Instructions to Authors

Thank you for contributing to the International Journal of Nutrology (IJN). Please read the instructions carefully and observe all the directions given. Failure to do so may result in unnecessary delays in publishing your article.

The International Journal of Nutrology (IJN) is the official scientific journal of the Brazilian Association of Nutrology (ABRAN). Established in 2011, IJN is a quarterly, open-access, peer-reviewed journal focused on clinical nutrology, nutrition-related medical care, nutritional assessment, metabolism, and evidence-based dietary approaches to disease prevention and treatment.

Nutrological Science encompasses the scientific investigation of nutrients, foods, dietary patterns, metabolism, nutritional status, body composition, biological mechanisms, and their relationships with health and disease. Nutrological Health encompasses the assessment, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and rehabilitation of nutrition-related conditions and the promotion of human health through evidence-based nutrological and dietary care.

Centered on Nutrological Science and Nutrological Health, IJN welcomes multidisciplinary research from Agricultural and Biological Sciences, including Food Science and agronomy; Medicine, including Medicine (miscellaneous) and all medical specialties; Nursing; Nutrition and Dietetics; Dentistry; and related health, biomedical, and life-science fields, provided that the manuscript makes a direct, explicit, and substantial contribution to nutrology, nutrition, metabolism, dietary care, or nutrition-related human health.

IJN publishes clinical, epidemiological, translational, preclinical, and experimental research when the manuscript addresses a clearly defined nutrological, nutritional, metabolic, or diet-related question. Studies from medicine, nursing, dentistry, sports, food science, microbiology, pharmacology, genetics, public health, or omics are considered when nutrition, dietary exposure, metabolism, body composition, Nutrological Science, or Nutrological Health is a central element of the objectives, methods, results, and conclusions. General health, agricultural, industrial, laboratory, educational, or product-development studies without a direct nutritional or human-health outcome are outside the journal's scope. Read the complete Aim & Scope.

IJN welcomes submissions from authors worldwide. Editorial decisions are based on scientific merit, methodological quality, originality, relevance to the journal's scope, and compliance with ethical and reporting standards, without discrimination based on the authors' country or institution.

The publisher responsible for the management and administration of the International Journal of Nutrology, in support of ABRAN, is MetaScience Press, established in 2019 and developed at UNESP – São Paulo State University, Institute of Biosciences, Humanities and Exact Sciences (Ibilce), São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. Additional institutional information is available from AUIN – UNESP.

IJN publishes articles ahead of print and quarterly issues in February, May, August, and November. Article types include Original Articles, Review Articles, Short Articles, Experimental Research, Case Reports and Case Series, Letters to the Editor, Consensus Statements, and invited Editorials and Correspondence. Manuscripts must follow the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Original and review-type scholarly submissions that pass editorial screening undergo double-blind peer review; invited or non-research editorial content may undergo editorial review as described in the General Editorial Policies. Manuscripts must be submitted through the IJN website.

IJN distinguishes regular issues, supplements, and special issues. Supplements and special issues are published only when approved by the Editor-in-Chief and are clearly identified in their titles and metadata. Conference or symposium proposals must provide the topic, title, location and date; proposed guest editors and their affiliations; sponsors of the meeting and publication; and the scientific program and speakers. Scholarly articles in supplements and special issues are subject to the same editorial independence, conflict-of-interest checks, and peer-review standards as comparable articles in regular issues. Abstract collections and other non-research content must be clearly labeled and may undergo editorial review. Submission schedules are agreed with the Editorial Office. See the journal's Special Issues Policy.

Peer Reviewing Process

The IJN follows a double-blind peer-review process where neither the author nor the reviewer knows the other's identity.

At least three independent external reviewers with relevant expertise are invited by the handling editor. Reviewers are selected exclusively by the editorial team after assessment of expertise, independence, availability, and potential conflicts of interest. The handling editor evaluates the reports and makes the editorial recommendation or decision; reviewer recommendations are advisory.

