Information For Authors

Scope

Infectious Disease Journal of Pakistan (Infect Dis J Pak) is an official journal of The Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan. Infect Dis J Pak is a peer-reviewed, open access journal and publishes original articles, review articles, brief reports, case reports, short communications, letter to the editor and notes and news in the fields of microbiology, infectious diseases, public health; with laboratory, clinical, or epidemiological aspects. The Infectious Disease Journal of Pakistan does not publish veterinary studies and studies based on animal models alone.

 

Criteria for publication

All articles are peer reviewed by the IDSP panel of reviewers. After that the article is submitted to the Editorial Board. Authors may submit names and contact information of 2 persons who potentially could serve as unbiased and expert reviewers for their manuscript, but IDSP reserves the right of final selection.

 

Submission of the Manuscript

  • Go to the Infect Dis J official website: http://www.ojs.idj.org.pk/index.php/Files
  • Click ‘make a submission’ tab on Infect Dis J official website.
  • Please read checklist and make sure that no point in the checklist is missing
  • Click ‘register’ if you are submitting to Infect Dis J for the first time. If you are already registered with Infect Dis J then click ‘login’.
  • A new page will open once you click ‘register’. Enter the required information in the given fields. Infectious Disease Journal requests all its authors to register themselves with Infect Dis J as reviewer by clicking ‘Yes, request the reviewer role’ available at the bottom of ‘registration’ page. After clicking on ‘register’ a new page will open.
  • Please click ‘make a new submission’ on this page
  • A new page will open, with 5 tabs on the top.
  • Start,
  • Upload submission,
  • Enter metadata,
  • Confirmation,
  • Next steps. You will be in ‘start’ tab.
  • In ‘Section’ dropdown list, select the appropriate option. Please make sure that all the ‘submission requirements’ are fulfilled. Tick the checkbox against each requirement. Note: if any of the requirement is not fulfilled, and you put a tick mark against it, you still will be able to proceed and complete your submission process but the submission will be declined automatically by the system. In ‘comments for the editor’ area you can write your comments, however, it is optional. Under ‘Acknowledge the copyright statement’ tick the checkboxes against both the options. Click ‘save and continue’
  • Now you will be in ‘upload submission’ tab. A dialogue box will open and here you can upload all your files (article text, title page, ERC/IRB approval letter, undertaking, processing fee) one by one. Click ‘save and continue’.
  • Now you will be in ‘enter metadata’ tab. You may leave ‘prefix’ field blank. Write title of the article in ‘title’ field. Write running/short title in ‘subtitle’ field (you may leave it blank). Copy/paste abstract in abstract area. In ‘list of contributors’ sections, click ‘add contributor’ (if you have other authors with you). A new dialogue box will open. Please fill in details of each contributor (author). Please do give affiliation of each contributor. Additional details about the contributor can be given in the text box below. For ‘contributor’s role’ please click ‘author’. Please tick the check box ‘Principal contact for editorial correspondence’ for corresponding author only. Lower checkbox ‘Include this contributor in browse lists?’ will remain ticked for all the authors. Click ‘save’ and repeat the same process for all the authors one by one. Please add all the authors as per the pre-decided sequence. Please fill the ‘languages’, ‘subjects’, ‘discipline’ and ‘key words’ fields appropriately. These fields are essential. Each key word MUST be added SEPARATELY one by one instead of 'copy/paste' all the key words together. Please click ‘save and continue’.
  • You are now in ‘confirmation’ tab. Please click ‘finish submission’. Congratulations, you have successfully completed your submission to Infect Dis J.
  • You can track the status/progress of your article through editorial process any time by logging into your account.

Manuscript Categories

1. Original Articles

Articles should report original work in the fields of microbiology, infectious disease or public health. The word limit for original articles is 2000. Title page This should list the (i) title of the article, (ii) the full names of each author with highest academic degree(s), institutional addresses and email addresses of all authors. (iii) The corresponding author should also be indicated with his/her name, address, telephone, fax number and e-mail address. (iv) A short running title of not more than 40 characters (count letters and spaces) placed at the foot end of the title page.(v) a conflict of interest statement should also be included in this section.

