About the Journal

 

GENERAL INFORMATIONS

Manuscripts in the following languages are accepted: Portuguese and English. Articles submitted in Portuguese are translated by our journal into English and published in both languages. For articles submitted in English, there is no translation to Portuguese.

The original research manuscript must follow the structure known as IMRAD: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (Text Structure). Manuscripts based on qualitative researches may have other formats, with Results and Discussion being accepted in the same section, as well as Final Remarks and Conclusions. Other manuscript categories (reviews, commentary, etc.) must follow the text format suited to them.

The studies must be presented so that any interested researcher may reproduce its results. For that, we encourage using the following recommendations, according to the submitted article category:

·CONSORT checklist and flowchart for controlled and randomized tests;

·STARD checklist and flowchart for diagnostic accuracy studies;

·MOOSE checklist and flowchart for meta-analyses and systematic review of observation studies;

·PRISMA checklist and flowchart for systematic reviews and meta-analyses;

·STROBE checklist for observation studies in epidemiology;

·RATS checklist for qualitative studies.

 

Details on the items required for presenting the study are described according to the article category.

As a way of evaluating the occurrence of plagiarism, all received manuscripts are submitted to a program for text similarity detection.

 

ORCID - Open Researcher and Contributor Identification

 

The ORCID of the first author and all co-authors must be provided at the time of manuscript submission, in the cover letter.

 

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

All approved articles will receive a DOI upon publication.

 

 

TYPES OF DOCUMENTS ACCEPTED

 

a)    Original articles

Include observational, experimental or quasi-experimental studies, program evaluation, cost-effectiveness analyses, decision analyses, and studies on the evaluation of the performance of diagnose tests for populational triage. Each article must contain clear objectives and hypothesis, used design and methodology, results, discussion and conclusions.

They also include theoretical essays (critique and formulation of significant theoretical knowledge) and articles dedicated to present and discuss methodological aspects and techniques used in public health research. In this case, the text must be organized into topics to guide the reader in relation to the essential elements of the argument developed.

 

Measurement tools in populational research

Manuscripts that deal with measurement tools may include aspects related to transcultural development, evaluation, and adaptation for usage in populational studies, excluding the ones with clinical application, which do not meet the RSP scope.

 

For measurement manuscripts, we recommend the presentation of a detailed appreciation of the evaluated construct, including its possible intensity gradient and its occasional sub-dimensions. The development of a new tool must be based on a literature review, which can explicitly identify the insufficiency of previous proposals and justify the need for a new tool.

 

The following must be detailed in the text: item proposition, selection, and elaboration, as well as the employment of strategies to adequate it to the construct’s definition, including the use of qualitative techniques in research (in-depth interviews, focal groups, etc.), meetings with specialist panels, among others; the path traced in the definition of how to measure items and the performing pre-tests, along with its preliminary sets; and the evaluation of face, content, criteria, construct or dimensional validity.

 

Tool reliability analyses must also be presented and discussed, including measures for internal consistency, test-retest reliability, or interobserver concordance. The authors must expose the process of selecting the final tool and place it in critical and comparative view in relation to other tools destined to evaluate the same or similar constructs.

 

For manuscripts on the transcultural adaptation of measurement tools, besides fulfilling the aforementioned recommendations on the whole, it is necessary to explain the theoretical model guiding the process. The authors must just as well justify the choice for a certain tool for adaptation to a certain socio-cultural context, based on a through literature review. Lastly, they should also explicitly indicate how, and which were the adapting theoretical model’s phases used in the work submitted for publication.

 

The measurement tool must be included as an annex in the submitted article.

 

Regarding manuscript formatting, we recommend:

·      Should have a maximum of 3,500 words (excluding abstract, table, figures, and references).

·      Number of table and figures: up to 5.

·      Recommended number of references: up to 30.

·      Abstract in the structured format (Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion) with up to 300 words.

