated as Silva MJ, or Flores-Silva MJ or Silva MC, or another possible option (ONE surname, ONE middle name and ONE name).
• c) Inform the author ORCID registration (https://orcid.org/) for all the authors.

Corresponding author: short name and e-mail

Word count:

• Main text word count (without abstract, tables and references)
• Abstract wordcount (Portuguese):
• Abstract wordcount (English):
• Number of tables:
• Number of figures:

SECOND PAGE (English abstract)

Title in English: only the first letter of the title and first names should be capitalized. It is recommended that the title be brief and include only the essential data. Ambiguous words, jargon, and abbreviations should be avoided. A good title makes it easy to understand what the manuscript is about and helps to accurately catalog and classify it.

Abstract: in English.

Keywords (in English): 3 to 6 descriptors that will help in the indexation of the articles (lowercase letters, separated by commas and with a period). See the MESH - Medical Subject Headings

THIRD PAGE (Portuguese abstract)

Title in Portuguese: only the first letter of the title and first names should be capitalized. It is recommended that the title be brief and include only the essential data. Ambiguous words, jargon, and abbreviations should be avoided. A good title makes it easy to understand what the manuscript is about and helps to accurately catalog and classify it.

Abstract: in Portuguese

Keywords (in Portuguese): 3 to 6 descriptors that will help in the indexation of the articles (lowercase letters, separated by commas and with a period). See http://decs.bvs.br/.

AFTER THE MAIN TEXT

Funding sources

Any source of funding or support, both institutional and private, for the studies should be declared. Suppliers of materials and equipment, for free or with discounts, should also be described as financing sources, including the origin (city, state, and country). Provide the approval number and the favored person. In the case of studies carried out without institutional or private financial resources, the authors must declare that the research did not receive funding for its completion.

Collaborators (if more than one author)

At the end of the text, the collaboration of the authors (indicating only their name’s initials) in the development of the study and the elaboration of the article should be described, considering the following aspects as criteria of substantial contribution for authors: 1. Project conception or analysis and interpretation of data; 2. Article writing or critical review relevant to the intellectual content. These conditions must be fully met. All the authors must approve the final version to be published and be responsible for all information in the paper, ensuring the accuracy and integrity of any part of it.

Acknowledgments (if any)

Possible mentions in the acknowledgments include institutions that somehow made the research possible or people who collaborated with the study but did not meet the co-authorship criteria.

Conflict of interests statement

The authors should disclose any potential conflict of interest, including political or financial interests associated with patents or ownership, provision of materials or inputs and equipment used in the study by the manufacturers. If there is no conflict of interest, inform the following in the article: “The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding this article.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems (if used)

The use of any kind of AI system, for any purpose, during any phase of the study or the manuscript writing should be clearly described in the Methods section of the manuscript. Additionally, a specific section should be included at the end of the main text. The absence of this section indicates that authors have not used any AI system.

REFERENCES

It is suggested to include the references that are strictly relevant to the problem addressed and to avoid the inclusion of too many references in the same citation. The accuracy of the references is the authors' responsibility. In order to avoid duplicate publications, special emphasis in the search of articles in Hospital Pharmacy journals is recommended. Number the references consecutively according to the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers). Identify them in the text with Arabic-superscripted numerals, without space, after the last word of sentence (before the full stop and without space of it). Do not mentioning the authors and years between parentheses after the period. When it comes to sequential citation, separate the numbers by a dash (Example: 1-7); when non-sequential, use commas without space (Example: 1,5,7). Only the first three authors should be listed and the others indicated by the term “et al”. The format of the references, using abbreviations according to the Medicus Index, is the following:

Journals: Last name(s), followed by the initials for the first three et al authors. The authors should be separated by a comma. Title of the article. Abbreviated name of the journal. Year;Volume(Issue or number): Number of pages or e-location.

