Submissions

Author Guidelines

Guidelines for the submission of papers to the Portuguese Journal of Family Medicine and General Practice

Editorial Board of the PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE

1.     EDITORIAL SCOPE

The PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE accepts for publication papers related to fundamental, epidemiological and clinical research, healthcare administration or education research, as well as review articles, articles on clinical practice, clinical case reports, opinion articles, and others which may contribute to the development of the specialty of general practice and family medicine, or to the improvement of primary healthcare. Articles may be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.

This document sets out the latest version of the guidelines for paper submission to the RPMGF (hereinafter referred to as "Guidelines"), which consist of a review and update of the guidelines published in 2010 and revised in 2015.)¹ Citations of this version of the Guidelines must be as follows: Conselho Editorial da RPMGF. Normas para submissão de artigos à Revista Portuguesa de Medicina Geral e Familiar. Rev Port Med Geral Fam 2018;34:173-80.)² This document may be copied, reprinted or distributed electronically without prior authorization.

Authors wishing to submit papers for publication to this journal should read carefully and understand the instructions herein, as non-compliance with these requirements will lead to the rejection of their submission or publication.

Authors are advised to use the electronic version of the annexes hereto, available on the website of the RPMGF, when considering the submission of a manuscript.

2.     EDITORIAL POLICY

Authorship

The output of a scientific paper is the result of contributions made by several people and entities. However, not all inputs confer the right to being named among the authors of the work.

All those designated as authors should meet the three criteria for authorship of the Committee of Medical Journal Editors3 and all who meet these criteria should be identified as authors:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to data collection, analysis, or interpretation;

• Drafting the work or revising it critically, in what concerns intellectual content;

• Review of the final draft of the manuscript and approval of the version to be published;

• Take responsibility for all aspects of work, ensuring that issues related to the accuracy or completeness of any part of the work are adequately investigated and resolved.

Also, they must be able to identify all co-authors who are responsible for other specific parts of the work and be confident in the integrity of their contributions to the final work.

Those who might have contributed to other specific parts of the work, but do not meet the criteria for authorship, should be mentioned in the acknowledgments. This does not apply to any person or entity contributing exclusively as funder of the work.

Conflicts of interest

A conflict of interest exists when an author (or its institution) has a personal, professional or financial relationship which may influence his decisions, work or manuscript. Not all of these relationships represent a genuine conflict of interest. On the other hand, the potential for conflicts of interest can exist irrespective of whether or not the author believes that this relationship affects his scientific judgment. Authors, reviewers or publishers all have the potential for conflict of interest. Intentional omission of conflicts constitutes misconduct.

Authors must not accept sponsor restrictions that limit access to data or independent publication. The funding statement should distinguish between direct support for the study and institutional support for the author.

To ensure transparency in the editorial process, everyone involved in the publication of an article (authors, reviewers and editors) are asked to disclose any conflicts of interest. If the work has been funded wholly or in part by one or more individuals or entities, such information must be published along with the article.

Manuscripts are not accepted or rejected for publication on the basis of existing conflicts of interest and /or external funding.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The RPMGF recognizes the use of AI in accordance with the following:

• Authors must be human beings;
• Authors are fully and exclusively responsible for all the content of the texts they present, regardless of how they were prepared;
• Manuscripts are evaluated solely on the content submitted, regardless of whether generative AI tools were used. Any unwanted content produced by generative AI tools is the sole responsibility of the authors;
• Authors should be aware that generative AI tools may provide insights that are not new, innovative, or relevant, and that they may suggest fragments of existing text, provide incorrect information, and generate content that could be interpreted as scientific misconduct;
• The same principles apply to editors' and reviewers' assessments.

3.     STATEMENT OF PUBLICATION ETHICS AND BEST PRACTICES

(Based on the recommendations in the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors)⁴

Publication ethics

The PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE is committed to ensure ethics standards are met concerning the publication and quality of the articles. As such, all stakeholders - authors, editors, reviewers and publishers - are expected to follow international standards of ethical behaviour.

Authors: Authors are expected to deliver an objective analysis of the importance of the research work done, including the details and references required for the replication of experiments. Research involving human beings must follow an ethical conduct that complies with the principles established in the Declaration of Helsinki. As such, the research protocol must be submitted to the Ethics Committee of the healthcare institutions where the study will be conducted, prior to data collection. The documents required for the submissions of the articles (together with Annex II) must include a favourable opinion of this committee.