 

b) Brief communication

 Short reports on findings which are of interest to public health, but which do not comprise a wider analysis or a more extensive discussion. Its presentation must follow the norms required for original articles.

·      Should have a maximum of 1,500 words (excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references).

·      Number of tables and figures: one table or figure.

·      Recommended number of references: up to 5.

·      Abstract in narrative form with a maximum of 100 words.

 

c) Review article

 

Systematic review and meta-analysis - Through the synthesis of results in original, quantitative or qualitative, studies, it aims to answer a specific question, which is significant to public health. It describes in detail the process of looking for original studies, the criteria used for selecting the ones included in the review and the procedures employed for synthetizing the results obtained by the reviewed studies. Consult:

MOOSE: checklist and flowchart for meta-analyses and systematic reviews of observational studies;

PRISMA:  checklist and flowchart for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

 

Narrative or critical review - The narrative or critical review has a descriptive-discursive character, and it is dedicated to comprehensively present and discuss themes of scientific interest in the field of public health. It must present a clear formulation of a scientific interested object, logical argumentation, theoretic-methodological critique of consulted works, and a concluding synthesis. It must be designed by researchers with experience in the studied field or specialists of recognized knowledge.

 

• It must have a maximum of 4,000 words (excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references).
• Number of tables and figures: up to 5.
• Number of references: no limitation.
• Abstracts in the structured format (Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion) must have up to 300 words, or 150 words for narrative formats.

 

d) Commentary 

They aim to encourage the discussion, introduce a debate, and “fuel” controversies on significant aspects of public health. The text must be organized into topics or subitems. The introduction must highlight the subject and its significance. Mentioned references must support the main aspects covered by the text.

Formatting:

• They must contain a maximum of 2,000 words (excluding abstracts, tables, figures, and references).
• Recommended number of references: up to 30.
• Number of tables and figures: up to 5.
• Abstracts in the narrative form must have a maximum of 150 words.

 

e) Letters  to the Editor

Correspondence from a reader to the journal’s editor containing contributions to the validation of the research through opinions, ideas, hypotheses, critiques, or new data. Formatting:

• With up to 600 words and a maximum of 5 references.

 

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTION

Each author’s contribution must be explicitly stated at the end of the article, after the funding section. The inclusion of names of authors whose contributions do not meet the criteria mentioned above is not justified.

 

Authorship

 

According to the authorship criteria by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), authors should fulfill all following conditions: (1) contributing significantly to the conception and planning, or data analysis and interpretation; (2) contributing significantly to draft elaborations or to the content’s critical review; and (3) participating in the approval of the manuscript’s final version.

In the case of multicentric groups, or if a great number of authors has developed the work, the group must indicate the individuals that accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals must completely fulfill the aforementioned criteria for authorship. In this case, the editors will ask them for the required declarations when submitting the manuscripts. The corresponding author must clearly indicate the preferred way of mentioning the group’s name and identification of its members, which will be listed at the end of the article.

Do not comprise authorship: those who only acquired financing, gathered data, or performed a general supervision of the research group.

 

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Title in the manuscript’s original language

The title must be concise and complete, containing significant information that can enable the recuperation of the article in databases. The limit is 90 characters, including spaces. If the manuscript is submitted in English, it will be also necessary to inform the title in Portuguese.

 

Short title

It is the title that will appear in the article’s header. It must contain the subject in a maximum of 45 characters.

Descriptors

For manuscripts written in Portuguese, the authors must indicate 3 to 10 descriptors extracted from the Descritores em Ciências da Saúde (DeCS) by BVS/Bireme. For English, authors should use the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) by the National Library of Medicine (USA). If descriptors suited to the article’s theme are not found, keywords may be indicated.

 

Abstract

The abstract must be written in the original language of the manuscript. Specifications regarding the abstract type are described in each of the article categories. As a general rule, the abstract must include: aim of the study, main methodological procedures (studied population, place and year of performance, observational and analytical methods), main results and conclusions.

