About the Journal

Brief history of the journal

In November 1988, the PUCRS Medicine Journal was founded with the aim of publishing the scientific production of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. In 2004, the "Scientia Medica Project" brought in its context the new name of the Journal - Scientia Medica. Its main objective was to stimulate the scientific production of professors, professionals, graduate and undergraduate students of medicine, research institutes and courses in the health field, both at the University and in other regions of the country. In this way, the journal opened its doors and began to accept articles from different institutions. In 2006, Scientia Medica began to have a new editorial board. In the same year, the Electronic Magazine Publishing System (SEER) was implemented, which made the editorial process easier and more practical. Both formats, print and electronic, have always contained the same scientific content. In 2015, the print edition, whose ISSN was 1806-5562, was discontinued and began to be published electronically. 

Metrics

Scopus (2022): Cite-score = 0,6

 SJR = 0,169

 SNIP = 0,174

Web of Science - JCI (2022) = 0,7

Editorial Policies

Focus and scope

Contribute to the dissemination of scientific knowledge in the various areas of Medicine and other Health Sciences, with an interdisciplinary focus and with regional, national and international coverage.

Peer review process

This journal uses the peer review system to process simultaneous manuscripts for publication. All articles undergo an initial evaluation by the editors, to verify that the subject is within the focus and scope of the journal and that the journal's norms and specified quality standards are met. Still at this initial stage, the original is inserted into software specialized in plagiarism identification, to check possible excessive similarities with texts already published. If the basic requirements for publishing in Scientia Medica are not met, a submission may be rejected immediately after these steps and the authors will be informed of the reasons. The manuscript is sent to at least two external reviewers, experts in the corresponding field, who evaluate the article by adding comments, suggesting changes and giving an opinion on its acceptance for publication. If reviews are discordant, a third reviewer or reviewers will be assigned. Documents may undergo statistical review whenever necessary. Scientia Medica uses double-blind peer review, whereby authors and reviewers are blind to each other. Reviewer guidelines are automatically provided by the publishing operating system when the guest reviewer is available for a review. They include topics such as confidentiality, conflicts of interest and guidance on the practicalities of the review. Statements about the ethical principles followed by Scientia Medica in relation to the peer review process are included in the "Principles of Ethics and Good Practices in Academic Publishing" section below. After receiving the evaluations, the editor will make the decision to accept, reject or request a review of the article by the authors. When necessary, the Editorial Board is consulted. Suggested changes are forwarded to the authors for their response and review of the article. The authors' revised manuscript is then reviewed by the editor or the same reviewers to ensure that the requirements have been met. From submission to editorial decision, the entire process can be tracked electronically by the author, consulting the website using the username and password that are provided to the registrar. This decision is independent of commercial interest or any other competing interest. The final editorial decision and the reasons for it are always communicated to the authors. Scientia Medica does not exclude studies with results that are not statistically considered or are inconclusive. According to ICMJE recommendations, such studies can provide evidence that, combined with other studies, can help answer important questions, or otherwise be valuable to other researchers considering doing similar work.

Section Policies

All studies submitted to Scientia Medica must follow the formatting and writing standards and the guidelines of the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) available at: https://www.equator-network.org/

Scientia Medica accepts submissions of original articles, review articles, and letters to the editor as follows:

The Equator Network is an international initiative that aims to improve the reliability and value of published health research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting and the wider use of robust reporting guidelines.

Editorial: written by one or more editors, or at the invitation of the Editor-in-Chief; it is recommended that bibliographic references be included for citation purposes.

Original articles: are those resulting from unpublished research and include studies of controlled and randomized clinical trials, screening and diagnostic and other descriptive and interventional studies, as well as reports of basic research involving laboratory animals (see Clinical Trials Results section).

Randomized controlled trials must be presented according to the CONSORT guidelines (https://www.consort-spirit.org/). At the time of manuscript submission, authors must provide the CONSORT checklist along with a flowchart illustrating patient progression through the trial, including recruitment, enrollment, randomization, withdrawal, and completion, and a detailed description of the randomization procedure. The clinical trial registration number must appear at the end of the article abstract. The CONSORT checklist and flowchart template are available at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/.