In case reports, authors must ensure the anonymity of the case presented, and the persons concerned must give their informed consent for the publication of the study (Annex III). For review articles, objectivity, their scope within the field of general practice and family medicine, and their suitability in light of the state of the art for clinical practice must be ensured. The same principles of objectivity, relevance and appropriateness to the latest knowledge and practices available shall apply to other types of publications.

Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original and, if works or excerpts taken from other papers have been used, this must be acknowledged and permission for publication provided. Where figures not covered by copyright are used, this must be declared by those responsible for the manuscript. Plagiarism, in any of its forms, represents unethical conduct in the publishing industry and is not acceptable. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal or submitting several papers on essentially the same research to more than one journal is also considered unethical conduct and not acceptable. The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have reached a consensus regarding the approval of the final draft of the document and its submission for publication.

Misrepresentation and intentionally inaccurate statements constitute unethical and unacceptable conduct.

Editors: Editors must assess the manuscripts solely on the basis of their academic and scientific added value. An editor should not use unpublished information in their own works without the express written consent of the author. Editors should take appropriate action in response to any complaints regarding ethics in respect of a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Reviewers: All papers received for evaluation should be treated as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas collected through peer review must be kept confidential and should not be used for their own benefit. Comments or corrections should be conducted objectively and the remarks made must be clear and properly reasoned, so that authors can use them to improve the manuscript.

Any selected reviewer who does not feel qualified to assess the work described in the manuscript, or who will not be able to respond promptly to requests to review, shall notify the editor / secretariat of the PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE of this and dismiss themselves from the peer-review process. Reviewers must not review manuscripts in which they have competing interests with the authors, companies or institutions linked to the manuscript, as a result of competition, collaboration or relationship with any of the stakeholders.

RPMGF is deeply committed to scientific activity that respects the principles of research ethics in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the Oviedo Convention, particularly in processes involving vulnerable populations and the sharing of sensitive data. The role of ethics committees in health is extremely important. The publication of sensitive materials, including total or partial images, potentially identifying individuals is only possible with the express and unequivocal authorization of the person(s). The use of animals in scientific experimentation requires specific justification of the benefit and scientific need, an explanation of how to minimize potential harm and that all animals are treated appropriately.

Individual author statment

The PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE is commited to ensure that authors can identify their individual contribution in published articles, through a precise and detailed description of the each task.

RPMGF uses the CRediT system as published by Allen et al (2014) 19. Each author must identify the tasks in which he/she participated. Authors may have contributed in various roles.

Conceptualization	Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims
Methodology	Development or design of methodology; creation of models
Software	Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components
Validation	Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs
Formal analysis	Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyse or synthesize study data
Investigation	Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection
Resources	Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools
Data curation	Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re-use
Writing – original draft	Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation)
Writing – review and editing	Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages
Visualization	Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation
Supervision	Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team
Project administration	Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution
Funding acquisition	Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication

 

Process for evaluating allegations of malpractice

We invite all readers to actively participate in any sign or indication of malpractice or inappropriate conduct in articles published in the RPMGF, including issues related to authorship, individual contribution of each author, funding or conflicts of interest. They may also report issues related to staff, the editorial board, including the editor-in-chief, the magazine's management, or the owner. They should do so by email addressed to the editor-in-chief of RPMGF (secretariado@rpmgf.pt) or by contacting the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine (apmgf@apmgf.pt).
The editor-in-chief will conduct an investigative investigation and take the necessary corrective measures based on the facts found, informing the participant, the Director, the Editorial Board and the APMGF board. In the event of a manifest conflict of interests with the process, the investigation will be conducted by the Director of the Journal or, if this is not possible, by a member appointed by the APMGF board.

Complaints and Appeals

The RPMGF has a well-established decision-making hierarchy. Any matter relating to editorial issues will be forwarded to the editor-in-chief, via email secretariado@rpmgf.pt. The corresponding notice of the process and decision will be given to the Director of the RPMGF and to the board of the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine. Matters of another nature will be sent to the Director, via email secretariado@rpmgf.pt, who will inform the management of the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine, which is responsible for the final appeal on any aspect related to the RPMGF.

