Instructions for Authors

Overview of the publication and peer review processes

JIDC aims to provide all authors with an efficient and consistent editorial process. This rigorous peer review process will be offered in a constructive manner, targeted at facilitating capacity building and providing enabling tools as appropriate. Submitted manuscripts will be assigned to a member of the editorial team who is an expert in the field. The Editor will assess the manuscript to determine whether it is within the scope of the journal, the quality of the data presented and the standard of presentation before sending it for peer review.

Authors are encouraged to provide the contact details (including e-mail addresses) and area of expertise of a maximum of three potential peer reviewers. These suggested reviewers should be experts in the field of study relevant to the manuscript and should not be members of the same research or academic institution as the authors. Author suggested reviewers will be considered alongside other potential reviewers identified by their publication record or recommended by Editorial Board members. However, the final decision on the choice of reviewers rests with the Editor without any obligation to contact any of the author recommended peer reviewers.

Manuscripts will be sent to two reviewers who will be asked to assess if the manuscript is technically and scientifically sound and coherent; whether the quality of the writing is acceptable. The final editorial decision is made based on the recommendations of the peer reviewers provided these recommendations are in accord without any strong dissenting opinions. Where there are dissenting or opposing views, the paper is assessed by a third reviewer who may or may not be a member of the journal's Editorial Board. Once all reviews have been received and considered by the editors, a final decision is made and a letter drafted to the corresponding author. Possible final decisions include:

  • Acceptance without revision
  • Acceptance subject to minor revision
  • Acceptance subject to major revision
  • Reject


Where there are issues with the standard of presentation or clarity of language, the authors will be informed accordingly and provided with suggestions or assistance for rectification.

Editorial policies

Any manuscript submitted to the journal must not be under consideration by any other journal or be already published in any journal or other citable form. Submission of a manuscript to JIDC implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and take responsibility for the reported findings. Authors are expected to state that the study (where applicable) has been carried out with approval of an appropriate ethics committee. Additionally all research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, and animal studies must follow internationally recognized guidelines. The authors are expected to include a statement to this effect in the Methods section of the manuscript. The name of the Ethics approval body should also be provided. Informed consent for participation in the study and the use of clinical photographs of individual patients must also be documented. Manuscripts submitted by authors from pharmaceutical companies or commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, as well as those from individuals and companies working on industry sponsored research should adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies. These guidelines are designed to uphold responsible and ethical standards in the reporting of industry sponsored clinical trials and research.
JIDC supports initiatives to improve the performance and reporting of clinical trials. This includes the prospective registration and numbering of clinical trials of healthcare interventions (See International Committee of Medical Journal Editors {ICMJE}-http://www.icmje.org/clin_trialup.htm ). Protocols or reports of controlled trials of health care interventions should be registered in a suitable publicly accessible registry before submission in JIDC. The trial registration number should be provided at the time of article submission. A list of trial registers that meet the ICMJE guidelines are available at http://www.icmje.org/faq.pdf.

JIDC also supports current initiatives for improving the reporting of biomedical research. Checklists have been developed for randomized controlled trials (CONSORT), systematic reviews (QUORUM), meta-analyses of observational studies (MOOSE), diagnostic accuracy studies (STARD), assessing the quality of evidence (GRADE)  and qualitative studies (RATS). Authors should utilize the appropriate checklist during the preparation of their manuscript. JIDC peer reviewers will be asked to refer to these checklists when evaluating the manuscript.

The involvement of medical writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content as well as any source(s) of funding should be mentioned in the Acknowledgement section. Any 'in press' articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office. Authors of accepted papers will be requested provide a declaration of competing interests which will be included in the acknowledgements section of the paper.

Submission Process

The writing style should be clear and concise. Where appropriate, the Editors will provide help and suggestions for improving clarity, readability and strengthening of scientific premise of presented findings. Submissions from around the world are encouraged but all manuscripts must be submitted in English. In addition to the manuscript submitted in English, authors who wish may submit translations of their accepted articles or abstracts in French or Spanish. These translations will published as supporting information and listed, together with other supporting information files, at the end of the article text.

At submission authors will be requested to assign their manuscripts to one of the following sections: Reviews, Research articles, Short communications, Case reports, Clinical trials, Technical reports, Letters to the editors


Organization of the Manuscript
Articles should be typed double spaced using Twelve point Times New Roman font.