 

Text structure

Introduction - Must be short, reporting the context and justification of the study, supported by references suited to the manuscript’s objective, which must be clear at the end of this section.

 

Methods - It is indispensable to clearly describe the procedures adopted, the analyzed variables (with their respective definition, if needed), and the hypothesis to be tested. The population, sample, and measuring tools must also be described, presenting, if possible, validity measures. It is necessary to indicate information on data collection and processing. Due references for methods and techniques employed, including statistical methods, must be included; it is essential that new methods or the ones that were substantially modified be described, justifying the reasons for employing it and mentioning its limitations. Ethic criteria in research must be respected. The authors must explain that the research was conducted according to the ethic standards and approved by an ethics committee.

 

Results - It is necessary to present them in a logical sequence, beginning with the description of the most important data. Tables and figures should be restricted to the ones that are necessary for the argument and the description of data in the text must be restricted to the most important ones. Graphs should be used to highlight significant results and to summarize complex relations. Data in graphs and tables should not be duplicated nor repeated throughout the text. Numerical results must specify the statistical method used in the analysis.

 

Discussion - Based on the data obtained and results reached, new and significant aspects observed should be interpreted in the light of scientific literature and pre-existing theories in the field. Arguments and proofs based on personal communication or published in restricted documents cannot be used as bases for the author’s argumentation. Both the work’s limitation and its implications for future research must be described. It is necessary to include only hypotheses and generalizations based on data from the study. The Conclusions must close this section, recovering the work’s objective.

 

DIGITAL ASSETS

 

Tables

They should be presented at the end of the text, after the references, and numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals, in the same order they were mentioned in the text. Each table must have a short title. Do not use internal horizontal or vertical dashes. Explanatory notes must be inserted at the foot of the table and not in the title. If there is a table extracted from a previously published work, the authors must formally ask the authorization of the journal that published it for its reproduction.

To build a legible table, the maximum number is 10 columns, depending on the amount of content in each space. Notes in tables must be indicated by letters and superscripted.

 

Boxes

Boxes differ from tables for containing text instead of numerical data. They should be presented at the end of the text, after the references, and numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals, in the same order they were mentioned in the text. Each chart must have a short title. Explanatory notes must be inserted at the foot of the box and not in the title. If there is a chart extracted from a previously published work, the authors must formally ask the authorization of the journal that published it for its reproduction.

 

Figures

Images (photography, drawings, graphs, etc.) must be cited as Figures and numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals, in the same order they were mentioned in the text and presented after the tables. They also must have a title and legend inserted on the lower part of the figure. Figures will only be accepted for publication if they were sufficiently clear and have digital quality, preferably in a vector format. For JPEG format, the minimum resolution must be 300 dpi. Graphs with grid lines are not accepted, and their elements (bars, circles) cannot have volume (3-D). If there is a figure extracted from a previously published work, the authors must formally ask the authorization of the journal that published it for its reproduction.

 

CITATIONS AND REFERENCES

 

In-Text citations

It is necessary for the reference to be indicated by its number in the list, as an exponent (superscript) before the punctuation, without parenthesis, brackets or similar symbols. In cases when the author’s name and year are significant, the reference number must be typed before the author’s name. Works by two authors must cite both authors connected by “and”. In cases of multiple authors, cite only the first author followed by ”et al.”.

Examples:

The promotion of population health has as reference the article by Evans and Stoddart⁹, who consider the distribution of income, social development, and individual reaction in the determinations of health-disease process.

According to Lima at al.⁹ (2006), the prevalence of mental disorders in medicine students is higher than in the general population.

 

References

List: References must be normalized according to the Vancouver style - Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication, listed according to the order of apparition. Journal titles must be cited in abbreviation, according to the PubMed. For publications with up to six authors, all of them should be cited; for more than six, only the six first should be cited, followed by the Latin expression “et al.” References by a same author must be organized in ascending chronological order. Whenever possible, include the DOI of the cited work.

