For authors
Eurosurveillance is a weekly electronic publication. It is published online every Thursday (with the exception of e-alerts). The current issue's table of contents is sent by email to all subscribers who sign up to receive the weekly alert. Selected material from the online issues may be made available as special compilations in pdf format.
All Eurosurveillance content is open access, free of charge for both readers and authors.
- How to submit
- Article types
- Quick reference Table
- Other material
- Corrections/errata
- Supplements
- Key public health message
- Tables and Figures
- References
- Authorship
- Ethical issues
- Inclusive language policy
- Overlapping publications
- GISAID sequences
- How to respond to reviews
How to submit material
All submissions should be sent through the Eurosurveillance online submission system. Once you have created an account and logged in you will have access to an online author tutorial to aid you if you have any difficulties during the submission process.
The journal allows pre- and postprint archiving.
Authors who choose to deposit their manuscript in a preprint server should preferably do so ahead or at the point of submission. Authors should consider a preprint server that offers a licence that is compatible with the Eurosurveillance CC-BY licence. A directory of available preprint servers and their policies can be found for example on the Sherpa Romeo and ASAPbio websites.
The selected preprint server should clearly state that deposited manuscripts are not peer-reviewed and should not be used for decision making. It should have dedicated sections listing authors’ potential conflicts of interest and it should adhere to accepted standards with respect to patient consent and confidentiality and required reviews by ethics committees.
Authors must inform the editors at submission that a preprinted version of their manuscript has been deposited, name the respective preprint server, and provide the DOI for the preprint. During the revision process, the authors are responsible for amending their preprint and pointing readers to subsequent versions. Importantly, they should ensure there is a link from the preprint to the final published article in Eurosurveillance and that the full citation including the DOI is given.
All published articles are automatically deposited in PubMedCentral.
In the submission system you will have to provide the following information:
- the article category;
- a declaration that the material is original and has not been submitted elsewhere;
- a declaration that all authors have seen and approved the final manuscript;
- a declaration that the corresponding author, on behalf of all co-authors, has read and agreed to the terms of the Eurosurveillance data protection notice;
- a declaration that informed consent has been obtained from persons whose details are described in articles (or from the persons’ guardians) that this information may be published;
- a statement on funding and potential competing interests of the authors;
- where appropriate, information on approval of the work by an ethics committee;
- proof of permission to use figures or tables that are adapted or reproduced from other publications.
The following material should be uploaded as separate files:
- a Title page in Word format (see template); this document will be used to populate the relevant fields in the submission system;
- a covering letter;
- an anonymised manuscript text in Word format (pdf files cannot be evaluated) with line numbers and with a minimum of eight references for rapid communications and 15 for regular articles. All author-identifiable information – authors’ names, affiliations and contributions, as well as any acknowledgements – should NOT be included in the document;
- if a collective author is included (e.g. a working group or disease-specific network) and if the persons comprising the group are to be included at the end of the article, please list them in the relevant field; the contribution of the collective author should be stated in the Authors' contributions section which will be published at the end of the article;
- all figures in an appropriate format (see details in the section Figure formatting); The following file formats are automatically converted into the PDF: Word, RTF, TXT, LaTeX2e, AMSTex, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, EPS, Postscript, PICT, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint. Other file types are not automatically supported, but can be included as hyperlink items in the PDF file;
- a scan of the agreement with authors signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors;
- for Research and Surveillance articles and Outbreak reports, the filled-in template with the key public health message of your work.
File names of uploaded files must not contain any author-identifiable information that may lead to identification of the author.
After all files and information have been uploaded in the submission system, the corresponding author is responsible for checking and approving the pdf. Approval of the pdf is required for the article to be sent to the editorial office.
Submissions should conform to the Recommendation for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals, detailed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
Articles should be written in clear, appropriate and scientific language that is free of jargon. Avoid abbreviations when possible and define them when you first use them. Please use United Kingdom English spelling.
Titles: should be interesting, informative, accurate and as short as possible. They should contain the place/country and the time period covered in the paper.
Keywords: A maximum of eight keywords suitable for indexing should be provided. Please select from the list provided and add others if needed. Separate the keywords by a semi-colon (;).
Main text: An introduction should put the topic into perspective using up-to-date references, and clearly state the objective of the work and its relevance. The relevant methods should be presented at an appropriate level of detail; molecular diagnostic techniques that are published or standard, for example, can be named and referenced and do not need to be described in detail. It is important to make it clear at all times which results are the work of the authors, presented as part of the article, and which are already known and given as background or for comparison. If tables and figures are provided, the text should shortly describe and summarise the content, but not unnecessarily repeat the information; the reader should be able to understand text and illustrations independently of each other. The European and international relevance should be discussed with relevant references, and where appropriate, lessons learnt and recommendations for the future should be presented.
Article types
Summary table for quick reference
Rapid communications
Rapid communications are timely, authoritative short reports on important communicable disease findings and events where rapid dissemination of information could potentially lead to a prompt change in an ongoing public health situation or create awareness for topics we consider to be of timely relevance. These articles are usually published within two weeks from submission, but when necessary, publication can be arranged within hours of submission (see e-alerts). They undergo rapid independent peer review by at least one expert in the field.
To allow for such rapid processing, these articles are short, usually around 1,200 words, and have a minimum of eight and up to about 20 references and four illustrations (figures or tables). The abstract should not exceed 80 words.
Rapid communications should not have an IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) structure. Subheadings as appropriate for the content should be used instead and rapid communications should start with a brief description of the current event (a few lines only) and the aim of the study. Necessary background information should be integrated with the discussion where authors put their data into context with other data for their country and Europe, and other relevant literature.
E-alerts are published ad hoc to disseminate information about an important event that should not wait until the next regular publication of Eurosurveillance.
Regular articles
Research articles provide original results from studies on any aspect of communicable disease epidemiology, prevention and control. These papers should include new data or insights of public health importance and consist of ca 3,500 words, a minimum of 15 and up to around 30 references and six illustrations (figures or tables). We require authors to follow the CONSORT guidelines for reporting randomised controlled trials and to include the respective filled in CONSORT checklist in the submission. For economic evaluations of health interventions, we require authors to follow the CHEERS guidelines and to include the respective filled in CHEERS checklist in the submission. Research articles should usually follow the IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) and have a structured abstract that should not exceed 250 words.
Surveillance articles should focus on the analysis and interpretation of epidemiological trends regarding a specific disease, pathogen or health event based on data from a national or international surveillance system. They could also present the evaluation of a surveillance system or the establishment of a new system. These articles may present data from a (regional) national or international surveillance and should contain a meaningful analysis of specific aspects of the data and put these in a wider context. Surveillance articles should have an IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) structure and a structured abstract (Background, Aim, Methods, Results and Conclusion).
The Introduction should describe the public health importance of the disease/pathogen/health event, the rationale for the surveillance and the purpose and the objectives of the study. The Methods should provide a detailed description of the system (can also be brief if described elsewhere and referenced), applied case definitions, data collection (voluntary/mandatory), processing and validation. The Results should be presented in a similar sequence as the methods. Data should span several years to assess trends; however, the time span could be shorter for emerging diseases or new systems. Data should be analysed by age and sex, when relevant. The Discussion should put findings into (European) perspective and highlight lessons learnt and good practices. Authors should discuss the impact that implemented prevention and control measures (or the lack of such measures) have had on trends and the possible need for resource allocation. For description of surveillance systems, results should be interpreted taking into account key attributes such as stability, sensitivity, representativeness and usefulness. Limitations and data quality should also be discussed.
Surveillance articles can be up to ca 3,500 words long. They can have a minimum of 15 and up to ca 30 references, and a maximum of six illustrations (figures or tables). The abstract should not exceed 250 words.
Outbreak reports on national or international outbreaks should be submitted once fully investigated and focus on new or unexpected aspects and on lessons learnt. They should have the following structure: A Background that describes very briefly the pathogen and its transmission, puts the outbreak into context in terms of incidence in Europe and/or in the country or region. The following Outbreak detection passage should describe details of the signal followed by what is presented in the report. The Methods should present the data source(s), case definition, epidemiological (case−control study etc.) and environmental/trace-back investigations as well as microbiological investigations. Data should be analysed by sex and where applicable gender. Results should be presented in a similar sequence as methods and an epicurve and – where applicable, a graphical timeline for the sequence of events should be added. A specific Outbreak control measures section should present measures taken and highlight the difficulties encountered and/or the successes following their implementation. The Discussion should put the findings into (European) perspective and highlight lessons learnt.
Where not essential for understanding of the content, locations will be anonymised so as to prevent identifiability of individuals.
The length of the outbreak reports is up to ca 3,500 words, with a minimum of 15 and up to around 30 references and six illustrations (figures or tables) and the abstract should not exceed 200 words. We encourage authors to follow the STROBE guidelines that were set up for observational studies and to include the respective filled in STROBE checklist in the submission.
For authors reporting an outbreak or intervention study of a nosocomial organism, we encourage them to follow the ORION guidelines and include the related checklist in their submission.
Euroroundups should provide an analysis of a contemporary specific aspect or function of communicable disease surveillance, prevention or control in at least five European countries, and present an in-depth comparison of systems and/or data. The average length of these articles is 3,500 words with a minimum of 15 and up to around 30 references and six illustrations (figures or tables). The abstract should not exceed 200 words.
Review articles provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art overview of issues of major public health importance within the field of communicable disease surveillance, prevention or control. They usually are about 4,000 words in length, and contain up to 80 references and six illustrations (figures or tables). All review articles should explain the search strategy and selection criteria, justify the inclusion/exclusion of material and state the sources. Review articles should have a structured abstract that should not exceed 250 words.
For systematic reviews, we require authors to follow the PRISMA guidelines and to include the respective filled in PRISMA checklist in the submission.
For narrative reviews, authors may consider to look at SANRA—a scale for the quality assessment of narrative review articles.
Perspectives provide an insightful analysis of practices, policies and guidance on communicable disease prevention and control, as well as guidance on developments in the field of vaccines and immunisation. These articles have an average length of ca 2,000 words, and contain a minimum of 10 and up to 20 references and four illustrations (figures or tables). They do not follow an IMRaD structure and are structured by meaningful subheadings. The abstract should not exceed 200 words.
Summary table for quick reference
For more detail see Article types
| What article type is appropriate for my content? | |
|---|---|
| Rapid communication | Timely data that could lead to prompt change in PH practice |
| Research article | Original results from studies |
| Surveillance article | Epidemiological trends based on data from a national or international surveillance system |
| Outbreak report | National or international outbreaks with new or unexpected aspects/lessons learnt, once fully investigated |
| Euroroundup | Joint/comparative analysis from at least five European countries |
| Review | State-of-the-art overview of issues of major public health importance, providing added value over previous reviews on the topic |
| Perspective | Insightful analysis of practices, policies and guidance |
| Meeting report | Contact the editorial team before submission |
| Editorial | Only upon invitation by the editorial team |
| Letter to the editor | Refer to a recent article published in Eurosurveillance |
| Abstract – formal requirements | |
| Rapid communication | Unstructured, ≤ 80 words |
| Research article | Structured, ≤ 250 words |
| Surveillance article | Structured, ≤ 250 words |
| Outbreak report | Unstructured, ≤ 200 words |
| Euroroundup | Unstructured, ≤ 200 words |
| Review | Structured, ≤ 250 words |
| Perspective | Unstructured, ≤ 200 words |
| Text – formal requirements | |
| Rapid communication | ≤ 1,200 words; ≤ 4 illustrations (figures or tables); 8-20 references.No IMRaD. A few lines max introducing the current event; methods are reported together with each result under descriptive subheadings appropriate for the content; Discussion/Conclusion section is required. |
| Research article | ≤ 3,500 words; ≤ 6 illustrations (figures or tables); 15–30 references.IMRaD format. CONSORT and CHEERS guidelines |
| Surveillance article | ≤ 3,500 words; ≤ 6 illustrations (figures or tables); 15-30 references.IMRaD format. |
| Outbreak report | ≤ 3,500 words; ≤ 6 illustrations (figures or tables); 15-30 references.No IMRaD. Instead sections Background, Outbreak detection, Methods, Results, Outbreak control measures, Discussion.STROBE guidelines |
| Euroroundup | ≥ 5 countries – please consult previously published Euroroundups for the format.≤ 3,500 words; ≤ 6 illustrations (figures or tables); 15–30 references. |
| Review | ≤ 4,000 words; ≤ 80 references.PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews |
| Perspective | ≤ 2,000 words; ≤ 4 illustrations (figures or tables); 10–20 references.No IMRaD. Descriptive subheadings appropriate to the content. |
| Meeting report | ≤ 2,000 words; 10 references. |
| Editorial | ≤ 1,500 words; ≤ 4 illustrations (figures or tables); ≤ 20 references.Max 2 authors. |
| Letter to the editor | ≤ 600 words; ≤ 8 references.No original data.≤ 12 weeks since original article. |
| Figures and Tables | |
| Tables | In MS Word inserted in the main manuscript |
| Figures | Editable (vectorised) files (for details see Tables and Figures) |
| Elements of the title page at submission | |
| . | Manuscript title |
| . | Author names (including full first names) |
| . | ORCID (if available) |
| . | Affiliations (including equal contributions if applicable) |
| . | Corresponding author information |
| . | Abstract |
| . | Keywords |
| . | Conflict of interest statement |
| . | Funding statement |
| Other information to be included in all articles | |
| Key public health message | For Research and Surveillance articles and Outbreak reports, include a short text on the key public health message of your work using the provided template |
| Ethical statement | Information on ethical approval of the study, including the registration number of the relevant ethics board, or a statement explaining why such approval was not necessary |
| Authorship | Follows ICMJE authorship criteria |
| Contributions | To be detailed for each individual author |
| Informed consent | Even if consent has been obtained, identifiable information about individuals should be kept to the necessary minimum |
| Acknowledgements | If applicable |
| References | In Vancouver style |
Other material
The following content types are not peer-reviewed. However, we may consult an expert for advice on the content of such items.
Editorials are written by experts invited to comment on articles and special topics covered by Eurosurveillance and usually have a maximum of two authors. Editorials are usually 1,500 words long and contain a maximum of 20 references and four illustrations (figures or tables). As the editorial reflects the personal opinion of the author, the sections Funding information and Authors' contributions are not required. A Conflict of interest statement should be included.
Letters to the editor comment on recent Eurosurveillance articles and should be submitted within 12 weeks after the publication of the article in question. They are intended to stimulate scientific discussion and are not a format for the publication of original data. Their average length is 600 words, with five or fewer references. As Letters to the editor do not contain original data, a section with an Ethical statement is not required. A section on Authors' contributions and a Conflict of interest statement should be included. Only one letter may be submitted by any single author or group of authors on any one published paper.
Meeting reports should provide a synopsis of the content of the presentations and have up to 2,000 words, 10 references (including, when possible, links to full reports of conference activities) and no illustrations. Before submitting a meeting report, please contact the editorial team. Statements on Conflict of interest and Use of artificial intelligence should be included. Other statements such as funding or Acknowledgements are not foreseen in the article category Meeting report.
Addenda provide new information after publication of an article in cases where such information is relevant but has no bearing on the study outcome and conclusions. Moreover, the information should neither have been available at the time of publication of the article nor justify the publication of a second full article. Addenda should be very short and may contain maximum one illustration.
Corrections/errata
The editorial team should be informed immediately of any errata or corrections to be made. Such changes are made immediately in the original article as well as the pdf, together with an editorial note explaining the nature and date of the change.
Supplementary material
Materials that are not essential for the reader to understand the methodology and results of an article, and to follow the logic of the text, can be submitted as supplementary materials. They are intended to host additional information that is not really part of the main study results, it is basically “data not shown”. A supplementary item can therefore not be cited as if it was a figure/table inside the manuscript. Their content is not edited or quality-checked, therefore any data on which you base your discussion and conclusions should be at least summarised in the main manuscript. You can then refer to the supplement for further detail/raw data or such. The main text needs to include a brief description of what the reader will find in that supplement.
Such materials may, for example, comprise questionnaires, search strategies for systematic reviews, additional pictures/videos of a time series where only some time points are in the main paper, models or other very detailed experimental information, sensitivity analyses etc. that help increase transparency and reproducibility of presented findings. There should be an obvious reason why these items are in the supplement instead of the main manuscript, for example because it shows extra sensitivity analyses or extra timepoints or a huge table of raw data. Very large sets of raw data are generally not considered supplementary materials and these should be deposited preferably in publicly funded open access repositories that would allow citing them.
Supplementary material should not be used for additional discussion, analysis, or interpretations of the findings in the article. We wish to emphasise that a supplement is not a means to circumvent restrictions on the number of figures in a manuscript. Rather these restrictions should guide the author to find a focus of what their main message is.
Supplementary materials will be made available on the Eurosurveillance website alongside the article, on behalf of the authors who remain responsible for the accuracy of the content. If any of the supplemental material has been previously published, the authors are responsible for obtaining the required permissions and attributing the source material. The supplementary materials will not be edited.
Authors may submit PDFs, Excel files, images and audio-visual materials. Pdf format is preferred. If possible, all material should be combined in one file. They should be referred to in the manuscript text as Supplementary Table S1, S2.., Supplementary Figure S1, S2..., or Supplement S1, S2..., as appropriate for its content.
The supplement files themselves should be headed with a short descriptive title and contain the following disclaimer:
"This supplementary material is hosted by Eurosurveillance as supporting information alongside the article [Title], on behalf of the authors, who remain responsible for the accuracy and appropriateness of the content. The same standards for ethics, copyright, attributions and permissions as for the article apply. Supplements are not edited by Eurosurveillance and the journal is not responsible for the maintenance of any links or email addresses provided therein."
Please note: the authors' names should not be displayed upon submission because Eurosurveillance uses double-blind review and reviewers will have access to the supplementary material. Supplementary materials should be submitted in English unless otherwise agreed with the editorial team. Authors should format the text and tables etc. using the following instructions: Supplement style and formats. The length of supplementary materials should be reasonable and generally not exceed 20 pages in total. The supplementary materials will not undergo formal peer review. They will be made available to reviewers as supporting information and the editors expect authors to take possible reviewer comments into account where appropriate. Models submitted as supplementary materials will undergo an initial check by board members with respective expertise before they are sent together with the manuscript to the peer-reviewers.
Key public health message
For the benefit of our readers with different professional backgrounds, we include a key public health message box at the top of the published article. Its purpose is to explain what public health impact and importance the article has. It is a summary of the article’s findings meant for journalists, policy makers and the interested layperson. When preparing the text for this particular section, please avoid scientific jargon and think of explaining what you did in simple language to someone like your neighbour. We provide a template for this which you should fill out and include in your submission. Currently, we pilot this initiative on the following article categories: Research articles, Surveillance articles and Outbreak reports.
Tables and Figures
Table formatting
Tables must be created in Word. The full table (title, table, notes) should be inserted in the manuscript directly after the first paragraph in which it is mentioned. As tables must be editable, images are not acceptable.
Numbers and percentages should be split into separate columns. To aid readability in both the online and .pdf versions of the article, portrait-oriented tables are preferred whenever possible.
Figure formatting
A figure’s title and notes should be inserted in the manuscript directly after the first paragraph in which it is mentioned. Figure files should not be inserted in the manuscript, but should be uploaded as separate, editable files.
Figures should always be provided as vector files (.pdf, .eps, .wmf, .emf, .svg) and should not include bitmap elements (i.e. a map as a picture in the background). Bitmap files (.jpg, .bmp, .gif, etc) cannot be used because they cannot be edited and are not linked to the original data.
For .pdf files, be sure to export the figure as a pdf directly from the programme in which it was created; do not export the figure in another format and then save it as a pdf or it will not be a vector file.
Graphs should be provided in Excel format, whenever possible. If this is not possible, please follow the general guidelines for figure file types.
Photographs should be given as high-resolution bitmap files (.jpg, .tif, etc.). These should be provided as stand-alone original files, not within Word or PowerPoint documents.
Pie charts are generally not used in Eurosurveillance. Unless otherwise agreed with the editor, please choose a different type of graph.
Titles, notes and references
In general, table/figure titles should be short and follow the format: disease, stratification, town, country, date (n = #). Abbreviations should be avoided unless necessary in particularly long titles.
Any additional information needed to understand a table/figure should be given below the table/figure in the following order:
(i) all abbreviations used in the table (in alphabetical order)
(ii) all footnotes used in the table (using a lettered list format, alphabetically by row)
(iii) any further notes
(iv) data source (if applicable)
All tables/figures should be able to stand alone outside the context of the manuscript; the reader should be able to understand the information without referring to explanations in the text.
Any references cited within a table/figure should be numbered chronologically, following the last reference number cited in the manuscript.
Previously published material
Tables and figures that have already been published can only be accepted under specific circumstances. When appropriate, authors are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material in question; this should be done ahead of submission. The original source of the material needs to be clearly acknowledged and/or referenced. Copyright also needs to be observed, for example, for maps used as a background in figures.
References
Citations are numbered in the order of appearance in the text. Reference numbers are placed in square brackets [1] in the text. References cited in a table or figure legend should be numbered after the citations in the text.
Papers that are accepted for publication can be cited as forthcoming. Preprints should be cited in journal style and include the DOI. Other material not yet accepted for publication cannot be cited and is instead indicated in parentheses in the main text, either as data not shown, if the information comes from one of the authors, or as personal communication, if the information comes from someone else. Personal communications must include the name of the person and the date the communication took place.
References should be formatted according to the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals’(Vancouver style). Do not use italics, bold or underlining.
If there are more than six authors, list the first six authors followed by et al. For example:
1. Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002;935(1-2):40-6.
More samples of reference formats can be seen at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
Citing preprints
Preprints can be cited in submitted articles, however, the citations should be clearly labelled PREPRINT and we encourage authors to ensure that versions published after submission and before the finalisation of an article are cited where applicable.
Authors should not cite their own preprint version in their submitted article, however, they should mention it in the acknowledgments section of the final article.
Authors and acknowledgements
All listed authors should have made substantive intellectual contributions to the article, be aware of its submission to Eurosurveillance and able to account for its content. All authors (this includes members of a collectove group author) must fulfil all four ICMJE authorship criteria.
Clearly identify and provide the email address for the corresponding author.
The article needs to detail, for all authors, the individual contributions, Conflicts of interest in relation to this article.
The names of people who have made contributions that are not sufficient to fulfil all authorship criteria can be mentioned in the acknowledgements. You may acknowledge anyone who has helped you with any aspect of the report, but it is always the corresponding author’s responsibility to obtain permission from anyone being acknowledged.
Because of Crossref restrictions, we can accommodate a maximum number of 5 affiliations to a single author.
In our submission system, authors can also include an ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), if they have one. We encourage authors to use this system.
It is possible to provide a collective name as an author (working group, disease-specific network, etc.). The members of such a group can be listed at the end of the article and will appear in PubMed/MEDLINE indexation.
A statement on funding for the work described in the manuscript should be included.
Any changes to the author list after submission must approved by every author and discussed with the editorial team. Please consult our Editorial policy for the formal procedure.
Ethical issues
All articles should contain a section stating whether ethical approval was obtained for the study and if not, explain why this was not necessary.
For articles reporting outcomes from studies involving humans and related data, Eurosurveillance requests authors to declare that the planning conduct and reporting of studies was in line with the Declaration of Helsinki, as revised in 2013.
Approval to conduct the study should be obtained from an independent local, regional or national review body (e.g. ethics committee, institutional review board). The name of the board and the number/ID of the approval(s) should be given.
The Eurosurveillance editors reserve the right to judge whether the conduct of the study/research was appropriate.
Informed consent should be obtained for individuals who may be identifiable in submitted manuscripts. The patient consent should be archived with the authors. Non-essential details leading to identification of individuals should be omitted from manuscripts. In exceptional circumstances, such as during a public health emergency, other legal basis than consent for processing personal data might apply. Such circumstances need prior discussion with the journal.
For studies reporting experiments on animals, authors are requested to state whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of animals were followed and that the study has been approved by an ethical review committee. Guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.
Inclusive language policy
In alignment with our ongoing commitment to the SDG (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) Publishers Compact, Eurosurveillance asks authors to consider the use of inclusive language in their submissions as it relates to potential stereotypes or bias. Authors should make sure to use gender-neutral language where applicable and to use appropriate language when referring to or discussing sex, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity or disability in their study.
For guidance on inclusive language practices while preparing or revising a submission, we encourage authors to review the Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications, available here.
Overlapping publications
Eurosurveillance publishes original material; however, in certain circumstances, the journal may allow authors to submit material that has previously been published or for which publication is forthcoming, if such dissemination would be beneficial from a scientific or public health perspective, such as reaching a wider readership that cannot read the primary publication or has limited access to it. For example, this could be material previously published in a language other than English. Such overlapping publication will mainly be considered for short articles on topics that have been previously covered in the bulletins or websites of the national public health institutes. Eurosurveillance aims to add value to these publications and expects authors to widen the discussion so that it reflects the larger European context and additional references should be included. Clear reference to the previous publication needs to be made in the manuscript and cover letter in order to avoid duplicate publication as defined by the ICMJE.
Through its rapid communications, Eurosurveillance has a long-standing track record of disseminating information that may have immediate implications for public health. A longer article that expands on preliminary findings previously covered in a rapid communication might be considered as an individual publication. Furthermore, the editors may accept summary articles based on longer reports or guidelines previously published by public health authorities or similar organisations, in order to make them available in English or support the widest possible dissemination of important information to different target audiences.
It should, however, be made clear in the submission that the material has been published elsewhere and, where appropriate, permission from the editor/publisher of the primary publication must be sought and documented in advance. If published, the primary publication should be clearly acknowledged in the manuscript with a reference and, where possible, the web link to the original material.
Prospective authors should consult the guidelines on ‘Overlapping Publications’ in the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals.
Secondary publications are subject to the normal Eurosurveillance review process.
GISAID sequences
Although the database of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) is publicly accessible, attention should be paid to correct attribution of the data used. You should acknowledge the authors, originating and submitting laboratories of the sequences from GISAID’s EpiFlu database on which the research is based, and to refer to the GISAID website. In addition to an appropriate acknowledgement, we recommend including a table in the Methods section, listing all sequences with the respective background information, unless there is an unmanageable number of them. Examples of how to do this can be found here: Article 1, Article 2
How to respond to reviews
When preparing your revision after review, please include a poin-by-point response to all reviewer and editorial comments according to the example here
Contacting the editorial team
If you have any questions about Eurosurveillance, please contact our editorial team at [email protected]