Instructions for Authors

Background and Scope of the Journal
Editorial Office Contact Information
Processing of Papers
Where to submit
Article types and format
Peer review
Proofs
Late corrections, Advance Access and Errata
Journal Policies
In-press papers or papers under editorial consideration
Sequence data
Supplementary data
Authorship
Ethics
Funding
Conflicts of interest
Transparency declarations
Misconduct
Clinical trials/Randomized controlled trials
Reporting standards
Permissions
Copyright
Open Access
Availability of Data and Materials
Data Citation
Preprint Policy
Journal Style

Background and Scope of the Journal

Background

JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance (JAC-AMR) was founded in 2019 by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) as part of its mission to be a leading influencer of responsible antimicrobial use globally and a provider of peer-reviewed research publications and education resources on antimicrobials. Any profits from the Journal will be used by the BSAC to further these objectives. It is an online only open access Journal with six archived issues per year.

JAC-AMR is an open access Journal with a focus on improving understanding of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). JAC-AMR publishes a wide range of topics and methodologies related to AMR, including basic, translational and clinical science, as well as implementation and qualitative research. Reports on the prevention of the spread of AMR through innovations in antimicrobial stewardship are of specific interest. Furthermore, JAC-AMR also publishes reviews on educational resources that focus on AMR and stewardship.

Aims

JAC-AMR publishes clinically oriented opinions, reviews and original articles that advance the science and knowledge of antimicrobial resistance, stewardship and use relating to antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antiprotozoal agents. The Journal publishes primarily in human medicine, but articles in veterinary medicine will be considered, provided they fall within the scope of a regional or global ‘one health’ approach to antimicrobials. As part of its commitment to support education with an emphasis on stewardship, JAC-AMR will also provide commentary and peer review on educational resources available online, in the form of a structured review of the content of the resources.

Scope

JAC-AMR particularly welcomes high-quality, original articles on behaviour change research, clinical trials, education research, epidemiology, health services and observational research, quality improvement science, and narrative or systematic reviews, and meta-analyses that have a clear, contemporaneous message in one or more of the following areas:

• the practice of evidence-based education, medicine, public health or quality improvement relating to antimicrobial resistance, stewardship and use
• other aspects of antimicrobial resistance, stewardship and use that fulfil the above criteria 
• the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, administration and management of antimicrobials, including in the outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) and complex outpatient oral and parenteral antimicrobial therapy (COPAT) settings
• other aspects of OPAT and COPAT (as defined above) that fulfil the above criteria 
• the clinical use of non-antimicrobial approaches in infection management
• the clinical use of novel diagnostics or new diagnostic approaches in infection management
• diagnostic stewardship relating to clinical infection management
• clinical aspects of antimicrobial adverse effects, allergies/intolerances or drug–drug interactions
• the shared patient–prescriber decision-making approach to clinical infection management

Viewpoint and review articles:

• will usually be solicited by one of the Editors
• unsolicited viewpoint or review articles will be considered only after prior discussion with one of the Editors and will be subject to an article processing charge

Authors who are unsure about whether their intended submission meets the aims and scope of the JAC-AMR are welcome to contact the Editorial Office (jacamr.editorialoffice@paeditorial.co.uk).

Educational resources reviews:

• will usually be solicited by the Senior Editor for Education
• unsolicited reviews will be considered only after prior discussion with the Senior Editor for Education
• should review resources that fit the scope as set out below.

Recommendations of resources to include in a review, in the form of an e-mail containing a hyperlink to the resource and a brief description of its content, and why you feel it is worthy of review in JAC-AMR, can be submitted to the JAC-AMR Editorial Office (jacamr.editorialoffice@paeditorial.co.uk). Global Antimicrobial Stewardship Partnership Hub (GASPH) partner organizations can submit resources directly to the GASPH AMS AMR e-Learning repository at https://global-asp-hub.com/ams-amr-repository/ and will have the option to forward the resource to JAC-AMR for consideration at the point of submission. At all times the Editorial team will have a final say in whether a resource is selected for review and the content of the review. Any objections can be referred to the Editor-in-Chief.

JAC-AMR welcomes suggestions of educational resources for review from a wide variety of sectors, particularly those intended for LMICs and users whose first language is not English.

There is no specific preference for the format of resources, and all approaches to providing innovative methods of reaching, engaging with and educating audiences in the field of antimicrobial use, antimicrobial resistance and related subjects can be considered. Some examples are interactive online learning (massive open online courses), webinars or video lectures, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, instructive interviews or case histories, webcasts, educational games/applications, patient stories, ‘Tweetorials’ and other approaches.

Resources should be educational and from across the healthcare communities (hospitals, primary care, outpatients, long-term care facilities, rural clinics and so on). Sponsored commercially produced and focused content can also be reviewed, provided it has an educational component and the source is clearly indicated.

Resources that are free to access are encouraged. However, all educational content can be considered, including that which requires a fee for user assessment and certification.

Reviews of educational resources that address the topics listed below are encouraged:

• medical, pharmaceutical, nursing or allied health professional, undergraduate healthcare (medical, nursing, dentists, pharmacy) students, public health or quality improvement resources relating to antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial use and stewardship
• mode of action of antimicrobial agents, mechanisms of resistance, methods of determining susceptibility
• basic microbiology and immunology
• other aspects of antimicrobial resistance, stewardship and use that have an educational focus; these may include veterinary clinical practice where resources have been developed with human stewardship practice
• the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents, to include pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, administration and management of antimicrobials, including route, duration and outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) and complex outpatient oral and parenteral antimicrobial therapy (COPAT) settings
• the role of non-antimicrobial approaches, novel diagnostics or new diagnostic approaches and diagnostic stewardship in infection management, the role of vaccines in preventing disease
• pharmaceutical aspects of antimicrobial use—stability, compatibility, bioavailability; pharmacological aspects of antimicrobial use—adverse effects/toxicity, drug interactions, dosage adjustment in organ failure
• recognition and management of drug allergies and intolerances; allergy testing and de-labelling of non-allergic patients
• patient, carer and public education campaigns
• news, campaign and comment-driven websites dealing with issues relating to antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial resistance with a global focus
• data warehouses, surveillance/informatics providing information and resources relating to antimicrobial consumption and quality, resistance and impact
• behaviour change/implementation science approaches to antimicrobial stewardship.

