ISSN: 1080-6059
For information about editorial policy, visit http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/about/ed_policy.htm. Submit manuscripts online through Manuscript Central only. Manuscripts (initial submissions as well as revisions) submitted by email will be returned.
Emerging Infectious Diseases strictly enforces word limits on all articles. Please allow some flexibility by submitting counts 100-200 words below the requirement so that as the manuscript is revised, information generated by reviewer comments can be included.
Each manuscript should contain each of the following elements, in the following order.
For perspectives, synopses, policy reviews, and research studies, include a clear, 1-sentence summary of the article's conclusions; the summary will appear on the print table of contents. This sentence should highlight the bottom-line public health implications of the article and should be pithy, readable, and designed to entice someone to read the full article.
Running title will appear on the top of each right-hand print page and along top of the online browser window. Running title should be no more than 50 characters long, including spaces. Some common abbreviations (E. coli) and acronyms (MRSA) are allowed in running titles, but these are discouraged and should be written out if the character limit allows.
Include no more than 10 keywords; use terms listed in the Medical Subject Headings from Index Medicus. Do not use formatting (boldface or italics) in keywords (note that they are only used for indexing and are not viewable by readers).
The title should be brief, concise, and call attention to the main point of the article. With a few exceptions, abbreviations and acronyms must be written out in full in titles.
Provide, at minimum, first and last names of each author. Middle names or initials and academic degrees are optional, although academic degrees will not appear in the published article. (Note: there are periods but no spaces between initials)
Use the following format:
Dana C. Crawford, Shanta M. Zimmer, Craig A. Morin, Nancy E. Messonnier, Ruth Lynfield, Qian Yi, Cynthia Shephard, Michelle Wong, Mark J. Rieder, Robert J. Livingston, Deborah A. Nickerson, Cynthia G. Whitney, and Jairam Lingappa
If 2 or more authors contributed equally to an article, this contribution may be acknowledged with a footnote that states "These authors contributed equally to this study." However, a biographical sketch will be printed for only the first author (unless the article has only 2 authors).
Authors may list multiple affiliations, but provide only the overall institutional affiliation for each, not departments or other subunits. Identify city, state or province (for USA, Canada, Australia only), and country.
Incorrect:National Immunization Program, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Correct:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Incorrect:Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Correct: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Author's full initials and last name will appear after their respective institutions.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (J. Doe,
A-E. Smith);
and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA (J. Doe,
B. Jones)
Use heading of "Author affiliations:" (>1 affiliation) or "Author affiliation" (1 only). No possessive (i.e., not Authors').
Drop redundant material after first mention, unless something changes from city on.
Author affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Emory University, Atlanta
Author affiliations: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA; EviMed Research Group, LLC, Goshen, Massachusetts, USA
Author affiliations: Columbia University,New York,New York, USA; The Consortium for Conservation Medicine, New York; University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA; New York State Department of Health, Slingerlands, New York, USA
Author affiliations: Queensland Health, Brisbane,Queensland, Australia; University of Queensland, Brisbane; Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand; OzFoodNet,Canberra,Australian Capital Territory, Australia; OzFoodNet, Wallsend,New South Wales, Australia; and Australia National University,Canberra
Universities with multiple campuses:
Write campus (city) location as city, so it appears only once.
Incorrect: University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles,California, USA
Correct: University of California,Los Angeles, California, USA
Names of institutions (including geographic designations that are part of the name) need not be translated into English. However, the city, state or province, and country listed in the affiliation should be given as the common English preferred designation in the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names.
Incorrect: Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italia
Correct: Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
Institut Pasteur (Pasteur Institute in English) should list the city separately, not as part of the name.
Incorrect: Institut Pasteur de Morocco, Casablanca, Morocco
Correct: Institut Pasteur, Casablana, Morocco
Abbreviate USA and UK within affiliations in all cases. Include the state or province only for the USA, Canada, and Australia. Do not list the country for cities in England (only UK); do specify Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland with UK for cities in these countries.
List China as People’s Republic of China; abbreviate as PRC on subsequent mention. For Taiwan, it is up to the author’s discretion whether or not to use “Republic of China.”
On second mention within affiliations, abbreviate DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
List Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China, at first mention, then just Hong Kong at subsequent mention. Special Administrative Region is not the preferred usage, according to Getty.
