AIDS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES UPDATES (ASEI)
Publication of the Fundación Huésped and the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases.
1- Purposes and editorial policy
This guide complies with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in its "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication". The full version of these requirements can be obtained from: http://www.icmje.org/. In addition, the guidelines for medical research publications can be consulted at http://www.equator-network.org, and its Spanish version at http://www.espanol.equator-network.org .
"Actualizaciones en Sida e Infectología" (AIDS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES UPDATES, ASEI) is a periodical publication of Fundación Huésped and the Sociedad Argentina de Infectología (Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases, SADI) aimed at disseminating scientific topics related to clinical, epidemiological and social research that contribute to the knowledge of general, pediatric and adult infectious disease practice, in all its aspects, and particularly HIV/AIDS infection. These areas include: Antimicrobials, Epidemiology, Healthcare Associated Infections, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Travel Medicine, Microbiology, Immuno-preventable Diseases and Vaccines, HIV/AIDS and Zoonoses.
When an article is finally accepted in the journal, its authors assign their economic rights on a non-exclusive basis in favor of the editors, who allow reuse under an “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International” License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es). This implies that the articles can be shared (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapted (remix, transform and create another work from the material), as long as the authorship and the original source of publication (journal, publisher and URL of the work) are cited, they are not used for commercial purposes, and the same terms of the license are respected. It is requested to cite the original source of publication.
In addition, the acceptance of the article by the journal implies on the part of the authors the non-submission of the material to other journals or editorial bodies.
Although the ASEI Journal is an official publication of the Fundación Huésped and the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases, the Editorial Committee of the Journal is independent in its decisions regarding the material to be published in the Journal.
2- Peer review process
Material submitted for publication will be initially evaluated by the editorial secretary to ensure compliance with the formal requirements for publication (see below). Subsequently, and with the sole exception of the Editorial Articles and Bibliographical Comments, all material will be submitted for evaluation by two external arbitrators to be designated by the Editorial Committee. Communication between the Secretariat area of the Journal and the Editorial Committee and between both and the authors will be mainly by e-mail.
The most relevant aspects in the evaluation of the manuscript by the reviewers are contained in the "Review Form". This form specifies the guidelines for the review process, assuring the anonymity of the reviewers and the author's rights with the commitment to destroy the material once the evaluation process is concluded. Likewise, this form contains an indication of the existence of any conflict of interest that would oblige the reviewer to exclude him/herself from the evaluation. The justification of the reviewer's decision should be recorded in the form, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript, and anonymous suggestions about its content can be made in the form of comments to the author(s) and to the Journal’s editor.
If the evaluations of the reviewers are not in agreement, the Editorial Committee may decide to send the manuscript to a third reviewer.
The Editorial Committee, in considering the evaluations of the reviewers, reserves the right to accept or reject the contributions received and, if accepted, the order of publication and the section where they will be published. In addition, the Editorial Committee may suggest any style corrections it deems necessary. The acceptance or rejection of the material sent for publication and its date of publication will be promptly informed to the responsible author by e-mail.
3- Instructions for the submission of papers
Authors should submit their original manuscripts in this platform, attaching the manuscript typed in double spacing using a word processor, on a page set at A4 size, with margins of no less than 2.5 cm. The consecutive page number should be indicated in the upper right margin of each page, starting with the title page.
The material to be published in the ASEI Journal is divided into the following sections:
- Editorial articles: These articles are published at the invitation of the Editorial Committee to experts in the subject matter.
- Original articles: Research on topics related to the area of expertise. They will have a maximum length of 7000 words. The first page will be the cover page (see guiding sample), and their main characteristics are presented in the following point.
- Brief reports: Correspond to the preliminary presentation of an original research, according to the interest it may generate. These manuscripts should not exceed 2500 words, and their structure is similar to that of the original articles.
- Systematic reviews: Article for a structured evaluation of quantitative and qualitative aspects of primary studies and of the available evidence on a given topic, with the objective of summarizing the existing information. Its length should not exceed 9000 words, and its structure is similar to that of the original articles.
- Review articles: These are papers that present an update on specific topics of particular interest to the area of expertise. They should have an introduction, in which the importance of the topic and/or justification of the work is discussed, a development (without a predefined structure) and a conclusion, in which a specific recommendation or position by the authors is pointed out.
- Case reports: They are aimed at teaching and alerting about clinical cases in terms of diagnosis or therapeutics. They will have an abstract of up to 150 words written in Spanish and English, and will have the following sections: a) introduction, b) case/s itself; and c) discussion.
