Instructions for authors
RINCIPLES FOR PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION IN “MEDYCYNA DOŚWIADCZALNA I MIKROBIOLOGIA” (EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND MICROBIOLOGY)
The quarterly "Medycyna Doświadczalna i Mikrobiologia" publishes experimental and methodological work concerning of medical microbiology in the field of bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections as well as their impact on public health. In particular, works are published on the pathogenicity of microorganisms, their diversity, drug resistance and ecology in aspects of impact on society, health protection and its economy. Also published are review papers from the above-mentioned field, short messages from experimental works as well as comments and letters to the editor having the character of discussions with the authors of the articles published in the quarterly.
I. Rules for the acceptance of the article sent for publication
1. Authors
The author of the article should be any person who made an intellectual contribution to the topic, content and conclusions of the work or obtained and interpreted the experimental data presented in the article. Persons performing laboratory tests without interpretation of their results, providing samples of material for research, strains of microorganisms, reagents, research equipment as well as persons who have made a critical evaluation of the text of the work can be mentioned in the acknowledgments.
Authors should choose one person responsible for correspondence with the editors and authorize them to represent them in all matters related to publication. The authors of the article should agree to its publication, which should be confirmed by a written statement of the author sending the article to the journal's editorial office.
When submitting a paper for publication, the author should send a written statement that the work has not been submitted and will not be submitted for publication in another journal before publishing it in the quarterly "Medycyna Doświadczalna i Mikrobiologia" and that all authors have read the Instructions for Authors and in full accept him. The author submitting the article for print should give his exact address for correspondence with the telephone number and e-mail address.
In order to counteract the cases of "ghostwriting" and "guest authorship", the editors of the quarterly introduces the following requirements in relation to the author submitting the manuscript:
- the author submitting the article is obliged to disclose the contribution of individual authors in the publication, including their affiliation and contribution, i.e. who is the author of the concepts, assumptions, methods, protocol, etc. used in the preparation of the publication.
- the author submitting the article is obliged to disclose information about the sources of financing of the publication, contribution of scientific and research institutions, associations and other entities,
- the author submitting the article is responsible for submitting on behalf of all authors a declaration on the occurrence or absence of a conflict of interest.
The form of the statement of the author submitting the article is posted on the quarterly's website at http://www.medmikro.org.pl/
The editors are obliged to disclose and document any manifestations of scientific misconduct of "ghostwriting" and "guest authorship", including notifying relevant entities such as institutions employing authors, scientific societies, associations of editors of scientific journals, etc.
In the case of publication of the results of tests carried out on animals, it is required to attach a statement that their execution has been approved by the local ethics committee. In the case of clinical trials, a statement is required that the tests were carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration (www.wma.net).
The editors reserve the right to refuse to accept the article in the absence of the above-mentioned documents.
2. Repeated publication
This is a publication containing essential elements of the work previously published. Readers of medical journals have the right to believe that the published article is original work. If this is not the case, the article should be preceded by a clear statement that it is republished and the reasons for such publication should be specified. The bibliographic position of the original publication should also be provided.
II. Instructions for preparing the article.
Works to be printed should be sent to the editor in 2 copies of a computer printout in A4 format with a margin of 4 cm left and double spaces between lines (31 lines per page). Individual pages should be numbered. Please attach a copy of the article on the CD.
Alternatively, please send a copy of the article by e-mail to the editors' e-mail address: medmikrobiol@pzh.gov.pl. The text of the work, tables and figures should be sent in separate files.
The first page of the article should include: the title of the work in Polish, the title of the work in English, full name (names) and surname of the author (s) of the work, name of the institution in which the work was performed along with its address (addresses). Keywords in Polish and English. On the following pages, place the article text.
The following parts should be distinguished in the text of the original article: A short summary in Polish, Summary in English, Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion (or Results and discussion), Conclusions (or Summary), References, Participation of individual authors in the uprising work and possible Thanks. Particular parts of the article can be distinguished by subtitles, if it makes the text more transparent.
In the text of the review article, only the following parts should be distinguished: Short summary in Polish, Summary in English, Introduction, Relevant text of the article with subtitles, Summary, References, Participation of individual authors in the creation of the work and possible Thanks.
Short messages from experimental work should contain the main parts of the original work.
All Latin words and names, the names of the authors quoted (both in the text and in the literature) and the names of the authors of the work should be written in italics.
A short summary in Polish - placed between the title and the abstract in English, should introduce the reader to the content of the work. This summary should be written in bold type and should not exceed 6 typescript lines.
