Editorial Statutes

Editorial Policy of Servir Journal

CHAPTER I

Identification and Introduction to the Journal

Servir Journal is a technical and scientific publication dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge in the field of Health Sciences, with a particular focus on Nursing Sciences.
Servir Journal operates on a continuous publication basis, organised into annual volumes. In exceptional circumstances, the editorial team may decide to publish special thematic issues or supplements.
The official languages for submission and publication in the journal are Portuguese, English and Spanish; the title, abstract and keywords must be provided in English, and authors are encouraged to publish the full text in this language.
Servir Journal serves as a key platform for disseminating research, history and developments in healthcare, facilitating the sharing, translation and transfer of scientific knowledge into clinical practice and the community.

CHAPTER II

Objectives

To disseminate the technical and scientific knowledge generated in the field of Health Sciences, with a particular focus on Nursing Sciences, clinical practice, management, ethics and health education.
To provide opportunities for ongoing technical and scientific development and updating, serving as a first-rate channel of communication between academics, specialists and healthcare professionals, with free and universal access.

CHAPTER III

Structure and Editorial Plan

Servir Journal consists of a main body of scientific and technical articles, which may be organised into the following sections, amongst others:

Nursing Sciences and Clinical Practice;
Health Management and Policy;
Health Education, Research and Training;
Community Health and Social Intervention;
Ethics, Professional Conduct and the History of Health/Nursing.

Each issue or thematic section of Servir Journal will include an Editorial, written by members of the Editorial Team or by specially invited individuals of recognised standing.

The journal publishes various types of articles, namely: Original Research Articles (ORA); Review Articles (Systematic, Integrative or Scoping); Historical Research Articles (HRA); Theoretical Articles/Essays; and Case Reports/Clinical Experience Reports.
The Editorial Board reserves the right to invite authors of recognised merit and international standing to publish opinion pieces or essays in the journal without the need to undergo the double-blind peer review process. In these exceptional cases, this will be explicitly stated in the published article.

CHAPTER IV

Editorial Team

The journal is managed by an Editorial Board comprising an Editor-in-Chief and Deputy/Associate Editors, ensuring that the various fields of specialism are represented.
The Editorial Board is the decision-making body of Servir Journal, and is responsible for the scientific and technical management of the publication, namely:

To define, approve and update the journal’s editorial policy;
To establish the journal’s quality standards and the criteria for evaluating submitted manuscripts;
To approve the Journal’s format, visual identity, editorial direction and technological transition;
To decide on special editions, supplements and their respective themes;
To propose, invite and approve the members of the Review Panel;
To coordinate and promote the dissemination and indexing of the journal in international databases;
To actively encourage the participation of Brazilian and international authors.

The members of the Editorial Board are directly responsible for managing the editorial workflow and the peer-review process; they are authorised to carry out a preliminary assessment and issue opinions on the technical and scientific merit of the submitted manuscripts.
The Editorial Team will meet periodically and, on an ad hoc basis, whenever necessary. Minutes or a record of the decisions taken at the meetings will be drawn up and distributed to all members for approval and archiving.

CHAPTER V

Editor-in-Chief

The journal is headed by an Editor-in-Chief, whose main responsibilities are:

To represent Servir Journal institutionally within the scientific community and amongst partners;
To coordinate and oversee the editorial process as a whole;
To comply with and ensure compliance with these Editorial Guidelines and the journal’s ethical policies;
To carry out a preliminary review of submitted articles, checking that they meet the formal requirements and are in line with the journal’s scope, and to forward them to the Section Editors or reject them outright if they do not meet the minimum requirements;
To formally authorise the final publication of approved manuscripts;
To ensure the expansion of the journal’s indexing;
To convene and chair meetings of the Editorial Team.

CHAPTER VI

Section Editors

The responsibilities of Section Editors / Associate Editors are as follows:

To assist the Editor-in-Chief with the day-to-day management of the editorial workflow;
To directly manage the peer-review process for manuscripts assigned to them in their area of expertise;
Select and invite suitable reviewers (peer reviewers) for each article, analyse the reviews submitted and formulate a reasoned recommendation for a final decision;
To assess the scientific merit of the texts and ensure that review deadlines are met.

CHAPTER VII

International Editorial Board

The International Editorial Board is the high-level advisory body of Servir Journal, comprising experts and researchers of recognised standing in the fields of Health Sciences and Nursing, affiliated with national and international institutions. Its responsibilities include:

To advise the Editorial Team on the strategic direction and updating of the journal’s scientific policies;
To provide advice on structural and editorial matters whenever requested by the Editor-in-Chief;

To support the journal’s internationalisation by acting as ambassadors for the publication in their respective regions and academic networks;
To propose new peer reviewers and encourage the submission of high-quality manuscripts.

