Submissions

c) Cover letter

The manuscript submitted will be accompanied by a cover letter, which all authors should sign and include the following statements: (i) request for consideration of the manuscript; (ii) title of the article (concise but informative); (iii) authorship of the work (the authors’ e-mails must be included as well as each author’s work center); (iv) identification of the corresponding author; (v), thematic adequacy to the journal; (vi) its novelties and original contributions; (vii) declaration of not being simultaneously submitted to other journals; (viii) information about grants, aid or financial support (when applicable); (ix) acceptance of changes by the journal. Sending original manuscripts to the journal has no cost to the authors. The journal will not charge any amount for the scientific article's revision, layout, and publication.

d) Authorization letter

The authors must submit an authorization letter during the submission process. Please use the template for the Authorization letter.

e) Title page 

Include the title of the paper, authors' names, main appointments and primary affiliations (i.e., one affiliation only per author), and word count.

- Title: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

- Author names and affiliations: Please clearly indicate each author's given name(s) and family name(s) and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names, including the country name, the e-mail address of each author and ORCID. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript number immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address.

- Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

- Present/permanent address: If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name.

- Acknowledgments: List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance, or proofreading the article, etc.). This section should NOT include the source(s) of funding for the research.

- Funding: All sources of funding or support should be noted in the funding section of the manuscript (including grants from funding bodies, sponsorship or grants from commercial organizations, and donation of materials). If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance with the funder's requirements:

This work was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation, São Paulo, Brazil [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil [grant number zzzz].

f) Manuscript

Please include the title, abstract, keywords (3-6), highlights (3-5), and main text divided into sections and subsections, references, tables, and figures.

Abstract. On the first page of articles (except for Infographic and Critiques), a concise and factual structured 250-word abstract is required with the following headings: Background, Aim, Method, Results, and Interpretation. Specifically, a 4-sentence-long abstract must be included for Current Opinion articles, including background, view of the past, current state, and future perspective. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. Tutorial, Critiques, and Study protocols articles should have a Conclusion heading instead of Results and interpretation headings.

Keywords. Immediately after the abstract, provide from 3 to 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. Please use mainly DeCS/MeSH terms.

Highlights. Highlights are mandatory for this journal (except for Current Opinion, Infographic, Critiques, Tutorials and Study Protocols). They consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article.  They include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point). They should be submitted on a separate page after the abstract in the main document.

Main text. Divide your article into clearly defined sections (section suggestion: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion). Each section and subsection is given a brief heading on its own separate line. Subsections should be used as much as possible.

References. The BJMB recommends that the authors use reference management software, such as Mendeley, Endnote or Zotero. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select or download the BJMB template (Endnote: https://endnote.com/downloads/styles; Mendeley: https://csl.mendeley.com/styles/18029341/BJMotorBeh; Zotero: brazilian-journal-motor-behavior.csl) when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If you prefer not to use the template, please follow the sample references and citation format shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript.

Reference style:

- Text: Indicate references by (consecutive) superscript Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text (separated by a comma). The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given. Example: '... as demonstrated ^3,6. Silva ⁸ obtained a different result ...'
- List: Number the references in the order in which they appear in the text. 

- DOI: Please include the doi of all references according to the BJMB style.

Examples: 
Reference to a journal publication: 

1. Campbell JL, Pedersen OK. The varieties of capitalism and hybrid success. Comp Polit Stud. 2007;40(3):307–32. doi: 10.1177/0010414006286542
2. Barbieri FA, Polastri PF, Gobbi LTB, Simieli L, Pereira VIA, Baptista AM, et al. Obstacle circumvention and eye coordination during walking to least and most affected side in people with Parkinson’s disease. Behav Brain Res. 2018;346:105–14. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.11.032
3. Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon. 2018;19:e00205. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book: 

4. Mares I. Firms and the welfare state: When, why, and how does social policy matter to employers? In: Hall PA, Soskice D, editors. Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage. New York: Oxford University Press; 2001. p. 184–213.

Reference to a book: 

5. Dunnett N, Kingsbury N. Planting green roofs and living walls. 2nd ed. Portland, OR: Timber Press; 2008. 328 p.

Reference to a newspaper: 

6. Foderaro LW. Rooftop greenhouse will boost city farming. New York Times. 2012;A20.

Reference to a thesis or dissertation: 

7. Hancké B, Rhodes M, Thatcher M, editors. Beyond varieties of capitalism: conflict, contradiction, and complementarities in the European economy. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press; 2007. 438 p.