The deadline for submitting a revised manuscript and a point-by-point response is stated in the editorial decision letter and is normally five (5) business days. Authors who require additional time should request an extension from the Editorial Office at [email protected] before the deadline.

Manuscripts and Abstract Format

The manuscripts must be written in English and/or Portuguese in an editable format and must have Abstracts and Keywords in English and/or Portuguese.

Original article: The text should have up to 6,500 words, not including references and tables. It should have up to 5 tables and/or figures. The number of references should not exceed 40. Its structure should contain the following:

Review article: The text should have up to 5,000 words, not including references and tables, resulting from an investigation that analyzes, systematizes, and integrates published or unpublished research to present progress and developmental trends. Its structure should contain the following:

Short article: The text should have up to 2,000 words, not including references and tables. This article type presents preliminary or partial results of original scientific or technological research that requires rapid dissemination. Its structure should contain the following:

Experimental Research: Full-length reports of completed basic or cadaveric research are reported following the Reporting Guidelines stated above. The manuscript must be no more than 4,000 words (excluding references) and contain the following: a structured Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Theory/Calculation, Discussion, Conclusion, Appendices, Acknowledgements, and References. Authors are encouraged to publish additional material (for instance, large tables, figures with forest plots, data from subgroup analyses, etc.) as Supplemental Digital Content.

Case report or Case Series: A document that presents a specific case or series in English and/or Portuguese and includes a concise review of similar cases. The text should have up to 1,500 words, not including references and tables. Its structure should contain the following:

Letters to the Editor: The text should have up to 1,000 words, not including references and tables. Letters may present critical, analytical, or interpretive positions on material published in the journal or on topics that, in the Editor's judgment, make an important contribution to the community. Their structure should contain the following:

Editorial: These discuss issues of importance to medical science that are not directly related to published material. Editorials are usually invited. Editorials should not exceed 4,000 words. Please include a title page giving all authors' names, addresses, email addresses, phone and fax numbers, as well as an Acknowledgement statement.

Correspondence: A letter to the Editor that raises issues of importance to medical sciences and is concerning an article recently published in the journal. If accepted, the letter is sent to the authors of the article, who have an opportunity to respond. Letters should not exceed 750 words. The title should reflect the content of the letter and not be titled the same as the targeted article. Please include a title page giving the author's name, address, email address, and phone number, as well as an Acknowledgement statement. Correspondence should have only one table or figure, three authors, and five references.

Special Issues: Special issues are organized only with authorization from the Editor-in-Chief and must follow the journal's Special Issues Policy. They must be clearly identified as special issues in the OJS and DOI metadata and are distinct from regular issues and supplements.

 

Graphical abstract

Although a graphical abstract is optional, its use is encouraged as it draws more attention to the online article. The graphical abstract should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Preferred file types: TIFF, JPEG, EPS, or MS Office files.

 

Registration of Research

Research involving human participants must comply with the current World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2024). Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a publicly accessible primary registry of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), ReBEC, or another registry that meets ICMJE requirements, before recruitment of the first participant. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the abstract and Methods section.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that meet the eligibility requirements of PROSPERO should be registered prospectively. The registration number must be reported in the abstract and Methods section. When PROSPERO does not accept the review type, authors should make the protocol publicly accessible through an appropriate alternative registry or repository and provide the persistent identifier. For other study designs, registration must be reported whenever required by applicable law, an ethics committee, a funder, or a recognized reporting standard.

Reporting Guidelines

Compliance with the relevant reporting guidelines is mandatory for submission of the following guidelines. You need to: 1. Submit a completed checklist, indicating the page numbers where compliance was achieved 2. Mention in your methods section that the research is being reported in line with the relevant guidelines, which should be named and cited.

Randomised Controlled Trials

All randomized controlled trials submitted for publication in the International Journal of Nutrology should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart and ensure that all elements in the CONSORT checklist are covered. A copy of the CONSORT checklist must be uploaded as supplemental material. Please refer to the CONSORT website for more information.

