Prepare Manuscript

Use Microsoft Word, 12 pt Times New Roman (or similar font); double-spaced and left justified. Use continuous line numbering in your manuscript.

Parts of a Manuscript

Each manuscript should contain each of the following elements, in the following order.

Title Page

Give complete information about each author (i.e., full name, graduate degree(s), affiliation, and the name of the institution in which the work was done. Clearly identify the corresponding author and provide that author’s mailing address (include phone number, fax number, and email address). Include separate word counts for abstract and text.

The following are examples of footnotes that should be included, when necessary, at the beginning of an article (linked to author[s] name[s]):

¹These authors contributed equally to this article.

¹These first authors contributed equally to this article.

¹These senior authors contributed equally to this article.

¹These authors were co–principal investigators.

¹Current affiliate: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

¹Deceased.
(Note: the affiliation for deceased authors should be included in the affiliation list.)

¹Members of the team/group are listed at the end of this article/in the Technical Appendix.

¹Preliminary results from this study were presented at the XXX conference; July 17-20, 2012, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Article Summary Line

For perspectives, synopses, policy reviews, and research studies, include a clear, brief 1-sentence summary of the article’s conclusions; the summary will appear in the table of contents. This sentence should highlight the bottom-line public health implications of the article and should be pithy, readable, and designed to entice someone to read the full article.

Running Title

A running title that will appear on the top of each right-hand print page and along top of the online browser window. The running title should be no more than 50 characters long, including spaces. Some common abbreviations (E. coli) and acronyms (MRSA, MDR TB, XDR TB) are allowed in running titles, but less familiar terms should be written out within the character limit.

Keywords

Include appropriate keywords (no limit); use terms listed in the National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings index (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html). Do not use formatting (boldface or italics) in keywords (note that they are only used for indexing and are not visible to readers).

Title

The title should be brief, concise, and call attention to the main point of the article. With a few exceptions, abbreviations and acronyms must be written out in full in titles but numbers can be given as digits rather than spelled out. EID does not use subtitles in titles or titles that are sentences.

Authors

Give complete information about each author (i.e., full name, affiliation, and the name of the institution where the work was done). Provide, at minimum, first and last names of each author. Middle names or initials and academic degrees are optional, although academic degrees will not appear in the published article. (Note: use periods, but no spaces, between initials.)

Use the following format:

Dana C. Crawford, Shanta M. Zimmer, Craig A. Morin, Nancy E. Messonnier, Ruth Lynfield, Qian Yi, Cynthia Shephard, Michelle Wong, Mark J. Rieder, Robert J. Livingston, Deborah A. Nickerson, Cynthia G. Whitney, and Jairam Lingappa

If 2 or more authors contributed equally to an article, this contribution may be acknowledged with a footnote that states “These authors contributed equally to this article.” However, a biographical sketch will be included for only the first author (unless the article has only 2 authors).

Affiliations

Authors may list multiple affiliations, but provide only the overall institutional affiliation for each, not departments or other subunits. Identify city, state or province (for USA, Canada, Australia only), and country.

Incorrect: National Immunization Program, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Correct: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Incorrect: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Correct: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Author’s full initials and last name will appear after their respective institutions.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (J. Doe, A.-E. Smith); and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA (J. Doe, B. Jones)

Use heading of “Author affiliations:” (>1 affiliation) or “Author affiliation” (1 only). No possessive (i.e., not Authors’).

Drop redundant material after first mention, unless something changes after city.

Author affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Emory University, Atlanta

Author affiliations: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA; EviMed Research Group, LLC, Goshen, Massachusetts, USA

Author affiliations: Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; The Consortium for Conservation Medicine, New York; University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA; New York State Department of Health, Slingerlands, New York, USA

Author affiliations: Queensland Health, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; University of Queensland, Brisbane; Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand; OzFoodNet, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia; OzFoodNet, Wallsend, New South Wales, Australia; and Australian National University, Canberra

When all authors have 2 affiliations, and those affiliations are the same it is acceptable to format as:

Author affiliations:  Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; and Emory University, Atlanta.

Universities with multiple campuses:

Write campus (city) location as city, so it appears only once.

Incorrect: University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

Correct: University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Names of institutions (including geographic designations that are part of the name) need not be translated into English. However, the city, state or province, and country listed in the affiliation should be given as the common English preferred designation in the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names.

Incorrect: Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italia

Correct: Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy

Institut Pasteur (Pasteur Institute in English) should list the city separately, not as part of the name.

