Author Guidelines
Authors are encouraged to go through this section and the sections titled Focus and Scope and Research Integrity before submitting any manuscript to the SLJID.
Article Processing Fees
The journal does NOT charge an article submission fee.
The journal does NOT charge an article processing fee.
Types of Articles
Leading Articles Expert opinions on current topics or commentaries on papers published in SLJID. These are solicited by the Editors.
Number of words <1500, key references<20, no tables or illustrations,
non-structured abstract of 150 words
Systematic Reviews and meta-analysis Systematic summary of available evidence. Would be subjected to review by a statistician in addition to content experts.
Number of words <3000, references <70, structured abstract of <250 words (introduction, methods, results, conclusions), keywords 3–5, Tables and Figures <5 (if more, discuss with the Editor)
Narrative Reviews Provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of an important subject and should be systematic with critical assessment of the literature.
Number of words <3000, references <50, unstructured abstract of <250 words, keywords 3-5 Tables and Figures<5
Mini Reviews Provides a concise summary on recent advances on a specific topic.
Number of words <1500, references <30, unstructured abstract of <150 words, keywords 3-5 Tables and Figures<5
Research Articles Scientific reports of the results of original research. Manuscript should follow the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) format.
Number of words <2500, references <20, structured abstract of <250 words(introduction, methods, results, conclusions), keywords 3-5, Tables and Figures<5 (if more, discuss with the Editor)
Brief Reports Original research that is not sufficient for full paper, secondary analysis of previously published data or preliminary results of ongoing research.
Number of words <1000, references <10, unstructured abstract of <150 words, Tables or Figures <2
Case Reports Short discussions of a clinical case that makes an important scientific observation or makes a useful contribution to the recognition, management or prevention of an infectious disease. Should include an abstract, a brief introduction, description of case report (inclusion of a timeline is a must) and a discussion. Authors need to refer to the
CARE guideline and ensure it is followed.
Number of words <1000 words, references <10, unstructured abstract of <150 words, Tables or Figures <3
Case series
If more than 2 cases are being presented, they should be submitted as a case series.
Should include an abstract, a brief introduction, description of case reports and a discussion. Authors need to refer to the CARE guideline and ensure it is followed.
Number of words <2500, references <15, unstructured abstract <150 words, Tables or Figures <5
Perspectives
Express opinions, present hypotheses, broach controversial issues or present new advances in infectious diseases.
Number of words <1000, references <20, Tables or Figures<3, unstructured abstract < 15o words
Letters to the Editor
A response to a recently published article or a short, freestanding piece expressing an opinion.
Number of words <400 words, references <5, Less than 3 authors
Preprints
SLJID allows authors to submit pre-prints to repositories. Authors need to declare it in the author declaration form.
Submission of Manuscript
The following documents should be uploaded separately:
- Author declaration form (as supplementary material)
- Title Page (as supplementary material)
- Manuscript
(In order to download the documents, please hover the cursor over the hyperlink, right-click and select open in another tab option or please contact Editors (slj.infectiousdiseases@gmail.com) if you are unable to download the Author Declaration Form and Title Page.)
Author declaration form
Author declaration form in pdf/jpg format with signatures of all authors MUST accompany all submissions.
The author declaration form should
- confirm that the submission has not been previously published nor been submitted to another journal for consideration concurrently
- declare whether a preprint has been submitted to a preprint server
- confirm that all authors have read the Research Integrity section of the journal website
- confirm that the authors have declared any potential conflicts of interest as defined under the Research Integrity section of the journal website
- confirm that all authors fulfilling criteria for authorship as defined under the Research Integrity section of the journal website have been included as authors and that author contributions have been listed
- state that ethics approval and consent for participation and publication have been obtained as appropriate
- confirm that all authors have read and approved the version of article being uploaded
- contain the original signatures of all authors (e-signatures are acceptable and should be collated to a single document)
Title Page (use provided form)
Must be in MS Word format and must include
- Title of submission
- Running title (less than 50 characters)
- Maximum of 5 keywords
- List authors’ names as surname and initials exactly as they are in the metadata. Authors should be listed in the order in which they are to appear in the published article.