Post-publication discussion

Post-publication discussion is welcomed at RPMGF and may take the form of opinion pieces, letters to the editor, or direct contact with the editorial board or authors. Comments submitted in article form will follow the path described in these rules for each typology. Direct contacts with editors will be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief who will make the appropriate assessment and provide guidance. Authors are identified by the corresponding author in the contacts available in the publication. You are invited to respond in a timely manner to the comments you receive and to notify the editor-in-chief by email to secretariado@rpmgf.pt.

 

 

4.     SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION OF PAPERS

Papers submitted for publication in the PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE should be drafted following the UNIFORM REQUIREMENTS FOR MANUSCRIPTS SUBMITTED TO BIOMEDICAL JOURNALS, drawn up by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors^3,5 and documents included in the EQUATOR network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research).⁶

The articles submitted by their authors may include: original research papers, reviews, case reports, practice papers, education, opinion and discussion pieces, short articles, and letters to the editor. These articles are submitted to peer review, with the exception of the letters to the editor, which will be reviewed by the editorial team.

Editors are responsible for editorials and documents.

In this section, the common aspects of all types of papers are presented, as well as the description of different types of papers.

For the following types of articles, it is mandatory to submit the corresponding grid duly completed together with the manuscript:

• Randomized Clinical Trials: the CONSORT grid should be used, available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/
• Observational Studies: the STROBE grid should be used, available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/
• Economic evaluation studies (cost-utility, cost-effectiveness): the CHEERS grid should be used, available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/cheers/
• Prognostic evaluation studies or assessment of diagnostic/screening methods: the STARD grid should be used, available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/
  or the TRIPOD grid available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/tripod-statement/
• Quality improvement studies: the SQUIRE grid should be used, available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/squire/
• Systematic reviews: the PRISMA grid should be used, available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/
• Clinical cases: the CARE grid should be used, available at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/care/

For the following types, the submission of evaluation grids is not mandatory: narrative reviews or critical author reviews, practice articles, training, opinion and debate articles, brief articles and letters to the editor.

Elements that are common to the different types of articles

All papers submitted to the PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE must have a Title, description of Authors, main text and References. Most types require an Abstract. Persons who have contributed intellectually to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named in a section called Acknowledgements, placed between the main text and the references. Information on conflicts of interest and funding of the work comes after the bibliographical references.
All article typologies must include a Teaser section, just after the title and authors’ page, and before the abstract (if applicable). This section must comprise one or two sentences summarising the main aspects of the paper (which may be the objective and main result, or a key message).

The title of the Article and the Abstract shall be in Portuguese and English. When the paper is published in Portuguese, the first abstract will be in Portuguese and the second in English. Where the publication language is English, the abstract will appear in the reverse order. Where the language of the article is Spanish, the first abstract will be in that language, followed by an abstract in Portuguese and another in English at the end of the article. Abstracts may not have more than 300 words and below it authors should provide two to six keywords. Terms from the medical subject headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be used,7 alongside BIREME health science descriptors (DeCS)⁸ or PORBASE descriptors (Subject Index).⁹ The structure of the abstract for each type of article is described in the relevant section. Texts written in a language other than the author’s native language must undergo a linguistic and grammatical revision before being submitted for publication. The versions of the abstracts in different languages must be consistent between them, without significant differences in their content.
Two kinds of illustrations are permitted: figures and tables. Figures must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and tables with Roman numerals, according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Text must not repeat information included in the illustrations and may only highlight or summarise the most important aspects. The maximum number of illustrations by type of article is described in the relevant section.

References must follow international standards of referencing (the Vancouver style).¹⁰

Elements that are common to the different types of articles

Original research

Content: Research articles in general practice and family medicine or primary healthcare. They must follow internationally accepted standards for this type of article.^3,5 The authors are encouraged to follow the STROBE¹¹ guidelines for observational studies, CONSORT¹² for clinical trials, STARD¹³ standards for reporting of diagnostic accuracy, COREQ¹⁴ standards for reporting qualitative research and SQUIRE¹⁵ for quality guarantee and improvement studies. It is also mandatory to submit the respective assessment grid for the types previously mentioned in these standards.

Size: Individual articles may not be in excess of 8,000 words, with no more than 10 illustrations (tables or figures).

Structure: Includes Title, Abstract and two to six keywords in each of the required languages (see above). The main text shall be subdivided into: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. Acknowledgements may be included. The article must include References.