JAC-AMR cannot take any responsibility for keeping the original educational content URLs up to date.

Appeals

Authors wishing to lodge an appeal against a decision can do so by contacting the Senior Editor responsible for the decision directly and by copying in the Editorial Office.

Editorial Office Contact Information

The contact details for the JAC-AMR Editorial Office are as follows:

E-mail: jacamr.editorialoffice@paeditorial.co.uk

Processing of Papers

Where to submit

All material to be considered for publication should be submitted in electronic form via the Journal's online submission system at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jac-amr

Given that you can produce a file of your paper through a word processing package of some description, you only need the three following items to access and use the system: access to the website via a web browser, Adobe Acrobat Reader (which can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.adobe.com/) and an e-mail account.

Authors must comply with the stipulations in the Instructions to Authors.

Article types and format

All documents should be double spaced, and the margins should not be excessively wide. A clear, legible single font (which is readily available internationally) and point size should be employed throughout. For symbols, please use the 'insert symbol' function and ONLY select characters from the 'normal text' subset. All submitted articles should be line numbered (using continuous line numbers). To do this in Word, use File, Page Setup, Layout, Line Numbers and select continuous line numbering. Please DO NOT insert page numbers (as the pdf proof created by the online submission system will automatically be page numbered).

All articles should include a title page comprising: article title; author names and their affiliations (each affiliation address must be given separately and in full); telephone, fax and e-mail contact details for the corresponding author; and a short running title. In addition, all articles must include a Funding section (if reporting original research) and a Transparency declarations section.

Article titles. All articles reporting the results of original research must have a descriptive title. For example ‘Effect of streptomycin in tuberculosis’ is acceptable; ‘Streptomycin cures tuberculosis’ is not acceptable. Viewpoint articles are permitted to have declarative titles. Please note that claims of priority are not permitted in article titles as such claims are impossible to verify; only history will reveal the first example. For instance ‘First NDM-1 Escherichia coli isolated in Andorra’ would not be permitted. Authors are permitted to indicate in the article that, to the best of their knowledge, a finding is the first of its kind.

Original articles and Brief reports must have a structured synopsis. The headings for the structured synopsis are as follows: Background (optional), Objectives, Patients and methods (or Methods), Results, and Conclusions.

Original articles

There is a limit of 3500 words in the main text of the article (everything from the Introduction to the end of the Discussion). Papers must be written as concisely as possible. Original articles are divided into the following sections: Synopsis (250 words maximum), Introduction, Materials (or Patients) and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Funding, Transparency declarations and References. Repetition of content between sections must be avoided. A combined Results and Discussion section is acceptable.

Brief reports

These should have the same format as Original articles but should have no more than two figures/tables, should have a maximum of 20 references and should not exceed 1500 words of main text.

Correspondence

Letters on topics of concern or interest in the field of antimicrobial chemotherapy, particularly arising from papers or letters already published in the Journal. These should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief and must not exceed 800 words, one figure or table and 10 references.

Systematic review articles

There is no length limit for this format. A systematic review, as defined by the Cochrane Handbook, is ‘A review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyse and summarize the results of the included studies.’ They should include a structured synopsis (with appropriate headings; these may differ from the headings used for Original articles etc.).

Review articles

There is no length limit for this format. These generally aim to give an overview of a field suitable for a wide audience, and they should include a synopsis (250 words maximum). Most reviews are invited. We are pleased to consider unsolicited reviews, but authors are encouraged to consult the Editor-in-Chief in advance of writing to avoid duplicating commissioned material.

Viewpoint

These articles are usually in the region of 800–1000 words and may contain the expression of opinion as well as fact. They should address a topical subject, perhaps taking a particular viewpoint and throwing new light on a current debate. A leading article should include a short synopsis (150 words maximum) that should convey the topics and ideas the article covers. Those wishing to contribute a Leading article are encouraged to contact the Editor-in-Chief to discuss their ideas before writing to prevent clashes with any articles already in the pipeline.

For debate

These articles should air contentious issues or discuss controversies so as to stimulate discussion in the Journal on any given topic on antimicrobial chemotherapy. Articles should be as clear and concise as possible, consist of 800–2500 words and must be accompanied by an unstructured synopsis of up to 150 words.

Educational resource reviews

Reviews of online educational resources are topic-based reviews that consider several resources and their contributions to education in a particular area. They should follow the guidelines for reviews of online educational resources. There are three formats depending on the number of resources reviewed:

• Full review of online resources. These articles follow the format and word limit of an Original Article. This review-style article should include reviews of 6–15 resources around a theme.
• Brief review of online resources. These articles follow the format and limits of a Brief Report. This mini-review style article should include reviews of 2–5 resources around a theme.
• Single review of online resources. These articles follow the format and limits of Correspondence. This brief communication should review a single resource.

AMRrounds

AMRrounds are question-and-answer case challenges that aim to teach a key point for clinicians describing the resistance mechanisms of a drug-resistant infection and treatment approach. The case portion should state the history and note the key clinical findings, but it should not divulge the diagnosis. The case question should be written in a single paragraph. The discussion portion is encouraged to address nuances in AMR mechanisms and clinical decision-making in antimicrobial therapy management and illustrate the importance of using a standardized, systematic approach, integrating the five main AMRrounds principles. Submissions must include a table showing the antibiogram that includes both EUCAST and CLSI interpretive criteria of the causative pathogen. One additional figure or table can be added that summarizes key points. Word limit must not exceed 1000 words total: Question, 250–300 words; Answer, 650–700 words. References: 10 or fewer.

Peer review

JAC-AMR follows single-blind peer review. 

After preliminary examination of the submission by Editorial Office staff to check that all the necessary elements are present, the manuscript is passed to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief then assigns the manuscript to an appropriate Senior Editor. The Senior Editor is then responsible for selecting an Editor to handle the manuscript. Manuscripts can be rejected immediately by the Editor-in-Chief, a Senior Editor or an Editor without further peer review. The assigned Editor is responsible for selecting referees and obtaining referee reports.

