Instructions for Authors

1.   Editorial Policies

Journal of Zoonotic Diseases is an authoritative, peer-reviewed journal providing basic and applied research on diseases transmitted to humans by invertebrate vectors or non-human vertebrates. The Journal publishes original research and review articles focusing on all aspects of zoonotic diseases including geographic, seasonal, and other risk factors that influence the transmission, diagnosis, management, and prevention of this group of infectious diseases, and identifies global trends that have the potential to result in major epidemics. Journal of Zoonotic Diseases coverage includes:

• New knowledge on pathogens (viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminthes, fungi and prions) and on host-pathogen interactions. Papers elucidating molecular mechanisms of interactions between hosts and disease agents are highly appreciated.
• Immunity to pathogenic micro-organisms and systemic and mucosal immunology of infected organisms. This topic encompasses fundamental studies on the immune system of animals. The development and evaluation of new vaccines against pathogens will be considered.
• Epidemiological papers should provide new knowledge on pathogen-host interactions and/or host-population interactions related to infectious diseases. Manuscripts dealing with spread and/or transmission dynamics of infectious diseases will be favored. Studies using mathematical modeling and developing or applying new epidemiological methods will be welcomed if they are based on a biological application. Descriptive epidemiological studies, meta-analyses and studies providing information of geographically limited interest will be considered.

The audience of this journal might be veterinary and medical scientists, infectious disease specialists, virologists, public health researchers among others working in research institutes, universities, governmental organizations, private agencies, and pharmaceutical industry.

2.     Submission of Manuscripts

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. Man­uscripts submitted for publication should describe original work and accompanied by a cov­er­ing letter to the Editor-in-Chief containing ti­tle and author (s) name and a statement ensuring that the manuscript has not been totally or partly published or submitted else­where.  Man­uscripts must be submitted online via Journal's web address (URL:http:/jzd.tabrizu.ac.ir). Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail. Manuscript must be in English, written according to sound grammar and proper terminology and in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx). Manuscripts should be arranged as follows: title page, abstract (150-300 words), introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments, references, table and figure legends. The title page of the paper should contain the title of your paper, all authors’ names (initial, middle and last name), affiliations and full addresses (Tel, Fax, and e-mail). If an author's affiliation has changed since the study was performed, the author's new affiliation should be identified. The name of the corresponding author should also be included on the title page. Please note that the names of the authors and their affiliations should not be included in the main document. Authors are required to provide the names, affiliations, and contact information (full mailing and e-mail addresses) of two potential reviewers related to their manuscripts; though choice of reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

3.      Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors (all must sign the cover letter accompanying the manuscript) and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

4.   Authorship and Authors contribution 

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual contents, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

5.     Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

6.     Funding

Financial disclosure

Financial disclosure should apply for all manuscript submissions. Authors are expected to provide detailed information about any relevant financial interests or financial conflicts within the past 5 years and for the foreseeable future.
Authors who have no relevant financial interests are asked to provide a statement indicating that they have no financial interests related to the material in the manuscript.

7.     Acknowledgements

 Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

8.     Animal rights

All animal studies must have been approved by the appropriate institutional review board(s), and a specific declaration of such approval must be made in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the Methods section. All research studies involving animals must have been performed with great respect to the animal welfare. The precise genotype, strain, source, number of backcrosses, sex, and age of animals studied must be provided in the manuscript. Any unnecessary manipulation or stress should be strictly avoided. If animals were euthanized, the method of euthanasia must be indicated.

Conflict of Interests

All authors of submitting articles to the journal must disclose any conflict of interest they may have with an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript. The Editor will discuss with the authors on an individual basis the method by which any conflicts of interest will be communicated to the readers.

9.     Style

For anatomic terms, use anglicized versions of official terms listed in the Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria. Refer to the latest editions of the American Drug Index and USP Dictionary of USAN and International Drug Names for proper spelling of chemical and drug names and to the latest edition of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary for proper spelling and use of medical terms. Refer to Bergey's Manual of Determinative Microbiology for spelling and correct taxonomic classifications of microorganisms. Use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Except for standard abbreviations and units of measure, all abbreviations used three or more times in the text, figures, and tables of a manuscript should be listed at the beginning of the manuscript, along with their definitions. Abbreviations that appear in the figures or tables should be defined in the table or figure legend. In addition, abbreviations in the abstract must be expanded at first mention, with the abbreviation given in parentheses after first mention of the expanded term. Abbreviations should not be used to begin a sentence. Products, equipment, and drugs should be identified by chemical or generic names or descriptions. A trade name may be included in a lettered footnote if that specific product, equipment, or drug was essential for the outcome. Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. Body weights and temperatures must be reported in metric units. All dosages must include route of administration and interval (e.g., 10 mg kg^-1, IV, q12h). The manufacturer name with the city, state, and country must be provided for any brand name drugs.

