Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines (Updated: August 20, 2025)

GENERAL INFORMATION

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy – MIC (Microb Infect Chemoth) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes high-quality research addressing current challenges in infectious diseases worldwide. The journal operates under a continuous publication model, ensuring rapid dissemination of accepted manuscripts without waiting for traditional issue compilation. Articles are published online immediately upon completion of the editorial process, providing authors with faster publication and readers with immediate access to new research.

The journal serves as an official publication affiliated with the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department of the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, Huánuco, Peru.

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy is published only in English.

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Open Access Policy

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy operates under a Gold Open Access model. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), allowing users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles for any lawful purpose without requesting permission from the publisher or authors.

Copyright Policy

Authors retain copyright of their work. By submitting to the journal, authors grant the journal a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.

Archiving Policy

The journal ensures permanent digital preservation through institutional repositories and PKN project compliant systems.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

MIC supports diversity in authorship, peer review, and editorial leadership. Authors should report participant sex and gender (and other relevant demographic variables) with justifications for exclusions and plans for inclusive research.

SCOPE

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy publishes original research, reviews, and communications with a primary focus on human pathogenic microorganisms and infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and stewardship, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS research and treatment, public health and epidemiology of infectious diseases, vaccine development and immunology, and diagnostic methods and technologies.

The journal also welcomes contributions addressing zoonotic diseases with human health implications, One Health approaches to infectious disease control, healthcare-associated infections, and travel medicine and tropical diseases. From a methodological perspective, the journal encompasses studies on etiology and pathogenesis, clinical microbiology and diagnostics, therapeutic interventions and drug development, epidemiological investigations, and public health interventions that advance our understanding of infectious diseases and their impact on global health.

 

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy adheres to the submission of contributions: "your manuscript, your way"
Authors can submit their manuscript (text, figures and tables) in two files. The first file contains the initial page with the identification of the authors and the second file is the anonymous manuscript. It can be a Word or PDF file, in any format or design, and figures and tables can be placed inside the text. Figures should be of sufficient quality for review.

There are no strict format requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements necessary to evaluate a manuscript (Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Figures and Tables).

References can be in any style or format, as long as the style is consistent. Name(s) of author(s), journal title / book title, article title (when necessary), year of publication, volume and chapter / book number and pagination must be present. DOI is recommended.

These are all the guidelines you need for your initial submission. Upon acceptance, authors are required to format their manuscript according to the journal's specific style guidelines provided below.

MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy publishes manuscripts which result from research projects in the following areas:

• They are included at the request of the editor, its content will refer to the articles published in the same issue of the journal, or they deal with topics of interest according to the editorial policy. A maximum of 1500 words and 10 references will be accepted.
• ORIGINAL RESEARCH. Observational studies, clinical research, articles on pharmacology or microbiology will be accepted, as well as original contributions on aetiology, pathophysiology, pathology, epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment, as well as experimental or field work in all areas of infectious diseases. The maximum length of the text will be 3,000 words. The abstract is not to exceed 250 words, and is to be divided into sections (usually into four paragraphs with the following subheadings: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions). A number of 3-5 key words and up to 6 figures and / or tables will be accepted. No limits for references.
• BRIEF COMMUNICATION. In this section we will consider works of research that due to their special characteristics (such as series with reduced number of observations, research works with very specific objectives and results, descriptive epidemiological studies, among others) can be published in a more abbreviated and quick way. These manuscripts must have a maximum length of 1500 words and have no subdivisions in the main text. A maximum of 15 bibliographical references and up to 3 figures and / or tables will be accepted. The abstract should not exceed 150 words or be separated into sections. A number of 3-5 keywords are required.
• REVIEW ARTICLE. The editorial committee will request review articles from researchers with extensive experience in their areas. Authors wishing to submit a review manuscript not requested by the editorial committee, should send a summary of the proposed manuscript that includes the title, and detailed index. Additionally, the summary of the authors' resumes supporting their experience in this field and a letter indicating the need to update the subject should be attached. The editorial committee will review the relevance of each proposal and communicate its decision to the proposing authors. The maximum length will be 6000 words, no limits to bibliographical references, in addition to 10 tables and / or figures.
• CLINICAL CASES. In this section we will consider the publication of reports of clinical cases of any pathology, as long as they contain a pedagogical approach and respect the anonymity and modesty of the patient. Each manuscript on clinical cases and clinical series must be accompanied by a letter with the written authorization of the patient(s) or their instructor(s) to publish the clinical data and / or images corresponding to the article. If it is impossible to obtain this documentation, it may be replaced by a letter issued by the head of the hospital where the patient(s) was treated, specifying that the institution supports the publication of the case / clinical series for scientific reasons. These reports are to have the following structure: unstructured summary, keywords, introduction, case report, discussion (where the contribution or teaching of the article is highlighted) and bibliographical references. The maximum length is 150 words in the summary, 1500 words in the content, three figures or tables and fifteen bibliographical references.
• IMAGES IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. In this section, relevant images will be published related to all aspects of infectious diseases (clinical, endoscopic, radiographic, microbiological, pathological, etc.). It is convenient to use graphic resources (arrows, asterisks, etc.) for highlighting observations. They should have a maximum of 400 words, up to 4 references and the number of authors should not exceed three.
• IDEAS AND OPINIONS. This section publishes essays that represent opinions or hypotheses of experts, about a specific topic of health or areas associated with health. The maximum length will be 1000 words, and a maximum of 10 bibliographical references will be accepted.
• LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. In this section, the discussion of articles published in the last two issues of the journal and / or the contribution of opinions, observations or experiences that by their characteristics can be summarized in a short text are published. The maximum length will be 700 words. A maximum of 10 bibliographical references will be accepted, and a figure or a table will be admitted. The title must be included and up to 3 keywords.

PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

LANGUAGE

Every manuscript should be written in clear, concise English. Authors for whom English is a second language are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission. Professional editing can help ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the editors and reviewers. Note that the use of an editing service is at the author's own expense and does not guarantee acceptance.
Medical terminology should follow the latest version of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary (Saunders). Abbreviations should be fully written at the first appearance in the text and should be abbreviated in parentheses. After that the abbreviation can be used instead of the full term. Numbers should be in Arabic numerals. Weight and other measurements should be written in the International System of Units (SI). CGS units are acceptable if standard in the field, but SI units are preferred.

STYLE

The final, accepted file must present the following order: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgments, Conflict of Interest Statement, Funding Statement, Author Contributions, References, Tables, and Figure Legends. Figures should be uploaded as separate high-resolution files.

The complete final file must be sent only in the DOCX format (Microsoft Word).

INITIAL PAGE

The title page must be submitted as a separate file during initial submission and included in the main file for the final accepted version.

Title: Authors must provide the titles of the manuscript (maximum 15 words). The title should be concise, reflect the study design or type of article (eg, randomized controlled trial, systematic review) contain key terms to help electronic searches locate the article.

Running title: Must also have a running title (maximum of 8 words).

Authors: List of the authors' data (Full first and last names, institutional affiliations), corresponding author's data (full name, address, email, and ORCID iD), identification number / approval of the Research Ethics Committee, if applicable. The individual contribution of each author in the development of the manuscript must also be specified.

Funding Statement must be reported on the title page. All sources of funding for the research and the publication process must be explicitly declared. If the study was not funded by institutional and / or private resources, the authors must state: "This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors."

KEY WORDS

Authors must submit at least 3 and at most 6 key words that they consider as descriptors of the content of their work. These descriptors should be standardized according to MeSH (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh).

TEXT

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy strongly recommends that authors follow the recommendations of international consensus reports for specific types of articles such as:

STROBE guidelines for observational studies (www.strobe-statement.org)

CONSORT for clinical trials (http://www.consort-statement.org/

STARD for studies of diagnostic tests (http://www.stard-statement.org)

PRISMA for meta-analysis (http://www.prismastatement.org/

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Recognize only people who have contributed to the scientific content or provided technical support. Authors must obtain written permission signed by all those listed in the acknowledgments section. The correspondent author must also state that he has listed all those who contributed significantly to the work in the acknowledgments section.