The usual number of referees is two, however, the Editors reserve the right to make a decision on a manuscript on the basis of one referee report, and the Editors reserve the right to seek the opinion of two or more referees if they judge this to be necessary or desirable. Viewpoints and Correspondence are not routinely sent for external refereeing, but the Editor-in-Chief, Senior Editors and Editors reserve the right to seek the opinion of one or more external referees if they judge this to be necessary or desirable. Senior Editors, Editors and referees are asked to consider whether they have any conflicts of interest when they are assigned a manuscript, and if necessary to decline to handle it. See the section ‘Conflicts of interest’ for more information on this subject.

If an Editor decides upon rejection of a manuscript, it is passed back to the handling Senior Editor for approval of this decision. All rejection correspondence therefore originates from a Senior Editor. Authors should regard rejection as final and only resubmit if they have been invited to do so. Manuscripts may be rejected for a number of reasons, including: (i) they may be of only peripheral interest and perhaps more suitable for submission to a different journal; (ii) they may be, in the opinion of the reviewers, scientifically flawed; (iii) they may be unclear or overly long; or (iv) they may not make a significant contribution to the literature.
Requests that a revised version of a manuscript be submitted for consideration are sent direct to the corresponding author from the Editor responsible. Any revised version should be submitted within 6 weeks of the revision request or the Journal reserves the right to consider the manuscript as a new submission that may be subject to further refereeing.

The Editor-in-Chief, Senior Editors and Editors reserve the right to request more rounds of revision and resubmission/refereeing, or reject a manuscript outright, if they judge that any revised version does not adequately address the concerns raised by the referees and the Editor. Once the Editor is satisfied that a revised version has adequately dealt with any points raised they may accept the manuscript.

Authors can appeal against a decision by contacting the handling Senior Editor, but unless there has been a gross misunderstanding of the submitted article by the Editor and referees, rejection appeals are not likely to be successful. Authors should appreciate that if they resubmit an article that has been rejected without substantially modifying it in line with the suggestions of the Editor and referees, it is almost certain to be rejected again.

After acceptance the manuscript is sent for copy-editing and typesetting prior to production of proofs for author correction.
The Journal maintains the right to edit any manuscript to the extent necessary to achieve clarity and precision of expression and to conform with English usage and the Journal's conventions. Please note that if authors ignore requests to conform with Journal style at the revision stage, these changes may be enforced during copy-editing and proof production.

Articles submitted by Editors of the Journal

JAC-AMR does not bar Editors (including Senior Editors and the Editor-in-Chief) from submitting manuscripts to the Journal. Articles submitted by Editors are handled in the same fashion as other articles subject to the following considerations: these manuscripts are never assigned to the submitting Editor, or an Editor from the same institution; the submitting Editor is unable to access details of their manuscript through the online submission system; and, like other authors, the submitting Editor will not know the identity of the handling Editor (in cases of rejection) or referees.

Supplement articles

Supplement manuscripts are subject to peer review and may be rejected. Unless specialist external expertise is required, this peer review is conducted among the team of Editors that is dealing with the Supplement.

Guidelines

Guidelines that have undergone proper public consultation will normally only be subjected to peer review by members of the Editorial Board.

Proofs

An e-mail containing a link to the proof is sent to the corresponding author. The proof should be read carefully, paying particular attention to any tables, figures and references, and corrections (and answers to any queries) should be submitted to the JAC-AMR Editorial Office as soon as possible. Authors should pay particular attention that they check any dosage directions, owing to the seriousness of any error entering the printed record. Extensive changes at the proof stage are not permitted. Authors may be charged for correction of their non-typographical errors. The Journal reserves the right not to comply with changes marked on the Author's proof if these are contrary to the style set down in the Instructions to Authors.
In the event of important developments in a field that affect the paper arising after the final revision, a 'Note added in proof' may be permitted. Please note that Supplementary data files are largely unedited and are not proofed out.

Once all the corrections have been made by the typesetters, the article is then posted on JAC-AMR Advance Access

Late corrections, Advance Access and Errata

Authors should check articles carefully before submission and resubmission to ensure errors are kept to an absolute minimum. Authors must treat the proof as the LAST CHANCE they will have to make corrections to their article. Corrections that are requested once an article has appeared in Advance Access will entail a higher level of scrutiny. The Journal takes a very dim view of corrections requested at this stage that should have been dealt with earlier, and reserves the right to refuse to make further changes.

After publication online, the only avenue available to correct an article is the publication of a linked Erratum. The purpose of an Erratum is to correct items that affect the scientific validity of a piece of research. The Journal will refuse to publish an Erratum if the correction requested does not affect the scientific validity of the article (hence requests to correct author names or address details, funding information, or collaborator names or locations, for example, will be refused). This is why it is of the utmost importance that authors pay the necessary attention to ensuring articles are correct at every stage and treat the proof as the last available opportunity for corrections.

Journal Policies

Material offered for publication must be original, unpublished and not under simultaneous consideration by another journal. Any previous publication of the material (including abstracts in conference proceedings or posters, or in a clinical trials results database) must be declared in the covering letter, as well as in the Acknowledgements section of the paper. For these purposes the posting of essentially raw data on a website without significant analysis, is not considered to represent prior publication. In addition, authors must include in the covering letter details of ANY previous submission of the work to JAC-AMR that has been rejected. The manuscript number of the earlier submission must be provided, as well as a point-by-point response to the comments made in the decision e-mail for the previous submission.

Authors should not fragment their research into least publishable units. Authors must be aware that JAC-AMR may decline to publish articles if this approach becomes evident.

Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of all data in their articles.

JAC-AMR reserves the right to use plagiarism detection software on any submitted material.

Authors are responsible for adhering to relevant legislation in their country regarding research in humans or animals and the reporting of data from routine patient care.

JAC-AMR is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and strives to adhere to its code of conduct and guidelines. For further information see http://www.publicationethics.org. Authors are also expected to behave ethically and unacceptable practices include: (i) plagiarism; (ii) fabrication or falsification of data; (iii) omission of legitimate authors, Funding information or financial conflicts of interest; (iv) inclusion of authors who have not made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described; and (v) redundant/duplicate publication.

In-press papers or papers under editorial consideration

In-press and submitted papers that are important for the review of a paper MUST be uploaded when the paper is submitted and referred to in the covering letter that accompanies the submission. Authors should be aware of the issues of redundant/duplicate publication. For further information, please see the following Editorial:

Reeves DS, Wise R, Drummond CWE. Duplicate publication: a cautionary tale. J Antimicrob Chemother 2004; 53 : 411-2.