Mention Singapore (city/country) only once.
According to Australia postal convention, the suburb, not the city, is used in an address.
An abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the article; it allows readers to survey the contents of an article quickly, and like a title, it enables abstracting and information services to index and retrieve articles. An abstract should briefly summarize the research question and any relevant background information, methods, results, and conclusions. Avoid vague or promising phrases such as "…implications of these findings are discussed"; instead, state public health implications of the results.
Do not use structured abstracts (i.e., subheadings). Do not cite references in the abstract. Abstracts for perspectives, synopses, policy reviews, and research studies should not exceed 150 words. Abstracts for dispatches should not exceed 50 words. Letters, book reviews, and conference summaries do not have abstracts.
For word processing, use Microsoft Word. Keep formatting simple. After a period, leave only 1 space before beginning the next sentence. Use 12-point Times New Roman font and format with ragged right margins (left align). Italicize (rather than underline) scientific terms when needed.
Full names only, not titles (e.g., Doctor, Professor) and affiliations, are listed for persons acknowledged. Acknowledgments for materials supplied belong as a parenthetical citation in the text where materials are mentioned.
A disclaimer is placed on the inside front cover of the published journal and used periodically throughout the publication. It states, "The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated." Additional disclaimers are discouraged.
For all article types, excluding letters, media reviews, and conference summaries, include a short (2–3 sentences) biographical sketch of only the first author—both authors if only 2 authors. Include affiliations (city but not state and country if same as in author affiliation list) and primary research interests.
Follow Uniform Requirements style. Place reference numbers in parentheses (do not use superscript style), and italicize numbers. Number citations in order of appearance, including references in figures and tables. Consult List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for accepted journal abbreviations; if a journal is not listed, spell out the journal title in full. List the first 6 authors followed by "et al." For juniors and subsequent sequels, include the designation (with no punctuation) after the first initial: "von Hoffman J Jr" or "Snowden CM III." When there are >6 individual authors and a working group, list the first 6 authors, followed by et al, then the group.
Doe, Smith, Jones, Lane, Carter, James, et al.; The XYZ Working Group.
For organizations as author, spell out the full name of the organization (World Health Organization, not WHO) if it is the author, or just put title with no author. Never use "Anonymous" or "No author given."
For publisher location, place US states or country names in parentheses.
Adelaide (Australia): Adelaide University
Ames (IA): Iowa University Press
Cite personal communications and unpublished data (including manuscripts in preparation or submitted for publication but not yet accepted) in parentheses in text:
(D.E. Berg, pers. comm.)
(D. Stantio, unpub. data)
Articles in press (accepted for publication but not yet published) should include publication name and current year (no comma).
Authors. Article name. Publication name. In press 2008.
Note: Update the year to reflect the year it will appear in the EID Journal. A citation that says "In press 2007" should be changed to "In press 2008" if it will appear in a 2008 issue.
The following cities should be used without the state or country name when listed in references, meeting or publisher locations (references only; provide state or country name in text, e.g., for manufacturer locations):
Atlanta Cincinnati Madrid Pittsburgh Amsterdam Cleveland Mexico City Prague Baltimore Copenhagen Miami Rome Basel Dallas Milan San Francisco Beijing Denver Minneapolis Seattle Belgrade Detroit Montreal St. Louis Berlin Dublin Moscow Stockholm Bonn Edinburgh Munich Tokyo Boston Frankfurt Naples Toronto Brussels Geneva New Orleans Turin Budapest Houston New York Uppsala Buenos Aires Kiev Oslo Vienna Cairo Leningrad Oxford Warsaw Cambridge* London Paris Washington Chicago Los Angeles Philadelphia Zurich * Cambridge, Massachusetts, should be listed with the state.
Abstracts can be cited in the references. If the abstract has only a number, cite the name of the booklet (e.g., Program and Abstracts).
Galil K, Singleton R, Levine O, Fitzgerald M, Ajello G, Bulkow L, et al. High prevalence of Haemophilus influenzaetype b (Hib) carriage among Alaska Natives despite widespread use of Hib-conjugate vaccine. In: Abstracts of the 35th Infectious Diseases Society of America ; San Francisco; 1997 Sep 13–16; Abstract 421. Alexandria (VA): Infectious Diseases Society of America ; 1997.
