EDITORIAL
New editorial policies of BJPT
The Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy (BJPT) is facing new challenges, which have served to guide the development of new action strategies. With the great growth in the quantity and quality of scientific production in the areas of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, we know that the BJPT has an important role in disseminating this knowledge. The access of the scientific community to the information resulting from this production demands that manuscript processing and publication be agile and efficient, providing quality articles in reduced time. New strategies adopted by the BJPT have sought to meet these demands.
After the indexing in Medline in 2010, new challenges were presented to our Journal including, among other things, efforts towards the internationalization of the structure of the BJPT, increased impact and international visibility, and greater processing speed and availability of the manuscripts. Several initiatives are being taken, particularly the reformulation of the editorial policies. Some changes will take affect immediately, while others will be implemented over the course of 2012.
The main purpose of these changes is to improve the interface between readers/authors and the Journal, facilitating the consultation of manuscripts published in the BJPT by the national and international community and accelerating the process of submission and communication with the authors. For this reason, by mid-year the BJPT website will become trilingual, with information available in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.
In order to meet the growing demand for agility and to attract original manuscripts submitted to higher impact journals that had an unfavorable editorial decision, we introduced the fast-track mode in August 2011. In this mode, manuscripts that meet the scope/requirements established by the BJPT and that received an unfavorable final decision from other journals indexed in JCR undergo special evaluation procedures. The authors must include the ad hoc reviewers' comments and the previous journal's editorial decision (in full, without alteration or editing). The manuscript must already be adjusted according to the reviewers' and editor's comments and information on the journal must be provided, including its impact factor. The fast-track mode may reduce the processing time of quality original articles that have been previously appraised by a journal of international impact, accelerating time of analysis and communication of the editorial decision.
In line with international trends, the new policies of the BJPT suggest the use of checklists containing the criteria that must be followed to ensure that the structure of the manuscript contains information considered important in the different types of study. For observational studies and systematic literature reviews and meta analyses, for instance, we recommend the use of the STROBE (available at: www.equator-network.org/resource-centre/library-of-health-research-reporting) and the PRISMA checklists (available at: http://www.prisma-statement.org/statement.htm), respectively. The use of these checklists will serve initially to guide authors and reviewers. Thus, the scientific community will become aware of the internationally agreed criteria and will have time to adjust to future demands. The implementation of the checklists will be gradual so that the community can get acquainted with and assimilate the reporting criteria. In 2010, the BJPT supported the use of the CONSORT1 policies in the submission of manuscripts on reports of clinical trial results. This initiative is now being expanded to other types of studies.
From 2012, the new policies also foresee specific changes. The protocol number of the registry of clinical trials is now required at the submission of the manuscript; it should be obtained before the beginning of the study and not at the end of the process. Prior registration of clinical trials is in line with recommendations by WHO's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)2. According to the new rules, case reports will no longer be considered for publication in the BJPT.
With the modifications incorporated in its policies, the BJPT intends to meet the challenges ahead as it seeks national consolidation and extension of its international placement and reach. We invite you to become our partners in this process of adaptation.
Débora B. Grossi
Marisa C. Mancini
Aparecida M. Catai
Editors/BJPT
References
- 1. Costa LOP, Maher CG, Moseley AM, Sherrington C, Herbert RD, Elkins MR. Endorsement of Trial registration and the CONSORT statement by the Revista Brasileira de Fisioterapia. Rev Bras Fisioter. 2010;14(3):v-vi.
- 2. Peccin MS. Registro de ensaios clínicos: quando e por que fazer? Rev Bras Fisioter. 2007;11(6):v-vi.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
11 May 2012 -
Date of issue
Apr 2012
