Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences (ISSN 2358-2731)
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Home Instructions to Authors

 

Instructions to Authors

 

Authors are kindly asked to follow all author guidelines. If guidelines have not been followed, the paper may be returned with a request for changes. The editorial review process will not start until after the paper has been revised to meet the author guidelines.

Note: Journal cannot currently handle document files of size more than 10 Mb. If you have high resolution images or graphs, then please convert them to compressed jpeg format files which can later be embedded in parent document.

Publication Fee: Journal don't have any article submission charges and don't have any article processing charges (APCs).


Types of Articles


Editorial: These is reserved for the Editorial Board or a guest.

Overview: These should presents the point of view of the author(s) on general interest topic. These type of article the main sections need not conform to that of full-length papers and may be divided into sections with appropriate titles and subtitles. It should have a set of three to five Keywords; an Abstract, summarizing background of the work, research results and its implications, followed by Introduction, sections with appropriate titles and subtitles, Acknowledgments (if necessary), Conflict of interest statement and References. All these must be non captioned but in bold.

Original Research Articles: These should describe new and carefully analysed and confirmed findings, backed with experimental procedures. Articles should be given in sufficient details for others to verify the work. The length of a full paper should be concise, required to describe and interpret the work clearly. Include in the main paper a set of three to five Keywords; an Abstract, summarizing background of the work, research results and its implications, followed by Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments (if necessary), Conflict of interest statement and References. All these must be non captioned but in bold.

Review or Mini-Review: A review article typically presents a Summary, a set of three to five Keywords and critical evaluation of information that has already been published, and considers the progress of current research toward clarifying a stated problem or topic. Submissions of reviews and perspectives covering topics of current interest are welcome and should be authoritative. Reviews should be concise, not exceeding seven printed pages.

Short Research Communication: These should presents a concise study, or sometimes preliminary but innovative. A research finding that might be less substantial than a full research paper. These type of article is limited to 3000 words (excluding references and abstract). The main sections need not conform to that of full-length papers. It should have a set of three to five Keywords; an Abstract, summarizing background of the work, research results and its implications, followed by Introduction, the Communication, Acknowledgments (if necessary), Conflict of interest statement and References. All these must be non captioned but in bold.


Format


The manuscript should:

• Be written in English.
• Be based on the instructions provided in this guidelines.
• Employ italics or bold, rather than underlining to provide emphasis.
• Should integrate figures and tables within the text.
• Provide the full name for each author (e.g. Ronilson José da Paz), as they will appear in the paper, do not abbreviate.
• Provide ORCID iD for each author (register here).
• Affiliations should be provided for each author. Detailed contact details should be provided at the end of the paper in the Correspondence section. Qualifications and appointment may be provided.
• Unless otherwise indicated, the editor/s will assume that the first author is the author for correspondence.


Presentation of Papers


Normally research papers will be presented in the following manner:

Title: Conveys the nature of the paper but does not normally exceed 44 words.
Abstract: Is a short resume (not exceeding 500 words) of the paper, including objectives, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.
Keywords: Up to five essential words.
Introduction: Should establish relevance of either the research or the position taken by the author/s. A literature review should be provided either here or as a separate section.
Materials and methods: Should describe and justify the approach taken and demonstrate rigor.
Results: Describe the results and their relevance as fully as possible.
Discussion: Should supply support for the argument including ideas central to the argument, opposition to the argument and ramifications. Limitations should also be discussed.
Conclusions: The conclusion should be short and concise, drawing the essence of the findings together.
Acknowledgments: (If any) of people, grants, funds, etc should be brief at the very end of the paper before the Conflict of interest statement.
Conflict of interest statement: All conflicts of interest should be declared in email than submitted the paper.
References: Prudent use of references is required and the referencing style of the journal has to be followed.

In all types of article suggest a running title to be used as a page heading, which should not exceed 60 letters and spaces.

Tables
Tables should be:

• Integrated into the submitted document.
• Non captioned above the table.
• May be submitted as an image (when you are requesting).
• Subtitled with all units of measurement (metric units).
• Cited in the text as e.g. Table 1.


