Microbiology Insights

 

Before you submit your research, please make sure your paper meets the below criteria:

1. Your paper is an original work and has not been published or currently under review with another journal.

2. Only authors that have contributed to the work are added. Please see ICMJE's guidelines "Defining Roles of Authors and Contributors". 

3. Your work meets all Research Ethics and Reporting Standards. 

4. Your figures are of acceptable quality and uploaded as separate files. Line art should be 900-1200 DPI, images 300 DPI. Images should be minimally processed to uphold their original integrity. More figure information here.  

5. Your references are formatted correctly and numbered as they appear in the text. Please visit here for reference style.  

6. Data and complete methods should be made available so that others may replicate your study. If applicable, please see here for more information and data repositories.  

7. Authors must have an understanding and agreement to pay any applicable article processing charges (APCs).

8. Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims & scope of the journal will be reviewed.

9. Full guidelines are below. Submissions that don't adhere to these instructions will be returned prior to peer review. 

Once your manuscript meets all criteria above and below, you can submit it through our online submission system here.

 

 

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Microbiology Insights will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process, you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT HERE

1. Open Access
2. Article Processing Charge (APC)
3. What Do We Publish?
     3.1 Aims & Scope
     3.2 Article Types
     3.3 Writing Your paper
            3.3.1 Making Your Article Discoverable
4. Editorial Policies
     4.1 Peer Review Policy
     4.2 Authorship
     4.3 Acknowledgements
          4.3.1 Writing Assistance
     4.4 Funding
     4.5 Declaration of Conflicting Interests
     4.6 Research Ethics and Patient Consent
     4.7 Clinical Trials
     4.8 Reporting Guidelines
5. Publishing Policies
     5.1 Publication Ethics
           5.1.1 Plagiarism
           5.1.2 Prior Publication
     5.2 Contributor’s Publishing Agreement    
6. Preparing Your Manuscript
     6.1 Word Processing Formats
     6.2 Manuscript Structure
           6.2.1 Title Page (on a separate page)
           6.2.2 Abstract, Keywords and Abbreviations
           6.2.3 Significance Statement and Introduction
           6.2.4 Materials and Methods
           6.2.5 Results and Statistical Analyses Reporting
           6.2.6 Discussion
           6.2.7 Conflict of Interests Statement
           6.2.8 References
           6.2.9 Legends
           6.2.10 Illustrations, Figures, Tables and Other Graphics
     6.3 Supplemental Material
     6.4 English Language Editing Services
7. Submitting Your Manuscript
     7.1 How to Submit Your Manuscript
     7.2 Information Required for Completing Your Submission
     7.3 ORCID
     7.4 Permissions
8. On Acceptance and Publication
     8.1 SAGE Production
     8.2 Online Publication
     8.3 Promoting Your Article
9. Further Information

 

1. Open Access

Microbiology Insights is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on Open Access at SAGE please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

2. Article Processing Charge (APC)

If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.

The APC for this journal is $1,700.

*The article processing charge (APC) is payable upon acceptance after peer review and is subject to value added tax (VAT) where applicable. If the paying author/institution is based in the European Union, to comply with European law, VAT must be added to the APC. Providing a VAT registration number will allow an institution to avoid paying this tax, except for UK institutions. Payments can be made in GBP or USD.

3. What Do We Publish?

3.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Microbiology Insights, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

3.2 Article Types

All articles will be considered for publication; however, preferential consideration will be given to reports of significant interest to the broad neuroscience community. We also accept papers with negative results. Main article types are as follows: Original Research, Brief Reports, Letters to the Editor, Methods, Review, Mini-Reviews, Editorials, Case Reports and Commentaries. Commentaries, Mini- and full-length reviews are typically invited by the Editor-in-Chief, however, unsolicited work will be considered. Commentaries are invite-only. 

• Original Research
  Research reports are full-length original articles that should present a major scientific breakthrough. We also encourage the submission of negative or null findings of well-conducted studies. We recognize that these can be a useful resource for the research community and can play an important role in scientific advancement and addressing the issue of publication bias.  
• Brief Reports
  Brief reports are short, timely articles aimed at providing important, breakthrough data that are not embedded within a complex story. While there are no specific length limitations for Brief Reports, authors are encouraged to keep them concise.
• Letters to the Editor
  These manuscripts can consist of:

1. A critical analysis or an agreement on a hypothesis or published paper.
2. A description of a hypothesis or medical problem (not necessarily published).
3. Case reports.

