Ethics
Research Integrity
The RBO follows the guidelines of the Recommendations for the elaboration, writing, editing and publication of academic works in medical journals, of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), available in English and Portuguese ; and the Code of Good Scientific Practices of the Research Support Foundation of the state of São Paulo, available at:
Also, ethical principles are adopted in the publication of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct, and to promote research integrity and strengthen transparency in the process, all material published is in accordance with the Guide to Good Practices for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publication.
In cases of misconduct practices that harm scientific integrity, such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism and undisclosed conflicts of interest, they will be evaluated by the Associate Editors, independently of the editorial process of the manuscript in question, who will immediately inform the authors about the decision and all stages of this process, in accordance with COPE recommendations.
The journal uses the iThenticate system to identify plagiarism.
Ethics in research involving human beings
The observance of ethical precepts in conducting and publishing research results is the sole responsibility of the authors, and the ethical recommendations contained in the Declaration of Helsinki must be respected.
For research with human beings in Brazil, authors must fully observe the rules contained in the Resolutions of the National Health Council (CNS). If the work is a clinical research involving human beings or case reports, the approval opinion of the project by the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) must be included in the submission, alongside its protocol number and the date of approval.
Informed consent
At RBO, patients have their privacy maintained. Identifying information, including names, should not be published in written descriptions. Photographs essential for scientific purposes must not show the patient’s face, only the eyes, with written informed consent for publication from the patient (or parent or guardian). Authors must disclose to these patients when the article is available online as well as in print after publication. Non-essential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent must be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. If identifying characteristics are changed to protect anonymity, as in genetic pedigrees, authors must ensure, and editors must note, that such changes do not distort scientific significance. After informed consent has been obtained, with the favorable opinion of the Research Ethics Committee (CEP), the opinion number must be indicated in the methods of the article to be published.
Animal Law and Consent
It is the sole responsibility of the authors to follow the ethical precepts of research involving animals.
Similar to the Declaration of Helsinki that occurred in Finland in 1964, it definitively changed research with human beings. The Basel Declaration took place in Switzerland on November 30, 2010, where the signatories committed to greater transparency regarding the use of animals in scientific experiments, so that there would be reliability of results, and responsibility in the use of animal models, based on the principle of the 3 R`s (Replacement; Reduction and Refinement). The declaration is available at: https://www2.ufjf.br/ceua/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2015/11/basileia.pdf
Information on the management of postoperative pain, both in humans and animals, must be reported in the text, according to Resolution 196/96, of the Ministry of Health, and the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines, to report animal studies, available at: https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines
For research involving animals, the Declaration of Research involving animal experimentation (if applicable) must be submitted. (Download here).
Conflicts of interest
In situations of conflict of interest, the authors must recognize and reveal them, when present, through a Statement of Responsibility, which must be signed by all authors during manuscript submission, and the Potential conflicts of interest declaration form.
Reviewers involved in editorial processing must declare, in their manuscript evaluation form, if they have any conflict of interest. In situations of conflict of interest, the article is forwarded to another reviewer.
Responsibility of authorship
The authors must declare that they are responsible for the veracity and originality of the work, by signing the Statement of Responsibility.
Only those who contributed to the intellectual content of the article should be considered in the list of authors, following the criteria: having contributed to the conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data and having participated in the writing of the manuscript and/or critical review of the content. The contributions of each of the authors must be registered at the end of the manuscript.
Reproduction rights
Content published on RBO is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type (CC-BY) license, which allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the published work, even for commercial purposes, provided proper credit is given.
Open science and data sharing
The RBO is in line with the principles of open science and adopts the double-blind review model, with anonymity being guaranteed throughout the judgment process (blind review).
In this sense, manuscripts deposited in preprint repositories will not be accepted for evaluation. The author responsible for the submission must inform about this deposit by completing the Open Science Compliance Form, which must be submitted as a supplementary file to the manuscript.
Access to the study databases may be requested at any stage of the editorial process. The deposit and sharing of research data that support the publication of the manuscript, in public data repositories, such as the SciELO Data repository, is encouraged by the RBO. To access detailed instructions on data deposit, .
The RBO shares the good practices of open science and the importance of making data available in repositories/dasets, however the deposit of data will not be a requirement in the submission of manuscripts, until the editorial processes are reviewed.
Sex and gender equity
Manuscripts submitted to the RBO must observe the principles of the Guideline on Sex and Gender Equity in Research (Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER).
Advertisement Policy
RBO does not reproduce or publish advertisements in its articles or on its website. The journal proposes to publish articles that contribute to the improvement and development of the practice, research and teaching of Ophthalmology and specialties and the like. The journal follows the guidelines of the Federal Council of Medicine, through resolution 1,595/2000, which prohibits the promotion or advertisement of any commercial products or equipment in a scientific article.
Instructions to Authors
To access detailed instructions to authors, click here.
Checklist for Authors
Before submitting the manuscript, authors must ensure that all of the following items are available:
- Statement of Responsibility completed and saved in PDF as a digital file to be sent as a supplementary document.
- Open Science Compliance Form;
- Declaration of Potential Conflicts of Interest form for all authors completed and saved as digital files to be sent as supplementary documents.
- Mandatory completion of the ORCiD of all manuscript participants and saved as a digital file to be sent as a complementary document.
- Digital version of the Research Ethics Committee report, when applicable, containing the approval of the project to be sent as a complementary document.
- Manuscript prepared in accordance with the Instructions for Authors.
- Verification of the maximum number of words, tables, figures and references, according to the type of manuscript.
- Title page, including clinical trial registration number, separate from the main document.
- All figures and tables uploaded separately as complementary documents. They should not form part of the main manuscript document.
Appeals and complaints
Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision, or present a complaint about their experience with the journal, should write to the secretary (rbo@sboportal.org.br), indicating in the title of the email the reason and the journal case number.