Editorial policies

Editorial policies

Open Access and Free of Charge

BJHP is an open-access, free-of-charge electronic journal. It offers immediate open access to its content, in accordance with the principles of Open Science, based on the understanding that making scientific knowledge freely available promotes greater democratization of knowledge.

Publication Fees and Costs

The BJHP does not charge any fees at any stage of the editorial process. There are no submission, review, editing, or publication fees, nor are there any Article Processing Charges (APCs) or equivalent fees for scientific articles or technical notes.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence

BJHP recognizes that generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools can assist with certain stages of scientific and technical-scientific production, such as supporting linguistic review, organizing ideas, preliminary translation, synthesizing information, preparing visual materials, and improving textual clarity. Their use must comply with the principles of scientific integrity, transparency, authorial responsibility, confidentiality, personal data protection, respect for copyright, and preservation of human authorship.

This policy is based on CNPq Ordinance No. 2,664, dated March 6, 2026, which establishes the CNPq Policy on Integrity in Scientific Activity; on Law No. 13,709/2018 (General Law on the Protection of Personal Data); Law No. 9,610/1998, which regulates copyright in Brazil; and other ethical and editorial standards applicable to scientific communication.

Use by Authors

The use of AI-assisted writing tools by authors is not prohibited by the BJHP, provided that such use is ethical, transparent, responsible, and consistent with scientific integrity. Authors who use AI tools at any stage of the preparation of a scientific article or technical note must disclose this use at the time of submission, providing, at a minimum:</span >

  • the tool used;
  • the purpose of its use;
  • the stage at which it was employed;
  • how the generated content was reviewed, verified, and validated by the authors.

The declaration must be included in the cover letter and, when applicable, in a specific section of the manuscript or technical note, at the discretion of the Editorial Board. The use of AI does not replace the authors’ responsibility for the submitted content. The authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, technical and scientific validity, ethical appropriateness, bibliographic references, data, images, interpretations, recommendations, and conclusions presented in the work. AI tools may not be listed as authors or co-authors, since they do not assume public responsibility for the content, are not accountable for the integrity of the work, and do not meet the authorship criteria adopted by the BJHP. It is prohibited to submit text, images, tables, data, references, analyses, recommendations, or any other content generated by IAG as if it were exclusively human-produced, without an appropriate statement regarding its use.

The use of IAG is also prohibited for the following purposes:

  • fabricating, altering, or manipulating data, images, results, citations, or references;
  • create nonexistent or inaccurate bibliographic references;
  • replace the authors’ critical analysis, scientific interpretation, or professional judgment;
  • conceal plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, or misuse of sources;
  • produce content that violates copyright, confidentiality, privacy, personal data protection, or applicable ethical standards.

When the work involves personal data, sensitive data, information on research participants, medical records, confidential institutional documents, or information protected by confidentiality, authors must not enter such information into AI-assisted writing tools without a legal basis, institutional authorization, and adequate safeguards for security, privacy, and data protection, in accordance with current legislation.

Failure to declare the use of IAG, when identified during the editorial process, may result in a request for clarification, return for correction, rejection of the submission, or other appropriate editorial measures. When identified after publication, it may lead to the publication of a correction, an editorial statement, a retraction, or other measures provided for in BJHP’s policies.

Use by Reviewers and Editors

Manuscripts, technical notes, reviews, data, supplementary documents, and other materials received during the editorial process are confidential. Reviewers and editors must maintain the confidentiality of the information to which they have access during the editorial review process.

The use of AI-assisted review (AIR) tools by reviewers to prepare reviews is not recommended by the BJHP. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, technical notes, excerpts from the work, data, images, results, supplementary documents, or any confidential information to external AIR tools, especially when there are no institutional guarantees of privacy, information security, and non-retention of data.

Editorial review and peer review must remain under human responsibility. AI-assisted review tools should not replace the critical, technical, scientific, ethical, and editorial judgment of reviewers and editors.

If, in exceptional cases, any IAG resource is used in a supporting editorial activity, such use must respect the principles of confidentiality, transparency, impartiality, personal data protection, copyright, and human responsibility, without compromising the confidentiality of the peer-review process or the autonomy of editorial decision-making.

Reviewers and editors remain responsible for the content of the reviews, recommendations, and editorial decisions issued within the scope of the BJHP.

Authors’ Responsibility

Manuscripts, technical notes, reviews, data, supplementary documents, and other materials received during the editorial process are confidential. Reviewers and editors must maintain the confidentiality of the information to which they have access during the editorial review process.

The use of AI-assisted review (AIR) tools by reviewers to prepare reviews is not recommended by the BJHP. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, technical notes, excerpts from the work, data, images, results, supplementary documents, or any confidential information to external AIR tools, especially when there are no institutional guarantees of privacy, information security, and non-retention of data.

Editorial review and peer review must remain under human responsibility. AI-assisted review tools should not replace the critical, technical, scientific, ethical, and editorial judgment of reviewers and editors.

If, in exceptional cases, any IAG resource is used in a supporting editorial activity, such use must respect the principles of confidentiality, transparency, impartiality, personal data protection, copyright, and human responsibility, without compromising the confidentiality of the peer-review process or the autonomy of editorial decision-making.

Reviewers and editors remain responsible for the content of the reviews, recommendations, and editorial decisions issued within the scope of the BJHP.

