Unofficial translation. The official version is the Portuguese text published in the UFF Official Bulletin (Boletim de Serviço) No. 100, of October 19, 2026.
Approved by the Management Board of the Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing (OBJN) and by the Unit Board of the Aurora de Afonso Costa School of Nursing (EEAAC) of the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) on September 1, 2026. Resolution CME/UFF No. 1, of October 7, 2026, published in the UFF Official Bulletin No. 100, of October 19, 2026, which revokes Resolution CME/UFF No. 1, of July 6, 2022.
TITLE I
THE JOURNAL AND RELATED MATTERS
Art. 1 – The Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing, hereinafter OBJN, belongs to the Aurora de Afonso Costa School of Nursing of the Universidade Federal Fluminense (EEAAC/UFF) and is an online scientific journal created in 2002. It is linked to the Directorate of the EEAAC/UFF and is governed by these regulations.
Sole paragraph - Although it is an online journal, the OBJN is currently physically located on UFF premises, at Rua Dr. Celestino, 74, Centro, Niterói (RJ), Brazil, ZIP code 24020-091.
Art. 2 – The OBJN's mission is to publish, preserve, and disseminate, in open access, scientific evidence that improves care, education, and policies in nursing and health, with methodological rigor, integrity, and editorial independence.
Art. 3 – The OBJN's vision is to be internationally recognized as a reference journal in nursing and health, indexed in the main scientific databases and supported by transparent peer review, open science practices, and editorial standards of excellence and reliability.
Art. 4 – The OBJN's values are:
I. Methodological quality — study design, conduct, and reporting as the basis for editorial decisions.
II. Integrity — research ethics and correction of the scientific record.
III. Transparency — clarity about peer review, funding, and conflicts of interest.
IV. Editorial independence — decisions free from institutional, commercial, or political interests.
V. Open access — free and immediate reading, with no embargo, and reuse with attribution.
VI. Relevance to practice — priority to what improves care, teaching, and management.
TITLE II
ACCESS
Art. 5 – The OBJN uses the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) and is open access.
TITLE III
PRODUCTION AND EVALUATION
Art. 6 – The OBJN is trilingual and receives, evaluates, and publishes in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. All published articles are made available in HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Portable Document Format (PDF), and Electronic Publication (EPUB) formats.
§ 1 - Submissions in English and Spanish by Brazilian or Portuguese-speaking authors must be externally reviewed by native speakers who do not know Portuguese (native translation), upon presentation by the authors of an invoice issued by the company that provided this service.
§ 2 - New publication formats may be adopted upon proposal by the Editor-in-Chief.
Art. 7 – The OBJN uses the main technologies for information retrieval, indexing, and plagiarism detection, and assigns a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all publications, following good practices in scientific publishing.
Art. 8 – The OBJN follows a continuous publication system (rolling pass), as well as calls for special issues.
Art. 9 – The OBJN follows the recommendations of the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and of the Brazilian National Research Ethics Committee (CONEP) for the evaluation and production of articles.
Sole paragraph – The OBJN adopts successive, eliminatory evaluation processes at three levels: (a) pre-analysis (administrative, fit with the journal's scope, and similarity); (b) peer review; and (c) standardization.
TITLE IV
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Art. 10 – The OBJN Editorial Body consists of:
§ 1 - Management Board - Executive Editor, Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor, Coordinators of stricto sensu graduate programs, and Auditor;
§ 2 - Advisory Board – Professors and/or researchers from outside UFF with broad expertise;
§ 3 - Editorial Team - Scientific Editors, Associate Editors, and Reviewers;
§ 4 - Editorial Production Team - Secretary, Librarian, Administrative Technicians, Media Team, Assistant Editors, and Junior Editors.
Art. 11 – The OBJN Executive Editor is the Director and/or Deputy Director of the Unit, who is responsible for administrative decisions together with the Editor-in-Chief and the Management Board.