- Imaging in infectious diseases: They may correspond to specific lesions in any organ, radiological images, optical microscopy, special microbiological stains, etc., which are considered illustrative and should be accompanied by an explanatory caption.
- Bibliographic comments: These are articles in which books or published works are reviewed. They are by invitation of the Editorial Committee, and will not require peer review.
- Letters to the Editorial Committee: They should preferably refer to articles previously published in the ASEI Journal. The authors to whom the letter is addressed will be offered the possibility of replying in the same issue.
- Communications from the Editorial Committee: These are articles in which the Editorial Committee wishes to communicate to the readers certain novelties or definitions, such as acknowledgements to the reviewers, news related to the specialty, documents from authorities or scientific societies, etc.
The following table shows the maximum number of words, references and tables/figures for each type of publication.
Table: Maximum length of each material submitted for publication
|
TYPE OF MATERIAL |
|
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF |
|
Summary |
|
Editorial article |
1000 |
6 |
2 |
--- |
|
Original article |
7000 |
100 |
5 |
250 |
|
Brief report |
2500 |
30 |
3 |
250 |
|
Systematic review |
9000 |
150 |
6 |
250 |
|
Review article |
9000 |
130 |
5 |
250 |
|
Case report |
2000 |
10 |
2 |
150 |
|
Imaging in infectious diseases |
300 |
2 |
2 |
150 |
|
Bibliographic comments |
800 |
8 |
2 |
--- |
|
Letters to the Editorial Committee |
800 |
4 |
1 |
--- |
a- Original articles, Brief reports and Systematic reviews
Original articles, Brief reports and Systematic reviews, although they have different characteristics and lengths, must comply with the same distribution, as follows: 1) Introduction: Describe the reasons that led to carry out the work, placing it within the current context of the subject; brief explanation of the objectives, accompanied by a bibliography that supports the statements. 2) Material and methods: Should include the information available at the time the study plan or protocol was written, detailed in such a way that it can be reproduced (the reference may be cited where the required details should be stated); in addition to the technical information, the statistical tools used should be listed. 3) Results: The results should be presented in a logical sequence in the text body, charts and illustrations, avoiding the repetion in the text of data included in tables or figures. This section may also summarily emphasize any observation that the authors consider relevant. 4) Discussion: It will highlight the new or important aspects of the study and the conclusions derived, including the implications of the findings and their limitations, as well as the consequences for future research, avoiding conclusions not supported by the results; and relating the results obtained to other relevant studies. 5) Acknowledgments: The following should be specified with one or more statements: a) those contributions that require recognition, but do not justify authorship; b) recognition for technical assistance; c) the existence of material and financial support, specifying the nature of such support. 6) Conflict of interest: Include the declarations of each of the authors using their acronyms; if none of them has them, you may include the following sentence or similar: "none of the authors declare any conflict of interest in relation to this publication."
b- References
References should be numbered consecutively in the same order in which they are mentioned in the body of the text, identifying them with Arabic numerals in brackets. Do not indicate references by inserting footnotes using superscripts. Use the editorial style of the examples below, based on the formats established by the ICMJE. A complete sample of references, in Spanish, can be found at the site: http://www.wame.org/urmreferenciasinter.pdf/
Journal names should be abbreviated according to the editorial style used in Index Medicus. See "List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus", which can be obtained through the Library's Internet page: ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/online/journals/lsiweb.pdf
Example 1 (journal): List the first six authors followed by et. al.
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25; 347(4): 284-7.
As an option, if a journal has continuous pagination by volume (as most journals do) the month and issue number can be omitted.
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002; 347: 284-7.
Example 2 (book):
Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
Example 3 (chapter of a book):
Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995, p. 465-78.
Example 4 (abstract):
Mosier D, Picchio G, Sabbe R, Lederman M, Offord R. Host and Viral Factors Influence CCR5 Receptor Blockade. 7th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection. San Francisco. January 30-February 2, 2000 [abstract 497].
More information on reference samples can be found in Spanish on the site:
http://www.wame.org/urmreferenciasinter.pdf
c- Tables or Charts
Indicate the tables on the page following the References. Do not present them on photographic paper. Number them consecutively in the order in which the references appear in the text body and provide a brief title for each one. Head each column with a short or abbreviated text. Locate all explanatory material in footnotes at the bottom of the chart and not in its header. Explain in the footnotes all non-standardized abbreviations used in each. Use the following symbols, in the same order, as callouts for chart footnotes: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, etc. No internal horizontal or vertical lines are used.
d- Illustrations (Figures)
They must be professionally submitted as an attachment and not inserted or placed in the body of the text. The file format must be .gif, .jpg, .tif, .ppt, .ai. Avoid using dark backgrounds that impair the readability of the information displayed. The headlines and detailed explanations in the illustrations are part of the captions or headings of the figures and not of the illustrations themselves.