- Institutional affiliation for each author and e mail address. The institutions listed should reflect the affiliations of the authors at the time of the study, not their present affiliations, if they differ
- ORCID identifiers of all authors
- Name, address, e-mail address, telephone number and ORCID identifier of the corresponding author are essential
- Conflict of Interest statement
- Acknowledgments / Funding source - source(s) of support / funding
- Ethics statement and consent for publication
- Author contributions
- Number of words in the manuscript excluding abstract, acknowledgments, references, tables, figures and figure legends
Manuscript
The manuscript document should include
- Title
- Abstract (when applicable)
- Keywords
- Main text - sections as appropriate for type of article
- Figures and tables at the appropriate place
- Statement on conflict of interest
- Ethics statement
- Acknowledgements / Funding source
- Statement on author contributions
- References
Preparation of Manuscript
- The submission file should be in Microsoft Word document file format. The computer language must be set to English (UK) and use Font Times New Roman Font size 12
- All parts of the manuscript, including tables and figure legends, must be typed with single spacing
- Do not number the pages
Tables and Figures
- Should be clear and accurate and should not contain excessive data
- Figures or tables which exceed more than 1 page in length need to be uploaded separately as supplementary material
- Other tables and figures need to be placed within the manuscript at the appropriate plac
- Photographs should be anonymized /be unidentifiable
- Editors may request authors to submit the original figures/illustrations and authors should be prepared to do so
- Copyright of copied or adapted figures and tables needs to be included beneath the figure or table
Nomenclature of microorganisms
- Italicized binary names (genus/species - for example, Staphylococcus aureus) must be used for all microorganisms at first time of use. Thereafter, the genus name should be abbreviated to the initial capital letter (for example, E. coli).
- Names of categories above the genus level may be used alone (for example, Enterobacterales) but specific and subspecific epithets may not.
- If species are either not known or typed, the genus name should be followed by 'sp.' (for example, Neisseria sp.)
Instruments or commercial test kits: Refer to by proprietary name, give name and location of the manufacturer in the text in parentheses. E.g “E strips (AB bioMerieux, Solna, Sweden) of meropenem, imipenem, ……...”
Abbreviations and symbols:
- Use only standard abbreviations
- Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript.
- The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention except for a standard unit of measurement. E.g The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of an antibiotic is useful to decide on specific treatment and several methods of detecting MIC are in current use.
Units of Measurement
Measurements of length, height, weight and volume should be reported in metric units (metre, kilogram or litre) or their decimal multiples or fractions. Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimetres of mercury.
Drugs: Generic (nonproprietary) names should be used for all drugs. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand (proprietary or trade) name and the name of manufacturer in parentheses after the first mention of the generic name in the Methods section. Thereafter the generic name should be used.
Conflict of Interest Statement- The Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases requires that all authors declare any relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest.
- A subheading "Conflicts of Interest" where all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work, should be placed in the title page and just after the manuscript text
- All funding sources of the research should be declared and published.
- If there are no conflicts of interest, state "There are no conflicts of interest".
Ethics Statement
- A subheading "Ethics Statement" should accompany all research articles, case reports and case series as appropriate. This should be placed after the conflict of interest statement
- This should mention from where ethics approval was obtained or if consent for publication of case reports/series was obtained from patients
- For more details, please refer to the section on research integrity
Acknowledgements / Funding source
- All sources of funding and other support should be declared under Acknowledgments in the Title page as well as just below the main text
Author contributions
- Authorship – the SLJID subscribes to the criteria for authorship as outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Please refer to the linked Research Integrity section for further information
- All author contributions must be identified by including abbreviated name of author followed by mentioning of his/her contributions in brief
Referencing Format
Referencing format for Journal
- Cite consecutively in the text using Arabic numbers in superscript
- List in numerical order at the end of the manuscript
- All references should be in lower case with first letters of authors’ names and journal names in upper case
- List all authors where there are three or less, when more than 4 authors, list the first 3 followed by ‘et al’
- Abbreviate Journal name according to style of PubMed. Journal name should be in italics.
- Where available, provide DOI or URL for each reference doi’s can be obtained from http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/ (the doi is written in italics as follows: doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM .02430-16 (not DOI and not underlined) If a doi is not present, include the PMID, URL or state “No doi”.
Examples
Journals:
Boteju G, Weerasinghe G, Gunasekara H et al. Effectiveness of commonly used high level disinfectants on bacteria responsible for hospital acquired infections in Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital, Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases 2020;10(1): 38–47. http://doi.org/10.4038/sljid.v10i1.8257
Books:
John E. Bennett, Raphael Dolin, Martin J. Blaser (eds). Mandell, Douglas, And Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. Philadelphia, PA :Elsevier/Saunders, 2015.
Chapter in Books:
Lynch P. Epidemiology and surveillance. In: Axnick KJ and Yarbrough M (eds). Infection Control, An Integrated Approach. St Louis: CV Mosby, 1984: pp 83-118.
Web-sources
Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. Weekly Epidemiological Reports. Available at: http://www.epid.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=148&Itemid=449&lang=en. Accessed on 14.07.2019
Unpublished Work:
Personal communication may be cited by inserting “personal communication” in parentheses in the text; authors must submit a letter of permission from the cited persons to cite such communications.
Peer Review Process
Your article will be submitted to double blind peer-review after initial review by the editors. More details on the review process can be found here
Editorial correspondence
Address all editorial correspondence to: slj.infectiousdiseases@gmail. com
Acknowledgement of manuscript
Receipt of your paper will be acknowledged by the editor and the peer review process will commence.
