About the Journal

Brief Background

In 1992, the Director Board of the Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP) of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and of the Associação Paulista de Saúde Pública (APSP) partnered to carry out an editorial project. From this initiative stemmed the Journal Saúde e Sociedade, which is at present a consolidated reference on the interface between Social and Human Sciences in the fields of Public/Collective Health.

In 2020, with the end of the agreement between the partners, the journal Saúde e Sociedade became a publication of FSP/USP, maintaining as its objective the dissemination of interdisciplinary scientific production in the area.

Our mission

To disseminate scientific output at the interface of social and human sciences with the Public/Collective Health field; to publicize new social approaches to health, including those that understand the field of health as an object of social analysis; to host the technical output with relevant results for the progress and improvement of health systems and forms of care; and to stimulate the debate on challenging health topics and struggles for rights, diversity, and quality of life.

Open Science Compliance

Saúde e Sociedade adopts a series of practices, such as the open access policy, the code of good practice for editors, and the use of social networks to disseminate published works. Furthermore, it requires the precise indication of the role of each of the authors in articles with multiple authorship and encourages the sharing of analysis data sets, instruments, scripts, and additional materials made available in repositories open online, such as Zenodo, Figshare, OSF, NCBI, and Mendeley Data, if they cannot be published in the work itself, and this information must be indicated in the manuscript.

Saúde e Sociedade recognizes the publication of preprint articles on public platforms, such as SciELO Preprints, a practice that can encourage open discussion before publication. 

Also, in line with the practices of so-called “open science”, the journal offers authors and reviewers the option of opening the peer review process with or without identifying their names. Authorization to disclose the name may be given by the authors when submitting the article and by the reviewers when filling out the evaluation form. Furthermore, the contribution of the editors involved in the evaluation process is duly credited in the published article.

Ethics in Publication

Saúde e Sociedade is based on the principles of conduct and plagiarism policy developed by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE).

In order to guarantee an editorial policy committed to ethical publication criteria that encourage the identification of plagiarism, bad practices, fraud, possible violations of ethics, and the opening of lawsuits, we strongly recommend that authors follow the following steps before submitting texts to the journal:

  •  Visit the website of COPE, which contains information about research ethics for authors and editors;
  •  Explicitly reference data acquired, analyzed, or interpreted from other publications;
  •  Quote any intellectual content from other authors;
  •  Indicate as authors only those who actively and substantially participated in all phases of the research and writing of the article;
  •  Do not omit from the list of authors any researcher completely involved in the research and writing of the article;
  •  Include all authors in the article's authorship criteria.

Authors who use artificial intelligence tools in the writing of the manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the body of the of the paper how the artificial intelligence tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

To promote the predominance of originality in texts, the periodical adopts Turnitin, a specific software for measuring textual or content similarity between the material submitted for evaluation/publication and other publications, including those of the authors themselves.

The intellectual production published by the periodical must be authorial and original. The editorial board will investigate conduct that is not appropriate for scientific purposes, in accordance with the principles already mentioned, without prejudice to the critical performance of academic production and the expression of freedom of thought.

The journal emphatically refutes the various forms of plagiarism and any attempts to misappropriate the product of other people's intellectual work, including self-plagiarism when justified by the imperatives of academic productivism, which are incompatible with the responsible sharing of knowledge. The originality of the works submitted for evaluation/publication is considered both in relation to the authorial sources of the content developed and/or referred to and in relation to the formal aspects of the writing.

Saúde e Sociedade considers that all material previously published, in full or in part, in a journal, book, or website by the authors is considered prior publication and, therefore, cannot be submitted for evaluation in the journal. Exceptions are content available on preprint servers, theses, dissertations, monographs, and other works presented as a requirement for course completion by authors. In these cases, the origin of the content must be stated in the body of the article.

Focus and Scope

Saúde e Sociedade objectives are to convey scientific production at the interface of social and human sciences with the field of public/collective health; disseminate new social approaches to health, including those that understand the field of health as an object of social analysis; welcome technical production with relevant results for the advancement and improvement of health systems and other forms of care; and stimulate debate on challenging health topics and struggles for rights, diversity, and quality of life.