CHAPTER VIII

Technical Units

The Editorial Team is supported and advised by a Technical Unit responsible for secretarial work, publishing and documentation.
The Technical Unit’s responsibilities are as follows:

To provide logistical support at all stages of the publishing process (metadata review, formal verification of bibliographical references, page layout and graphic design);
Keep the editorial management IT system up to date and ensure integration with the Portuguese Open Access Scientific Repository (RCAAP) platform;
To ensure the maintenance of the digital historical archive and the journal’s collection.

CHAPTER IX

Submission of Articles

Any article submitted for publication in Servir Journal must be strictly original and unpublished; it must not have been published or be under review by any other scientific journal.
Upon submission, authors must explicitly confirm that the manuscript is original and that they authorise its publication in the journal, undertaking not to publish it subsequently in any other medium or language without the prior written consent of Servir Journal .
The authors (a maximum of six co-authors per manuscript is recommended, except in duly justified cases of multicentre studies) are legally and ethically responsible for ensuring that the work does not infringe the copyright of third parties and strictly complies with the ethical standards of the scientific community, thereby relieving the journal of any legal liability.
It is the sole responsibility of the authors to obtain formal authorisation for the reproduction of tables, images, data collection tools or any material subject to third-party copyright.
As part of the online submission process, authors agree to abide by the Declaration of Ethical and Legal Responsibility and the current licensing terms (Creative Commons).
The content of the texts, as well as the opinions, ideas and data expressed in the published articles, are the sole and entire responsibility of their authors and do not reflect the views of the Editorial Team or the journal’s governing bodies.
Manuscripts may be submitted in Portuguese, English or Spanish. The title, abstract and keywords (descriptors) must be provided in all three languages. Following final acceptance for publication, approved articles must be provided with a high-quality translation into technical English; the authors are responsible for submitting and certifying this translation within the stipulated deadline.
Submissions must be made electronically via the journal’s official platform, which requires authors to register in advance. The online form and the Article Form must be completed in full, including: the full names of all authors, detailed institutional affiliation, corresponding email address, individual ORCID iD, a precise description of contributions (CRediT), sources of funding for the study and the relevant declaration regarding the absence or existence of conflicts of interest.
The submission must be accompanied by a cover letter (Cover Letter) addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, setting out the scientific relevance of the manuscript and formally declaring compliance with ethical requirements and authorisation for the article’s future indexing in the databases used by the journal.
To ensure the integrity of the peer review process, submissions must include separate files: the Article Form (identifying the authors) and the fully anonymised Full Manuscript File (containing the text, tables and figures in their correct places, without any elements that might identify the researchers or their institutions). The files must be uploaded in an editable format (Microsoft Word or equivalent).
All manuscripts must strictly comply with the Submission Guidelines and the current formatting guidelines (citations and references). Articles that do not meet these formal requirements will be rejected outright at the pre-review stage.
A set of supporting documents, checklists and templates is available on the journal’s website to guide authors through the online submission process.
Under the rolling publication system, approved and laid-out articles are immediately made available online in full text (Open Access), speeding up their readership, citation and impact within the scientific community.

CHAPTER X

Panel of Reviewers and Review Process

The Peer Review Panel of Servir Journal comprises researchers and academics, both from Portugal and abroad, of recognised scientific merit in the fields of Health Sciences and Nursing.
The Editorial Team is responsible for admitting new reviewers; this is also facilitated through the online self-registration system on the journal’s website, where experts identify their sub-areas of specialism (between 2 and 5 fields of expertise) for which they are willing to act as reviewers.
It is the responsibility of the reviewers to analyse the quality of the texts with complete impartiality and rigour, and to provide well-founded scientific opinions that assist the editorial decision-making process and help to improve the manuscript.
The arbitration process is based on the double-blind peer review system (double-blind peer review), and must take into account the following essential criteria:

The article’s relevance and significance to the development of the scientific field;
The originality and innovative nature of the study;
Clarity and appropriateness in the formulation of objectives;
Conceptual rigour and terminological accuracy;
Methodology (study design, appropriateness of the approach and strict adherence to ethical guidelines and standards for research);
Results (rigour in presentation, statistical or analytical clarity, and depth of discussion in relation to the literature);
Conclusions (direct implications for clinical practice/the community, limitations of the study and future lines of research);
The up-to-date nature, adequacy and rigour of the bibliography (accurate referencing);
Overall quality of the text (logical structure, coherence of the argument, grammatical accuracy, and a factual and scientific style).