Reference to a website:

8. CSL search by example. Citation Style Editor. http://editor.citationstyles.org/searchByExample/

Journal abbreviations source 
Journal names should be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations.

Electronic artwork. Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork. Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option. Use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Times New Roman, or use fonts that look similar. Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text. Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files. Provide captions to illustrations separately. Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the printed version. Submit each illustration as a separate page after references. COLOR IMAGES ARE ENCOURAGED.

Formats: If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), please supply 'as is' in the native document format. Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'Save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats:

EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.

TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations of bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.

Please do not: Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors; Supply files that are too low in resolution; Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Figure captions: Provide captions to each illustration separately, not attached to the figure. All captions should be placed in a list at the end of the main document.

Tables: Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables might include titles, descriptions, and footnotes. Tables might be placed on separate page(s) after references and labeled consecutively. The captions should accompany the tables.

Supplementary material. Supplementary material such as applications, images, and sound clips can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please switch off the 'Track Changes' option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version. Please indicate the name and title of each element as follows Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS ARE ENCOURAGED.

4. Ethical responsibilities

All authors must read and adhere to BJMB's Code of Ethics before submitting their papers. The editorial staff of the BJMB is responsible for and must remind its collaborators of the following aspects:

- When experiments performed on human beings are described, an indication must be given as to whether the procedures followed agree with the ethical standards of the responsible human experimentation committee (institutional or regional) and with the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki, revised in 2000. No names, initials, or numbers of hospitals must be used above all in the figures. When experiments on animals are described, an indication must be given as to whether the guidelines of an international research council or institution or national law that regulates the care and use of laboratory animals have been followed.

- Have publication permission from the institution that has funded the research.

- The journal does not accept previously published material (except when it originates from theses or dissertations). Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary authorizations to partially reproduce material (text, tables, or figures) from other publications and for correctly citing their origin.

Ethical approval. Authors of research articles should demonstrate that a named research ethics committee has approved the research, that the committee recommendations have been adhered to, and that written informed consent for participation and publication has been obtained.
Please include a statement in the text of your paper to indicate that ethical approval has been given and give the name of the body (research ethics committee, institutional review board, etc.) that approved the study. If the institution’s research ethics committee did not consider that their approval was needed, this should be stated in the text. The manuscripts may follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org).

Consent. Please indicate in the text that participants or their caregivers gave informed consent to the research and the publication of the results.
If recognizable photographs or verbal descriptions of an individual are used in an article, written consent from the appropriate person(s) for publication must be submitted to and kept by the author. All case reports and clinical photographs require consent. Names, initials, or any other means of identification should not be shown on any photograph.

Authorship. the publication’s authorship must contain only individuals who significantly contributed to the elaboration of the work presented. In case of doubt about including an individual as (co)author, we recommend that you refer to the CRediT taxonomy (https://credit.niso.org/), which includes 14 categories of roles that can be played in the elaboration of a scientific article. The author submitting the article must ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the article’s final version and agreed to its submission for publication in the BJMB. If the journal editors identify problems in the article’s authorship (editors use the COPE guide to identify this type of problem), the authors will be contacted for clarification. If the authorship problem is proven, the article should be removed from the review process. Also, concerning authorship, the inclusion (or exclusion) of authors during or after the editorial process will be subject to the editor’s evaluation on a case-by-case basis and must have the consent of all the authors of the article.

Duplicate publication. Submitting for publication the same manuscript (or a manuscript with high similarity) that has previously been published in another scientific journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior. If duplication is identified during the editorial process, the authors will be notified, and the article will be removed from the process. If duplication is identified after publication, the article will be subject to removal from the edition in which it was published, and the journal’s readers will be duly informed about the case. Articles from theses and dissertations are not considered duplicate publications and can be accepted in BJMB as long as the original work is cited in the submitted article.

Plagiarism. All articles submitted to BJMB undergo a plagiarism check in the desk-review stage. The journal’s editorial team uses the Turnitin application to carry out the similarity verification process. If excerpts with similarity are identified (except direct citation) and for which the reproduction has been total and without citation, the authors will be contacted for clarification. In the absence of appropriate clarification from the authors, the editors will archive the submission. During the peer review process, reviewers may also find evidence of plagiarism. If this happens, the reviewers will communicate the fact to the editors (presenting the appropriate evidence), and the editors will investigate suspected plagiarism using the following COPE flowchart: https://publicationethics.org/files/plagiarism%20A.pdf. If the suspicion of plagiarism is confirmed, the editors will archive the submission.  

