Autopsy and Case Reports will only receive manuscripts for evaluation if submitted in English.

Editorial Policies

General Policies

Autopsy and Case Reports endorses and strives to follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors guidelines on editorial independence, the publication best practices code by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the EQUATOR network checklists and advice for good research reporting.

Autopsy and Case Reports prioritizes the publication of well-documented autopsy case reports accompanied by excellent macro and micro documentation of the autopsy study, radiological documentation (if any), and a thorough clinical-pathological and radiological correlation. Clinical case reports with or without surgical pathology, research articles, short communications, images (in the section Image in Focus), editorials, and letters to the editor, will also be accepted for evaluation. All the submissions should represent original works and must be not under evaluation nor submitted to another journal. Forensic autopsy case reports will be accepted for evaluation only if the autopsy discloses a natural cause of death. Cases of forensic autopsies from external causes of death will not be considered for publication. Submitted articles that have already undergone evaluation for another journal are required to include that journal's corresponding rejection letter during submission.  

Concepts presented in the published articles are the authors' exclusive responsibility and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the journal or its Editorial Board. 

The submission and acceptance dates of the manuscript will be published at the end of the article, together with the conflict of interest, financial support, and authors' contributions statements, as stated by the authors.

Article processing charges

Autopsy and Case Reports does not charge submissions or article processing fees of any kind.

Conference Proceedings

Autopsy and Case Reports will accept contributions previously presented or published in conferences as abstracts or posters if the work has received substantial improvements (with or without new contributors) to the methodology, data, discussion, or conclusions. The authors must disclose this by including a detailed description of those improvements and author contributions in the submission letter.

Peer-review

Articles submitted to Autopsy and Case Reports will undergo the following double-blind peer-review process:

1. The first step after receiving the submission - the editorial assistant will verify if the articles do not fail to comply with the editorial policies and formatting guidelines, and will be returned for adjustments, if necessary.

2. The second evaluation step is the editorial review, which will focus on the language and scope. This review is carried out by one of the Scientific Editors or the Editors-in-chief. In this step, the article may return to the authors for additional amendments before being forwarded to the peer-review step.

3. On the final step of the article evaluation  the handling Editor sends the manuscript to an in-depth review by at least two other members of the Publication Committee and/or Ad Hoc Reviewers, or eventually a new Ad Hoc reviewer will be invited. In case of a discrepancy between the two reviewers’ opinions, the handling editor requests a third reviewer's opinion. Reviews are carried out on the online submission and evaluation system using this score sheet. Articles may be rejected with a detailed rejection letter sent to the authors, or accepted with minor or major revisions. In the latter, the authors receive a report with the required revision and its resubmission afterward. Eventually, when the peer-review requires no more amendments, the manuscript is accepted and sent to the production.

4. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief, taking into account the reviewers' evaluation as well as the handling editor recommendation.

It is important to note that the peer-review process for articles submitted by the Editor-in-Chief or other members of the editorial board is not subject to any preferential treatment. These submissions undergo the same rigorous evaluation process as any other article to ensure a fair and unbiased review. Autopsy and Case Reports strictly adhere to ethical policies, and any potential conflicts of interest are managed with utmost transparency and impartiality. This commitment to ethical standards underscores our dedication to maintaining the integrity and quality of the peer-review process for all submissions.

Articles sent to authors for revision should be returned within a maximum of 10 days; otherwise, the process will be interrupted, and the article may be rejected.

The timeframe for the publication of an article depends on the editorial cycle, which involves steps that may not rely directly on the journal's responsibility. The most time-consuming steps are the peer-review process and the author’s response to the editorial requirements. Thus, the period between submission and publication is quite variable but does not exceed 3 months.

Articles not accepted for publication will always be returned to the authors with the Editor's and/or Reviewer's comments.

The whole process, from submission to final editorial decision, may be tracked electronically on the journals online submission system available at https://autopsy.submitcentral.com.br/.

