Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional (RBSO) is a scientific open-access journal published by FUNDACENTRO since 1973. RBSO adheres to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the guidelines outlined in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct, and complies with the criteria, policies, and procedures for the admission and permanence of scientific journals in the SciELO Brazil Collection.

In this statement, the commitment of RBSO to ethical scientific publication is expressed, and the responsibilities of all parties involved, including editors, authors, reviewers, and the maintaining institution, are detailed.

1. Editors’ Responsibilities

- Editors of RBSO must adhere to best editorial practices, prevent any form of scientific misconduct, and promote ethics in publication.

- Manuscripts should be evaluated solely based on their content and relevance to the journal's scope, without considering the authors' origin and characteristics, such as gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, political stance, and institutional affiliation.

- Editorial independence must be ensured, so decisions on manuscript publication are not influenced by FUNDACENTRO policies or any external entity outside the journal.

- Manuscripts under consideration should be reviewed by at least two expert reviewers, ensuring appropriate assessments, including statistical evaluation if necessary. Chief Editors are responsible for the final decision based on reviewer feedback and associate editor evaluation.

- Confidentiality must be maintained for all information about submitted manuscripts, prohibiting disclosure to individuals not involved in the editorial process, and the use of unpublished manuscript information without explicit written authorization from the authors.

- Editors must declare any conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with manuscript authors and their institutions and abstain from editorial responsibility for such manuscripts.

- Ethical aspects of manuscripts, especially those involving human and animal research, must be verified to ensure compliance with research ethics requirements.

- Editors must appropriately respond to any ethical concerns raised regarding a submitted or published manuscript. All suspicions of misconduct should be investigated following COPE guidelines, and, if necessary, the best form of literature correction – erratum, expression of concern, or retraction – should be adopted for published articles.

2. Authors’ Responsibilities

- When submitting a manuscript to RBSO, authors must ensure it has not been previously published or concurrently submitted to another journal. The journal accepts articles published on preprint servers, and authors should provide details about prior publication during submission.

- Reporting of studies should be detailed, accurate, and objective, supported by reporting guidelines when possible.

- Proper citation and referencing of all non-original text and ideas are essential, and all forms of plagiarism are considered misconduct.

- Authors should provide access to raw study data openly or exclusively for review purposes when requested, adhering to ethical requirements related to research data availability. The journal encourages depositing research data in appropriate repositories for preservation, author attribution, and potential reuse.

- Declaration of any potential conflicts of interest influencing the study's conduct, reporting, or editorial process is mandatory, using the ICMJE conflict of interest form.

- Authors should report the individual authorship contributions following ICMJE recommendations. Authorship should be attributed only to those who significantly contributed to the study and meet ICMJE authorship criteria, including responsibility for the entire article's content and integrity. Contributors should be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section without being identified as authors. Authors are responsible for acknowledging contributors and obtaining their consent.

- The corresponding author submitting the manuscript must ensure that all authors have reviewed the final version and agreed to its submission to RBSO.

-  Authors should refrain from using confidential information obtained during manuscript evaluation unless they have written permission from the authors.

- Manuscripts reporting research involving human participants or animals must include details about Ethics Committee approval in the text. For studies involving humans, information about obtaining informed consent from participants should be provided.

- Authors should actively participate in the peer review process, responding to comments in an organized manner and submitting the revised version within the given timeframe.

Authors are obligated to immediately inform editors of any errors or inaccuracies in their submitted or published work. In the case of published articles, they should collaborate with editors to adopt the best form of literature correction (erratum, expression of concern, or retraction) following COPE guidelines.

3. Reviewers’ Responsibilities

- Peer review is an essential component of scientific publication, aiding editors in deciding on manuscript publication and contributing to the improvement of study reports.

- External reviewers must adhere to ICMJE recommendations and COPE guidelines.

- Declaration of any conflicts of interest with authors or their institutions is mandatory, and reviewers should abstain from reviewing such manuscripts.

- Reviewers should agree to review only manuscripts for which they have the necessary knowledge for adequate evaluation and can provide timely assessments.

- Immediate notification to editors should occur if reviewers lack knowledge or availability to review the manuscript so that new reviewers can be invited.

- Confidentiality of information about submitted manuscripts must be maintained, prohibiting disclosure to individuals not involved in the editorial process and the use of unpublished manuscript information without explicit written authorization from the authors. Reviewers should be aware that plagiarism related to the review process is considered misconduct.

- Manuscripts should be evaluated solely based on their content and relevance to the journal's scope, without considering the authors' origin and characteristics.

- Constructive and objective review reports should be provided to contribute to the improvement of manuscripts. Hostile or personal criticisms should be avoided.

- Editors should be alerted to any situation indicating scientific misconduct, such as similarity between the considered article and any previously published or submitted article to another journal, identification of omissions or inaccuracies in citing previously published works, alteration or fabrication of data, and violations of research ethics principles regarding human or animal research.

4. Responsibilities of the Maintaining Institution

- Ensure the editorial independence of RBSO.

- Provide the necessary means for the journal's maintenance, including infrastructure and trained human resources.

- Uphold the commitment to the SciELO Project to ensure access, visibility, and preservation of the RBSO digital archive.