Policy, Licensing and COI
Open Access Policy
All research articles published in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine are fully open access: immediately freely available to read, download and share. Articles are published under the terms of a Creative Commons license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium (not for commercial use), provided the original work is properly cited. Articles can be freely downloaded from our website and no subscription and/or login is required.
A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in CLOCKSS repository.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Description of Peer-Review
Papers submitted for consideration must adhere to the editorial criteria outlined in the Authors’ guidelines. Only those papers that meet these criteria are likely to undergo formal review.
Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine adopts a single-blind peer-review. Reviewers are anonymous unless they want to identify themselves by including their names in the review on our submission system. Selected reviewers need to declare the absence of a conflict of interest in order to proceed with the review process.
All contributions are initially handled by the Editor in Chief (EiC), who, together with Associate Editors (AE) and the Editorial Team, make the initial evaluation of the manuscript by verifying whether it falls within the aims and scope of the journal and . Following this, the manuscript may proceed to peer-review or be rejected. Papers deemed weak or unsuitable by the editors are promptly rejected without external review. However, these decisions may be informed by informal input from specialists in the field. After this step, the EiC or an AE assigns the manuscript to 2 or 3 reviewers, among the editorial board members or external reviewers who are experts in the field. To be selected, reviewers must not have published papers in the last 5 years with none of the authors of the manuscript, must belong to different institutions from the authors, and must not have any personal or financial conflict of interest with the authors or the content of the manuscript. Reviewer selection is critical to the publication process, and we base our choice on many factors, including expertise, reputation, specific recommendations, and our own previous experience of a reviewer’s characteristics. Reviewers should bear in mind that these messages contain confidential information, which should be treated as such. Authors may suggest independent reviewers, but the journal will only consider these suggestions upon verifying the reviewers’ identity and expertise and ensuring no conflicts of interest exist between the authors and the proposed reviewers. Following the recommendations from the reviewers, the EiC, or an AE, will evaluate them and have final authority on acceptance, revision or rejection. In the final editorial decision, the journal evaluates the strength of the arguments raised by each reviewer and by the authors, and we may also consider other information not available to either party. We may return to reviewers for further advice, particularly in cases where they disagree with each other or where the authors believe they have been misunderstood on points of fact. We take reviewers’ criticisms seriously; in particular, we are very reluctant to disregard technical criticisms. In cases where one reviewer alone opposes publication, we may consult the other reviewers as to whether she/he is applying an unduly critical standard.
Following the reviewers’ evaluations, the editors deliberate on various options. They may opt to accept the submission, either with or without requiring revisions. Alternatively, they might suggest revisions to the authors, indicating specific areas for improvement before a final decision is made. In some cases, a rejection may be warranted, but with guidance for the authors on how further work could potentially justify a resubmission. On occasion, manuscripts may be rejected outright, typically due to limited relevance to the specialist audience, lack of originality, insufficient advancement in concepts, or significant technical or interpretational flaws.
Authors’ Appeals
Articles that have been rejected may be resubmitted solely if all concerns outlined in the rejection feedback are thoroughly rectified and accompanied by a detailed letter delineating the resolution of these concerns. Under no circumstances will an article be reconsidered if it was rejected due to significant issues.
The journal is open to authentic appeals concerning editorial decisions. Any appeal can be sent to submission.idtm@verduci.it via an official letter signed by all authors, including the specific responses to any comments made by reviewers for rejection and any new information or data that the authors wish the journal to consider. It is imperative to substantiate your case with compelling evidence or novel data in response to the feedback provided by the editor and reviewers.
The Editor in Chief evaluates the authors’ argument alongside the reviewers’ reports to determine whether an additional opinion is necessary. The journal will promptly inform the authors about the outcome of the complaint. The Editor in Chief may either uphold the initial decision or invite authors to submit a revised version of the manuscript with updated information. Note that decisions on appeals are final. Please refrain from appealing the journal’s decision unless you can furnish a substantial body of evidence to support your complaint.
Timing
The journal evaluates all manuscript submissions as expeditiously as possible. Nonetheless, the duration of the peer-review process may vary depending on factors such as the availability of reviewers, the author’s response to revision timelines, and the extent of revisions needed. For instance, if there are conflicting reports from reviewers or if a report is delayed, additional expert opinions may be solicited. Additionally, revised manuscripts typically undergo reassessment by the original reviewers for feedback. Reviewers may also request multiple revisions of a manuscript. The editorial office responds promptly to authors upon receiving feedback from reviewers. Therefore, authors should only contact the editorial office in cases of significant delay, defined as exceeding 2 months since the last feedback.