Citations and References. Articles must cite appropriate and relevant literature to support their assertions. Excessive self-citation, unnecessary citations not consistent with the content of the article presented, and any other form of manipulation of citations are considered unethical procedures. If the manipulation of citations is identified, the submission will be archived.

Conflict of interest. Authors must declare any potential conflict of interest - whether professional or financial - they may have in relation to the article. Authors must also disclose all funding sources that the research reported in the article relied on. If evidence of an undisclosed conflict of interest is found, the editors will use the following COPE flowchart to take the necessary steps: https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/conflict-of-interest-publlished-article-cope-flowchart-v2.pdf. Editors and reviewers invited to review articles also need to reveal conflicts of interest that could bias the editorial process, such as personal, academic, or financial relationships. Reviewers should not review manuscripts if they believe they are involved in any conflict of interest. If there is potential bias, editors should hand over the lead of the article process to another editor.

Data fabrication. Data fabrication is the unethical practice of inventing data or research results and recording or reporting them in the article. BJMB is strictly against data fabrication as this practice undermines the integrity of the scientific literature and its credibility and can lead to erroneous conclusions. If a suspected data fabrication is found in submitted articles, the editors will use the COPE flowchart(https://publicationethics.org/files/fabricated-data-submitted-manuscript-cope-flowchart.pdf) to proceed with the necessary actions. If the data fabrication is confirmed, the editors will archive the submission.

Confidentiality. The BJMB keeps all details of a submitted manuscript confidential and does not comment on or publish the manuscripts while they are under consideration or when they are rejected. BJMB editors and reviewers are committed not to disclosing manuscript data (or supplementary materials) prior to publication and not to use the knowledge they have gained from an unpublished article to further their own interests. If reviewers are accused of misappropriating ideas from an article under review, the BJMB editors commit to using the following COPE flowchart to help address this situation: https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/reviewer-misconduct-suspected-cope-flowchart.pdf.

Errors in published work. When a significant error or inaccuracy is discovered in a published work, it is the author’s obligation to immediately notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor in withdrawing or correcting the article. Errors and inaccuracies can also be pointed out by researchers post-publication, and all claims will be evaluated by BJMB’s editorial committee and can result in the article’s retraction.

Retractions. All authors must provide retractions or corrections of errors in case of detection. If plagiarism were identified after publication, we may publish a correction or retract the paper. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may correct or retract the paper. Our in-house editors will investigate any allegations of publication misconduct and may contact the authors' institutions or funders if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication. Authors must comply with the best ethical publication practices when publishing with the BJMB.

Research Involving Human Subjects. All research involving human subjects (individuals, samples, or data) must have been carried out according to the Declaration of Helsinki principles. Before starting the study, authors must have obtained ethical approval for all protocols from their institution’s ethics committee to confirm that the study meets national and international human research guidelines. A document confirming ethics committee approval must be included as a supplemental attachment to the submission, including the ethics committee name and reference numbers. For non-interventional studies (e.g., surveys) for which ethical approval is not required or where the study has received an ethics committee waiver, this information should be added to the manuscript.

The article’s authors must have obtained informed consent from the individuals participating in the study. A statement to confirm this must be included in the manuscript. If requested, authors should be prepared to provide dated copies signed by participants to the journal’s editorial staff.

Guidelines for reporting research results. It is recommended that authors use the EQUATOR guidelines (https://www.equator-network.org/) to adequately report the results according to the type of research carried out. The use of such guidelines in the preparation of the manuscript helps to increase the reliability and replicability of the research.

5. Author rights and Licensing

After approval of the article for publication, authors retain the copyright of their paper and grant the Brazilian Journal of Motor Behavior (BJMB) the right to first publish the work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license (CC BY-NC-ND). This license allows users to share the paper given the appropriate credit to the author and source and does not allow commercial uses and derivative materials to be produced.

The authors grant BJMB a non-exclusive license to use the paper in the following ways: (1) sell and distribute the paper in hard copies or electronic format; (2) distribute the paper to promote the journal through the internet and other digital and printed media and; (3) record and reproduce the work in any format, including digital media.

6. After acceptance

Proofs. All manuscripts will undergo some editorial modification, so it is important to check proofs carefully. The corresponding author will be sent an email asking them to check their proofs.

To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked and returned within 48 hours. The preferred method of correction is by commented changes. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables, and figures. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor.

Online version. All accepted manuscripts will be published in the online version of an issue. When an accepted paper has been copy-edited, approved by the authors, and is ready for publication, it will be posted online on the journal's website.