 

Examples:

Journal articles

Rosa ACA, Silva LCC, Azevedo JC, Oliveira RTS, Ferreira KA, Parra MT, et al. Validity of Perceived Stress Scale in Brazilian low-income college students. Rev. Saude Publica. 2025;59:e4. https://doi.org/10.11606/s15188787.2025059005974

Books

Wunsch Filho V, Koifman S. Tumores malignos relacionados com o trabalho. In: Mendes R, coordenador. Patologia do trabalho. 2. ed. São Paulo: Atheneu; 2003. v.2, p. 990-1040.

Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer Washington: National Academy Press; 2001[cited 2003 jul 13] Available at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10149

 

For other examples, we recommend consulting the norms (“Citing Medicine”) by the National Library of Medicine, available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=citmed.

 

 

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

 

According to the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), some documents and declarations by the authors are required for evaluating their manuscripts. Read the following document list and, if applicable, attach the documents to the process. The moment in which each document is required varies:

 

Document	Who must sign it	When to attach it
a. Cover letter	All authors or the first one signs and inserts the ORCID of all authors informed in the cover letter.	When submitting
b. Ethics Committee Approval Document		When submitting
c. Declaration of Responsibility for Acknowledgments	Responsible author	After the approval
d. Declaration of Rights of First Publication	All authors	After the approval
e. Open Science Compliance Form	Responsible author	When submitting

 

a.   Cover letter

The cover letter must be signed by all authors or at least by the first author. The name and ORCID of all authors must be informed in the letter.

The cover letter must have:

• Information on the manuscript’s findings and most important conclusions and explanation about its significance for public health;
• Information of the study’s novelty and why it should be published in this journal;
• Mention of up to three articles, if any, published by the authors in the same research line of the manuscript;
• Attestation of exclusively submitting the manuscript to RSP;
• Declaration of the authors’ potential conflict of interests;
•  Each authors’ contribution to the manuscript.

 

b. Ethics Committee Approval

An approval document from the ethics committee of the institution responsible for approving the research must be attached when submitting the article.

 

c. Declaration of Responsibility for Acknowledgements

The authors must mention the names of those who, although they did not fit the authorship requisites, have collaborated to the work. It will be necessary to explain the reason for the acknowledgement (e.g.: scientific consultancy, manuscript critical review, data collection, etc.). Mentioned people should express their permission and the responsible author must attach the Declaration of Responsibility for Acknowledgements. It may also comprise the logistical support by institutions.

 

d. Declaration of Rights of First Publication

 

All authors must read, sign, and submit the document transferring the rights of first publication. The article will only be released for publication once RSP has received this document.

The document will be requested after the article is approved.

 

e. Open Science Compliance Form

Through this form, the authors inform the journal about the conformity of the manuscript with Open Science communication practices. The authors are requested to inform: (a) if the manuscript is a preprint and, if so, its location; (b) whether data, software codes and other materials underlying the manuscript text are properly cited and referenced; and, (c) whether opening options are accepted in the peer review process.

 

DOCUMENTS TEMPLATE

a) COVER LETTER MODEL

City, _[day]_ of month year.

 

Dear Mr. Editor, Revista de Saúde Pública

[Inform the most important finding and conclusions in the manuscript and explain its meaning for public health]

[Inform the novelty of the study]

[Mention, if any, up to three articles published by the authors in the same research line than the manuscript]

 

Thus, we submit to your appreciation the work “____________[title]____________”, which fits RSP’s areas of interest. The journal was chosen [justify the choice for the journal to publish the manuscript].

Authors’ contribution (example): work’s design, planning, analysis, interpretation, and writing: author 1; result interpretation and manuscript writing: author 2. Both authors have approved the submitted final version.

I certify that this manuscript represents an original work and that it, or another work with substantially similar content by me, has not been published, in parts or completely, nor is it being considered for publication by another journal, be it in print or digital publications.

The authors declare no conflict of interest. (If there is a conflict, explain it).