Research articles, Clinical trials and Short communications. These should be organized in the following sections: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References, Figures, Figure Legends, Tables & captions, Authors contributions. The text for Short communications should not exceed 2000 words and the number of references, tables and figures should be kept to a minimum
Case reports: These should describe case diagnosis, investigations or treatments which are of exceptional interest, highlighting novel and important findings.  They should include a maximum of two figures and two tables.
Reviews: These are summaries of developments in areas related to infection in developing countries which are of broad interest to the target audience of the journal. These are usually invited, but authors identifying a need and wishing to submit a review article are welcome to contact the Editorial office. Authors are advised to contact the Editorial office before commencement of writing to ensure that a similar topic has not already been commissioned to another reviewer.

Layout of Manuscripts

Title Page
The title page should include the title of the manuscript as well as the full names and institutional affiliations for all authors. The corresponding author should also be indicated.
Title: The title should be no more than 100 characters (including spaces) and should be specific to the study. It should be presented in Upper case and be comprehensible to a broad spectrum of readers.
Authors and Affiliations:  This should include the first names, middle initials (if used), surnames, and affiliations-department, university or organization, city, state/province (if applicable), and country-for all authors. The institution / laboratory where the work was carried out should be indicated. One of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author. Full contact details including postal address, telephone & fax numbers and email address for the corresponding author must be provided. Where the article is being submitted on behalf of a consortium, a listing of all consortium members and affiliations should be included after the Acknowledgements.
Running title: A running title of not more than 50 characters (including spaces) should be provided

Abstract
A structured abstract not exceeding 250 words should be provided. It should be divided into the following sections: Background, Methodology, Results and Conclusions. Citations, tables and specialist abbreviations should be avoided. The techniques used must be mentioned without going into methodological detail and the most important findings should be summarized.
Key words: The authors should provide 3-6 key words.

Introduction
The introduction should put the focus of the manuscript into a broader context and be written in a way understandable to researchers without specialist/expert knowledge in the area.  Relevant controversies or disagreements in the field should be mentioned. The key aspects of the literature should be reviewed with the aim of indicating why the study was necessary and what it would contribute to the field of study. The introduction should conclude with a comment about the overall aims of the study.

Materials and Methods
This section should include the design of the study, the setting, the type of participants or materials involved as well as a description of all interventions and comparisons. The authors should also provide a description of the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation when appropriate. Well-established methodologies should simply be mentioned and referenced appropriately. For new methods, the protocols for the method should be included. The authors should provide enough detail to enable reproduction of the findings. JIDC encourages the submission in the form of separate supporting information files, all appendices, detailed protocols, or details of the algorithms pertaining to new protocols or less well-established methods. These are published as online appendices but they are linked to the main article in a fully searchable format. Generic drug names should generally be used and in cases where proprietary brands have been used, the brand names must be included in parenthesis. Where available, the accession numbers of any nucleic acid sequences and protein sequences cited in the manuscript and the corresponding database name should be provided.

Results
The results section should be written in past tense and should provide details of findings that are required to support the conclusions made in the manuscript. To enhance clarity, the section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading. Where appropriate, results of statistical analysis should include analysis of relative /absolute risks and confidence analysis. Large datasets, including raw data, may be submitted as supporting files for publication as supplementary appendices

Discussion
The discussion should clearly identify the main conclusions of the study. Authors should provide a clear explanation of the importance and relevance of these conclusions. Speculations on how the conclusions fit in or affect the existing assumptions or models should be explored. Suggestions for further key experiments for future work can be included. Summary illustrations may be included. When appropriate, issues related to resource limitations faced by the researchers during the course of the study, how these were addressed and suggestions for improvement may also be included.

Acknowledgments
Those who have made substantial contribution to the study in terms of design, execution, analysis or manuscript drafting / revision but do not fit the criteria for authorship should be mentioned in this section. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that those being acknowledged have agreed to being named in such capacity. The source of funding for the study should be stated in this section.

References
Only published articles or accepted manuscripts (in press) should be included in the list of references. Conference abstracts, conference talks, articles which have been submitted but not yet accepted for publication and personal communications should not be cited in the reference list. These unpublished works and references to websites should be included in the body of the text.

JIDC uses the numbered citation method. The references should be listed and numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text followed by those appearing in figures and tables. Citations should be indicated by their unique reference number in square brackets in the text. Where there are multiple citations within a single set of brackets these should be separated by commas. If there are three or more sequential citations, the numbers should be given as a range. Example: "…….previously described above [1,6-8,26]." Authors are encouraged to keep the number of references limited to those that are important for the understanding of the manuscript.

Published Papers
1. Raghu MB, Deshpande A, Chintu C (1981) Oral rehydration for diarrhoeal diseases in children.Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 75: 552-555

Accepted Papers
2. Kharitonov SA, Barnes PJ Clinical aspects of exhaled nitric oxide. Adv Clin Path. In press.

