About the Journal

MISSION
The mission of the journal "Research and Innovation in Life Sciences" is to promote the dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge in the Life Sciences, encouraging the publication of excellent research that contributes to the advancement of science, innovation, and social well-being. The journal strives to be an accessible, ethical, and qualified channel of communication between researchers, professionals, and institutions committed to transforming reality through science.

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FOCUS
The journal "Research and Innovation in Life Sciences" focuses primarily on the dissemination of original scientific research, critical reviews, and interdisciplinary studies that address theoretical, practical, and technological advances in the various areas of the Life Sciences. The journal particularly values works that present innovative solutions, robust scientific evidence, and relevant contributions to the care of life in its various forms, with social, scientific, and environmental impact. The journal seeks to foster dialogue between science, technology, and innovation, promoting the integration of teaching, research, and outreach.

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SCOPE
The Life Sciences Research and Innovations journal, published by GPTECSaúde of the Life Sciences Center of the Federal University of Pernambuco, is dedicated to publishing papers that explore the development, application, and evaluation of innovative technologies, robust scientific evidence, and relevant contributions to the life sciences. The journal's scope is comprehensive and interdisciplinary.

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TARGET AUDIENCE
Researchers, faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and professionals in the life sciences and related fields.

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JOURNAL'S AREA OF KNOWLEDGE
Interdisciplinary

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SUBMISSION CRITERIA

Articles/manuscripts must be original and submitted exclusively to the journal Research and Innovation in Life Sciences. Simultaneous submission to another journal is not permitted. Contributions may be submitted in Portuguese, English, or Spanish. Relevant topics included in collections or specific dossiers within the journal's areas of coverage may be published as Special Issues.

All submissions must be made through the Journal's website platform and using the template provided.

Template - Research and Innovation in Life Sciences

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PEER REVIEW

The Journal of Research and Innovation in Life Sciences adopts a double-blind peer review system, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are kept confidential throughout the review process, aiming to ensure the impartiality, integrity, and scientific quality of the publications.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo an initial editorial screening by the editorial team to verify their suitability for the editorial line, compliance with submission guidelines, and ethical criteria. Papers approved at this stage are then evaluated by at least two ad hoc reviewers with recognized expertise in the manuscript's subject area.

Reviewers are selected based on their academic qualifications and experience and must provide well-founded opinions regarding originality, scientific relevance, methodological rigor, clarity of presentation, and contribution to the field of Life Sciences. Editorial decisions may result in: acceptance, acceptance with modifications, submission for a new round of review, or rejection of the manuscript.

In cases where there is a significant disagreement between the reviewers’ reports, the editorial team may invite a third reviewer to conduct an additional evaluation. This procedure ensures impartiality and maintains the quality of the review process, guaranteeing a fair and well-founded decision regarding the publication of the manuscript.

The journal ensures that the review process adheres to the principles of confidentiality, impartiality, and ethics, and that conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers, and editors are not permitted. The reviews are used to inform editorial decisions and as a training tool, aiming for the continuous improvement of scientific work.

Cases of scientific misconduct, such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, falsification, or fabrication of data, will be treated rigorously, following international guidelines for integrity in scientific research and publishing.

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PUBLICATION ETHICS POLICY

Pesquisa e Inovações em Ciências da Vida is committed to the highest international standards of research integrity and publication ethics. The journal follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME), the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), as well as applicable national guidelines on research ethics.

The journal requires authors, editors, and reviewers to conduct themselves with responsibility, transparency, impartiality, and a commitment to scientific integrity.

1. Authorship and Contributorship Policies

Authorship must reflect a substantial intellectual contribution to the work, in accordance with the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

To qualify as an author, an individual must have made a significant contribution to:

  • The conception or design of the study; or
  • The acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; AND
  • Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • Public responsibility for the content.

The journal does not accept:

  • Uncredited authorship;
  • Inappropriate authorship;
  • Inclusion of authors who have not made an effective contribution to the work.

The journal follows the COPE recommendations regarding:

Changes to authorship will only be accepted upon submission of a formal justification signed by all authors involved, including, where applicable, those to be added to or removed from the list of authors. In the absence of consensus among the authors, the matter will be referred to the authors' affiliated institutions for evaluation and resolution.