Observational studies (cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional) are those in which the allocation of medical interventions is not at the discretion of the investigator. This type of study does not require registration. At the time of manuscript submission, authors must submit the STROBE checklist (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/ ).

For diagnostic and prognostic studies, authors must submit the STARD checklist (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/ ).

Simulation in Health: includes original articles in this teaching area. The same rules as in the original studies will be considered.

Education in Health Sciences: includes original or review articles on medical education or other disciplines within health sciences.

Systematic review and meta-analysis: these are review articles with special methodology and high methodological value. Your protocol must be registered with PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/) or OSF (https://osf.io/ud578) or equivalent. Authors must provide the PRISMA checklist and flowchart (https://www.prisma-statement.org/ or https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/) at the time of manuscript submission.

Case reports: may include up to three cases, while a larger number characterizes a case series. There must be an unusual or rare case(s), or a new diagnostic method, or there must be a special interest from the academic community. Case reports, like original articles, must be approved by a research ethics committee. Authors must submit the CARE checklist (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/care/) at the time of manuscript submission.

Review articles: Scientia Medica publishes review articles (narrative) by authors of recognized expertise invited by the journal's editorial team. However, even invited articles will be peer-reviewed according to the usual procedure. Authors wishing to apply for this type of article must first send a draft to the editorial team for prior evaluation before submitting the full review article. Your organization may include topics that refer to subtopics based on their relevance to the text. Visit https://www.equator-network.org/ for more information on how to structure this type of article.

Health care ethics: Review articles that address issues related to bioethics in health care.

History of Medicine: Review articles that address topics related to the history of medicine.

Letters to the Editor: These are critiques, opinions, or discussions of papers recently published in Scientia Médica. Whenever possible, a response from the authors of the article to which the letter refers is published with the letter. Visit https://www.equator-network.org/  for more information on how to create each article template.

Frequency of publication

Continuous flow.

Open Acess Policies

This journal offers open access to all its content, following the principle that making access to scientific research free generates a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Principles of ethics and best practices in academic publications

Scientia Medica is a member of the Publication Ethics Committee (Cope Publication Ethics Committee) and follows its principles of ethics, transparency and integrity in publishing. It serves as the International Committee of Physician Editors (ICMJE) for Conducting, Preparing Reports, Editing and Publishing Academic Works in Medical Journals. It is also a member of the (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association - OASPA), which represents associations dedicated to maintaining best practices in open access scientific publishing.

Authorship

Authorship is based on the following four criteria:

  • substantial contributions to the creation or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the article;
  • Elaborate the article or critically review it for its intellectual content;
  • Final approval of the published version;
  • Agreement of aspects of the work, in pre-completion of the questions concerning the accuracy and of any part of the work properly investigated and resolved.

All authors designated as authors must meet all four authority criteria and all who meet all criteria must be identified as authors. Employees who should not be attended to in the acknowledgments must be attended to.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models in research publications cannot be listed as authors of a Scientia Medica article, according to the position adopted by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author) and WAME (https://wame.org/page3.php?id=106). These AI tools cannot meet authorship requirements because they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work and, as non-legal entities, cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest, nor manage copyright and licensing agreements. As a result, the scientific integrity necessary for the production of open scientific knowledge related to the use of artificial intelligence is not ensured.

Scientia Medica informs that

  1. artificial intelligence engines (such as ChatGPT and other similar chatbots) do not meet the requirements for co-authorship;
  2. Authors who use AI tools in writing the manuscript, creating images or graphical elements, or collecting and analyzing data must declare which and how the AI tool was used in the methodology of the article. Failure to provide this information will result in rejection of the study if discovered by the editorial team.
  3. Authors are responsible for errors, plagiarism, and other bad practices that may occur in their research due to the use of AI mechanisms.

