About the Journal

Inaugurated in 1966 by the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo, Revista de Saúde Pública celebrates, in 2026, 60 years of uninterrupted publication dedicated to the field of Public Health. During this time, the journal has grown, improved, and been modernized, reaffirming its commitment to the health of the Brazilian population. It became a reference in Public Health, being nationally and internationally recognized.

The origins of Revista de Saúde Pública were the Boletins do Instituto de Higiene de São Paulo (https://revistas.usp.br/bihsp), published during 27 years, between 1919 and 1946. After them followed the publication of Arquivos da Faculdade de Higiene e Saúde Pública, from 1947 to 1966, totaling more than 100 years of editorial scientific activity in the field, consolidating the vocation of  the Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP) in the dissemination of studies and research in Public Health.

The proposal of creation of the RSP came from a group of professors of FSP, formed by Armando Piovesan, Elza Salvatori Berquó, Flavio Wagner Rodrigues, Oswaldo Paulo Forattini, Paulo Nogami, Reinaldo Ramos, Walter Belda, and Odair Pacheco Pedroso. The proposal was approved by the director of FSP at the time, Rodolfo dos Santos Mascarenhas. From this group, Oswaldo Paulo Forattini worked as the editor responsible for changes and modernizations of the journal during 38 consecutive years (1967–2005). In his honor, nowadays RSP includes him as its Honorary Editor. In 2006, Prof. Carlos Augusto Monteiro succeeded Professor Forattini as editor-in-chief and currently forms part of the scientific editorial team of RSP alongside Professor Alexandre Dias Porto Chiavegatto Filho, Professor João Luiz Bastos, and the associate editors.

The modernization of the journal had a great advancement with its inclusion, in 1997, in the SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) collection. This meant making all its contents free and with universal access, via Internet, and also implied big editorial and editorial management changes. Revista de Saúde Pública is a founding member of SciELO Public Health.

Currently, the journal is published in Portuguese and English and it is indexed in the main bibliographic bases such as PubMed Central (PMC), PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Lilacs, among others. Manuscripts for this website should be sent to editor@rspfspuspbr.com. Authors should wait for the editorial decision. Since 1967, more than 5,500 articles were published – all available at the SciELO online platform. More recently, Revista de Saúde Pública adopted the use of social media as effective tool for spreading scientific knowledge. The journal created, in 2015, a profile on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn adopting a simpler and more direct approach to the understanding of the general public, hoping, thus, to increase the impact of the Public Health science on the everyday life of the population.

RSP adopts the open access model, offering virtual access without restrictions (including financial ones) to all scientific texts it publishes. Open access refers the copyright holder of an academic study granting rights of use to third parties by an open license (Creative Commons Attribution, CC-BY), offering immediate free access to it and authorizing any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link the full text of the articles, track them for indexing, or use them as software data or for any other lawful purpose.

The RSP editorial policy follows the communication of research in the Open Science model, a worldwide movement to make scientific knowledge accessible to all of society. RSP adopts the SciELO open science compliance form. Submitting manuscripts requires filling out and sending the Form on Compliance with Open Science along with other files.

RSP commits itself to respecting the principles of scientific integrity, ethics, and transparency in its editorial process and in the content it publishes. Its editors and reviewers are mindful to avoid any discrimination related to the author or origin of manuscripts.

RSP adopts the criteria recommended in the Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines (a forum for editors of scientific journals that discusses all aspects of publication ethics and advises editors on how to address cases of misconduct in research and publication) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors criteria (which belongs to the former Committee). In the case of research with human beings in Brazil, RSP requests the due approval of a Research Ethics Committee duly registered with the National Commission of Ethics in Research of the Brazilian Ministry of Health. For research involving human beings abroad, it adopts the 2024 Declaration of Helsinki.

Cases of conflicts of interest, research misconduct, and other ethical violations that come to the attention of editors or reviewers will be taken to the Editorial Board, who will adopt the necessary measures to find and prevent the publication of articles and other appropriate measures.

Revista de Saúde Pública aims to publish original scientific contributions on topics that are relevant to public health in general, such as: epidemiology, nutrition and health, environment and health, health policies, planning and administration, social inequalities in health, gender and health, epidemiology of chronic non-communicable and infectious diseases, epidemiology in health services, infectious diseases, epidemiological surveillance, health and work, ergonomics, physical education, reproductive health, nutrition and food in public health, child health, biostatistics, primary care and primary health care, health care, science and technology in health, health information systems, health economics, health management, oral health, mental health, maternal and child health, the health of older adults, health planning, health policies, health management, racism and racial inequities in health, popular health education, the health of the Black population, the health of Indigenous people, among others.

This journal follows the standards of the SciELO Program Digital Preservation Program, the principles of which are the conceptualization and management of scientific knowledge as a global public good (open science program), networking as a means of cooperation and sharing of resources, and the adoption of standards and good practices in scientific communication.

• Clarivate/ISI: Web of Sciences
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• EMBASE
• LILACS
• PubMed Central (PMC)
• PubMed/Medline
• SciELO Brasil
• SciELO Saúde Pública
• Scopus

Journal title: Revista de Saúde Pública

Short title: Rev. Saúde Pública (Online)

Periodicity: Annual

Publication mode: Continuous publication

Year of first edition: 1967

Website: https://rspfspuspbr.asia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revistadesaudepublica/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevistaSaudePublicaUSP?locale=pt_BR

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revistasaudepublicausp/

X: https://x.com/rsp_usp

Portal de Revistas da USP: https://revistas.usp.br/rsp/index

SciELO: https://www.scielo.br/j/rsp/

Preprints are versions of authors’ manuscripts that are yet to be reviewed by any editor and that have been deposited on preprint servers and can be submitted to journals for publication. Preprints share the originality in article publication with journals. Thus, the condition for submitting articles to Revista de Saúde Pública is that it has neither been published in whole or in part in books or journals nor simultaneously sent to another journal.