Main text: The Introduction must be brief. It must state the purpose of the article, describe the state of the art on the subject matter, and summarise the rationale for the study. The objectives and/or hypotheses made must be laid out at the end of the introduction. The Methods must describe the structure, location and duration of the study, the population, sampling methods, observational units and variables measured, methods used to collect data, criteria, instruments, techniques and apparatus used, as well as ethical aspects taken in account during the study planning and execution, including the approval of the respective Ethics Committee. The statistical methodology must be identified. Results must be presented in a clear manner, using text and illustrations (figures or tables). The illustrations will be placed in the manuscript after the references.Discussion must emphasise new and important aspects of the study, and the conclusions that follow from them. Observations must be compared to other relevant studies by other authors, discussion must include comments on the study's limitations or biases. New hypotheses may be stated. Conclusions not completely supported by the data, or alluding to work that has not been completed or published must be avoided. The conclusions of the study must be presented in the final paragraphs of the discussion.

Abstract: The Abstract should state the objectives of the study, basic methodology, main findings, and the key conclusions. It should emphasise new and important aspects of the study or observations. The abstract must be structured and divided into the following sub-titles: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions. We encourage researchers to register prospectively their clinical trials in a public clinical trial register. Clinical trials must include the trial registration number at the end of the abstract.

Case Report

Content: TDescriptive texts of clinical cases relevant to general practice and family medicine for improving decision-making in the diagnosis or treatment of aspects related to education or health policies. Authors are encouraged to apply the CARE Guidelines.¹⁶ It is also mandatory to submit the respective assessment grid for the types previously mentioned in these standards.

Size: Reports may not exceed 6,000 words, with no more than eight illustrations (tables or figures)

Structure: Articles must include Title, Abstract and two to six keywords in each of the required languages (see above). The main text is subdivided into: Introduction, Case description and Comment. Acknowledgements may be included. The article should include References.

Main text: The Introduction must briefly state the purpose for presenting the clinical case, without giving a theoretical review of the problem itself. The research question and the specific aim of presenting this case report should be clearly stated at the end of the introduction. The Case description must have an organised structure, using subtitles wherever necessary. Particular attention is needed to ensure the anonymisation of any identifiable the data concerning the subjects described. Express, free and informed consent for publication must be obtained from the subject or his / her legal representative. The Comment must address the most relevant practical aspects, problems encountered in clinical practice, or lessons drawn from the case report.

Abstract: The abstract must be structured and divided into the following sub-titles: Introduction, Case description and Comment.

Review

Content: Studies consisting of bibliographic review, summaries or clinical updates which may provide auxiliary instruments for updating and enhancing clinical practice. Reviews of systematic methodology, broad-spectrum narrative reviews or critical author reviews will be accepted, and they should translate an innovative component either in their results, perspectives or hypotheses launched. The authors are encouraged to follow the PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews¹⁷, the MOOSE guidelines for meta-analysis of observational studies¹⁸ and the recommendations by Riley et al. for meta-analysis of individual patient data.¹⁹

For systematic reviews, prior registration of the protocol in the PROSPERO database is strongly recommended, available at: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/. It is also mandatory to submit the respective assessment grid previously mentioned in these standards. Reviews entitled “evidence-based” that use non-systematic methodology or qualitative assessment grids that are not based on the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) [available at: https://www. gradeworkinggroup.org/] or Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) [available from: https://casp-uk.net].

Size: Review articles are not to exceed 8,000 words, with no more than 10 illustrations (tables or figures).

Structure: Articles must include Title, Abstract and two to six keywords in each of the required languages (see above). The main text is subdivided into: Introduction, Methods, Results and Conclusions. Acknowledgements may be included. The article should include References.

Main text: The Introduction must be brief. It must provide an explicit statement of the questions being addressed, describe the grounds for the study and discuss its timeliness. The question and the purpose of the review must be clearly stated at the end of the introduction. The Methods must describe the methodology used to conduct the review. Specific information to be given includes the topic being reviewed, various definitions (e.g. diagnostic criteria), the search strategy (years considered, electronic and document databases searched, search descriptors, manual reference search, contact with experts to identify additional studies), and the processes and criteria used for selecting studies. The Results must be structured and streamlined, using subtitles wherever necessary. They must include the results of the search and critical argumentation (assessment of data quality, data synthesis, comparison to pervious literature, identification of unresolved issues). The Conclusions must summarise relevant findings, highlight practical aspects, determine remaining problems, and propose possible options for future research.