Abstract - in English it should reflect the structure of work, i.e. contain the following, detailed chapters:
- Introduction - with the purpose of the work,
- Methods - containing basic methods and procedures,
- Results - main observations and results
- Conclusions - a short summary or the most important conclusions.
The summary should not be longer than 500 words and should be preceded by the title of the work and the word "Abstract"
Introduction - justify the purpose of research and clearly specify it. The literature cited in the introduction should be limited only to items directly related to the content of the introduction. The introduction does not state the results or conclusions of the tests carried out.
Material and methods - information on the subject of the research, the methods used and the reagents used should be provided in an exhaustive manner to enable the reader to repeat the experiment or observation. Describe precisely the drugs, vaccines, reagents and substances used at work. For commonly known methods, reference should be made, including statistical methods used at work, for methods already published but widely unknown, provide a short description with references, and for new or significantly modified methods - provide a full description. Subtitles should be written in bold type.
Results - should be given in a logical sequence in the text, tables and figures. Data from tables and figures should not be repeated in the text. It should be limited to summarizing the most important information.
Discussion - new or important aspects of research results should be emphasized and the implications arising from their implementation should be discussed and their limitations should be given. The results of own research should be evaluated against the background of the literature quoted by the authors of the article. The details detailed in the previous parts of the article should not be repeated.
Conclusions - if the author considers them necessary, they should be specified in points or given briefly in descriptive form. They should combine logically with the work objectives outlined in the introduction. You should avoid statements and conclusions not resulting from your own observation. Authors should avoid claims about costs or benefits if their work does not contain economic data and analysis. If a hypothesis is proposed, it should be clearly stated that this is a hypothesis. Far-reaching conclusions from work that have not yet been completed should be avoided. Applications should not be included in the conclusions. Applications can be replaced by a short Summary, in which the author can pay attention to the most important aspects of the work.
References - should be written on separate pages and limited only to the items quoted in the text and having a direct relationship with the subject of the work. In the case of original works - no more than 25 items, in the case of review works - 50 items. References should be arranged in alphabetical order according to the authors' names. When citing works in the text, only the ordinal number of the reference in the reference list should be given in brackets. You should also include the headings cited in the tables or in the legend of figures, and avoid quoting abstracts and unpublished works and reports. Works accepted for publication, but not yet published should be marked as: "in print"; authors should obtain a written consent to quote such a work, as well as confirmation that the quoted work has been accepted for printing. Information from manuscripts sent to the editor, but not accepted for publication should be as "unpublished work" in the text and not in the list of references, after obtaining a written permission from the author. You should avoid quoting "Own information" or "personal information", unless such data provides relevant information not available from published sources. In such cases, the name of the person and the date of obtaining information should be cited in the text.
The following order should be kept in the list of references:
a) the name of the author (s) and the first letters of their first names,
b) the title of the article in full,
c) the title of the journal in a recognized abbreviation (according to the List of Journal Indexed in Index Medicus);
d) year;
e) volume;
f) first and last page of the article.
For non-periodic publications (eg books), please give the author (authors above) the title of the chapter in collective works, the title of the book, the name of its editor, publisher, place and year of publication and pages from - to the cited chapter.
With more authors, please provide all names (up to four authors) or the names of the first three with the note "and others" when the authors are more than four.
Examples:
An article from a medical journal:
Schmitt-Grohe S, Cherry JD, Heininger U and others. Pertussis in German adults. Clin Infect Dis 1995; 21: 860 - 6.
Kostrzewski J. The availability of poliomyelitis in the world. Przeg Epidemiol 1994; 48: 355 - 60.
Naruszewicz-Lesiak D, Wieczorkiewicz N, Iwińska-Buksowicz B and others. Subacute sclerosing encephalitis (SSPE) in Poland in 1990-1993. The fifth stage of epidemiological research. Przeg Epidemiol 1995; 49: 261-6.
Books and monographs
(Authors) Juszczyk J, Gładysz A. Differential diagnosis of infectious diseases. PZWL Medical Publisher. Edition II. Warsaw 1996.
(Organization as author) World Health Organization / United Nations Children`s Fund. State of the world`s vaccines and immunization. WHO Geneva 1996.
(Chapter in the book) Post-vaccination reaction and complications. In: Protective vaccinations. Ed.. PZWL, Warsaw 1991, 76 - 81. Krotochwil-Skrzypkowa M.BDębiec, W. Magdzik,
(Report at the conference). Gałązka A. Current trends of pertussis in developing and developed countries. Presented at the National Institutes of Health Pertussis Conference: Acellular Pertussis Vaccine Trials: Results and Impact on US Public Health. Washington, DC, June 3 - 5, 1966.