Figure captions. Indicate the captions in two spaces and on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the number of each illustration. When symbols, arrows, numbers or letters are used to identify parts within the illustration, identify and explain each clearly in the caption. Explain the interior scales and identify the coloring method used in the microphotographs.
e- Abbreviations and symbols
Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term represented by the abbreviation must precede the abbreviation the first time it appears in the body of the text, unless it is a standard unit of measurement.
f- Patients and participation in studies
According to the ICMJE guidelines (II.E. Privacy and confidentiality), patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or medical record numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and family trees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) provides informed written consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown in the manuscript to be published.
Identification details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, covering the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If data are changed to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurance that alterations to the data do not distort the scientific meaning. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.
g- Protection of human and animal research subjects
When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the board responsible for human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki, revised in 2000. If there is doubt as to whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration, the authors should explain the reason for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review board explicitly approved the questionable aspects of the study.
When reporting animal experiments, authors should be asked to indicate whether institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.
h- Title page
It should contain: (a) the title of the article, in Spanish and English which should be concise but informative (no more than 120 characters with spaces); (b) short title or "running title" with no more than 40 characters; (c) the type or nature of the work; (d) the name and surname of each author, with his/her highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation(s); e) the name(s) of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be credited; f) name, ORCID code, mailing address, and e-mail address of all authors, including the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript; g) source(s) of support in the form of funding, equipment, medical products, or all of them; h) the number of figures and tables accompanying the manuscript.
This page must contain an assertion that the contents of the material to be evaluated have not been previously published. Those listed as authors must have participated significantly in the research or preparation of the manuscript and be responsible for all its contents. This initial note must be signed by all authors, and a scanned copy will be accepted.
Next, independently of the above items, the author(s) must clearly notify the existence or non-existence of any type of conflict of interest. It is recommended that the ICMJE form be sent in its entirety (available at http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/) for each of the authors.
i- Summary and key words
The second page should include the abstract (between 50 and 250 words in Original articles, Brief reports, Systematic reviews and Review articles, and between 50 and 150 words in Case reports and Imaging in Infectious Diseases).
In Original articles, Brief reports and Systematic reviews the abstract should state the purposes of the study or investigation, the basic procedures (selection of study subjects or laboratory animals, observational and analytical methods), main findings (providing specific data and their statistical significance, if possible) and the main conclusions, emphasizing the new and important aspects of the study or observations.
In Review articles, Case reports and Imaging in Infectious Diseases, the abstract should be of narrative type, including the purposes of the article and the main conclusions.
In both cases it must be written in Spanish and English.
Below the abstract, authors should include and identify as such, between 3 and 10 keywords or short phrases (in Spanish and English) that may help the referencers in the cross-indexing of the article and that could be published with the abstract. Terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be used. If MeSH terms are not yet available for newly introduced expressions, current words can be used. More information can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html .
4- Checklist
Before submitting the manuscript, verify that all components have been included:
- Title of the article in English and Spanish and running title. Titles shall not include abbreviations. Avoid using capital letters.
- Name and surname of each author and their institutional affiliations, ORCID code and e-mail address.
- Name, postal address, telephone number, ORCID code and e-mail address of the author responsible for the correspondence.
- Number of words in the manuscript.
- The number of tables and figures included.
- Conflict of interest, if any, including any information regarding professional and financial affiliations of the author(s) that are perceived to have influenced the submitted work; completion of the ICMJE form (available at http://www.iorg/conflicts-of-interest/)
- Abstract (in English and Spanish) and keywords (in English and Spanish) in the length and quantity mentioned. Do not include references in the abstract.
- Text: avoid the use of capital letters in subtitles, in the wording of drugs and of diseases or syndromes (except in the case of proper names).
- Acknowledgments and financing.
- References, indicated in Arabic numerals and in brackets as they appear in the text in the format adopted by NLM, can be consulted at the aforementioned Internet address. Do not use superscript inserts.
- Tables and Figures identified according to the specifications of these Regulations. Figures must be attached in a separate file and acceptable formats are: .gif, .jpg, .tif, .ppt, .ai. Do not insert images inside the body text.