The journal publishes works that elaborate, adopt, or dialogue with contemporary approaches to social and human sciences in relation to public/collective health. It encompasses academic production from various fields of human and social sciences, including those relating to proposed interventions and practices in public policies relating to health and care that are in line with its editorial policy.

Digital Preservation

This journal follows the standards defined in the SciELO Program Digital Preservation Policy

Indexing Sources

Bibliographic Journal Information

Journal title: Saúde e Sociedade
Abbreviated title: Saúde Soc.
Published by: Universidad de São Paulo
Periodicity: Quarterly
Publication mode: continuous publication
Year of creation of the periodical: 1992

Websites and Social Media

Site: revistas.usp.br/sausoc
Instagram: instagram.com/saudesociedade
Facebook: facebook.com/saudeesociedade
Twitter: twitter.com/SaudeSociedade
Youtube: www.youtube.com/@RevistaSaudeSociedade

Editorial Policy 

Preprints 

Saúde e Sociedade accepts articles previously deposited on the preprint server SciELO Preprints. Other servers will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis by the editorial board. The text previously published in the preprint must be correctly cited at the time of submission.

Peer Review Process

When selecting articles for publication, the scientific merit of the work and its adequacy to the editorial standards adopted by Saúde e Sociedade are evaluated. In the first stage, manuscripts submitted in accordance with editorial standards are evaluated by the editors-in-chief, who verify the adequacy of the contributions to the journal's thematic scope and publication priority. Once approved in pre-selection, manuscripts are assigned to associate editors, who, in turn, forward them to peer review (at least two ad hoc reviewers).

The entire text submission and evaluation process is carried out through ScholarOne, which, by default, hides the names of evaluators and contribution authors in order to preserve double-blind evaluation. Opinions are confidential, and when agreeing to issue an opinion, the evaluator must certify that there is no conflict of interest in relation to the text that will be evaluated. In cases of preprint, it is not possible to guarantee the anonymity of the authors. As for the editors involved in the evaluation process, their names are duly credited in the published article.

However, in line with the practices of so-called “open science”, the journal offers authors and reviewers the option of opening the peer review process with or without identifying their names. Authorization to disclose the name may be given by the authors at the time of submission of the article, by the Open Science Compliance Form, and by the evaluators when filling out the evaluation form.

Opinions serve as the basis for editorial decisions, with the Editorial Board reserving the right to publish or reject submitted manuscripts. After issuing opinions via the journal's specific form, the authors are notified of the editorial decision. In the case of requesting changes, authors will have 15 days from sending the editorial decision to make the requested changes and submit the new version.

Once approved, the manuscript goes through standardization, review, and layout adjustments. This process may require authors to make corrections and additions to information. In these cases, the company hired by the periodical (Tikinet) will send an email to the corresponding author, who must respond to requests within 72 hours. After this period, the article may be archived. Likewise, the company will send the final proof of the articles to the corresponding author via email, who will have 72 hours to correct and return the duly revised originals, if necessary. If the proof is not returned within the established deadline, the Editorial Board considers the version without changes as final, and no further modifications are permitted.

Open Data

The journal encourages authors to publish analysis datasets, instruments, statistical analysis scripts, and additional materials in open online repositories such as SciELO Date, Zenodo, Figshare, OSF, and Mendeley Data if they cannot be published in the work itself, and this information must be indicated in the manuscript. Consequently, articles that publish research must indicate and reference the availability of content underlying the preparation of the research and the results obtained.

Fees

Saúde e Sociedade does not charge fees for the submission, evaluation, or publication of articles.

The translation of articles submitted into Portuguese is optional. Articles submitted in Spanish or English must necessarily be translated into Portuguese and published in these two languages. All translations are carried out by the journal, but the costs must be paid by the authors.

The costs of publishing errata and retractions will also be borne by the authors.

