Submissions

Author Guidelines

Manuscript submissions

•   This journal publishes articles in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

General Formatting

File 1 - Cover Letter:

• All submissions should include a cover letter with the names, affiliations and email contacts of five suggested reviewers from a different institution/research group. 

File 2 - Title Page:

• The author’s full name should be followed by their department, institution, city, state abbreviation and country
• Indicate the corresponding author by "*" and their email.
• Format example

File 3 - Manuscript:

• Manuscripts should be submitted electronically as MS Word files (.docx) to www.univali.br/eec by the online system, with a title that does not contain any author identification
• Manuscript should be typed in Times New Roman 12, double-spaced on A4 paper with 2.5 cm margins. 
• Pages should be numbered consecutively at the bottom right-hand corner.
• Lines should be numbered.
• Footnotes must be avoided. 
• The position of each figure and table should be indicated within the manuscript, but the figures and tables themselves must come at the end of the manuscript, with a separated page for their captions.
• Unit formats should be standardized according to IUPAC standards (i.e., mg L-1; mL (milliliter); L (liter); kg (kilogram).
• Format references and in-text citations: format according to the American Psychological Association (APA) style.
•                  See the APA Style website for specific examples of end references (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references). Articles that have been accepted for publication and have a DOI may be cited as "In press" and included in the reference list. 
• Full Latin names of all species must be supplied and should be standardized throughout the text, figures and tables according to international standards. 

•   Ensure the files' metadata does not contain personal information. To correct this, go to the file's Word settings and check that there is no identification of an author on its properties. (File>Info>Inspect Document>Remove Personal Information)

•   Author contributions should be inserted at the end of the main text. Learn more about contributor roles. (Example: JN: Conceptualization, Methodology. HJ: Data curation, Writing- Original draft preparation. GT: Visualization, Investigation. TR: Supervision.: KM: Writing- Reviewing and Editing. 

•   Papers that used human beings as the object of study or carried out animal experiments must indicate the project approval number by the respective Ethics Committees within the manuscript. Studies involving the application of questionnaires must inform the use of an “Free and Informed Consent Form”. Studies that sample and/or collect biological groups must indicate license numbers for activities with scientific purpose (IBAMA, SISBIO or state/municipal agency). 

Manuscript types and guidelines

1. Original research articles:

         Comprise reports on research with a significant research contribution to the field.

• Length: Maximum 6000 words
• Maximum of 8 figures and/or tables.
• Supplementary material is accepted. 

Sections must be presented in the following order:

• Title page - containing only a short, concise and informative title.
• Abstract page - presented in the second page of the manuscript.
•                  Single-paragraph, in English, not exceeding 300 words, followed by up to 6 keywords. Non-standard abbreviations and reference citations should be avoided. The keywords may or may not appear in the title and should be listed in alphabetical order.
• Introduction
• Material and methods
• Results and discussion (separate or not)
• Acknowledgements
• Credit author statement
• References
• Figure captions - Placed at the end of the manuscript on a separate page from the figures themselves. 
• Figures - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Photographs, charts and diagrams are to be referred to as “Figures” and should be ordered consecutively. Figures should not duplicate information found in tables. Label multipart figures consecutively with letters. Figures should be a minimum of 300 dpi in quality. Avoid halftones, small dotted lines, shading, and stippling, which do not reproduce well. Be certain that symbols and lettering will be legible after quality reduction for printing purposes. 
• Tables - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Each table, including headings and legend (at the top), should be on a separate page. Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals. Do not duplicate information in the text or data presented in graphic forms. Very long tables are discouraged and very short ones should be combined, when possible. Insert rules at the head, below column headings and foot of each table.

2. Review articles:

         Comprise a synthesis of current information on a specific research topic. 

• Maximum 8000 words.

Sections must be presented in the following order:

• Title page - containing only a short, concise and informative title.
• Abstract page - presented in the second page of the manuscript.
•                  Single-paragraph, in English, not exceeding 300 words followed by up to 6 keywords. Non-standard abbreviations and reference citations should be avoided. The keywords may or may not appear in the title and should be listed in alphabetical order.

The rest of the text may be a continuous free-style section or be subdivided into topics.

• Acknowledgements
• Author contributions
• References
• Figure captions - Placed at the end of the manuscript on a separate page from the figures themselves. 
• Figures - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Photographs, charts and diagrams are to be referred to as “Figures” and should be ordered consecutively. Figures should not duplicate information found in tables. Label multipart figures consecutively with letters. Figures should be a minimum of 300 dpi in quality. Avoid halftones, small dotted lines, shading, and stippling, which do not reproduce well. Be certain that symbols and lettering will be legible after quality reduction for printing purposes.
• Tables - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Each table, including headings and legend (at the top), should be on a separate page. Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals. Do not duplicate information in the text or data presented in graphic forms. Very long tables are discouraged and very short ones should be combined, when possible. Insert rules at the head, below column headings and foot of each table.

