JBNc does not charge authors submission, publishing or any other fees.
JBNc evaluates submissions primarily in English, but also in Portuguese, or Spanish. Accepted submissions will be published in the language they were originally received. Regardless of the text language, title, abstract and keywords must always be included in English. For all accepted manuscript minor suggestions can be suggested to the authors, but If needed a Grammar review by native speakers, the manuscript will be returned to the authors.
JBNc’s evaluation process consists of four stages, as described below:
Submission of revised articles: When submitting a revised version authors are required to include a letter disclosing all modifications made to the article in accordance to the reviewers suggestions or to justify otherwise. Also the submitted text must have all modifications emphasized preferably using the text editor tracking changes feature.
Submissions by editorial board members: Articles submitted by editors or editorial board members will undergo the same evaluation process using a double anonymized process. However, in these situations the executive editor will select editors to carry out the editorial and peer review evaluation in order to ensure impartiality and that there are no conflicts of interest with the author or research.
After the final acceptance, the executive secretary will send the article for proofreading and copyediting and authors are required to review the final proof to ensure no errors are left in the text before publishing. After the authors approval and the executive secretary final technical review no further adjustments will be allowed. Attention: If problems are found after the publication authors are required to request them according to the journal policies on corrections.
In addition to the specific section requirements below, each article must adhere to the recommended best practices as described in our reporting guideline policies and in the instructions for authors.
📑 Original articles
Original research studies, including clinical trials, observational studies, and laboratory research, providing original empirical evidence that generates new knowledge and understanding. These articles should provide a clear contribution to the Neurosurgery research body of knowledge.
📑 Reviews
Reviews are intended to provide an update on the current understanding of a specific subject in the Neurosurgery area relevant to clinical practice (disease or condition, diagnostic, treatment, etc.). JBNc will give preference to evaluating and publishing systematic reviews.
📑 Case reports
Case reports describe the diagnosis, treatment outcomes, and follow-up of patients with a rare or unusual condition or outcome. These reports provide insight into differential diagnosis, decision-making, and clinical management and are a valuable source of clinical information and education for neurosurgeons and other health professionals. JBNc will give preference to evaluating and publishing case report or case report series accompanied by a systematic review or cases depicting scientific novelties.
📝 Short notes
Short notes are brief reports of data from original research or unique first-time reports of clinical cases.
📷 Clinical images
JBNc encourages the submission of clinical images portraying interesting neurosurgical cases.
JBNC's policy for special and thematic issues, aligned with ICMJE recommendations, emphasizes editorial integrity and transparency. The journal editor holds complete responsibility and control over the content, including the selection of authors and peer reviewers. External guest editors may be appointed, but the journal editor oversees their work. All submissions will undergo JBNC's standard peer review process and the editor retains authority to reject submissions. Funding sources, conflicts of interest, and any other applicable statements are to be transparently disclosed. Advertising follows the same sponsorship and advertisement policies, and content from these issues will be clearly distinguishable from regular content. Editors are not allowed to accept personal remuneration from sponsors and must adhere to strict authorship and disclosure standards. This policy ensures the integrity and quality of JBNC's special and thematic issues.
The following JBNc authorship policies were developed to ensure maximum compatibility with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations.
🦰 Authorship criteria and responsibilities
Authorship of submitted papers should be limited to people who have significantly contributed to the conception, planning, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) standards, the authors need to fulfill all the following criteria:
i. they must have made significant contributions to the paper's conception or design or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
ii. they must have participated in the elaboration of the paper or the critical review of its intellectual content;
iii. they must have approved the final version to be published; and
iv. they must take responsibility for all aspects of the paper, ensuring that any questions relating to its accuracy or completeness are resolved.
🦰 Changes in authorship and dispute resolution
Authors must agree on the authors list before submission and all authors must adhere to the authorship policy.
The editor will consider requests to add, remove, or change the order of authors on a case-by-case basis. Any request for changes to the author's list will require unanimous agreement from all authors (original authors, new authors, or removed authors). The request must be sent to the editorial office via e-mail (copying all involved authors), along with a written explanation.
Any eventual authorship disputes will be handled using the COPE Guidelines on the subject.
🦰 Author contributions
Authors are required to explicitly detail their respective contributions to the work using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) vocabulary. This includes specifying roles such as conceptualization, methodology, writing, data collection, analysis, and supervision, among others. If the journal editors detect potential authorship violations, such as an incomplete author list or inclusion of individuals who did not contribute significantly to the work, they will contact the authors for clarification. Persistent issues or misconduct in authorship, as identified by COPE guidelines, may result in the removal of the paper from the editorial process. Our aim is to ensure transparency and accountability in authorship, in line with ethical publishing standards.