Abstract: The Abstract should state the aims of the study, basic methodology, main findings and the principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the review. The abstract must be structured and divided into the following sub-titles: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions. The summary of the results must give the numbers and characteristics of the studies included in the review and those excluded. The main qualitative and quantitative findings may be included

Practice

Content: Descriptive papers of experiences or projects of importance in enhancing the quality of care delivered to patients in primary health care

Size: Reports may not exceed 5,000 words, with no more than four illustrations (tables or figures).

Structure: Articles must include Title, Abstract and two to six keywords in each of the required languages (see above). The main text is not required to follow a fixed structure. Acknowledgements may be included. The article should include References.

Abstract: There is no binding structure.

Training

Content: Consists of reports on projects or experiments considered important in the field of pre- or post-graduate medical education in the context of primary health care, with a clear and innovative educational purpose.

Size: Reports may not exceed 5,000 words, with no more than six illustrations (tables or figures).

Structure:Articles must include Title, Abstract and two to six keywords in each of the required languages (see above). The main text is not required to follow a fixed structure. Acknowledgements may be included. The article should include References.

Abstract: There is no binding structure.

Opinion and Discussion

Content: Opinion pieces which may foster thought and discussion on important topics for general practice, treated with scientific and ethical quality.

Size: Articles may not exceed 4,000 words, with no more than six illustrations (tables or figures).

Structure: Articles must include Title, Abstract and two to six keywords in each of the required languages (see above). The main text is not required to follow a fixed structure. Acknowledgements may be included. The article should include References.

Abstract: There is no binding structure

Short Articles

Content: Short texts, such as brief original studies or dissemination of preliminary findings, clinical case notes, small series studies or other types.

Size: Reports may not exceed 3,000 words, with no more than four illustrations (tables or figures).

Structure: Articles must include Title, Abstract and two to six keywords in each of the required languages (see above). The main text is not required to follow a fixed structure. Acknowledgements may be included. The article should include References.

Abstract: There is no binding structure.

Letters to the Editor

Content: Comments on articles published previously in the journal or brief notes on relevant experience in daily practice. Letters about articles are accepted only up to four months from the publication of the original article.

Size: May not exceed 1,000 words, with a maximum of one illustration (table or figure) and up to 10 references.

Structure: There is no binding structure. The article may include References.

Abstract: There is no abstract.

Editorial

Issued by the Editorial Board. They are limited to 1,200 words and not more than 15 references. Up to two illustrations are accepted (tables or figures).

Documents

Content: These include statements, recommendations or other national or international documents on general and family practice.

 

5.     REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Technical requirements of electronic files

Articles must be typed in any word-processing format and saved in one of the following electronic forms: Microsoft Word, RTF or Open Office. Pages should be numbered.

Identity document (to be submitted as “Suplementary Documents”)

First page

Should only include:

1. The title of the article, which should be concise.

2. The name of the author or authors (only two or three names per author).

3. The professional title or titles and/or academic degree(s) of the author(s).

4. The name of the service, department(s), or institution(s) where they work.

5. The ORCID iD of the first author (see www.orcid.org).

6. The individual participation of each author in the elaboration of the research and the manuscript according the CRediT system.

For instance:

Author contributions. Conceptualization, B.S. and A.C.M.; methodology, B.S., A.C.M., and M.L.A.; software, B.S., M.L.A., and P.A.O.; validation, B.S. and A.C.M.; formal analysis, B.S., A.C.M., and P.A.O.; investigation, B.S. and A.C.M.; resources, A.C.M. and M.L.A.; data curation, B.S. and P.A.O.; writing—original draft preparation, B.S.; writing—review and editing, B.S., A.C.M., and P.A.O.; supervision, A.C.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

 

Second page

Shall only include:

1. The name, telephone/fax, email address and postal address of the author responsible for any correspondence with the journal concerning the manuscript;

2. The name, email address and mailing address of the author to whom correspondence should be sent after the article is published in the journal.

Paper manuscript (to be submitted in “Manuscript transfer”)

First page (completely anonimised)

Shall only include:

1. Title of the article in the required languages;

2. Summary of the article in the required languages. The abstract shall follow the rules for the type of article and enable the understanding of the article without there read the full paper.

3. Two to six words in the required languages using, whenever possible, terms from the medical subject headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus,⁷ alongside BIREME health science descriptors (DeCS)⁸ or PORBASE descriptors (Subject Index).⁹

4. State the type of article (the section of the journal it is intended for).

5. Teaser. Sentence with a maximum of 30 words, focusing on the key message of the paper.

Following pages

The following pages include the main text and each section of the article shall start at the beginning of a new page.