Systematic Reviews

Systematic reviews should be reported following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) Guidelines (The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews) and must include the flow diagram as a figure and the checklist as supplemental material (https://prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/Checklist.aspx). Please also upload a completed AMSTAR 2 checklist to aid the methodological quality of your article: https://amstar.ca/Amstar_Checklist.php or https://amstar.ca/docs/AMSTAR-2.pdf.

Cohort, Case-control, and Cross-sectional studies

Cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies must follow the STROBE Statement. Authors must upload the appropriate completed checklist as supplemental material. Surgical cohort studies may additionally follow the applicable STROCSS guidance.

Diagnostic, Quality Improvement, and Qualitative studies

Diagnostic Studies should be reported following the STARD statement criteria (Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies) and must include the flow diagram and checklist. Please see (https://www.equator-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/STARD-2015-flow-diagram.pdf and https://www.equator-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/STARD-2015-checklist.pdf.

Quality Improvement studies should comply with the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) criteria: SQUIRE Statement.

Qualitative studies involving interviews or focus groups require the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist.

Health Economic Evaluation

Health Economic Evaluation studies should conform to the CHEERS statement.

Tumour Marker Prognostic Study

Tumour Marker Prognostic studies should be reported following the REMARK criteria: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/reporting-recommendations-for-tumour-marker-prognostic-studies-remark/

Before and After Studies

Before and after studies measure particular characteristics of a population or group of individuals at the end of an event or intervention, compare them with those characteristics before the event or intervention, and then gauge the effects of the event or intervention. These studies should conform to the STROCCS statement www.strocssguideline.com.

Experimental Animal Studies

Research involving animals must have prior approval from the appropriate institutional animal ethics committee or equivalent authority. The manuscript must identify the approving body, approval or protocol number, and date of approval. Authors must report in vivo animal research in accordance with the ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0 and upload a completed ARRIVE 2.0 checklist as supplemental material. The editorial team will verify compliance with the ARRIVE Essential 10 before peer review. Manuscripts lacking approval information or an applicable checklist will be returned to the authors before review.

Qualitative Surveys

Qualitative Surveys should be reported following the following criteria:

Qualitative research should follow the SRQR Guidelines. Syntheses of qualitative research should follow ENTREQ.

Interviews and focus groups should follow COREQ.

Case Report and Case Series

All case reports should follow the CARE Guidelines, and all case series should follow the PROCESS Guidelines. A completed checklist must be uploaded as supplemental material, and the manuscript must state that the work has been reported in accordance with the applicable guideline.

Financial Support and Competing Interests

All authors must disclose financial and non-financial relationships or activities that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their work. An ICMJE Disclosure Form must be completed for each author and submitted with the manuscript. Authors must also include a conflict-of-interest statement in the manuscript, even when there is nothing to disclose.

Authors must clearly provide the following declarations:

• Ethical approval
• Patient or volunteer consent
• Sources of funding
• Author contribution
• Conflict of interest disclosure
• Research registration unique identifying number
• Guarantor

If any of the disclosures are not relevant to your manuscript, please state so underneath the heading.

CRediT

The journal requires an author-contribution statement based on the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy. The corresponding author must identify the applicable contribution roles for every author. More than one role may be assigned to each author.

Role	Definition
Conceptualization	Ideas, formulation, or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
Data curation	Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data, and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re-use.
Formal analysis	Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
Funding acquisition	Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
Investigation	Conducting research and the investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
Methodology	Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
Project administration	Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
Resources	Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
Software	Programming, software development, designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms, testing of existing code components.
Supervision	Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
Validation	Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
Visualization	Preparation, creation, and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
Writing – original draft	Preparation, creation, and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
Writing – review & editing	Preparation, creation, and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary, or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.

 

Ownership/Permissions

Authors must identify all third-party material and obtain permission from the copyright holder whenever permission is required by copyright law or the applicable license. IJN cannot grant permission for material it does not own. Documentation must be supplied to the Editorial Office on request, and the source and permission or license must be credited in the figure or table legend.

