Instructions for Authors

Preparing for submission

Submitted manuscripts should follow the recommendations stated in Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. 

Please refer to the information provided below as well as the submission preparation checklist to be sure that you have conformed to the requirements before beginning the submission process. Incomplete submissions will not be considered. 

In his/her covering letter, the corresponding author should reveal whether the submitted article – or very similar work - has been previously published or orally presented, or is under consideration elsewhere.

Please note that the submitting author will be the principal contact for editorial correspondence, throughout the peer review and proofreading process, if applicable.

Types of articles 

IJIC receives for publication manuscripts on all aspects of infection prevention and control in health care setting, especially pertaining to practice and research in developing countries. The following types of submissions are accepted:

Review articles 5000 words maximum; comprehensive references; 5-10 key words; unstructured abstract up to 250 words.

Original articles 5000 words maximum; comprehensive references; 5-10 key words; structured abstract up to 250 words.

Short reports Case reports can be submitted if they illustrate some exceptional point in the field of infection prevention and control. 1000 words maximum; up to 10 references

Practice Forum Submissions of a more descriptive account of how infection control practitioners or teams tackled a specific challenge or brought about improvement in the prevention or control of healthcare associated infections in their institution or country. 2000 words maximum; unstructured format

Letters to the editor Correspondence to the Editor may refer to material published recently in IJIC or alternatively describe brief accounts of new observations or on other matters of interest. 500 words maximum; unstructured format

Editorial commentaries 1000 words maximum; up to 20 references; 5-10 key words; unstructured abstract up to 100 words. Each figure and/or table present will reduce the word count permitted by 200 words.

Manuscript preparation

Language All articles should be written in English - British or American as long as consistency is observed. SI units should be used. Please subject the manuscript to professional language editing before submitting the final version if you are not a native speaker. 

Headings/section headings Please do not number headings. Use a maximum of three levels of headings made clear by orthographic indicators, i.e. capitals, italics, bold etc.

Figures, Tables, Supplementary material To facilitate the review process, the submission should include all the tables, figures, captions and supplementary material within the same document as the main text.

Proprietary names We require that non-proprietary names are used in submissions. When proprietary brands are used in research, use the non-proprietary name throughout the text. You may include the proprietary name(s) with the non-proprietary name(s) in parentheses immediately after the first mention then use only the non-proprietary name thereafter (once in the Abstract and once in the body of the manuscript is acceptable)

Acknowledgements All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section of the title page, i.e. not listed in the main manuscript.  Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chairperson who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. NB! Acknowledgements should be added to the Title page that is separated from the main manuscript.

Conflict of interest and funding Authors are responsible for disclosing financial support from the industry or other conflicts of interest that might bias the interpretation of results. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘Conflict of interests and funding’ section listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). If no competing interests exist, please state in this section, "The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest". 

Ethics and consent When reporting experiments on patients or animals, please indicate whether the procedures followed were approved by your local ethics committee and in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. Approval of Ethics/Drug Committee/Institutional Review Board should be specified, if applicable. 

Withdrawal of Manuscript  

If you withdraw your manuscript after it has been peer reviewed, copyedited and typeset (but not yet published) you will be charged USD 15/typeset page to cover the costs for the work of our editorial team, copyeditor and typesetter. 

Manuscript Layout

Wherever possible, the arrangement and format of Original Articles should be as follows:

Title page The title page (uploaded separately) should show the manuscript title, names of all authors (but not their degrees) and the name of the institution or department where the work was done, as well as the name, postal address, telephone number and email address of the author to whom correspondence should be sent. Names of universities and other institutions, departments, laboratories and so on should be given in English. If there is a strong reason to use the non-English name—for example, a funding agency or employer requires it—the editor should be informed. Omit acronyms in addresses. An e-mail address is included for the corresponding author only. 

The title of the manuscript should be informative and accurate and at the same time trigger the interest of the reader. A running title not exceeding 40 characters and spaces should be provided on the title page. 

Abstract Articles must include a structured abstract of 250 words or fewer. The abstract should be able to provide sufficient information for a reader to be able to decide whether or not to proceed to the full text of the article. The abstract should be structured in the following way: Background, Objective, Design, Results, Discussion, Conclusions. After the abstract, please provide 5-10 standard MeSH keywords; avoid using the same words as in the title.

Introduction A brief statement outlining the purpose and context of the paper, but leaving discussion for the Discussion section.

Background Provide a rationale for this article and history of the issue. Method, results and discussion should be restricted to the section so named, except that preliminary results may be included in the Methods section if necessary.

Methods Outline what measures were used. If appropriate, include information on laboratory tests.

Results A statement of results, without discussion of their significance or relationship to those of others. Information may be conveyed in text or in figures or tables.

Discussion Include an explanation of what the results imply and any thoughts on the implications for the field of infection prevention and control.

Conclusion Authors should not be reluctant to write a short Conclusion. This section may comprise just a few sentences. If it merely reiterates what has already been stated in the paper, a lengthy Conclusion does not make a paper more impressive.

Acknowledgements see information above

Conflict of interest and funding see information above

Ethical approval see information above

References Number the references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in the text by arabic numerals and in parentheses [e.g. (14)]. References should follow the standard biomedical format (so-called Vancouver style), recommended by ICJME. DOI numbers must be included where available. 

Information from papers in manuscript not yet accepted should be cited in the text as 'unpublished observation(s)' or 'personal communication'.

For a key of how to abbreviate journal names, please consult the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus.

Some sources and documents are available in print, but also reproduced electronically for wide dissemination—government publications are an obvious example. If you use the electronic version of such a document, please give the URL and date on which you last accessed the electronic file to the citation, e.g.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Guidelines for universal precautions: Recommendations for prevention of HIV transmission in health-care settings, August 21, 1987. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00023587.htm [Accessed May 4, 2014]

Books and journals

Journals

1. More than six authors: Prüss‐Ustün, A., Bartram, J., Clasen, T., Colford, J.M., Jr, Cumming, O., Curtis, V., et al. Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low‐ and middle‐income settings: a retrospective analysis of data from 145 countries. Trop Med Int Health 2014; 19: 894-905. 10.1111/tmi.12329  
2. Up to six authors: Thompson BL, Dwyer DM, Ussery XT, Denman S, Vacek P, Schwartz B. Handwashing and glove use in a long-term-care facility. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1997; 18(2): 97-103. doi: 10.1086/647562

Books

1. Tupker RA. Detergent and cleansers. In: Van der Valk P, Maibach H (eds). The irritant contact dermatitis syndrome. New York, NY: CRC Press, 1996, 71–76.
2. Okeke IN. Poverty and root causes of resistance in developing countries. In: Antimicrobial Resistance in Developing Countries. New York, NY: Springer New York 2010; 27–35.