2. Complaints and Appeals

Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions.

Requests for reconsideration must be submitted to revistapicvida.caa@ufpe.br and must include:

  • A reasoned justification;
  • A detailed response to the reviewers' comments;
  • Any supporting documentation, where applicable.

Appeals will be considered:

  • Initially by the Editor-in-Chief;
  • In the event of a conflict of interest, by an independent Associate Editor;
  • Where necessary, by an external member of the Journal's Editorial Team.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, the peer review process, or publication ethics must be submitted to the journal and will be handled confidentially and impartially.

The decision following an appeal shall be final.

3. Publication Misconduct

The journal considers the following to constitute scientific misconduct:

  • Data fabrication or falsification;
  • Simultaneous submission;
  • Inappropriate image manipulation;
  • Plagiarism;
  • Redundant publication;
  • Inappropriate self-plagiarism;
  • Failure to disclose conflicts of interest;
  • Improper use of Artificial Intelligence to generate fictitious data.

Complaints concerning the conduct of editors, authors, and/or reviewers, as well as suspicions of ethical violations, must be submitted to the journal's official email address: revistapicvida.caa@ufpe.br.

Reports of alleged misconduct will be investigated impartially and confidentially, in accordance with the following procedures.

Allegations will be:

  1. Subject to a preliminary assessment by the Editor-in-Chief;
  2. Investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE flowcharts;
  3. Referred to the authors' affiliated institutions, where necessary;

Where necessary, other institutions or journals will be consulted.

When addressing allegations or suspicions of misconduct involving content published in this journal, the Editorial Board of Pesquisa e Inovações em Ciências da Vida will follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines and the COPE Guidelines for Expressions of Concern, with the aim of correcting the published record and preserving its integrity.

The investigation will be conducted in a confidential, impartial, and properly documented manner.

4. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The journal follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines and the COPE Guidelines for Expressions of Concern.

When necessary, the journal may publish:

  • Erratum (to correct unintentional errors);
  • Retraction (in cases of misconduct or serious error);
  • Expression of Concern (while an investigation is ongoing).

The purpose of these measures is to preserve the integrity of the published record.

5. Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, academic, or personal conflicts of interest.

Editors and reviewers must also disclose any conflicts of interest.

Conflict of Interest Involving the Editor-in-Chief

If the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest:

  • Editorial responsibility for the manuscript will be transferred to an Associate Editor;
  • The Editor-in-Chief will take no part in the editorial decision;
  • The manuscript will continue through the double-blind peer review process.

These measures ensure editorial impartiality.

6. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

The journal encourages the sharing of research data.

Where applicable, authors must include a Data Availability Statement indicating:

  • Where the data can be accessed;
  • Whether the data are available in public repositories;
  • Whether any justified restrictions on data access apply.

Clinical trials must be registered in recognized trial registries.

Data involving human participants must be anonymized.

7. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants must include:

  • Approval by a Research Ethics Committee (REC);
  • The ethics approval number or the CAAE registration number, where applicable.

Research involving animals must include:

  • Approval by the Animal Research Ethics Committee (CEUA);
  • The ethics approval number.

8. Plagiarism and Similarity

The journal considers plagiarism to be scientific misconduct.

The journal uses similarity detection tools, including:

  • CopySpider;
  • Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate).

The Editorial Board will follow the relevant COPE flowcharts when addressing suspected cases of:

Pesquisa e Inovações em Ciências da Vida does not consider the reuse of text from theses and dissertations deposited in institutional repositories or from works presented at scientific events to constitute self-plagiarism, provided that:

  • the original source is properly cited;
  • the content has not been previously published in another journal;
  • the work is authored by the same authors as the submitted manuscript.

If plagiarism is detected after publication, Pesquisa e Inovações em Ciências da Vida will follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines and the COPE Guidelines for Expressions of Concern in order to correct the published record and preserve its integrity.

9. Post-Publication Discussions

The journal welcomes post-publication comments and inquiries.

