International Journal of Infection Prevention · Instructions for authors
Instructions for Authors
How to prepare a manuscript for this journal, what has to be declared with it, and how to send it. Whether the subject fits is a separate question, answered on the aims and scope page.
Open access, CC BY 4.0 No submission charge Single-blind by default
01 · Before you prepare
Scope first, preparation second
Whether a manuscript belongs in this journal is a scientific question about its subject, and it is settled on the aims and scope page. Nothing on this page adds a further test of fit: preparation requirements describe how to present work that is already in scope.
The journal publishes laboratory, observational, interventional, methodological, implementation, modeling, descriptive and synthesis work, and assesses each against the standards appropriate to its own design. Accepted articles are charged under one of four record types — research article, review, methods and tools, or short communication — which the article processing charges page publishes. Authors who are unsure which fits are welcome to describe the work to the editorial office before submitting; the address is given with the submission routes below.
02 · Structure
How to assemble the manuscript
Manuscripts are submitted in Word or LaTeX. A research report usually carries the sections below; a review, methods paper or short communication adapts them to what it is doing.
- Title page — title, all author names and affiliations, and the corresponding author’s contact details. Kept as a separate file when double-blind review is requested.
- Structured abstract — objectives, methods, results and conclusions, so a reader can judge relevance without the full text.
- Keywords — terms a reader would actually search for, including the organism, the setting and the preventive measure where they apply.
- Introduction — the prevention context and the specific question the work addresses.
- Methods — study design, setting, period, population or specimens, case definitions, surveillance or laboratory protocols, and the analysis. Enough detail for the work to be repeated.
- Results — findings with denominators for every rate and proportion, and measures of precision where they apply.
- Discussion — what the findings mean for prevention, with the limitations and the extent to which they transfer to other settings.
- Conclusion — what the work establishes, kept to what the evidence supports.
Use consistent terminology, define abbreviations and pathogen designations at first use, and give units for every quantitative value.
03 · Reporting standards
Reporting guidelines and study registration
Follow the guideline that matches the design and submit its completed checklist with the manuscript.
- CONSORT — randomized controlled trials.
- STROBE — observational studies: cohort, case-control and cross-sectional.
- PRISMA — systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
- ORION — studies of nosocomial infection and hospital transmission.
- SQUIRE — quality-improvement and implementation reports.
- CARE — case reports.
- STARD — diagnostic accuracy studies.
- ARRIVE — studies involving laboratory animals.
Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
Trial reports should also state primary and secondary endpoints, adverse events and safety monitoring, and any protocol deviations or amendments. Those requirements attach to trials; they are not asked of other designs.
04 · Figures and files
Figures, tables and supplementary files
- Placement
- Place tables and figures at the end of the manuscript, each on a separate page, with a title and a legend. Every one must be cited in the text.
- Figures
- Supply figures at high resolution and correctly sized, so that numbers, letters and symbols stay legible when the figure is reproduced at publication size. Label axes and give units. Legends should state the sample size and the data source. Palettes that remain readable for color-blind readers are preferred.
- Tables
- Submit tables in an editable format rather than as images, with clear column headings, units, and footnotes for anything a heading cannot carry.
- Supplementary files
- The manuscript must be complete and stand alone. Supplementary material is reviewed alongside it and must contribute substantially to the work. Label each file clearly and reference it in the text.
- Reused material
- Material taken from another publication requires written permission from the rights holder and a credit line stating its own terms, supplied at submission.
05 · References
Reference style
References are cited by number, not by author and date, and numbered consecutively in the order they first appear. List the first 3 authors, then “et al.” for the remainder. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of every reference.
- Journal article
- Author AB, Author CD, Author EF, et al. Title of the article. Journal Abbreviation. 2024;12(3):45–58. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx
- Book and chapter
- Author AB. Title of the Book. 3rd ed. Publisher; 2022. — Author AB. Title of the chapter. In: Editor CD, ed. Title of the Book. Publisher; 2022:101–120.
- Web page or guidance
- Organization. Title of the page. Published 2023. Accessed 12 March 2026. https://example.org/page
- Dataset and preprint
- Author AB. Title of the dataset. Repository; 2024. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx — Author AB. Title of the preprint. Preprint server; 2024. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx
- Trial registration
- Registry name. Registration number. Registered 4 February 2023. https://example.org/registration
Include a DOI wherever one exists, and check that every in-text citation appears in the reference list and every listed reference is cited.
06 · Declarations
What must be declared with the manuscript
- Ethics approval and consent
- Research involving people, their tissue or their identifiable data requires approval from a named committee, with the reference reported, and informed consent obtained after full disclosure of potential outcomes, with privacy and confidentiality maintained. Where a committee granted an exemption or waived consent, report that decision and its grounds in the same terms. Material from which an individual could be identified requires written consent to publication.
- Animal welfare
- Laboratory animals must be treated in accordance with applicable regulations, with the approving body named and precautionary measures documented.
- Data availability
- Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement. Give accession numbers or repository links where data are deposited, describe preprocessing and quality-control steps, document software versions, and state any access restriction that applies to sensitive or identifiable data along with the route by which it can be requested.
- Competing interests and funding
- Declare financial and non-financial interests relevant to the work, and name every funder with its grant identifier. Both are published with the article.
- Use of artificial intelligence
- Generative AI tools may not be listed as authors. Where such a tool was used in producing the manuscript, disclose its use in the methods or acknowledgments, naming the tool and the purpose. The authors remain answerable for everything submitted.
- Authorship
- Everyone listed must meet the journal’s authorship conditions, and everyone who meets them must be listed. The conditions, and the procedure for changing an author list, are on the editorial policies page.
07 · Double-blind review
Preparing an anonymized manuscript
Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Where you request it, prepare the files as follows.
For double-blind review, remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding details, institution names, and other identifying information from the reviewer manuscript. Provide identifying information separately in the title-page file or submission form.
Self-citations can identify authors indirectly; cite your own prior work in the third person, as you would anyone else’s. Check file properties and tracked changes as well as the visible text.
08 · Submitting
Sending the manuscript
Three routes are open to authors. Each reaches the same editorial office.
- 01 Primary route — ManuscriptZone Upload the manuscript, figures and supplementary files at oap.manuscriptzone.net.
- 02 Alternative route — simple submission form The short form at openaccesspub.org/manuscript-submission-form, which opens with this journal already selected.
- 03 Assisted route — editorial office Authors who need help with either route can write to [email protected].
Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.
There is no submission charge. An article processing charge is invoiced only after acceptance, and it takes no part in the editorial decision; the amounts are on the article processing charges page.
09 · After a decision
Revision, proofs and publication
- Revision
- A revised manuscript is returned with a point-by-point response to each reviewer comment, saying what was changed and where, or setting out the reason for disagreeing. Mark the changes in the manuscript so an editor can find them.
- Proofs
- Authors check the typeset proof for errors introduced in production. Proof stage is for correction rather than rewriting; substantive changes at that point need the editor’s agreement.
- Publication
- The article is published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, with copyright retained by the authors, and is registered with Crossref under the DOI prefix 10.14302.
- Withdrawal
- Authors who need to withdraw a submitted manuscript should read the withdrawal terms on the article processing charges page before writing to the editorial office.
Checklist
Before you submit
Manuscript in Word or LaTeX with a structured abstract and keywords · title page with affiliations and a corresponding author · tables and figures at the end, each on its own page with a title and legend · the reporting checklist for the design · ethics approval, consent and trial registration where they apply · data-availability statement · competing interests and funding · AI-use disclosure where relevant · permissions for reused material · references numbered in order of appearance.