Sequence data

When reporting sequences they must be submitted to one of the three major databases and an accession number must be provided at latest in the first revised version.

If a sequence has been submitted but an accession number has not yet been provided or the sequence is not yet available to the public then authors must submit the annotated sequence data as Supplementary data for scrutiny by the Editor and referees. Articles will not be permitted to enter the review process without the sequence data.

Supplementary data

Please note that it is also possible to submit files containing Supplementary data. The Supplementary data (for example large tables of MICs, or a questionnaire) can be lodged with the version of the paper published online as an extra resource for readers. Supplementary data is largely unedited and is not proofed out so authors should ensure that they provide high-quality, accurate files. In addition, authors must ensure that they cite the Supplementary data within the article. Please contact the Editorial Office if you require further details.

Authorship

The authorship of the paper should be confined to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. In the case of clinical trials/randomized control trials it is compulsory for the contribution of each author to be clearly stated in the Transparency declarations section, after the information on conflicts of interest. Authors of other types of article may indicate the contribution made by each author if they wish.

JAC recommends that authors review the ICMJE criteria for authorship before submission (http://www.icmje.org/#author).

Author signed submission forms

Please do not supply signed submission forms when an article is submitted.

If your article is accepted, the Editorial Office will generate an article-specific signed submission form template and pass this to the Corresponding author for signature.

Please note that copied and pasted ‘graphics’ of signatures are NOT permitted owing to the possibility of fraud. Digital signatures, properly verified by the issuing organization (such as Adobe for instance) are permitted.

Articles cannot be published until the signed form has been received.

Changes in authorship

The author list of any submission should be decided upon and fixed BEFORE submission. Other than in exceptional circumstances the Journal does not allow addition or removal of author names after submission. A satisfactory explanation for any proposed changes in authorship will be required. We will also require consent from any person whose name has been removed indicating that they agree to the removal of their name from the author list. Owing to the complexity of these rules we strongly advise authors to fix the author list before submission and not to attempt to make changes later.

'Umbrella' groups and authorship

Many large collaborative studies are organized under a group name that represents all of the participants. JAC-AMR will not accept a group name as an 'author' of an article. All articles must have at least one named individual as author. Authors of large collaborative studies should list the author(s) of the article and follow this with 'on behalf of the [GROUP NAME]'. The names of all of the participants should then be listed in the Acknowledgements section. If this is done under a heading ‘Members of [GROUP NAME]’ those persons listed will be accorded ‘Collaborator’ status on the PubMed record for the published article.

Professional medical writers and editorial assistance

Professional medical writers and other forms of writing assistance have an important role to play in the clear communication of scientific results. However, unless this role is openly explained and acknowledged unfounded suspicions about this role will continue. JAC-AMR encourages the open and precise description of any such assistance received by authors in relation to any article. It is possible that writers may qualify for authorship of a manuscript; we recommend that authors review the ICMJE criteria for authorship before submission (http://www.icmje.org/#author).

The precise role of the writer or service in the origin or preparation of the manuscript must be declared in the Transparency declarations section; we recommend that the name of the writer (and their agency where applicable) or the service is provided. If this support was funded, the source must be declared in the Funding section.

Use of Chatbots and Large Language Models

JAC-AMR supports the World Association of Medical Editors’ recommendations on chatbots and scholarly manuscripts. If a chatbot or similar program is used in the development of a paper for JAC-AMR, the following is required:

• The Large Language Models (LLM) cannot be credited as an author, as authorship requires that the author be accountable for the submitted/published work, and artificial intelligence cannot fulfil this requirement of authorship;
• Authors listed on the paper must review the content generated by the LLM and take full responsibility for it, as they would for any other content within the submitted/published work;
• The use of LLM tools must be noted in the cover letter;
• The use of LLM tools must be documented in the Methods, Acknowledgments, or another appropriate section of the paper.

Responsibilities of the corresponding author

For each paper submitted to JAC-AMR there must be a single corresponding author. As the representative of the authors, the corresponding author must ensure that all authors are given access to submitted and revised versions of papers. The corresponding author is responsible for the collation of the authors' signatures on submission forms and also the collation and communication of proof corrections to the Journal. The corresponding author should be the signatory of the publication licence form. As the authors' nominated representative, the corresponding author will be held primarily accountable for any failure to comply with the Instructions to Authors or generally accepted standards of good practice. This does not absolve other authors of responsibility, however.

The corresponding author will act as the primary contact for correspondence regarding the paper, and as such authors should take care not to appoint a corresponding author likely to be absent for extended periods (such as a sabbatical) during the consideration of the paper as this is likely to cause unacceptable delays.

Please note that papers submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts must be submitted through the account of the corresponding author listed on the paper, not through the account of one of the other authors or the account of a third party who is not on the author list. This is to ensure that there can be no argument regarding the identification of the corresponding author. In addition, the authors listed during the submission process on the ScholarOne Manuscripts website must fully match the author list of the actual submitted article.

Ethics

All articles in JAC-AMR describing research in humans or animals must include an ‘Ethics’ heading as the first section in the Patients and methods or Methods section. Authors must include in this section all relevant statements regarding approvals, licences, informed consent and so on, as applicable.

Research involving humans

Authors must indicate in the Ethics section whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and national and institutional standards. If approval was obtained from an Ethics Committee the authors must clearly name the ethics committee responsible if more than one institution is involved. The approval/reference number must be listed in the Ethics section of the article. Written informed consent must be obtained from study participants and the existence of this consent must be stated in the article. Authors must supply the relevant approval numbers from Ethics committees or other bodies.

Patient privacy. Patients have a right to privacy. Any information that might result in identification of individuals must be omitted, especially if it is not directly clinically relevant. Patient age, sex, admission dates and co-morbidities should be removed as far as possible. If it is possible that a patient could be identified, the authors must obtain written informed consent from the individual(s) concerned and state that this has been obtained in the article. Publication consent forms should be retained by the authors and not supplied to the Journal. If the patient is deceased the next of kin should be contacted. If consent cannot be obtained the authors must explain the circumstances briefly in the article, as well as in detail in the covering letter. In rare circumstances where relevant clinical details mean that the patient can be identified, the patient/next of kin must be shown the manuscript before submission and made aware as part of the informed consent process that the article may appear on the internet.

