ISSN 0103-6971 printed version
ISSN 1981-8637 online version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and Policy
• Formatting of the manuscripts
• Submission of Manuscripts

The Journal accepts unpublished articles in Portuguese, Spanish or English, with title, abstract and keywords in the original language and in English, in the following categories: a) Original: contributions that aim to disclose unpublished results of empirical, experimental or conceptual nature, bearing in mind the relevance of the theme, scope and knowledge generated for that specific research area; b) Special: articles written under request on current themes; c) Review: critical summary of the knowledge available on a specific theme by means of pertinent analysis and interpretation of the relevant literature. It should include a critical and comparative analysis of studies in the area, discuss the methodological limits and scope and suggest study themes that can further enrich the area. The journal will publish at most two reviews per issue; d) Session: provides information about recent researches done on relevant themes that supports the studies of professionals who work in the area. Its purpose is to introduce or update a subject; e) Essay: studies that may elicit reflection and discussion about a certain subject and raise questions and hypotheses for future researches; f) Clinical Case: These articles present descriptive data of one or more cases, exposing a method or problem by means of examples. These papers include the characteristics of the studied person or animal, such as gender, socioeconomic level, age, among others.

When submitting an article, please include a statement signed by all authors that the work is being submitted exclusively to RGO - Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia, and that all authors agree to transfer the copyrights to the journal.

If the study uses figures from other previously published studies, the authors must provide written permission for their reproduction. This authorization should accompany the manuscript.

Authorship: Credit for authorship must be based on substantial contributions, such as conception and design or data analysis and interpretation, writing or critically reviewing the text and approving the final draft. The inclusion of authors whose contributions do not meet the above criteria is unjustified. In this case, they may be cited in the Acknowledgement section.

The RGO - Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia accepts a maximum of 6 authors per paper. Exceptionally, a higher number of authors may be accepted for more complex studies. In this case, please include the contributions made by each author on a separate sheet.
It include the contributions made by each author on the title page of the manuscript.

Original copies of studies that do not comply with the required formatting will not be accepted for review. The journal will inform the item(s) and respective code(s) that are in nonconformity with its norms when a paper is rejected.

The manuscripts with the correct formatting will be forwarded to the Editorial Board who will determine the scientific merit of the contribution. If it is approved, the manuscript will be sent to ad hoc referees, previously selected by the Board. Each manuscript will be sent to two referees with indisputable knowledge on the subject. If the referees disagree, a third referee will be consulted.

Manuscripts deemed unsuitable for publication in the RGO - Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia cannot be resubmitted to this journal. This journal uses a blind peer review system, that is, the referees and the authors remain anonymous during the entire process. If any of the referees declares a conflict of interest, the Editorial Board will send the paper to another ad hoc referee. The referees will either: a) approve the paper for publication without changes; b) approve but request changes; c) reject the paper for publication. The authors will always be informed of the referees' decisions.

The RGO - Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia welcomes contributions from the domestic and international scientific communities that promote the scientific advancement of dentistry and its sub-areas.

Please use the font Times New Roman, font size 12, line spacing of 1.5, and limit the manuscript to a maximum of 25 pages. The paper size must be A4 leaving 3cm margins on the top and left and 2cm margins on the bottom and right.

All pages must be numbered, starting with the title page. If there are any doubts regarding formatting, please contact us.

Articles must have at most 30 references, except for review articles, which may have about 50.

New versions: When changes are made to meet the referees' requests, please include the protocol number and the version number when resubmitting the paper to the journal. Send only the last version of the article. Please make the changes using blue font. Also include a letter to the editor confirming your interest in having the paper published by this journal and indicate the changes made to the manuscript. If you disagree with any of the recommendations made by the referees, please provide your reasons for doing so. The manuscript title and code must be specified.

The deadlines for resubmitting the articles must be respected. They will be informed in the letter that accompanies the original article.
If the deadline for resubmitting the article is not met, the assessment process will be terminated and the article cannot be resubmitted to this journal.

Submitting a Manuscript

The paper should be submitted as follows:

Specialty or research area: a single word should allow the reader to immediately identify the specialty or research area.
Title: a) the full title in Portuguese and English or Spanish must be concise; avoid using too many words, such as "evaluation of…", "considerations about…", "exploratory study"; b) the short title should have a maximum of 50 characters with spaces.

Authors' names: a) full name of all the authors, indicating the affiliations (please include city, state and country); b) only one affiliation will be accepted per author. It is up to the author to choose which title/affiliation should be included; c) do not use any abbreviations in the titles and affiliation data; d) include the full address for correspondence of all the authors along with the contact's name, telephone number and e-mail address. Important notice: this is the only place in the text that may have the authors' identification.

Abstract: a) all articles submitted in Portuguese or Spanish must include an abstract in the original language and in English with a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 250 words. The articles submitted in English must include an abstract in Portuguese, in addition to the abstract in English; b) for original articles, the abstracts must be structured, indicating the objectives, methods, location, description of the sample and its size, results and most relevant conclusions, considering the aims of the study and suggesting further studies. For all the other categories, the abstract should be a narrative, but contain the same information; c) do not use quotations and/or abbreviations.

