Manuscript formatting

1. Title

The title should describe the study or pose a question that expresses the primary objective. It should include the disease or event, the time and place it occurred. 

2. Authors, affiliations, and corresponding author

The names of all authors, including their middle name(s) and surname, along with their affiliated institutions, should be listed. Author names and institutional affiliations should be consistent with those listed in their ORCID profiles. The corresponding author should be indicated with an asterisk, and their email address should be provided.

3. Abstract

The abstract should be non-structured and must not exceed 250 words in length. This word count does not include the title, author list, information in the heading and keywords.

4. Keywords

The keywords should be listed below the abstract and a minimum of three words is required.

5. Introduction

This section describes why you conducted your study.  The following are the topics suggested for the introduction.

Context

• General information about the significance of the disease
• Occurrence of disease in region
• Surveillance data or other information on disease burden and risk factors (susceptible population)
• Worldwide magnitude of disease (number of cases, rank on scale of morbidity/mortality)
• Regional/National magnitude
• Provincial magnitude
• Historical perspective (disease trend, emerging or re-emerging)
• Typical demographics of cases
• Prevention and control strategies currently in use (i.e., vaccination, vector control, etc.)
• Availability and type of diagnostic testing

Biological information (extensive detail is not necessary)

• Microbiology/pathophysiology
• Natural history of an infection
• Clinical presentation of infection
• Seasonality of the disease
• Mode of transmission
• Reservoirs

Gap in knowledge that made this work necessary

• Information that is currently missing and the reason the study was conducted.
• Importance of the research question
• Impact of the research

Objective(s)

• Verification of an outbreak
• Determination of disease’s etiology
• Risk factors of a disease
• Determination/effectiveness of control measures
• Route of transmission
• Cite evidence that supports, refutes, or questions related hypotheses
• To describe the natural history of a disease

6. Methods

This section describes how you conducted your study. This section would provide enough information to allow someone in a similar situation to replicate exactly what you did. The following points provide a guide:. 

Location and timeframe

• Map of the province and country
• Urban vs. rural setting
• Population of study area
• Unique characteristics of population and geography
• Duration of the study and dates of initiation, completion, other relevant dates
• Date in yearly format (i.e., 8 November 2023)

Study population

• Case definition
• Case identification and recruitment

Study design

• Descriptive
• Case-control
• Cohort
• Cross-sectional
• Ecologic

 Data collection

• Data source and tools
• Type of interview
• Biological/chemical samples
• Environmental samples

Analysis

• Type of analysis
• Statistical tests and software program used
• License of the software program, if it is not freeware 
• Reference for open-source software
• Significance level

7. Results

This section describes what your study found. Key results from the analyses which support the conclusion and recommendation should be reported. We strongly encourage using tables and figures to display your findings. Below is a guideline of how to report the results.

Demographic

• Basic demographic characteristics of the sample

Tables/figures

• Tables and figures should be simple, clear and easily understandable
• Avoid pie charts and 3-D graphics
• Describe the main pattern and features without repeating all the raw data from each table/figure
• For more information see Edward Tufte’s books: <http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_visex>.
• For creating Epi Curves, please follow the CDC Guidance: <https://www.cdc.gov/training/quicklearns/createepi/>
• Titles of tables and figures should be shown above the tables and below the figures.
• The tables and figures should be listed in Arabic numerals cited in the Text (i.e., Table 1)
• The tables and figures should be placed after the reference section
• The figures in editable format should be attached in separate files during submission

Response rate

• Were you able to obtain information from most of your cases?
• Define the denominator 

Characteristics of cases/sample population

• Describe by person, place and time

Primary outcome

• Findings of the primary analysis you proposed in your methods section and findings that address the objective of your work with descriptive statistics
• Measures of association (univariate and/or multivariate analyses) and inferential statistics (confidence intervals or p-value)

Laboratory results

• Type of sample
• Laboratory test used
• Reference level
• Sensitivity and specificity of laboratory tests
• Reference for laboratory method

Further analysis

• Secondary analysis
• Environmental results

8. Action taken

This section should be included in an outbreak investigation manuscript. It provides a detailed account of the measures, interventions, or actions implemented in response to the outbreak under study. It serves as a critical component of the manuscript as it outlines the practical steps taken to manage and control the outbreak.

9. Discussion

This section explains the findings of your study.  You should not repeat your findings here – just refer to them as needed to discuss them.