Figures, Photos, Illustrations
Figures, photos, illustrations and so forth should be:

• Of reproducible quality and it should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
• Be also integrated into the submitted document at the appropriate place.
• Accompanied by a clear legend and key, if necessary.
• Presented with metric units.
• Non captioned below the figures.
• Cited in the text as e.g. Figure 1.

Units and Abbreviations
Use italics for non-English words in the text, except in proper names. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined upon their first mention. Only International System of Units (SI) should be used.

Chemical Formulas and Equations
Chemical formulas and equations should be sent as figures. Simple equations (one line), if possible, should be typed in the text (in these cases, use the solidus "/" for small fractional terms). "Powers of e" are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Already complex equations should be sent only as figures. Do not embed in text Microsoft© Mathematics™ Equations, Microsoft© Office™ 2007/2010 Equations or any other equation originating from text editor tools that you use.

Referencing Style
References are a valuable into of papers. All references must be cited in the paper and adhere to the examples given above. References should be cited in text by the last name of the author(s) and the date of publication (e. g., Hale, 1929). There is a comma before the date. For papers with two authors, separe author names with an "and" (e. g., Press and Rybicki 1992). Papers by three or more authors are cited by the first author followed by "et al.", comma, and the date (e. g., Goodman et al., 2003).

Citation by name and year can be given entirely in parentheses or by citing the year in parentheses after an author's name used in the text. Adhere to the following usage:

a) One author: Donoso-Barros (1966) or (Donoso-Barros, 1966).
b) Two authors: Brown and Aaron (2001) or (Brown and Aaron, 2001).
c) More than two authors: Oliveira et al. (2014) or (Oliveira et al., 2014).
d) Letters are used to distinguish references whose citations would otherwise be identical (e.g., Miller, 1998a, b).
e) Do not repeat the names of authors of multiple citations (e.g., Miller, 1998a, 2001; Miller and Smith, 2001, 2005).

Examples of the Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences (ISSN 2358-2731) style are shown below. Please ensure that the reference style is followed precisely; if the references are not in the correct style they may have to be retyped and carefully proofread.

Article within a journal
Oliveira, I. B.; Bicudo, C. E. M.; Moura, C. W. N. Desmids (Desmidiaceae, Zygnematophyceae) with cylindrical morphologies in the coastal plains of Northern Bahia, Brazil. Acta bot. bras., v. 28, p. 17-33, 2014.

Complete book, authored
Donoso-Barros, R. Reptiles de Chile. Santiago: Ediciones de la Universidad de Chile, 1966.

Complete book, edited
Smith, J. (Ed.). The demise of modern genomics. London: Blackwell, 2001.

Book chapter, or an article within a book
Brown, B.; Aaron, M. The politics of nature. In: Smith, J. (Ed.). The rise of modern genomics. 3. ed. New York: Wiley, 2001. p. 234–295.

Chapter in a book in a series without volume titles
Schmidt, H. Testing results. In: Hutzinger, O. (Ed.). Handbook of environmental chemistry. Heidelberg: Springer, 1989. v. 2E. p. 111.

Proceedings as a book (in a series and subseries)
Zowghi, D. A framework for reasoning about requirements in evolution. In: Foo, N.; Goebel, R. (eds) PRICAI'96: topics in artificial intelligence. 4th Pacific Rim conference on artificial intelligence, Cairns, August 1996. Lecture notes in computer science (Lecture notes in artificial intelligence). Heidelberg: Springer, 1996. v. 1114. p. 157.

Article within conference proceedings with an editor (without a publisher)
Aaron, M. The future of genomics. In: Williams, H. (Ed.). Proceedings of the genomic researchers. Boston, 1999.

Article within conference proceedings without an editor (without a publisher)
Chung, S.-T.; Morris, R. L. Isolation and characterization of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid from Streptomyces fradiae. In: Abstracts of the 3rd international symposium on the genetics of industrial microorganisms. Madison: University of Wisconsin, Madison, 4-9 June 1978.

Article presented at a conference
Chung, S.-T.; Morris, R. L. Isolation and characterization of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid from Streptomyces fradiae. Paper presented at the 3rd international symposium on the genetics of industrial microorganisms. Madison: University of Wisconsin, Madison, 4-9 June 1978.