Dissertations can be used as references; theses cannot. Cite theses in the text, giving all information that would normally be included in a reference. International variations in terminology occur; the primary distinction is whether or not the work is published.
If a URL is provided, use "Available from [URL].", not "Also available from [URL]." Do not give a URL for articles that have a Medline link. Include the date cited for each URL listed in references. Use the URL for the specific page where information can be found, not to the main page of the website.
Wikipedia information should be cited in text (see www.wikipedia.org/wiki/....), not as a numbered reference.
Below are some examples of references that may not be listed in Uniform Requirements.
Ben Amor Y, Nemser B, Sing A, Sankin A, Schluger N. Underreported threat of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Africa. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2008 Sep [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/14/9/1345.htm
Note: If the citation references an e-published ahead of print article, do not update the reference. The reference needs to reflect the source used at the time the reference was cited.
World Health Organization. Outbreak encephalitis 2005: cases of Japanese encephalitis in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. 2005 Oct 21 [cited 2006 Jul 11]. Available from http://w3.whosea.org/en/Section1226/Section2073.asp
Lipkin I.West Nile–like virus: PCR primers and protocols. ProMed. 1999 Oct 13. Available from http://www.promedmail.org, archive no. 19991013.1826.
References published in a foreign language but translated into English should indicate the original language in brackets, after the article title.
Pablos-Mendez A, Lessnau K. Clinical mismanagement and other factors producing antituberculosis drug resistance [in Dutch]. Journal name;2000:159–76.
References that appear in a foreign language should be translated to English, if possible.
Include a full mailing address and email address for designated corresponding author. A phone and fax number may be included, but these will not be published. Only 1 author may be designated as corresponding, and only 1 address may be published for that author (i.e., corresponding author may not list 2 email addresses). Use American form of country names.
Mexico, not México
Peru, not Péru
Brazil, not Brasil
For CDC addresses, list CDC only (spelled out), not CIOs; provide mailstop; include NE after Clifton Road.
John Doe, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Mailstop X55, Atlanta,GA 30333, USA
Tables must be created with Microsoft Word's table tool. Using any other program, or tabs and spaces within the word processing program to align columns, is never acceptable, and the tables will be returned to the author for proper formatting. See section Formatting Tables and Figures for additional instructions.
Use color only as needed. Submit high-resolution JPEG or TIFF files; mail slides, photographs, or prints only if electronic format is unavailable. Be prepared to provide graphics in the native, editable format (e.g., Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint) during final production editing. Figures should be uploaded to Manuscript Central as separate files and should not be included within the word processing file. Use Arial font for figure lettering. Figures, symbols, lettering, and numbering should be clear and large enough to remain legible when reduced. Place figure keys within the figure. See Formatting Tables and Figures for additional instructions.
Generally, avoid using appendixes. However, sometimes they serve a useful purpose for data that cannot be presented easily as a table or a figure.
Appendixes, including appendix tables and appendix figures, will be presented online only, except in special cases approved by the Editor-in-Chief. In some instances, tables and figures that are too large for print publication may be converted to online appendix tables and figures by the manuscript editor.
Appendix tables and figures should be numbered sequentially, separately from tables and figures that will appear in print (e.g., Appendix Table 1, Appendix Table 2). All word and total table and figure counts in appendixes are included in the manuscript maximum counts (e.g., no more than 2 tables and 2 figures total for a dispatch). A separately numbered reference list may be provided for appendix materials if necessary, but the total reference count for the article including the appendix must fit within the article maximum (e.g., 40 references total for a research article).
For supplemental materials, including extended reference lists, readers may be referred to the corresponding author. Alternatively, authors may post supplemental material on a separate website and provide a link to that site in their article. In some instances, authors may submit a Technical Appendix that will be presented online only. Technical Appendixes will be formatted but not edited; these materials are not included in the manuscript maximum word and reference counts. A link to the Technical Appendix will be provided in the text of the article where the materials are cited. Technical Appendixes that are surveys written in a language other than English may be printed in their original language.
Formatting Tables
Formatting Figures (Images)
Typeface
Please contact the EID Editors at eideditor@cdc.gov
The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
This page posted January 29, 2009
This page last reviewed August 12, 2009
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