Section Policies

The authors are expected to submit their manuscripts' type as described below.

Original articles

• In this type of article, a scientific question is implicit and contains an appropriate methodology, which results will be analyzed and discussed accordingly. A study comprising many autopsies, trying to answer a scientific question respecting the aforementioned pattern, will be considered an original article.
• Structure: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion, reflecting the process of scientific discovery.
• Maximum length: 3,000 words.
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and always peer-reviewed.

Autopsy Case Report

• Autopsy case report comprises the description of a single or multiple related cases. In case of the description of multiple cases, and if there is a clear scientific question to be answered, by the original article methodology described above, then the author may consider submitting the manuscript as an Original Article.
• Structure: should comprise Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Case Report, Autopsy Presentation, Discussion, and Conclusion.
• Maximum length: 3,000 words. If the authors include a literature review, this word limit may be exceeded .
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and always peer-reviewed.
   

Autopsy Case Report and Review

• This article type is reserved for works in which the Autopsy Case Report is accompanied by an extensive literature review accompanied by the methodology description, inclusion and exclusion criteria, selected databases, keywords, number of articles retrieved.  A  table with the collected data is advisable. authors are encouraged to use the checklists and guidelines found in the checklists and guidelines found in the EQUATOR network. The recommended databases include  PubMed, Scielo, Scopus, Web of Science, Lilacs, DOAJ, and others at the author's  discretion.
• Structure: should follow the appropriate review type as recommended by the EQUATOR network.
• Maximum length: 3000 words
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and always peer-reviewed.

Clinical Case Report

• The clinical case report type of article comprises a clinical case presentation, which should include the surgical pathology documentation when available. Case Report without histopathological study will also be accepted if the Editor judges it is in the scope of the journal. In case of a description of multiple cases, and if there is a clear scientific question to be answered, by the original article methodology described above, the author may consider submitting the manuscript as an Original Article.
• Structure: should comprise Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, and Conclusion.
• Maximum length: 3000 words
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and always peer-reviewed

Clinical Case Report and Review

• This article type is reserved for works were the Clinical Case Report is accompanied by an extensive literature review describing its search methodology, inclusion and exclusion criteria, selected databases, keywords, number of articles retrieved. A  table with the collected data is advisable. authors are encouraged to use the checklists and guidelines found in the checklists and guidelines found in the EQUATOR network. The recommended databases include  PubMed, Scielo, Scopus, Web of Science, Lilacs, DOAJ, and others at the author's  discretion.
• Structure: should follow the appropriate review type as recommended by the EQUATOR network.
• Maximum length: 3000 words
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and always peer-reviewed.

Review Article

• These are also known as Narrative review and consists of a descriptive article, which does not involve a systematic search of the literature. The purpose of writing a review is to create a readable synthesis of the best resources available in the literature for an important research question. Often, this kind of article focuses on a subset of studies based on availability or authors selection. The methodology should include the used databases, keywords, extension of the search, data retrieve, analysis, and conclusion. 
• Structure: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction (explain the rationale for the review, explicit statement of questions being addressed), Methods (describe all information sources used to find out, and select the best quality researches, eligibility criteria), Results, Discussion, Conclusion.
• Maximum length: 3000 words
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and always peer-reviewed

Systematic Review

• These are articles where a detailed comprehensive plan and search strategy are scheduled to reduce bias by identifying, appraising relevant studies on a particular topic. Involves a formulated review question, inclusion and exclusion criteria, search development, studies selection, data analysis, and interpretation. 
• Structure: Title, Abstract (background, objectives, data sources, eligibility criteria, synthesis of methods, conclusions and key findings), Keywords, Introduction (rationale for the review, statement of questions being addressed), Methods (eligibility criteria, sources of information- databases, dates of coverage), Results, Discussion (Summary of evidence, limitations) Conclusion.
• Maximum length: 3000 words
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and always peer-reviewed

