About the Journal

Brief Background

In 1992, the Director Board of the Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP) of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and of the Associação Paulista de Saúde Pública (APSP) partnered to carry out an editorial project. From this initiative stemmed the Journal Saúde e Sociedade, which is at present a consolidated reference on the interface between Social and Human Sciences in the fields of Public/Collective Health.

In 2020, with the end of the agreement between the partners, the journal Saúde e Sociedade became a publication of FSP/USP, maintaining as its objective the dissemination of interdisciplinary scientific production in the area.

Our mission

To publish scientific knowledge at the interface between the Social and Human Sciences and Public/Collective Health, embracing the epistemic, ontological, thematic, theoretical, and methodological pluralities that characterize the field; approaches that understand health as a social, historical, and political phenomenon; and critical, situated debates on inequalities, diversity, and struggles for rights.

Open Science Compliance

Saúde e Sociedade adopts a series of practices, such as the open access policy, the code of good practice for editors, and the use of social networks to disseminate published works. Furthermore, it requires the precise indication of the role of each of the authors in articles with multiple authorship and encourages the sharing of analysis data sets, instruments, scripts, and additional materials made available in repositories open online, such as Zenodo, Figshare, OSF, NCBI, and Mendeley Data, if they cannot be published in the work itself. In such cases, the manuscript should provide the corresponding repository information. 

Saúde e Sociedade recognizes the publication of preprint articles on public platforms, such as SciELO Preprints, a practice that can encourage open discussion before publication. 

In line with Open Science practices, the journal also ensures that the contributions of the editors involved in the peer review process are appropriately acknowledged in the published article.

Ethics in Publication

Saúde e Sociedade is based on the principles of conduct and plagiarism policy developed by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE).

In order to guarantee an editorial policy committed to ethical publication criteria that encourage the identification of plagiarism, bad practices, fraud, possible violations of ethics, and the opening of lawsuits, we strongly recommend that authors follow the following steps before submitting texts to the journal:

  • Visit the website of COPE, which contains information about research ethics for authors and editors;
  • Explicitly reference data acquired, analyzed, or interpreted from other publications;
  • Quote any intellectual content from other authors;
  • Indicate as authors only those who actively and substantially participated in all phases of the research and writing of the article.

In addition, if authors have used artificial intelligence tools in drafting the manuscript, creating images or graphical elements, or collecting and analyzing data, they must disclose in the manuscript which tool was used and how it was employed. Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their manuscript, including any portions generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools, and are therefore accountable for any violations of publication ethics.

To ensure the originality of submitted manuscripts, the journal uses iThenticate 2, plagiarism detection software designed to assess textual and content similarity between submitted material and previously published works, including the authors' own publications.

The intellectual production published by the periodical must be authorial and original. The editorial board will investigate conduct that is not appropriate for scientific purposes, in accordance with the principles already mentioned, without prejudice to the critical performance of academic production and the expression of freedom of thought.

The journal strongly rejects all forms of plagiarism and any attempt to misappropriate the intellectual work of others.

Saúde e Sociedade considers any material previously published, in whole or in part, by the authors in a journal, book, or website to constitute prior publication and, therefore, such material is not eligible for submission to the journal.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Editors' Forum of the Brazilian Association of Collective Health (Abrasco), exceptions are made for content available on preprint servers, as well as theses, dissertations, undergraduate monographs, and other works submitted by the authors as degree requirements. In these cases, the source of the content must be disclosed in the manuscript.

Focus and Scope

The journal publishes scholarly work at the interface between the Social and Human Sciences and Public/Collective Health, embracing the epistemic, ontological, thematic, theoretical, and methodological pluralities that shape the field; approaches that understand health as a social, historical, and political phenomenon; and critical, situated debates on inequalities, diversity, and struggles for rights.

Digital Preservation

This journal follows the standards established by the SciELO Program's Digital Preservation Policy and by the Agency for Libraries and Digital Collections (ABCD) of the University of São Paulo.

This journal follows the standards defined in the SciELO Program Digital Preservation Policy 

Indexing Sources

Bibliographic Journal Information

Journal title: Saúde e Sociedade
Abbreviated title: Saúde Soc.
Published by: Universidad de São Paulo
Periodicity: Quarterly
Publication mode: continuous publication
Year of creation of the periodical: 1992

Websites and Social Media

Site: revistas.usp.br/sausoc
Instagram: instagram.com/saudesociedade
Youtube: www.youtube.com/@RevistaSaudeSociedade

Editorial Policy 

Preprints 

Saúde e Sociedade accepts articles previously deposited on the preprint server SciELO Preprints. Other servers will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis by the editorial board. The text previously published in the preprint must be correctly cited at the time of submission.

Peer Review Process

When selecting articles for publication, the scientific merit of the work and its adequacy to the editorial standards adopted by Saúde e Sociedade are evaluated. In the first stage, manuscripts submitted in accordance with editorial standards are evaluated by the editors-in-chief, who verify the adequacy of the contributions to the journal's thematic scope and publication priority. Once approved in pre-selection, manuscripts are assigned to associate editors, who, in turn, forward them to peer review (at least two ad hoc reviewers).

The entire submission and peer review process is conducted through ScholarOne, which, by default, conceals the identities of both reviewers and authors to ensure a double-blind peer review process. Review reports are confidential, and by agreeing to review a manuscript, reviewers declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to the submission under evaluation. The double-blind peer review process also applies to manuscripts previously posted as preprints.

The names of the editors involved in the peer review process are appropriately acknowledged in the published article.

