Submissions

Login or Register to make a submission.

Author Guidelines

Articles submitted to FCM Journal must be unpublished and, therefore, cannot be simultaneously under review for publication in any other journal.

Plagiarism: FCM Journal promptly rejects any practice of plagiarism and self-plagiarism. During the editorial and review process, if this problem is detected, the authors will be required to adapt the text, rewriting it with their own references. If this is not the case, the article will be rejected.

Artificial Intelligence: FCM Journal strictly prohibits the submission of texts generated in part or in whole by artificial intelligence (AI) without due human review and authorship. All submitted articles must be the product of genuine intellectual work by the indicated authors, reflecting their critical analysis and interpretation of the data. The use of AI tools for the automatic generation of texts, without supervision and substantial review by the authors, is considered a violation of the journal's ethical guidelines. If unauthorized use of AI is identified in the writing of the article, the submission will be immediately rejected, and the authors may be banned from future publications in the journal.

FCM Journal features sections dedicated to original research, literature reviews, case studies and letters to the editor. Articles may be submitted in Portuguese or English. The submission process includes the following steps:

Fees and charges: FCM Journal does not charge any Article Publication Fee (APC), as its goal is to publish and disseminate quality research in the areas of health and biomedical sciences in line with the terms of the Budapest Open Access Initiative.

Peer review: Articles are reviewed by at least two peer reviewers (experts). Accepted articles will be edited according to FCM Journal's publishing standards. The final edited version will be sent to the authors for approval.

Copyright/conflict of interest agreement: After final approval, authors must submit the copyright transfer agreement signed by the first author representing each additional author. Any conflict of interest must be declared in this agreement.

Cover letter: a letter that must accompany the submitted article and contain at least the following information:

  • a statement that the article has not been submitted for publication in another journal;
  • declaration of conflicts of interest: declare whether the authors have any conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest are those that have the potential to influence the published content, compromising the objectivity, integrity or perceived value of the article;
  • author information: provide the full name and institutional affiliations of each author, and a mailing address for the lead author (email only) and ORCID (click on the link – this is a persistent digital identifier for researchers). Authors will be required to clearly state that the submitted article consists of original content, stating that it has not been previously published or is being reviewed with that intention elsewhere.

If the authors have received assistance from technical writers or language reviewers, this should be explicitly stated in the cover letter, along with an assurance that the authors are fully responsible for the scientific content of the article.

Authorship information: scientific authorship should be limited to those who have contributed intellectual work, with actual collaboration in the research. Therefore, to be considered an author, each contributor must meet the following conditions:

  • significant contribution to the creation and design of the study or to the analysis and interpretation of its results;
  • substantial contribution to the production of the article, or critical review of its intellectual content, and approval of the final version for publication. Leading or supervising a laboratory/research group does not qualify as authorship by itself.

The letter must be signed by the lead author, who will represent all other authors in this document.

Title page: this page should contain information about the title and the author, as follows:

  • title (Portuguese) 100 characters maximum, including spaces;
  • short title (Portuguese) 50 characters maximum, including spaces;
  • the name of each author with their affiliation in this specific order: first name, abbreviated middle names, last name. Department (or department). Course. University (or institution). City, state/province/territory, country.
  • an author's contact information: first name, abbreviated middle names, last name, email.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • This submission meets the requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • This submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
  • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
  • All tables and figures have been numbered and labeled.
  • Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.

ARTICLES

Articles resulting from original research. Maximum of 5,000 words (excluding abstract and references) and five images or tables. Maximum of 40 listed references. They must be submitted in the following format:

• Abstract: must be written in English with a maximum of 250 words. It must follow the structured abstract model, with mandatory introduction, objective(s), methodology and resources, results and discussion, conclusion(s). It is well known that the abstract obtains more visibility and distribution than the full text of the article. Therefore, it must contain the essential information of the article, but it cannot be just a patchwork of sentences from it. It must be succinct and direct, highlighting what is most important in the full text to encourage a complete reading. In the conclusion, all the results must be related to the objectives of the study. The discussion must affirm the contribution of the results to the body of knowledge on the research topic.

• Keywords: three to six terms related to the subject should be included, separated by semicolons, according to DeCS (Health Sciences Descriptors) for Portuguese and Spanish, and also MeSh (Medical Subjects Headings) for English.

FULL TEXT

• Introduction: should be short and present the purpose (context and justification) of the study, including a brief review of relevant studies on the subject, mentioning any recent progress and referencing only what is appropriate.

• Methodology: this section should briefly present all the information necessary for other researchers to replicate the study. The procedures adopted should be clearly described, as well as the variables analyzed and hypotheses tested. Definitions should be provided whenever necessary. Population, sample and measurement instruments should be described and information on data collection and processing should be provided. If possible, validity scores should be included. Methods and techniques used should be duly detailed, including statistical methods. New or substantially modified methods should be described, with a justification for their use and mention of their limitations. Research ethics should be observed. Authors should explicitly state that the research was conducted in accordance with ethical standards and with the approval of an ethics committee.

• Results: This section should be a concise report of all new information found, with a minimum of bias and personal judgment. Data should be presented in a logical sequence, starting with the most important information. Data from tables and images should not be repeated, but should be briefly referenced. The significance of the new data and the relevance of the new findings in relation to established theories and the scientific literature should be stated in this section. The limitations of the present work should also be mentioned in this section, as well as its implications for future research. Finally, conclusions should be included in this section, always related to the initially stated objectives.

• Acknowledgements: These should be concise and limited to individuals and institutions that contributed to the research in some degree, but could not be included as authors.

• In-text citations: FCM Journal follows the Vancouver style, according to the general rules of The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, second edition. For in-text citations, use superscript Arabic numerals, 1 without spaces, immediately after a word or punctuation: "The description of Parkinson's disease 1 began in the 1950s, 2 when..." In some cases, the authors' names may appear in the text: "Phillips 12 analyzed several conditions of..."; and up to two authors may be named: "Handel and Matias 15 conducted a study on..." However, when the number of authors is three or more, the first author must be named together with the expression "and colleagues": "Silveira et al. 13 proposed a new methodology..."

• References: all references cited in the text must be in the reference list. References should follow the Vancouver style, according to the general rules of The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, second edition. They are limited to published material, articles, and abstracts. Authors are responsible for providing accurate and complete references. In references with more than one author, up to three authors should be named. Thereafter, an "et al" should follow the first three authors. There should be no more than 40 references.

• Tables and/or images: up to a maximum of five, including authorship and/or source.

• Tables: should be created in dedicated software, such as Excel. The width should be proportional to a page in the current layout. The font should be Arial, size 9, single-spaced. Tables should be imported and sent in a text file: .doc/.docx (Microsoft Word), .rtf (Rich Text Format) or .odt (Open Document Text). They should be numbered in ascending order and given an explanation of the title and/or subtitle. They should also be referenced within the text. The content of a table should not replicate that of an image or vice versa. Their numbers should be assigned according to the order in which they are referenced in the text. The source from which the table was extracted and/or its authorship must be included. This information must be written below the table, after the caption for abbreviations, if any.

• Images: These can be photos, illustrations, graphs, drawings, etc. Images must be sent as separate files (.tiff or .jpeg). They must be numbered in ascending order and given an explanation in the title and/or subtitle. They must also be referenced within the text. All abbreviations must be explained with a caption below the image. The source from which the image was extracted and/or its authorship must be included. This information must be written below the image, after the caption for abbreviations, if any.

 

Privacy Statement

The names and addresses provided in this magazine will be used exclusively for the services provided by this publication and will not be made available for other purposes or to third parties.