Short Communication

• Short papers address new ideas, controversial opinions, and interesting observations that may add something new to the current knowledge or have an intrinsic high didactic purpose. As per the journal’s general policies and quality standards, they must be accompanied by excellent documentation and preferentially a good clinical-anatomical and radiological correlation.
• Structure: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Case Report or the central issue of the Communication, Discussion, and Conclusion
• Maximum length:  1500 words
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and not peer-reviewed

Letters to the Editor

• This type of article is intended for some communication the reader or a researcher may have with the Editor about a specific theme, published article, or any contribution to the scientific community.
• Structure: open letter.
• Maximum length:  At least 1,000 words presenting a maximum of 6 references.
• Submission and evaluation: Open submission, not peer-reviewed

Image in Focus

• This section is reserved for the publication of macroscopic findings of Anatomic Pathology specimens obtained after surgeries or autopsies. Eventually, the gross findings images may be accompanied by microscopic or imaging documentation. The focus of this section is the gross image Therefore, submission without the pathological gross view documentation will not be accepted.  The report should have a maximum of 500 words, 1–4 pictures, and 6 references or a bibliography. Images should be sent separately as jpeg files measuring close to 17 × 13 cm with a resolution of 300 dpi (at least 2010 x 1535 pixels). Pictures will be formatted and grouped according to the editor's requirements during production.
• Structure: Title, Image, legend, Presentation of the theme, followed by the case's clinical history that gave origin of the image. 
• Maximum length: 1500 words 
• Submission and evaluation: Open submissions and not peer-reviewed

Editorial

• Generally restricted to the editorial board or invited authors. However, non-invited essays about autopsies might be considered for publication if the authors first seek the Editor's authorization to submit.
• Maximum length: 1500 words
• Submission and evaluation: authors interested in publishing an editorial should first write an email to the Editor-in-chief presenting their idea.

Authorship and disclosures policies

Authorship byline

Autopsy and Case Reports supports and requests authors to follow the ICMJE recommendations concerning the authorship designation.

Author contributions and responsibility

Autopsy and Case Reports request a statement about the contributions of each author listed in the authorship byline, regardless of the quantity and quality of their contribution. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and be responsible for each part of the collaborative work in its final version. This statement must be included in the Title Page as outlined in the manuscript preparation guidelines.

The authors' contributions will be included at the end of the published articles.

Changes in authorship after submission

After submission, changes in authorship (order, inclusions or exclusions) will only be possible with a written request signed by all authors detailing the reasons for the required changes.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the authorship criteria should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section.

Conflict of interest statement

In accordance to the Federal Council of Medicine’s resolution number 1595, of May 18, 2000, and the Sanitary Surveillance National Agency RDC 102 of November 30, 2000, the Autopsy and Case Reports editors request that all authors of a manuscript express their disclosure or provide full disclosure of any potential Conflict of Interest by filling the ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure FORM, available at http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/.

Autopsy and Case Reports considers potential conflicts of interest any event of a personal, commercial, political or academic nature, whether or not involving financial compensation

Funding disclosure statement

All financial support received must be disclosed by all authors. Use the author’s initials, followed by a short description, and include the funding agency’s name and grant identification number(s), in that order.

Language

Autopsy and Case Reports will exclusively consider submitted articles written in English, and depending on the editorial evaluation, authors may be requested to re-submit the manuscript after revision by a professional English medical editing service provider. The submission of a manuscript already copyedited does not guarantee the publication; however, articles submitted with very poor English might be rejected right at the first review stage.

Authors should bear in mind that copy editing, to the satisfaction of the scientific editors of Autopsy and Case Reports, is essential for the eventual publication. This may require several rounds of negotiation between the journal’s scientific editor responsible for the content and the authors. Depending on the language quality, the editor might require that the authors send the manuscript to a professional copy editing service provider and submit it again along with the editing certificate to send the paper to the peer-review stage.

Furthermore, the journal does not have staff or budget to perform in-house copy editing, so the costs of any additional copy editing required by the journal editors must be borne by the authors, who may choose any professional service provider.