• Reviews
  Reviews are intended for a broad audience and therefore should be written with a view to informing readers who are not specialized in that particular field. Please avoid excessive jargon and technical detail. Reviews should capture the broad developments and implications of recent work. They should include an abstract of 150 words and should cite no more than 150 references.
• Mini-Reviews
  Mini-reviews are brief biographical profiles, historical perspectives, or summaries of developments in fast-moving areas. They must be based on published articles; they may address any subject within the scope of Microbiology Insights. They should not exceed 3,500 words (excluding the abstract, references and figure and table legends), 4 figures plus tables combined and approximately 40 references.
• Commentaries
  Commentaries are by invitation only. These are short summaries of significant recent and forthcoming papers, published elsewhere, that provide additional insights, new interpretations or speculation on the relevant topic. These manuscripts may include models, which due to space limitations were not included or discussed in the original paper. Commentary material may be peer reviewed at the Editor's discretion. 
• Validation Studies

  Validation or Replication studies can be submitted to the journal. These should be carried out to validate that a scientific finding is accurate, reliable and reproducible. These may be written in the style of a Brief Report or a Research Paper with a brief introduction. ​​​​​​

• Methods and Protocols
  Methods and protocols describe a powerful experiment, a method or important technical updates relevant to the field. The Protocols section only features proven protocols, thus the authors of the protocol must have previously used their method to produce the work reported in a peer-reviewed primary journal.

Generally, Protocols are commissioned by the editorial team, but pre-submission inquiries are also welcome. Commissioned Protocols will undergo peer review, thus commissioning does not guarantee publication.

Please include the following:

1. Title (should describe the method and, if appropriate, its application).
2. Abstract (~150 words). Should briefly describe the protocol, its applications and the results that can be expected. If possible, include a final sentence indicating how long the whole protocol takes.
3. Introduction. Should enable readers to make a decision as to the suitability of the protocol to their experimental problem. You should introduce the technique under discussion and include references to key papers where the protocol has been used previously. This section should include information on (a) the development of the protocol, (b) potential applications of the method, (c) comparison with other methods and (d) experimental design with procedure-specific information.
4. Materials. Please use the subheadings (a) Reagents, (b) Equipment, (c) Reagent Setup and (d) Equipment Setup to structure this section. Subheadings (c) and (d) are optional. 
   a) Reagents. List of essential reagents, including information about the suppliers. If you have found that deviations from a particular reagent, or its source, have adverse effects on the outcome of the protocol this should be made clear. Toxic or harmful agents should be highlighted, followed by a brief explanation of the hazard and the precautions that should be taken when handling the agent. 
   b) Equipment. List essential equipment, highlighting any specialist equipment required. 
   c) Reagent Setup. This section is appropriate for including details on required sample specifications (i.e. minimum protein quantity and allowed buffer components), preparation of complicated buffers, the pre-treatment of solvents and/or reagents to make sure they are moisture-free and/or air-free. Please indicate whether a buffer/solution should be made up fresh or can be stored and, if so, under which conditions and for how long. In addition, please state whether % solutions are wt/vol or vol/vol. 
   d) Equipment Setup. This section should contain details on the setup of equipment (i.e. HPLC separation methods).
5. Procedure. This step-by-step methodology is the major part of the protocol and must be a numbered list. If the protocol naturally breaks into separate stages, then include subheadings and resume the numbered list. State how long the section will take to complete. Include diagrams and/or photographs of equipment set-up, where appropriate. If the protocol is complicated, you should consider including a flow diagram to demonstrate how the stages fit together. Please include PROBLEM callouts after steps where problems are encountered, that are subsequently mentioned in the Problem Handling section.
6. Timing. If possible, please include a timeline indicating the approximate time a step, or set of steps, will take. Provide this information as a summary at the end of the procedure.
7. Problem Handling (Problem Tracing, Fault Finding, Fault Diagnosis). Include information on how to trace and correct the most likely problems users will encounter with the protocol. Please provide this information in the form of a table with the columns ‘Step’, ‘problem’, ‘possible reason’, ‘solution’. The step number should be given where the problem is first observed (not where it occurred). The appropriate steps should also be flagged in the main text by the heading ‘Problem’. If problem handling text refers to only one or two steps, it can also be formatted as normal text with subheadings referring to the steps or sections that the information pertains to.
8. Anticipated Results. Include information about the likely outcome for users, for example, likely yield of protein, typical microscopy images, etc. This is a good place to include directions on how to interpret and analyze the raw data, including equations if necessary.

Mini- and full-length reviews are typically invited by the Editor-in-Chief, however, unsolicited work will be considered.