Case reports. Authors must avoid the temptation to recite the entire clinical history of the patient at the start of a case report and should retain only those elements that are pertinent. Reciting the entire clinical history greatly increases the chances that the patient could be identified. Dates of treatment must be removed or converted to timespans for the same reason.

Research involving animals

Authors must state their compliance with relevant institutional and national standards for animal care and experimentation, together with the details of any authorities that licensed the experiments.

JAC-AMR supports the use of the ARRIVE Guidelines and articles reporting research in animals must include a completed ARRIVE checklist, which must be uploaded with the article so it is available for the scrutiny of the Editor and referees.

Funding

ALL papers submitted to JAC-AMR reporting original research MUST include a ‘Funding’ section. This section should appear after the 'Acknowledgements' section.

Details of all funding sources for the work in question must be given.

Authors must list any internal funding. If no specific funding has been received then this should be clearly stated; equally if data have been generated as part of the routine work of an organization, this too should be stated. Ongoing financial support for any of the authors should also be included under the Funding heading.

If a professional medical writer or similar service was involved in the origin or preparation of a manuscript and this support was funded, the source must be declared in the Funding section.

Sources of funding may of course still be thanked in the Acknowledgements section, but should not be listed again in the Transparency declarations (see below), unless there is an important reason for doing so. For example if the funder played any decision-making role in the research this must be stated.

The following rules should be followed:

The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’

• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or 'NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies is at http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/List-of-major-UK-research-funders.pdf)
• Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘(grant number ABX CDXXXXXX)’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘(grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX)’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to (author initials)'.

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R. B. S. R.) and the Alcohol & Education Research Council (HFY GR667789).

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about the CHORUS initiative please click here.

Conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest have the potential to affect authors, referees and Editors (including Senior Editors and the Editor-in-Chief). JAC-AMR has the following systems in place to deal with conflicts of interest:

Authors. Authors are required to include a Transparency declarations section in every submission to the Journal (for details see below).

Referees. When invited to act, and again when they agree to act, referees are reminded to consider whether they have any potential conflicts of interest. Referees are asked to discuss any perceived potential conflict with the Editor of the article who will reach a decision as to whether it is appropriate that the referee acts on the article or whether they should withdraw.

Editors. The Editor-in-Chief, Senior Editors and Editors register their interests (including personal and business interests) with the BSAC. The BSAC Register of Interests is held at BSAC Headquarters, is updated periodically and is available for inspection. When an article is assigned to a Senior Editor or an Editor they are reminded to consider whether there are any potential conflicts of interest, and if so, to discuss them with the handling Senior Editor or the Editor-in-Chief, who will come to a decision as to whether it is appropriate for them to act on the article, or whether it should be reassigned.

Transparency declarations

In the interests of openness, ALL papers submitted to JAC-AMR MUST include a ‘Transparency declarations’ section (which should appear at the end of the paper, before the ‘References’ section). We suggest authors concentrate on transparency declarations (i.e. conflicts of interest) of a financial nature, although relevant non-financial disclosures can also be made. Authors should consider making a declaration if they answer 'Yes' to any of the following questions:

1. Have you in the period of research leading up to this publication accepted any of the following from an organization (including government departments or granting bodies) that may in any way be financially affected by the conclusions of your article (e.g. reimbursement for attending a symposium, a fee for speaking, a consultancy fee, funds for research other than directly for this work, funds for a member of staff, any other substantial material benefit)?
2. Do you directly own any stocks or shares in a company that might be financially affected by the conclusions of your article?
3. Has the funder of the research played any decision-making role in the design, execution, analysis or reporting of the research?
4. Have you received the assistance of a professional medical writer or similar service? [The precise role of the writer or service in the origin or preparation of the manuscript must be declared and we recommend that the name of the writer (and their agency where applicable) or the service is provided.]
5. Have you accepted any reimbursement for preparing your article?

Authors should either include appropriate declarations or state ‘None to declare’. Importantly, the declarations should be kept as concise as possible, should avoid giving financial details (e.g. sums received, numbers of shares owned etc.), and should be restricted to declarations that are specific to the paper in question. Authors will of course need to consider whether or not the transparency declarations need to be amended when revisions are submitted.

The burden of responsibility rests with all authors, who must ensure that appropriate declarations are included. The corresponding author will be responsible for obtaining the relevant information from all of their co-authors. By signing a submission form each author is stating that they have made any necessary transparency declaration. All authors should carefully consider the embarrassment and potential damage to their reputation that could result should they fail to declare an interest that is revealed subsequently.

If only some authors need to make a declaration it must be made clear that the remaining authors have nothing to declare, for example:

'A. B. has received funds for speaking at symposia organized on behalf of Panacea Ltd and has also received funds for research from Panacea. C. D. is a member of the Panacea advisory board for fantastazole. All other authors: none to declare.’

All papers submitted to JAC-AMR must include a Transparency declarations section; papers that do not include such a section will not enter the review process; they will be returned to the corresponding author so that the appropriate section can be added. Following resubmission the paper will then be progressed to peer review.

In the case of clinical trials/randomized control trials it is compulsory for the contribution of each author to be clearly stated in the Transparency declarations section, after the information on conflicts of interest. Authors of other types of articles may indicate the contribution made by each author if they wish.

Other useful information

In some instances (often when the authors themselves have no interests to declare) it may be helpful to readers as background information to give brief details of organizations that do have an interest but do not appear elsewhere in the article, for example ‘Fantastazole is owned by Wonder Pharmaceuticals’.

Misconduct

We will energetically pursue accusations of misconduct directed at authors, Editors or referees and have a number of sanctions at our disposal including the option to inform employers about accusations and ask them to mount their own internal investigations. Accusations should not be made lightly or in the absence of the likelihood of supporting evidence being obtainable. The Journal may take the view that accusations are malicious if supporting evidence cannot be found and may direct sanctions against accusers in such cases. Any accusation of misconduct should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief (unless it involves the Editor-in-Chief, in which case it should be directed to the President of BSAC). JAC-AMR is a member of COPE and will follow its guidelines on the handling of investigations into research misconduct.