Finally, the authors must understand and agree that revising their manuscript with a professional copy editor will not guarantee that the article will be accepted for publication.

Autopsy and Case Reports highly recommends the editing service of Ms. Ruth Blaikie (ruthblaikie88@gmail.com). She has been working for the journal for many years and is well-acquainted with the medical language needed to convey the scientific content correctly. As part of the editing service, Miss Blaikie will follow the Autopsy and Case Reports preferred text and references style.

Studies and reports involving humans

Autopsy and Case Reports endorses and requests that authors follow the ICMJE recommendations for the protection of research participants .All studies and reports must be in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013.

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed; therefore, informed consent is necessary. Identifying information, including patients’ names, initials, or hospital names and numbers, should not be published in written descriptions or photographs unless the information is essential for the scientific purposes, and the patient (or parent/guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve; however, informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For autopsy case reports, the authorization for performing the autopsy (which may contain the purposes of the autopsy - scientific documentation) is accepted as informed consent. In this particular case, any information that may violate the anonymity of the corpse should be omitted.

The authors are requested to state in the submission letter if the manuscript is by their national and/or institutional ethical research committee and has received the proper approval if required by the study type.

For Clinical Case Reports or Research Articles involving data or pictures from the patients, the authors are requested to state in the submission letter if the informed consent was collected and archived. Autopsy and Case Reports requests the informed consent to be kept under the researchers' responsibility and made available if requested by the journal.

For Autopsy Case Reports, a specific informed consent signed by the deceased's next of kin, relative or caregiver, authorizing the publication of the patient’s medical history, lab results, and pictures of gross and microscopic findings. This informed consent should also be archived by the authors. In the case of forensic autopsies,  similar consent is also requested  (GO TO Informed Consent).

Corrections and retractions

Autopsy and Case Reports uses iThenticate in order to actively triage submitted manuscripts for similarities with other previously published material.

Any suspect malpractice or misconduct, either during the peer-review or after publication, must be reported by email to the Editors-in-Chief, describing a detailed report of the suspicions and what evidence lead to it.

All suspected misconduct will be thoroughly investigated, reaching out to the involved parties and their institutions if required. Depending on the severity of the problem and the pace of the investigation, the Editors-in-chief might publish an expression of concern prior to its conclusion. If suspected malpractice or misconduct happens to be confirmed the Editors will publish either a full or partial retraction notice and update the retracted article.

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

Autopsy and Case Reports Editors will do their best to monitor and safeguard the ethics in every step of the editorial process, maintaining the integrity of the academic record, hampering that business needs or personal interests compromise the ethical standards and actively making sure that there is no plagiarism or publication of fraudulent data.

The Autopsy and Case Reports editorial team has complete responsibility and authority to reject or accept any article. The Editors-in-Chief have full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication of that content. Submitted manuscripts are confidential documents, and will be exclusively evaluated by their academic merit and according to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy, or institutional affiliation. Governmental policies or other institutions outside the journal will not interfere with the edition and publishing process.

The editors will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher. Editors and editorial board members will not use any information of a submitted manuscript for their research purposes before the article is published. Information obtained by the Journal staff as a result of handling the paper will be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Handling Editors will transfer to other members of the editorial board manuscripts in which they have any potential conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Autopsy and Case Reports adheres to the ethical guidelines proposed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE – https://publicationethics.org), the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE - http://www.icmje.org), and Scielo’s Guidelines on Best Practices ( https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/Guide-to-Best-Practices-for-Strengthening-Ethics-in-Scientific-Publishing.pdf).

Editors will take active measures when ethical concerns are raised about a submitted or published manuscript, investigating issues according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) available flowcharts when dealing with suspected misconduct cases.

The peer-review process will assist the editors. The reviewers will be kept anonymous and asked to be objective, to declare no conflict of interest, to maintain confidentiality and guide or recommend of works not yet cited.