Specific Policies
- Submission by the Editor in Chief or Co-Editor in Chief:
- Submission by Editorial Board Members: Editorial Board Members can submit papers to the journal. However, these submissions do not receive preferential treatment or priority over other manuscripts, and being an Editorial Board Member does not influence editorial decisions. A paper submitted by Editorial Board Member will be handled by Editorial Board Members with no conflicts of interest with the manuscript or authors. They select at least two independent reviewers as per journal policy. Decisions are made by the Editorial Board Members who do not have a conflict of interest with the author and manuscript. Editorial Board Members are not authorized to contact or request information about the peer-review process to other members of the editorial board or the Editor in Chief.
- Submission by an author with the same institution of the Editor in Chief or Editorial Board Members: The editor will select external reviewers and make all decisions on the paper.
- Potential COI for Reviewers: The invitation letter to reviewers includes the following paragraph: “If you know or think you know the identity of the author, and if you feel there is any potential COI in your refereeing this paper because of your relationship with the author (e.g., in terms of close friendship or conflict/rivalry) or for any other reason, please declare it. By accepting this invitation, it is assumed there is no potential COI”. Standard policy will be not to use a referee if a COI has been declared, but the editors may use their discretion after consulting with one another. For more information, check the COI section.
Authorship
Submission to Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine is taken by the journal to mean that all the listed authors have agreed on all the contents, including the authors’ list and authors’ contribution statements. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that this agreement has been achieved and that all authors have agreed to the submission, and is also in charge of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors before and after publication. Any changes to the author list after submission need to be approved by every author.
According to the ICMJE recommendations, authorship is based on 4 criteria:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
- Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content;
- Final approval of the version to be published;
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
The author list should include all appropriate researchers and no others. Authorship provides credit for a researcher’s contributions to a study and carries accountability. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine encourages transparency by publishing statements on author contributions since the journal is not in a position to investigate or adjudicate authorship disputes before or after publication. Such disagreements, if they cannot be resolved amongst authors, should be brought up to the relevant institutional authority. Authors are, therefore, required to include a statement of responsibility in the manuscript that specifies the contribution of every author.
The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may also be stated.
Corresponding Authors’ Responsibilities
The corresponding author is solely responsible for communicating with the journal and managing communication among co-authors. Before submission, the corresponding author ensures that all authors are included in the author list, its order has been agreed by all authors, and that all authors are aware that the paper was submitted. The corresponding author also ensures that the all the journal’s administrative requirements are properly reported.
At submission, the corresponding author must include written permission from the authors of the work to mention any unpublished material included in the manuscript. The corresponding author also must clearly identify at submission any material within the manuscript that has previously been published elsewhere by other authors (for example, figures) and provide written permission from those authors and/or publishers for the re-use of such material.
After acceptance, the proof is sent to the corresponding author, who shares it with all co-authors and deals with the journal on their behalf; the journal will not necessarily correct errors after publication if they result from errors that were present on a proof that was not shown to co-authors before publication. The corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of all contents in the proof, in particular, that the names of co-authors are present and correctly spelled, and that affiliations are right.
- The name and e-mail address of the corresponding author are published in the paper.
- Authors of published material have a responsibility to inform the journal promptly if they become aware of any part that requires correcting. Any published correction requires the consent of all authors, so time is saved if requests for corrections are accompanied by a signed agreement by all authors. In cases where one or some authors do not agree with the correction statement, the coordinating author must include correspondence to and from the dissenting author(s).
Changes to authorship
Authors should consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the first submission. Any deletion, addition, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list can be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the Editor in Chief.
To request this change, the Editor in Chief must receive a letter from the Corresponding Author (at submission.idtm@verduci.it) specifying the reason for the change in the author list, along with a written confirmation letter from all authors that they agree with the removal, addition, or rearrangement. In the case of removal or addition of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being removed or added.
Data and Materials Availability
A foundational principle of publication entails enabling others to replicate and advance the claims made by authors in their published works. A requisite for publication in the Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine is that authors must promptly provide materials, data, code, and associated protocols to readers without undue restrictions. This requirement aims to enhance the transparency and reproducibility of published results.