🤝 Acknowledgements
Individuals that contributed but do not meet the journal authorship criteria should be included in the acknowledgments section only if they have given their specific written consent. Authors are advised to retain this consent in case the journal requires it in the future.
💻 Use AI-assisted technologies
For journal submissions, authors must disclose if they used AI-assisted technologies like Large Language Models or image creators. The use of AI should be detailed in the cover letter and in the relevant sections of the submitted work, such as acknowledgments for writing assistance or methods for data analysis or figure generation. AI technologies, like ChatGPT, should not be credited as authors, given their inability to be accountable for the work's accuracy and originality. Authors are responsible for ensuring the correctness and integrity of AI-generated content, including preventing plagiarism and ensuring proper attribution and citations for all material, including AI-produced text and images.
The Brazilian Journal of Neurosurgery (JBNc) is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in its publication process. Our ethics statement, which defines competing interests and delineates the responsibilities of editors, authors, and reviewers, ensures that our practices are aligned with ethical conduct and professional excellence. This statement draws its orientation and principles from authoritative sources in the field of publication ethics, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Council of Science Editors (CSE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
🥇 Competing Interests
Competing interests, also known as conflicts of interest, occur when personal, financial, or professional considerations may affect or appear to affect the objectivity, integrity, or interpretation of scholarly work. These interests can be actual, potential, or perceived and encompass both financial and non-financial aspects:
The importance of disclosing these interests lies in maintaining transparency and trust in the scientific process. They must be declared to ensure that readers, reviewers, and editors are aware of any factors that could influence the content or evaluation of the work published.
👉 Authors competing interests
Authors must disclose any financial relationships or personal connections that could be viewed as potential sources of bias related to the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Failure to disclose competing interests can result in the rejection of a manuscript. Furthermore, authors are encouraged to also follow any specific requirement imposed by each funding agency.
Specific instructions on how to provide the financial support information must follow the submission and instruction for authors.
👉 Referees competing interests
Referees are required to declare any potential competing interests that could affect their objectivity in reviewing a manuscript. This includes any personal or professional relationship with the authors, or any direct involvement with the manuscript. If a significant conflict exists, referees should recuse themselves from the review process.
👉 Editors competing interests
Editors at JBNc must not be involved in editorial decisions about papers in which they have competing interests. Editors should recuse themselves from handling a submission if they have any personal or financial connections to the manuscript, authors, or institutions involved.
👉 External editors competing interests
External editors, guest editors, and members of the editorial board must adhere to the same standards as the journal's editors. They should disclose any competing interests before engaging in any editorial duties and should recuse themselves from any decisions where such conflicts exist.
In all cases, transparency is key. Disclosing competing interests allows for appropriate handling of the manuscript and maintains the integrity of the scientific record.
Cases of undisclosed conflicts of interest in a submitted manuscript will be addressed by the journal in accordance with the COPE guidelines. This approach ensures that such issues are handled with the utmost integrity and align with the best practices in ethical publishing.
📑 Responsibilities
This section outlines the essential duties and expectations for each party involved in the process of manuscript submission, review, and publication. Adherence to these guidelines ensures the quality, credibility, and integrity of our scholarly work.
👉 Editor responsibilities
👉 Author responsibilities
👉 Reviewer responsibilities
📑📑 Duplicate publication
It is unethical to simultaneously submit the same manuscript to multiple journals or to submit previously published manuscripts describing essentially the same research whether total, partial, or an altered copy.
If duplicate content is discovered during the peer-review process, or after publication, the journal will follow the corresponding COPE flowchart:
After checking for the extent and nature of the overlap, additional clarification might be requested by reaching out to the authors, journal or institution as required, and appropriate action will be taken as per our Corrections and retractions policy.
👍 Accepted previous publication
The Brazilian Journal of Neurosurgery (JBNc) recognizes the importance of disseminating scientific knowledge in various forms and platforms. In line with this, we have specific policies regarding the submission of works that have been previously published in certain formats:
Conference proceedings
JBNc accepts submissions of works previously presented and published in conference proceedings. However, the submitted manuscript must include significant enhancements or additional insights beyond the original conference paper. Authors should provide details of the conference presentation and how the current submission differs from it.