Unprecedent and originality

By submitting the manuscript, the authors guarantee that the work has not been previously published or reviewed by another journal, except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture, or an academic thesis. Literal copies of previously published excerpts are not acceptable, except in exceptional cases in the form of citations. If it is necessary to copy the words of another author, use the citation rules. Illustrations and graphics from other sources must be credited or accompanied by permission from their copyright holders, if applicable. To verify originality and prevent plagiarism, your manuscript will be analyzed by the Turnitin© similarity detection software. 

Preprint

Posting a preprint of the manuscript on a preprint server does not count as prior publication. However, this information must be included in the cover letter of the article. Failure to include this information will result in the article being rejected. If accepted for publication, Scientia Medica encourages authors to link the preprint to their formal publication using their Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect for all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equity. Content should not make assumptions about a reader's beliefs or commitments; should not contain anything that implies that one person is superior to another based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability, or health condition; and should use inclusive language throughout. Authors must ensure that writing is free of prejudice, stereotypes, slang, references to the dominant culture, and/or cultural assumptions. We recommend striving for gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("doctors, patients/clients") by default/whenever possible to avoid the use of "he, she" or "him/her". We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal characteristics such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability, or health status unless they are relevant and valid. When using coding terminology, we recommend avoiding offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master," "slave," "blacklist," and "whitelist. We suggest using more appropriate and (self-)explanatory alternatives such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist", and "whitelist". These guidelines serve as a reference point to help identify appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Sex and Gender Equity in Research

We encourage our authors to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines (https://ease.org.uk/communities/gender-policy-committee/) and endorsed by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/news/cope-endorses-ease-sager-guidelines)  to include sex and gender considerations where relevant. Authors should use the terms sex (biological attribute) and gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances) carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms.

Article titles and/or abstracts should indicate clearly what sex(es) the study applies to. Authors should also describe in the background, whether sex and/or gender differences may be expected; report how sex and/or gender were accounted for in the design of the study; provide disaggregated data by sex and/or gender, where appropriate; and discuss respective results. If a sex and/or gender analysis was not conducted, the rationale should be given in the Discussion. We suggest that our authors consult the full Guidelines before submission.

Corrections and retractions

Before or after publication, authors and reviewers must notify the editor if any errors are identified in the article. The editor is willing to deliver and costs, the editors, retractions and apologies. Authors must cooperate with editors in our retractions. Scientia Medica follows Cope's guidelines for withdrawal or correction. Basic measures are taken to identify and prevent the publication of articles that have been solid or that show misconduct

Confidentiality

The manuscript under review is a privileged document and protected from all forms of exploitation. Editorial staff and external reviewers are instructed not to cite a manuscript of being and information and not to distribute or as contained therein for use in their own research. During a review, the manuscript should not be considered or discussed with others, and no one else should be present at the review, except in special cases for specific advice. In this case, the reviewer is responsible for ensuring confidentiality. The reviewer should inform the editor of others who have commented on a review.

Conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest can be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious, and can occur with authors, reviewers and editors.

  • Authors: Scientia Medica requires all authors to declare any relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest and to publish at least those that have suffered the reader's perception of an article. as interest of interests of interest as important as conflicts of interest. Whenever there is a relationship between the authors and any public or private organization, a conflict of interest may result, this possibility is communicated and specified in the article. If there are no conflicts, that is clear.

  • Reviewers: In the peer review system used by Scientia Medica, the manuscript is sent to the reviewer without identifying the authors. However, if the reviewer knows the authors or the institution, there may be a conflict of interest. To maintain the impartiality of the peer review process, the reviewer must determine whether the manuscript can be evaluated impartially. If there is a conflict of interest, the reviewer must immediately inform the Editor so that another reviewer can be assigned.

  • Editors:Editors will not be involved in decisions about articles in which they may have a conflict of interest, such as working at the same institution or having a personal relationship with the authors. Each submission will be handled by an editor who has no conflict of interest with the manuscript and authors.no sistema de revisão por pares utilizado pela Scientia Medica, o manuscrito é enviado ao revisor sem a identificação dos autores. No entanto, se o revisor reconhecer os autores ou a instituição, pode haver um conflito de interesses. Para manter a imparcialidade do processo de revisão por pares, o revisor deve determinar se o manuscrito pode ser julgado imparcialmente. Se houver qualquer interesse concorrente, o revisor deve informar imediatamente o editor, para que outro revisor seja designado.