Tables.
Tables should be written on separate pages and numbered consecutively with Roman numerals. Table numbering should correspond to the chronology of their appearance in the text. Tables should be provided with titles (top). Each column of the table should have a short headline and broader explanations should be included in the links below the table and not in the headline. Explanations should clearly describe statistical volatility measures such as standard deviation or standard error of averages. The number of tables should be limited only to the results that are necessary for the documentation.
Figures.
Figures and photographs should be prepared using a computer technique and sent to the editorial office files in the form of separate graphic formats: TIF, BMP, JPG. A signature should be placed under each figure (eg Figure 1 ... ..) with the necessary explanations. Figures should be in black and white. In the appropriate place in the text should be given in brackets the next numbers of figures or tables, eg (Fig.1) or (Tab.1). The areas of inclusion of the illustrative material should be marked with a pencil in the margin of the typescript.
The volume of articles
The original scientific work can not exceed 15 pages of typescript including tables, figures, references and abstract in English. Review papers must not exceed 20 typescript pages. Short messages may not exceed the volume of 3 pages of the manuscript drawn up in accordance with the guidelines given for original works. Letters to the editors intended for publication may not exceed two pages of the manuscript and should be provided with the name and surname of the author and the address of the workplace or private.
General rules
The editors reserve the right to correct stylistic defects and terminology and to make the necessary abbreviations without consulting the author. The editors will not return unreadable articles. For published articles, the authors do not receive a fee. The publisher acquires, on an exclusive basis, all copyrights to printed works, including the right to print, on electronic media, CDs and other, and to put them on the Internet.
Editorial policy and basic information
Only high scientific quality articles complying with the scope of the journal will be considered for the publication.
Copyright. All the copyrights to the articles published in the Experimental Medicine and Microbiology are reserved for the publisher: the National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene. It means that after article is published the authors transfer the copyright to the publisher and cannot publish this article or its parts elsewhere for commercial purposes without the written permission from the publisher.
License Creative Commons. Submitting the manuscript to Editorial Office means that the Authors declares that they have read the full text of the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial 3.0 Poland license (CC-BY-NC) available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/pl/deed.en.
Ethics. Clinical articles should comply with the generally accepted ethical standards and the Helsinki Declaration. For animal experiments reported in the articles the author(s) must obtain the acceptance by the relevant local Ethics Commission.
Conflict of interest. Conflict of interest exists if authors or their institutions have financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence their actions. Such relationships should be disclosed to the publisher. All authors should provide a signed statement of their conflict of interest as a part of the author’s statement form.
Transparency. Openness of information on any party contributing to preparation of a publication (content related, financial, etc. input) is proof of ethical attitude of a researcher and of high editorial standards.
“Ghostwriting” and “guest authorship” are indications of scientific dishonesty and all cases will be exposed and adequate institutions will be informed. “Ghostwriting” is a situation where a person contributes significantly to a publication and is not disclosed as one of the authors or named in the acknowledgments and “guest authorship” is a situation where an author's contribution is insignificant or non existent and he is still listed as author/co-author of a publication.
The editor requires from the authors of the articles that they reveal the contribution of individual authors to the manuscript, i.e. who is the author of the concept and study design, data/material collection, study/analysis, performance, statistical analysis, interpretation of the results, manuscript development etc. Authors of the manuscript should provide “Authors’ statement” form signed by the all authors. Also the information concerning the sources of financial support to the study presented in the submitted manuscript should be provided.
PEER REVIEW PROCEDURE FOR MANUSCRIPTS
1. The manuscripts submitted to the Experimental Medicine and Microbiology undergo preliminary evaluation in the editorial office to determine whether the topic is within the scope of the journal and to evaluate the adherence to the journal format, as well as to the rules of acceptance. In cases when the above prerequisites are not met the manuscript is not qualified, and the corresponding author is informed.
2. Following the positive preliminary evaluation the paper is directed for peer review to one or two independent and recognized experts representing the scientific experience in the field covered by the manuscript and affiliated in the different institution than the institution(s) where the authors have been affiliated. The reviewers must ensure independence and lack of conflict of interests.
3. During the entire reviewing the double-blind review process is maintained.
4. The review in the written form is forwarded to the corresponding author with the accompanying statement suggesting status of the paper as: ‘accepted’, ‘accepted after revisions’ or ‘not accepted’.
5. The list of reviewers once a year is published on the journal's website and in the fourth issue of each volume.
