Author Guidelines
Aims & Scope
Professional Ethics
Manuscript Submission
Documents Preparation
Cover Letter
Title Page
Novelty Statement
Manuscript
Review Process
Final considerations
Templates of Documents to be Submitted
Aims & Scope
Brazilian Journal of Analytical Chemistry is a double-blind peer-reviewed research journal, dedicated to the diffusion of significant and original knowledge in all branches of Analytical Chemistry and Bioanalytical Chemistry, and it is addressed to professionals involved in science, technology, and innovation projects at universities, research centers and in industry. The BrJAC welcomes the submission of research papers reporting studies devoted to new and significant analytical methodologies, putting in evidence the scientific novelty, impact of the research, and demonstrated analytical or bioanalytical applicability. BrJAC strongly discourages those simple applications of routine analytical methodologies, or the extension of these methods to new sample matrices, unless the proposal contains substantial novelty and unpublished data, clearly demonstrating advantages over existing ones.
Additionally, there are other submission categories to BrJAC such as:
Reviews: They should be sufficiently broad in scope, but specific enough to permit an appropriate depth discussion, including critical analyses of the bibliographic references and conclusions. Manuscripts submitted for publication as Reviews must be original and unpublished. Reviews undergo double-blind full peer review and are handled by the Editor of Reviews.
Technical Notes: Concise descriptions of developments in analytical methods, new techniques, procedures, or equipment falling within the scope of the BrJAC. Technical notes also undergo double-blind full peer review.
Letters: Discussions, comments, and suggestions on issues related to Analytical Chemistry or Bioanalytical Chemistry. Letters are welcome and will be published at the discretion of the BrJAC Editor-in-Chief.
Point of View: This category is exclusively invited by the Editor-in-Chief.
See the next items for more information on the journal, the documents preparation, manuscript types, and how to prepare the submission.
Professional Ethics
- Originality: manuscripts submitted for publication in BrJAC cannot have been previously published or be currently submitted for publication in another journal.
- Preprint: BrJAC does not accept manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers prior to the submission.
- Integrity: the submitted manuscripts are the full responsibility of the authors. Manipulation/invention/omission of data, duplication of publications, the publication of papers under contract and confidentiality agreements, company data, material obtained from non-ethical experiments, publications without consent, the omission of authors, plagiarism, the publication of confidential data and undeclared conflicts of interests are considered serious ethical faults.
- BrJAC discourages and restricts the practice of excessive self-citation by the authors.
- BrJAC does not practice coercive citation, that is, it does not require authors to include references from BrJAC as a condition for achieving acceptance, purely to increase the number of citations to articles from BrJAC without any scientific justification.
- Conflicts of Interest: when submitting their manuscript for publication, the authors must include all potential sources of bias such as affiliations, funding sources and financial, management or personal relationships which may affect the work.
- Copyright: will become the property of the Brazilian Journal of Analytical Chemistry, if and when a manuscript is accepted for publication. The copyright comprises exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution of the articles, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilms or any other reproductions similar in nature, including translations.
- Request for permission to reuse figures and tables published in the BrJAC: researchers who want to reuse any document or part of a document published in the BrJAC should request reuse permission from the BrJAC Editor-in-Chief, even if they are the authors of such document. A template for requesting reuse permission can be downloaded here.
- Misconduct will be treated according to the COPE's recommendations (https://publicationethics.org/) and the Council of Science Editors White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications (https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/).
Manuscript Submission
The BrJAC does not charge authors an article processing fee.
Manuscripts must be prepared according to the BrJAC manuscript template. Manuscripts in disagreement with the BrJAC guidelines are not accepted for revision.
The submission of manuscripts is done online by a submitting author through a digital manuscript manager system, which guides the author step by step through the entire submission process.
After the submitting author logs in to the system and enters his/her personal and affiliation details, the submission can be started.
All co-authors must be added to the Authors section.
Four documents are mandatorily uploaded by the submitting author: Cover letter, Title Page, Novelty Statement and the Manuscript. Templates for these documents are available at the end of this page.
The four documents mentioned above must be uploaded as Word files. The manuscript Word file will be converted by the system to a PDF file which will be used in the double-blind peer review process.
All correspondence, including notification of the Editor’s decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail to the submitting author through the manuscript manager system.
Documents Preparation
It is highly recommended that authors download and use the templates to create their four mandatory documents to avoid the suspension of a submission that does not meet the BrJAC guidelines.
Cover Letter
The cover letter template should be downloaded and filled out carefully.
Any financial conflict of interest or lack thereof and agreement with BrJAC's copyright policy must be declared.
It is the duty of the submitting author to inform his/her collaborators about the submission of the manuscript and its eventual publication.
The Cover Letter must be signed by the corresponding author.
Title Page
The Title Page must contain information for each author: full name, affiliation and full postal address, and information on the contribution of each author to the work. Acknowledgments must be entered on the Title Page. The submitting author must sign the Title Page.
Novelty Statement
The Novelty Statement must contain clear and succinct information about what is new and innovative in the study in relation to previously related works, including the works of the authors themselves.
Manuscript (all submission categories)
It is highly recommended that authors download the Manuscript template and create their manuscript in this template, keeping the layout of this file.
