Guidelines for submitting manuscripts

The information presented below was updated in november 2025.

GENERAL INFORMATION

 

The Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física e Saúde (RBAFS) accepts articles that have not been previously published or are under review in another journal. The information and concepts presented in the articles, as well as the accuracy of the research content, are the sole responsibility of the author(s).

For studies involving data collection with human subjects, approval by a Research Ethics Committee is required, with the participants signing the Free and Informed Consent Form. Studies that do not meet these requirements will not be accepted for publication in the journal.

The RBAFS values manuscripts that use language promoting equity, diversity, and respect for all individuals. Authors are encouraged to avoid expressions, descriptors, or examples that reflect stereotypes, cultural biases, or irrelevant personal characteristics. Gender-neutral or plural terms should be prioritized where appropriate, and care should be taken to ensure that coding, labels, or classifications do not contain exclusionary or offensive language. Beyond language, the RBAFS emphasizes the importance of systematically considering sex and gender in research, in alignment with the SAGER guidelines. This includes explicit reporting of how these variables are defined, measured, and analyzed, as well as presenting results disaggregated by sex and/or gender whenever relevant. Authors should also discuss the potential influence of sex and gender on study outcomes and their implications for the interpretation and generalizability of the findings.

All articles accepted for publication in RBAFS will receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) at the time of publication.

 

Authorship criteria

The Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física e Saúde  adopts the Contributor Roles Taxonomy CRediT. The contribution of all authors to the preparation of the manuscript must be described in the Submission Form.

Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física e Saúde requires that all authors must have made significant contributions to the conception and/or development of the research, and must have been involved in the writing and revision of the manuscript. In addition, all authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript. In the submission form, the contribution of each author meeting these criteria must be indicated.

 

Article language

Articles may be submitted in Portuguese, Spanish, or English. However, if an article accepted is in Portuguese or Spanish, the submission of the article in English within 30 days will be mandatory. For articles submitted in English, it is suggested, when possible, to publish the article in both Portuguese and English, thereby increasing RBAFS's reach in Portuguese-speaking countries.

 

Conflict of interest

Conflicts of interest may be of a personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial nature. Conflicts of interest can arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that may influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts. Upon submission, authors are responsible for acknowledging and disclosing any financial or other conflicts that may have influenced their work. If there is, even potentially, a conflict of interest, the author(s) must indicate it in the Submission Form. For more information, see: Disclosure of Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest.

 

Reporting checklists

Authors are required to follow international reporting guidelines according to the type of study (e.g., STROBE, SRQR, PRISMA, CONSORT, CHERRIES, etc.), and must attach the corresponding checklist at the time of submission. This material will be considered during the peer review process. In case of doubts, please consult the guidelines on the EQUATOR Network website.

 

Adoption of software using artificial intelligence resources

The use of artificial intelligence in the process of preparing articles submitted to the Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física e Saúde is permitted as long as it is aligned with the ethical precepts of scientific research. Thus, artificial intelligence tools and language models cannot be listed as authors, nor be responsible for any excerpts or content of the manuscript. Accepted activities for the use of these tools will include: (i) assistance in manuscript writing when used to paraphrase or enhance the author’s original content; (ii) literature search, provided that the author(s) take responsibility for the selection and critical analysis of the research conducted; and (iii) production of images or graphic elements, which must be explicitly mentioned in the Materials and Methods section of the article with details on how the tool was used. The use of these tools must be declared in the Submission Form. In all cases, the authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of their research articles.

 

Formatting

Manuscripts must be prepared in a Microsoft Word text editor. Files must have a DOC, DOCX, or RTF extension. The following formatting must be adopted when preparing the text file:

  • pages in A4 format, numbered in the upper right corner starting from the “title page”, with margins of 2.5 cm (bottom, top, left, and right);
  • Times New Roman font, size 12;
  • double spacing;
  • line numbering (page layout), restarting on each page;
  • Footnotes are not permitted.

 

Title page

This document must include, in this order, the following information:

  • Text disseminating the main results with a maximum of 200 characters (including spaces), for dissemination on the social networks of the Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física e Saúde (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
  • Type of article;
  • Complete title, with a maximum of 100 characters including spaces (avoid using acronyms in the title)
  • Running title, with a maximum of 50 characters including spaces;
  • Author(s) and respective institutional affiliations, organized in the following sequence (note: after submission of the manuscript, changes to the authorship will not be permitted):

- institution, center, department, city, state, and country – for example: Federal University of Santa Catarina, Department of Physical Education, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil;

- abbreviations of the names of authors, states, and institutions are not permitted;

- after the name of each author, indicate the ORCID registration number (https://orcid.org) – for example:

João Santos1
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9647-3448
1 Federal University of Santa Catarina, Department of Physical Education, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

  • Information about the author responsible for contacting the Journal's editorial team, in the following sequence: author, email, full address (street, number, complement, city, state, country, zip code) – for example:

CONTACT
João Santos
jj@rbafs.org.br
Rua/Avenida Presidente X, n. 100, São João, Pernambuco, Brasil. CEP: 59000-001.