 

__________________________

1^st author’s complete name + signature + ORCID

 

___________________________

2^nd author’s complete name  + ORCID

 

b) DECLARATION OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

I, (full name of the author responsible for the submission), author of the manuscript named (full title of the article):

 

• Certify that all persons that have substantially contributed to making this manuscript, but who did not fit the authorship criteria, are cited along with their specific contributions in Acknowledgements in the manuscript.
• Certify that all persons mentioned in the Acknowledgements have provided their due written permission.

 

 

_____/_____/_______                                  ________________________________________

DATE                                                                       FULL NAME AND SIGNATURE

 

 

d) DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF FIRST PUBLICATION

 

We grant the Revista de Saúde Pública the rights of first publication of our article (TITLE), allowing its full or partial reproduction in any other means of dissemination, whether printed or electronic, provided that the source is cited and proper credit is given.

The authors retain the rights over the work.

 

Authors:

 

_______________________                         ________________________________

Place, date                                                     FULL NAME + Signature

 

_______________________                         ________________________________

Place, date                                                      FULL NAME + Signature

 

 

 

e) OPEN SCIENCE COMPLIANCE FORM

Preprints

Deposit of the manuscript in a preprint server recognized by the journal.

Is the manuscript a preprint?
(  )	Yes - Name of the Preprint server:          Preprint DOI:
(  )	No

Research data and other materials availability

Authors are encouraged to make available previously or at the time of publication all content (data, software codes and other materials) underlying the manuscript text. Exceptions are allowed in cases of legal and ethical issues. The objective is to facilitate the manuscript evaluation and, if approved, contribute to preserving and reusing the contents and research reproducibility.

Are the contents underlying the manuscript text already available in their entirety and without restrictions or will they be at the time of publication?
(  )	Yes:        (  ) the contents underlying the research text are included in the manuscript        (  ) the contents are already available        (  ) the contents will be made available at the time of publication of the article. Titles and respective URLs, access numbers or file DOIs of the contents underlying the article text follow below (use one line for each data):
(  )	No:        (  ) data is available on demand from referees        (  ) after publication the data will be available on demand to authors -             a condition justified in the manuscript        (  ) data cannot be made publicly available. Enter a justification:

Open peer review

Authors may choose one or more means to opening the journal peer review process.

When offered the option, authors agree with the publication of review reports of the approved manuscript?
(  )	Yes
(  )	No
When offered the option, authors agree to interact directly with reviewers responsible for evaluating the manuscript?
(  )	Yes
(  )	No

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Submission checklist

1. Complete name and affiliation institution of each author, including e-mail and telephone.

2. Title of the manuscript in its original language.

3. Summarized title with 45 characters.

4. Text presented in Arial font, body size 12, in Word or similar formats (doc, docx, and rtf).

5. Structured abstract (Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion) for original research papers in the original language of the manuscript.

6. Narrative abstract for non-research manuscripts in the original language of the manuscript.

7. Cover letter, containing signed authorship responsibility. It must be signed by all authors or at least by the first author and contain the name and ORCID of all authors.

8. Name of the supporting agency and number(s) of the process(es).

9. References normalized according to the Vancouver style, presented in citation order. It is necessary to verify if all references are cited in the text.

10. Tables numbered sequentially, with title and notes, with a maximum of 10 columns.

11. Figure in vector format in pdf, tif, jpeg, or bmp, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Graphs should not have grid lines nor volume.

12. Tables, boxes, and figures must not be, altogether, more than five.

13. We do not publish supplementary materials, annexes and appendices. These materials must be made available in open online repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, or OSF, and this information (link) must be indicated in the manuscript through a footnote.

 

Editorial process

a)     Evaluation

Pre-analysis: the Scientific Editor evaluates manuscripts based on their quality and relevance for the public health field and decides whether the manuscript will be selected for peer reviews or not.

