Editorial and peer-review evaluation process

The editorial and peer-review evaluation process consists of three stages that may each result in approval for the next stage, return to the authors or refusal, as follows:

(1) submitted manuscripts are reviewed by the Editorial Assistant for formatting, reference style, limits, registration number (if applicable), research ethics and patient consent (if applicable), and reporting guidelines (if applicable). If any technical aspect is not in compliance with the journal guidelines and policies, the manuscript is returned to the authors for adjustments until ready for the next stage.

(2) Manuscripts are sent to one of the Editors-in-Chief for her or his evaluation of relevance to pharmaceutical sciences, alignment with the journal scope and for handling the peer-review. Before proceeding, however, the Editor might decline to handle the manuscript due to its specific subject or eventual competing interests, in which case she or he will forward the manuscript to another Editor-in-Chief or to an Associate Editor. Manuscripts not selected to undergo the peer-review evaluation will be declined and returned to the authors with an accompanying decision letter. Otherwise, the handling Editor will send the manuscript to a rigorous double-blind peer-review process, by selecting and inviting at least two subject experts to evaluate it.

(3) After the handling Editor receives the reviewers reports, she or he will write a decision letter report recommending the manuscript to be preliminary accepted, refused or further revised by the authors. Requests for revision are immediately sent to the authors, which then have 30 days to submit their revision or have the manuscript rejected with the possibility of resubmission. Revised manuscripts will be sent to the same reviewers that reviewed it's previous version and to new reviewers at the handling Editor's discretion. Refusal decision reports will always include the reviewers and handling Editors comments. Preliminary acceptance letters will include final acceptance instructions and requirements for the final acceptance.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Although the journal uses similarity checking software on received manuscripts, the editors  reserve their right to use it again at any stage.
• During the submission process, authors are invited to suggest the name and contact information of three potential reviewers for the manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in the field and not have a conflict of interest (e.g. prior knowledge of your submission, collaboration with at least one author, same institution). Despite collecting recommended reviewers, the handling Editors are instructed to use the suggested reviewers only on manuscripts submitted by other authors. 
• Manuscripts submitted or co-authored by members of the Editorial Board will always be processed by another (non-author) Editor to allow compliance with the double-blind revision journal policy.

Preliminary acceptance and publishing process

After receiving the preliminary acceptance, the authors are required to return, within 20 days, a final version that addresses any remaining evaluation comments along with all (if any) additional documents requested on the decision letter. The final version must also be accompanied by the Article Processing Change (APC) payment receipt and a professional English language revision and editing certificate.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Preliminary acceptance will only be cleared for publication after que APC payment is confirmed.
• The publication fee (APC) does not include the language review service.
• In addition to the requirements stated in the preliminary acceptance letter, the author may be asked to send additional documents.
• Manuscripts that do not comply with these requirements or fail to send requested documents, will not be cleared for publication and instead will receive a rejection letter.

After receiving the final acceptance letter, a PDF proof will be sent to the corresponding author's email by the desktop publishing service provider. The corresponding author is expected to  promptly revise the PDF proof and reply within 3 days.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• At this stage, we recommend that authors carefully re-check indexing information and policy required statements regarding all authors, such as correct names and surnames, correct author ORCIDs and affiliations, contact details, financial support, conflicts of interest and any other author statements if applicable.
• Changes to the list of authors at this stage is not allowed, but if required, the corresponding author must follow instructions in our "Authorship and disclosures" policies section.all authors must complete and sign a form authorizing the change.
• Finally, but equally important: the authors must not use this proof to fix small text or style issues. Only errors that may lead to misinterpretation of text, data or results should be fixed.

Section policies

The journal publishes the following types of contributions:

• Research Articles: Research articles describe experimental or observational investigations that used formal methods for data collection and presentation of results;
• Systematic Reviews and Systematic Scoping Reviews of quantitative or qualitative evidence: Systematic reviews in accordance with the methodological guidelines;
• Narrative Reviews: (invited only) Non-systematic review or state-of-the-art summary article. Authors interested should write to the editors prior to submitting;
• Short Communications: Short Communications are Research Articles but with fewer words, tables, and figures, usually used to publish preliminary results and/or hypotheses;
• Letters to the Editor: (invited only) Letter to a publication, typically commenting upon a published work. Authors interested should write to the editors prior to submitting;
• Editorials: (invited only) Opinion piece, policy statement, or general commentary, typically written by staff of the publication. Authors interested should write to the editors prior to submitting;

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions will be published whenever required in accordance to the ICMJE recommendations.