Abstract: Abstract should not exceed 250 words and must be structured in to separate sections headed Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions. Please do not use abbreviations or cite references in the abstract. A short list of four to five key words should be provided to facilitate.

Background: The section must clearly state the background to the research and its aims. Controversies in the field should be mentioned. The key aspects of the literature should be reviewed focusing on why the study was necessary and what additional contribution will it make to the already existing knowledge in that field of study. The section should end with a very brief statement of the aims of the article.

Material and Methods: Please provide details of subject selection (patients or experimental animals). Details must be sufficient to allow other workers to reproduce the results. The design of study and details of interventions used must be clearly described. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s) and route(s) of administration All research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, and animal studies must follow internationally recognized guidelines. The authors are expected to include a statement to this effect in the Methods section of the manuscript. A description of the sample size calculation and statistical analysis used should be provided.

Results: Present results in logical sequences in the text, tables and illustrations. Articles can have a maximum of 5 illustrations (in a combination of figures and tables) per article. The results should be in past tense and repetition of results presented in the tables should be avoided. Exact P-values should be reported along with reporting of OR and RR with their Confidence Intervals where applicable.

Discussion: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat the details from the results section. Discuss the implications of the findings and the strengths and limitations of the study. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusion not completely supported by your data.

Acknowledgments: Acknowledge any sources of support, in the form of grants, equipment or technical assistance. The source of funding (if any) for the study should be stated in this section. Please see below for format of References, Figures and Tables.

2. Review Articles

 Authoritative and state of the art review articles on topical issues are also published, with a word limit of 2000. It should consist of critical overview of existing literature along with reference to new developments in that field. These should be comprehensive and fully referenced. Articles should contain an Abstract; Main Text divided into sections, Conclusions and References.

3. Brief Reports

Short clinical and laboratory observations are included as Brief Reports. The text should contain no more than 1000 words, two illustrations or tables and up to 10 references.

4. Case Reports

Instructive cases with a message are published as case reports. Routine syndromes or rare entities without unusual or new features are invariably rejected. The text should contain no more than 1000 words, two illustrations or tables and up to 10 references. The authorship should not exceed 3-4 persons.

5. Letter to the Editor

These may relate to material published in the IDJP, topic of interest pertaining to infectious diseases, and/or unusual clinical observations. A letter should not be more than 300 words, one figure and 3-5 references.

6. News and Views

Informative, breaking news updates in infectious diseases from around the world (approx. 200 words).

7. Notices

Announcements of conferences, symposia or meetings may be sent for publication at least 12 weeks in advance of the meeting date. Details of programs should not be included.

References

Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables and legends by Arabic numerals (in superscript). References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification of the particular table or illustration. Bibliography should be given in order. Authors, complete title, journal name (Abbr), year, vol, issue, page numbers. According to “Uniform Requirements of Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals”, as cited in N Engl J Med 1997; 336:309-15.

 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 on a separate sheet of paper and numbered in order of appearance in the text. Table should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. Tables and Figures legends should be self-explanatory with adequate headings and footnotes. Results which can be described as short statements within the text should not be presented as figures or tables.

Illustrations

Illustration should be numbered, given suitable legends and marked lightly on the back with the author’s name and the top edge indicated. Original drawings may be submitted although high quality glossy photographs are preferable. They should be kept separate from the text. If possible, figures should be submitted in electronic format as either a TIFF (tagged image file format) or JPEG format. Minimum resolution for scanned artwork is:

V         Black& white line illustration (e.g. graphs): 600 dpi

V         Black & white halftone illustrations (e.g. photographs): 300 dpi

V         Color illustrations: 400 dpi (note that color images should be split CMYK not RGB)

Plagiarism

Authors should refrain from plagiarism and should double check their work before submitting it for publication. Adequate references should be provided for text from other sources.

Authorship criteria

Those who have contributed sufficiently to the conceptualization, design, collection and analysis of data and writing of the manuscript should be granted authorship. Ideally all authors should be from the same department except for studies that are multi center or multispecialty.