Art. 12 – The Editor-in-Chief holds a position of trust of the Unit Director/Executive Editor, who appoints them, with endorsement by the Management Board and the Unit Board. The Editor-in-Chief ensures coordination of the OBJN's activities and is responsible for administrative, technical, and scientific decisions, with autonomy to define the journal's editorial content in accordance with ethical principles and good practices in scientific publishing. The duties of the Editor-in-Chief are:
I. To act as Coordinator of the Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing Project at the UFF Office of the Vice-Rector for Planning, the UFF Office of the Vice-Rector for Extension, the UFF Office of the General Counsel, and other funded projects, which must be approved annually by the Management Board and the Unit Board;
II. To prepare the Annual Work Plan together with the Deputy Editor;
III. To define the editorial policy;
IV. To comply with and enforce these regulations;
V. To issue calls for Associate Editors, Junior Editors, Reviewers, and Technical Staff in accordance with the editorial policy;
VI. To guide and supervise the work of the Technical Staff;
VII. To convene ordinary meetings of the Editorial Team and Editorial Production Team and, extraordinarily, as needed;
VIII. To coordinate the editorial process;
IX. To mediate communication among authors, associate editors, and reviewers;
X. To carry out, together with the Deputy Editor, the pre-analysis and the final analysis (prior to publication) of articles, considering the editorial policy, good practices in scientific publishing, and scientific rigor;
XI. To occasionally perform the duties of Associate Editor and Reviewer;
XII. To decide on the acceptance or rejection of submitted material, based on the recommendation of the Associate Editor;
XIII. To represent the OBJN externally or appoint a representative from the editorial body;
XIV. To convene ordinary meetings of the Management Board and, extraordinarily, as needed.
Art. 13 – The Deputy Editor holds a position of trust of the Unit Director/Executive Editor, who appoints them, with endorsement by the Management Board and the Unit Board. The Deputy Editor is responsible for the journal in the absence of the Editor-in-Chief, with both administrative and editorial duties. The duties of the Deputy Editor are:
I. To prepare the Annual Work Plan together with the Editor-in-Chief;
II. To support the Editor-in-Chief in complying with these regulations and the editorial policy;
III. To replace the Editor-in-Chief when they are unable to act;
IV. To act as internal liaison for the OBJN's interests with the different bodies of the Unit;
V. To guide and supervise, together with the Editor-in-Chief, the work of the Editorial Team and the Editorial Production Team;
VI. To occasionally perform the duties of Associate Editor and Reviewer;
VII. To carry out, together with the Editor-in-Chief, the pre-analysis and final analysis of articles submitted to the OBJN;
VIII. To decide on the acceptance or rejection of submitted material, based on the recommendation of the Associate Editor.
Art. 14 – The Coordinators of the EEAAC/UFF stricto sensu graduate programs and/or their legal representatives assist in administrative decisions together with the Editor-in-Chief and the Management Board.
Art. 15 – The Management Board consists of the Executive Editor, Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor, Graduate Program Coordinators, and Auditor. The duties of the Management Board are:
I. To endorse the Annual Work Plan;
II. To support the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor in complying with these regulations and the editorial policy;
III. To discuss, draft, and submit the OBJN regulations to the Unit Board for approval;
IV. To discuss, amend, and approve exchange and cooperation with other journals;
V. To discuss and approve the journal's circulation and distribution policy;
VI. To discuss and approve the journal's financial statement for the immediately preceding fiscal year;
VII. To discuss and approve the journal's budget for the immediately following fiscal year;
VIII. To define free access, charges, or restrictions for access to the online journal;
IX. To recommend members of the Advisory Board;
X. To prepare and take part, as a member, in the Public Call for Associate Editors;
XI. To suggest to the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor potential national and international ad hoc reviewers in accordance with the editorial policy;
XII. To monitor the opening of funding calls applicable to this scientific journal;
XIII. To prepare and submit, together with the Editor-in-Chief, projects for funding calls applicable to this scientific journal;
XIV. To seek, with the boards of the EEAAC graduate programs, funding opportunities for the OBJN;
XV. To coordinate projects of interest to the OBJN with internal and external UFF bodies;
XVI. To represent the Editor-in-Chief or the Deputy Editor externally when they are unable to act;
XVII. To occasionally perform the duties of Associate Editor and Reviewer, as needed;
XVIII. To increase the number of quality submissions;
XIX. To recommend thematic issues to the Editor-in-Chief;
XX. To attend meetings convened by the Editor-in-Chief.
Art. 16 – The Advisory Board consists of professors from outside UFF, at the national or international level, with publicly recognized experience in scientific publishing and research in Nursing and Health. The duties of the Advisory Board are:
I - To support the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor in complying with these regulations and the editorial policy;
II - To promote the OBJN in the settings where its members are active;
III - To increase submissions by national and international authors for publication in the OBJN;
IV - To write editorials, by invitation;
V - To carry out reviews according to the journal's needs;
VI - To attend meetings convened by the Editor-in-Chief.
Art. 17 – The Editorial Team consists of Scientific Editors, Associate Editors, and Reviewers, who are responsible for the editorial handling of articles forwarded by the Editor-in-Chief after the pre-analysis of scope and mandatory documentation, until the final decision.
Art. 18 – The Scientific Editors are UFF researchers with high academic productivity and external recognition, recognized as CNPq Research Productivity Fellows, who are responsible for scientific duties and for seeking funding for the OBJN.