Theses or dissertations
Manuscripts derived from academic theses or dissertations are eligible for submission. The submitted work should be a refined and concise version of the original thesis or dissertation, highlighting the most significant and novel aspects of the research. Authors are required to mention the original thesis or dissertation in their submission.
Preprint servers
JBNc accepts submissions of manuscripts that have been previously made available on preprint servers. Authors are required to disclose the preprint server details at the time of submission. It is important to note that the peer-review process will assess the manuscript on its merits, independent of the preprint version. While significant advancements or novel contributions since the preprint version are welcome, they are not a mandatory requirement for submission. Our primary focus is to ensure the scientific rigor and quality of the published work.
Research with human beings
All research conducted on human beings, including individuals, samples, or data, must adhere to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki at an international level or comply with the current decision of the Brazilian National Health Council for research conducted within the country (Resolution No. 466 of December 12, 2012).
Ethical approval
All articles submitted to the Brazilian Journal of Neurosurgery (JBNc) are required to provide evidence of ethical compliance. This includes obtaining approval (or an official waiver) from the institution’s ethics committee. The submitted documentation should clearly state the name of the ethics committee and include the reference numbers pertaining to the approval or waiver. For non-interventional studies where ethical approval is not required, or in cases where a waiver has been granted by an ethics committee, authors must provide a waiver document or an explicit statement to this effect.
Additionally, it is mandatory for authors to have obtained informed consent from all participants involved in the study. This consent should be acknowledged in the manuscript. In situations where the journal's editorial staff requests copies of the ethical approval, waiver documents, or informed consent forms, authors are expected to provide these promptly.
Authors must follow the submission and instruction for authors for information on how to send or acknowledge this information in the manuscript.
Clinical trials
The Brazilian Journal of Neurosurgery (JBNc) strictly follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, which mandate the registration of all clinical trials in a public trial registry. This registration must occur before or at the time of the first patient enrollment and is a prerequisite for the submission and publication of trials in our journal, irrespective of the country of origin. We advise authors to refer to the World Health Organization's registry network for locating a suitable registry. For more information on these requirements, please visit the ICMJE recommendations at ICMJE Clinical Trial Registration.
Authors must follow the submission and instruction for authors for information on how to include the registration number in their submission.
Research with animals
Experiments involving animals must be conducted in accordance with the standards approved by the Ethical and Animal Welfare Committee of the institution where the study was developed, and the authors must present the submission and approval protocol number. For comprehensive reporting of the study, it is recommended to adhere to the ARRIVE Guidelines (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments).
Authors are strongly encouraged to adhere to the EQUATOR Network's guidelines, accessible at EQUATOR Network, as they provide essential statements and checklists designed to improve the quality of research reporting. For convenience, we have listed the most frequently used reporting standards for different study types, along with their respective websites where authors can find relevant checklists and workflow diagram templates:
Authors must follow the submission and instruction for authors for information on specific requirements pertaining reporting guidelines.
JBNc currently requires authors to include a concise data availability statement in their submissions, detailing whether their research data is publicly accessible. If available, this statement should specify the repository used, include a full citation of the data, and provide a direct link (preferably a DOI) to the dataset. In cases where data is not publicly available, authors must clearly state the reasons, such as privacy concerns, legal restrictions, or data size. This requirement ensures transparency in research and facilitates data verification and reuse.
As JBNc navigates the evolving landscape of data sharing, our current stance does not mandate data deposition but encourages best practices in data transparency and reproducibility.
This guidance reflects JBNc’s commitment to promoting data transparency in research, while recognizing the need for flexibility and further study in this area.
JBNC is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity in scholarly publishing by committing to the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), thus striving to avoid any kind of misconduct, including but not limited to:
All submissions are screened for similarity using the software SIMILARITY CHECK. If significant overlap is identified (except when properly cited) the authors will be contacted to provide clarification. If the authors fail to provide a convincing explanation the submission will be withdrawn.
During the peer review process, editors and reviewers are instructed to communicate any suspected instances of plagiarism or any other type of misconduct, providing relevant evidence to support their concerns.
Similarly JBNc strongly encourages readers to report any errors or suspected misconduct, also providing relevant evidence to support their concerns.
Should allegations of suspected misconduct be made, either during the evaluation or after publication, the journal will assign an editor or editorial board member to proceed with the appropriate investigations, ensuring the following policies are met:
Through these policies, JBNC aims to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of its published content, fostering a responsible and ethical scholarly environment.