These requirements apply to the following materials:

• Previously published materials, such as figures and adapted tables or direct quotations of more than 50 words, require permission from the copyright holder (usually the original publisher).
• Unpublished data (i.e., from a personal conversation or a manuscript in preparation) require permission from the appropriate investigator.
• Photographs or other media in which a person may be identifiable require written consent for publication. When valid consent cannot be obtained, the material must not be published unless it has been rendered genuinely non-identifiable and publication is ethically and legally permissible.

Product Information

Medications, materials, and devices must be identified by full non-proprietary name as well as brand name if appropriate, and the manufacturer's name. Place this information in parentheses in the text, not in a footnote.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

The International Journal of Nutrology follows the COPE Core Practices and uses COPE guidance when handling corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, suspected research misconduct, duplicate publication, plagiarism, and authorship disputes. This statement describes the journal's use of COPE guidance and does not constitute a claim of COPE membership.

Correction, expression-of-concern, and retraction notices will be clearly identified, dated, included in the journal contents, and permanently linked to the original article. The journal will preserve the scholarly record and will not silently replace or alter a published article when a formal notice is required. The journal also follows the ICMJE Recommendations on Corrections and Version Control and the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

General Guidelines

• You must submit a digital copy of your manuscript. Hard-copy submissions are not accepted.
• The IJN follows a double-blind peer-review process, in which the identities of the authors and reviewers are concealed from each other.
• The anonymous manuscript must contain no author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, institutional identifiers, self-identifying statements, or file metadata that could reveal the authors. A separate title page containing complete author information must be submitted.
• Authors may use the Separate Title Page Template and the Anonymous Manuscript Template.
• Keep the format of your manuscript simple and clear. We will set your manuscript according to our style - do not try to “design” the document.
• The title page and the anonymous main manuscript must be uploaded as separate editable files. The anonymous manuscript—including the abstract, keywords, main text, references, figure captions, and tables—must be double-spaced, use 12-point Arial font and 2 cm margins, and contain no information that could identify the authors or their institutions.
• Each figure should be saved as a separate file. Do not embed figures within the manuscript file. This requires special handling by MetaScience Press’s Production Department.
• Keep abbreviations to a minimum and be sure to explain all of them the first time they are used in the text.
• The manuscripts should be written in English and/or Portuguese.
• The authors should use Système International (SI) measurements. For clarity, non-metric equivalents may be included in parentheses following the SI measurements.
• Use generic names for drugs. You may cite proprietary names in parentheses along with the name and location of the manufacturer.
• Credit suppliers and manufacturers of equipment, drugs, and other brand-name material mentioned in the manuscript within parentheses, giving the company name and primary location.
• For manuscripts subject to external peer review, at least three independent reviewers are invited by the handling editor. Review and decision times are targets rather than guarantees and may vary according to reviewer availability, the number of revision rounds, and the complexity of the manuscript.
• Once accepted, articles may undergo copyediting and formatting. Changes that may affect scientific meaning require consultation with the authors.
• If the manuscript is accepted for publication, an Article Processing Charge (APC) of USD 600 applies in accordance with the Article Processing Charges Policy. No APC is charged for rejected manuscripts.
• Reviewers and editors may request revisions before acceptance. The corresponding author receives the editorial decision and, when appropriate, reviewer comments.
• Keywords must be selected using the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS/MeSH).
• Every research article must include a Data Availability Statement. Authors should deposit supporting data in an appropriate trusted repository when this is ethically, legally, and contractually permissible. Restrictions involving privacy, informed consent, confidentiality, Indigenous data governance, security, or third-party rights must be explained.
• The reference standard adopted in all articles is the Vancouver style. References should be cited in numerical order of appearance in the text and in brackets (without a superscript). Examples: [1,2] or [1-3], etc.

 

Final correction

The proof of an accepted manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author for checking. Corrections must be returned within the deadline stated in the production message, normally within two weeks. If no response is received, production may proceed using the latest author-approved version and non-substantive editorial corrections. Any change that may affect the scientific meaning of the article requires consultation with the authors. Authors are responsible for checking proofs promptly and accurately.