Clinical trials/Randomized controlled trials

Registration and data publication

Authors must register their trials in one of the databases dedicated to registration of trials. In addition, authors must state the database and provide the unique registration number – both in the abstract and in the main body of the paper.

JAC-AMR will consider for publication clinical trials for which there has been prior publication of trial data in results databases (such as http://www.clinicalstudyresults.org), however, authors MUST declare in the covering letter and the Acknowledgements section of the article that they have previously published data in a results database.

Contributions

The contribution of each author must be clearly stated in the Transparency declarations section, after the information on conflicts of interest.

Reporting standards

All involved in the publication of health intervention research have a duty to patients and society at large to ensure that this research is reported in a complete, accurate and transparent fashion. This includes authors, referees, Editors and Journals. JAC-AMR takes this responsibility seriously and endorses the work of organizations such as the EQUATOR network (http://www.equator-network.org/), an international initiative that seeks to improve the reliability and value of the medical research literature.

There is a wide range of reporting guidelines, each specific for different types of study. Some of those for study types that are frequent in JAC-AMR are mentioned specifically below. Authors should consult the EQUATOR network website (http://www.equator-network.org/) for links to the latest versions of guidelines, which are organized by the study type.

Randomized controlled trials

Authors should comply with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement (www.consort-statement.org) and use the resources within it (for example the checklist and flow diagram) to ensure they have addressed potential criticisms and provided all necessary information. Authors should include a CONSORT flow diagram in their article, and provide a copy of the completed checklist.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses

For systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials authors should comply with the PRISMA statement (which replaces the QUORUM statement), which consists of a checklist and flow diagram (http://www.prisma-statement.org/index.htm). Authors should include a PRISMA flow diagram in their article, and provide a copy of the completed checklist.

Outbreaks and intervention studies in nosocomial infection

Authors should comply with the ORION statement (www.idrn.org/orion.php), which is the CONSORT equivalent for infection control studies. Its purpose is to increase the quality of research and reporting in the area of nosocomial infection.

Economic evaluations

Authors of articles describing economic evaluations of antimicrobial interventions are encouraged to make use of the following resources, where applicable, in order to ensure that their work is both optimal and adequately described.

International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Checklist for retrospective database studies, which can be accessed at: https://www.ispor.org/heor-resources/good-practices-for-outcomes-research/article/a-checklist-for-retrospective-database-studies

Quality of Health Economic Studies (QHES) Instrument. See Table 1 in: http://www.amcp.org/data/jmcp/Formulary Management-53-61.pdf

Observational epidemiology studies

Authors of articles reporting observational epidemiology studies should follow the STROBE guidelines (https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=strobe-home) and complete the relevant checklist for the type of study they have conducted. The completed checklist should be supplied as part of the article submission process.

Permissions

Authors must:

• obtain permission from the original publisher and, if requested, the original author (i.e. the corresponding author of the article from which the figure/table has come) for reproducing/modifying figures/tables.
• request the following when seeking to reproduce any kind of third-party material:

1. non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal.
2. print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium.
3. the right to use the material for the life of the work.
4. world-wide English-language rights. If rights for all languages can be secured, this is preferable.
5. the right to use images with a resolution of 150 dpi in the PDF version of the journal or 72 dpi in the HTML version.

• include a statement indicating that permission has been obtained in the relevant legend/footnote.
• provide the Editorial Office with copies of any relevant paperwork.

For further details, as well as a template permissions request letter, please contact the JAC-AMR Editorial Office.

Third-party content in Open Access papers

If your article contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content
Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Copyright

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.

Papers funded by the Wellcome Trust or RCUK will be given the option to select the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC-BY) in compliance with their open access policies.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article and you agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

No article will be published unless the signed licence has been received at Oxford Journals.

As the Author(s), copyright of the Article remains yours (or your employer’s if your employer claims copyright in your work). See here for full details of Oxford Journals' copyright policy.

Post-print policy

For information about JAC-AMR's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving Policy Page.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, JAC-AMR strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. For information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, please see Choosing where to archive your data.

Data Citation

JAC-AMR supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

• [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Preprint Policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Open Access

JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance is a fully open access journal, and all articles are published in the journal under an open access licence immediately upon publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

• Main rates (CC BY rate or all licences rate) – £1,978
• Main BSAC member  discount (CC BY rate or all licences rate) – 20%*
• Letter to the Editor; Correspondence – Standard rates: £990, BSAC Member discount 20%*

Corresponding authors based in countries and regions, that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees in our fully open access journals. For further details, please see our APC Waiver Policy.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

*Please note that you may be eligible for a discount to the open access charge based on society membership. Authors may be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount.

Please note that some article types may have different rates for open access.

Journal Style

General

In addition to reading the information provided here, authors should consult a recent issue of the Journal for the layout and conventions used.

The past tense should be used throughout for description of the results of the paper, the present tense should be used when referring to previously established and generally accepted results.

Where possible SI units should be used.

Please ensure that characters with a similar appearance are consistent throughout the document and not from different Unicode sub ranges as with the Greek Delta.

Language editing

If you are not confident in the quality of your English, you may wish to use a language-editing service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. The BSAC Journals partner with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago, via the Specialist English Editing Services for Oxford University Press Authors page.

Enago is an independent service provider that will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Pre-submission language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be peer reviewed nor accepted.

Spelling

British spelling should be used. Spelling should follow that of the Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors and where this gives no guidance the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Spelling of drug names should conform with that given in the latest edition of the British National Formulary (published by the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and available online), but please note that JAC-AMR will continue to use methicillin (not meticillin).

Abbreviations

Non-standard abbreviations should be defined at the first occurrence and introduced only where multiple use is made. See here for abbreviations that may be used without definition, as well as antimicrobial abbreviations (which may be used in Tables and Figures).

Dosage frequencies and routes of administration

Latin dosage frequency abbreviations are not permitted (qd, bd, bid, tds etc.), however, constructions q12h, q8h and so on are permitted as there is less likelihood of confusion. Routes of administration other than intramuscular (im) and intravenous (iv), which may be abbreviated after definition, should be given in full in English.

MICs

Please note that all MIC data in JAC must be expressed in terms of mg/L (not μg/mL).

Nomenclature

Authors are required to check and ensure that in all instances the most up to date nomenclature is being used.