Reporting Guidelines

Authors are encouraged to follow good practices when designing and writing their work. Autopsy and Case Reports recommends authors to seek appropriate guidelines on the type of study they are reporting and suggests the following resources, as stated on the ICMJE - International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:

• CARE, for case reports,
• PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, 
• STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy, and
• EQUATOR Network and the NLM's Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives for other guidelines.

Furthermore, review manuscripts should describe the methods used to locate, select, extract, and synthesize the data.

Open access

Autopsy and Case Reports is an open-access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI (Budapest Open Access Initiative) definition of open access. Accepted articles will be published as Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Authors of articles published by Autopsy and Case Report retain the copyright of their work without restrictions, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution License - CC-BY, which allows articles to be re-used and re-distributed without restriction, as long as the original work is correctly cited.

Self-archiving policies

Autopsy and Case Report encourages authors to self-archive the final journal published version of their manuscripts immediately after it is posted on the journal website. Posting the published PDF version in personal blogs, institutional repositories, and scientific social media like ResearchGate, Academia.edu, and others alike as it improves journal metrics. Also, Autopsy and Case Reports encourages authors to post about their published manuscripts on their social media. When doing so, authors are urged to remember to include the full citation in text format as found on the "How to cite" section of the PDF as this helps to improve your chances of being cited as well as the journal alt metrics scores.

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Autopsy and Case Reports is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and transparency in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools within our publication process. As we continue to develop a comprehensive set of policies that address the implications of AI tool usage by all parties at every stage, we require adherence to the following key principles which were developed using the ICMJE and COPE recommendations:

1. Transparency and Declaration:

   • Authors must disclose all uses of AI tools in their submissions. This includes, but is not limited to, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript drafting or revision, and image generation or editing.

   • We currently require authors do disclose all uses of AI tools either on the Methods or in a designated section at the end of the manuscript:

     1. For uses involving data treatment and analysis, authors must describe the application of AI tools in the Methods section of the manuscript.

     2. For other uses such as manuscript drafting, text revision, or image generation or editing, the dedicated section at the end of the article must be used. Authors must provide a detailed declaration of the AI tools used, describing their purpose and extent of use.

2. Authorship and Responsibility:

   • AI tools do not qualify for authorship. The ultimate responsibility for the content of the article rests with the authors. Contributions from AI tools should be explicitly mentioned where appropriate, but not as authors.

3. Ongoing Policy Development:

   • The journal is actively studying and developing more detailed policies that take into account the varied implications of AI tool use by authors, reviewers, and editors throughout the publication process.

By requiring these declarations and adhering to these principles, we aim to ensure the ethical use of AI, supporting the transparency and credibility of the scientific research published in our journal.

Manuscript preparation guidelines

Autopsy and Case Reports encourages and expects authors to familiarize themselves with all of the journal policies as well as the "Manuscript Preparation and Submission" recommendations developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the following guidelines prior to preparing and submitting their manuscript.

General files preparation guidelines

File sizes and formats

Individual file size should not exceed 10MB in size.

Authors may use any software they wish to write their manuscript as long as files are submitted in docx format fully compatible with MS Office 2010 or later. This is important because version 2007 has a known bug (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2633585) reported by Microsoft, which causes a random loss of spaces between some words when opening the new DOCX standard file format.

Manuscripts should be prepared using an A4 size numbered pages, double spaced lines, and Arial 12 font. Tables must appear at the end of the document, after the references. Tables, Graphs, Drawings, and Figures must be cited in the main manuscript body and named consecutively with Arabic numerals. Legends of Figures, Graphs, Drawings, and Tables should be placed in the manuscript after the references.

Image quality

As stated in our policies, Autopsy and Case Reports is proud to display excellent macro and micro documentation of published reports. As such, authors are required to take special care when preparing images, photographs, drawings, and graphs, or other visual media.