Readers may submit well-founded comments to the journal's official email address: revistapicivda.caa@ufpe.br

Where appropriate, the journal may publish:

  • Comments;
  • Authors' replies;
  • Formal corrections.

The journal is committed to the continuous updating of the scholarly record.

10. Artificial Intelligence

Pesquisa e Inovações em Ciências da Vida, committed to scientific integrity, research ethics, and transparency in scholarly publishing, establishes the following guidelines regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation and submission of manuscripts:

10.1. Responsible Use of AI Tools: The use of generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, among others) to assist with writing, translation, grammar review, and manuscript formatting is permitted, provided that:

  • The contribution of AI is explicitly acknowledged through a statement in a section entitled "Use of AI-Assisted Technologies", placed immediately before the References section.
  • The use of AI does not compromise the originality of the content or replace the authors' critical analysis, data interpretation, or intellectual authorship.

10.2. Author Responsibility: Authors remain fully responsible for the content of their manuscripts, even when AI tools have been used. This includes responsibility for:

  • The accuracy and truthfulness of the information presented;
  • The accuracy of the data and references;
  • The conceptual and argumentative clarity of the manuscript.

The use of AI does not exempt authors from ethical and scientific responsibility for the results and conclusions presented in the article.

10.3. Prohibited Uses: The use of AI for the autonomous generation of data, experimental results, graphs, or images that are not supported by genuine and verifiable research is prohibited. Such practices constitute scientific misconduct.

The following practices are also prohibited:

  • Replacing human authorship and/or listing AI technologies as authors of a manuscript;
  • Using AI to circumvent plagiarism detection systems or to paraphrase content without proper attribution.

10.4. Transparency and Disclosure: Upon manuscript submission, authors must declare, either in the designated submission field or in the cover letter:

"We declare that the submitted manuscript involved the use of Artificial Intelligence tools [specify the tool or technology used] for [specify the purpose, e.g., language editing, translation, stylistic suggestions], under our supervision and responsibility, without compromising the originality or scientific integrity of the content."

If no AI tools were used, authors must declare:

"We declare that no Artificial Intelligence tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript."

10.5. Policy Updates: This policy will be reviewed periodically in light of technological advances, guidance issued by research ethics committees, and the recommendations of indexing services and scientific regulatory bodies.

10.6. Reviewers and Editors

Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, in whole or in part, to Artificial Intelligence tools or systems unless the confidentiality of the information is guaranteed or the authors have provided explicit authorization.

Editors and reviewers must be transparent regarding the use of AI tools at any stage of the editorial process, including manuscript preparation, editing, and review. Whenever AI is used, the user must disclose the tool employed, its intended purpose, and the stage of the editorial process at which it was used.

Compliance with these guidelines is mandatory for the evaluation and publication of manuscripts. Failure to comply may result in the rejection of the manuscript or the application of editorial sanctions.

11. DEIA Principles – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

The journal is committed to:

  • Regional, institutional, and gender diversity on the Editorial Board;
  • Evaluation based exclusively on scientific merit;
  • Encouraging the use of inclusive language;
  • Ensuring the digital accessibility of published content;
  • Promoting the participation of researchers from diverse social and geographical backgrounds.

The journal does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.

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EDITORIAL POLICY

Articles submitted to the Journal of Life Sciences Research and Innovation must comply with its Editorial Policy. Research ethics criteria must be respected and documented in supplementary material when necessary. The concepts and opinions expressed in the articles, as well as the accuracy and origin of citations, are the sole responsibility of the author(s).

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OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT

The Journal of Life Sciences Research and Innovation is an Open Access journal, meaning that all content is available free of charge and immediately, at no cost to the user or their institution. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, or use them for any other legal purpose, without requesting prior permission from the editor or the author, as long as they comply with the Creative Commons license applied to the published content. This declaration is in accordance with the definition of open access provided by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).

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LOCKSS System (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe)

The LOCKSS system is a digital preservation technology developed by Stanford University that ensures the long-term integrity and availability of electronic files. Its principle is simple yet effective: maintaining multiple copies of digital content across different servers, allowing for automatic recovery and verification in case of failures or data loss. This way, LOCKSS guarantees that digital materials remain authentic, accessible, and protected against damage or accidental deletion.