Manuscript preparation

All manuscripts have to be submitted in word format, double spaced, using Times New Roman font, point size 12. Each section should begin on a separate page and be numbered consecutively. All text, figures and tables have to be contained in a single file with numbered lines and e-mailed to the Editorial office: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.

For other details, please refer to the following table:

*Excluding summary, references, tables and figures

**Including summary, references, tables and figures

Cover letter

The cover letter, submitted with a separate file, must include the completed contact information [addresses, telephone and e-mail] of the corresponding author. The letter should warrant that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript, contributed significantly to the work, and also that the manuscript has not been previously published nor is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors are asked to provide names and contact information for 2-3 potential reviewers. They may also note the names of individuals whom they do not want to review their manuscript. The declaration must also include a statement that the study did not violate any national or international laws on human, animal and environmental rights. All the other authors that have contributed for the study are bound to obey the declaration signed by the corresponding author.

Permissions

In order to reproduce any third-party material, including figures or tables, in an article authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder and be compliant with any requirements the copyright holder may have pertaining to this reuse.

When seeking to reproduce any kind of third-party material authors should request the following:

• non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal;
• electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium;
• the right to use the material for the life of the work; and
• world-wide English-language rights.

Authors should also include a statement indicating that permission has been obtained in the relevant legend/footnote and provide the Editorial Office with copies of any relevant paperwork.

Manuscript structure

1) Title page should contain the following:

• The title that must be informative and concise. 
• A running title 
• Names and surnames in full of all authors and their respective affiliation. First name, middle names and family names must be specified.
• Affiliation must be clearly reported in the following order: institution, city, country. Should authors belong to different affiliations, the latter have to be recorded with a progressive number superscript after the author’s surname. Please write the family name(s) in bold character.
• The individual to whom correspondence should be addressed must be clearly indicated along with e-mail address.
• Possible concise acknowledgements of contributors not listed as authors (persons who gave technical help, writing assistance or general support) and/or grants and funding should be included in this page.
• Please provide in this page the authors declaration about their possible conflict of interest (for more details see the section "conflict of interest").

2) Summary page. The summary should state the purpose of the study or investigation, the basic procedures, the main findings and the principal conclusions. Please provide in this page up to five keywords to facilitate indexing.

3) Text of the original articles should be divided as follows:

• introduction
• materials or subjects or patients and methods
• results
• discussion

The text format for reviews, case reports and letters to the Editor can be more flexible according to the contents. Units of Measurement, abbreviations and symbols adopted by the journal are those of the International System of Units (SI) as reported in Brit. Med. J., 284, 1766-1982.

When reporting on human subjects, the Methods section should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration (1964, amended most recently in 2008) of the World Medical Association https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/doh-oct2008/

The Methods section should include a statement that the patient’s written consent was obtained and any information, including illustrations, should be as anonymized as far as possible. Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers should not be used in the text or in illustrative material.

4) References must be numbered consecutively in the order of appearance in the text with Arabic numbers in brackets at the end of sentence containing the reference. When citing more than one source at a time, list each reference number in the text separately with a comma or dash (without spaces) between each reference (Example: [6,8] or [1-4]). The literature cited must either be already published or scheduled for publication (in press). Journal titles, written in italics, must be shortened in accordance with the Index Medicus guidelines. Journal titles of a single word (i.e., Chest or Science) must not be shortened. For references with >6 authors, the first 3 authors should be listed, followed by et al. The author's names are followed by the full title of the article, the abbreviation title of the Journal (as it appears in MEDLINE Journal Database), date of publication (year); (Example: 2013;], volume (number); the first and last page numbers (Example: 125-128).

If you use EndNote software to facilitate referencing citations, this journal’s style (Vancouver modified) is available for use.

EXAMPLES

Journal citation Sikes RD, Matthew M. The beta-lactamases of Gram negative bacteria and their role in resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics. J Antimicrob Chemother. 1976; 2(1): 115-157.

Book citation Reynolds PE. Inhibitors of bacterial cell wall synthesis, In The Scientific Basis of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (Greenwood D. and O’Grady F., Eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; 1985: 13-40.

Citation of Congress Proceedings Reeves D.S., Bywater M.J., Holt H.A. Comparative in vitro activity of Sch 34343, a new penem beta-lactam. In Program and Abstracts of the 24th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Washington DC 1984, Abstract 216, p. 128, American Society for Microbiology, Washington DC.

Web references  For web references, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication) should also be given.

Example: The European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST). Breakpoint tables for interpretation of MICs and zone diameters. Version 9.0, 2019. Available at: http://www.eucast.org. [accessed day, month, year].

