Ethical statement

The Revista SOBECC ethics code presents the main ethical principles applicable to the journal's editing and publication. Such principles are important to guarantee the integrity of the publication and that appropriate measures are taken in cases of ethical violations presented in this code. Editors, authors, and reviewers must read, agree to, and follow these principles throughout the editorial process. Below we detail the ethical standards that must be followed by all the actors involved in the editorial process.

Authorship

The authorship of the publication must contain only individuals who contributed significantly to the elaboration of the submitted article. The authors listed in the article must necessarily meet all the following criteria, according to the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): (i) they must have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; (ii) they must have participated in the elaboration of the work or the critical review of the intellectual content; (iii) must have approved the final version to be published; (iv) must take responsibility for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions relating to the accuracy or completeness of any part of the work are properly investigated and resolved.

The author submitting the article must make sure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the work and agreed with its submission for potential publication in Revista SOBECC. If the journal editors find evidence of authorship problems (for example, incomplete listing or the presence of authors who did not contribute to the work or are unaware of its existence), the authors will be contacted for clarification. Editors will use the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guide for this purpose. If the authorship problem is indeed identified, the article must be withdrawn from the evaluation process. The inclusion (or exclusion) of authors from the article during or after the editorial process will be subject to the editor's evaluation on a case-by-case basis and must have the consent of all authors of the article.

Duplicate publication

Submitting for potential publication in Revista SOBECC the same article (or an article with high content overlap) previously published in another scientific journal constitutes unethical behavior, identified as duplicate publication. If duplicity is identified during the editorial process, the authors will be notified and the article will be removed from the evaluation process. If duplicity is identified after publication, the article will be retracted from the edition in which it was published and the journal's readers will be duly informed about the case with a retraction notice, following COPE's guidelines on the subject.

Attention: studies previously presented or published in scientific events are not considered duplicate publications. The authors must inform, while submitting the article, about the previous presentation/publication in a scientific event. Articles from theses and dissertations are also accepted, provided that the authors inform the editors in the submission system.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the unethical practice of using other people's work as if it were your own work, without proper credit or permission from the original authors. To repudiate and avoid this practice, all articles submitted to Revista SOBECC are checked for plagiarism in the desk review stage, before being sent to the evaluators, through the use of the tool Plagius Detector. If excerpts with similarity are identified (except direct citation) and for which the reproduction has been total and/or without citation, the authors will be contacted to provide clarification. In the absence of clarification from the authors, the editors will archive the submission. During the peer review process, reviewers may also find evidence of plagiarism. If this happens, the reviewers will communicate the fact to the editors (presenting the appropriate evidence) and the editors will investigate the suspected plagiarism using the COPE flowchart. If the suspicion of plagiarism is confirmed, the editors will archive the submission.

Citations and references

Articles must cite appropriate and relevant literature to support the assertions made. Excessive self-citation, unnecessary citations not consistent with the content of the submitted article, and any other form of manipulation of citations are considered unethical procedures. The submission will be archived if citation manipulation is identified.

Conflict of interests

Authors must declare any potential conflict of interest they may have concerning the article using the appropriate form available on Revista SOBECC website. Authors must disclose all sources of funding obtained for conducting the research reported in the article. If evidence of an undisclosed conflict of interest is found, editors will use the COPE flowchart to proceed with the necessary actions. Editors and reviewers invited to review articles are also required to disclose conflicts of interest that could bias the editorial process, such as personal, academic, or financial relationships. Reviewers should not accept to participate in the evaluation of the article if they have any conflict of interest. If there is a potential for bias, editors should hand over leadership of the article process to another editor. Articles submitted by editors or editorial board members will not be handled by themselves. A different editor/editorial board member will be invited to handle the editorial process, which will not have the involvement of the submitting authors.

Data fabrication

Data fabrication is an unethical practice that refers to the production of false data, not resulting from the research process, and the inclusion and analysis of these fabricated data in the article. Revista SOBECC repudiates data fabrication, as this practice undermines the integrity of the scientific literature and its credibility, and may lead to erroneous conclusions. In this sense, if a suspicion of data fabrication is found in submitted articles, the editors will use the COPE flowchart on data fabrication to proceed with the necessary actions. If the fabrication of data is confirmed, the editors will archive the submission.

Confidentiality

Revista SOBECC keeps all details of the submitted articles in strict confidentiality and does not comment or publish information about the articles while they are under evaluation or when they are rejected. The editors and reviewers of Revista SOBECC are committed not to revealing manuscript data (or supplementary materials) before publication, as well as not to using the knowledge they acquired from an unpublished article to promote their own interests. If reviewers are accused of misappropriating ideas from a work under review, the editors of Revista SOBECC will use the COPE flowchart on the subject to help deal with this situation.

Errors in published works

When an error or inaccuracy is discovered in a published work, the author must immediately notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to arrange the article’s correction. A note will be published detailing the correction made to that article. This procedure will follow COPE guidelines on the correction of published works.

Research Involving Human Beings

All research involving human beings (individuals, samples, or data) must have been carried out following the current resolutions of the National Health Council (CNS) (Resolution No. 466 of December 12, 2012: https://conselho.saude.gov.br/resolucoes/2012/466_english.pdf)

Approval by the Ethics Committee and Informed Consent

Prior to starting the study, authors must have obtained ethical approval for all protocols from their institution's ethics committee to confirm that the study meets national research ethics guidelines. A document confirming ethics committee approval must be included as a supplementary attachment to the submission, including the name of the ethics committee and reference numbers. Authors should not include this data in the body of the article, as it may facilitate the identification of authors and compromise the double-blind evaluation process. When approval is not required, under the exceptions of the current legislation, authors do not need to present ethics committee approval.

The authors of the article must have obtained informed consent from the study participants. A statement to confirm this must be included in the manuscript. Authors should be prepared to provide copies dated and signed by participants to the journal's editorial staff if requested.