For submission, manuscripts should be written in Portuguese or English. After approval for publication, a translation into another language will be asked. Translation can be obtained from one of the professionals indicated by Acta Paul Enferm.

A manuscript submitted for publication in Acta Paulista de Enfermagem cannot have been published in or simultaneously submitted to another journal. Accuracy of information and bibliographic citations is a sole responsibility of the authors. If simultaneous publication in or submission to another journal is identified, the article will be dismissed.

Acta follows the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of http://publicationethics.org/

Review of manuscripts

The ScholarOne platform for online submission to Acta Paulista de Enfermagem is a complete system for management of workflow in scientific journals. This platform allows an efficient management of submission, peer review, production, and the publishing process, providing relevant information to make strategic decisions.

The editorial office receives and checks all documents submitted in the online submission. The non-compliant documents are returned to the corresponding author and a deadline is established for compliance.

The editorial office sends to the editor-in-chief the manuscripts that follow the instructions for authors for her first editorial decision, which can be: continue the evaluation process, request a revision, or reject the manuscript. If, at the discretion of the editor-in-chief, the manuscript content is current and contributes to knowledge, but requires a revision, the manuscript is returned to the authors with a deadline for them to submit a new version.

The editor-in-chief receives the manuscripts for critical consideration and opinion of the ad hoc referees. The associate editors are international-level nurses who analyze the contribution to knowledge of the manuscripts, recommending their publication in Acta, requesting minor corrections, or informing about their rejection.

The editor-in-chief takes the editorial decision and manuscripts recommended for publication by the associate editors are sent for analysis by the technical editor. Depending on her opinion, the editor-in-chief makes the final editorial decision, sends the manuscript to the corresponding author and asks its certified translation into English or Portuguese within seven days.

Acta has a body of technically competent and accredited translators including PhD-degreed nurses and biomedical specialists who provide certificates for their translations into English. Without this certificate, the manuscript cannot be published. The same body of translators provides translation for the Portuguese language.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are considered articles and thus they enter the stage of editorial production.

If your article was accepted and has entered the production process, then you can celebrate!

When articles are accepted, they enter the production stage and are then edited and typeset.

Combating Plagiarism

“Appropriation of another’s work without their permission and reference is a detrimental procedure that infects and causes irreparable damage to research, besides being an illegal practice.”

The antifraud law was proposed by the National Committee for Institutional Relations and Sectional Commission of the Order of Lawyers of Brazil (OAB)/Ceará (n. 2010.19.07379-01) and approved by the Federal Council of OAB, in the plenary session held on October 19, 2010. All infractions, regardless of ethical or legal issues, are forms of “intellectual dishonesty” and are explained in more detail below.

Some definitions

Intentional or unintentional copy of words from another person – Whenever an author uses someone else’s words, they must be written within quotation marks and a citation should be given. Any reader of an article published by Acta should know whether certain words are from the author or someone else.

Copy of words of the author himself, or “self-plagiarism” – If an author has published an article in Journal A, he/she cannot change some words in that article and send it to Journal B as if it were another article. Moreover, he/she cannot take excerpts of an article for use in another without using quotation marks. Each publication must contain its own writing, even if there is nothing new to report on the subject.

Inadequate assignment of data or ideas – most writers report ideas and data from other authors. However, when a writer does that and does not cite their source, such practice is a form of plagiarism. Copyright infringement occurs when an author (with or without assignment) uses significant portions of a previously published article, including its tables and figures. When this plagiarized “writing” is published, the new editor is guilty of violating the copyrights held by original publisher. This is a legal issue, which can result costly for the publisher and author involved.

An author may believe that juggling with the words of a sentence copied from an article and pasted into another is appropriate. However, this is not like that. The order of information presented in an article must be original, not following closely that of another article published earlier.

Acta has a policy of awareness and information on intellectual property, and specific procedures are adopted to curb the practice of plagiarism. The purpose of this policy is to inform authors about acceptable writing practices, thus defining a quality standard in publishing peer-reviewed articles. If plagiarism is detected, either by reviewers or staff editors, before or after acceptance, during editing or at any time before publication, the staff of Acta will alert the author asking him to rewrite the plagiarized passage and cite the original source. If plagiarism is extensive (≥ 25% of the original article), the manuscript will be rejected and the institution where the author works will be notified of the infraction. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the editors will inform the respective readers, as well as the institution where the infringer author works, about her attitude by publishing a note of the Editor in Acta.

Resources: Plagiarism UNDERSTANDING and CITATION

1. Several standard guidelines are available for authors to write their manuscripts and submit them for publication in biomedical journals. Uniform Requirements for Publication of Manuscripts in Biomedical Journals: the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, who write and edit for biomedical publications, has clear guidelines on when citation is required (available at: www.icmje.org).
2. Many renowned journals have published articles or editorials about the growing problem of plagiarism in biomedical publications. Examples are given below:
   • Broome ME. Self-plagiarism: oxymoron, fair use, or scientific misconduct? Nurs Outlook. 2004; 52(6): 273-4. [AJN’s editor-in-chief responded to this editorial with a letter: Mason DJ].
   • Letter to the editor. Nurs Outlook. 2005;53(4):171-2. Clamp down on copycats. Plagiarism is on the rise, thanks to the Internet. Universities and journals need to take action. Nature. 2005;438(7064):2.
   • El-Deiry WS. Plagiarism is not acceptable in science or for Cancer Biology and Therapy. Cancer Biol Ther. 2005;4(6):619-20.
   • Freda MC, Kearney MH. Ethical issues faced by nursing editors. West J Nurs Res. 2005; 27(4): 487-99.
   • Hegyvary ST. Writing that matters. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2005;37(3):193-4.
   • Logue R. Plagiarism: the Internet makes it easy. Nurs Stand. 2004;18(51):40-3.
   • Mason, DJ. Stealing words. Am J Nurs. 2002; 102(7):7.
   • Roig M. Re-using text from one’s own previously published papers: an exploratory study of potential self-plagiarism. Psychol Rep. 2005;97(1):43-9.
   • Skandalakis JE, Mirilas P. Plagiarism. Arch Surg. 2004;139(9):1022-4.
3. The World Association of Medical Editors has recommendations on policies for ethical publication for medical journals, including guidance for journal editors about what plagiarism is: www.wame.org .
4. Acta follows the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
Stephen King. In writing: a memoir of art. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2000.