Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Instructions to Authors

As of 01 June 2005, all new manuscripts must be submitted through theDiagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease online submission and review Web site ( http://ees.elsevier.com/dmid/ ). Authors are requested to submit the text, tables, and artwork in electronic form (not as a PDF ) to this address. In an accompanying letter, authors should state that the manuscript, or parts of it, have not been and will not be submitted elsewhere for publication. Authors are highly encouraged to include a list of three or more potential reviewers for their manuscript, with complete contact information.

Submission items include a cover letter (save as a separate file for upload), suggested reviewers, the manuscript (including title page, abstract, manuscript text, references, and table/figure legends), tables, and figures. Revised manuscripts should also be accompanied by a unique file (separate from the covering letter) with responses to reviewers' comments. The preferred order of files is as follows: cover letter, suggested reviewers, response to reviews (revised manuscripts only), manuscript file(s), table(s), figure(s). Files should be labeled with appropriate and descriptive file names (e.g., SmithText.doc, Fig1.eps, Tables3.doc). Upload text, tables and graphics as separate files. (You can compress multiple figure files into a Zip file and upload that in one step; the system will then unpack the files and prompt you to name each figure.) Do not import figures or tables into the text document and do not upload your text as a PDF. Complete instructions for electronic artwork submission can be found on the Author Gateway, accessible through the journal home page. Your figures will be tested by an artwork quality check tool; you will be asked to view the results before you can complete your submission. Your figures can move into review if not up to production standards, but you should be prepared to provide better quality figures should we express interest in your manuscript.

Authors who are unable to provide an electronic version or have other circumstances that prevent online submission must contact the Editors prior to submission to discuss alternate options. The Publisher and Editors regret that they are not able to consider submissions that do not follow these procedures.

Please note, although the Elsevier Editorial System Registration page asks if you are available for reviews, we are not currently seeking new reviewers as members of the Editorial Board. All other correspondence should be addressed to the Editor in Chief: Ronald N. Jones, M.D., Editorial Office, Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease, Suite A, 345 Beaver Kreek Centre, North Liberty, Iowa 52317, USA.

Manuscripts

Papers may be submitted that are full-length articles (including subject review articles), or short notes. Manuscripts are accepted with the understanding that they are original, unpublished work and are not being submitted elsewhere. All manuscripts are subjected to peer review by the editors, by members of the Editorial Board, or by other qualified reviewers.

Papers must be accompanied by a letter signed by the corresponding author indicating that they have read and are familiar with the current "Instructions to Authors" (published in each issue) and will comply with the instructions and stated conditions. The letter should indicate that all of the named authors and acknowledged parties have agreed to the submitted draft of the paper or, as providers of personal communications, have consented to their inclusion, and that the content/submission is original/unpublished and has not been simultaneously submitted to another medical journal. Furthermore, previous or other publication of any or part of the content of the manuscript (including conference or congress proceedings, letters, and brief communications) must be declared on the title page. Failure to comply with the above mentioned policies may result in a 3-year suspension of publishing privileges in this journal.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Elsevier Editorial System, in English, double-spaced, and, where appropriate, divided into Introduction; Materials and Methods, which should include sufficient technical information so that experiments can be repeated and which should give sources of unusual chemicals, reagents, equipment, or microbial strains;Results, which should describe the design of the experiments as well as the results using text, tables, or figures; and Discussion, which should provide an interpretation of the results in relation to previously published work. An abstract is required for all papers; it should be 150 words or less for full-length papers and 50 words or less for notes. Papers for the Notes category, which is intended for the presentation of brief observations (including instructive case reports), that do not warrant full-length papers, should not contain any section heading and should not exceed 1,000 words.

The first page of the manuscript should include: title, running title of not more than 45 characters and spaces, full names of all authors, address of the institution at which the work was performed, and the corresponding author's full address, telephone number, and FAX number. Any change of address by any of the authors should also be noted. Any footnotes to the text should be numbered using Arabic numerals and should be typed on the page of the manuscript on which they are referred to.

Tables

Tables should be on separate files and numbered using Arabic numerals. Each table should have a brief title with detailed information appearing as footnotes bearing superscript, lower-case letters. Vertical rules should be avoided.

References

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease uses the standard 'Vancouver' system with name and year in the text.

Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: "as demonstrated in wheat (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:
Reference to a journal publication: Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000;163:51-9.
Reference to a book: Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book: Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age. New York: E-Publishing Inc.; 1994. p. 281-304.

Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by 'et al.' For further details you are referred to "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927-34), see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/terms_cond.html

Figures

All manuscripts must be accompanied by complete artwork. Each figure must be on a separate file. Electron micrographs should be of sufficient contrast to withstand reduction and printing at the journal page size. The cost of printing color photographs must be borne by the author. Any graphs, charts, or diagrams should be finished drawings, using type size large enough to be read easily when reduced to page size.

Proofs and Reprints

The corresponding author will receive page proofs, which should be corrected and returned within 48 hours of receipt. Corrections are limited to printer's errors and no substantial author's changes will be made. Reprints may be ordered at the price listed on the order form accompanying the proofs.

Style and Nomenclature

Authors should use the CBE (Council of Biology Editors) Style Manual, 5th ed., as a general guide for style. The names of chemical compounds should conform with Chemical Abstracts and its indexes or The Merck Index, 11th ed. Enzymes and biochemical terms should bear the recommended, trivial name listed in the latest edition of Enzyme Nomenclature. Whenever possible, use generic drug names. Binary names consisting of a generic name and a species name must be used for all microorganisms. Names of general and higher categories may be used alone. However, a species name must be preceded by the complete generic name the first time that it is used in the manuscript. Following this, the generic name should be abbreviated to the initial capital letter (for example, S. aureus), provided there can be no confusion with other genera of organisms used in the paper. The nomenclature for bacteria should follow well-established references such as Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology (current edition) or the Manual of Clinical Microbiology, 8th ed., or validation lists and specific articles published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology since January 1, 1989. Informative web sites are available as well ( http://www.dsmz.de/bactnom/bactname.htm and http://www.bacterio.cict.fr ).

Nomenclature and classifications of fungi and yeasts are the responsibility of the manuscript authors as guided by published sources such as Ainsworth and Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi, 9th ed. (2001) and The Yeasts: A Taxonomic Study, 4th ed. (1998).

Names used for viruses should be those listed in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses publication (Virus Taxonomy: Classification and Nomenclature of Viruses: Seventh Report of the International Committee of Taxonomy and Viruses, 2000). Synonyms may be used in parentheses when the name is first used in conjunction with the approved generic (or group) and family names.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article by the journal, the author(s) will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the publisher. This transfer will insure the widest possible dissemination of information under the US copyright law. Unless this agreement is executed, the journal will not publish the manuscript.



Updated July 2008