Keywords: these are the words or terms that characterize the article. When choosing keywords, authors should refer to the "Health Science Descriptors - DeCS" created by BIREME (available at http://decs.bvs.br/) or to the "MeSh - Medical Subject Headings" (available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). There should be a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 keywords.

Introduction: The introduction must be a short description of the problem, exposing its importance and pointing out the knowledge gaps that the article will fill. It must include an updated literature review pertinent to the theme and appropriate to the problem being discussed. Its relevance should also be emphasized. The introduction of review articles may be longer.

Methods: The methods must be detailed to allow the study to be duplicated. In other words, please include the procedures, universe, sample, instruments used and all other relevant information. When applicable, include the validation method and statistical treatment.
With regard to statistical analysis, the authors must show that the procedures used were not only appropriate to test the hypothesis of the study, but were also correctly interpreted. The level of statistical significance (e.g. p<0.05; p<0.01; p<0.001) must be informed.

All the drugs and chemical substances used must be accurately disclosed, including generic name(s), dose(s) and administration route. Scientific terms must be written in full. This includes names of chemical compounds and elements and binomials of microbiological, zoological and botanical nomenclature. Please use the generic names of products instead of brand names, always followed by the manufacturer's name, city and country of origin in parenthesis and separated by commas.

Do not forget to mention that the study was approved by a Research Ethics Committee accredited by a National Health Council and state the number of the protocol. When animals are used, make sure to follow the guidelines of the institutional or domestic research council or of any domestic laws regarding the care and use of laboratory animals in research and include this information in the manuscript.

Results: Please keep the discussion and personal interpretations in this section as short as possible. The results should include tables and/or appropriate illustrations when necessary. Do not repeat in the text information that is in the illustrations and tables. Statistical data must be properly analyzed.

Discussion: The discussion must regard the data obtained. Avoid hypotheses that are not based on the results of the study in question, such as those that are related to the existing knowledge or based on the results of other relevant studies. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions drawn from them. Do not repeat in detail the data or other information already mentioned in the Introduction or result sections. Include implications for future research.

Conclusion: The final part of the paper is based on the available evidence, pertinent to the aim of the study. The conclusions must be precise and clearly exposed, each one based on the objectives of the study, showing the link between the results and the proposed hypotheses. Show evidence of what the study has achieved and how the results may be used. Other studies that complement the research or questions that arose while the study was being done may be mentioned. In this section, bibliographical citations are not allowed. The conclusions should be narrated, not separated by topics.

Acknowledgements: A maximum of three lines can be used for the acknowledgements, which may be to institutions or individuals who actually collaborated with the study.

Attachments: Only include attachments if they are critical for understanding the text. The editors will decide if they need to be published.

Abbreviations and acronyms: These must be standardized and restricted to those that are well-known or sanctioned by use, and spelled out in full when first mentioned in the text. They cannot be used in the title or abstract.

References: Please number them consecutively, according to the order in which they appear in the text. Use the Vancouver style.

All authors must be cited in references that have up to six authors; if more than six, cite the first six followed by the Latin expression el al.

Titles of periodicals must be abbreviated according to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html) and they must not be printed in bold, italic or underlined. Please use the same format for all the references.

Citations/references of senior research papers, works of congresses, symposiums, workshops, meetings, among others and unpublished papers (examples, classes, among others) will not be accepted.

If an article-in-press of one of the authors of the study is mentioned, please include the letter of acceptance of the journal that accepted the article for publication. If they are absolutely necessary, do not include them in the references section but in footnotes.

Bibliographic citations in the text: Use the numeric citation system where only the number-indexes of references are indicated in the text in superscript. They must be in numerical order; use Arabic numerals, and position them half line above and after the citation. They must also be cited in the list of references. If there are two authors, use the "&" between their names; if there are more than two, cite the first author's name followed by the expression et al.

Tables, charts and figures must be limited to a maximum of six per manuscript and consecutively and independently numbered with Arabic numerals, in the order that the data is mentioned. They must also be able to "stand alone," that is, not depend on the text. Each table, chart or figure should be on a separate page. Please indicate their locations in the text. The subtitles must include the location and year of the study. Include a short title. Leave the side borders of the charts and tables open. Graphs must be submitted in Excel files with the numbers that generated the graphs.

The author(s) are responsible for the quality of the figures (drawings, illustrations, tables, charts and graphs). Please use a resolution that allows changing the size to 1 or 2 columns (7 or 15 cm respectively) without losing quality. Figures must be in JPEG format and have a minimum resolution of 300 DPI. Figures embedded in files created in text-editing software (Word or similar) or figures created in Power Point will not be accepted. Do not reveal the name or registration number of a patient. Make sure that the patient cannot be recognized when using photographs.

It use the Sistema Eletrônico de Editoração de Revistas (SEER) to submit the article.