Image files must be sent separately in JPEG or TIFF format, using RGB color mode, flattened (without layers), and have 300 dpi at 17 × 13 cm, which translates as having at least 2000 pixels wide.

Photomicrographs should be captured by professional devices providing adjustments of the white balance, size and dpi. Capturing photomicrographs by cell phone cameras will not be accepted

As a fully online publication, authors may use colors in the preparation of their images. Figures will not be redrawn or edited and, for this reason, should be prepared, preferably by a professional, taking care to maintain uniformity in the type and size of the font used throughout the entire article. We recommend that the authors follow all  ICJME guidelines for preparing illustrations for submission. Images should not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could result in misinterpretation of the information. We recommend that the authors observe the tips and examples published in "‘What's in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation" (Rossner and Yamada 2004, Journal of Cell Biology, 166: 11).

Text inserted in images must be clear and sharp and allow for the perfect reading.

In the case of using arrows, symbols, letters, or numbers to identify parts of the figures, be sure to identify them in the corresponding caption.

Files required for submission

Authors are expected to read and follow all the journal policies and guidelines thoroughly. In order to make it easier for the journal staff and authors to check compliance, we require that the following files are carefully prepared.

Below we include a brief description of each file's expected content as well as detailed guidelines and templates.

Title Page file

Filename: titlepage.docx

The Title Page template must be obtained here, downloaded as a docx file and filled according to the instructions therein, and the journal guidelines and policies. The Title Page will require the following information:

• article title
• authorship byline
• Institutional affiliations
• Correspondence information
• authors contributions
• Hosting institution
• Financial support
• Conflict of interest
• Acknowledgments
   

Main manuscript file

Filename: manuscript.docx

The main manuscript file must be structured according to the requirements described in our Section Policies and the Manuscript preparation guidelines section.

Original figures files

Filename: figure1.jpg, figure2.jpg etc.

Autopsy and Case Reports reserves the right to edit the pictures according to its standards. However, their publication will require the author's agreement. The images' resolution should be as close as possible to 300 dpi and size 17 × 13 cm to allow the best edition and reproduction. Images should be sent separately in JPEG extension files, not inserted in .docx files neither .pptx files, but must be cited in the manuscript. In case the author intends to show an image as a quartet or duet, please send the pictures singly with the files discriminated as Fig 1A, Fig 1B and etc, this way helping the journal to edit them in quartets or duets according to the author's desire and the journal's standards. For editing purposes, the journal dislike Figures with three pictures, since the details of the image become small and hamper the reader to find what is intended to be shown. Drawings and graphs should also be uploaded in JPEG format and sent separately (not inserted in the manuscript file). Similarly to the pictures,  they should be cited in the manuscript. The resolution of the drawings and graphs should also be as close as possible to 300 dpi and size 17 × 13 cm (at least 2000 pixels wide) to allow the best edition and reproduction. Tables should be sent in the body of the manuscript. The number of pictures is limited to 12 (duets, and quartets counts as one figure). Pictures and drawings should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and cited as figures (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).

Declaration of responsibility and license agreement file

Filename: agreement.pdf

All authors must sign the Declaration of Responsibility and License Agreement. By signing this form, the authors accept that the manuscript will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution license, as well as declare if the eventual existence of any financial support and conflict of interest have been stated. Moreover, the authors must declare that the manuscript was held in accordance with the procedures and regulations adopted by the Research Ethics Commission of the Institution of origin. Autopsy and Case Reports also asks the authors to collect and archive an informed consent in all human clinical research,  and case reports when the patient's privacy may be  menaced by any possible identification data. Once obtained,the Informed consent, should be kept under the researchers' responsibility and made available if requested by the journal. The authors are asked to state in the declaration form if the informed consent was collect and archived. The declaration form can be obtained here.

Zip file with Conflict of Interest disclosure Forms

Filename: coi-files.zip

Each author must fill and save the ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure form (http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/) and the submitting author must upload them in a single Zip file.

Other reporting checklists files

Filename: care-checklist.pdf, prisma-checklist.pdf etc.