Text structure

Research Articles, Systematic Reviews, Systematic Scoping Reviews, and Short Communications must follow the Reporting Guidelines described in the section below, as well as the structure known as IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) - do not aggregate these subheadings - and use a structured abstract presenting Objectives, Methods (including protocol number), Results, and Conclusions. Other manuscript categories (Editorials, Narrative Reviews, and Letters to the Editor) must follow the text and abstract format more appropriate for each case.

Limits

The following limits must be observed by the authors before submitting the manuscript.

Contribution type	Abstract word count	Main text word count	Table and/or Figures	References
Research Articles	Up to 300	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited
Short Communications	Up to 300	Up to 2,000	Up to 4	Up to 30
Systematic Reviews	Up to 300	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited
Narrative Reviews	Up to 300	Up to 2,000	Not limited	Not limited
Letters to the Editor	n/a	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited
Editorials	n/a	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited

Open access, license, and copyright

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI (Budapest Open Access Initiative) definition of open access. Accepted articles will be published as Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The authors of accepted manuscripts retain shared copyright and agree to have it published by the journal under the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Under this Open Access license, the author agrees that anyone can reuse their article in whole or part for any purpose, for free, even for commercial purposes. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse the content as long as the author and original source are properly cited, but not in any way that suggests that the authors endorse them or their use of the work.

Self-archiving policies

Authors are encouraged to self-archive their published manuscripts by posting them in personal blogs, institutional repositories and scientific social media, as well as on their personal social media, as long as the full citation of the original publication is included.

Language policies

Only manuscripts submitted in English will be accepted for evaluation. The final acceptance will be given only when the authors present a professionally copy-edited English version of the manuscript along with a valid certificate of revision. The costs of language services must run at the authors expenses and the Editors reserve their right to request further revisions if they see fit.

Authorship and disclosures

Authorship byline

Authors must agree on the manuscript authorship making sure it accurately illustrates and includes contributors who actually and significantly contributed to the work. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to substantial contributions on the concept and design of the work and/or data acquisition and interpretation and evaluation, and should have been actively involved during manuscript revision and approval of the final manuscript version, with substantial and intellectual involvement, specially in the results discussion.

Author contributions and responsibility

All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and be responsible for each part of collaborative work done in its final version. In addition, each author's specific contribution according to the CRediT's standard designations available at https://www.casrai.org/credit.html, must be included only in the title-page.docx.

Changes in authorship after submission

Any changes in authorship during or after the revision process of the manuscript will only be considered by the editors if important additional experiments or relevant contributions have been made and justified. Such changes in authorship must be requested by email to the journal Editorial Assistant team and need to be described in detail, explaining their rationale for the required changes.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the authorship criteria should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical support, collaboration of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). This information must be included only in the Cover Letter as outlined in the manuscript preparation guidelines.

Conflict of Interest

Authors are required to include a statement disclosing any potential conflicts of interest. The journal considers potential conflicts of interest any event of a personal, commercial, political, or academic nature, whether or not involving financial compensation. This information must be included only in the title-page.docx.

Funding disclosure statement

All financial support received must be disclosed by all authors. Use the author’s initials followed by a short description and include the funding agency’s name and grant identification number(s), in that order. This information must be included only in the Cover Letter as outlined in the manuscript preparation guidelines.

Studies involving humans

The journal adheres to the ICMJE reporting guidelines on protecting research participants, collecting and archiving informed consent when required by the study type, Ethics Committee approval and Clinical trials pre-registration best practices as stated by the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013, as well as local legal requirements. Learn more at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/protection-of-research-participants.html and http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

Publishing ethics and malpractice statement

The journal follows the publication best practices recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and expects authors, reviewers and editors to act with integrity in all stages of the evaluation and publication process.

Suspicions about potential misconduct cases must be addressed by email directly to the Editor-n-Chief and include a detailed report on the suspected problems.

All misconduct reports will be thoroughly investigated by the editorial board using the COPE Flowcharts and requesting information from the involved parties and/or their institutions. Corrections, expressions of concern and retractions will be published whenever required.

Reporting guidelines

A manuscript must contain sufficient information to promote proper evaluation, reproducibility, and replicability. Therefore, we encourage the use of reporting guidelines:

• ARRIVE guidelines for animal preclinical studies;
• CHEERS guidelines for economic evaluations;
• CONSORT guidelines or extensions for randomized trials;
• MOOSE guidelines for meta-analyses and systematic review of observation studies;
• PRISMA  guidelines or extensions for systematic reviews and meta-analysis;
• SRQR or COREQ guidelines for qualitative research;
• STARD guidelines for diagnostic accuracy studies;
• STROBE guidelines  or extensions for observation studies (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional designs); and
• STREGA guidelines for genetic association studies.