RSP accepts the submission of manuscripts that have been published on reliable preprint platforms such as SciELO Preprints, arXiv, bioRxiv, and medRxiv (other servers will be reviewed by the editors). Authors in this modality must inform the virtual location of their articles (link, DOI, or other) so they can undergo the regular double-blind peer review process (described below). Comments received on preprints may be considered by RSP editors during peer reviews. Accepted articles that remain available on preprint servers must provide the link to the version published by RSP.

Pre-analysis: The Scientific Editor evaluates the manuscript based on its originality, validity, and relevance and interest to the public health area and decides whether the manuscript proceeds for evaluation by associate editors or if it is rejected immediately (“desk-rejected”).

Peer review: The Associate Editor evaluates the manuscript and chooses possible reviewers according to their area of expertise (ideally two) so they can issue their recommendations. If the Associate Editor considers that the received opinions are insufficient for decision-making, they may appoint other rapporteurs. Based on the reviews, the Associate Editor may decide to accept, refuse (if the manuscript has important deficiencies), or suggest a new submission, in which case they must indicate the important modifications for possible reformulation in their comments (which will be reevaluated by rapporteurs).

RSP adopts double-blind peer reviews, that is, neither the reviewers know the authors’ identity, nor the authors know who reviewed their manuscript. In the final version for publication, RSP inserts the names of the evaluating editors. RSP offers reviewers the option of dialoguing directly with the author with or without disclosing their identity.

RSP does not publish supplementary materials, annexes, or appendices. If existent, authors must make them available in open online repositories, such as Zenodo, Figshare, and OSF, indicating this information (the electronic address of the material) in the manuscript by a footnote.

Authors must inform in a specific section whether their research data are fully available, unavailable, or are available upon request. This information will be published at the end of the article.

Editors will take the necessary measures to find and prevent the publication of articles with misconduct or ethical violations, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification/fabrication, no pertinent authorizations, discrimination, among others. The cases and allegations that come to the attention of editors and evaluators will be taken to the Editorial Committee, which will take the appropriate measures, including forwarding them to higher levels of the University if necessary.

The inclusion of authors after the article is submitted will be rejected. It is of paramount importance that the corresponding authors assign credit to all co-authors at the time they submit their article (as stipulated in the original cover letter). As a scientific journal committed to excellence and best practices, RSP adheres to the principle of due diligence. Thus, we encourage a careful review of the list of authors involved in the manuscript before future submissions. A fee of R$ 400 will be charged if authors’ errors require errata. The registration and publication of errata and retractions must follow the SciELO Guide, available from Guia para Publicação de Errata e Guia para Publicação de Retratação | SciELO.ORG [Guide for Publishing Erratum and Guide for Publishing Retractions].

Public trustworthiness during peer reviews and the credibility of published articles partially depend on how editors manage conflicts of interest during writing, peer review, and decision-making. Conflicts of interest may arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests (whether apparent or not) that could influence manuscript preparation or evaluation. Conflicts of interest may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial.

Authors are responsible for acknowledging and disclosing financial or other conflicts that may have influenced their research at the time they submit their manuscripts. Authors’ manuscript should acknowledge all financial support for their research and other financial or personal connections regarding it. Reviewers must inform the editors of any conflicts of interest that may influence their opinion of manuscripts and, if applicable, must declare themselves unfit to review it. Authors should contact the RSP editorial secretariat if they are unsure of what may constitute potential conflicts of interest.

To assess the occurrence of plagiarism, all manuscripts that have been approved for publication are input into iThenticate to detect similarity between texts. The executive director will analyze the similarity report and, if they find plagiarism, request an explanation from the authors. RSP adopts neither a minimum nor a maximum percentage for identifying similarities.

Any use of artificial intelligence applications—systems that generate content, such as images, music, text, and videos based on internet content—or of content they generated must be reported in the abstract and in the “methods” or equivalent section. RSP adopts the following SciELO guidelines: (a) all AI material is to be correctly described (including full citations); the cited sources must support the statements of AI application as they refer to non-existent works; (b) authors must take public responsibility for their research. Concealing the use of AI or of its content configures an ethical violation that harms the principles of transparency and honesty in research.

The RSP editorial team, in addition to the authors who publish in the journal, must always observe the Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER guidelines to report sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, findings, and their interpretation. Moreover, RSP observes the gender equity policy in the constitution of its editorial board.

All manuscripts containing data collection involving human beings must include the approval document of the ethics committee of the institution responsible for the research.

Authors of articles published by RSP retain the copyright of their research, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0), which allows reuse and distribution without restrictions as long as the original article is correctly cited. Authors must grant the journal the right of first publication. The responsibility for the content of the articles is exclusive to the authors.

In 2012, RSP began charging a publication fee, a necessary step to ensure its continuity, quality, and technological resources, as any institutional body does not financially subsidize it. This fee is an essential component to cover the costs associated with translation, editing services, grammatical review, reference standardization, layout, metadata production, publication in the appropriate markup languages, editing, process management, dissemination on social media, among other services.

The publication fee is charged via a proforma invoice sent to the corresponding author after manuscript approval. Currently, the fee is US$ 1,200.00 for articles from abroad. In the case of Erratum, the amount is US$ 100.00. There is no budget provision for discounts or exemptions.

 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Agência de Bibliotecas e Coleções Digitais (ABCD-USP)

Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo (FSP/USP)