Depending on your work or manuscript type, other files might be required, such as the recommended checklists found on the EQUATOR Network. Those should be named according to the specific checklist used, like care-checklist.pdf, prisma-checklist.pdf etc.

Revision comments file

Filename: revisioncomments.pdf

This file must have the authors' comments addressing all of the editors and reviewers remarks and is required when sending the revised version of your manuscript.

Nomenclature and acronyms

Authors should only use well-established nomenclature and acronyms in the manuscript. Abbreviations should not be used in the manuscript Title and Abstract. When using abbreviations in the text, unless it is a standard unit of measurement, the full spelled-out text must be used and followed by the proper abbreviation in parentheses when first mentioned.

Units of measurement

Autopsy and Case Reports uses the International System of Units (SI) and requests that authors take care and when reporting quantities and adhere to the following recommendations:

• Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, and liter) or decimal multiples.
• Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury.
• For units reporting hematologic, clinical chemistry, and other measurements, as well as the weight of organs, the authors are requested to cite in parentheses the Reference Value or the mean Reference Value with the abbreviation RR or mRR. 
   

Title

Authors should try to create an interesting and succinct title that describes the study design and major findings when appropriate, and also:

• Use sentence case, capitalizing only the first word and any proper nouns.
• Do not use a period in the end.
• Be as concise and explanatory as possible while not exceeding 45 characters (including spaces).
   

Abstract

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. Original articles and articles reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses require a structured abstract. Additional recommendations for writing your abstract may be found on the ICMJE Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to a Medical Journal section.

Keywords

Up to 5 keywords separated by a semicolon, based on MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) – the NLM controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in PubMed. MeSH is available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html. The article can be found by the Keywords and the words in the title, thus it is advisable not to repeat the words of the title in the keywords.

Authorship byline

The full names of all authors are to be listed below the title. Follow each name with superscript Arabic numerals to indicate their affiliations, and the author ORCID URL.

Authors who do not have an ORCID yet must register at https://orcid.org/signin and create one.

Example:

Institutional affiliations

Author affiliations should be listed below the authors’ names using the same superscript Arabic numerals used in the byline. The affiliation list must include only institutions where each author carried out the work related to the article. Names of Institutions must be written in their original language or English when not in the Roman alphabet.

Example (items in [brackets] are optional):

Correspondence information

Must include the author's full name exactly as typed in the authorship byline and be followed by a full postal address, telephone numbers, and email address.

Example:

Author statements

Author Contributions

The description of each co-author contribution must be included after the author's full name, exactly as it appears in the authorship byline.

Example:

Hosting Institution

Include the name of the institution where the work was carried out.

Example:

Financial support

Disclosure statements for each author regarding financial support received are required for all authors. If no funding or other financial support was used, the following must be included: "The authors declare that no financial support was received.".

When declaring financial support, start each statement with the author's full name, exactly as it appears in the authorship byline, followed by the institution or agency name and grant number (in that order).

Example:

Conflict of interest

Authors are required to include a statement disclosing any potential conflicts of interest. Statements may either be combined or separate for each author. If there are no potential conflicts of interest worth mentioning by any of the authors, then the following statement must be included: "The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.".

When declaring potential conflicts of interest, start each statement with the author's full name, exactly as it appears in the authorship byline.

Example:

Acknowledgments

Use to acknowledge contributions from anyone who does not meet the authorship criteria and has granted you permission to be included.

Tables

The authors should limit the number of tables to 7, and they must be created using the MS Word table editor. Additionally:

• Tables must be named and cited using consecutively Arabic numerals like Table 1, Table 2, etc.
• The same data in graphs should not be repeated in tables.
• Diagonal cell divisions must not be used.
• All tables must be cited in the text.

References

Autopsy and Case Reports uses the Vancouver style adapted by the National Library of Medicine and used as guidance by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

The authors hold the sole responsibility for the accuracy of all bibliographic references listed and cited in the submitted manuscript.