To find other reporting guidelines see https://www.equator-network.org/.

Data sharing and data statement

We encourage the sharing of data that supports your research (e.g. raw and processed data, video, code, software, algorithms, protocols) by promoting reuse, reducing waste of resources, promoting collaboration, and increasing confidence in the results. Mendeley Data, Dryad, OSF, among others, are secure online repositories that provide a DOI that can be cited in the manuscript references.

We recommend that you indicate the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your institution or funder. If your data is not available to access, you should indicate, for example, that the research data is confidential.

Supplementary materials will not be accepted. If your manuscript contains complementary materials, we recommend that you share them in public repositories and reference them properly by the DOI.

Submission files preparation guidelines

During the submission of your manuscript you must upload at least 3 files:

• title-page.docx:
  This document serves both as a checklist and metadata collection form. It must be prepared using the title-page.docx template available for download. Authors need to enter the requested information as shown for each field labelled as "Filled by: Author". Read the section Title Page section below for additional information.
• manuscript.docx:
  This is the main document of your work and it must be carefully prepared according to the journal Policies and Preparation Guidelines.
• agreement.pdf:
  This document must be downloaded, read, understood, and signed by all authors.

In addition to the above files, you will also need to upload one or more of the following files, depending on the type of contribution you are submitting:

• ethics-committee-approval.pdf: this document must be submitted for studies involving Humans (live or tissue), including studies that are observational, survey-based, or include any personal data.

Title Page

This document serves both as a checklist and metadata collection form. It must be prepared using the title-page.docx template. Authors need to enter the requested information as shown for each field labelled as "Filled by: Author".

Important: the template file above has detailed instructions and examples for all fields which must be filled by the author.

Manuscript

This is the main document of your work and it must be carefully prepared according to the journal Policies and Preparation Guidelines.

Important: This document must not have any information that identifies the authors.

Start with the manuscript title (no more than 150 characters in length, including spaces, punctuation, and subtitle), followed by the abstract, 3 to 5 keywords and then make sure you follow the specific requirements depending on the type of contribution you are submitting. Only keywords based on NLM Medical Subject Headings must be used.

Figures

Photographs, charts, maps, or illustrations must be submitted at the end of work, numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals in the order that they appear in the text. The corresponding captions should be clear and concise and should appear after each figure.  In the text, the approximate position of each figure must be shown. The figures should be in color. Photographs should be sent also in separate files outside of Word, in .tif or .jpg format with at least 300 dpi resolution.

Tables

These should complement and not duplicate the text. Tables should be numbered in Arabic numerals, in the order in which they appear in the text, and a brief and descriptive title should be placed above each. If necessary, footnotes should be used and identified with superscript numbers/letters or symbols (†, ‡, §, etc.) to refer to the appropriate explanation. Use asterisk only to indicate differences with statistical significance. Tables must be presented at the end of the text and their position shown in the body of the text.

References

The Uniform Requirements style for references is based largely on an American National Standards Institute style adapted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for its databases. Authors should consult NLM’s Citing Medicine (2007, updated 2009 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/) for information on its recommended formats for a variety of reference types.

All published work cited in the body of the text must appear in the list of bibliographical references in the style of the Vancouver (author number) system. References are numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text, identified by superscript ¹. Only citations essential to the content of the article should be included.  In publications with up to ten authors, all  of  them  should  be  cited;  beyond  this number, only the first author, followed by the expression “et al.”. Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in the Index Medicus (not in italics and without full stops), giving date, volume, issue and page range. The list of periodicals indexed therein can be consulted at the following electronic address: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lsiou.html.

Articles in periodicals

Docherty JR. Subtypes of functional α1 and α2 adrenoceptors. Eur J Pharmacol . 1998; 361(1):1-15. Martins MBG, Martins AR, Cavalheiro AJ, Telascrêa M. Caracterização biométrica e química da folha de Mentha pulegium x spicata (Lamiaceae). Rev Ciênc Farm., Araraquara, 2004;25(1):17-23.

Articles without volume or issue number

Combes A. Etude d’excipents utilizes dans l’industrie pharmaceutique. STP Pharma 1989:766-90.

Articles without author

Coffee drinking and cancer of the pancreas [editorial]. Br Med J Clin Res. 1981 Sep 5;283(6292):628.