Legislation
Brasil. Leis, decretos, etc. Lei No. 9.605, de 12 de fevereiro de 1998. Dispõe sobre as sanções penais e administrativas derivadas de condutas e atividades lesivas ao meio ambiente, e dá outras providências. Available from: <http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9605.htm>. Accessed in: Apr. 26, 2014.
United State of America. US Code - Title 16: Conservation. Available from: <http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/16>. Accessed in: May 26, 2014.

Patent
Norman, L. O. Lightning rods. US Patent 4,379,752, 9 Sept 1998.

Thesis, dissertation, monograph
Tannus, J. L. S. Estudo da vegetação dos campos úmidos de cerrado: aspectos florísticos e ecológicos. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 2007. (Thesis of doctorat).

Book with institutional author
International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee. Nomina anatomica. Amsterdam: Excerpta Medica, 1966.

Online document
Cell: definition of cell in Oxford dictionary (British & World English). In: Oxford dictionary. 2014. Oxford University Press. Available from: <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cell?q=Cell>. Accessed in: Feb. 15, 2014.
Haemig, P. D. The value of wolves. ECOLOGY.INFO, 35, 2013. Available from: <http://www.ecology.info/wolf.htm>. Accessed in: Apr. 26, 2014.
Bonney, K. M. Promoting civic engagement with neglected tropical disease education. Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences, v. 3, no. 5, p. 23-26, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.21472/bjbs.030502


Authors are encouraged to submit the full name of the journal, but journal names may be abbreviated according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations.

When available the address journal's on the internet (URL) would be provided.


Identification of Living Organisms


Authors should identify a living organism by its full scientific name the first time it is mentioned in the article. For this journal, full scientific names for animals include genus, species, authority and date. For example, upon the first mention of giant African land snail in an article, the author should write Achatina fulica Bowdich, 1822. For the Barbados threadsnake, the reference would be Tetracheilostoma carlae (Hedges, 2008). Alternatively, one may place the scientific name after the common or vernacular non-English name, as follows rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus, 1758)) or blind-snake (Leptotyphlops brasiliensis Laurent, 1949). Subgenres and subspecies names should only be given if really necessary to understand the article.

Full scientific names for plants include genus, species and authority. For example Tradescantia zebrina Heynh., Aspidosperma pyrifolium (Mart) and Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.) L. P. Queiroz.

After first mention, a living organism should usually be identified by the first initial of the genus and the full species term only. For example, after mentioning it once, the giant African land snail should be identified as A. fulica. Exceptions include lists of species in the same genus and multiple genus names starting with the same letter.

The most up-to-date nomenclature can be found at International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, for Prokaryotes, Tropicos® Tropicos(R), Germplasm Resources Information Network - GRIN Germplasm Resources Information Network - GRIN and International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (Melbourne Code) International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (Melbourne Code), for plant names, International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants, for cultivated plants, and the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, for animals.

The authors should cite the institutions where the collected biological material was deposited. Especially in the case of plants, it is necessary to also refer to the number of the collector or number of deposit of each specimen.

The authors also should indicate the number of the licence to collect biological material for scientific research, in the Biodiversity Authorization and Information System (Sisbio), of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), of Brazil, if necessary.

The Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences (ISSN 2358-2731) does not publish papers that include description of new species of taxonomic groups which Nomenclatural Code requires printed copies. Authors are responsible to check if the specific requirements of the Nomenclatural Code of the organism they are working with. If your taxonomic group does require printed copies of your publication you should look for another journal to submit your paper.


Permission to Reproduce Borrowed Material


Written permission to reproduce borrowed material for example illustrations, tables or photographs must be obtained from the original publishers and submitted with the manuscript. Borrowed material should be acknowledged: "Reproduced by kind permission of ...(publishers) ... from ... (reference)".


Submission Preparation Checklist


As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word (DOC, don't DOCX) or RTF document file format and a version in PDF format.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point Times New Roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in Instructions for Authors.
6. Indicate two reviewers.