 

Research Ethics and Mandatory Declarations

The journal requires transparent reporting of research ethics in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2024) and the ICMJE Recommendations on the Protection of Research Participants. These requirements apply to submitted manuscripts and to the final published article.

During double-blind review, the anonymous manuscript must not reveal the authors' institution through ethics-committee names, approval documents, trial-site details, or other identifiers. Authors may replace identifying information with “[details withheld for double-blind review]” in the anonymous file, while providing the complete information on the separate title page or confidentially to the Editorial Office. All required details must be restored and verified before publication.

Studies Involving Human Participants

• Authors must state the name of the responsible ethics committee or institutional review board, the approval number or identifier, and the approval date in the Methods section.
• If ethical approval was waived or the study was considered exempt, the manuscript must identify the responsible body and explain the formal basis for the waiver or exemption.
• A statement of informed consent must be provided, indicating whether consent was obtained, waived by the responsible ethics body, or not applicable, with an explanation when necessary.
• The editorial team may request approval letters, consent documentation, protocols, or confirmation from the responsible institution at any stage of evaluation or after publication.

Children, Adolescents, and Other Vulnerable Participants

Research involving children, adolescents, adults who lack decision-making capacity, institutionalized persons, economically or educationally disadvantaged participants, or other individuals in situations of vulnerability must describe the additional safeguards adopted to protect participants from coercion, undue influence, discrimination, and avoidable risk.

• For participants who are minors, authors must report permission from a parent or legal guardian and the child's or adolescent's assent whenever applicable to age, maturity, local law, and the ethics committee decision.
• Any waiver of parental or guardian permission or participant assent must have formal approval from the responsible ethics committee and must be explained in the manuscript.
• The scientific justification for including a vulnerable population and the measures adopted to minimize risk must be clearly stated.
• Studies involving vulnerable participants without sufficient ethical documentation will not proceed to peer review.

Privacy and Consent for Publication

Names, initials, hospital numbers, photographs, pedigrees, or other information that may identify a participant must not be published unless the information is scientifically essential and written consent for publication has been obtained from the participant or, when applicable, the parent or legal guardian. Removing direct identifiers does not eliminate the need for consent when a participant may still be recognizable.

Animal Research

Animal studies must report prior approval by the appropriate institutional authority, including the committee name, protocol number, and approval date, and must comply with applicable animal-welfare requirements and the ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0.

Required Statements in Published Articles

Each article must include the following statements when applicable: Ethical Approval; Informed Consent; Consent for Publication; Trial or Study Registration; Funding; Conflicts of Interest; Author Contributions; and Data Availability. When an item is not applicable, the article must state “Not applicable” and provide a brief justification whenever the reason is not self-evident.

 

Submission Authorization and Originality Declaration

The corresponding author must confirm that all authors meet the journal's authorship requirements, have approved the submission, and will approve the final version for publication. The authors must also confirm that the manuscript is original, is not under consideration by another journal, and does not constitute undisclosed redundant publication. Any previous dissemination—including conference abstracts or presentations, preprints, theses, reports, or related manuscripts—must be disclosed with the relevant citation, DOI, or URL. Posting a manuscript on a recognized preprint server does not by itself constitute prior publication, but the preprint must be disclosed at submission and linked to the Version of Record after publication. The declaration must not require removal of a properly disclosed preprint.

 

Standards For Article Structure

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgments to contributors may appear at the end of the final article, before the references. Because acknowledgments may identify the authors, complete identifying acknowledgments must be provided on the separate title page or replaced in the anonymous manuscript with “[details withheld for double-blind review]” until acceptance.

Funding

Every manuscript must include a funding statement, including “No external funding” when applicable. If the funder or grant information could identify the authors during double-blind review, provide the complete statement on the separate title page and use a blinded placeholder in the anonymous manuscript. The complete statement must be restored before publication.

 

Format of presentation: Title Page

Title

The article title should be short, clear, and concise. When necessary, one can use a subtitle title (with a maximum of 50 characters including spaces). The title must be written in English and/or Portuguese.

Authors

The author’s full name should come just below the title, with the highest degree and affiliation of each author.