3. Short communications:

         Comprise short articles reporting original research as preliminary reports or a complete but short account a significant research contribution.

• Length: maximum  2500 words (not including abstract, captions and references). 
• A maximum of 4 figures and/or tables is allowed.

Sections must be presented in the following order:

• Title page - containing only a short, concise and informative title.
• Abstract page - presented in the second page of the manuscript.
•                  Single-paragraph, in English not exceeding 300 words followed by up to 6 keywords. Non-standard abbreviations and reference citations should be avoided. The keywords may or may not appear in the title and should be listed in alphabetical order.
• Introduction
• Material and methods 
• Results and discussion (separate or not)
• Author contributions
• Credit author statement 
• References
• Figure captions - Placed at the end of the manuscript on a separate page from the figures themselves. 
• Figures - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Photographs, charts and diagrams are to be referred to as “Figures” and should be ordered consecutively. Figures should not duplicate information found in tables. Label multipart figures consecutively with letters. Figures should be a minimum of 300 dpi in quality. Avoid halftones, small dotted lines, shading, and stippling, which do not reproduce well. Be certain that symbols and lettering will be legible after quality reduction for printing purposes.
• Tables - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Each table, including headings and legend (at the top), should be on a separate page. Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals. Do not duplicate information in the text or data presented in graphic forms. Very long tables are discouraged and very short ones should be combined, when possible. Insert rules at the head, below column headings and foot of each table.

4. Point of View:

         Brief articles that intend to address an emerging or controversial topic of interest to the scientific community with a particular opinion of a scientific nature.

• Length: maximum  2000 words 
• No abstract or references are required. 

5. Technical note:

         Short articles with a brief description of a specific development, technique or procedure, or a modification of an existing method. 

• Length: maximum  6000 words (not including abstract, captions and references). 

Sections must be presented in the following order:

• The manuscript may be a continuous free-style section or be subdivided into topics.
• Acknowledgements 
• Author contributions
• References 
• Figure captions - Placed at the end of the manuscript on a separate page from the figures themselves. 
• Figures - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Photographs, charts and diagrams are to be referred to as “Figures” and should be ordered consecutively. Figures should not duplicate information found in tables. Label multipart figures consecutively with letters. Figures should be a minimum of 300 dpi in quality. Avoid halftones, small dotted lines, shading, and stippling, which do not reproduce well. Be certain that symbols and lettering will be legible after quality reduction for printing purposes.
• Tables - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Each table, including headings and legend (at the top), should be on a separate page. Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals. Do not duplicate information in the text or data presented in graphic forms. Very long tables are discouraged and very short ones should be combined, when possible. Insert rules at the head, below column headings and foot of each table.

6. Research group bulletin:

         This section is dedicated to active research groups led by ECOTOX Brazil Associates and other SETAC Group Members. The aim is to increase research group visibility and enable collaborations between interested parties.

• Length: maximum  3000 words (not including abstract, captions and references). 
• The title must contain the name of the research group (or laboratory), affiliation and country.
• A photo of the group leader is mandatory, while field, laboratory and workgroup action photos are optional.
• The inclusion of hyperlinks to websites, e-mail and other media accesses relevant to the research group (Instagram, Facebook among others) is allowed.

Sections must be presented in the following order:

• The manuscript may be a continuous free-style section or be subdivided into topics. 
• Acknowledgements
• Author contributions
• References 
• Figure captions - Placed at the end of the manuscript on a separate page from the figures themselves. 
• Figures - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Photographs, charts and diagrams are to be referred to as “Figures” and should be ordered consecutively. Figures should not duplicate information found in tables. Label multipart figures consecutively with letters. Figures should be a minimum of 300 dpi in quality. Avoid halftones, small dotted lines, shading, and stippling, which do not reproduce well. Be certain that symbols and lettering will be legible after quality reduction for printing purposes. 
• Tables - Placed at the end of the manuscript, with their future location indicated in the main text
•                  Each table, including headings and legend (at the top), should be on a separate page. Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals. Do not duplicate information in the text or data presented in graphic forms. Very long tables are discouraged and very short ones should be combined, when possible. Insert rules at the head, below column headings and foot of each table.

Proofs

• The corresponding author will receive the proofs by email and the journal's platform
• Proofs must be corrected in up to 48 h and returned to EEC. 
• Proof corrections should be restricted to minor adjustments only. 

EEC will do everything possible to correct and publish your article as quickly and accurately as possible. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible. All editor decisions regarding manuscript acceptance or not are final. Any controversy will be decided by the Senior Editor.