JBRA Assisted Reproduction

Instructions for Authors

GENERAL INFORMATION

JBRA Assisted Reproduction (JBRA Assist Reprod) is the official publication by both the Brazilian Society of Assisted Reproduction (SBRA – www.sbra.com.br), the Latin America Network of Assisted Reproduction (www.redlara.com) and Pronúcleo - Brazilian Association of Embryologists destined to scientific-based and quarterly issued papers. It is designated to specialists and researchers in the health area, in particular to gynecologists, andrologists, biologists, urologists and embryologists. Basic and clinical studies in the areas of assisted reproduction, infertility, reproductive genetics, reproductive immunology, andrology, reproductive microbiology, laboratory in assisted reproduction and gynecological endocrinology will be accepted for evaluation in the form of original articles, reviews, update articles and case reports (as detailed below). Articles must be submitted in English.
Papers submitted to JBRA Assisted Reproduction must be original, that is, they cannot have been either published or submitted for analysis by other journals, partially or in the whole. In cases where the illustrations have been published previously, an authorization must be granted and the source cited.
The Instructions for Authors by JBRA Assisted Reproduction is comprised of the recommendations given by the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. The complete version of the text is available at www.icmje.org. Manuscripts not in accordance with the instructions presented herein will be returned for modifications to be made before the Editorial Board has evaluated them.
Authors should state that the study was approval by the Research Ethics Committee /REC from the institution where it was carried out (or from another that has a constituted and been appropriately designed), also mentioning the approval or exemption of the free informed consent by the same committee. If needed, the journal reserves the right to require the authors its sending.
When studies in humans are being reported, authors should indicate if the study processes are in accordance with the ethics standards defined by the committee in charge for studies in humans (institutional or national, if applicable) and in accordance with the 1975 Helsinki declaration, which was reviewed in 2013. If studies are performed in animals, authors must indicate if the institutional/national guidelines for care and use of animals were followed. In any research, be it clinical or experimental.

Every article published in JBRA Assisted Reproduction undergoes a review process by specialists (peer review). Submitted articles are primarily sent to editors for an initial evaluation as to the scope of the work and the editorial demands of the journal. In case of a positive evaluation, the article is then sent to two reviewers specialized in the appropriate area. Every process is anonymous, that is, reviewers are not aware of author’s identity and place of origin and vice versa. After the articles are evaluated by reviewers, they can be accepted without alterations, refused or returned to authors along with suggestions for modifications. Each article may return to its author several times for clarification and alteration, without necessarily meaning a future acceptance of the article.
The co-authorship concept connotes substantial contribution in the creation and planning of the paper, analysis and interpretation of data not to mention the writing and critical revision of the text. Significant contributions given to the study which do not fit these criteria must be cited in the acknowledgements section.
Clinical trials articles should be registered in the Clinical Trials Registry validated by the criteria established by the World Health Organization and by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (for instance, www.actr.org.au, www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.ISRCTN.org, http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index.htm and www.trialregister.nl). The study identification number shall be presented at the end of the abstract.
For texts accepted for publication, a statement signed by all authors shall be sent to the journal, including the following information: a) the manuscript is original; b) the manuscript has not been previously published nor submitted to any other journal, and will not be published in case it is accepted by JBRA Assisted Reproduction; c) all authors have actively taken part in the preparation of the study and have approved of the final version of the text; d) situations on potential conflict of interests (either financial or of any other nature) are being informed; e) an approval of the study by the Ethics Committee of the institution to which the paper is linked was obtained (for articles reporting experimental research data); f) an informed consent by the patients included in the study was obtained (when applicable). All information on the approval of the study by the Ethics Committee and the possession of an informed consent should also be mentioned in the Methods section of the article.
Before the publication of accepted articles, the corresponding authors will receive the published article via e-mail attachment in a PDF archive for approval. At this point, corrections should be limited to typographic mistakes, without altering the content of the study. Authors should return approved papers by e-mail or fax 48 hours after receiving the message.

TYPES OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES

Original articles. Pieces of work resulting from scientific research presenting original data about experimental or observational aspects of medical, biological, biochemical and psychosocial character and including descriptive statistical analysis and/or inferences of own data. These articles have priority for publication. They must be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text (divided in Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion or equivalent, Conclusion), acknowledgments (if applicable), references, tables (if available), figure legends (if available) and figures (if available).

Reviews. Papers whose aim is to summarize, analyze, evaluate or synthesize investigative papers already published in scientific journals. They must include a synthesis and critical analysis of the researched literature and cannot be confused with update articles. They must be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text, references, tables (if available), figure legends (if available) and figures (if available).

Update or opinion articles. Papers reporting usually current information on themes of interest to certain specialties (such as a new technique or method). They have different characteristics from reviews, since they do not display critical analysis of the literature. They must be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text, references, tables (if available), figure legends (if available) and figures (if available).

Case reports. Articles representing descriptive data of one or more cases, exploiting a method or problem through example(s). The selected cases should be of great interest, with unusual disease or evolution or submitted to unexpected or alternative treatments. They must involve humans or animals and should present the studied individual’s characteristics (gender, age, etc.). They must be composed of: title page, abstract and keywords, text (divided in: Introduction, Case Description and Discussion or equivalent), references, figure legends (if available) and figures (if available).

Letters to the reader. Letters to the editor commenting, discussing or criticizing articles published in JBRA Assisted Reproduction will be welcome and published as long as they are accepted by the Editorial Board. They must be composed of: title, name of author, identification of the publication being commented on and references (if available). It is recommended to include 500 words at the most, references inclusive. Whenever possible, a reply by the authors will be published alongside with the letter.