EXAMPLES for web references

Article from an online journal Author A., Author B. Title of article. Title of Journal volume number (issue number if available), page range, year of publication. Retrieved from (insert URL). Last accessed Month day, year.

Article from an online journal with DOI assigned Author A., Author B., Title of article. Title of Journal volume number, page range, date of publication. doi: 0000000/000000000000 Last accessed Month day, year.

Article from an online journal with no DOI assigned Author A., Author B., Title of article. Title of Journal volume number, date of publication. Retrieved from  (insert URL). Last accessed Month day, year.

5) Tables, produced in word format, with size point and space identical to the text, have to be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order they are referred to in the text and reported at the end of the text in the same file. Each table must have a title. Non-standard abbreviations reported in the table have to be explained in the footnotes. Within the text tables should be referred to by number (example: Table 1).

6) Figures and photographs have to be cited in the text consecutively using Arabic numerals, each with an explanatory legend and reported in the same file at the end of the text. Photographs have to be prepared in jpg format and must be included in the same file as the text.

7) Abbreviations. Non-standard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. They should be defined at the first occurrence and introduced only where multiple use is made.

8) Funding. It is important that readers should be informed about who has funded particular research, as well as the role, if any, of the funders in the research.

Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled “Funding”.

The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: “This work was supported by …”
• The full official funding agency name should be given.
• Grant numbers should be complete and accurate.

9) Acknowledgments

Personal acknowledgment should precede those of institutions or agencies. Any substantial assistance in preparing the manuscript - for example, in data retrieval or statistical analysis - other than by an author should be stated.

Please note that acknowledgment of funding bodies and declarations regarding conflicts of interest should be given in separate Funding and Conflicts of Interest sections, respectively.

 
10) Informed Consent

The journal Le Infezioni in Medicina strictly follows the ICMJE Protection of Research Participants policy detailed at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/protection-of-research-participants.html. Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Once informed consent is obtained, editors may request authors to provide a copy before making the editorial decision.

The authors are asked to comply COPE guidelines on studies involving vulnerable populations as set out in the COPE Core Principles https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/protection-vulnerable-groups

Manuscripts must be reviewed with due respect for the authors' confidentiality. In submitting their manuscripts for review, authors entrust editors with the results of their scientific work and creative effort, on which their reputation and career may depend. Authors' rights may be violated by disclosure of confidential details during the review of their manuscript.
Reviewers also have the rights to confidentiality, which must be respected by the editor. Confidentiality may to be breached if dishonesty or fraud is alleged but otherwise must be honoured.
Editors must not disclose information about manuscripts (including their receipt, content, status in the reviewing process, criticism by reviewers, or ultimate fate) to anyone other than the authors and reviewers. This includes requests to use the materials for legal proceedings.

11) Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research 

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Studies published in Infezioni in Medicina must follow the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) humane endpoints in animal experimentation. Please see their website for further information: https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/humane-endpoints.

When reporting experiments on ecosystems involving non-native species, Authors are bound to ensure compliance with the institutional and national guide for the preservation of native biodiversity.

Proofs of papers accepted for publication, submitted by e-mail, in PDF format, to the corresponding author, must be accurately corrected in all parts by the authors, as far as typing errors are concerned, using Adobe comments and/or Editing tools to indicate changes directly into the PDF file and return via email within 5 (five) days by e-mail.  Alternatively, Authors can make their corrections on the hard copy using internationally accepted signs end re-send the scanned proofs in PDF format. The Editor reserves the right to correct the proofs directly. The published papers will be inserted in Pubmed/Medline and Embase/Excerpta Medica, in about 15 days following the printing of each issue of the journal. The corresponding author will be e-mailed a copy of the article in P format about 15 days after publication.

Language-editing Manuscripts will be looked also for quality of English and can be rejected also on this basis.

A scientific article should report findings and conclusions as clearly and concisely as possible. To achieve this:

- Try to avoid unnecessary words or phrases:  keep it simple.

- Use active writing when possible.

- Tense and punctuations are important.

It is advisable to use a language-editing service to revise and refine the use of English before submission in order to certify that the manuscript is edited for proper English language, grammar, punctuation, spelling and overall style.

Copyright and permission By submitting a manuscript to “Le Infezioni in Medicina” the authors are aware and accept the condition that all papers become the copyright of Edizioni Internazionali srl, Divisione EDIMES – Via Riviera 30 – 27100 Pavia – Italy. Any permission for reproduction must be requested to the Editorial office to the following e-mail address: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo. (for more details see the paragraph "Permissions" and the paragraph "Copyright").