All original research manuscripts published in our journal must include a data availability statement. In cases where no new data have been generated, such as in a review, the statement “No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data Availability is not applicable to this article” should be included.
The data availability statement must transparently outline the conditions for accessing the “minimum dataset” essential for interpreting, verifying, and extending the research in the article. The manuscript should specify who will make the data available, and any sharing restrictions must be discussed with the editor upon submission, who reserves the right to decline the study if these conditions are deemed unduly prohibitive. It is generally expected that the corresponding author (or relevant designated authors) will be responsible for the availability of data and materials unless stated otherwise.
Any restrictions on the availability of materials or information must be disclosed to the editors at the time of submission, and such restrictions must also be disclosed in the submitted manuscript. Editors may decline further consideration of the manuscript if restrictions are found to be excessively prohibitive after evaluation.
Data availability statements should include pertinent information on the following aspects:
Access to primary datasets (generated during the study) and referenced datasets (analyzed in the study) must be provided. Accession codes or other unique identifiers, if relevant and publicly available, should be provided.
– For clinical trial data, authors should adhere to ICMJE guidelines, providing details on the sharing of de-identified participant data, specific data to be shared, availability of related documents, timeline for data availability, access criteria, and mechanism for sharing.
Examples of data-sharing statements can be found in Table I of the following link.
– Third-party data should be made available for peer-review upon request, within the terms of a data use agreement, and in compliance with ethical and legal requirements.
- Proprietary data: It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure and obtain an agreement with the third-party data provider, ensuring that the datasets utilized in the study will be accessible under the conditions specified in the data availability statement.
- Administrative data (including data maintained by governments, local authorities, and international organizations): Research utilizing administrative data must ensure adherence to local regulatory and legal frameworks governing data usage.
When third-party data cannot be made available, the data availability statement should clearly state the restrictions.
Data retention
Authors are required to maintain the data utilized in their publication for 10 years. The journal reserves the right to request access to all data in cases involving allegations of research or publication misconduct.
Data citation
Datasets deposited in repositories should be formally cited in the article reference list, including authors, title, publisher (repository name), and identifier. The accession number must also be provided in the paper for datasets.
Readers encountering refusal by authors to comply with these policies after publication should contact the Editor in Chief. In unresolved cases, the journal may involve the authors’ funding institution and/or publish a formal correction statement online, acknowledging the inability of readers to obtain necessary materials for replication.
Plagiarism or Other Types of Unethical Publication Practice
Regarding plagiarism and other unethical publication practices, we adhere to the guidelines on Good Publication Practice as outlined by COPE, the Council of Science Editors, and the PERK guidelines. These standards aim to ensure that articles are published responsibly and ethically.
In cases where scientific misconduct is suspected or concerns arise regarding the conduct or integrity of work presented in submitted or published papers, the journal promptly initiates an investigation in accordance with the COPE guidelines.
For submitted articles, should editors receive evidence, possibly from reviewers, regarding serious misconduct, they will share this information with the relevant institutions while also informing the authors of their actions. Where allegations of serious misconduct lack persuasive evidence, editors may seek expert guidance. If the experts ascertain no indications of misconduct, the editorial process will continue as usual.
For published articles, if any violation or unethical practice is raised after publication, the Editor in Chief can decide to start an independent investigation with a new set of reviewers. Based on the outcome of the investigation, the Editor in Chief may decide to publish an expression of concern to inform readers that an investigation is ongoing or to retract the article.
Plagiarism
Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine does not accept submissions that have already been published, whether in full or in part, or those that have been released as preprints. Authors are required to indicate in the cover letter whether the article has been published as a preprint.
On a practical level, the journal conducts an early investigation using anti‐plagiarism software. Our Journal makes plagiarism checks using certificate software (iThenticate® and Grammarly®) on all the articles. Also, articles that are related to the suspected case of plagiarism or other unethical practices are checked for accuracy by either the reviewer’s feedback and observations or the Editor’s own observations. Our anti‐plagiarism software, however, will not identify “salami slicing”.Therefore, it is essential to examine each case individually. The Editor should assess whether the issue stems from deliberate malpractice by the author or from a lack of understanding of ethical writing requirements. This can happen for new authors or some authors where translation to English is often difficult. An example of this is where there are no words/phrases in that language that translate into English, and a developing practice that we noted is the ‘borrowing’ of words, phrases or often sentences that are considered appropriate for what authors mean to say.