Bacterial nomenclature

When genus and species are given together use a capital letter for the genus and a lowercase letter for the species and italicize both e.g. Staphylococcus aureus. After the initial use in the text of the full name of an organism the generic name should then be abbreviated to the initial letter, e.g. E. coli.

When the genus is used as a noun or adjective use lowercase roman unless the genus is specifically referred to e.g. 'staphylococci and streptococci' but 'organisms of the genera Staphylococcus and Streptococcus'.

The name of an order has an initial capital but is not italicized, e.g. Enterobacteriaceae. For genera in the plural, use lowercase roman, e.g. salmonellae.

When the species is used alone use lowercase e.g. viridans streptococci. For trivial names, use lowercase roman e.g. meningococcus.

Authors should use bacterial names present in the Approved List of Bacterial Names, Amended Edition (1989), Skermanm, V.B.D., McGowan, V. & Sneath, P.H.A., Eds, ASM Press, Washington, DC, USA (ISBN 1-55581-014-4), with subsequent alterations validly published by announcement in Validation Lists of the International Journal of Systematic and Environmental Microbiology (formally the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology).

Genetic and amino acid nomenclature

Bacterial genetics. Genotype designations are indicated with italic lowercase three-letter locus codes (e.g. par, his, ara). If several loci are involved in a related function the individual loci are designated by the addition of an uppercase italic letter to the locus code (parC, ompF).

Phenotype designations (for example the protein product of a bacterial gene) are given in roman type with an initial capital letter (OmpF, LacZ).

Erythromycin gene nomenclature should follow that described in: Roberts MC, Sutcliffe J, Courvalin P, Jensen LB, Rood J & Seppala H. Nomenclature for macrolide and macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B resistance determinants. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1999; 43: 2823–30.

Yeast genetics. Wild-type alleles are all uppercase and italicized (LEU2), mutant alleles are all lowercase and italicized (leu2) and gene products are capitalized on the first letter and are not italicized (Leu2).

General. Authors should ensure that they confine discussion of changes in amino acid sequence to the context of the protein (e.g. OmpF) and nucleotide changes to the context of the gene (e.g. ompF). Please also be aware of the difference between a mutant (a strain with one or more mutations) and a mutation (a change in the sequence of the genetic material).

Amino acids. The full residue names or three-letter abbreviations are preferred in the text (e.g. a methionine residue at position 184 should be symbolized Met-184). The single letter codes may be used in figures. Amino acid changes should be designated Met-184→Val or M184V.

When comparing nucleotide or amino acid sequences authors should exercise care in the use of the term homology. Homology should only be used when a common evolutionary origin is being implied; it is incorrect to give a percentage homology between two sequences. The wing of a bird and the human arm are homologous structures (they are believed to have a common evolutionary origin), homology cannot be quantified. For sequence comparison authors should use the terms identity and similarity. Sometimes 'equivalent' or 'counterpart' is more appropriate than 'homologue'.

Beta-lactamase nomenclature

The allocation of new beta-lactamase names and numbers is handled centrally to avoid confusion in the literature.

It is essential that authors check new alleles against the existing list and submit new ones for the unambiguous allocation of new numbers or names.

An article discussing the background, the system and how to submit is available here: https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/aac.00333-22.

Macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin resistance determinant nomenclature

Nomenclature for macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin resistance determinants should follow the structure suggested by: Roberts MC, Sutcliffe J, Courvalin P et al. Nomenclature for macrolide and macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B antibiotic resistance determinants. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1999; 43 : 2823–30. A new gene must have ≤79% amino acid identity with all previously characterized MLS genes before receiving a new unique name. Adding subscripts or superscripts to established genes is not acceptable. See: http://faculty.washington.edu/marilynr/. Before submitting a sequence to GenBank or submitting a manuscript for publication, please contact Professor Marilyn Roberts (marilynr@uw.edu). Once a new name has been assigned you must indicate in your article that you have received approval by the nomenclature centre for the new gene name.

Tetracycline resistance determinant nomenclature

Nomenclature for tetracycline resistance determinants should follow that suggested by: Levy SB, McMurry LM, Barbosa TM et al. Nomenclature for new tetracycline resistance determinants. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1999; 43: 1523–4. A new gene must have ≤79% amino acid identity with all previously characterized tet genes before receiving a new unique name. Adding subscripts or superscripts to established genes is not acceptable. See: http://faculty.washington.edu/marilynr/. The Levy Group is responsible for coordinating the naming of new tet genes and before submitting a sequence to GenBank or submitting a manuscript for publication, please contact Professor Marilyn Roberts (marilynr@uw.edu). Once a new name has been assigned you must indicate in your article that you have received approval by the nomenclature centre for the new gene name.

qnr gene/allele nomenclature

Authors submitting articles reporting the identification of new qnr genes or alleles must provide evidence that they have contacted the relevant clearinghouse (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pathogens/submit-beta-lactamase/) to deposit the new sequence data and receive a unique designation. Authors should consult Jacoby G, Cattoir V, Hooper D et al. qnr gene nomenclature. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2008; 52: 2297–9.

mcr gene/allele nomenclature

Authors submitting articles reporting the identification of new mcr genes or alleles must provide evidence that they have contacted the relevant clearinghouse (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pathogens/submit-beta-lactamase/) to deposit the new sequence data and receive a unique designation.

FICI data

Fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) experiments are performed in order to study drug interactions and they must be interpreted in the following way:

FICI<=0.5 = synergy

FICI>4.0 = antagonism

FICI>0.5-4 = no interaction

For further information please see the following Editorial:

Odds FC. Synergy, antagonism, and what the chequerboard puts between them. J Antimicrob Chemother 2003; 52: 1.

Microarray data

Authors of articles containing microarray data must ensure that the full datasets are lodged with an appropriate publicly available online database (the data must not be supplied for publication as Supplementary data alongside the article). The data should be supplied with the submitted article if they are not already publicly available. The name of the database and the accession numbers should be provided in the article. Authors must ensure that their data are available for public scrutiny from the online publication date of their article at the latest.

