INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
CoDAS, ISSN online 2317-1782, is a technical and scientific publication of the Brazilian Society
of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology (Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia), São
Paulo, Brazil. It is published bimonthly in order to contribute to the disclosure of scientific and
technical knowledge in the Communication Disorders and Sciences – specifically in the areas of
Language, Audiology, Voice, Orofacial Motricity, Dysphagia and Public Health – produced in
Brazil and abroad.
Original manuscripts are accepted in English, Portuguese or Spanish. All articles, following
approval by the Editorial Board, will be forwarded to two reviewers for double-blind peer review.
Comments will be returned to authors requesting alterations in the text or other editorial
comments. Manuscripts will be submitted for publication only after final approval from the
editors and reviewers. Authors are solely responsible for the content of the articles. Articles that
do not comply with the standards of the journal will not be evaluated.
All entries must be published bilingually in Portuguese/English (or Spanish / English); the
authors will be responsible for its translation into English.
The journal publishes the following types of manuscripts: Original articles, Systematic reviews or
meta-analyses, Short communications, Case reports, and Letters to the editor.
Original articles: manuscripts defined as research studies disclosing scientific results. Articles
must be original and unpublished. The structure of the manuscripts must necessarily contain the
following items: abstract and keywords, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion
and references. The abstract should contain information that encourages the reader and does
not contain numerical or statistical results. The introduction should provide a brief literature
review to justify the study's objectives. The methods should be described in detail and include
information relevant to replication of the study. Results should be interpreted, indicating
statistical significance of the findings, and should not be mere presentation of tables, charts and
figures. Data presented within the text should not be duplicated in tables, charts and figures
and/or vice versa. It is recommended that data be subjected to inferential statistical analysis in
order to be more conclusive. The discussion should not repeat the results or the introduction,
and the conclusion should be relevant to the proposed objectives, stating clearly and objectively
the relevance of the present study and its contribution to the advancement of Science. Cited
references (maximum 30) must include at least 70% of articles published in national and
international journals, preferably within the last five years. The entire manuscript should not
exceed 30 pages.
The approval number from the Research Ethics Committee, as well as a statement that all
subjects (or their guardians) provided signed informed consent, must be included in the
methods section for all research involving humans or animals (including, but not limited to,
surveys or retrospective chart reviews).
Systematic reviews or meta-analyses: articles that systematically and critically evaluate
scientific evidence regarding an aspect of research. These manuscripts are the result of
methodological research in order to identify, collect and analyze studies that test the same
hypothesis, systematically gather data, present these data in graphics, charts and/or tables, and
finally, provide a thorough interpretation of these data. Systematic reviews of the literature
should include a detailed description of the data collection methods, justification of the choice of
databases consulted, and an indication of the relevance of the topic and overall contribution to
Science. Numerical results of the analyzed studies may, in many circumstances, be subjected
to statistical analysis by means of meta-analysis. Meta-analyses should comply strictly with the
standards specified for this technique. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should follow the
structure: abstract and keywords, introduction, objectives, search strategy, selection criteria,
data analysis, results, conclusion, and references. All studies included in systematic reviews
must be listed in the references. The manuscript should not exceed 30 pages.
Case reports: articles which present unique, unusual or innovative cases or experiences with
up to ten individuals (or cases) with singular characteristics of interest for professional practice.
These reports must include a description of the key components, history, management and
outcomes observed. Manuscripts should contain: abstract and keywords, introduction (with a
brief literature review), clinical case presentation, discussion, final comments, and references
(maximum 15). Manuscripts should not exceed 20 pages.
A clinical case presentation should contain a statement that the involved subjects (or their
guardians) provided signed informed consent, thereby agreeing to participate in the research
and to have its results published. If images of patients are used, a copy of the consent should
be attached, stating approval for the reproduction of images in scientific journals.
Short communications: short research articles with the objective of presenting interesting
preliminary results with the potential to impact the field of Speech-Language Pathology and
Audiology. These reports are limited to 6000 characters (from introduction to conclusion),
following the same format as original articles: abstract and keywords, introduction, methods,
results, discussion, conclusion, and references. Short communications should contain no more
than two tables/charts/figures and 15 references, of which at least 70% should consist of articles
published in national and international journals, preferably in the last five years.
Letters to the editors: brief communications of criticism of published material with emphasis on
constructive, objective and educational feedback, as well as discussions of specific
contemporary topics. Letters will be published at the discretion of the editors, and should be
brief (up to around 4000 characters).
