Official Publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
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The International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID) is published bimonthly by the International Society for Infectious Diseases. IJID welcomes manuscripts in the following categories. Please note that from May 2009 all accepted papers to the International Journal of Infectious Diseases will be published online only due to the volume of manuscripts received:

Original articles on infectious disease topics of broad interest. We particularly welcome papers that discuss epidemiological aspects of international health, clinical reports, clinical trials and reports of laboratory investigations. Original articles should not exceed 5000 words in length.

Reviews on topics of importance to readers in diverse geographic areas. These should be comprehensive and fully referenced. Maximum length 6000 words.

Perspectives are papers that advance a hypothesis or represent an opinion relating to a topic of current interest or importance. They should be fully referenced, and should not exceed 2000 words in length.

Correspondence relating to papers recently published in the Journal, or containing brief reports of unusual or preliminary findings. Maximum length 400 words, one table or figure and a maximum of 10 references.

Case Reports must be carefully documented and must be of importance because they illustrate or describe unusual features or have important therapeutic implications. They should also include a brief but complete review of the relevant literature. Maximum length 2000 words, should include an abstract and a maximum of 2 tables or figures.

Medical Imagery: We would like to invite authors to submit interesting images with a maximum of 500 words of explanation of the image and 10 references. Please note that it is imperative that appropriate permissions have been sought from subjects for the image to be used.

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at: http://ees.elsevier.com/ijid

Covering letter: Manuscripts must be accompanied by a covering letter signed by ALL the authors stating that the current "Instructions to Authors" have been read, thereby indicating compliance with those instructions and acceptance of the conditions posed. The letter should state that the authors have seen and agreed to the submitted version of the paper, that all who have been acknowledged as contributors or as providers of personal communications have agreed to their inclusion, that the material is original and that it has been neither published elsewhere nor submitted for publication simultaneously. In addition the letter should state that if accepted, the paper will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without written consent of the copyright holder.

A scanned image of the signed covering letter should be submitted via the online submission system. If this is not possible the letter should be posted or faxed to the Editorial Office.

It is strongly advised for Authors to suggest three non-conflicted peer reviewers with expertise as much for content as for methodology of their submission, with contact details including email address. This will significantly help the editorial office in facilitating timely external peer review.

Conflict of Interest: manuscripts cannot be published until we have received a signed Conflict of Interest Declaration form. You may obtain a Conflict of Interest Declaration document to be completed from the link below or upon request from the IJID Editorial Office IJID@elsevier.com. You are strongly advised to provide the declaration at the time you first submit your paper. A scanned image of the signed declaration should be submitted via the online submission system. If this is not possible the declaration should be posted or faxed to the Editorial Office.

Conflict of Interest Declaration (pdf format) [To read the PDF file you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your system. Download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html]

Upon acceptance for publication, manuscripts will become the permanent property of the International Society for Infectious Diseases and may not be published elsewhere without the permission of the Society.

Manuscript format

General: The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. Do not embed 'graphically designed' equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility.

When preparing tables, preferably use a table grid and use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts. Do not import the figures into the text file but instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text. Each figure must be submitted separately as requested at the file upload stage of submission. For further information on the preparation of electronic illustrations, please refer to the "Tables and Figures" section.

To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spellchecker' function of your wordprocessor.

The entire manuscript, including the abstract, acknowledgements, references, tables, figures, and legends, must be double spaced, with a margin of at least 2.5 cm. On assignment to an editor, each manuscript will be assigned a number, which will be provided to the author. The author should refer to this number in all ensuing correspondence. All manuscripts (including correspondence) will be subject to peer review. A rapid response to the authors will be more feasible if the manuscript is prepared as stipulated in the Instructions to Authors. Expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se should not be in italics.

Articles must be written in English. Authors may consider using a language editing service to improve English language usage and written quality of a paper. A number of editing companies will provide their services to our authors at competitive rates at www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing. Authors in Japan kindly note that, upon request, Elsevier Japan will provide a list of people who can check and improve the English of an article before submission. Contact our Tokyo office: Elsevier Japan, 4F Higashi-Azabu, 1-Chome Bldg, 1-9-15 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0044, Japan, Tel.: (+81) (3) 5561 5037; Fax: (+81) (3) 5561 5047; e-mail: jp.info@elsevier.com

Numbers and measurements: Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).

Title Page: The title page must include each author's full name and academic affiliations. The author to whom correspondence concerning the manuscript and to whom requests for reprints should be directed must be designated, as well as the corresponding address, telephone, fax, and e-mail. Manuscripts that were presented as part of a meeting must include the title, location, and date of the meeting on the title page. Abstract: A structured abstract of 150 to 200 words must be provided as part of each manuscript, except correspondence. The abstract should consist of four paragraphs, labelled with the following headings: objectives, design or methods, results, conclusions, or alternative headings appropriate to the format of the paper. The abstract should not refer to footnotes or references.