• Summarize the key findings
• Linkage of overall results with the objectives
• Interpret each of your results
• Compare your findings with the literature. Agree or disagree? If disagree, explain why
• Significance of findings

10. Limitations

This section addresses aspects of the data or analysis that might affect the accuracy or validity of the results. The cause, consequences and how you might mitigate its effect should be provided. 

11. Recommendations 

This section should include practical information to the readers and where the work can have the greatest impact on controlling the disease or on public health. The results and discussion must support the action and recommendation.

12. Conclusion

The author should conclude the results and recommendations following the objectives stated in the manuscript.

13. Acknowledgements

The author should acknowledge anyone or any organizations that provided assistance in their work. The acknowledged person(s) should not be on the author list of the manuscript.

14. Author contributions

Authors should specify their roles to ensure transparent and fair credit. We use the CRediT system, which defines 14 contributor roles (see https://credit.niso.org/). The corresponding author assigns roles during submission, and these will be published with the article to clarify each author’s involvement. Use the format [Name]: [Responsibility], for example Sophea Chan: Conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. Nurul Aisyah: Writing—original draft. Kittisak Phanurat: Writing—original draft. Trang Nguyen: Writing—review & editing. Maria Lourdes Santos: Writing—review & editing.

15. Ethical Approval

All research articles should include a statement of ethical approval. This should clearly state the name of the ethics committee, protocol number, and approval date.

16. Informed Consent

For any research article involving human participants, an appropriate statement on informed consent must be included. Please add one of the following, as applicable:

• “Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study.”
• “Patient consent was waived due to [REASON – a detailed justification should be provided].”
• “Not applicable.” (For studies that did not involve human participants or used fully de-identified secondary data that cannot be linked back to individuals).
• “Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper.” (For studies that can identify participants, including cases where participants may identify themselves.).

17. Data availability

As an author, you are encouraged to include a data statement to describe the data used in your article. If the data cannot be shared, please provide a clear explanation. You may choose the most appropriate template for your research from the options below.

18. Conflicts of interests 

The author should declare any conflicts of interest related to their work in the manuscript. There should be no conflict of interest.

19. Funding support

The author should state the funding source if they received any. The name(s) of the funding organization(s), and the use of funds should be listed.

20. Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process

Authors must disclose any use of generative AI or AI‑assisted tools to draft, revise, or improve the language of their manuscript by inserting the following statement (with bracketed text replaced as appropriate):

• During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [TOOL NAME] to [PURPOSE – for example, “enhance clarity” or “correct grammatical errors”]. The content produced by this tool was reviewed and edited by the author(s), who accept full responsibility for the final text.
• Routine spelling‑and‑grammar checkers and reference‑management autocorrectors do not require disclosure, and no AI system should ever be listed as an author or co‑author. If no generative AI or AI‑assisted technologies were used in writing, this section may be omitted.

21. References

The references must be written in the Vancouver style and the URLs for the references should be provided, if available. The reference must be cited by consecutive numbers in the text.  The cited number and reference must match. For more details, please see the guidance on Vancouver style: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

22. Others

Abbreviations

The use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. If the term is referred to no more than three times, the abbreviation should not be used. In both the abstract and the body of the text, the full term should be written first, followed by the abbreviation enclosed in parentheses. The abbreviation must then be used consistently.

Names of organisms

The genus and species of all organisms should be italicized and written in full terms on first use. The genus can then be abbreviated to the standard name. However, if the author refers to another species, the full term should still be written and should follow the previous statement.

Footnotes

All authors should use the following footnote symbols in sequential order: *, †, §, ¶, **, ††, §§, ¶¶, etc. Except for the asterisk, all symbols should be presented in superscript. Footnote symbols should be placed outside of any punctuation except for semicolons and colons.

Reporting guidelines

Research should adhere to relevant reporting guidelines. Ensure that completed relevant checklists, structured abstracts, and flow diagrams are included with your submission.

Find all reporting guidelines on the EQUATOR Network website. Here is a list of the most applied guidelines, but others might be suitable as well.

If you are unsure which guidelines apply, use the online tool provided by the EQUATOR Network and Penelope Research to find the appropriate reporting guidelines.

To access detailed information regarding specific writing formats for various types of papers, kindly refer to the provided link.

• Outbreak Investigation Writing Outline
• Quantitative Manuscript Writing Outline
• Surveillance System Evaluation Manuscript (Attributes only) Writing Outline
• Surveillance System Evaluation with Secondary Data Analysis Writing Outline