7. Data Availability

To maintain the integrity, transparency, and reproducibility of research records, authors are encouraged to make their experimental and research data openly available either by depositing it into data repositories or by publishing the data and files as supplementary information in this journal.

8. Preprints 

The BJMB accepts articles that have previously been made available as preprints. A preprint is a draft version of a paper made available online before submission to a journal. The BJMB might use the Peer Community In (PCI) reviews and recommendations to strengthen or speed up the usual peer-review process. The first revision of the paper will be made promptly, and authors will receive one of three possible responses within five days: (i) acceptance without further review, (ii) acceptance of the submission with additional review of the preprint, or (iii) rejection.

9. Editors and Journal Staff as Authors

Editorial independence is extremely important, and the BJMB does not interfere with editorial decisions.

Editorial staff or editors shall not be involved in processing their own academic work. Submissions authored by editorial staff/editors will be assigned to at least two independent outside reviewers. Decisions will be made by other editorial board members who do not have a conflict of interest with the author.

Editors will take reasonable measures to identify and prevent the publication of articles in which there have been cases of misconduct in the investigation.

In no event will the publisher or editors encourage such improper conduct or knowingly allow such improper conduct to occur.

If the editor-in-chief or editors of the journal become aware of any allegation of misconduct in the investigation, the editor-in-chief will treat the allegations appropriately.

Editors and copywriters should always be ready to post corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.

10. Editorial Procedures and Peer-Review

Initial Checks. All submitted manuscripts received by the Editorial Office will be checked by a professional in-house Managing Editor to determine whether they are properly prepared and follow the journal’s ethical policies. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the journal’s standards will be rejected before peer-review. Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors for revision and resubmission. After these checks, the Managing Editor will consult the journal’s Editor-in-Chief to determine whether the manuscript fits the scope of the journal and whether it is scientifically sound. No judgment on the potential impact of the work will be made at this stage. The Editor-in-Chief will verify rejected decisions at this stage.

Peer-Review. Once a manuscript passes the initial checks, it will be assigned to at least two independent experts for peer-review. A double-blind review is applied, in which the authors' identities are unknown to the reviewers. Peer review comments are confidential and will only be disclosed with the express agreement of the reviewer.

In the case of regular submissions, in-house assistant editors will invite experts, including recommendations by an academic editor. These experts may also include Editorial Board members and Guest Editors of the journal. Potential reviewers suggested by the authors may also be considered. Reviewers should not have published any works with any of the co-authors during the previous five years and should not currently be working or collaborating with any of the institutions of the co-authors of the submitted manuscript.

Editorial Decision and Revision. All the articles, reviews, and communications published in the BJMB go through the peer-review process and receive at least two reviews. The in-house editor will communicate the decision of the academic editor, which will be one of the following:

• Accept. The paper will be accepted directly. The corresponding author will be notified of acceptance by e-mail or letter. 
• Minor Revisions: The paper needs minor amendments to be accepted. The author needs to provide a point-by-point response or provide a rebuttal if some of the reviewer’s comments cannot be revised. Authors are given 15 days for minor revisions. The editor-in-chief may decide to accept the manuscript without return to the reviewer for further comments.
• Major or moderate Revisions: The acceptance of the manuscript will depend on the revisions. The author needs to provide a point-by-point response or provide a rebuttal if some of the reviewer’s comments cannot be revised. Usually, only one round of major revisions is allowed. Authors will be asked to resubmit the revised paper within 30 days or a suitable time frame according to reviewers' suggestions, and the revised version will be returned to the reviewer for further comments. 
• Rejected and Encourage Re-submission: If additional experiments are needed to support the conclusions, the manuscript will be rejected, and the authors will be encouraged to re-submit the paper once further experiments have been conducted.
• Reject: The article has serious flaws and/or provides no original, significant contribution. No offer of resubmission to the journal is provided.

All reviewer comments should be answered in a point-by-point fashion. Where the authors disagree with a reviewer, they must provide a clear response. 

Author Appeals. Authors may appeal a rejection by sending an e-mail to the Editorial Office of the journal. The appeal must provide a detailed justification, including point-by-point responses to the reviewers' and/or Editor's comments. The Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and related information (including the identities of the referees) to the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or Editorial Board member. The academic Editor being consulted will be asked to give an advisory recommendation on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer-review, or uphold the original rejection decision. A reject decision at this stage is final and cannot be reversed.

In the case of a special issue, the Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and related information (including the identities of the referees) to the Editor-in-Chief, who will be asked to give an advisory recommendation on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer-review, or uphold the original rejection decision. A reject decision at this stage will be final and cannot be reversed.