Peer review: if selected in the pre-analysis, the manuscript is sent to one of the Associate Editors registered at the system according to his/her respective area of expertise. The Associate Editor selects the reviewers (two) according to their area of expertise and submits the manuscript for evaluation. If the Associate Editor considers that the received opinions are insufficient for a conclusion, he/she should refer another (other) reviewer(s). Based on the opinions, the Associate Editor decides: to refuse it, if the manuscript has major deficiencies; to accept it; or to allow a new submission, and, in this case, he/she should indicate in his/her comments the important modifications for possible reformulation and for re-evaluation by reviewers.

 

b)     Scientific writing review

To be published, the approved manuscript will be edited by a team that will review grammar, style, and scientific writing (clarity, conciseness, objectivity, and solidity). RSP reserves the right of making changes aiming at a perfect communication with readers. The responsible author will have access to all suggested changes until the last proof sent.

 

c)     Proofs

The author responsible for correspondence will receive a proof, in a text file (doc, docx, or rtf), with observations and changes made by the technical reading team. The deadline for reviewing the proof is two days.

In case there are doubts regarding this proof, the editorial team will contact the author to review the text, until a final version of it is reached.

Articles submitted in Portuguese will translated into English. About 20 days after the author has finished the article’s proof, RSP will send the article’s version in English for appreciation by the author. During this review, the author should pay attention to possible interpretation errors, field vocabulary, and especially to the content equivalence to the approved original version. The deadline for reviewing the English version is two days.

The RSP adopts the continuous publication system. Therefore, the publication is faster: it does not depend on a set of articles for closing an issue, but on the individual process of each article. Because of that, we ask authors to observe the stipulated deadlines.

Publication Frequency

Continuous publication

PUBLICATION FEE

Revista de Saúde Pública (RSP) does not charge a manuscript submission fee. If the submitted manuscript is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will receive a proforma invoice with payment information for the publication fee (i.e., the Article Processing Charge [APC]). It is worth noting that this is a one-time fee, meaning the author will not incur additional costs, except in certain cases*. RSP will handle all subsequent editorial steps, including reference checking and formatting, grammar review, English translation (for manuscripts submitted in Portuguese), PDF formatting, XML conversion, and indexing in bibliographic databases.

In 2026, RSP initiated a plan to progressively reduce the APC, with the goal of eliminating author costs as soon as the journal's financial sustainability allows. For this reason, the APC has been reduced to R$ 3,800.00. For international payments, the amount is US$ 1,200.

RSP provides authors with the necessary documentation to verify APC payment to their employers, graduate programs, or research funding agencies.

* If an erratum needs to be published due to an author’s error, a fee of R$ 400 (or US$ 100 for international payments) will be charged.

 

Information services

Articles published in Revista de Saúde Pública are indexed or abstracted in the following databases:

International

• BIOSIS
• CAB-Abstracts
• CAB-Health
• EMBASE
• Health Plan
• HEALTHSAFE
• Human Nutrition
• Life Science Collection
• Medline
• PubMed
• PERIODICA
• Popline
• Web of Sciences (ISI)
• Wildlife Worldwide (NISC)

Latin American

• Lilacs

The journal is also indexed in the following printed bibliographies:

• Abstracts on Hygiene and Communicable Diseases
• Abstracts on Zooparasitology
• Biological Abstracts
• Current Contents / Social & Behavioral Science
• Entomology Abstracts
• Excerpta Medica
• Index Medicus
• Microbiology Abstracts
• Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews - Series B
• Review Medical Veterinary Entomology
• Safety Science Abstracts Journal
• Social Science Citation Index
• Tropical Diseases Bulletin
• Veterinary Bulletin
• Virology Abstracts

 

Journal History

Organ of the Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo, the Revista de Saúde Pública publishes results of original researches, reviews, comments and scientific notes.

The journal is specialized in the several interdisciplinary areas of the public health, with emphasis in epidemiology, and published  since 1967.

Some articles have online English version since August 2003.