In line with the practices of so-called “open science”, the journal offers authors and reviewers the option of opening the peer review process with or without identifying their names. Authorization to disclose the name may be given by the authors at the time of submission of the article, by the Open Science Compliance Form, and by the evaluators when filling out the evaluation form.

Opinions serve as the basis for editorial decisions, with the Editorial Board reserving the right to publish or reject submitted manuscripts. After issuing opinions via the journal's specific form, the authors are notified of the editorial decision. In the case of requesting changes, authors will have 15 days from sending the editorial decision to make the requested changes and submit the new version.

Once approved, the manuscript goes through standardization, review, and layout adjustments. This process may require authors to make corrections and additions to information. In these cases, the company hired by the periodical (GN1) will send an email to the corresponding author, who must respond to the requests within the specified deadline. Failure to respond within this period may result in the manuscript being archived.

The company will also send the final page proofs to the corresponding author by email. The corresponding author will have seven days to review the proofs, make any necessary corrections, and return them. If the proofs are not returned within the established deadline, the Editorial Board will consider the version sent to be final, and no further changes will be permitted.

Open Data

The journal encourages authors to publish analysis datasets, instruments, statistical analysis scripts, and additional materials in open online repositories such as SciELO Date, Zenodo, Figshare, OSF, and Mendeley Data if they cannot be published in the work itself, and this information must be indicated in the manuscript. Consequently, articles that publish research must indicate and reference the availability of content underlying the preparation of the research and the results obtained.

Fees

Saúde e Sociedade does not charge fees for the submission, evaluation, or publication of articles.

Translation into English of manuscripts submitted in Portuguese or Spanish is optional. Manuscripts submitted in English must be translated into Portuguese and will be published in both languages. All translations are arranged by the journal, and the associated costs are the responsibility of the authors.

The costs of publishing errata and retractions will also be borne by the authors.

Ethics and Misconduct, Correction and Retraction Policy

Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and sequence of authors before submitting their manuscript and forward the definitive list of authors at the time of submission. Once the manuscript evaluation process has begun, no additions or changes of authorship will be permitted.

Once the manuscript is approved, no substantial changes can be made. Small modifications may be requested by the journal during the standardization, review, translation, and layout process, or by the corresponding author upon receipt of the final proof. Once these steps are complete, no changes can be made. Exceptions may be evaluated by the Editorial Board based on justifications presented by the authors. If approved, corrections that do not constitute misconduct will be published through an erratum, and the costs must be paid by the authors.

Corrections resulting from misconduct will be published in the form of a retraction, and the already published article will remain indexed in the journal's database as retracted. The retraction must be properly referenced and documented and may be partial when the misconduct applies to a specific part of the article without, however, compromising the published research as a whole.

Policy on Conflict of Interest

Article authors, reviewers, and editors are obliged to inform if there is any type of conflict of interest, which may be of a personal, commercial, political, or financial nature. Conflicts of interest may occur when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that may influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts.

When submitting the manuscript, authors are responsible for acknowledging and disclosing any conflicts that may have influenced the work.

Editors and referees must also report conflicts of interest that may influence the analysis of the manuscript, declaring themselves not qualified to participate in the evaluation process.

Adoption of similarity software

The journal considers the practice of plagiarism unacceptable. The software iThenticate Similarity Check, which checks similarities between texts, will be used at any time during the article evaluation process to check for plagiarism and ensure the originality of the article.

Texts that show high similarity (more than 40%) with other materials already published will be considered plagiarism, including direct quotations without due attribution of authorship. Exceptions are content published by authors in the form of preprints, theses, dissertations, and monographs. In these cases, the origin of the content must be stated in the body of the article.

When plagiarism is detected, authors are informed. In case of doubt, a representative of the journal's Editorial Board contacts the corresponding author and, if necessary, all authors. Once duplicity is proven, the manuscript is rejected and archived, and the authors' affiliation or funding institutions involved in the development of the research may be contacted to report the misconduct.

Gender and Sex Issues

The journal team and authors who publish articles in the journal must observe the guidelines on Sex and Gender Equity in Research, which comprise a set of guidelines that guide the reporting of information about sex and gender in study design, data analysis, results and interpretation of findings. In addition, Saúde e Sociedade observes the gender equity policy when forming its editorial board.

Ethics Committee

The journal pays strict attention to ethical standards for carrying out research with animals and humans. Research ethics procedures and statements, as well as certificates from institutional or community ethics committees, when existing, must be attached during the submission process. The existence of theoretical and normative references on ethical practices in research is recommended, taking into account the specific case and the disciplinary area. 

Copyright

Saúde e Sociedade follows the Open Access publishing model, providing unrestricted online access to all content published by the journal.

Open Access is a model in which the copyright holder of a scholarly work grants third parties permission to use the work under an open license (Creative Commons Attribution, CC BY). This allows immediate, free access to the work and authorizes any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, use them as data for software, or employ them for any other lawful purpose.

Intellectual Property and Terms of Use

All journal content, including published articles, except where otherwise specified, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY).

Authors of articles published by Saúde e Sociedade maintain the copyright of their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction as long as the original work is correctly cited.

Saúde e Sociedade encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts, publishing them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and academic social media, provided that they include the full citation and a link to the version published on the journal's website.

Sponsors and Promotion Agencies 

Faculdade de Saúde Pública da USP - FSP/USP

http://www.fsp.usp.br
Av. Dr. Arnaldo, 715, São Paulo, SP CEP: 01246-904

Agência de Bibliotecas e Coleções Digitais (ABCD-USP)

http://www.abcd.usp.br
atendimento@abcd.usp.br

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)


http://www.cnpq.br

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - Fapesp