• Example of a printed journal: Silva LC, Paludetti LA, Cirilo O. Erro de Medicamentos em Hospitais da Grande São Paulo. Rev Bras Farm Hosp Serv Saude. 2003;1(1):303-309.
• Example of an online journal: Resende KA, Cardoso BM, Queiroz NS, et al. Dear author: is your intervention’s description in clinical pharmacy research clear enough?Rev Bras Farm Hosp Serv Saude. 2020;11(4):0538. DOI: 10.30968/rbfhss.2020.114.0538.

Internet: Author of the page. Title of the page. Available in: full URL address. Accessed on: date.

Example: Washington, D.C. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science. Nat Acad Press; 2019. Available in: http://nap.edu/25303. Accessed on: 1st Nov 2020.

Books: Last name(s), initials of the first three et al authors. Book title, edition. City: publisher; year.

Book Chapter: Last name(s), initials of the first three et al authors. Name of the chapter. “In”: Name of the Editor (ed). Book title, edition. City: publisher, year: pages.

Abstracts published in journal annals: Last name(s), followed by the initials for the first three et al authors. The authors should be separated by a comma. Title of the abstract. Abbreviated name of the journal. Year;Volume(Issue or number): Number of pages or e-location.

Abstracts published in other media: Last name(s), followed by the initials for the first three et al authors. The authors should be separated by a comma. Title of the abstract. Title and subtitle (if any) of the event. City, month (optional) year. (Optional) page number.

Dissertation, Thesis, and Course Completion Work: Author. Title [Type of document]. Unit where it was defended, City, year.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Tables and figures: they must be inserted after the references, one per page, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, in the order in which they were cited in the text and no horizontal or vertical inside lines shall be used. The titles and footnotes of the tables must not be inserted as lines in them. There are no “charts”, they are presented as Figures. When accepted for publication, the submission of an editable version of the article will be requested, in the .docx, .xls; .pptx or similar extensions, of tables and figures to proceed with the translation.

• Tables: title as text (not as table line) at the top with only Table and its number in bold, place on the first line an upper border that is thicker than the lower border and on the last line a lower border of the same thickness as the lower border of the first line. Do not introduce lines in the body of the table. Each line of information must appear as a table line. Never use "enter" to generate new lines. The body of the tables must have simple spacing without indentations, font size 10, centralized and left alignment.
• Figures (they include the designs, graphics, and photos, among others), title as text (not as table line) after it with just Figure your number in bold. They will be accepted as long as they do not repeat data contained in tables. They must be designed, elaborated or photographed. Figures adapted from other works must have authorization from the original author of the publication. In case photos are used, the subjects cannot be identified. Otherwise, the authors shall attach the permission upon submission, for scientific dissemination purposes. They must be clear enough to allow them to be reproduced in 7.2 cm (width of the text column) or 15 cm (width of the page). For illustrations extracted from previously published papers, the authors must attach a written permission to reproduce them. In the keys to the figures, the symbols, arrows, numbers, letters and other signs shall be identified and their meaning clarified. After acceptance of the article, the files of graphics and figures originated, as well as their databases, must be attached in order to allow for their translation into English and accurate diagramming.
• Footnotes to tables and figures: must be indicated by superscript numbers in the body of the same (do not use symbols or asterisks for this purpose) and below them with simple spacing and font size 10.

Abbreviations: Use only standardized and internationally accepted abbreviations, also indicating them unabbreviated in their first mention. In the Tables, non-standardized abbreviations can be used and they must be explained in main text and in Tables or Figures footnotes.

Participants’ testimonials: The participants’ testimonials should be presented in between quotation marks in the text. Example: “society is increasingly violent” (subject 1).

Explanatory notes: they must be put only as a footer for tables and charts. See how to indicate them in Tables and Figures.

Financial values: The official language of this journal is English. If there are financial values to be ​​expressed, convert them to dollars or euros (in both versions: Portuguese and English). Addicionally, If there is a comparison of values ​​at different times, update the values converting them to US dollars and using purchasing power parity (OECD, 2020) and the American Consumer Price Index (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). Indicate these updates in the Methods section.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. National Accounts. PPPs and exchange rates. Avaluable at <http://stats.oecd.org/>.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. CPI Inflation Calculator. Avaluable at: <https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl>.

Doubts: atendimento@sbrafh.org.br