Name of Institution

The name of the institution where the work was carried out must be cited as the author’s affiliation. Regarding studies presented in meetings, conferences, or congresses, the name of the event should be cited.

 

Conflict of Interest Statement (if any):

All authors (including corresponding and coauthors associated with the manuscript) must make a formal statement at the time of submission indicating any potential conflict of interest that might constitute an embarrassment to any of the authors if it were not to be declared and were to emerge after publication. Such conflicts might include, but are not limited to, shareholding in or receipt of a grant or consultancy fee from a company whose product features in the submitted manuscript or which manufactures a competing product. Should the article be accepted for publication, this information will be published with the paper.

Types of conflicts include Consulting, Royalties, Research Support, Institutional Support, Ownership, Stock/Options, Speakers Bureau, and Fellowship Support. Any commercial entity whose products are described, reviewed, evaluated, or compared in the manuscript, except for those disclosed in the Acknowledgments section, is a potential conflict.

This journal follows the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and an ICMJE disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (COI) form must be submitted for each author at the time of manuscript submission. Forms must be submitted even if there is no conflict of interest. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy before submission.

A conflict of interest statement must also be included in the manuscript after any "Acknowledgements" and "Funding" sections and should summarize all aspects of any conflicts of interest included on the ICMJE form. If there is no conflict of interest, authors must include 'Conflict of Interest: none declared'.

Download the current ICMJE Disclosure of Interest Form. Incomplete or missing forms may delay editorial assessment and will be returned for completion.

 

Informed Consent

Research involving human participants must include a clear statement in the Methods section describing ethics approval and informed consent. Authors must state whether individual informed consent was obtained or formally waived by the responsible ethics committee. For minors, permission from a parent or legal guardian and participant assent must be reported whenever applicable. Separate written consent for publication is required when an individual may be identified in text, images, video, audio, or other data.

 

Conflicts arising from papers authored by Editorial Board Members

A submission authored or co-authored by an editor or Editorial Board member is assigned to an independent handling editor who has no conflict of interest. The author-editor has no access to reviewer selection, deliberations, or the editorial decision. When the article type is subject to external review, it undergoes the same double-blind, independent peer-review process as comparable submissions. Editorial decisions are based on scientific merit, methodological quality, relevance to scope, and ethical compliance.

 

Authorship

IJN applies the four ICMJE authorship criteria. Every author must: (1) make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; (2) draft the work or revise it critically for important intellectual content; (3) approve the final version to be published; and (4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to ensure that questions concerning accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria must be acknowledged rather than listed as authors.

The complete author list, affiliations, ORCID iDs when available, group-authorship information, and CRediT contribution statement must appear in the separate title page and OJS metadata, not in the anonymous manuscript. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors require a documented reason and written agreement from all affected authors. Authorship disputes that the journal cannot resolve will be referred to the relevant institutions. See the complete Authorship and Contributorship Policy.

 

Publishing Permissions

Authors are responsible for identifying third-party text, tables, figures, instruments, photographs, and other material and for obtaining written permission from the applicable rights holder when the intended use is not covered by law or an open license. The rights holder is often the publisher, but this depends on the applicable copyright agreement; permission from both the original author and publisher is not automatically required. Any license conditions and required credit lines must be followed, and supporting documentation must be supplied to IJN on request.

Permission from a funder or institution is required only when a grant agreement, employment contract, confidentiality obligation, applicable law, or other binding requirement makes it necessary. Authors must disclose overlapping material, related manuscripts, conference dissemination, and preprints. See the journal's Licenses, Copyright & Permissions Policy.

Redundant or duplicate publication

IJN may use iThenticate or another similarity-checking service. Similarity reports are interpreted by editors and do not, by themselves, establish plagiarism or misconduct. Suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, or other misconduct is handled under the journal's Publication Ethics, Malpractice and Generative AI Policy.

IJN does not consider manuscripts that are simultaneously under review by another journal or that substantially duplicate a published work without transparent justification and citation. Authors must disclose in the cover letter any closely related manuscript, prior version, previous submission, conference abstract or presentation, thesis, report, or preprint and provide copies or persistent links when requested.