Incorrect: Institut Pasteur de Morocco, Casablanca, Morocco

Correct: Institut Pasteur, Casablanca, Morocco

Countries: Abbreviate USA and UK within affiliations in all cases. Include the state, territory, or province only for the USA, Canada, and Australia. Do not list the country for cities in England (only UK); do specify Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland for cities in these countries.

List China as China. For Taiwan, it is up to the author’s discretion whether or not to use “Republic of China.”

On second mention within affiliations, abbreviate DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

List Hong Kong as Hong Kong, China, at first mention, then just Hong Kong at subsequent mention. Special Administrative Region is not the preferred usage, according to Getty.

Mention Singapore (city/country) only once.

According to Australia’s postal conventions, the suburb, not the city, is used in an address.

Organizations in author list:  If the author list on an article includes an organization and a membership list is given, follow this process:

1. Insert a superscript footnote number after the organization name.

2. Insert a footnote after the affiliations in this format: “Additional members of [group name] who contributed data are listed at the end of this article.” If no members are listed separately as authors, delete “additional”; “who contributed data” can also be deleted if appropriate, such as when all group members are listed.

3. Place the member list directly after the text of the article, formatted using the Acknowledgments style. If there is an Acknowledgments header, then this paragraph should go before the header (not under it).

4. Use the same wording as the footnote as an introduction before the list: “Additional members of [group name] who contributed data:”

5. If locations are given, list name first, then location in parentheses. That is, “S.N. O’Connor (United States),” not “United States: S.N. O’Connor.”

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Abstract

An abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the article; it allows readers to survey the contents of an article quickly, and like a title, it enables abstracting and information services to index and retrieve articles. An abstract should briefly summarize the research question and any relevant background information, methods, results, and conclusions. Avoid vague or promising phrases such as “…implications of these findings are discussed;” instead, state public health implications of the results.

Do not use structured abstracts (i.e., subheadings). Do not cite references in the abstract. Abstracts for perspectives, synopses, policy reviews, and research studies should not exceed 150 words. Abstracts for dispatches and research letters should not exceed 50 words. Authors may submit an abstract in their native language as well as in English. Letters commenting on articles, book reviews, and conference summaries do not have abstracts.

Text

Keep formatting simple. Use 12-point Times New Roman font with ragged right margins (left justified). Double space everything, including the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. Indent paragraphs; leave no extra space between paragraphs. After a period, leave only 1 space before beginning the next sentence. Italicize (rather than underline) scientific names when needed.

Acknowledgments

Full names only, not titles (e.g., Doctor, Professor) and affiliations, are listed for persons acknowledged. Acknowledgments for materials supplied belong as a parenthetical citation in the text where materials are mentioned.

Disclaimers

A disclaimer is placed on the inside front cover of the published journal and used periodically throughout the publication. It states, “The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated.” Additional disclaimers are discouraged.

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Biographical Sketch

For all article types, excluding letters, media reviews, and conference summaries, include a short (2–3 sentences) biographical sketch of only the first author or of both authors if only 2 authors. Include current position and affiliations (city but not state and country if same as in author affiliation list) and primary research interests.

Address for Correspondence

Clearly identify the corresponding author and provide that author’s mailing address, including phone number, fax number, and email address.

(The phone and fax number will not be published.) Only 1 author may be designated as corresponding, and only 1 address may be published for that author (i.e., corresponding author may not list 2 email addresses).

Follow the conventions used in individual countries for capitalizng or not capitalizing street names. Capitalize CEDEX in French addressed. Examples:

In France: 28 rue du Docteur Roux

In France: 20 rue Leblanc, 7508 Paris CEDEX 15, France

In the United States: Main St

In the United States: 1600 Clifton Rd NE

Use capital letters for the first word of agency names, except for prepositions (e.g., of, with, in); articles (e.g., a, an, the [unless "The" is part of the agency name]); and conjunctions (e.g., and).

Use the US form of country names.

Mexico, not México
Peru, not Péru
Brazil, not Brasil

For CDC addresses, list CDC only (spelled out), not CIOs; provide mailstop; include NE after Clifton Road.

John Doe, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Mailstop X55, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA

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Supplemental Materials

For materials outside the scope of the article, authors may submit an Appendix, which will be included with the article. Appendixes can include additional text, references, tables, figures, and other materials. Appendixes will be formatted but not edited; these materials are not included in the manuscript maximum word and reference counts. Links to Appendix materials will be provided in the text of the article where the materials are cited. Appendixes that are surveys written in a language other than English may be published in their original language.

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