About the Journal

Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle
Official Publication of the Brazilian Foot and Ankle Society

ISSN 2595-1467 | eISSN 2595-1459
Frequency: every quarter

Editor-in-Chief
Alexandre Leme Godoy dos Santos

Associated Editors
Marcelo Pires Prado

Internacional Board
Lew Schon
Sheldon Lin
John G. Kennedy

The Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle (ISSN 2595-1467 / eISSN 2595-1459) is the official body of scientific publishing of the Brazilian Association of Medicine and Surgery of the Ankle and Foot, which is published every quarter in March, June, September, and December, with the purpose of disseminating papers on themes of Foot and Ankle Medicine and Surgery and related areas. The Journal offers free and open access to your content on our website. All papers are already published with active DOIs.

All papers that are sent to the Journal undergo a peer review by at least two reviewers. Acceptance will be based on originality, relevance, and contribution to science. The reviewers will make general comments on the paper and will decide if it will be published, if recommended corrections are to be incorporated, or if it is rejected. In cases of differences of opinion among the reviewers, a new opinion may be requested. When modifications are suggested, they will be forwarded to the main author, who must then resubmit the corrected manuscript within the time frame established by the Editor. Subsequently, it will be returned to the same reviewers so that they can check if their demands have been met. In exceptional cases, when the subject of the manuscript so requires, the Editor-in-Chief may request that the review be conducted by a professional who is not listed among the Editors and the Editorial Council. Following this process of peer review, the Editor-in-Chief will forward the approved papers for publication. As far as possible, the decision as to the acceptance of a paper will occur within 120 days of its receipt.

Once a paper has been accepted for publication, an edited Paper (in PDF format) will be sent to the corresponding author to be proofread, and for a final assessment and approval.

It is up to the Editorial Body to classify papers according to the categories accepted by the Journal. The Body may also suggest modifications to the papers, provided they do not alter the scientific content, and with due assent of the author.

Any claims or information expressed in the papers that are published in the Journal are the sole responsibility of the authors and their collaborators.

The norms for publication in the journal are in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (February 2006), developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), available at: http://www.icmje.org/.

The Journal accepts the following for publication: editorials, original papers, case studies, letters to the editor, and special papers.

EDITORIALS

Editorials refer to topics which are selected for each issue of the SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF THE FOOT & ANKLE due to their importance for the scientific community. They are generally written by the Editor-in-Chief or by outstanding specialists in areas of interest who are commissioned by the Journal.

ORIGINAL PAPERS

Controlled and randomized studies, observational studies, records, basic research with experimentation animals are included here. Original papers must contain the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, and References. The number of references must not exceed forty.

CASE STUDIES

These include descriptions of cases involving patients, or particular situations, rare diseases, or those that have never been described, as well as innovative forms of diagnosis or treatment. The case study in question should focus on relevant themes that should be compared to those available in existing literature, and must not exceed ten references.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

These must comment, discuss or criticize papers that have been published in the Journal itself, or tackle other themes of general interest. A response from the authors of the paper in question may be published together with the letter.

SPECIAL PAPERS (by invitation of the Editor)

These are articles that do not belong in any of the aforementioned categories, but that are deemed relevant to the field by the Editorial Council.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

The Scientific Journal of the Foot and Ankle encourages authors to submit systematic review articles. The Editorial Team will evaluate the quality of the article as well as whether the subject matter is relevant to the readers of the journal. We suggest that authors be guided by the PRISMA recommendation (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and must include the registration number in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) database.

The Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle will give priority to the publication of papers classified as original. The papers may be written in Portuguese or English, and will be published in the online version of the journal in Portuguese and English. They will also be made available online in Portuguese and English through the Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle’s site. Should any other means of electronic publication arise in the future, previous consent of the authors for the papers to be published in this way will be assumed.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Research with human beings and animals

In the first paragraph of the Methodology section, the authors must state whether the study has been approved by the Research Ethics Commission of their Institution, in accordance with the 2013 revised Helsinki Declaration (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/) of the World Medical Association. In experimental works involving animals, the norms established in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 2011) and the ethical principles for animal testing from the Brazilian College of Animal Testing (COBEA- Colégio Brasileiro de Experimentação Animal) must be respected. Research studies involving human beings must be forwarded together with the patients’ Free, Prior and Informed Consent that was used in the study and the approval from the Research Ethics Commission of the Institution in question; however, for studies conducted in Brazil, a “Parecer Consubstanciado da Plataforma Brasil” is required.

Clinical Trials
The Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle supports the Clinical Trials Registry policy of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ICMJE, recognizing the importance of these initiatives for the registration and international dissemination of clinical studies in open access. Therefore, it will only accept for publication articles involving clinical research that have received an identification number in one of the clinical trials registry platforms validated by WHO and ICMJE. The URLs of these registry platforms are available at the ICMJE page (http://www.icmje.org/about-icmje/faqs/clinical-trials-registration)

Copyright
According to ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations, we point out that any claims or information expressed in the papers that are published in the Journal are the sole responsibility of the authors and their collaborators. However, the approved material becomes permanent property of the Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle, and, therefore, the authors of the approved manuscripts must forward, prior to publication, a written and signed declaration by the author and all co-authors assigning copyright to the Journal, according to the following terms:

“The undersigned author(s) transfer all copyright of the manuscript (title of the paper) to the Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle. The signatory(ies) guarantee(s) that the paper is original, that it does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third-party rights, that it has not been sent to any other journal for publication. The author(s) confirm(s) that the final version of the manuscript has been reviewed and approved in every aspect by all authors.”

All content in the Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle, except when specified as otherwise, is licensed under CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License).

Authorship credits (Author's Contribution)
The Scientific Journal of the Foot and Ankle accepts papers with a maximum of 6 (six) authors per paper. We suggest that authorship credits be adopted as per the ICMJE recommendations. Thus, only those persons that contributed directly to the intellectual content of the paper should be listed as authors of the paper.

To play an administrative role, to help out with patients, and to collect and consolidate data, albeit important for the research, are NOT criteria for authorship. Other people who have made direct substantial contributions to the paper, but who cannot be considered authors, can be cited in the Acknowledgements section.

Conflict of interest
Whenever a relationship exists between the authors and any public or private entity that may derive some conflict of interest, this must be communicated by way of the ICMJE form titled “Declaration of Conflicts of Interest”, which is available on our site. The Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle will guarantee the confidentiality of this declaration.

Plagiarism
So as to guarantee the editorial integrity of the articles published in the Scientific Journal of the Foot & Ankle, our journal uses the Similarity Check system to detect possible plagiarism, as prescribed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ (ICMJE) recommendations.