3.3 Writing Your Paper

The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. SAGE Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

3.3.1 Making Your Article Discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

4. Editorial Policies

4.1 Peer Review Policy

SAGE does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

•  The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors

•  The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper

•  The author has recommended the reviewer

•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all of those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
3. Approved the version to be published,
4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. 
When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

4.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, SAGE reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing Assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Any acknowledgments should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your references.

4.4 Funding

Microbiology Insights requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

4.5 Declaration of Conflicting Interests                    

It is the policy of Microbiology Insights to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgments and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.

4.6 Research Ethics and Patient Consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

4.7 Clinical Trials

Microbiology Insights conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

4.8 Reporting Guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

5. Publishing Policies

5.1 Publication Ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Microbiology Insights and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgment, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior Publication

If any material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Contributor’s Publishing Agreement

Before publication SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Microbiology Insights publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit SAGE's OA licenses page

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

6.  Preparing Your Manuscript

6.1 Word Processing Formats

Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS and (La)TeX. 

The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right-hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Microbiology Insights follows IUPAC-IUB nomenclature. Please add line and page numbers to your document.

Word:
Our tailored Word template and guidelines will help you format and structure your article, with useful general advice and Word tips.

(La)TeX:
We welcome submissions of (La)TeX files. Please download the SAGE (La)Tex Template, which contains comprehensive guidelines. If you have used any .bib files when creating your article, please include these with your submission so that we can generate the reference list and citations in the journal-specific style. Review our (La)Tex Frequently Asked Questions. If you still need additional help, please email SageTeXsupport@sagepub.com.

6.2 Manuscript Structure

Manuscripts must include the following sections in this order:

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Significance Statement 
• Introduction
• Materials & Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References
• Legends
• Illustrations, Figures and Tables

6.2.1 Title Page (on a separate page)

• Title should be in upper and lower case (Do not use all UPPERcase)
• Author first name (or initials), middle initial, and last name (surname, family name) and degree(s)
• Affiliations: use 1, 2, etc. after the degree
• Authors must include an ORCID. If an author does not have one, they can go here and register for one at no cost. https://orcid.org/
• Put an * after the name of the corresponding author

6.2.2 Abstract, Keywords and Abbreviations

Abstract
The abstract should be 250-300 words and should reflect the results. Describe the purpose of the study and briefly explain how the study was performed. Summarize the most important observations and their significance. Do not use abbreviations in the abstract.

Keywords
Following the abstract, please list 5-6 keywords for indexing the article. Keywords, along with the abstract and title, are central to ensuring that readers can search for and find your article online. For this reason, to aid in search-ability, words in the title should not be used as keywords. For keyword suggestions, please visit the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) website.

Abbreviations
Please include a list of all abbreviations used in the manuscript. These should be listed in alphabetical order. (Example: NMJ, neuromuscular junction; nAChRs, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors)

6.2.3 Significance Statement and Introduction

Significance Statement
Please include a Significance Statement before the introduction that identifies 2-3 of the most important points of the study (100 characters each) that contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of neuroscience. If your study verifies previous research or presents negative findings, please note this here.

Introduction
Provide background that allows readers outside the discipline to understand the significance of the study. Include a brief review of important literature in the relevant field. References cited should be in parentheses ( ).

6.2.4 Materials and Methods

Describe in detail any new methods or protocols used, in order that other investigators can replicate the study. Older, better-known methods may be cited in references but should be described enough that the reader may understand the method.

Animal Research
The methods section of the manuscript reporting animal research must include ethics statements that specify the relevant ethics committee approving the research, and associated permit number(s). If ethical approval was not required, reasons should be stated in the manuscript. Relevant details to minimize suffering of the animal should be mentioned.

Cell Line Research
The methods section should state the origin of the cell lines. In cases of established cell lines, in addition to origin, the commercial source should be given. If previously unpublished new cell lines were used, the source should be disclosed.

Human Subjects- Specific Reporting Guidelines
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number. For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

6.2.5 Results and Statistical Analyses Reporting
Explain how the results relate to the premise of the study especially in relation to previous related studies and how the present study results might have potential in directing future research.

 

Statistical Analyses Reporting
Please report complete statistical analyses results by including:

1. The type of statistical tests used
2. An exact p-value (not a range, e.g. p < 0.05),
3. Effect sizes
4. Degrees of freedom
5. Scatter plots and histograms as well as line or bar graphs to accurately describe your data

If possible, include raw data.

6.2.6 Discussion

Describe the interpretation of the data.