REFERENCES

References should follow the standards outlined in "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" published by the "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors" (ICMJE) and the journal's specific citation style (Vancouver/Numbered).
They should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text and listed numerically in the reference section.
Journal articles: Authors (list up to 6, then et al.). Title. Journal Name (abbreviated per NLM/Index Medicus). Year; Volume(Issue):Page numbers. DOI.
Books: Authors. Chapter Title. In: Editors, ed. Book Title. Edition. Publisher; Year:Pages.
Online Resources: Author/Organization. Title. Website Name. URL. Published [Date]. Accessed [Date].
It is the author's responsibility to ensure the accuracy and completeness of all references. Inaccurate references may delay the publication process.

TABLES

List tables by using Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. Tables should have titles that concisely describe the contents of the table so that the reader can understand the table without consulting the text. Tables may contain abbreviations, but they must contain a footnote that explains the abbreviation. Provide the units of measure for all numeric data in a column or row. Place the units of measure under a column heading or at the end of a side header only if those units are applied to all the numeric data in the column or row.

IMAGES

List figures with Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. Each figure must have a figure caption that starts with a short title. Explain all abbreviations and symbols in the figure, even if an explanation appears in the text. For histological slide images, provide staining and magnification data at the end of the caption for each part of the figure. If a scale marker does not appear in the figure, provide the original magnification used during the observation, not that of the photographic impression.

ABBREVIATIONS

When they are cited for the first time, they must be printed immediately after the complete term. Abbreviations should not be used in the title or in the abstract.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

AUTHORSHIP

All authors must meet the ICMJE criteria for authorship. All authors must have made substantial contributions in each of the following aspects: (1) the conception and design of the study, the acquisition of data, or the analysis and interpretation of the data, (2) the draft of the article or the critical review of the intellectual content, (3) the final approval of the version presented.
Authors are advised to carefully review the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript for the first time. Any addition, deletion or reordering of the names of authors after the manuscript has been submitted will require written confirmation from all co-authors and is subject to editorial approval.

The 'Author contributions' section should be presented using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) model is recommended for clarity: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal Analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Specify the initials of the author(s) for each role.
Example: J.A.S.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft. M.K.P.: Formal analysis, Investigation, Visualization. T.W.: Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
The 'Author contributions' section is not required when there is only one author.

TRANSPARENCY AND AI POLICY
Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies:
Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy requires authors to disclose the use of generative AI (e.g., large language models like ChatGPT) or AI-assisted technologies in their manuscript. These tools cannot be listed as an author. Authors must transparently describe their use in the Methods section (if part of the research) or the Acknowledgments section (if used for writing assistance). Authors are solely responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work generated by both themselves and any AI tools used, and must be able to take public responsibility for the entire content of the manuscript.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry).

All authors must disclose any financial (e.g., employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony, patents), personal, or professional relationships that could be construed to have influenced the work within the past 36 months. If no conflicts exist, the authors must state: "All authors declare they have no conflicts of interest to disclose." This statement must be included in the manuscript file before the references.

In the cover letter, the authors must recommend two or three potential reviewers for their article, giving their names and email addresses. Authors may also request the exclusion of specific reviewers if there is a potential conflict of interest; such requests must be justified. Keep in mind that the editor ultimately decides whether or not to use the proposed reviewers.

ETHICS IN RESEARCH

HUMAN RESEARCH

Articles that include research results involving human beings must follow the ethical principles contained in the Helsinki´s Declaration of the World Medical Association; as well as, comply with specific legislation (when applicable) of the country in which the research was carried out.
Articles that present research results involving human beings must contain a clear affirmation of the above compliance in the Methods section, including the name of the ethics committee and the approval number/reference. Research must have been approved by an ethics committee in research duly established for that purpose. For retrospective studies, a waiver of ethical approval must be formally granted by the ethics committee and stated in the manuscript.
Informed consent for participation must be obtained and documented.
In case of reports, each manuscript on clinical cases and clinical series must be accompanied by a letter with the written authorization of the patient(s) or their instructor(s) to publish the clinical data and / or images corresponding to the article. If it is impossible to obtain this documentation, it may be replaced by a letter issued by the head of the hospital where the patient(s) was treated, specifying that the institution supports the publication of the case / clinical series for scientific reasons.
The editors of Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy, reserve the right to request additional information on the ethical procedures used in the research. The Journal retains the right to reject any manuscript on the basis of unethical conduct in either human or animal studies.