Ethics and Misconduct, Correction and Retraction Policy

Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and sequence of authors before submitting their manuscript and forward the definitive list of authors at the time of submission. Once the manuscript evaluation process has begun, no additions or changes of authorship will be permitted.

Once the manuscript is approved, no substantial changes can be made. Small modifications may be requested by the journal during the standardization, review, translation, and layout process, or by the corresponding author upon receipt of the final proof. Once these steps are complete, no changes can be made. Exceptions may be evaluated by the Editorial Board based on justifications presented by the authors. If approved, corrections that do not constitute misconduct will be published through an erratum, and the costs must be paid by the authors.

Corrections resulting from misconduct will be published in the form of a retraction, and the already published article will remain indexed in the journal's database as retracted. The retraction must be properly referenced and documented and may be partial when the misconduct applies to a specific part of the article without, however, compromising the published research as a whole.

Policy on Conflict of Interest

Article authors, reviewers, and editors are obliged to inform if there is any type of conflict of interest, which may be of a personal, commercial, political, or financial nature. Conflicts of interest may occur when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that may influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts.

When submitting the manuscript, authors are responsible for acknowledging and disclosing any conflicts that may have influenced the work.

Editors and referees must also report conflicts of interest that may influence the analysis of the manuscript, declaring themselves not qualified to participate in the evaluation process.

Adoption of similarity software

The journal considers the practice of plagiarism unacceptable. The software Turnitin, which checks similarities between texts, will be used at any time during the article evaluation process to check for plagiarism and ensure the originality of the article.

Texts that show high similarity (more than 40%) with other materials already published will be considered plagiarism, including direct quotations without due attribution of authorship. Exceptions are content published by authors in the form of preprints, theses, dissertations, and monographs. In these cases, the origin of the content must be stated in the body of the article.

When plagiarism is detected, authors are informed. In case of doubt, a representative of the journal's Editorial Board contacts the corresponding author and, if necessary, all authors. Once duplicity is proven, the manuscript is rejected and archived, and the authors' affiliation or funding institutions involved in the development of the research may be contacted to report the misconduct.

Gender and Sex Issues

The journal team and authors who publish articles in the journal must observe the guidelines on Sex and Gender Equity in Research, which comprise a set of guidelines that guide the reporting of information about sex and gender in study design, data analysis, results and interpretation of findings. In addition, Saúde e Sociedade observes the gender equity policy when forming its editorial board.

Ethics Committee

The journal pays strict attention to ethical standards for carrying out research with animals and humans. Research ethics procedures and statements, as well as certificates from institutional or community ethics committees, when existing, must be attached during the submission process. The existence of theoretical and normative references on ethical practices in research is recommended, taking into account the specific case and the disciplinary area. In case of doubt about the documentation presented, the journal may request better information and, at the limit, reject the article.

Copyright

Authors of articles published by Saúde e Sociedade maintain the copyright of their works, under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction as long as the original work is correctly cited. It is authorized by Saúde e Sociedade to publish of the aforementioned text. The data, concepts, and opinions presented in the works, as well as the accuracy of documentary and bibliographical references, are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Intellectual Property and Terms of Use

All journal content, including published articles, except where otherwise specified, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY).

Authors of articles published by Saúde e Sociedade maintain the copyright of their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction as long as the original work is correctly cited.

Saúde e Sociedade encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts, publishing them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and academic social media, as well as posting them on their personal social media, as long as the full citation is included in the journal website version.

Sponsors and Promotion Agencies 

Faculdade de Saúde Pública da USP - FSP/USP

http://www.fsp.usp.br
Av. Dr. Arnaldo, 715, São Paulo, SP CEP: 01246-904

Agência de Bibliotecas e Coleções Digitais (ABCD-USP)

http://www.abcd.usp.br
atendimento@abcd.usp.br

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)


http://www.cnpq.br

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - Fapesp

Ministério da Saúde (MS)


http://www.saude.gov.br