COVER LETTER

You have to prepared a cover letter for your submission, explaining why we should publish your manuscript and elaborating on any issues relating to our editorial policies detailed in the instructions for authors, and declaring any potential competing interests. This should be provided using the 'cover letter' section of the submission process.

The cover letter have to carry the following information:

Title
Authors’ names
Authors’ institutional affiliation, showing department/unit, institution and geographic region
Name of the institution where the work was carried
Name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author

PREPARATION OF ORIGINAL PAPERS

Preferably use Microsoft Word® processor. Papers should be typed in Times New Roman font sized 12, single-spaced and aligned to the left. Every section should be started on a new page in the following order: title page, abstract and keywords, text, acknowledgements, references, tables, figure legends and figures. All of the pages should be numbered consecutively.

Abbreviations should be spelled out in the first mention in the text; and after the first appearance, only the abbreviation should be used. In the abstract, the use of abbreviations should be avoided.

Chemicals should be presented by their generic name. If relevant, commercial name of the substance and the manufacturer’s name must be informed in parentheses.

The presentation of units of measurements should follow the International System (IS).

Genes of animals should be presented in italics with capital letter initials (example: Sox2); genes of human beings should also be presented in italics; however, with all capital letters (example: SOX2). Proteins should follow the same pattern: capital/small, without italics, though.

Title Page

The title page should carry the following information:

Concise and comprehensive title, representing the content of the article
Short running head (no more than 40 characters including letters and spaces)
Information about support given in the form of loan, equipment or drugs
Congresses where the study was presented

Abstract

The content of the texts should not exceed 250 words.

For original articles, the abstract should be structured as follows: Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion. For case reports, reviews and update articles, the abstract should not be structured. The use of abbreviations should be avoided in the abstract, and references should not be cited. Right after the abstract, three to six keywords should be presented.

Acknowledgements

This part is dedicated to acknowledging the work of those who have helped intellectually, but whose contribution does not justify co-authorship or those people or institutions who have given material support.

References

In the text, the citations will be identified by the author’s last name in parentheses followed by the publication year.

Examples: one author (Steptoe, 1978), two authors (Edwards & Steptoe, 1980), and more than two authors (Van Steirteghem et al., 1988).

The references should be presented in alphabetical order (each author’s surname followed by his/her first two initials), and should not be numbered. Papers by the same author should be chronologically organized; papers by the same author in the same year should be identified with letters after each year (2000a, 2000b, etc.). The presentation of references will follow the template Human Reproduction Style. We advise support Citation Style Language styles, such as Zotero, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in this chosen Human Reproduction Style.

Important observations

English level.

a- Authors who feel that their manuscript may require language editing to conform to correct scientific English should use an English Language Checking Professional or Editing Service. Manuscripts considered unclear will be returned to the authors.

b- AI and the writing process

Nowadays AI is eventually used to improve readability and language. If this is the case, a statement must appear in the cover letter and in the published work, Please, do remember that Authors stay as responsible and accountable for the contents of the paper.

Journal Article
Edwards RG, Steptoe PC, Purdy JM. Establishing full-term human pregnancies using cleaving embryos grown in vitro.Br J Obstet Gynaecol. 1980;87:737-56.
Book
Wolf DP, Quigley MM, eds. Human in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. New York: Plenum Press; 1984.
Book Chapter
Simpson JL. Gonadal dysgenesial and sex abnormalities: phenotypic-karyotypic correlations. In: Vallet HL, Porter IH, eds. Genetic mechanisms of sexual development. New York: Academic Press; 1979. p. 365-77.
Electronic Journal Article
Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [electronic journal]. 2002 June [cited 2002 aug 12];102(6):[approximately 3 p.]. Available at: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/ Wawatch.htm.
Article published in the Internet
Wantland DJ, Portillo CJ, Holzemer WL, Slaughter R, McGhee EM. The effectiveness of web-based vs. non-webbased interventions: a meta-analysis of behavioral change outcomes. J Med Internet Res. 2004;6(4):e40. Available at: http://www.jmir.org/2004/4/e40/. Accessed: 29/11/2004.
Site
OncoLink [site in the Internet]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania; c1994-2006. [updated 2004 Sept 24; cited 2006 March 14]. Available at: http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/.
Software
Smallwaters Corporation. Analysis of moment structures: AMOS [software]. Version 5.0.1. Chicago: Smallwaters; 2003.

Tables And Figures

Tables and figures (graphs, photographs, etc.) should be numbered in Arabic numerals according to the order in which they appear in the text and should have individual legends, presented at the end of the paper.

In the tables, use horizontal lines only, and each piece of information should be in an independent cell. Explanations about items in the tables should be presented in footnotes identified by the following symbols, in this sequence: *,†, ‡, §, ||,¶,**,††,‡‡.

Figures must be submitted in electronic formats such as .jpg, .gif or .tif, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Photographs of patients should not allow their identification.

Figures previously published and included in submitted articles should include the original source in the legend and should be accompanied by a permission letter from the copyright’s holder (publisher or journal).

SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES

To facilitate the articles publication, JBRA Assisted Reproduction prefers online submission. Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The submitting author takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review.

You will be also asked to provide the contact details (including email addresses) of potential peer reviewers for your manuscript. These should be experts in their field, who will be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Any suggested peer reviewers should not have published with any of the authors of the manuscript within the past five years, should not be current collaborators, and should not be members of the same research institution. Suggested reviewers will be considered alongside potential reviewers recommended by the Editor and/or Editorial Board members.