ANIMAL RESEARCH

For animal studies, authors should consider international standards for the use of experimental animals, primarily those recommended by the Office of Animal Care and Use of National Institutes of Health (ARRIVE guidelines - https://arriveguidelines.org), as well as the guidelines of the participating institution or national laws on the care and use of laboratory animals of the country where the study was carried out.
The animals used must be named in the title, summary, keywords and material and methods. Such experimentation must be thoroughly detailed in the materials and methods section, including approval by an institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) or equivalent, with the approval number.
If the editors or reviewers believe that these recommendations have not been properly adhered to in the research paper, the manuscript will be immediately rejected.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION

Authors must ensure compliance with data protection regulations. Do not submit sensitive personal data unless essential and consented. De‑identify datasets and images; obtain consent for any potentially identifying information.

DATA SHARING AND REPRODUCIBILITY
Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy encourages data sharing to enhance the reproducibility and transparency of research. Authors are encouraged to deposit de-identified data in public, recognized, and freely available repositories (e.g., Dryad, Figshare, GenBank) and provide the relevant accession numbers or DOIs in the manuscript. For clinical trials, the trial registration number (from a registry like ClinicalTrials.gov) must be provided in the title page and abstract.

PLAGIARISM AND SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSION
Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy uses online software to search for plagiarism. All articles showing signs of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism (redundant publication), will be returned to their authors without initiating the review process.
Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively to Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy, and their simultaneous submission to another journal is not allowed. The opinions and concepts issued are the entire responsibility of their authors.
The submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been previously published (except in the form of a preprint, an abstract, or an academic thesis, in which case, this should be mentioned in the cover letter and the manuscript itself).

PREPRINT POLICY
Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy will consider manuscripts that have been previously posted on preprint servers (e.g., medRxiv, bioRxiv). Authors must declare this at the time of submission, providing the preprint DOI in the cover letter. The peer-review process is independent of the preprint posting.

CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTER

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy support initiatives to improve clinical trial reporting. This includes prospective registration of clinical trials in appropriate and publicly available databases. Thus, and following the ICMJE guidelines, Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy require the registration of all clinical trials, which must be described in the submitted manuscripts.

MANUSCRIPT RETRACTION POLICY

Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy may withdraw articles based on information from authors, academic or institutional sponsors, or publishers due to widespread error or unproven or irreproducible data. We adhere to the guidelines the COPE gave (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.4) relative to the causes of retraction for published articles, which are

1. Failure to comply with requirements in the editorial process
2. The proven falsity of information and with which the editorial process was advanced.
3. The verification of bad editorial practices by the authors.
4. Failure to comply with the ethical principles that should have been observed.
5. Deliberately include inaccurate information.

EDITORIAL MEMBERS AND EDITORS

Editorial board members and editors must declare any conflict of interest when conducting the editorial process of manuscripts submitted to the journal.

In addition, they must be excluded from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a declared conflict of interest. These conflicts may be having previously published with one or more of the authors or having the same affiliation as one or more of the authors.

EDITOR AS AN AUTHOR

When an editor or member of the editorial board is on the list of authors, she must declare it in the conflicts of interest section of the submitted manuscript. This manuscript will be assigned to another editor or editorial board member to take responsibility for supervising peer review.

Members of the Editorial Board can submit articles to the journal. These submissions are subject to the same review process as any other manuscript. Manuscripts submitted by authors do not have priority over other manuscripts, and editorial board member status does not influence the editorial decision.

REVIEWERS

Reviewers should disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could alter their views of the manuscript and should refrain from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Silence by reviewers regarding potential conflicts may mean that conflicts exist and have not been disclosed by the reviewer or that conflicts do not exist; therefore, Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy, in the editorial management system, asks reviewers to explicitly indicate whether or not conflicts exist. Reviewers may not use the privilege of knowing the manuscript for their own benefit.

 

 

PRESENTATION AND SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

SENDING

We accept manuscripts submitted through the manuscript submission system, for which you must register in advance on Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy website.

CORRESPONDENCE

Email is the main form of correspondence between the authors and the medical journal. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to coordinate the submission of requests for review and questions about the work under review, including, among others, questions about the integrity of the work, requests for study protocols or information of the test record, study data and documentation of institutional review, approval of the ethics committee, etc.

We recognize all the manuscripts and assign each one a unique and confidential manuscript number. We provide all authors with instructions to verify the manuscript's status via email through our manuscript management system.

INTERNAL REVIEW AND EXTERNAL REVISION

Once the manuscript has been received, the editorial assistant verifies if all the established instructions were fulfilled, and if not, it will be returned to the author without entering the evaluation process. If all has been fulfilled, the manuscript is sent for the evaluation of the editors.

Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two reviewers, selected by one of the editors. The manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and are the private property of the authors. Therefore, reviewers (such as members of the editorial team) shall not publicly discuss the work of the authors or appropriate their ideas before publishing the manuscript. Reviewers should not keep copies of revised manuscripts in their personal files and are prohibited from sharing copies of the manuscript with others. Reviewers should destroy copies of manuscripts after submitting reviews. The reviewer will receive a copy of our decision letter to the author with the comments of the other reviewers. These are also confidential.

There is no direct communication between the authors and the reviewers. The REPIS is managed under the double blind peer review system, where neither the authors nor the reviewers know the identity of the other group.

FINAL DECISION

Once the reports of the reviewers are received, the general editor, together with members of the editorial committee, meet and, based on the reports of the peer reviewers, make the decision to accept the manuscript in its entirety, accept it after minor changes, determine that the article can only be accepted if major changes are made, or reject the submission.

If there is controversy regarding the decision, the editor in chief will make the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript, which will be endorsed by the editorial committee.

The correspondent author will be informed by email of any decisions taken by the editorial committee.

APPEAL

Authors who think that their manuscripts were erroneously rejected can email a letter of appeal to the editor who handled the manuscript. The letter should detail the author's concern and establish how the manuscript can be revised or clarified to address the key issues mentioned by the editors and reviewers. Publishers rarely reverse their original decisions. Many rejections involve priority judgments from editors that authors usually cannot address through an appeal. Once an appeal is received, the editors can confirm their decision to reject the manuscript, invite a revised manuscript or look for an additional peer review or a statistical review of the original manuscript.

PEER REVIEW FILE

With a commitment to openness and accountability, and to increase the level of transparency throughout our peer review process, Microbes, Infection and Chemotherapy has decided to implement a transparent peer review process for all manuscripts submitted to the journal.

The practice will see the inclusion of a “peer review file” (a record of reviewer reports and author replies) in the footnote of the corresponding article. The peer review file will be published online (only) along with the article.

CHARGES AND PAYMENTS

From January 1, 2025, an Article Processing Charge (APC) of $1000 USD will be implemented for the publication of accepted manuscripts. A 50% discount on the APC will be applied for authors affiliated with institutions in countries eligible under Research4Life. Peruvian and Latin American authors are exempt of any fees.

We understand that funding can be a challenge. Therefore, MIC offers the possibility of applying for an APC waiver, which will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We encourage authors who need to request a waiver to contact the editorial team during the submission process.

This adjustment will allow us to maintain MIC's high standards and continue disseminating crucial research in the field of infectious diseases globally.

Refund Policy

Once an article has been accepted for publication in MIC, Article Processing Charges (APCs) become due. The corresponding author is responsible for the APCs.

MIC will only issue refunds in the following cases:

Payment Errors: Payments made in excess of the required amount or duplicate payments.

Withdrawal of Manuscripts Before Acceptance: If a manuscript is withdrawn before formal acceptance, a refund of the paid APCs will be considered.

In no other case will refunds be issued. This includes, but is not limited to: Withdrawal of Accepted Manuscripts: Authors who withdraw their manuscripts after acceptance will remain responsible for the payment of APCs.

 

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS

PRINT PROOF

A proof of the article will be sent to the corresponding author. The print proof will be reviewed and possible errors will be marked, returning the revised proof within 48 hours. This proof aims to detect typographical, orthographic or form errors. Corrections that affect the content or that modify the article in its original sense will not be accepted. If corrections are not received within the deadline, the Editorial Board will not be responsible for any error or omission that may be published.

The Editorial Committee reserves the right to admit or reject the corrections made by the author in the proof.

GENERAL COMMUNICATION

The corresponding author of the article may consult by emailing mic@unheval.edu.pe at any time about the progress of the revision of his article or concerning any doubt that may arise.