10.   Categories of Manuscripts

Original Article: should report the results of research that comprises one or a series of experiments. The paper should contribute to increasing our understanding of the biology and/or manipulation of reproduction in animals. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form. Original research manuscripts should not exceed 3,000 words and must be presented in the standard format described below.

Review Article: should cover subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest. In review articles, the results of published research are closely evaluated, the strong and weak points are stated, and suggestions for further improvement may be made. They may be submitted or invited and should not exceed 5,000 words. Also they should not be less than 3000 words. Mini Reviews are peer-reviewed, have a maximum word count of 3,000 and may contain no more than 2 Figures/Tables.

Invited reviews will normally be solicited by the Review's Editor, but suggestions for appropriate review topics may be sent to the Editor in Chief of JZD.

Short Communication or Case Study: is for a concise, but independent report representing a significant contribution to veterinary science and medicine and must report completed work, not preliminary findings: they are an alternative format for describing smaller pieces of work.Short communication and case studies should not exceed 1,000 words with no more than 10 references and one table or figure.

11.   Manuscript Preparation

Manuscript structure

- Cover letter

- Title & Running Title

- Title page (Authors, Affiliations, Corresponding author contact details)

- Introduction

- Material and Methods (Statistics)

- Results

- Discussion

- Conclusion

- Acknowledgments

- Author's Contributions

- Conflict of Interests

- Financial Disclosure

- Ethical approval

- References

- Tables

- Figures / Images

Manuscripts should have numbered lines with wide margins and double spacing throughout, i.e. also for abstracts, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered.

Authors should list 3 to 5 alphabetically ordered keywords which appropriately represent the contents of their manuscripts. The key words should not preferably are included in title of manuscript. Please avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of').

Use generic names for drugs where possible. If you wish to use a proprietary drug name, the first time it appears use the generic name followed by the proprietary name, manufacturer, and city in parenthesis. If propriety names must be used, include trademark information. Scientific names for species must appear with genus spelled in full on first occurrence and abbreviated thereafter. Family names should appear on first occurrence of uncommon species.

The manuscript (including references, and figure legends) must be double spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman font, 3.5 cm margins, and left justification. Each line and page of the manuscript must be numbered, beginning from the title page.

Summary
A concise and factual abstract is required of 150 to 300 words. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Introduction 
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. The introduction "sets the scene" for your work. Do not over-reference statements; two or three key references should suffice unless each adds something specific. The introduction should not normally be more than 500 words (approximately two manuscript pages).

Materials and methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

Results 
Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion 
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions 
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion section.

Figures

Simple figures such as line drawings, bar graphs, and line graphs prepared in Excel should be saved as Excel files (.xls). Captions should be placed below the figures. Line drawings and graphs that were not prepared in Excel should be scanned on a flatbed scanner. Figures created with software programs that use proprietary graphic formats (e.g., SigmaPlot, Statistix) cannot be used; most such software programs have the capability to save figures in one of the aforementioned formats. Minimum resolution for line drawings and charts is 1,000 dpi. Figures that consist of images (e.g., photographs, photomicrographs, and radiographs) should be scanned on a flatbed scanner at a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Files should be saved as jpg. If images were obtained with a digital camera, please submit the electronic file, rather than printing out the image and scanning it. Color figures should be submitted in CMYK, rather than RGB, format to prevent color shift during production. Place explanatory matters in footnotes, not in the heading. The same data should not be presented in ta­bles, figures and text, simultaneously.

Tables

Tables should not be embedded in the manuscript and they have to be saved as separate Microsoft Word files. Captions should be placed above the tables. Tables in limited numbers should be submit­ted. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text.

References

All citations in the text should refer to the list of references as follows based on JZD style:

Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication; 
Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;

Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication. 
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically. Examples: 'as demonstrated (Allan, 2000a, 2000b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1999). Kramer et al. (2010) have recently shown ....'

References in the list should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication. All references must have DOI(from 2023).  