6.2.7 Conflict of Interests Statement

At the end of the manuscript, before the Acknowledgements section, statements related to conflicts of interest must appear. Acknowledgments List the names of the individuals along with the contributors who have participated in some capacity but cannot be qualified as authors. Funding Disclose if any funds were received to conduct the research.

 

6.2.8 References

Microbiology Insights adheres to AMA reference style. Please review the guidelines on AMA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

Examples:
Journal article (1-6 authors):
Hu P, Reuben DB. Effects of managed care on the length of time that elderly patients spend with physicians during ambulatory visits. Med Care. 2002;40(7):606-613.

Journal article with more than six authors:
Geller AC, Venna S, Prout M, et al. Should the skin cancer examination be taught in medical school? Arch Dermatol. 2002;138(9):1201-1203.

In the references section (i.e., bibliography), please list references in the same order as they were cited in the manuscript. When a website is cited as a reference, provide the date that the website was last accessed.

Unpublished data and personal correspondence may be cited as references within the text itself and are not to be included in the list of references. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of references used, and all text quoted. Manuscripts submitted in any other format may delay the publication of your article.

6.2.9 Legends

Figures, tables, multimedia and other graphics must include an individual legend that is labeled and ordered numerically. The main text of the article should refer to figures as "Figure 1," "Figure 2," etc., tables as "Table 1," "Table 2," etc., videos as "Movie 1," "Movie 2," etc. Extended data should be labeled as Figure 1-1, Figure 1-2, Table 1-1, Table 1-2, etc.

 

6.2.10 Illustrations, Figures, Tables and Other Graphics

All figures and illustrations should contain clean and clear graphics and must be submitted electronically in their original format (e.g., png, jpeg, tif).

Illustrations

Line art must have a resolution of at least 900 dpi (dots per inch). Electronic photographs, radiographs, CT scans, MRIs, all medical imaging, and all scanned images must have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. If fonts are used in the artwork, they must be embedded in the files. Color images must be created/scanned and saved and submitted as CMYK files. Please note that artwork downloaded from the internet (JPEG or GIF files) cannot be used.

Ensure that fonts are clear and easy to read should the figures be resized to a 1-column or 2- column format during the layout process of publication. Please use the following guidelines when preparing your image files:

For graphics reprinted from another source, provide written permission for reproduction from the copyright owner. Include full credit in the manuscript’s text, figure legends, and/or in the acknowledgment section, as appropriate.

Embed all images in the manuscript and submit separate files for each image in the original format it was created (e.g., png, jpeg, tiff).

Image Integrity
Figures should be minimally processed and should reflect the integrity of the original data in the image. Adjustments to images in brightness, contrast, or color balance should be applied equally to the entire image, provided they do not distort any data in the figure, including the background. Selective adjustments and touch-up tools used on portions of a figure are not appropriate. Images should not be layered or combined into a single image unless it is stated that the figure is a product of time-averaged data. All adjustments to image data should be clearly disclosed in the figure legend. Images may be additionally screened to confirm faithfulness to the original data. Authors should be able to supply raw image data upon request. Authors should also list tools and software used to collect image data and should document settings and manipulations in the Methods section.

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

Equations
If your manuscript is in .docx format and contains equations, make sure the equations are editable. Equations must be placed in brackets [ ].

Tables
Tables should have a concise title and should not occupy more than one printed page. Indicate in red where to place the Figures and Tables. Create tables in Word format within the manuscript.

Use Arabic numerals to name
tables (e.g. Table 1). Cite tables in the text in consecutive order. For each table, provide a table heading that clearly and concisely explains the content of the table. Indicate table footnotes with lower-case letters in superscript font. Place the information for the footnote beneath the body of the table.
If a table will be submitted as a separate document, the filename should contain the surname of the first author and match its label in the manuscript (e.g., SMITH Table 1).

6.3 Supplemental Material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For information on data sharing and where to upload data, please visit SAGE's Research Data Sharing Policies.

6.4 English Language Editing Services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

7. Submitting Your Manuscript

7.1 How to Submit Your Manuscript

Microbiology Insights is hosted on SAGE Track, a web-based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit here to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

7.2 Information Required for Completing Your Submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed on the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.3 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognized.

All authors must add their ORCIDs to their SAGE Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

7.4 Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

8. On Acceptance and Publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been checked for SAGE Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.

8.1 SAGE Production

Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal SAGE Edit, or by email to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

8.2 Online Publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

8.3 Promoting Your Article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.  

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Microbiology Insights editorial office as follows:

Sevda Dogan, Managing Editor
Sevda.Dogan@sagepub.co.uk

SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT HERE