- Language: English is the language adopted by the BrJAC. The correct use of English is of utmost importance. In cases where the Editors and Reviewers consider the manuscript to require an English revision, the authors will be required to send an English proofreading certificate before the final approval of the manuscript by BrJAC.
- Required items: the manuscript must include a title, abstract, keywords, and the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, and References.
- Identification of authors: as the BrJAC adopts a double-blind review, the manuscript file must NOT contain the authors’ names, affiliations nor acknowledgments. Full details of the authors and their acknowledgements should be on the Title Page.
- Layout: the lines in the manuscript must be numbered consecutively and double-spaced.
- Graphics and Tables: must appear close to the discussion about them in the manuscript. For figures use Arabic numbers, and for tables use Roman numbers.
- Figure files: when a manuscript is approved for publication, the BrJAC production team will contact the corresponding author to request separate files of each figure and a graphical abstract. These files must have good resolution and the extension PNG or JPG.
The graphical abstract should preferably be created in landscape format. In the article diagrammed in the journal, the graphical abstract will occupy a space of 8 to 9 cm in length and 6 cm in height.
Chemical structures must have always the same dimensions. - Studies involving biological material: For studies involving human and animal material for research purposes, authors must state in the manuscript that the research has been approved by the research ethics committee of the institution where the study was conducted.
- Permission to use content already published in the scientific literature: to use figures, graphs, diagrams, tables, etc. identical to others previously published in the literature, even if these materials have been published by the same submitting authors, a reuse permission from the publisher or scientific society holding the copyrights must be requested by the submitting authors and included among the documents uploaded in the manuscript management system at the time of manuscript submission.
- Chemical nomenclature, units and symbols: should conform to the rules of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and Chemical Abstracts Service. It is recommended that, whenever possible, the authors follow the International System of Units, the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM) and the NIST General Table of Units of Measurement. Abbreviations are not recommended except for those recognized by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures or those recorded and established in scientific publications. Use L for liters. Always use superscripts rather than /. For instance: use mg mL-1 and NOT mg/mL. Leave a space between numeric values and their units.
- References throughout the manuscript: the references must be cited as superscript numbers. It is recommended that references older than 5 (five) years be avoided, except in relevant cases.
- References item: From 2022, BrJAC is adopting the American Chemical Society’s Style in the References item.
Mendeley Reference Manager users will find the Journal of American Chemical Society citation style in the Mendeley View menu.
Non-users of the Mendeley Reference Manager may refer to the ACS Reference Style Quick Guide - DOI: doi.org/10.1021/acsguide.40303.
Please submit your manuscript at www.manuscriptmanager.net/brjac or click on the
"Manuscript Submission" button at the end of this page.
Review Process
Manuscripts submitted to the BrJAC undergo an initial check for compliance with all of the journal's guidelines. Submissions that do not meet the journal's guidelines will be suspended and an alert sent to the corresponding author. The authors will be able to resend the submission within 30 days. If the submission according to the journal's guidelines is not made within 30 days, the submission will be withdrawn on the first subsequent day and an alert will be sent to the corresponding author.
Manuscripts that are in accordance with the journal's guidelines are submitted for the analysis of similarities by the iThenticate software.
The manuscript is then forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief who will check whether the manuscript is in accordance with the journal's scope and will analyze the similarity report issued by iThenticate.
If the manuscript passes the screening described above, it will be forwarded to an Associate Editor who will also analyze the iThenticate similarity report and invite reviewers.
Manuscripts are reviewed in double-blind mode by at least 2 reviewers. A larger number of reviewers may be used at the discretion of the Editor. As evaluation criteria, the reviewers employ originality, scientific quality, contribution to knowledge in the field of Analytical Chemistry, the theoretical foundation and bibliography, the presentation of relevant and consistent results, compliance with the BrJAC’s guidelines, clarity of writing and presentation, and the use of grammatically correct English.
Note: In case the Editors and Reviewers consider the manuscript to require an English revision, the authors will be required to send an English proofreading certificate, by the ProofReading Service or equivalent service, before the final approval of the manuscript by the BrJAC.
The 1st-round review process usually takes around 5-6 weeks. If the manuscript is not rejected but requires corrections, the authors will have one month to submit a corrected version of the manuscript. In another 3-4 weeks, a new decision on the manuscript may be presented to the corresponding author.
The manuscripts accepted for publication are forwarded to the article layout department. Minor changes to the manuscripts may be made, when necessary, to adapt them to BrJAC guidelines or to make them clearer in style, respecting the original content. The articles are sent to the authors for approval before publication. Once published online, a DOI number is assigned to the article.
Final Considerations
Whatever the nature of the submitted manuscript, it must be original in terms of methodology, information, interpretation or criticism. With regard to the contents of published articles and advertisements, the sole responsibility belongs to the respective authors and advertisers; the BrJAC, its editors, editorial board, editorial office and collaborators are fully exempt from any responsibility for the data, opinions or unfounded statements.
The BrJAC reserves the right to make, whenever necessary, small alterations to the manuscripts in order to adapt them to the journal rules or make them clearer in style, while respecting the original contents. The article will be sent to the authors for approval prior to publication.
Please submit your manuscript at www.manuscriptmanager.net/brjac or click on the
"Manuscript Submission" button at the end of this page.
Templates