A disclosed abstract or presentation at a scientific meeting, or a manuscript posted on a recognized preprint server, is not automatically treated as prior publication. Authors remain responsible for transparency, for complying with any applicable rights, and for linking the preprint to the published Version of Record.

Mailing Address

Repeat the name of the corresponding author and add your full address, phone, and email.

 

References

The reference standard adopted in all articles is the Vancouver style. References should be cited in numerical order of appearance in the text and between brackets (without superscript).

Limit to 40 references for original articles, 25 for case reports, and 150 for review articles. References should be arranged in the text in the order they are cited and presented in numerical order of appearance, between brackets, in the text (without superscript numbers). The references should be the most up-to-date in the area. References of textbooks with more than 5 years should be limited to those that are fundamental. Mention all authors up to a total of 6. If the article has more than 6 authors, cite only the first 6 followed by et al (preceded by a comma). When the quote is an article already accepted for publication, include the phrase “in process of publication,” indicating the journal and year. Unpublished results or studies presented at medical conferences are not recommended for citation.

If the reference is an organization, its name should be cited. Example: World Health Organization.

 

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts must be submitted through the IJN website: https://ijn.zotarellifilhoscientificworks.com/index.php/ijn.

Use these Instructions to Authors and the journal templates to prepare the submission. Editorial correspondence must be sent through OJS or to the Editorial Office at [email protected]. If a manuscript is accepted, production correspondence will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail.

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission‘s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors who do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The manuscript makes a direct, explicit, and substantial contribution to the IJN Aim & Scope, with nutrology, nutrition, metabolism, dietary care, or nutrition-related human health as a central element.
• The submission is not under consideration by another journal and does not constitute undisclosed duplicate or redundant publication. Any preprint, conference dissemination, thesis, report, related manuscript, or overlapping material has been disclosed to the Editor.
• The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
• The anonymous manuscript contains no author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, institutional identifiers, self-identifying statements, or file metadata that could reveal the authors. A separate title page containing complete author information has been submitted. The Separate Title Page Template and Anonymous Manuscript Template have been consulted.
• Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
• The anonymous main manuscript must be double-spaced, use 12-point Arial font and 2 cm margins. Figure captions and tables must be included in the manuscript, while figure files must be uploaded separately in the formats specified in the Instructions to Authors.
• The text adheres to the stylistic, reporting, and bibliographic requirements in these Instructions to Authors.
• For research involving human participants, the manuscript states the ethics committee or institutional review board name, approval number or identifier, and approval date, or provides the formal basis for an exemption or waiver.
• The manuscript states whether informed consent was obtained or formally waived and, when applicable, whether consent for publication was obtained.
• For studies involving children, adolescents, or other vulnerable participants, the manuscript describes guardian permission, participant assent when applicable, and the additional safeguards adopted.
• For animal studies, the manuscript states the approving authority and protocol number and includes the completed ARRIVE 2.0 checklist as supplemental material.
• The manuscript includes the required statements on funding, conflicts of interest, author contributions, data availability, and study or trial registration when applicable. Identifying statements are blinded during review and will be restored before publication.
• A Data Availability Statement explains where the supporting data can be accessed or clearly states the ethical, legal, privacy, contractual, security, or third-party restrictions that prevent public sharing.
• Permissions and written consent for publication have been obtained for third-party or identifiable material whenever required, and the necessary documentation can be supplied to the journal.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Repositories

Every research article must include a Data Availability Statement. Authors should deposit the data necessary to support the reported results in an appropriate trusted repository when this is ethically, legally, and contractually permissible, and should provide a persistent identifier and recommended citation. Public deposition is not required when it would conflict with participant consent, privacy or confidentiality duties, applicable law, security obligations, Indigenous data-governance principles, third-party rights, or valid contractual restrictions. In such cases, the statement must explain the restriction and describe any controlled-access procedure that is genuinely available.

Last updated: August 2026.