Submissions

Author Guidelines

Instructions for Authors

Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Reviews (published by CSVET Editora) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes exclusively review articles in veterinary medicine and related fields: animal health and welfare, veterinary public health and One Health, animal production, pathology, pharmacology, epidemiology, wildlife and aquatic animal medicine. Original research articles and case reports are not considered.

These instructions follow the ICMJE Recommendations, the COPE core practices and the reporting guidelines of the EQUATOR Network. Manuscripts that do not follow them will be returned to the authors before peer review.

1. Article types (review classification)

Every submission must be classified into one of the categories below. The category is selected at submission, stated on the title page and indicated in the title (e.g. "…: a systematic review and meta-analysis"). The editors may reclassify a manuscript whose methods do not match the declared category.

*Main text only (excluding abstract, tables, figure legends and references). Longer manuscripts may be accepted when justified in the cover letter.

2. Before you submit

• Protocol registration. Systematic reviews (all types above marked "Required") must have been registered before data extraction began, in OSF Registries, PROSPERO (when eligible), SYREAF or SyRF, or published as a protocol (PRISMA-P). Report the registry name, number and date in the abstract and in the Methods, and explain every deviation from the protocol.
• Currency of the search. The last search must have been run no more than 12 months before submission. If it is older, update it before submitting.
• Pre-submission enquiry (mandatory for narrative and mini-reviews; optional for other types): send the editorial office a title, a 300-word outline, the justification (what existing reviews do not cover) and the authors' expertise.
• Overlap with existing reviews. In the Introduction, cite recent reviews on the same question and explain what the new review adds.

3. Language and format

• Manuscripts must be written in English (American or British, used consistently). An abstract in Portuguese (Resumo) is optional and will be published alongside the English abstract.
• Submit an editable file (.docx or .odt, or LaTeX with a PDF), A4, 12-pt font, double line spacing, continuous line numbering and page numbers.
• Use SI units. Use the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for animal names and the ICTV for viruses. Italicize scientific names and give the full name at first mention (e.g. Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, then S. pseudintermedius).
• Use generic drug names. Define abbreviations at first use in the abstract and again in the main text, and keep them to a minimum.

4. Manuscript structure

4.1 Title page (separate file, for double-anonymous review)

• Title (concise; includes the review type), short running title (max. 60 characters)
• Article category (Section 1)
• Full names of all authors, affiliations (department, institution, city, country) and ORCID iD for every author (mandatory for the corresponding author)
• Corresponding author: postal address and e-mail
• Protocol registration number, word count, number of tables and figures
• Declarations (Section 8)

4.2 Anonymized main manuscript

Remove all author names, affiliations and acknowledgements from the main file and file properties, and refer to your own work in the third person.

Abstract (max. 300 words).

• Systematic reviews, meta-analyses and their variants: structured according to the PRISMA 2020 for Abstracts checklist: Background; Objectives; Methods (eligibility criteria, information sources with search date, risk-of-bias tool, synthesis methods); Results (number of studies and animals, main estimates with 95% CI, heterogeneity); Conclusions (including certainty of evidence); Registration.
• Scoping, umbrella and rapid reviews: structured as above, adapted to the respective guideline.
• Narrative and mini-reviews: unstructured.

Keywords: 4–8 keywords, preferably from MeSH or the CAB Thesaurus, not repeating words in the title.

Main text, systematic-type reviews: Introduction (rationale and existing reviews; objective stated as PICO/PECO/PCC) · Methods · Results · Discussion (summary of evidence, limitations of the evidence and of the review process, implications for practice and research) · Conclusions.

Main text, narrative and mini-reviews: Introduction with an explicit aim · thematic sections with informative headings · Conclusions and future perspectives. Describe briefly how the literature was identified (databases, period, keywords).