Submission


Submission of a manuscript to Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences (ISSN 2358-2731) is understood to imply that it has not previously been published (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis) and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

Manuscript should be submitted online via email editor.bjbs@gmail.com. Upon receipt of manuscript submission, the Editor-in-Chief sends a confirmation email to the corresponding author(s) within 1-2 working days. In the absence of a confirmation email, you are advised to contact the help assistant via this email address editor@revista.rebibio.net.

Responsibility for the accuracy of the manuscript content lies entirely with the authors.


File Formats


The file formats acceptable for the main manuscript document are doc or rtf format, compatible with text editors OpenOffice and LibreOffice/BrOffice.

Conflicts of Interest


All conflicts of interest should be declared in email than submitted the paper.


Peer Review


For all academic papers the journal adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Book reviews and practice essays are assessed by the journal's editors and may be published without having undergone the academic peer review process. Practice-based articles are reviewed by two practitioners to ensure their quality and relevance.

All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the journal's editors. If they are deemed to fit within the aims and scope of the journal, academic manuscripts are then sent for outside review. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. Referees normally respond within two months and an editorial decision is made as soon as both referees' reports are received.

All the suggestions for corrections (by the reviewer or editorial board members) in the manuscript will be given using red colored fonts.


Suggested Reviewers


Authors may submit suggestions of reviewers to evaluate the manuscripts. The following information must be provided: reviewer name, email address, and the home institution.


Transfer of Authors' Copyright


"The undersigned author(s) state(s) that the article being submitted is original, does not infringe copyright laws or any other third-party property rights, has not been previously published, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. The author(s) confirm(s) that the final version of the manuscript has been reviewed and approved by all authors. All manuscripts published become the permanent property of the Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences (ISSN 2358-2731) and can not be published without authorization in writing from its Editors."

Article No. ____________

Title of the article:

    "______________________________________________________________"

    Name(s) of the author(s)                        Signature(s)

    ______________________________    _______________________________

    ______________________________    _______________________________

    ______________________________    _______________________________



Date: ____ /____ /____


Ethics


When the study, described in the manuscript, is related to experiments carried out with human beings and/or animals, author(s) must inform, within the text, if the research project has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of their institution, according to the Declaration of Helsinki.

Experimental studies involving animals should follow the guidelines established by the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals", of the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, and the "Ethical Principles for Animal Experimentation" of the Brazilian College of Animal Experimentation.


Avoiding Plagiarism


All manuscripts submitted to the Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences are checked to verify the commission of plagiarism, using the DocxWeb website.

The following practices are considered inappropriate re-use of material (plagiarism):

• Copying (word-for-word) the published or unpublished phrases or passages of other authors or modifying only slightly, without acknowledge the original author.
• Reusing the author's own previously published words, without citation (self-plagiarism).
• Failuring of quote and/or acknowledge by citation or permission to reproduce borrowed substantially similar ideas, content, tables, or illustrations that have been published or copyrighted by others.
• Using of a summary of a paper which contains the ideas of others and presents the essence of an argument in language that condenses and compresses the original language of the primary source without acknowledging the author of the work.
• Using of patch-writing (cut-and-paste) method, where pieces of other papers, including those taken from the Internet, are blended with ones own words and phases without acknowledging the author of the source article.

In the case of the editorial board finds the committing of plagiarism, the website's report will be sent to the corresponding author for their knowledge and challenge.

If the plagiarism commitment is confirmed, the authors of the article contested will be asked to pay the fee penalty of US$ 250 (US Dolar) for plagiarism (Plagiarism Penalty Fee).

Fundamental Errors in Published Papers


When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in your own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and to cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum.

In the case, the article will be amended to indicate the retraction and in next issue will be informed the retraction.

Retraction Policy



Articles may be retracted or withdrawn by their authors, academic or institutional sponsor, editor or publisher, because of pervasive error or unsubstantiated or irreproducible data.

Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or the like, will also result in an article being retracted.

All coauthors will be asked to agree to a retraction. In cases where some coauthors decline to sign a retraction, the editors reserve the right to publish the retraction with the dissenting author(s) identified.


Hard Copy


Being an exclusive online journal no hard copy of the journal or its part will be sent to the author(s). Authors can take out the printouts and also distribute its copies for non-commercial use only. For commercial use they will have to take the permission from Rede Brasileira de Informações Biológicas (REBIBIO).