CoDAS supports the policies for registration of clinical trials in the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), recognizing the
importance of such initiatives for the registration and international disclosure of information on
clinical trials, in open access. Hence, only clinical research articles that have received an
identification number from one of the Clinical Trial Registers validated by the criteria established
by WHO and ICMJE will be accepted for publication. Information are available at the ICMJE
website
(www.icmje.org)
or
http://www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/index.html.
The
identification number must be presented at the end of the abstract.
The following regulations must be followed for all types of articles and are based on
recommendations provided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. These
regulations were published in the article "Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to
biomedical journals", April 2010 version, available at: http://www.icmje.org/.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Only the articles submitted by the Online Publishing System will be accepted (available at
http://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/codas-scielo).
Authors of papers selected for publication will be notified and will receive instructions related to
technical editorial procedures. The authors of manuscripts not selected for publication will
receive notification with the reasons for refusal. Articles undergoing editorial review may not be
submitted to other journals, national or international, until they are actually published or rejected
by the editorial board. Only the editor can authorize reproduction of articles published in
CoDAS.
For additional inquiries, authors should contact the executive secretariat by e-mail
codas@zeppelini.com.br.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
The following scanned documents, in addition to the manuscripts files, are mandatory:
a) letter signed by all authors, containing permission to reproduce the material and copyright
transfer, and a brief clarification regarding the contributions of each author;
b) approval of the Ethics Committee of the institution where the work was done, in cases where
the research involved humans or animals;
c) copy of the Informed Consent signed by subject(s) (or their guardians), authorizing the use of
an image, if applicable;
d) declaration of conflicts of interest, when applicable.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
The text must be formatted in Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, or RTF, ISO A4 paper size
(212x297mm), double-spaced, Arial font size 12, 2.5cm margin on each side, justified, with
pages numbered in Arabic numerals. Each section should begin on a new page in the following
sequence: title page, abstract and keywords, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, charts,
figures (graphs, photographs and illustrations), and appendices, with their respective captions.
The length of the manuscript (including title page, abstract, text, tables, charts, figures,
appendices, and references) must not exceed the limits described previously: 30 pages for
original articles and systematic reviews or meta-analyses, 20 pages for case reports, 4500
characters for short communications, and 3000 characters for letters to editors.
Identification page
The identification page should include:
a) title of the article in Portuguese (or Spanish) and English. The title should be concise but
informative;
b) short title (up to 40 characters);
c) the full name followed by the department and/or institution of each author;
d) department and/or institution where the study was performed;
e) name, institutional address, and email of the author to whom correspondence should be
addressed;
f) sources of research assistance, if any;
g) declaration of conflict of interests (or absence of);
h) brief text describing the contribution of each author listed.
Abstract and keywords
The second page should contain the abstract in Portuguese (or Spanish) and English, with no
more than 250 words. The abstract should be structured according to the type of article,
containing a brief synopsis of the main parts of the manuscript and emphasizing the most
significant data. Hence, for Original articles, the structure must be, in Portuguese: objetivo,
métodos, resultados, conclusão; in English: purpose, methods, results, conclusion. For
Systematic reviews or meta-analyses the structure of the abstract should be, in Portuguese:
objetivo, estratégia de pesquisa, critérios de seleção, análise dos dados, resultados, conclusão;
in English: purpose, search strategies, selection criteria, data analysis, results, conclusion. The
abstracts of Case reports should not be structured. Below the abstract, specify at least five and
at most ten descritores/keywords that define the subject of the study. Keywords should be
based on DeCS (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde) published by Bireme, a translation of the
MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) from the National Library of Medicine and available at:
http://decs.bvs.br.
Text
The text of the manuscript should follow the structure described for each type of submission.
Citations within the text should be numbered sequentially using Arabic numerals in parentheses
and superscript, undated and preferably without reference to authors' names, as in this
example:
"... Any speech disorder associated either to a nervous system injury or a sensory-motor
dysfunction may be classified as a motor disorder(11-13) ... "
Words or expressions in English that have no official translation into Portuguese should be
written in italics. Numerals up to ten should be spelled out.
The insertion of tables, charts, figures, and appendices, should be sequentially numbered. All
tables and charts should be in black and white; figures (graphs, photos, illustrations) can be in
color. Tables, charts and figures should be placed at the end of the article, following the
references.
Acknowledgements
This section includes recognition for individuals or institutions who cooperated in the completion
of the research. It should include acknowledgement to funding institutions that have provided
grants for the implementation of the research, including numbers of processes, if applicable.