Chemistry

General nomenclature. The IUPAC recommendations on chemical nomenclature should be followed [IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology (1987, ISBN 0 632 01767 8, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford]. All chemical names are run together except those of acids, acetals, esters, ethers, glycosides, ketones and salts, which are printed as separate words; hyphens are used to separate numbers, Greek letters and some configurational prefixes, e.g. p-nitrophenol. Italics are used for certain prefixes, e.g. cis-, trans- and N. Small capitals are used for dextro- and laevo- prefixes, e.g. L-glutamine.

Drugs. Spelling of drug names should conform with that given in the latest edition of the British National Formulary. Chemical or generic names of drugs should be used; trade names may be referred to once only upon first use of the generic or chemical name. The content of proprietary formulations should be given if relevant. Generic names should not be abbreviated in the text; abbreviations may be used in Tables if there is limited space. If compounds are referred to by code name or company number either the structure or a reference to a paper illustrating the structure must be given, any previous code names or designations should be given on first use.

Supplier locations are required for all smaller/local suppliers.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references, which must be checked against the original material. Reference citations should be restricted to those that are essential for introducing the purpose and context of the paper, describing methods that are not given in detail, and for discussing the results and any relevant issues raised by them. Authors are responsible for ensuring that references are quoted accurately and not taken out of context. References must not be cited in the synopsis.

Where possible authors should avoid citing conference abstracts or posters (partly because they are not peer reviewed and also because they often report interim findings and the final published studies can often come to substantially different conclusions) and authors MUST NOT cite abstracts that are more than 2 years old without excellent justification for doing so. In addition, abstracts must only be cited if they appear in published abstract books, journal supplements or in a permanent online archive.

References should be cited in the text using sequential numbers. Superscript numbers should be used and should be placed after any punctuation. When referring to several references, separate individual numerals by a comma or a hyphen for a range greater than two references. For instance: This was first discovered by Jones,¹ and later confirmed by several other groups of investigators.^2,3,5-7

Papers accepted for publication, but not yet published, may be included in the reference list; they should be listed as 'in press', with the name of the journal and the likely year of publication. Submitted work should be quoted as 'unpublished results'. Personal communications and unpublished results, which are permitted in the text only, must include the initials and surnames of all the workers involved; for the former citation, the person’s affiliation must be stated, e.g. ‘(J. Bloggs, NIH, personal communication)’, and documentary evidence (an e-mail will suffice) from the person quoted, showing their agreement to be so quoted, must be provided (the agreement must include the exact wording that appears in the paper).

All references should be listed numerically at the end of the text. Each reference should be preceded by a bold number (not superscript). Please see the following examples. Failure to conform to Journal style will result in the manuscript being returned to authors.

Examples

Journal reference (<= three authors)
Sanschagrin F, Levesque RC. A specific peptide inhibitor of the class B metallo-B-lactamase L-1 from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia identified using phage display. J Antimicrob Chemother 2005; 55: 252–5.

Journal reference (> three authors)
Williams I, Gabriel G, Cohen H et al. Zidovudine-the first year of experience. J Infect 1989; 18 Suppl 1: 23–31.

Journal reference (online journal)
Bell A, Lewandowski K, Myers R et al. Genome sequence analysis of Ebola virus in clinical samples from three British healthcare workers, August 2014 to March 2015. Euro Surveill 2015; 20: pii=21131.

Whole book
Long HC, Blatt MA, Higgins MC et al. Medical Decision Making. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997.

Book chapter
Manners T, Jones R, Riley M. Relationship of overweight to hiatus hernia and reflux oesophagitis. In: Newman W, ed. The Obesity Conundrum. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1997; 352–74.

CLSI methods
Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing: Fifteenth Informational Supplement M100-S15. CLSI, Wayne, PA, USA, 2005.

Meeting abstract
Hou Y, Qiu Y, Vo NH et al. 23-O derivatives of OMT: highly active against H. influenzae. In: Abstracts of the Forty-third Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Chicago, IL, 2003. Abstract F-1187, p. 242. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA.

Online material
References to online material should be given in the reference list. Please note that URLs for the suppliers of materials must not be given in either the text or the references. The Journal does not accept any responsibility for the content of web pages cited.

NB – it is no longer necessary to provide the ‘date last accessed’ for URLs.

Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents. Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in HIV-1-Infected Adults and Adolescents. Department of Health and Human Services. http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/contentfiles/lvguidelines/AdultandAdolescentGL.pdf.

Tables

These should be employed sparingly and should be generally comprehensible without reference to the text. Each table should be supplied on a separate sheet and numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order they are referred to in the text. Each must have a brief descriptive heading. Column headings must clearly explain the content of the column and indicate any units used. Footnotes should be kept to a minimum.

Tables must be created using the Table function in Word; they must not be inserted as images. Each data item should occupy a single cell and return characters should not be used within any Table. JAC-AMR reserves the right to move complicated Tables to online-only Supplementary data.

Figures

These must be employed sparingly to demonstrate important specific points. Figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals in the order in which they are referred to in the text. In figure LEGENDS, symbols should be described in words (e.g. filled circles, open squares etc.).

Wherever possible, figures should be two-dimensional. Authors should NOT supply 'three-dimensional' figures unless this is actually necessary to represent the data. The quality of reproduction in JAC-AMR is limited by the quality of the submitted material. All figures must be of high quality—they should be sharply focused, have good contrast and any lettering must be clear and legible. Colour illustrations can be reproduced if there is sufficient scientific merit in doing so.

The figures supplied with the accepted version will be considered final. Please ensure the figures are of sufficient clarity that you would be happy with them in the print version. Later correction or replacement of figures is not permitted unless significant errors are present. Correction of Figures at the proof stage will cause considerable delay to article publication.​

Guidance for preparation of Figures

Figures should be sized to fit a single column of the Journal where possible (88 mm) or a double column if necessary (180 mm). The preferred font for lettering is Times; lettering should have an upper case height of 2 mm and a lower case height of 1 mm at publication size (corresponding to point size 8). Line thickness should be set at 0.5 points. Shading used on line drawings should be clear and distinctive; shades of grey and heavy stippling do not reproduce well. Lines and symbols should be drawn boldly enough to withstand reduction. The preferred symbols are filled circles, open circles, filled squares, open squares, filled triangles and open triangles, and should be no smaller than 1 mm (height/diameter) at publication size. Part labels should be lower case letters within parentheses, e.g. (a), (b), (c) etc.

Authors must be ready to supply original gel pictures if requested to do so.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.