The utilization of text copied from another source requires a citation from the original source. If a study’s design or the structure and language of the manuscript have been influenced by prior studies, it is essential to explicitly reference these studies.
Duplicate Publication
Material submitted to Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine must be original and not previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This rule also applies to any material submitted elsewhere while the contribution to Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine is under review.
If part of a contribution that an author wishes to submit to Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine has appeared or will appear elsewhere, the author must specify the details in the cover letter accompanying the submission.
If an author of a submission is re-using a figure or figures published elsewhere or that is copyrighted, the author must provide documentation that the previous publisher or copyright holder has given permission for the figure to be re-published. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine editors consider all material in good faith that their journal has full permission to publish every part of the submitted material, including illustrations.
A duplicate publication is a publication that significantly overlaps with a prior publication by sharing the same hypothesis, data, discussion, and conclusions without evident and clear reference to the previous study. The journal considers this behavior unethical. The journal retains the authority to reject any submitted manuscripts without prior notification in the event of duplicate content. If the journal was previously unaware of the duplicate publications, it may deem it necessary to retract the article, regardless of the author’s explanation or consent. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine follows the COPE guidelines for duplicate publication.
• Publishing an abstract in earlier meeting proceedings does not prevent subsequent submission for publication. However, it is mandatory to disclose this issue during the submission process.
• Re-publishing a paper in a different language is acceptable, granted there is complete and conspicuous disclosure of its original source upon submission. This must be clearly and fully disclosed both in the cover letter and in the manuscript. Failure to disclose this issue at the time of submission will result in rejection.
Image Integrity and Manipulation
Images submitted with a manuscript for review should be minimally processed (for instance, to add arrows to a micrograph). Authors should retain their unprocessed data and metadata files, as editors may request them to aid in manuscript evaluation. All digitized images submitted with the final revision of the manuscript must be of high quality. Authors should disclose any technical adjustments made in a cover letter upon submission.
- Positive and negative controls, as well as molecular size markers, should be included on each gel and blot – either in the main figure or an expanded data supplementary figure.
- Authors should provide the editors with original data on request. Cells from multiple fields should not be juxtaposed in a single field; instead, multiple supporting fields of cells should be shown as Supplementary Information. Threshold manipulation, expansion or contraction of signal ranges and the altering of high signals should be avoided. If “pseudo-colouring” and nonlinear adjustment (for example “gamma changes”) are used, this must be disclosed. Adjustments of individual color channels are sometimes necessary on “merged” images, but this should be noted in the figure legend.
Improper technical manipulation includes obscuring, enhancing, deleting, or introducing new elements into an image. If there are concerns about the authenticity of an author’s figures, the Editor in Chief reserves the right to request the original data from the authors and to reject the manuscript in case of suspect figure manipulation. The journal employs accredited software to identify integrity concerns in figures. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, authors acknowledge that their work may undergo screening to detect any instances of image duplication or manipulation.
The journal adheres to COPE guidelines to deal with concerns of image manipulation after publication.
Requirements for Reuse of Published Figures
If an author of a submission is re-using a figure or figures published elsewhere or that is copyrighted, the author must provide documentation that the previous publisher or copyright holder has given permission for the figure to be re-published. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine editors consider all material in good faith that their journal has full permission to publish every part of the submitted material, including illustrations.
Licensing
Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license to articles. If you submit your paper for publication in our journal, you agree to have the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license applied to your work as follows:
BY) Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NC) NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
SA) ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices: you do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
Conflicts of Interest (COI)
At the time of submission, Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine policy requires that authors reveal any COI, including financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or any other situations that could raise questions of bias in either the reported work or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated. Disclosed potential COIs should include any relevant commercial or other sources of funding for either author(s), or the sponsoring institution, the associated department(s) or organization(s). When considering whether you should declare a COI please consider the following question: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors did not declare and that would emerge after publication and you had not declared it?
As an integral part of the online submission process, Corresponding authors are required to confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare and to provide details of these. If the Corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all co-authors, the authors in question will then be required to submit a completed COI form to the Editorial Office. It is the Corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy.
If the manuscript is published, COI information will be communicated in a statement within the published work.
- COI IN INDUSTRY-SPONSORED RESEARCH
Authors whose manuscripts are submitted for publication must declare all relevant sources of funding in support of the preparation of a manuscript. Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine requires full disclosure of financial support as to whether it is from the tobacco industry, the pharmaceutical or any other industry, government agencies, or any other source. This information should be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript.