References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cited in the text,
and identified with Arabic numerals. Presentation should be based on the "Vancouver Style"
format, shown below. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the style presented by
the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus, from the National Library of Medicine, available
at: ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/online/journals/ljiweb.pdf
For all references, the names of the first six authors should be included; beyond six, et al should
be indicated after the first six names.
It is recommended that authors employ references published in the last five years.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Shriberg LD, Flipsen PJ, Thielke H, Kwiatkowski J, Kertoy MK, Katcher ML et al. Risk for
speech disorder associated with early recurrent otitis media with effusions: two
retrospective studies. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2000;43(1):79-99.
Wertzner HF, Rosal CAR, Pagan LO. [Occurrence of otitis media and upper respiratory
tract infections in children with voice disorders]. Rev Soc Bras Fonoaudiol. 2002;7(1):329. [Portuguese]
BOOKS
Northern J, Downs M. Hearing in children. 3rd ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1983.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Rees N. An overview of pragmatics, or what is in the box? In: Iwin J. Pragmatics: the
role in language development. La Verne: Fox; 1982. p. 1-13.
BOOK CHAPTER (same author)
Russo IC. [Speech therapy in the elderly]. Rio de Janeiro: Revinter; 1999. [Hearing
Disorders: presbycusis]; p. 51-82. [Portuguese]
STUDIES PRESENTED IN CONGRESSES
Minna JD. Recent advances for potential clinical importance in the biology of lung
cancer. In: Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association for Cancer Research;
1984 Sep 6-10; Toronto. Proceedings. Toronto: AMA; 1984; 25:2293-4.
DISSERTATIONS AND THESES
Rodrigues A. Semantic and pragmatic aspects of alterations in language development
[dissertation]. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo – Faculdade de Filosofia Letras e
Ciências Humanas; 2002. [Portuguese]
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS
ASHA: American Speech and Hearing Association [Internet].
Speech-Language-Hearing
Association;
Rockville: American
c1997-2008. Otitis media, hearing
and
language development. [cited 2003 Aug 29]; [about 3 screens] Available from:
http://www.asha.org/consumers/brochures/otitis_media.htm
Tables
Tables should be presented separately from the text, each on a page at the end of the
document. Tables should be double-spaced Arial 8 font, sequentially numbered in Arabic
numerals in the order they are cited within the text. All tables must be accompanied by a selfexplanatory title inserted above it. All table columns should be identified with a header. At the
bottom of the table, a caption for abbreviations and statistical tests should be included. The
number of tables should be adequate to describe the data in a concise manner, and should not
repeat information presented in the text. Regarding the formatting, all tables must contain
horizontal borders separating the header, body and conclusion, and must be open laterally. Up
to five charts will be accepted.
Charts
Charts must follow the same structure orientation as tables, except for the formatting. They may
have vertical borders and must be closed laterally. Up to two tables will be accepted.
Figures (graphs, photographs, illustrations)
Figures should be placed separately from the text, at the end of the document, sequentially
numbered in Arabic numerals in the order of appearance in the text. All figures should have
adequate graphic quality (they may be in color, black and white or grayscale, always with white
background), and contain a title caption in Arial 8 font. Figures may be attached as
supplementary documents in separate electronic files (the image applied to the word processor
does not mean the original is copied). To avoid difficulties related to image quality, scanned
images must meet the following parameters: graphs or diagrams must be 800 dpi/bitmap,
illustrations and photos must be 300 dpi/RGB or grayscale. In all cases, the files should have
the extensions .tif and/or .jpg. In addition, .xls (Excel), .cdr (CorelDRAW), .eps, and .wmf files
may be considered for curve illustrations (graphs, drawings, schemes). If figures have already
been published elsewhere, they must be accompanied by the written permission of the
author/publisher, and contain the source in the caption of the illustration. Up to five figures may
be included.
Subtitles
Subtitles must be double spaced and included following the respective tables, charts, figures
(graphs, photographs and illustrations), and appendices.
Abbreviations and acronyms
All abbreviations and acronyms must be preceded by the full name when first cited in the text.
Abbreviations and acronyms used in tables, charts, figures and appendices must appear in the
caption with their full name. They may not be included in either the title or the abstract of the
manuscript.
Translation
The English version of the manuscript will be responsibility of the authors. After technical review
of the manuscript approved in Portuguese, authors will be instructed to proceed with translation
of the document into English. Authors are encouraged to seek out a commercial entity with
significant expertise with translations.