  • Word count in the text, summary, and abstract, as well as the number of references and illustrations (tables, figures, and tables);
  • Funding: inform the funding agency and process number when the manuscript comes from projects that received funding – for example:

Funding

Funding details...

  • Acknowledgments: inform in brief text institutions, and others, that you wish to thank – for example:

Acknowledgments

The authors thank...

  • Indicate three possible reviewers for your manuscript (full name, institution, and email):
    • To this end, only reviewers with a doctorate and knowledge in the area to which the manuscript is related are accepted; 

Manuscript body

 

Abstract 

On the abstract page, the article title should be placed at the top. The abstract should be written in structured format with a maximum of 250 words. For original studies, the abstract must include the following sections: introduction, objective, methods, results, and conclusion. For other formats, it is recommended to use the following sections: introduction, objective, development, and final considerations.

At the end of the abstract, three to five keywords obtained from the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) or Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) should be included, separated by semicolons.

 

Body of the text

The body of the text should be structured according to each type of article (see table). Citations should be numbered and ordered sequentially in superscript Arabic numerals, following the Vancouver style. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum, and when used, they should be identified after their first use. 

 

References

Authors should adhere to the indicated word limit for each type of manuscript (see table), using references directly related to the manuscript's content. The organization of the reference list should follow the Vancouver style. For standardization, the use of reference management software utilizing the 'Elsevier Vancouver' style is recommended. Some formatting examples are provided below:

Journal articles:

Hallal PC, Victora CG, Wells JCK, Lima RC. Physical inactivity: prevalence and associated variables in Brazilian adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2003;35(11):1894-900. doi: https://doi.org/10.1249/01.MSS.0000093615.33774.0E.

Book

Nahas MV. Atividade física, saúde e qualidade de vida. 5ª ed. Londrina: Midiograf, 2003.

 Book chapter

Zanella MT. Obesidade e fatores de risco cardiovascular. In: Mion Jr D, Nobre F (eds). Risco cardiovascular global: da teoria à prática. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Lemos Editorial Berenson GS. Obesity studies in Bogalusa. Am J Med Sci. 1995;310(Suppl); 2000. p. 109-25.

Thesis and dissertations

Brandão AA. Estudo longitudinal de fatores de risco cardiovascular em uma população de jovens [Doctoral thesis]. Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; 2001. 

Other documents:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Center for Health Statistics/CDC. CDC growth charts: United States. 2002; Available in: <http://www.cdc.gov. br/growthcharts> [2007 June].

IBGE. Síntese de indicadores sociais: uma análise das condições de vida da população brasileira: 2015. 35th ed. Rio de Janeiro: IBGE; 2015. Available in: <https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv95011.pdf> [2018 May].

 

Tables and illustrations

Tables should be created in word processors (e.g., Word). They should be referenced in the text and included after the references. Each table should have a title and column headers. They should be sequentially numbered with Arabic numerals in the order they appear in the text. Footnotes should include the definition of abbreviations and the statistical tests used.

All figures (images, charts, photographs, and illustrations) must be referenced in the text and submitted at a size equal to or larger than the intended display size. They should be sequentially numbered with Arabic numerals in the order they appear in the text. If the figures have been previously published, the author/editor must provide written permission for reproduction, and the captions should include the publication source. When saved as digital files, the resolution should be of good graphic quality (maximum 21cm width, 300dpi). Accepted vector formats include: AI (Adobe Illustrator), PDF (Portable Document Format), WMF (Windows MetaFile), EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), or SVG (Scalable Vectorial Graphics).

 

Codes and Materials Underlying Articles
It is recommended that all data, codes, and materials underlying the article and used in the design and execution of the research be appropriately cited in the text and listed in the references section, preferably with a persistent identifier, such as a DOI.

Example of data reference:
Silva G. Breaks Cognition. Mendeley Data. 2024; V1. doi: https://doi.org/10.17632/ynxvnwks7z.1.

 

Data Availability
All articles resulting from original research should indicate data availability in the submission form, specifying whether the dataset is accessible and where it can be found.

 

 Mandatory documents for manuscript submission