Authors are required to specify sources of funding for the study and to indicate whether or not the text was reviewed by the sponsor prior to submission, i.e., whether the study was written with full investigator access to all relevant data and whether the sponsor exerted editorial influence over the written text. This information should be included in the cover letter. In addition to the disclosure of direct financial support to the authors or their laboratory and prior sponsor-review of the paper, submitting authors are asked to disclose all relevant consultancies within the 12 months prior to submission, since the views expressed in the contribution could be influenced by the opinions they have expressed privately as consultants. This information should be included in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.
In the event that a previously undisclosed potential competing interest for an author of a published paper comes to the attention of the editors and is subsequently confirmed with the authors, the undeclared interest will be published as an erratum in a future issue.
- COI POLICY: REVIEWERS AND EDITORS
Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and they should disqualify themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if they believe it to be appropriate. As in the case of authors, silence on the part of reviewers concerning potential conflicts may mean either that such conflicts exist that they have failed to disclose, or that conflicts do not exist. Reviewers must, therefore, also be asked to state explicitly whether conflicts do or do not exist. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work, before its publication, to further their own interests. COI for a given manuscript exists when a participant in the peer-review and publication process – author, reviewer, and editor – has ties to activities that could inappropriately influence his or her judgment, regardless of whether the judgment is affected. Financial relationships with industry (for example, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony), either directly or through immediate family, are usually considered the most important conflicts of interest. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion. External peer reviewers should disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript and they should disqualify themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if they believe it appropriate. The editors must be made aware of reviewers’ COI to interpret the reviews and judge for themselves whether the reviewer should be disqualified.” (From the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Annals of Internal Medicine 118, (8) 646-647). judge for themselves whether the reviewer should be disqualified.” (From the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Annals of Internal Medicine 118, (8) 646-647).
Authors who want to publish in our Journal must follow the guidelines on Good Publication Practice as reported in COPE and Council of Science Editors. These guidelines aim to ensure that articles are published in a responsible and ethical manner.
Submission by an Editor: A paper submitted by an editor will be handled by one of the other editors who does not have a conflict with the review and who is not at the same institution as the submitting editor. The other editor will select referees and make all decisions on the paper.
Submission by authors at same institution as the Editors: A paper submitted by an author for which there is a potential conflict with who is at the same institution as one of the editors will be handled by one of the other editors. The other editor will select referees and make all decisions on the paper. Submission by a family member of the editor or by author whose relationship with the editor might create the perception of bias. A paper submitted by a family member of one of the editors, or by an author whose relationship with one of the editors might create the perception of bias (e.g., in terms of close friendship or conflict/rivalry), will be handled by another editor. The other editor will select referees and make all decisions on the paper. If in doubt, the editors will consult with the Journal editor.
Potential COI for Reviewers: The invitation letter to reviewers will include the following paragraph: ‘If you know or think you know the identity of the author, and if you feel there is any potential COI in your refereeing this paper because of your relationship with the author (e.g., in terms of close friendship or conflict/rivalry) or for any other reason, please declare it. By accepting this invitation, it is assumed there is no potential COI. Standard policy will be not to use a referee if a COI has been declared, but the editors may use their discretion after consulting with one another.
COI: Application to Publishing Policy: Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine thrives on its independence. Our strict policy is that editorial independence, decisions and content should not be compromised by commercial or financial interests or by any specific arrangements with advertising clients or sponsors.
Advertising Policy
Our strict policy is that editorial independence, decisions and content should not be compromised by commercial or financial interests or by any specific arrangements with advertising clients or sponsors.
CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRE-PUBLICITY
Editors, authors and reviewers are required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer-review process on submitted manuscripts. The peer-review process is confidential and conducted anonymously; identities of reviewers are not released. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality of manuscripts. Correspondence with the journal, referees’ reports and other confidential material must not be published, disclosed or otherwise publicized without prior written consent. It is our policy to keep their names confidential and we do our utmost to ensure this confidentiality. We cannot, however, guarantee to maintain this confidentiality in the face of a successful legal action to disclose identity.
Authors of papers that contain taxonomy should be aware that it is possible for third parties to exploit the prior publication of nomenclature at any time between online posting of a preprint and the print publication date in a journal. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine takes no responsibility for such assertions of priority in the case of manuscripts that it publishes if the content of those manuscripts has previously appeared in the public domain as online preprints or other forms of online posting.