Editorial Polices

EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

Revista Portuguesa de Oncologia (RPO)- Journal of the Portuguese Society of Oncology appoints and dismisses the Editorial Board of the RPO, establishing a contract that outlines their rights, duties, authority, and conflict resolution mechanisms. Performance is evaluated using agreed-upon indicators. 

RPO follows the ICMJE’s definition of editorial freedom by the World Association of Medical Editors, granting the Editor-in-Chief full authority over editorial content and publication. The Sociedade Portuguesa de Oncologia (SPO) does not interfere in evaluating, selecting, programming, or editing manuscripts, ensuring decisions are based on quality, relevance, and importance to readers, not business implications. The editor can freely express responsible views on all aspects of medicine without fear of reprisals.

 

REVENUE SOURCES

The journal is funded by SPO and through commercial advertising. There are no article processing charges, submission fees, subscription costs, or other forms of organizational support required.

 

PUBLISHING BEST PRACTICES

Authorship and responsibility

According to the ICMJE Requirements, authorship entails a significant contribution to the manuscript. Each author must specify their contribution in the Authorship Responsibility Statement and meet these four criteria:

• Contribute intellectually to the article’s conception or design;
• Participate in data analysis and interpretation;
• Draft or critically review the manuscript, approving the final version;
• Acknowledge responsibility for the work’s accuracy and integrity.

Contributors who do not meet these criteria should be recognized in the Acknowledgements section. Each manuscript must have a ‘corresponding author’ responsible for obtaining permission from those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section. Mere participation in funding, data collection, or supervision does not justify authorship.

Group authorship

When a group performs work, they must decide on listed authors beforehand. All listed authors must meet the four criteria, approve the final version, and take public responsibility for the work. The corresponding author must specify the group name, with other collaborators listed in an appendix.

Changes in authorship

Authors must determine authorship order and resolve disagreements before submission. Any changes post-submission require written approval from all authors and cannot be made after acceptance.

Role of the corresponding author

The corresponding author handles communication with the journal during submission, peer review, and publication, ensuring compliance with administrative requirements.

Peer-review process

Most articles undergo peer review, where reviewers respect confidentiality and seek editor permission to involve colleagues. Manuscripts are evaluated on quality, clarity, and originality and must not have been published or submitted elsewhere. Non-compliance with author instructions can lead to pre-review rejection.

Manuscripts may be:

1. A) Accepted without changes,
2. B) Accepted with minor modifications,
3. C) Re-evaluated after major revisions, or
4. D) Rejected.

The Editor-in-Chief initially reviews submissions and can reject them before sending them to reviewers. Final decisions rest with the Editor-in-Chief. An Associate Editor then requests at least two reviewer revisions if the manuscript complies with guidelines. Reviewers have 30 days to provide comments. Authors have 30 days (extendable upon request) to submit revised manuscripts with highlighted amendments. The Associate Editor decides on the new version within 10 days: accept, reject, or refer for further review.

Authors bear ultimate responsibility for the content’s scientific and technical quality.

Corrections and retractions

The journal publishes corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern as appropriate, and as quickly as possible. We follow the ICMJE and COPE guidelines where applicable.

The journal also uses CrossMark service. By applying the CrossMark logo to each publication, the journal is committed to maintaining the most up-to-date version and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur.

 

GUIDANCE FOR SUBMISSION OF STUDIES

RPO recommends the guidelines for publication of the EQUATOR network (http://www.equator-network.org), namely the CONSORT declarations and their extensions (randomized trials, http://www.consort-statement.org), STROBE (observational studies, https://www.strobe-statement.org), STARD (diagnostic/prognostic studies. http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard), PRISMA (systematic reviews and meta-analyses, http://prisma-statement.org), SQUIRE (quality improvement studies, http://www.squire-statement.org) and CARE (case reports, http://www.care-statement.org).

Statistical reporting should be done according to the Statistical Analysis and Methods in the Published Literature (SAMPL Guidelines, http://www.equator-network.org/2013/02/11/sampl-guidelines-for-statistical-reporting).

 

DUPLICATE SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION

RPO does not accept submissions that are currently under consideration by another journal or have already been published elsewhere, with the exception of abstracts from scientific meeting presentations. The RPO adheres to the ICMJE guidelines regarding overlapping publications http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html 

 

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism, intentional or not, is a serious breach of publication ethics. It is defined as reproducing another work with at least 25% similarity without citation. RPO uses software to check for similarity.

If detected before acceptance, authors can revise their manuscript. However, authors are liable for any legal issues that arise after publication due to plagiarism, which may result in retraction.

 

LANGUAGE

Manuscripts submitted to RPO should be written in English, and the abstract must also be translated into Portuguese.

 

AVAILABILITY OF DATA

RPO recommends that datasets supporting the manuscript’s conclusions be accessible to readers. Raw data can be requested during the review process or up to ten years after publication.

Authors are encouraged to ensure their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or included in the main manuscript or additional supporting files in machine-readable formats, such as spreadsheets. 

The RPO requires an “Availability of Data” section at the end of each manuscript. For drug or medical device trials, this section must include anonymized patient data available upon justified request to the authors.

An example format for this statement is:

“Availability of data: individual patient data [and/or] complete dataset [and/or] technical appendix [and/or] statistical analysis specifications are available in [/DOI] [with free access/but the following restrictions apply] [from the corresponding author]. Subjects gave informed consent for the availability of data [or] informed consent was not obtained, but the data are anonymized, with a low risk of identification [or] informed consent was not obtained, but the potential benefits of data availability justify the potential risks.”

If data are not available, the statement should mention: “Availability of data: additional data are not publicly available.” This requirement does not apply to clinical trials of drugs or medical devices.

 

APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS

Any appeal on a decision or complaint during peer-review, or post-publication, must be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief. All cases are handled in line with COPE guidelines.

 

ADVERTISING

RPO accepts only advertising relevant to the area of Oncology, including prescription and nonprescription drugs, other pharmaceutical products, or medical devices. The decision on accepting the adverts rests with the Editorial Board and is authorized by the SPO.