INTERNAL REGULATIONS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF JOURNALS
CHAPTER 1
Editorial Board of Journals
Article 1. The Editorial Board of Journals is an official body of SBC responsible for selecting, evaluating and publishing articles and the editorial content of journals belonging to the “ABC Family.”
Paragraph 1. The “ABC Family” includes the journals published by SBC, including those directed by its Departments, as recognized by the Administrative Council pursuant to Article 19.1.1 of the SBC Regulations.
Paragraph 2. In its editorial functions, the Editorial Board has total and unrestricted freedom to make decisions. The direct or indirect interference of the Administrative Council, the Superintendence or any other department of SBC is not allowed, subject to the budget allocations.
CHAPTER 2
Members and Duties of the Editorial Board
Article 2. The Editorial Board is charged with arranging the content and other editorial criteria of the journals belonging to the “ABC Family,” generating synergy of agendas. Its members are:
a) Editors-in-Chief of each journal that is part of the “ABC Family.”
b) One (1) member of the Scientific Committee of the Administrative Council.
c) One (1) member of the Research and Innovation Committee of the Administrative Council.
d) One (1) former Editor-in-Chief of any of the “ABC Family” Journals, to be chosen by the Administrative Council.
Paragraph 1. The Editors-in-Chief of each journal will be assisted by Associate Editors and the Review Board, who will be directly reporting to them.
Paragraph 2. The Editorial Board will be coordinated by the Editor-in-Chief of Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia, who will have the casting vote in the event of a tie.
CHAPTER 3
Editors-in-Chief
Section 1
Selection of Editors-in-Chief
Article 3. Selection of Editors-In-Chief will be conducted by the Editorial Board by taking the following actions:
a) Public notice containing the requirements and form of choice, to be sent to all SBC members by e-mail, and published on the SBC portal in the first half of the year in which the Editor-In-Chief’s term of office ends.
b) Reception and analysis of résumés and qualifications among cardiologists residing in Brazil, which will be done by a committee appointed by the Administrative Council of SBC.
c) Contracting is to be done by means of a service agreement.
Paragraph 1. The Editors-In-Chief will be entitled to a monthly pay to be determined by the SBC Administrative Council, considering the financial capacity of the Journal.
Paragraph 2. For journals run by Departments, the fees to be paid to the Editors-in-Chief will be paid by the publishing body.
Paragraph 3. The Editors-in-Chief may be removed by the Administrative Council of SBC upon consultation with the other members of the Editorial Board.
Paragraph 4. The Editors-In-Chief’s term of office will last three (3) years, with one reelection allowed through selection process announced in a public notice.
Paragraph 5. Editors-in-Chief intending to run for reelection will be automatically prevented from participating in the selection process from the application until a winning applicant is determined.
Section 2
Prerequisites for the position of Editor-in-Chief
Article Paragraph 4. The following are prerequisites for the position of Editor-in-Chief:
a) Having been an SBC member for over 10 years.
b) Holding the Title of Specialist in Cardiology.
c) Strong academic qualifications in the field of cardiology, including the title of PhD.
d) Broad and deep knowledge of cardiovascular medicine, its trends and latest developments.
e) Business administration and leadership skills.
f) Experience in writing, editing and proofreading articles for print or online publications as well as ability to plan, coordinate and deal with related tasks.
c) Computer skills, including the ability to handle new communication technologies and making improvements to the journal.
h) Being familiar with the activities of SBC.
i) Knowledge and experience in scientific methodology.
j) Having the time to complete related tasks.
k) Being free of potential conflicts of interest and/or ethical conflicts that may limit the independence of the editorial process.
Section 3
Responsibilities of the Editors-in-Chief
Article 5. The Editor-in-Chief is a medical professional responsible for representing the journal in the Editorial Board and has the following duties:
a) Approving all materials published in the journal, or those prepared to be included in marketing pages, or in the form of booklets, working with associate editors, according to the agenda defined by the Editorial Board.
b) Working within the budget approved by the SBC Administrative Council.
c) Taking responsibility for all invitations to publish editorials or review articles.
d) Selecting and maintaining a body of Associate Editors in each field of study.
e) Planning agendas with the journal’s staff and organizing regular meetings with each of the associate editors and the Editorial Board members to ensure communication and integration.
f) Participating in major scientific meetings of SBC and its affiliates in order to select and identify topics for publication.
g) Representing the journal in Administrative Council meetings, whenever convened.
h) Achieving qualitative growth targets set by the Editorial Board.
i) Submitting annual performance reports to the Editorial Board.
Paragraph 1. No SBC member should interfere with the assessment, selection or publication of individual manuscripts either directly or by creating an environment that may influence any decisions.
Paragraph 2. The editors should base their decisions on the validity of the work and on its importance to the readers, rather than on the commercial success of the journal.
Paragraph 3. The editors should feel free to express critical views, but should take responsibility for all medical aspects without any concerns with retaliation.
Paragraph 4. The editors must ensure the highest standards of ethics for the production of credible publications that are free of any economic, political, partisan or religious influences or any other interferences from the industry or from other entities on the scientific or clinical content.
CHAPTER 4
Associate Editors
Article 6. The Associate Editors are medical professionals appointed and dismissed ad nutum by the Editor-in-Chief and must fulfill the same requirements set out in Article 4, items “a”, “b”, “c”, “d”, “e” and “f”, of these regulations.
