Guidelines for reviewers
Scope and aims of the journal
The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries is a new, independent, on-line publication with an international editorial board and full open access. The journal has a policy of manuscript evaluation. Each manuscript is evaluated by selected referees who will recommend any improvements needed for publication. We would normally not reject scientifically sound work. The purpose of the evaluation process is to mentor authors from developing countries, rather than to weed out poor articles.
Possible decisions:
Accept for publication:
For articles which are scientifically sound and clearly written. These articles may require either editing for English or for data presentation.
Modify:
For articles which require either additional experimental or clinical data, or need to be re-written. Please include clear guidance on what is needed.
Major modification:
For articles that might normally be rejected by a standard journal but which in the case of JIDC would become publishable after circa 2 rounds of review. Please include clear guidance on what is needed.
Reject:
Articles for which the study design is flawed, such that there is no way to 'fix' the paper. Please include reasons why you have rejected the paper.
Article types
Research articles, Clinical trials and Short communications:
Manuscripts describing experimental, clinical or public health data which is generated through hypothesis driven research.
Case reports:
Diagnosis or treatments of cases which will be useful to others in developing countries.
Review articles:
Informed summaries of any topic within the scope of the journal
Letters to the Editor:
Manuscripts describing observational data (such as incidence figures from hospital admissions) which will allow disease burdens in developing countries to be assessed qualitatively.
The subject matter can cover any aspect of human, animal and environmental microbiology and infections in developing countries with particular emphasis on current clinical and public health importance. As a reviewer please provide authors with guidance in preparing and re-submitting manuscripts to the Journal as specified in this page. The texts submitted for publication will be written in English, but may also include translations in French or Spanish.
Review process
Discussion point for meeting in February.
Check list:
Comments to the editor
See below
Comments to the authors
See below
Recommendation
Accept
Modify
Major modification
Reject
If modify please indicate the type of article you recommend
Research article
Clinical trial
Short communication
Review
Case report
Letter to the editor
Other comments Eg:
Requires more data?
Requires statistical review?
Requires editing for English?
Requires re-organising?
Needs to be shortened
Submitting your Report
Please follow the instructions and complete the online form when it will be ready.
The following are guidelines only. They are designed to help inexperienced reviewers.
We suggest you structure your review as follows:
Comments to the editor:
These are private comments and will not be sent to the authors. Here you should tell the editor anything that you are not sure about but would like to be considered. Eg: if you are worried about a possible conflict of interest, or if you think similar work has been submitted to another journal.
Comments to the authors:
General comments:
Say what you think are the most important aspects of the research. In particular highlight anything which you think is of interest to other scientists working in developing countries.
Specific comments:
Go through each section and describe what could be improved. For research articles: the introduction needs to explain why the study was carried out; the methods should be clear enough to repeat the study but a description of well known methods is unnecessary; the results presented should be from the study and only presented once; the discussion should put the findings into the context of other work and can speculate about possible explanations.