Article within a journal supplement
3. Baquero F, Barrett JF, Courvalin P, Morrissey I, Piddock L, Novick WJ (1999) Epidemiology and mechanisms of resistance among respiratory tract pathogens.
Clin Microbiol Infect 4 Suppl 2: 19-26.

Electronic Journal Articles
4. Loker WM (1996) "Campesinos" and the crisis of modernization in Latin America. Jour Pol Ecol 3. Available: http://www.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe/volume_3/ascii-lokeriso.txt. Accessed 11 August 2006.

Books

Whole Book
5. Lucas AO and Gilles HM (2003) Short textbook of public health medicine for the tropics, 4th edition.  London:  Arnold Press 389 p..

Book Chapters
6. Buvni? M, Médici A, Fernández E and Torres AC  (2006) Gender differentials in health.  In Jamison DT, Bremen JG, Measham AR, Alleyne G, Cleason M, Evans DB, Jha P, Mills A, Musgrove P, editors. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries.  New York:  Oxford University Press. 195-210.

Accession Numbers
We encourage authors to deposit relevant datasets, images, nucleotide and protein sequences and microarray data in public resources. The relevant accession numbers and where appropriate the version numbers of such deposited material should be mentioned. Suggested databases include, but are not limited to:
" Microarray data:  ArrayExpress ; Gene Expression Omnibus [GEO]
" Nucleotide sequences: DNA Data Bank of Japan [DDBJ] ; European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL/EBI) Nucleotide Sequence Database, or GenBank (National Center for Biotechnology Information).
" Protein sequences: UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot; Protein Data Bank
" Computional modeling: BioModels Database
" Plasmids: Addgene, or PlasmID,Database of Interacting Proteins
" Chemical structures and assays: PubChem Substance ; PubChem BioAssay.
" Multilocus sequence typing data for bacteria:  www.mlst.net

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined when they are first used in the text. The number of non-standard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and they should not be used unless they appear in the text at least three times.

Nomenclature & Taxonomy
JIDC recommends the use of correct and established nomenclature wherever possible:
" SI units should be used throughout
" Genus and Species names should be italicized (e.g., Plasmodium falciparum). Where the genus appears in the title it should be written out in full. In the main text, the genus should be written out in full at first mention and thereafter abbreviated e.g. (P. falciparum). Authors must ensure that there is no confusion with other genera mentioned in the text. The spelling and taxonomy of names of microorganisms should follow internationally accepted nomenclature.
" Genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles should be italicized. Authors should consult appropriate genetic nomenclature databases e.g., HUGO for human genes for the recommended names.
" The Recommended International Non-Proprietary Name (rINN) of drugs should be provided. Commercial names of other products should only be used where there is no other suitable term for the product. In such cases, the name, city and country of the manufacturer should be provided in parenthesis at the first mention if the product.

Figures & Tables
These should be limited to the minimum number needed to clearly present the results. Figures and tables should not be integrated into the main text. They should either be submitted as separate files or included on separate pages at the end of the text. They should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Results which can be described as short statements within the text should not be presented as figures or tables. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations. Citations should be indicated using the style outlined under "References" above. Large tables can be provided as supporting information for publication along with the article.
For PubMed compliance, all images MUST be at or above intended display size, with the following image resolutions: Line Art 800 dpi, Combination (Line Art + Halftone) 600 dpi, Halftone 300 dpi. Low resolution (72dpi, web-like res) will be REJECTED.

Figure legends and Captions for Tables
Captions for tables and Legends for figures should be typed double spaced and appear on separate pages. The legends and captions should help make the figures and tables understandable without the reader having to refer to the main text.  However, they should be concise and should not be used to re-describe the methodology.

Multimedia and Other Supporting Files
Authors are welcome to submit supporting files and multimedia files along with their manuscripts. These materials will also be subject to peer review. Supporting files can be in the form of Dataset, Figure, Table, Text, Protocol, Audio, or Video. These should be referred to in the text as supporting (e.g. Table 4-S) refers to the fourth supporting information table. Titles of all supporting material should be listed at the end of the manuscript under the heading "Supporting Information."

Line Numbering
Please provide line numebering for all text documents you are submitting.

First-Time Submission of Research Articles
Cover Letter:
All submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter. This should explain why the manuscript is suitable for publication in JIDC.

Electronic Submission
to be developed

Electronic Formats
to be developed

Manuscript should be submitted by email  to: lectures@oloep.org

 

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