Sole Paragraph. The Associate Editors will not receive any fees for their work, and will have the following duties:
I – Helping the Editor-in-Chief plan the editorial line of the journal.
II – Carefully reviewing, based on strict scientific and technical criteria, within the scope of their specialty areas, the manuscripts approved by the Board of Reviewers, offering suggestions for modifications and adjustments in order to improve them for publication.
III – Recommending guest authors to write editorials based on original articles approved, and recommending authors for thematic reviews.
CHAPTER 5
Body of Reviewers
Article 7. The journal reviewers will be selected by the Editor-In-Chief of each journal. The reviewers can be either Brazilian and foreigners.
Article 8. To maintain the condition of reviewer, the following criteria must be fulfilled:
I – Regular review services provided to the journal.
II – Conducting reviews with high scientific and methodological quality.
Paragraph 1. At the end of each year, the list of reviewers who cooperated in that period will be published.
Paragraph 2. The reviewers are in charge of:
I – Reviewing the manuscript from a scientific and methodological point of view, proposing modifications to the authors and suggesting to the Editors the priority of publication.
II – Finding and suggesting to the Editors potential conflicts of interest of the authors in the study.
CHAPTER 6
Policies of Conflicts of Interest Applicable to all Journals
Article 9. The relationship of an author, either directly or indirectly, through the research institution, with companies that may benefit from the study findings is considered a potential conflict of interest.
Article 10. The following types of relationships are considered as potentially conflicting and should be declared if in the last two years any of the authors:
I – Has been paid for consulting services, lectures, copy writing, or any other types of paid services provided to the product manufacturer.
II – Has received assistance from the product manufacturer (research grants, provision of equipment, drugs, labor) related to the project under analysis or any other project involving the same product.
III – Has received assistance from the product manufacturer to attend conferences.
IV – Has owned stocks of the product manufacturer.
V – There has been involvement of the product manufacturer in the collection, analysis, interpretation or writing of data.
VI – Is an employee of a company that may benefit directly or indirectly from the study findings.
Article 11. The authors must inform the source of the funds employed in the research (research funding agencies, organizations and nonprofit institutions, their own funding or private sponsorship).
Paragraph 1. The authors must inform, in case of involvement of an external sponsor, whether this sponsor has participated in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or helped writing the manuscript.
Paragraph 2. The main author must inform whether he/she had access to all data in the study and whether he/she takes responsibility for the decision to submit the manuscript.
Paragraph 3. All co-authors must fill in a declaration of conflict of interests.
Paragraph 4. Failure to fill in the declaration of conflict of interests precludes the publication of the manuscript.
Paragraph 5. Once the declaration of conflicts containing untrue data or information is identified, with the aim of hiding an existing or potential conflict of interest, the name of the person responsible will be reported to the Electoral and Professional Ethics Commission of SBC (CELEP) for verification of lack of ethics, pursuant to these regulations.
CHAPTER 7
Desktop Publishing, Languages and Formats
Article 12. Desktop publishing, languages and formats of the journals will be defined by the Editorial Board and must follow international standards for biomedical journals, as set forth in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: www.icmje.org.
Sole Paragraph. There will be at least one SBC employee serving as Editorial Supervisor. This will be reporting to the Superintendence and the Editorial Board. The Editorial Supervisor shall be responsible for technically editing the journal, managing the process of submission, receipt, analysis, review, desktop publishing, translation, printing, publication and distribution of the manuscripts sent to the journals.
CHAPTER 9
Sources of Funding
Article 13. The journals will be maintained with funds from budget allocations provided in the annual budget of SBC, as approved by the Administrative Council, and may use funds from the following sources:
I – Sale of print ads.
II – Sale of ads on web pages.
III – Sale of reprints.
IV – Funds from SBC, resulting from the members’ annual fees.
V – Funds from non-governmental foundations and organizations.
VI – Government funding.
Paragraph 1. The Commercial Department of SBC is responsible for raising funds and may be assisted by the Editors and the Editorial Supervisor.
Paragraph 2. Inclusion of advertising materials in the journals must be approved by the Editorial Board, observing the standards regulating medical advertisements defined by government entities, as well as international standards for biomedical journals, as defined in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: www.icmje.org.
Paragraph 3. It is forbidden to sell advertisements related to the publication of scientific articles.
Paragraph 4. In compliance with the legal and regulatory provisions that govern the advertising of medical or health products, institutional advertising is allowed in the full publication of the journals, provided that it is on the front or back cover pages, as well as on the website of the respective journal.
CHAPTER 10
Scientific Publication Awards
Article 14. The Editorial Board will award the best manuscripts published throughout the year in each subject. The awards will be called “SBC/ABC Scientific Publication Award” and “SBC/IJCS Scientific Publication Award.”
Sole Paragraph. The Editorial Board may decide to create other awards for journals not listed in Article 14 of these regulations, up to one (1) per journal and provided that the budget is previously approved by the Administrative Council.
CHAPTER 11
General and Final Provisions
Article 15. – These regulations do not change the duties of the Editors-in-Chief or other members of the Editorial Board that are in force. New appointments must be made upon expiration of their terms of office.
Article 16. The Administrative Council should resolve any disputes and omissions related to these Internal Regulations, and promote any changes it deems relevant and necessary as resolved upon votes cast by the majority of its members.
Article 17. These Internal Regulations become effective on the date of approval by the Administrative Council.