I - To support the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor in complying with these regulations and the editorial policy;
II - To promote the OBJN in the settings where they are active;
III - To increase submissions by national and international authors for publication in the OBJN;
IV - To prepare and submit, together with the Editor-in-Chief, projects for funding calls applicable to this scientific journal;
V - To write editorials, by invitation;
VI - To carry out reviews according to the journal's needs;
VII - To attend meetings convened by the Editor-in-Chief.
Art. 19 – The OBJN Associate Editors are PhD holders and active researchers with recognized experience in a specific area of knowledge/scientific methodologies in Nursing and Health, who are responsible for directing the editorial process. They are appointed through a Public Call, with a selection committee determined by the Management Board. The duties of the Associate Editors are:
I. To register potential reviewers based on quality criteria defined by the editorial policy;
II. To develop pools of reviewers stratified by expertise;
III. To retain reviewers based on quality criteria defined by the editorial policy;
IV. To assign reviewers for the methodological analysis defined in the editorial policy;
V. To issue a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor on the decision to be made on each submission they handle;
VI. To attend meetings convened by the Editor-in-Chief, with justification required for absences;
VII. To assist the Editor-in-Chief on topics related to their expertise, as consultants for decisions and/or compliance with the editorial policy.
§ 1 - The distribution between associate editors from inside and outside the EEAAC/UFF will follow the editorial policy of 35% internal and 65% external.
§ 2 - The number of associate editors should be between 20% and 35% of the expected annual submissions, with a minimum of two researchers per specialty.
§ 3 - The composition of the Associate Editors should include researchers regionally distributed across different institutions/states/countries.
§ 4 - The removal of members is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief, upon evidence of handling fewer than 7 articles per year and/or repeated delays of more than 60 days in handling an article.
Art. 20 – Reviewers are researchers who voluntarily review the scientific articles submitted for publication in the OBJN and must have expertise in the topic.
Art. 21 – The OBJN Editorial Production Team consists of a Secretary, Librarian, Administrative Technician, Media Team, Assistant Editors, and Junior Editors. The duties of this team are:
I. The Secretary receives and forwards processes, official letters, and reports; prepares meeting agendas together with the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor; books meeting rooms; writes meeting minutes; drafts declarations; and serves the public;
II. The Librarian applies the editing checklist (standardization) to articles accepted for publication in the OBJN, applies the plagiarism detection tool, indexes issues and articles in databases, assists authors with standardization, and trains and supervises the Library Science Junior Editors;
III. The Administrative Technician formats and lays out articles for publication; builds and maintains the OBJN website and social media; develops and maintains computational tools; provides hardware support; produces the HTML, PDF, and EPUB versions; handles OBJN image processing; carries out markup for indexing in the required technology; indexes issues and articles in databases; supports the editorial system; and teaches short courses on the editorial workflow for the internal and external EEAAC community.
IV. The Media Team manages social media, designs the covers, curates artwork, and promotes the journal.
V. Assistant Editors provide technical support to the editorial workflow, being responsible for monitoring process deadlines, compliance with the editorial policy, liaison between teams, and assisting the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor in assessing performance on the journal's quality indicators.
VI. Junior Editors are undergraduate and graduate students selected to carry out supervised editorial production and/or administrative activities with the OBJN editorial body.
Art. 22 – Emeritus Editors are researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the development and consolidation of the OBJN, appointed by the Management Board. They act as scientific advisors, without taking part in editorial decisions or manuscript review.
TITLE V
COMPANIES QUALIFIED TO PROVIDE SERVICES
Art. 23 – Companies qualified to provide services to the OBJN are governed by the "Terms of reference for the creation of a pool of service providers for the Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing", submitted to the UFF Office of the General Counsel in accordance with current legislation. Such services include: translation; editing; layout; indexing; plagiarism detection tools; website development and maintenance; and design and marketing.
Art. 24 – All consumable and permanent materials and resources obtained by the OBJN through donations, calls, transfers, or any other means will be the property of the Unit (EEAAC) and registered in the University's assets, in accordance with current legislation.
TITLE VI
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Art. 25 – These Regulations will enter into force on the date of their publication.
Art. 26 – These Regulations may only be amended by deliberation and approval of the Management Board, endorsed by the Unit Board.
Art. 27 – Cases not covered by these Regulations will be resolved by the Management Board.
Art. 28 – The Management Board and the Unit Board are the deliberative and approval bodies for the OBJN's actions.
Art. 29 – These Regulations, after approval by the Management Board and the Unit Board, will be fully available for consultation at http://www.objnursing.uff.br.