Articles from on-line periodical 

Rocha JSY, Simões BJG, Guedes GLM. Assistência hospitalar como indicador da desigualdade social.  Rev  Saúde  Pública  [Internet]  1997  [citado  1998  mar  23];31(5)479-87.  Disponível em: http://www.fsp.usp.br/~rsp.

Articles with Digital Object Identifier -DOI

Harrison JJ, Ceri H, Yerly J, Stremick CA, Hu Y, Martinuzzi R, Turner RJ. The use of microscopy and three-dimensional visualization to evaluate the structure of microbial biofilms cultivated in the Calgary Biofilm Device. Biol Proc Online [Internet]. 2006 [cited 2007 Jan 8];8(1):194-215.Available from: http://www.biologicalprocedures.com/bpo/arts/1/127/m127.pdf. DOI: 10.1251/bpo127

Institution as an author or publisher

Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension 2002; 40(5):679-86.

Institution as both author and Publisher

Brasil. Ministério da Saúde. Manual de controle das doenças sexualmente transmissíveis. 3ª ed. Brasília (DF); 1999.Ministerio de Salud de Nicaragua. Política nacional de salud 1997-2002: descentralización yautonomía. Managua: Ministerio de Salud; 2002. p.42-9.

Papers presented at a congress

Alencar LCE, Seidl EMF. Levantamento bibliográfico de estudos sobre doadoras de leite humano produzidos no Brasil. In: 2. Congresso Internacional de Bancos de Leite Humano; 2005; Brasília: Ministério da Saúde; 2005.Harley  NH.  Comparing  radon  daughter  dosimetric  and  risk  models.  In:  Gammage  RB,  Kay SV,   editors.   Indoor   air   and   human   Health.   Proceedings   of   the   Seventh   Life   Sciences Symposium; 1984 Oct 29-31; Knosxville, TN. Chelsea, MI: Lewis, 1985:69-78.

Books

Goodman LS. The pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 2nd. ed. New York: Macmillan; 1955.Brunton LL, Lazo JS, Parker KL, editors. Goodman & Gilman’s the pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 11th. ed. Chicago: McGraw-Hill; 2006.

Chapters in books

Laurenti R. A medida das doenças. In: Forattini OP. Ecologia, epidemiologia e sociedade. SãoPaulo: Artes Médicas; 1992. p.369-98

Editors, Organizers

Dienner HC, Wilkinson M, editors. Drug induced headache. New York: Spring-Verlag; 1988.

Book on CD-ROM

Martindale: the complete drug reference [CD-ROM]. Englewood, CO: Micromedex; 1999. Basedon: Parfitt K, editor. Martindale: the complete drug reference. London: Pharmaceutical Press; 1999. International Healthcare Series.

Dissertation and thesis

Gonçalves H. Aproveitar a vida: um estudo antropológico sobre valores, juventude e gravidezem uma cidade do interior [tese]. Porto Alegre: UFRGS; 2004.

Legal documents Published legislation

Brasil. Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária. Resolução RDC nº 27, de 30 de março de 2007. Dispõesobre o Sistema Nacional de Gerenciamento de Produtos Controlados -SNGPC estabelece a implantação do módulo para drogarias e farmácias e dá outras providências. Diário Oficial da União, nº 63, 2 de abril de 2007. Seção 1. p. 62-4.São Paulo (Estado). Decreto no 42.822, de 20 de janeiro de 1998. Lex: coletânea de legislaçãoe jurisprudência, São Paulo, 1998; 62(3): 217-220.Planned legislation Medical Records Confidentiality Act of 1995, S. 1360, 104th Cong., 1st Sect. (1995). Federal code regulations Informed Consent, 42 C.F.R. Sect. 441.257 (1995).

Patent

Harred JF, Knight AR, McIntyre JS, inventors. Dow Chemical Company, assignee. Expoxidation process. US patent 3,654,317. 1972 Apr 4.

Software

HINTZE JL. NCSS: statistical system for Windows. Version 2001. Kaysville, UT: Number Cruncher Statistical Systems; 2002. Epi Info [computer program]. Version 6. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 1994.EPI Info: a database and statistics program for public health professionals Version 3.2.2.Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); 2005. [cited 2006 May 30].Available from: .

Website

Health on the net foundation. Health on the net foundation code of conduct (HONcode) for medical and health websites. [cited 1998 June 30]. Available from: .Hoffman DL. St John’s Wort. 1995; [4 screens]. [cited 1998 July 16]. Available from: .

Publishing Agreement

The authors must read, understand and sign the publishing agreement.