Publication Ethics

Journal of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases requires all authors and peer reviewers to declare any conflict of interest associated with the submission or review of an article.

Journal of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases has adopted the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals 2001, as adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org).

Conflict-of-interest statement

Authors are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly in the letter accompanying the submitted manuscript whether potential conflicts do or do not exist.

Statement of informed consent

Analytical investigations on human participants must include a statement in the Methods section that participants gave their informed consent. It is journal policy that participant anonymity must be preserved in all cases. Research on experimental animals must be approved by an appropriate institutional ethics approval committee and the appropriate approval number must be stated in the Methods section.

Protection of human and animal rights 

For experimental, clinical, and drug research an Ethics Committee report consistent with international agreements on human and animal rights (Helsinki Declaration of 1975, revised 2002 -http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm and “Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals - www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) and an informed consent of patients are required.

Funding

Authors must include a statement in the Methods section that identifies any funding sources for their work.

Risk assessment

Authors must include a statement in the Methods section of compliance to any risk assessment procedures required by their organizations.

Peer-review process

All manuscripts are submitted for expert peer review. The journal uses a double-blind peer-review system, with two to three referees (members of the Editorial Committee and/or external consultants) independently evaluating all manuscripts. The referees will make Suggestions as to acceptance, revision or rejection of manuscripts. In certain cases, specialist peer reviewers (such as statisticians) will be used, for example, for review of study design features, conduct of the study, presentation of data, statistical analysis, or conclusions. If the referees indicate that a manuscript should be revised, authors will be requested to revise the manuscript along the lines indicated by the referees. Occasionally, resubmitted manuscripts may undergo further peer review. Once revisions are completed and approved by the Managing Editor, the corresponding author is notified that an article has been accepted for publication. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned to authors. The average length of time from acceptance of manuscript to publication is 6 months.

Copyright

Articles with original material are accepted for consideration with the understanding that, except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published, or will be submitted for publication elsewhere, before appearing in this journal. Authors are required to assign copyright to Journal of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases when their article is accepted for publication. The copyright assignment letter must be signed by all authors (or corresponding author) and a copy returned to the Managing Editor. Assignment of copyright protects the interests of both author and publisher. Although publication elsewhere is prohibited by such assignment of copyright, the material may be used by the author(s):

♦ for academic purposes (such as lecturing);
♦ for private use (excluding sale for profit);
♦ for teaching purposes;
♦ for professional advice to clients; and
♦ as part of non-commercial instructional publications.

Authors are required to warrant that the submitted material does not (or will not), to the best of their knowledge, infringe any copyright or other proprietary right or interest, or contain any statement which is false, libelous, or in any other way unlawful. Permission must be gained to reproduce any figure, table or extensive extract (over 50 words) from any source that is owned or copyrighted by anyone other than the author or Journal of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.