First page after the text

Where there are Acknowledgements, they should come after the text of the article.

First page after the Acknowledgements

The opening page of the chapter on References

First page after the References

Should disclose information concerning conflicts of interest of authors and funding of the study (according to the information provided in Annex I

Following pages

Should include illustrations. Each figure should be submitted on a separate page with the individual number (Arabic or Roman numerals) and legend. Submit tables numbered (Roman numeral) and with short titles. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, marked with the symbols laid down in the Vancouver rules.^3,5 Charts, diagrams, drawings and photographs (figures) submitted should be of a high quality for direct copying and must be numbered using Arabic numerals. Three-dimensional charts may not be used. Figures in electronic form must be submitted in separate files and not as part of the text file. JPEG, TIF and EPS formats are acceptable, preferably using a resolution of 300 dpi or more. If photographs of people or published photographs are used, proceed in accordance with the Vancouver rules.^3,5

Style

Use abbreviations and symbols, as well as units of measurement only according to standard international rules.^3,5

1. Use upper case characters in the following situations:

a) title and main sections of the text;
b) first word in all paragraphs;
c) main words in chapters, sub-chapters, sections and sub-sections;
d) words of figure and table titles;
e) names of scales and measuring instruments;
f) nouns determined by numeral or letter;
g) names of academic subjects or studies.

2. Always use the drug name.

3. Numbers up to 10 must be written out in full.
Exceptions: when comparing with numbers 10 or higher, when using units of measurement, in mathematical functions, fractions, percentages, and ratios. Avoid beginning a sentence with a digit.

4. Measurements of time, date, age, sample and population, size, results, dosage, percentage, temperature, metric units and points on a scale should always be shown in numerals.

5. As a rule, place all abbreviations between parentheses, except for units of measurement (e.g. kg).

6. Use only standard acronyms (e.g. WHO) or to name an abbreviation or a technical expression that may be used repeatedly (e.g. COPD). In this case, the full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text (placed between parentheses).

7. Avoid using foreign words whenever possible.

8. Do not underline words.

9. Restrict the use of italics to foreign words and scientific names.

10. Statistical symbols (e.g., t, r, A, SD, p) must be in italics, except for Greek symbols.

11. Use commas, not full stops, to set off decimal places.

12. In the text, state decimal numbers rounded to only two places, unless otherwise justified.

13. Use a space before and after mathematical and logic symbols like +, –, =, < and >.

References

References should be included in this chapter, being numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text and identified by Arabic numerals in superscript. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the Index Medicus. The title of the Portuguese journal PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE is abbreviated as Rev Port Med Geral Fam. The reference number must be placed after the punctuation mark (full stop, comma, etc.)

Exemplos:

(...) as is the case of distribution lists.⁵

Recent studies, conducted by Di-Franza et al.,⁷ show that children become nicotine dependent more easily than adults

If after a sentence more than one reference is cited, the references shall be separated by comma, unless they are sequential, in which case they are separated by a hyphen.

Examples:

(...) where prevalence is higher in that age groups;^9,15,21

(...) compared to those studies,^6-9

(...) cigarettes to children under 18 years and to regulate cigarettes sales from vending machines.^4,7-9

References to legal documents must include the elements for identifying the full text of the legislative act: type of act, number, date, series and number of the National Gazette (DR).

For example:

Decree Law no. 114/92, of 4 June. National Gazette. 1st Series A(129)

6.     MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

Documents must be submitted through the online platform OJS, at http://www.rpmgf.pt . Documents to be submitted include:

• The manuscript, including tables, in Microsoft Word, RTF or Open Office (text, tables and diagrams) will be submitted in “Step 2: Manuscript transfer”. Must include the table legends, immediately after the tables.

• Figures in JPEG, TIP or EPS format will be submitted in “Step 4: Transfer of supplementary documents”, and identified by the respective number.

• The form in Annex I hereto, completed by each author.

• If the study has never been published before, the statement of ethical conduct (Annex II), completed by the author and a copy of the opinion of the Ethics Committee, to which the study protocol was submitted.

• For case reports, the informed consent form signed by the patient or the legal representative of minors or those incapable of giving consent (Annex III)

• If photographs of patients are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph signed by the individual or legal representative (Annex III).

• The Article Processing Charges form including authors information (Annex V).