Authors’ Responsibility

The content, data, interpretations, recommendations, and opinions expressed in scientific articles and technical notes submitted to or published in the BJHP are the sole responsibility of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CRF/MG or the BJHP Editorial Board. It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure the originality of the work, the accuracy of the information presented, and compliance with the journal’s guidelines, including those regarding the use of IAG.

The BJHP reserves the right to reject or retract, at any time, manuscripts or technical notes that contain content or language of a racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, ableist, or discriminatory nature, or that are incompatible with the journal’s ethical, scientific, and editorial principles.

The corresponding author assumes responsibility for the submission, the integrity and accuracy of the information presented, the ethical and legal compliance of the work, the disclosure of any use of IAG, as well as the scientific validity and agreement of the other authors regarding the submitted content and the documents sent to BJHP.

Plagiarism and Textual Similarity

All manuscripts and technical notes submitted to BJHP undergo originality verification and textual similarity detection procedures using specialized software before being forwarded to the reviewers. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure the originality of the work, the proper citation of sources used, and compliance with current copyright laws, as well as to ensure that the text has not been generated by unauthorized AI tools.

Manuscripts showing evidence of plagiarism, undeclared self-plagiarism, improper reproduction of third-party content, inappropriate handling of citations, or textual similarity incompatible with the journal’s editorial standards may be rejected at any stage of the editorial process. High percentages of textual similarity, especially those exceeding 20%, will be evaluated by the responsible associate editor, taking into account the nature of the text, the length of the matching passages, the presence of appropriate citations, the use of standardized methodological expressions, and the occurrence of overlap with the authors’ own previous works.

Figures, tables, charts, photographs, illustrations, or other materials that have been previously published or originate from third parties may only be used with the express authorization of the copyright holder, a compatible license, or proof that the material is in the public domain; the source must be properly cited. In cases of materials extracted from image banks, digital platforms, websites, books, articles, or technical publications, authors must comply with Law No. 9,610/1998 and other applicable regulations; this requirement also applies to artificially generated graphic resources.

It is recommended that figures, tables, and charts be preferably original and created by the authors themselves. When third-party material is used, its inclusion must be justified, limited to what is strictly necessary, and accompanied by the respective authorization or proof of a usage license, when applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest may arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests, relationships, or ties—whether disclosed or not—that could influence, or be perceived as capable of influencing, the preparation, evaluation, or editorial decision-making regarding scientific articles and technical notes submitted to the BJHP. These conflicts may be personal, commercial, political, academic, institutional, or financial in nature.

When submitting a scientific article or technical note, authors are responsible for identifying and disclosing any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest related to the work, including personal, professional, institutional, academic, political, or commercial ties that may have influenced its development, writing, interpretation, or presentation. The deliberate omission of potential conflicts of interest constitutes an ethical violation and may result in the rejection of the manuscript or the retraction of the publication.

All sources of funding, institutional support, grants, sponsorships, consulting services, provision of services, receipt of honoraria, supply of materials, medications, equipment, software, technical support, or any other form of support received from funding agencies, public or private institutions, professional organizations, associations, companies, or commercial entities, including pharmaceutical companies, laboratories, clinics, private hospitals, pharmacies, and drugstores. If there are no conflicts of interest to declare, authors must explicitly state this in the manuscript, in accordance with the BJHP template.

When the scientific article or technical note is derived from a final course project, dissertation, thesis, institutional project, technical report, or activity linked to a course, program, service, or institution, this origin must be stated in the manuscript, with mention of the corresponding institution. The advisor, supervisor, or coordinator of the work must be included as an author whenever they meet the authorship criteria adopted by BJHP, especially when they have contributed substantially to the conception, design, methodological guidance, analysis, interpretation of data, writing, or critical review of the manuscript’s intellectual content.

If authors have questions about what may constitute a potential conflict of interest, they should contact the BJHP Administrative Office before or during the submission process.

Editors and reviewers must also disclose any conflict of interest that could influence—or be perceived as capable of influencing—their evaluation or editorial decision. When a conflict compromises their impartiality, the editor or reviewer must recuse themselves from particip

Editorial Responsibility

The editorial decisions of the BJHP are the responsibility of its Editorial Board, with editorial support from the CRF/MG, and are based exclusively on criteria of originality, relevance, methodological quality, and adherence to the scope. The composition, qualification criteria, terms of office, and responsibilities of the editor-in-chief, associate editors, Editorial Advisory Board, and guest editors are defined in CRF-MG Resolution No. 5/2026 and presented on the Editorial Board page. Editorial and administrative contact information is available on the Contact page.

Digital Preservation

The BJHP implements digital preservation procedures for its content, archiving published articles in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), thereby ensuring the integrity and long-term access to the journal’s publications, in accordance with the provisions of Article 5, Paragraph 2, of CRF-MG Resolution No. 5/2026.

Persistent Identifiers and ORCID

Each article published by BJHP receives a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) number, assigned by Crossref and indicated in the bibliographic reference for the work. An ORCID record is required of all authors and co-authors at the time of submission, as per the Submission Guidelines for Authors.

Ethics and Editorial Integrity

The BJHP is guided by the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in addressing issues of ethics and editorial integrity. Cases of misconduct, including plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, improper authorship, duplicate publication, and undeclared conflicts of interest, are investigated by the Editorial Board. When necessary, the journal takes post-publication corrective measures, such as errata, correction notices, statements of concern, or retractions.