When preparing the manuscript, authors must make sure that:

• references used are accurate and have not been recently retracted;
• all references are properly cited in the text;
• citations are sequentially numbered as superscript numbers and inserted after punctuation marks, without parentheses or brackets;
• journal names are correctly abbreviated; and
• whenever reference management software is used (such as Endnote, Reference Manager etc.), the field codes must be converted into plain text before submitting the manuscript.

Below we have included a small sample of the most commonly used bibliographic references. Please check an extensive list of many more examples and details at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.

Articles in journals

Salomon L, Rabii R, Soulie M, et al. Experience with retroperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy for pheochromocytoma. J Urol. 2001;165(6):1871-4.

Books

Benseñor IM, Atta JA, Martins MA, editors. Semiologia clínica. São Paulo: Sarvier; 2001. Portuguese.

Book chapters

Moss DW, Henderson AR. Clinical enzymology. In: Burtis CA, Ashwood ER, editors. Tietz textbook of clinical chemistry. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders; 1999. p. 617-721.

Montgomery R, Conway TW, Spector AA. Bioquímica: casos y texto. 5th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 1992. p. 41-90: Estructuras de las proteínas. Spanish.

Online Submission

Autopsy and Case Reports uses an online submission system where authors may submit and track the evaluation progress of their manuscripts.

We urge all authors to read all the policies and instructions listed above before initiating the submission process.

Submitting your manuscript

One of the authors must create an account on the online submission system:

1. Check if you already have an account at: click here
2. If you are not registered, register at: user registration
3. Submit your manuscript at: http://autopsy.submitcentral.com.br

After registering, the author is directed to the user page, which lists the many roles he may have in the journal (author, reviewer, or editor). Clicking on the role of author, a list of his active and filed submissions appears, and a new submission may be initiated.

The submission process has 5 steps, with context in-page instructions available for each one. The steps may be followed in any order, but the final submission will only be possible if all 5 steps are completed and free of errors. The final step will show small red text and an "edit" link should you have any errors.

It is essential to rigorously follow instructions that appear while submitting an article, paying special attention to metadata, which should be carefully filled in.

All authors' names, correct email addresses, and institutions of origin must be added to the submission system in the same order in which they appear on the Title Page of the manuscript.

When the submission is finished, all authors will be sent an email to confirm the manuscript submission.

Pre-submission checklist

Before you finish your submission on the online submission system, please make sure that you answer YES for the following questions:

1. Is your contribution original, unique, and not being evaluated for publication by another journal?
2. If your manuscript has already been evaluated by other journals, did you include the rejection letter in the submission and mentioned in the "Comments to the Editor"?
3. Did you download, fill, and upload the Title Page as instructed?
4. Were all the files named according to the "Files required for submission" section and uploaded in the proper file format?
5. Were all authors included in the Title Page and the online submission system in the correct order, and did all of them agreed on that order?
6. Was the contribution description of each co-author included, and did each author agree to it?
7. Were the statements regarding financial support and conflict of interest provided, revised, and agreed by all the authors?
8. Did all authors' affiliations and other manuscript metadata such as title, abstract, keywords etc. been correctly entered in the proper fields in the online submission system?
9. Was the informed consent properly obtained and archived so that the journal may request it if necessary? Or, in case your manuscript does not require informed consent, did you state this in the "Comments to the Editor"?
10. Did you obtain approval by the proper Ethics Committee of your institution of origin, and was it properly stated in the Ethics statement section of the manuscript? Or, in case your manuscript does not require approval, did you state this in the "Comments to the Editor"?
11. Did you check if all references, all tables, and all figures were all cited and are in the correct order in the text?
12. Did you format the reference list according to the journal style and, if a reference management software was used, were all the field codes converted into plain text?
13. Was the declaration of responsibility and license agreement file read and signed by all authors?
14. Are all authors aware of the journal editorial policies, have read the manuscript being submitted and agree with its submission?