5. Minimum methodological standards (systematic-type reviews)

1. Information sources. Search at least three bibliographic databases, one of which should be veterinary or agricultural (e.g. CAB Abstracts/Global Health), in addition to PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus or Embase. Searching regional databases (SciELO, LILACS), grey literature (theses, conference proceedings, regulatory reports) and reference lists is encouraged. No language restrictions should be applied without justification.
2. Search strategy. Report the complete, reproducible search string for every database (with platform and date of last search) in a supplementary file, according to PRISMA-S. A search specialist or librarian should ideally be involved.
3. Selection and data extraction by at least two independent reviewers, with the method for resolving disagreements. Report inter-rater agreement (e.g. Cohen's κ) when possible. If automation or machine-learning screening tools were used, name them and describe how they were validated.
4. Risk of bias assessed by two reviewers with a validated, design-appropriate tool: RoB 2 (randomized trials), ROBINS-I/ROBINS-E (non-randomized studies), SYRCLE (animal experiments), QUADAS-2 (diagnostic accuracy), or AMSTAR 2 (systematic reviews). Present results per study and per domain (traffic-light plot or table).
5. Meta-analysis:
   • justify the choice of effect measure and model; a random-effects model with REML (or Paule–Mandel) estimation of τ² is generally expected, with the Hartung–Knapp–Sidik–Jonkman adjustment when the number of studies is small;
   • report τ², I² with 95% CI and the 95% prediction interval;
   • account for clustering and non-independence (e.g. multiple outcomes per study, herd- or pen-level data) with multilevel models or robust variance estimation;
   • pre-specify subgroup and meta-regression analyses and interpret them cautiously;
   • assess small-study effects and publication bias (funnel plot, Egger's test) only when ≥10 studies are available;
   • report sensitivity analyses (e.g. excluding high-risk-of-bias studies);
   • name the software and version (e.g. R metafor/meta, Stata, RevMan), and share the analysis code and extracted dataset.
6. Certainty of evidence for main outcomes assessed with GRADE (or GRADE-CERQual for qualitative evidence) and presented in a "Summary of findings" table.
7. PRISMA flow diagram (2020 version) is mandatory and must report the numbers of records at each stage and the reasons for exclusion of full-text articles.
8. List the studies excluded at full-text stage with reasons in a supplementary file.

6. References

• Use the Vancouver (NLM/ICMJE) style: number references consecutively in the order in which they are first cited, using Arabic numerals in square brackets [1], [2–4].
• List up to six authors; with seven or more, list the first six followed by "et al." Abbreviate journal titles according to the NLM Catalog.
• A DOI is mandatory for every reference that has one, written as a full link (https://doi.org/…) at the end of the reference. Check DOIs with Crossref. References without a DOI should include a stable URL, PMID or ISBN when available.
• Retracted articles must not be cited as valid evidence. Check every reference against the Retraction Watch Database (integrated in Crossref) before submission. If a retracted paper must be discussed, cite it and the retraction notice.
• Preprints may be cited only when clearly identified as such ("[Preprint]") and when no peer-reviewed version exists. Do not cite articles from journals with documented predatory practices.
• Cite datasets, software and registered protocols as references, with a DOI or persistent identifier.
• Studies included in a systematic review must be cited in the reference list and may be marked with an asterisk (*).
• Use a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote) and make sure every in-text citation matches an entry in the list.

Examples:

1. Page MJ, McKenzie JE, Bossuyt PM, Boutron I, Hoffmann TC, Mulrow CD, et al. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ. 2021;372:n71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71
2. Sargeant JM, O'Connor AM. Scoping reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis: applications in veterinary medicine. Front Vet Sci. 2020;7:11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00011
3. Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, et al., editors. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Version 6.5. Cochrane; 2024. Available from: https://www.training.cochrane.org/handbook
4. Book chapter: Author AA. Chapter title. In: Editor BB, editor. Book title. Edition. City: Publisher; Year. p. first–last page.

