Publication Ethics

Microbes and Infectious Diseases adheres to the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and flowcharts for addressing allegations of publishing ethics both before and after publication. The procedures followed by the journal are outlined below.

Open Access Policy

  • Immediate Access: Microbes and Infectious Diseases provide immediate open access to its content, promoting a greater global exchange of knowledge. All articles are available worldwide under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license (Creative Commons BY 4.0), allowing unrestricted reuse with proper attribution. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts as long as the original work is cited correctly.
  • Compliance: This policy aligns with the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Open access conditions include:
    • Free availability of peer-reviewed literature without a subscription.
    • Immediate release of literature in open-access format.
    • Unrestricted reuse of published material with proper citation.

Copyright and Publication Rights

  • Authors' and Publisher’s Rights: Authors retain the copyrights and transfer only the commercial rights to the publisher (Zagazig University). Authors have the right to:
    • Share their article for non-commercial purposes, including teaching and distributing copies to colleagues, provided it includes the end-user license and DOI link.
    • Retain intellectual property rights, including research data.
    • Ensure proper attribution and credit for the published work.

Authorship

  • Criteria:
    • Only those who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study should be listed as authors. Transparency regarding each author's contributions is encouraged.
    • A person who does not meet the above-mentioned criteria but has made a relevant contribution should be acknowledged in the appropriate section of the manuscript. Examples of contributions that do not qualify a contributor for authorship include: securing funding, providing general supervision of a research group or administrative support, offering writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading.
    • Authors should verify that the author list, corresponding author, and order of authors are correct at the time of submission.
  • Changes:
    • Adding or removing authors during the revision stages is generally not allowed but may be justified in certain cases. Detailed explanations for changes in authorship must be provided with a signed letter by all authors, indicating their agreement with the change.
    • Note that changes to authorship are not permitted after the manuscript has been accepted.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

  • Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data should explicitly state compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
  • Authors are expected to have obtained approval by the appropriate institutional ethics (For example Institutional Review Board; IRB) or research committee and informed patient consent.
  • Medical research involving a vulnerable group (e.g., neonates, children, pregnant women, prisoners, etc.) is ethically justified only if it directly addresses the health needs or priorities of that group and cannot be conducted within a non-vulnerable population. Informed consent from parents or guardians of this group must be obtained. Furthermore, members of this group should anticipate benefiting from the knowledge, practices, or interventions derived from the research. See COPE guidelines.
  • The welfare of animals used in research must be upheld. Authors reporting experiments on animals should specify adherence to ARRIVE guidelines, as well as international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for animal care and use and confirm approval by a research ethics committee at the relevant institution or practice.
  • Study design: We encourage the use of reporting guidelines such the CONSORT statement for randomized controlled trials and the STROBE statement for observational studies. Authors are encouraged to follow the international initiative for Enhancing the Quality and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR).
  • Disclosure: Authors must disclose sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial) and acknowledge sources. Compliance statements are required for work involving chemicals, procedures, equipment with inherent hazards, or the use of animal or human subjects.

Conflict of Interest

  • Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial or personal relationships that could influence their judgment.
  • Authors should acknowledge all financial support in their manuscript including, for examples, honoraria, educational grants, funding sources, and involvement in speakers’ bureaus, memberships, employment, consultancies, competitive or collaborative relationships with any of the authors, equity interests, or patent-licensing agreements.
  • Non-financial relationships, such as personal or professional connections, affiliations, knowledge, or beliefs related to the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript, should also be disclosed.
  • All sources of financial support for the work must be disclosed, including grant numbers or other reference identifiers. Authors are requested to report any conflicts of interest in a cover letter during the submission stage. 

Acknowledgment of sources

  • Authors must ensure they properly acknowledge the work of others and cite publications that have significantly influenced their reported research.
  • Authors should refrain from using information obtained through confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or reviewing grant applications.

Originality and Plagiarism

  • Authors must ensure their work is original and appropriately cite or quote the work and words of others.
  • Authors are required to address any copyright concerns when referencing figures or tables from other publications.
  • To verify originality, all submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism using Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate). Editors may also choose to run a similarity report at any other stage during the peer review process or post-publication. Authors and researchers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission.
  • All allegations of plagiarism are investigated in line with COPE guidelines.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications

  • Exclusive Submission:
    • Manuscripts should not be submitted to more than one journal simultaneously.
    • Authors must not submit a manuscript that is already under consideration or has been published in another journal.
    • Prior publication as a preprint or as an abstract in a conference (for example) is allowed.

Data Access and Retention

  • Data Provision
  • Authors are asked to submit their work research data. The data set includes all data, metadata, and methods used to reach the conclusions in the submitted paper, as well as any additional data necessary to replicate the study's findings.
    • Authors may be asked to provide raw data for editorial review and should retain data for a reasonable time after publication. 

Fundamental Errors

  • Correction:
    • Authors must correct significant errors in their published articles by contacting the journal and explaining the impact of the error.
    • Corrections may be issued as errata or retractions, depending on the error's nature.
  • Article Withdrawal and Retraction and Publication Misconduct
    • Microbes and Infectious Diseases adheres to COPE retraction guidelines.
    • Authors have the right to request the withdrawal of their manuscripts after submission and during the peer review process. In such cases, authors must provide a reason for their request, and the Editor-In-Chief will review and decide whether to approve or deny the withdrawal.
    • Research misconduct is defined as "fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results." It does not include issues of honest error or differences of opinion.
    • If there are legitimate concerns about misconduct, the journal will contact the corresponding author(s) via their provided email address, giving them an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, the journal may take various actions, including but not limited to:
    • If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
    • If the article has already been published online, possible actions include:
      • Issuing an erratum or correction alongside the article.
      • Adding an expression of concern to the article.
      • In severe cases, retracting the article and the Editor-In-Chief will escalate the expression of concern/a retraction note to the relevant employers, institutions, or appropriate bodies.

Editorial Standards

  • Guidelines:
    • Editors of Microbes and Infectious Diseases follow the guidelines and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
    • The editors are familiar with best practices published by professional organizations, including Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from ICJME.
  • Editorial Freedom:
    • Our editors are free to express critical but responsible views on all aspects of research without fear of retribution.
    • They are supported by the Editorial Board, which helps guide editorial policy.
    • The Journal’s editors base all editorial decisions on the manuscript's relevance to the journal, originality, quality, and transparency, ensuring these decisions are not influenced by commercial interests or conflicts of interest.
  • Confidentiality
    • All manuscripts submitted to Microbes and Infectious Diseases are considered privileged communications.
    • The Journal’s Editorial Board and all editorial and publication staff are required to maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, sharing information only with those directly involved in the peer review and publication processes.