• Where publication of clinical information raises issues from an ethical perspective, the Ethics Committee should be asked to deliver an opinion.

• Copies of any authorizations to reproduce material already published, to use pictures or to report sensitive personal information of identifiable persons.

• Copies of any permissions to reproduce published material, use illustrations or report sensitive information about identifiable people.

7.     SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

As part of the submission process, authors are required to verify compliance of the submission with respect to all items listed below. Submissions that do not comply with these standards will be returned to the authors.

1. The contribution is original and unpublished and is not under review or for publication by another journal.

2. Files for submission are in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice or RTF format (provided they do not exceed 2MB).

3. URLs for references were provided when available.

4. The text follows the style standards and bibliographic requirements described in the “Instructions for Authors” in the section “About this Journal”.

5. The form for the authors has been completed: Annex I (all annexes are available for consultation on the RPMGF website at www.rpmgf.pt).

6. The Ethics Declaration Form (Annex II) was completed.

7. The Declaration of Informed Consent (Annex III) was completed.

8. The Rules for submitting articles to the PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE (Annex IV) are complied with, with the exception of the points below, in the case of exclusive submission through the website.

9. The Article Processing Charges Form was completed (Annex V).

10. When submitting an article online, in Step 2 of the file transfer of the paper, the document must be anonymised and do not contain any type of personal identification, which will be filled in the next steps of the submission process.

11. A document containing the identification of the authors, as described in 5. FORMAL ORGANISATION OF THE ARTICLES, should be submitted in “Step 4. Transfer of supplementary documents” of the online submission process.

12. When submitting articles online, conflicts of interest that authors may want to explicitly should be described in the field "Comments to the Editor" of Step 1, and not in the file to be submitted.

Any doubts can be clarified by contacting the PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE AND GENERAL PRACTICE secretariat by e-mail: secretariado@rpmgf.pt.

8.     EDITORIAL PROCESSING

Manuscripts received are submitted to an administrative validation process; articles not complying with scientific and formal requirements described in these guidelines will not be accepted, nor submitted to the Editorial Board and will be automatically returned.
The manuscripts which conform to the guidelines receive a number, which is communicated to the authors and must be quoted in any correspondence with the journal. The date the text and required annexes are received in electronic form shall be treated as the date the article is received. Approved articles will be distributed to an editor, who will conduct a summary assessment and present the article at an Editorial Board meeting. Articles that are not related to the mission of the journal (development of the medical specialty of general practice and family medicine or improving primary healthcare) will be turned down.

The decision of the Editorial Board is sovereign and not subject to appeal. The Editor-in-Chief has veto power within the Editorial Board.

Articles complying with the rules that fall under the journal's mission will be submitted for peer review. Reviewers are asked to critique the manuscript submitted to the journal. They are expected to assess up-to-dateness, scientific reliability, clinical relevance, and interest in publishing the article. To ensure exemption and impartiality of the assessment, identifying details of the authors are omitted when the articles are sent to reviewers and each manuscript is sent for review to two or more reviewers. In the event of disagreement between reviewers' assessments, editors can ask a third reviewer for an appraisal. Editors shall make the final decision about publishing the manuscripts based on reviewers' assessments. The different appraisals by the reviewers are gathered by the editor and communicated to the authors. The identity or affiliation of reviewers and of the editor will not be disclosed to the authors.

A decision is taken to refuse, to publish without changes or to publish with changes. In the latter case, after the proposed changes are made to the article, it is submitted again to be appraised by the initial reviewers. The editor shall make the final decision to refuse or publish the manuscript based on the reassessment and the authors shall be informed accordingly.

9.     ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES

The Portuguese Journal of General and Family Medicine applies the following cost policy to all articles submitted from April 1, 2025, and at the time they are accepted for publication:

• The first or last author is a associate/member of APMGF* > the publication has no costs.
• Any of the co-authors is an associate/member of APMGF* (except the first or last author) > each publication will be charged a single/unique cost of 75 euros.
• None of the authors is an associate/member of APMGF > each publication will be charged a single/unique cost of 150 euros.

*Authors must have their APMGF membership in good standing and fully entitled pf their membership rights.

The application and confirmation of processing costs are carried out upon article acceptance and before publication. The cost applies only once for each accepted paper (and not for each author), and will be handled directly with the corresponding author.
During manuscript submission, it is mandatory to complete the "Annex V - ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES.

 

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