7. Tables, figures and supplementary material

• Tables must be editable (not images), numbered and cited in the text, and self-explanatory, with abbreviations defined in footnotes. The table of characteristics of included studies may go in the supplementary material if very long.
• Figures: TIFF, PNG or vector formats (SVG, EPS, PDF), at least 300 dpi (600 dpi for line art). Use colour-blind-safe palettes, and do not use colour alone to convey information. Forest plots must show the study-level estimates, weights, pooled estimate, CI and prediction interval.
• Images reproduced from other publications require written permission from the copyright holder, which must be submitted with the manuscript.
• Mandatory supplementary files for systematic-type reviews: completed reporting checklist with page numbers, full search strategies, list of excluded studies with reasons, data-extraction form, risk-of-bias assessments, and the dataset and code used in meta-analyses.

8. Declarations (title page)

• Author contributions according to the CRediT taxonomy. All authors must meet the ICMJE authorship criteria. Changes in authorship after submission require the written agreement of all authors.
• Funding: sources, grant numbers and the role of the funder. If there was none, state "This review received no specific funding."
• Competing interests: financial and non-financial, for every author, including relationships with manufacturers of products discussed in the review. Authors of included primary studies must declare it, and must not assess their own studies.
• Data availability statement, with the repository and identifier (e.g. OSF, Zenodo, Figshare) of the extracted data and code.
• Use of generative AI: AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Any use of AI in writing, translation, screening, data extraction or analysis must be described (tool, version, purpose) in the Methods or Acknowledgements. Authors remain fully responsible for the content. Use for language editing alone needs only a brief statement.
• Ethics: reviews of published data do not normally require ethics committee approval. Reviews that include unpublished individual animal data must state the approval of the original studies.
• Acknowledgements of contributors who do not meet authorship criteria, with their permission.

9. Peer review and editorial process

• All manuscripts are first screened by the editors for scope, category, reporting completeness and similarity (plagiarism-detection software). Manuscripts with substantial text overlap, including self-plagiarism, will be rejected.
• Manuscripts that pass screening undergo double-anonymous peer review by at least two independent reviewers, at least one of whom has methodological expertise in evidence synthesis for systematic-type reviews. A statistical review may be requested for meta-analyses.
• Decisions: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject. Revised manuscripts must come with a point-by-point response to the reviewers and a version with tracked changes.
• Appeals must be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, with justification, within 30 days of the decision.
• Possible misconduct (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, citation manipulation) will be handled according to COPE flowcharts.

10. Open access, licensing and preprints

• Articles are published in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. Authors retain copyright.
• Posting a preprint (e.g. bioRxiv, SciELO Preprints, Research Square) before or during submission is permitted. Report the preprint DOI at submission.
• Every published article receives a DOI.
• Article processing charges (APC): no APC is charged for manuscripts accepted on or before 31 January 2027. Any APC for manuscripts accepted after that date will be announced on this page in advance, and fee waivers will be available. There are no submission fees.

11. Key reporting guidelines and tools

• PRISMA 2020: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71
• PRISMA-S (literature searches): https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01542-z
• PRISMA-P (protocols): https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-1
• PRISMA-ScR (scoping reviews): https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-0850
• PRISMA-NMA (network meta-analyses): https://doi.org/10.7326/M14-2385
• PRISMA-DTA (diagnostic test accuracy): https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.19163
• PRIOR (overviews of reviews): https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070849
• MOOSE (meta-analyses of observational studies): https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.283.15.2008
• SWiM (synthesis without meta-analysis): https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6890
• RoB 2: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4898 · ROBINS-I: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i4919 · SYRCLE: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-14-43 · QUADAS-2: https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-155-8-201110180-00009 · AMSTAR 2: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j4008
• GRADE: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39489.470347.AD
• SANRA (narrative reviews): https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0064-8
• Cochrane Rapid Reviews guidance: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.10.007
• Living systematic reviews: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.08.010
• Umbrella reviews (JBI): https://doi.org/10.1097/XEB.0000000000000055
• Systematic reviews in veterinary medicine: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00011