Keywords: Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of six keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be used.

Acknowledgements: Place acknowledgements, including information on grants received, before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.

References: Indicate references by superscript numbers in the text.

Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

1. 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:

2. Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979. Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

3. 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; 1999, p. 281-304.

Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than six authors the first six 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;277:927-934) (see also http://www.nejm.org/general/text/requirements/1.htm) References to personal communications and to unpublished material must be incorporated, in parentheses, at the appropriate place in the text. References to congress abstracts should be cited in the reference section if they have been published previously in an official book of abstracts from the congress; otherwise they should be incorporated in the text. The author is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the references.

Citing and listing of web references: Such article citations should include the DOI (digital object identifier).

For example:

Boutayeb A, Twizell EH, Achouayb K, Chetouani A. A mathematical model for the burden of diabetes and its complications. Biomed Eng Online 2004;3:20. doi:10.1186/1475-925X-3-20. The DOI is a persistent identifier, which remains with the article even after it is published in print. See http://www.doi.org for details.

If the reference does not have a DOI, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.

Style: For stylistic questions, authors are referred to the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition, 1993, published by the University of Chicago Press.

Abbreviations: Abbreviations in the text are discouraged. If a term appears repeatedly, however, an abbreviation may be introduced parenthetically at the initial mention of the term and used thereafter in place of the term. Abbreviations of conventional or SI units of measurement may be used without introduction.

References to drugs: The generic name of a drug should be used as a general rule; however, the full name or the commercial name of the drug, as well as the name and location of the supplier, may be given in addition if appropriate.

Tables and Figures: Data reported either in a table or in a figure should be illustrative of information reported in the text, but should not be redundant with the text. Each table must be presented at the end of the manuscript on a separate page and numbered in order of appearance in the text. The title of the table must appear after the number. Each table must include appropriate headings. Footnotes, when necessary, must be identified by letters. Units of measurement must be clearly indicated.

Figures should not be imported into the manuscript text file but submitted separately as requested at the file upload stage of submission. A short detailed legend should be provided for each figure. All legends must be collected together on a separate page following the body of the manuscript.

For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Photomicrographs should include a micron bar or other appropriate scale marking.

Bacterial nomenclature: Microbes should be referred to by their scientific names according to the binomial system used in the latest edition of Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology (The Williams and Wilkins Co.). When first mentioned, the name should be in full and written in italics. Thereafter, the genus should be abbreviated to its initial letter, e.g. 'S. aureus' not 'Staph. Aureus'. If abbreviation is likely to cause confusion or render the intended meaning(s) unclear the names of organisms should be given in full. Only those names included in the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names (Int J Syst Bacteriol 1980; 30: 225-420) and/or which have been validly published in the Int J Syst Bacteriol since January 1980 are acceptable. If there is a good reason to use a name that does not have standing in nomenclature, it should be enclosed in quotation marks and an appropriate statement concerning its use made in the text (e.g. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1980; 30: 547-556).

Symbols for units of measurement must accord with the Système International (SI): However, blood pressure should be expressed in mmHg and haemoglobin as g/dl.

GenBank/DNA sequence linking: Many Elsevier journals cite "gene accession numbers" in their running text and footnotes. Gene accession numbers refer to genes or DNA sequences about which further information can be found in the databases at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine. Elsevier authors wishing to enable other scientists to use the accession numbers cited in their papers via links to these sources, should type this information in the following manner:

For each and every accession number cited in an article, authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text . Letters in the accession number should always be capitalised. (See example below). This combination of letters and format will enable Elsevier's typesetters to recognise the relevant texts as accession numbers and add the required link to GenBank's sequences.

Example: "GenBank accession nos. AI631510 , AI631511 , AI632198 , and BF223228 ), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048 ), and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117 )".

Authors are encouraged to check accession numbers used very carefully. An error in a letter or number can result in a dead link. In the final version of the printed article, the accession number text will not appear bold or underlined. In the final version of the electronic copy , the accession number text will be linked to the appropriate source in the NCBI databases enabling readers to go directly to that source from the article.

Supplementary material submission. Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/copyright). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author by email, confirming receipt of the manuscript, together with a form facilitating the transfer of copyright. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases : contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Tel. (+1) 215 238 7869; Fax (+1) 215 238 2239; e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com . Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Ethical Consideration. Work on human beings that is submitted to International Journal of Infectious Diseases should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines.

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in your paper. Patients have a right to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients? images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note. If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Randomised Controlled Trials. All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in International Journal of Infectious Diseases should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org/?0=1001 for more information. International Journal of Infectious Diseases has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials) would be exempt. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org.

Conflicts of Interest. At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement" all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Authorship. All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Acknowledgement. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

Role of the Funding Source. All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

Proofs. One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely the responsibility of the author. A form with queries from the copyeditor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required.

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies