Guidelines
Authors Guideline
Disease specific articles/research
Original research studies or report on secondary data that can improve decision making in public health emergency, clinical medicine, health care policy, medical education, or medical research
Health events/event-based surveillance reports
An article of a summary and interpretation of surveillance data for a given period of time. A description of the surveillance system and the limitations of the data collected must be included.
Field Investigation Analysis/report
This is an investigation conducted in a field while responding to public health emergency or disaster
Outbreak reports
An outbreak report is a document summarizing all the steps, main findings and recommendations of the outbreak investigation
Risk Communication
Is a message directed towards the public, health professional and stake holders regarding current and priority given public health issues.
Case report/study
These are reports of an individual patient on their symptoms, treatment reactions on a disease or condition of interest. These reports normally focus on unusual reactions or occurrences.
Program interventions (malaria, immunization, etc.)
These reports include specific disease intervention done nationally
1.2.1 Submission
Authors submit the above-mentioned types of articles to the official EWEB email address for article submission. ……@ephi.gov.et
1.2.2. Criteria for publication
- Articles should be based on analysis using acceptable scientific method and should include sufficient data to adequately address the public health topic.
- Articles should contain the most current data from surveys, surveillance system or studies. Reports on investigations in progress or completed recently have the highest priority for publication.
- Data from outbreak should note be older than three months at the time of submission, surveillance data should not be older than 10 years, and other data should not be older than two years.
- Articles should adhere to plain language principles that considers local and international audiences. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid.
1.2.3. General Formatting For All Submission
EWEB prefers to receive a single complete file that includes all figures and tables in Word’s.docx format. Use single spacing throughout the text, tables, figure legends, and References and Notes. Technical terms should be defined. Symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms should be defined the first time they are used. All tables and figures should be cited in numerical order. Use Times New Roman (12). Titles should be capital and bold with size 14. For tables it should be Times New Roman, Font size 9 No vertical lines. Horizontal lines in the table can be removed. No table should be larger than a single A4 page. Footnote should be size 9 and italic.
2. Specific Requirement for types of articles
Manuscripts are suggested to be arranged in the following order:
- Title page
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Introduction
- Materials and methods
- Results
- Discussion and conclusion
- Conflict of interest
- Acknowledgments
- Author contributions
- References
- Figure captions
- Tables
- Supplementary materials
A. Title page
- A concise and informative title
- The name(s) of the author(s). All authors are responsible for the content of the manuscript
- The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
- The current e-mail address, telephone numbers of the corresponding author(s)
B. Abstract
One single paragraph of no more than 250 words that clearly describe the major findings reported in the manuscript.
C. Keywords
Provide a list of 4-6 words/phrases that reflect the specificity of the paper for indexing purposes in order of importance. Careful selection of keywords will help researchers to retrieve, read and cite your paper.
D. Introduction/Background
Briefly introduce the purpose of the study and its relationship to earlier work in the field. Usually no more than one formatted page.
E. Materials and methods
This section should be a concise summary (1 or 2 paragraphs) of the methods used to conduct the analysis. Important components of this section might include the sources of data, a statement of how the data were collected, case definitions or participant selection criteria, the period of study, types of specimens taken and tests performed (e.g., serology, culture, or toxicology), and statistical methods used. For survey and surveillance data, response rates should be specified. Ethical considerations including Institutional review board approvals, informed assent and consent, and permission to access data for articles based on secondary data such as surveillance data among others.
F. Results
The results section is a concise highlighting of the major results of the analysis. Examples might include elements of the descriptive (i.e., time, place, person) and epidemiologic results, disease trends and rates, treatments, and outcomes. Minor results from tables or figures should not be highlighted in results. Case reports and series should include details on exposure, signs and symptoms, initial diagnosis, laboratory and radiologic findings, treatment, clinical course, and outcome. Generally, data highlighted in the text also are presented in a table or figure.
- Discussion and conclusion
Should focus on the interpretation of the results and avoid repeated information that already existed in the "Introduction" and "Results" sections.
H. Conflict of Interest
Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could influence or bias the work. Examples of potential conflicts of interests that are directly or indirectly related to the research need to be include. In addition, interests that go beyond financial interests and compensation (non-financial interests) that may be important to readers should be disclosed. These may include but are not limited to personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research, or professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.
The corresponding author will include a summary statement in the text of the manuscript in a separate section before the reference list. An example of disclosure is shown below:
Conflict of interest: Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.
If no conflict exists, the authors should state: "Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest."
I. Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of grants, funds, people, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.
J. Author contributions
Authors are required to include a statement to specify the contributions of each co-author. The statement can be up to several sentences long, describing the tasks of individual authors referred to by their initials.
K. References
We don’t copy edit your references. Therefore, it’s essential you format them correctly, as they will be linked electronically to external databases where possible. We use the Vancouver referencing style. So, when formatting your references, make sure they:
- ≤ 15 references
- Run sequentially (and are always numerical).
- Sit within square brackets.
- Only have one publication linked to each number.
- Only include papers or datasets that have been published or accepted by a named publication, recognized preprint server or data repository (if you include any preprints of accepted papers in your reference list, make sure you submit them with the manuscript).
- Include published conference abstracts and numbered patents, if you wish.
- Don’t include grant details and acknowledgements.
L. Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
M. Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
- Supplementary materials
Supplementary materials can support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Please note that such items are published online exactly as they are submitted; there is no typesetting involved (supplementary data supplied as an Excel file or as a PowerPoint slide will appear as such online). Please submit the material together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. If you wish to make any changes to supplementary data during any stage of the process, then please make sure to provide an updated file, and do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please also make sure to switch off the "Track Changes" option in any Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published supplementary file(s).
An article of a summary and interpretation of surveillance data for a given period of time. A description of the surveillance system and the limitations of the data collected must be included.
- Unstructured abstract of ≤ 250 words
- Word limit: ≤ 2000 words
- ≤15 references
- ≤10 figures/graphs/pictures/tables
A short article describing an investigation conducted in the field while responding to a disaster or public health event.
Structured article with sections for introduction, methods, results and discussion
- Structured abstract of ≤ 250 words with sections for objective, methods, results and discussion
- Word limit: ≤ 1500 words
- ≤ 15 references
- ≤ 2 figures/graphs/pictures/tables
More comprehensive investigations can be submitted as Original Research.
A short article describing an outbreak investigation including how it was detected, investigated and controlled. Rapid risk assessments undertaken during these investigations are also encouraged.
- Structured article with sections for introduction, methods, results and discussion
- Structured abstract of ≤ 250 words with sections for objective, methods, results and discussion
- Word limit: ≤ 1500 words
- ≤ 15 references
- ≤ 2 figures/graphs/pictures/tables
More comprehensive investigations can be submitted as Original Research
An article describing the implementation of a new surveillance system or an evaluation of an existing surveillance system used to detect public health events.
- Unstructured abstract of ≤ 250 words
- Word limit: ≤ 2000 words
- ≤ 15 references
- ≤ 3 figures/graphs/pictures/tables
An unstructured article describing an unusual case or series of cases with public health significance. Sub-headings may be used to increase the readability of the article.
- Unstructured abstract of ≤ 250 words
- Word limit: ≤ 2000 words
- ≤ 15 references
- ≤ 3 figures/graphs/pictures/tables
Risk communication is the real-time exchange of information, advice and opinions between experts or officials and people who face a threat (from a hazard) to their survival, health or economic or social wellbeing.
- It needs to have timely and accurate message
- be sure to use clear, non-technical language to discuss risks and other specific information indicating the nature, form, severity, or magnitude of the risk.
- Avoid acronyms and jargon and provide careful definitions in advance.
- Word limit: ≤ 2000 words
- ≤ 5 figures/graphs/pictures/tables