In the text they should be re­ferred to by name and year (JZD style), the year be­ing placed in parentheses, e.g., (Jones 1970). More than one paper from the same author in the same year must be identified by the letters a, b, c, etc., placed after the year of publica­tion. In the text, when referring to a work by more than two authors, the name of the first author should be given followed by et al. Lit­erature references must consist of names and initials of all authors, year, and title of paper referred to, ab­bre­viated title of periodical, volume number and first and last page numbers of the paper. Period­icals, books and multi-author books should be in accordance with the following examples. References in limited numbers and up-to-dated should be numbered consecutively as they occur in the text (number in parentheses). The refer­ences should ob­serve the following style:

Article:

Shahbazi P., Aligolzadeh A., Khordadmehr M., Hashemzadeh Farhang H. & Katiraee F. Molecular study and genotyping of Cryptosporidium baileyi and Cryptosporidium parvum from free-range and commercial broiler chickens in Guilan province, Iran. Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2020, 69, 101411. https://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cimid.2019.101411. 

Nyirenda S. S., Mwansa J. C., & Mooya L. Prevalence and risk factors associated with the transmission of Urinary Schistosomiasis among the school-going children in Kafue district, Zambia. Journal of Zoonotic Diseases, 2022, 6(3), 122-8. https://doi.org/10.22034/jzd.2022.15074  

Chapter:

Hillyer G.V. 1998, Immunodiagnosis of hu­man and animal fasciolosis. In: Fasciolo­sis. Ed, J.P. Dalton. CABI Publishing, 1st ed. Oxon, Wal­ling­ford, UK, 435- 48.

Scorza J. and Medina R. 1985, Leishmaniasis in Venezuela. In: Chang K.P., Bray R.S. (Eds): Human Parasitic Diseases, Vol. 1. Elsevier, Ames­terdam, 283–296.

Book:

Charmaz K. 1991, Good days, bad days: The self in chronic illness and time. 2nd ed. New Brunswick: Rut­gers University Press. New York.

Meier J. and White J. 1993, Handbook of Clin­ical Toxicology of Venom and Poisons. Vol. 2, Oxford Press, London.

Monograph on the Internet:

Walter Reed Bio­systematics Unit, 2001, Systematc Catalog of Culicidae. Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, Smith­sonian Institution, Washington DC, USA. Avail­able at: http://www.mosquitocatalog.org.

Dissertation or Thesis:

Moin-Vaziri V. 2007, Stud­ies on the genetic variation of different popu­lation of Phlebotomus sergenti and Phle­botomus caucasicusin their distribution areas in Iran. [PhD dissertation]. School of Public Health, Teh­ran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

Proceeding:

Azari-Hamidian S., Joeafshani M.A., Mosslem M., Rassaei A.R. 2002, Taxonomic survey of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Guilan Prov­ince with reporting of a subgenus new to Ira­nian mosquito fauna. The 15th Iranian Plant Pro­tection Congress, 2002 September 7–11, Razi Uni­versity of Kermanshah, Kermanshah, Iran. pp. 319–320.

12.     Review Process

The Editor-in Chief assigns manuscripts to appropriate Associate Editors. Manuscripts may be rejected without external review if the Associate Editor, together with a Science Editor or the Editor-in Chief, determines that the study does not significantly advance the field or the subject material is inappropriate for the JZD’s readership. When papers are sent for external review, the choice of reviewers is made by the Editor-in Chief or Managing Editor and may include reviewers suggested by the authors. Requests by authors to exclude a specific potential reviewer will be honored to the greatest extent possible if a compelling reason is provided. At least two, and generally three, expert referees are asked to review the manuscript in a timely manner and to assign a priority based on content, originality, quality, relevance, and interest. Authors are informed of the final decision by e-mail, with applicable comments from reviewers and Editors included. Authors are expected to respond to reviewers comments and make appropriate revisions within 30 days. Authors should note that a previously rejected manuscript by JZD would not be re-evaluated.

13.     Misconduct

The Journal only accepts research papers that are original works, no part of which has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere except as brief abstracts. Duplicate publication, falsification, plagiarism, or fabrication will be considered actionable misconduct. Misconduct does not include honest error or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data. If scientific misconduct is confirmed by institutional review, the Editor-in-Chief will report this to JZD’s Publications and Communications Committee (PCC) Chair and the JZD Executive Director. Appropriate action will be decided in consultation with the VRF Office of Publications. Violations considered severe may warrant official withdrawal of a published article or rapid rejection of a manuscript at any stage before publication. If no scientific misconduct is found, the manuscript (if unpublished) will be scheduled for publication. For errors in a published article not deemed to be misconduct, an Erratum or Letter to the Editor will be published. If there is a disagreement about the results of the investigation, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to restrict the author(s) from publishing in the journal for a specified period of time.

14.      Publication Fee

There are no charges for pub­lication in this volume of Journal.

15.     Disclaimer

The statements and opinions expressed in this journal are solely those of their respective authors and they do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by JZD. Journal of Zoonotic Disease and its publisher do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for, any content on the papers.