Instructions for Editors
All editors working at the Brazilian Journal of Enterostomal Therapy -- Revista Estima play a central role in ensuring scientific quality, ethical integrity and credibility of the journal. Their decisions must be exclusively grounded on academic criteria, scientific relevance, originality, methodological rigor and adherence to the journal's scope, guaranteeing impartiality, transparency and confidentiality in all stages of the editorial process.
It is up to the editors to implement the editorial flow in an efficient and ethical way from the initial evaluation to the final decision; this includes selecting duly qualified evaluators, a critical analysis of their opinions and clear and informed communication with the authors. Editors must ensure that the peer review process is fair, free from biases and conducted in accordance with international good practices.
Editorial management is implemented with the aid of an associate editor who actively and systematically collaborates with the Editor in Chief in conducting the manuscript evaluation flow, with emphasis on selecting evaluators and on interacting with the authors. In general, these editors are designated as Associate Editors and are researchers with renowned expertise in the respective performance area, with national or international affiliations, updated and publicly available resumes and active ORCID registration.
The editorial board is solely comprised by editors that continuously and systematically take part in the evaluation process. Occasional collaborators working sporadically via invitation (ad hoc editors) are identified separately.
The journal adopts active internationalization and equality policies in assembling its editorial board. In this sense, it is sought to ensure that there is a minimum of 25% of members with some institutional affiliation abroad in the group of active associate editors. In addition to that, the journal assumes a commitment to gender equality, maintaining a composition that contemplates at least 25% men and 25% women, also implementing ongoing diversity, equality and inclusion policies and practices, in consonance with the guidelines pertaining to each thematic area.
Editors must properly state and manage any conflict of interest, refraining from acting on manuscripts in which there is any personal, professional or institutional involvement that may impair their impartiality. In these cases, conduction of the editorial process must be assigned to another member of the editorial board.
As for editorial board members submitting manuscripts, the journal establishes rigorous criteria to avoid conflicts of interest and preserve impartiality during the process. Editors can submit a maximum of one manuscript per year to the journal. In these cases, author-editors shall be fully separated from all stages of the editorial process corresponding to their manuscripts, including screening, designation of evaluators and editorial decision. The task of conducting the process will be assigned to another independent editor, ensuring an impartial and transparent peer review complying with the international good practices.
Editors bear the responsibility of preserving confidentiality of the manuscripts and of all the information involved in the editorial process, refraining from using novel data for their own or third parties' benefit. In addition to that, they must act diligently in identifying and handling scientific misconduct cases such as plagiarism and data fabrication or falsification, always following the journal guidelines and international good practices.
Editors are also responsible for ensuring that all manuscripts comply with the journal's ethics policies, including aspects related to ethical approval, informed consent, registration of clinical trials, conflict of interest statements and transparency in terms of funding.
In consonance with the Open Science principles adopted by the journal, the Associate Editor responsible for implementing the editorial process is identified with their name published in the article, thus promoting transparency, traceability and recognition of their editorial work.
After publication, it is up to the editors to monitor integrity of the content published, promptly intervening in cases that require corrections, retractions or editorial remarks, according to the journal specific policy.
