IDR - Immune Diagnostics & Research

Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries (JIDC) publishes on a monthly basis 12 times a year on or before the 15th of each month.

JIDC was launched during the spring of 2007 to help researchers in developing countries overcome some of the documented biases against developing country science [Horton 2003]. The mission of the journal is to provide all infectious disease researchers from developing countries with an international forum for publishing their research findings, and we have already received and processed a huge number of manuscripts toward this goal. The JIDC publishes original research papers, research notes, guidance documents and reviews covering different aspects of human, animal and environmental microbiology and infections in developing countries with particular emphasis on emerging and re-emerging etiological agents, diagnosis, epidemiology and public health. Many of the articles we receive are sent directly for peer review. Others require pre-review mentoring, a unique service that JIDC is committed to provide to help researchers in developing countries produce articles that meet the standards of international journals.

 

Section Policies

Foreward

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Editorials

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Emerging Problems in Infectious Diseases

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Review Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Regional Reviews

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Outbreak

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Original Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Brief Original Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Case Reports

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Technical Notes

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

View Points

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Letters to the Editor

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Local Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Short Communications

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Perspectives

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

The JIDC editors would like to emphasize our stance on the following important aspects of publication ethics in the face of having received a few articles in violation.

Articles that violate the ethical norms of scientific publishing have so far been very few and have come from well-meaning scientists who are unfamiliar with publishing etiquette and ethics. However, even unintentional misrepresentations, duplications and other violations can be viewed as misconduct, and are therefore harmful to both the journal and the author's reputation. Below we summarize some of the more common violations regarding the peer review process associated with scientific publication as a guide for prospective authors, reviewers, and editors. The JIDC editorial and mentorship offices are also happy to address any pre-submission questions on publication ethics.

Collaborators, recent co-authors, and relatives should not peer review one another's papers.  Similarly, if a paper is in competition with the reviewer's work, accepting it constitutes a conflict of interest [Macrina 2005]. Editors typically watch for the most obvious conflicts by not selecting reviewers who have been recent co-authors, who are acknowledged by the authors, or who work at the same institution of any of the authors. Editors cannot, however, identify all potential conflicts. A conflict of interest may also arise if the reviewer is conducting the same research contained in the paper and his or her work would no longer be novel if the paper under review is published. If an editor requests a peer review from someone who has or may have a conflict of interest, the reviewer should decline to review the manuscript. Reviewers should not communicate with authors during the review process. Questions or clarifications should be requested through the editor.

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

 

The Mentoring System

The object of research is to increase knowledge of a particular subject. To conduct research but not to share the results, therefore, is to defeat the purpose of the exercise. There are many research projects which are of great interest to scientists in one country but may not attract interest from the international community. When the one country is a developing country it becomes very difficult to publish the findings in an international journal. The objective of JIDC is to allow researchers in developing countries access to a high-quality international journal, not just to read but, more importantly, in which to publish research for others to read. If JIDC is to be a high-quality journal, however, we cannot just publish anything concerning infectious disease in developing countries.   It is essential that we maintain the quality of our publications. There are two ways journals can maintain quality: accept articles of high quality and try to improve the quality of the research submitted. At JIDC we do both.

The mentoring system is at the heart of JIDC and is the major reason for its existence. When an article is submitted to JIDC, the Editor-in-Chief decides which Section Editor will handle it. The Section Editor then has to decide if the article can be sent out for peer review. Articles for which the only improvement needed is in the presentation are usually sent to referees with skills in English as well as the science described. We are very grateful to all referees who do this as it is, we hope, a very useful service.

 

JIDC Section Editors try hard to allow research to be published and so we will often give advice ourselves which goes far beyond that normally given by other journal editors. For example, we may offer advice on how to get access to control strains for certain experiments or we may suggest contacts, usually within developing countries but not always, who may be interested in collaborating. In some circumstances, an article may require additional dialogue between the journal and the authors. In this case the Section Editor sends the manuscript to the Mentoring Committee. The chair of this committee decides if mentoring is applicable and will then find a mentor for the research. An iterative process of advice and reply then commences between mentor and author. The exact nature of this relationship, as with all mentoring, is not defined and must be allowed to evolve. It may take another year or more before the process is completed. The end result, however, is an article worthy of publication in a high-quality journal. We hope that the author will then submit this article to JIDC but there is no obligation for the author to do so. Mentoring is a necessary part of learning to be a scientist and how to publish research. The more prestigious the research publications become, the more successful the scientist is considered; but how do successful scientists learn to publish?  Most researchers, usually when they are PhD students, attempt to write their first paper which is then corrected by their supervisors and so the process begins. Essentially, they are mentored in the art of getting papers accepted for publication and learn

  • Which research subjects are "hot topics"
  • Experimental design
  • How to present data as figures and tables
  • Data analysis and interpretation
  • How to discuss results in an interesting way
  • How to discuss results within the boundaries of reasonable argument
  • Which journal to submit the research to
  • How to emphasize the message of the paper
  • How to make the results of general, rather than only local interest
  • How to write concisely (i.e., using the least number of words)

 

But there are also factors involved in successful publication which cannot be learned:

  • Where the research was conducted
  • Who performed the research
  • What a specific editor thinks is "interesting" enough to publish

 

Because most international journals are run by scientists from countries with highly developed economies, they generally have a highly developed taste in research. It is possibly for this reason that many of the research articles read by developing country scientists are from international labs. JIDC is a journal that was created specifically for developing country scientists to publish the results of their research - but it is also a high-quality journal that can be read in international labs. The mentoring system provides scientists from developing countries with a tool they can use to publish the results of their work. Through this platform we hope to allow the research being produced in developing country laboratories to reach an international audience.