Funding source

The source of research funding must be declared and published and, if applicable, their role in designing, conducting, analyzing or reporting the research prepared and published.

Editorial board and editorial freedom

Editorial decisions are quality and quality of a manuscript. Decisions are not influenced by business interests, personal relationships or secondary agendas. Scientia Editorial Multi-Institutional Editorial Establishing and Maintaining Editorial Policies for Editorial Decisions and Expressions of Medical Opinion Has a Controversial Council Establishing Policies.

Ethical approval for human and animal research

Original articles and case reports from the institution's Research Ethics Committee. Authors must send the Ethics Committee document. No article, informed in the Methods section that the ethical standards for human experimentation were followed and inform the name of the institution and the number of the approval document Consubstantiated (in Brazil, or Substantiated Opinion). Published material must adhere to all ethical standards in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and subsequent amendments. Research carried out in Brazil must meet the requirements of resolutions 466/2012 and 510/2016 of the National Health Council. If relevant, consent must have been created by all participants and/or parents or legal guardians of children or adults with disabilities, and a child and adolescent consent form. The confidentiality of the patient's identity is always preserved. In the case of an experimental study with animals, the maintenance and care of the animals comply with the rules of the authority or agency of the country or institution for the human use of animals in research. The editors are aware of concerns about the ethical conduct of research. They may seek advice from members of the Editorial Board with specific competence in this area, further assurances or knowledge from authors or institutions. Articles may be rejected for ethics reasons, even if approved by an ethics committee.

Clinical Trial Results

A clinical trial is defined as any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of people to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (e.g., medications, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary interventions, and process of care changes). Health outcomes include all health-related measurements obtained from patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measurements and adverse events. In accordance with the position of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Scientia Medica will not consider results published in the same clinical trial registry in which the primary data set resides to be a prior publication if the published results are presented in the form of a structured abstract (less than 500 words), summary, or table. However, dissemination of results in other circumstances (e.g., investor meetings) is discouraged and may jeopardize consideration of the manuscript. Authors must fully disclose any publication of results from the same or closely related work.

Public registration of a trial is a mandatory requirement for publication of clinical trials in this journal, as recommended by the ICMJE (https://www.icmje.org/). Trials must be registered before or at the start of patient enrolment. The trial registration number must appear at the end of the article abstract. Purely observational studies (those in which the allocation of medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) do not require this registration.

Editorial Flow

The editorial process begins with the submission of the manuscript to the system (OJS). The Chief Editor then carries out a preliminary analysis to verify compliance with the mandatory documents, according to the instructions, and decides whether to approve or reject the manuscript, taking into account its scientific relevance and the modalities accepted by Scientia Medica. Once approved, the Section Editor will be appointed, who will appoint two reviewers who will issue opinions in a blinded manner (double-blind review), preserving the anonymity of authors and reviewers. The reviewers' opinions may include acceptance, rejection, or requests for changes to the manuscript, whether in form or content. Based on the reviewers' evaluations, the Section Editor will decide whether to accept, rewrite, or reject the manuscript and will forward the final recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief.

If the manuscript is approved for publication, the scientific text will undergo pre-publication editorial procedures, such as grammatical correction, reference checking, layout, production of HTML, PDF, attribution of DOI, and licensing. Finally, the article is published on the Scientia Medica website, where it is freely and fully accessible.

Indexers, folders and government

Other information

This journal is free and open access, Golden Pass type, does not charge for submission and publication, nor does it require a subscription to read and download, as well as to copy and distribute for educational purposes.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Scientia Medica uses the most important technologies for information retrieval and indexing and assigns the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all published articles.

 

Thematic coverage coded according to the CNPq classification, identifying first and second levels

  • Main Area: Medicine
  • Qualis: B1
  • Period: 2017-2020