Each article is assessed, on a double-blind basis, by at least two external reviewers using the appropriate assessment criteria and tools provided by the journal.
Opinions and assessment reports must be completed directly in the designated section of the online platform.
Reviewers are granted a standard deadline of up to 4 consecutive weeks to submit their report, starting from the date on which they accept the invitation. The system generates automatic reminders in advance. The Editorial Team reserves the right to adjust this deadline in specific, justified cases.
If it is not possible to carry out the review, the reviewer must either decline the invitation or inform the editor in charge within a maximum of 8 days of receipt. Should the reviewer repeatedly fail to meet the stipulated deadlines without justification, they will be replaced in the process by a third reviewer.
The reviewers’ final classification of the article is based on four levels:

Level A: Publish without changes;
Level B: Publish with minor changes (minor revisions);
Level C: Publication is subject to substantial changes (major revisions), requiring the new, revised version to be reviewed again by the reviewers;
Level D: Reject / Does not meet the criteria for publication.

Authors will be notified by the editor and will receive full, anonymised copies of the reviewers’ reports containing their comments and recommendations.
Should revisions be required (Levels B or C), authors have a maximum of 30 days to submit the revised version of the manuscript, accompanied by a detailed (‘point-by-point’) response to the reviewers. This deadline may be extended in exceptional circumstances upon receipt of a reasoned request addressed to the editor.
Reviewers are entitled to make their favourable opinion conditional until all the shortcomings identified in the original text have been duly rectified by the authors.

CHAPTER XI

From the Arbitration Process to the Evaluation Mechanism

Peer review is intended to be a constructive and collaborative process; reviewers’ comments should be characterised by professional courtesy, clarity and sound reasoning, and the use of hostile or derogatory language is prohibited.
The peer review and evaluation process formally begins on the date the submission is received and concludes with the final acceptance or rejection of the article; it follows a strict flowchart comprising eight sequential steps (A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H):

A – Assignment of a code: The manuscript is assigned a unique numerical identification code which will conceal the authorship throughout the entire review process.
B – Preliminary review: The editor assesses the manuscript’s compliance with the journal’s policy and scope. Once formal compliance has been verified, the article is run through plagiarism detection software. If it passes this stage, it proceeds to peer review; otherwise, it is returned for formal corrections or rejected.
C – Peer review: The anonymised manuscript is sent to two reviewers specialising in the subject area, who provide a reasoned assessment (Levels A, B, C or D). In the event of a significant discrepancy between the two initial assessments, the editor must refer the manuscript to a third reviewer for evaluation (tie-breaker).
D – Review Supervision: Analysis by the editor of the amendments submitted by the authors in response to the reviewers’ requirements.
E - Supervisão Final: Verificação morfosintática e de qualidade textual final. O Editor-Chefe profere a decisão final homologatória de publicação face ao relatório do editor de secção.
F – Translation: Validation and acceptance of the official English-language version of the approved article, the certified translation of which is provided by the authors.
G – Composition, Graphic Design and Layout: Final layout of the article within the journal’s visual templates and assignment of the unique digital identifier DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
H – Digital Dissemination and Indexing: Creation of structured metadata files (HTML, XML, PDF). Publication of the full text with open access on the journal’s website and submission of the metadata to indexing services, international databases and scientific dissemination networks.

CHAPTER XII

Monitoring and Recording

For the purposes of quality control and internal audit, the following are permanently recorded on the electronic management platform of Servir Journal:

The manuscript’s identification code and type;
The exact date of submission/receipt;
The dates for the submission and acceptance of invitations by reviewers;
The dates on which the assessment reports were received;
The date on which the editorial decision was notified and the revised manuscript was submitted;
The date of final acceptance (Accepted) and the date of actual publication (Published).

The dates of receipt, review and final acceptance must be stated on the title page of each published article.

CHAPTER XIII

Financial Resources

As a Diamond Open Access publication (Diamond Open Access — with no submission or processing fees for authors and no reading charges for the public), funding for Servir Journal is provided by its publisher/managing body, and may also draw on additional financial resources obtained through specific projects, scientific partnerships, grants or funding from public bodies and organisations in the health and research sectors.

CHAPTER XIV

Final Provisions

Any cases not covered by these regulations or situations where there is uncertainty regarding their interpretation arising from the application of these regulations and the Editorial Charter shall be examined and resolved at the sole discretion of the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, in accordance with COPE’s international guidelines.
These regulatory statutes shall come into force immediately upon their approval and may be revised and updated by the Editorial Team whenever the requirements of the international scientific publishing ecosystem so warrant.

Viseu, 24 June 2023.

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